Ponies and friends set out to explore legendary floating islands, travelling in two experimental airships capable of piercing the permenant storm wall. A new world awaits them, populated by strange creatures and filled with unknown magic.
Herin lies the tale of the STARK WEATHER - MARE EXPEDITION to the CLOUDBREAK ISLANDS, in 1365 YD. The mysterious floating islands are the stuff of legend, said to exist within the massive, eternal storm wall, far off in the wilds beyond the north-west borders of Equestria. A few fringe historians claim they are the origin of dragons, griffons, even magic itself, but only a few fragmentary, contradictory accounts exist from those who entered the storm and returned to tell the tale.
Fifteen years after Princess Twilight took the throne, the time has come for the secrets of the Cloudbreaks to be revealed. Two great airships of the Storm Fleet have been slumbering, mothballed since their capture in the Sixth Battle of Canterlot. Now the EAS Friendship and the EAS Harmony have been refitted for the task ahead: equipped with experimental devices to cut through the storm. Nearly two hundred ponies and allies are assembled: the finest explorers, researchers, aircrew and engineers Equestria has to offer. Together they will be the first to pierce the veil and fly to the Cloudbreak Islands.
High adventure awaits in these 'sky lands', populated by strange creatures and filled with unknown magic. What caused a piece of another realm to seemingly break away and become part of Equus? What happened to the long-vanished guardians, villains and great spirits of the realm? What designs do the remaining population have on Equus and how will they greet its ambassadors?
Set around the time of 'The Last Problem', and based on a four-player online RP with Ferret, Patashu and Spearmint. Note: the action takes a while to get rolling; the early chapters focus on character interaction. If you want to skip the prologue, try Chapter 4: Crossing the Storm, or Chapter 18: Exploring the Cloudbreaks.
After months of frantic preparation, the two huge airships stood proud and ready to depart, carrying the STARK WEATHER - MARE EXPEDITION to the legendary CLOUDBREAK ISLANDS. Originally Storm Fleet cruisers that brought the Storm King's an invading army to Canterlot, they were taken as tribute after the Equestrian forces liberated their capital. Now, fifteen years after Princess Twilight ascended to the throne, they had been pulled out of mothballs and given new purpose.
Refitted, refurbished and demilitarised, the lead ship EAS Friendship would carry the expedition's leaders Stark Weather and Professor Mare, along with numerous explorers, cartographers, scientists, historians and geologists. It also carried a full platoon of Twilight Guards. The support ship EAS Harmony was only slightly less impressive, lacking only a few of the decorative flourishes. It was configured with more cargo stowage and less accommodation, and carried support staff and a few junior explorers who could not be housed on the lead ship.
The bows of both ships bore a complex arrangement of machinery, antennae and spark gaps, the STORM PIERCER DEVICES. This recent triumph of Equestrian Science was intended allow the ships to safely penetrate the 100mph winds of the permanent eye wall around the Cloudbreak Islands, and become the first scientific expedition to reach the floating realms within.
It was a warm spring day in Canterlot, the sun shimmering on the gilded marble spires of the capital city. The combined crews and research staff were assembled in Festival Plaza, a hundred and sixty ponies mixed with a sprinkling of other creatures. To their backs were the upper air docks holding their moored ships; in front of them lay a podium on which their leaders stood with the Princess, Twilight Sparkle.
Stark Weather was just wrapping up his speech; "...and I know every one of you will do your utmost, to make sure this expedition stands above all others, as the most significant in Equestrian history!" After a good twenty minutes the pegasus was finally running out of bombastic lines. The older unicorn mare standing next to him was much more reserved, giving a brief speech about boundless scientific opportunity and hinting at all the papers and career advancement that might be reaped from this journey.
"Thank you Professor mare. Yes it's fascinating isn't it, I can't wait to read your reports! I wish I could join you..." the tall lavender alicorn began, with an informality belying her regalia and bearing. "...but this is your adventure!" she recovered. "Go with the wisdom of Celestia and the courage of Luna! You are Equestria's finest..." her gaze passed over the bored-looking kirin at the back "and her closest allies... and I know you will carry our values with you." Speeches finally over, every creature began to file into their ships, or fly to the deck, and made preparations to launch.
CLASHING GALE's wings twitched in excitement. He'd been on the ground long enough, having to listen to those speeches. He'd be in the air soon, maybe not under his own power, but an airship trip was always something fun! As everyone started to file in, the blue pegasus could barely restrain himself from taking to the air and cutting in front of everyone. Once onboard, he moved to the bows, ducking into the equipment spaces and checking the Storm Piercer was in order.
SUMMER SCRIBE technically didn't have a job to do, right then. The little unicorn was overjoyed to be chosen for the mission: she'd be doing the archaeological work, writing the notes for the research papers to follow, generally applying her tomb raiding and history buff skills in the skies! This was going to propel her to SENIOR Distinguished Researcher for sure; nothing like a world first to kickstart her career! She was mostly be a ball of excitable energy during this time, watching the take-off with awe and excitement, clambering around the ship once she was free to roam, seeing how all the rooms and features matched up with the blueprints and instructions she'd read. This was so exciting!
"Finally. I thought they'd never shut up," an unusual creature groaned, "Putting us on stage like a zoo exhibit grumble..." Leading her crew into the engine room, she gave the command: "Alrighty everypony, let's fuel up and get this thing hot." She gave orders to half her crew, then just stood around the doors to the fireboxes, watching the flames grow inside.
Eventually she noticed the rest of the crew looking at her expectantly, then waved a forehoof saying, "Go... do something! Help the others out. It doesn't take all of you just to start this thing, does it?" They proceeded to do so with some quiet protests, and finally the junior engineer Gearshift signalled that the pressure was sufficient. The chief engineer nodded and spoke into a brass voice tube: "Pressure up to nominal and holding steady, Captain. Everything looking good in here."
"Thank you, engineeer." an older stallion's voice replied through the tube, "Half speed ahead." The order given, she pushed the main steam valves open and the engines roared to life, while the chief engineer of a big flying tea kettle, a chocolate brown kirin by the name of NUTMEG INFERNO looked wistfully up at the purring boilers and whining turbines.
REEF SKIMMER, confident the sickbay was already ship shape, took the opportunity to spread his wide wings and circle the ship as it began to lift. The skies over Canterlot were crowded with hundreds of pegasi darting about, seeing the expedition off, so the grey hippogriff quickly found himself helping with crowd control. "Stay back there civilian!" "Keep clear of those props!" 'These ponies had no sense of decorum', he thought, not for the first time.
The Harmony's cabins and passageways were scaled for the Storm King's beasts, so they would normally be spacious for ponies, but at the moment palleted line the corridors, laden with tins, boxes and supplies all covered in netting. Ponies travelling in opposite directions rubbed past each other in the restricted space. The two ships soon began to pick up speed, the Friendship taking the lead with the Harmony close behind, following a couple of hundred feet to one side to avoid the front ship's prop wash. Within ten minutes, they are clear of Canterlot mountain and cruising west at thirty knots.
Six hours later, the shadows were beginning to lengthen as the first watch stood down and the night shift took over. After a hot meal in the mess hall, the ship's crew separated from the senior officers and expedition staff, the later ending up in the saloon at the front of the ship's lower deck. Floor-to-ceiling picture windows on each side of the hull, the only ones of their kind on the ship, provided a generous view of Winnyapolis and the surrounding countryside, eleven kilometres off the starboard side.
'Alriiight' Summer Scribe thought. One could only be giddy for so long when it demands aimless physicality and reciting off ship functionality and errata! So she soon found herself slumped in a saloon seat, hair flopped over one eye. "Cider, please." she pushed out, levitating the glass over to the bartender with her horn and soon drinking freely.
After a few hours of pacing around the ship and making sure his belongings were secure, Clashing Gale also found himself ordering a glass from the bartender. It seemed like they were able to preserve some of the Apple family's famous cider, and he stood at the bar casually sipping at it. As the glass wafted across his vision he noticed the unicorn mare sitting nearby, with a horn glowing with magic and a pretty blue coat a much ligher shade of blue than his own. Catching her eye, he smiled and gave a little wave of his wing.
Summer Scribe perked up a bit at the sudden attention, and peered over at the stallion. 'Oh, he's cute!' she thought, '...and everyone here's here for the mission too, so they probably have something weird and interesting about themselves one way or another.' So maybe she can just be herself and talk work...? 'Come on Summer, go for it!' she told herself, running a hoof down her front to calm her nerves. "Hi! Summer Scribe." she started. "So, like, I'm *so* excited to have been chosen for this!" she continued eagerly "I can't believe I'm going to be one of the first ponies to pierce the Skylands! This is going to be *amazing* for my career! I can't wait!"
Crew continued to file into the saloon as the two ponies talked. One was a large grey creature, resembling an eagle joined to equine hindquarters. He gave the relaxing ponies a scant glance before going straight to a tapped barrel where he collected a glass of citrus juice. 'Always sensible to drink plenty of juice on a long voyage', he thought: 'wards off the scurvy'. The hippogriff then moved to the windows, standing transfixed by the expansive view, sunset painting the pony city and its surrounding fields and woodland in a palette of golden colours. Although a veteran of many ocean voyages, the serene calm and high vantage of the big airship was new to him.
Just outside the door, Nutmeg reached the bottom of the ramp and turned away, seemingly heading towards the cargo bay. The brown and red kirin stopped suddenly, then retraced her steps, her blue eyes glancing briefly at the saloon door before making a show of heading back up the ramp. She only made it a few steps before sighing and turning back. Who was she kidding. The mare hunched down and pushing the door open with a cloven hoof, keeping her gaze forward as she made a beeline for the bar. Looking the bartender evenly in the eye, she said quietly, "I'll have an ale, I guess." At the bartender's nervous silence, her head tilted, "...what?"
"Well it's just are you sure you should be... drinking?" the pony asked, taking a step back from Nutmeg's glare.
"What else am I supposed to do here?" she griped, "Just gimme an ale!"
Hearing a raised voice, Reef looked away from the window, considering the bubbly unicorn, then the... ah, the kirin! He had seen her listing in the crew manifest and immediately had to take a trip to the pony's library when his own collection came up blank on the species. He'd caught a glimpse of her when the ship was being loaded, but this was the first time he'd seen her up close. Such interesting horn morphology! Were those scales flexing as she sat down?
The creature seemed to be having an argument with the bartender. "Now now, there's no need to get angry," the pony said, "Wouldn't you prefer a nice glass of water, or warm milk, perhaps?"
"You think this is angry?" Nutmeg responded angrily, "What's wrong with me having a drink?"
Meanwhile, Clashing Gale's eyes had widened a bit as the mare started going on about her work, but that's okay! He sets his mug of cider on the table, waiting for an opening. "Nice to meet you, Summer! I'm Clashing Gale. Call me either! I can't believe that they wanted MY help with the storm piercing device!"
"Clashing Gale, cool!" Summer Scribe nodded, leaning in, enthused! "Wow, that must have been awesome to learn! I guess you're a technical expert, then? You'll sense the weather patterns up ahead and adjust the machine to deal with them?"
"Yeah, pretty much" the pegasus replied, "I mean, I don't know a lot about its workings, but I do know wind!" He laughed awkwardly and took a long drink of cider.
Summer stroked her chin with a hoof and was about to reply...when her ears perked and swivelled over towards the kirin. "Wait hang on I have to take this." She hops down from her seat and trots towards Nutmeg, wide-eyed, as if approaching an ancient artefact. "Oh my gosh. A kirin! A real life kirin's on the ship!" she squeed. It's not clear whether she realises this strange creature is a person, indeed a crewmate, or not.
"Please miss," the bartender continued in a concerned tone, "You need to remain calm and in control, and alcohol will not help you with that."
"CALM AND—" Nutmeg squeaked in outrage, as reddish light played up the side of her odd looking horn. Neither of them paid any attention to the approach of the curious unicorn mare.
After his conversation partner suddently got up and approached the... kirin(?), Clashing gave a little shrug then followed, holding his drink in a wing. Glancing around the saloon, he noticed a hippogriff watching as well? He wasn't terribly familiar with the species, but another winged creature was always nice to see. Oh, something seemed to be happening with the kirin... Seeing Summer's comment fall on deaf ears, he interjected "Hey, is everything okay?"
Summer chuckled and siddled over to stand by Clashing. "So, like, Kirin have this super unique ability! When they get really mad, they turn into a Nirik, just burst into flame and make a mess of the place!" she informed her companion. She paused, then stage-whispered "..and that would be VERY bad! Hey, umm, maaaybe we shouldn't be arguing over this right now...?" She side-eyed the bartender with a sheepish grin!
Nutmeg had finally noticed the little unicorn, and told her irritably, "Arguing? I'm not arguing! I'm just trying to get a drink! This pony's trying to serve me warm milk! At a bar! Why do they even have warm milk?"
Worried by the rising tension, Clashing did his best to mollify the kirin: "Umm, you should try the cider. It's good!"
Nutmeg turned to him with a look of almost disbelief, before stomping and shouting at the pegasus, "It's. Not. ALE." With that she seemed to... catch on fire a little. Some of her red ruff ignited into evil red and blue flames, framing her face and licking at her forelegs, hot enough to char the floorboards her hooves had slammed into.
The reality of Summer's explanation suddenly hit him, and Clashing gasped at the kirin's transformation. He took a step back with wide eyes, his eyes darting back and forth as he scanned the room looking for a handy fire extinguisher. "I... uh, I suppose it's not, no." he stammered, "Ale is good too, sure!"
Staring at the flaming mare with horror, Summer was having similar thoughts. 'C'mon, think!' she thought, 'you surveyed every public room on the airship EXCEPT the saloon? How tardy... Uhh! That'll have to do!' In a daring manoeuver, showing off her quick reflexes and thinking, she dove over the bar, landing deftly behind it. Her horn lit and her magic enveloped a hose attached to a tapped keg of root beer. Summer wasted no time opening the valve and turning the flow towards Nutmeg Inferno! "Time for you to cool off, Kirin!" she said, in a melodramatic tone.
Reef was watching closely, and a sudden squawk escaped the hippogriff's beak as he saw the disaster about to unfold in front of him. Acting on instinct, he leaped forward, one oversized wing flaring out to intercept and deflect the stream of bubbly beverage. Unfortunately as he was starting from the other side of the room, Nutmeg took a good couple of seconds of the stuff in the snout, before the rest began to splatter off his feathers. They were waterproof, but he wasn't sure if they were beer-proof; in any case he was in for a lot of preening later, as the stuff was covering his wing and dripping to the floor from the tips of his primaries.
Nutmeg had enough time to rear up and shout, "WHAT ARE YOU—" before being driven back spluttering by the powerful force of the beer. As the odd wing comes out of bucking nowhere to block the blast, she landed hooves spread, dripping with sarsaparilla that hissed into steam, but only made her eldritch fire flare up along her body too.
Seeing the unsettling transformation, the hippogriff turned on the little unicorn. "What on Equus do you think you're doing, pony?!" Reef shouted, "Is spraying each other with beverages a typical break room activity at Canterlot University?"
Whatever the kirin was now, she turned and ran full tilt out of the saloon. Ponies dove out of the way as the fiery mare barrelled towards the exit, the clatter of her hooves and the light playing along the walls of the hallway diminishing as she galloped up the ramp.
"Hey, I'm was trying to... ummm... oops!" Summer replied, realising Nutmeg had fled the scene. She twisted the valve shut and the spray of beverage slackened and shut off. "Um, that went better in my head!" she sheepishly admitted, words blurted out through a haze of adrenalin, as she emerges from behind the counter to face a row of concerned and confused faces. Summer dropped her head down and buried it in her forehooves. "Look, when a Kirin gets mad they - fire, and like - I was going to put it out to stop the ship from burning down! I think I just made things worse, though..." Her body began to tremble as she hid her head under her useless cover.
Clashing Gale stood dumbfounded for a moment as the scene played out. He wasn't sure if he should go after the kirin: maybe just she just needed some time to calm down? Seeing Summer about to start sobbing on the floor, instead he gently put his free wing over the mare. "Hey, sometimes we make mistakes. You were worried, right? I was too, and I was about to grab a fire extinguisher. I don't think they'd let her on the ship if they thought she'd burn it down, right?"
Reef Skimmer, on the other claw, was not inclined to show mercy right then. He glared at Summer with his eagle eyes, and spluttered "So to be clear, your solution to the ship's chief engineer being a legendary fire-unicorn... is to have someone dump a bucket of water on her head every time she looks a bit annoyed? That seemed like a reasonable and practical solution did it? One can only imagine what brilliant ideas you might have for us once we actually reach the Cloudbreaks! Now if you'll excuse me someone has to make sure she doesn't set the whole ship on fire." With that he turned his back on the unicorn, not allowing her another word, and trotted out of the saloon.
'Nnnhhh. The stinging cold rebuke of someone who WAY outranks you.' Summer thought. She tried to hide herself completely under Clashing's wing, with little success. "...This usually goes better!" she whispered, steadying herself once the hippogriff was out of sight and earshot. She looked up at Clashing Gale, her expression gloomy and defeated. "Thanks for defending me, I really appreciate it..." she said, trying to put a little warmth back into her voice.
With a sigh, Clashing gave a little nod. "Well, I'm sure everyone will come around if you apologise." he replied, trying to reassure the mare. "You seem like a good pony, Summer. Maybe we all need a little time to settle down, but we're going to be working with each other at some point, so it'd be good to work out the differences early."
Summer tried to smile at his optimism. "Thank you Clashing... but I think I'm gonna go mope in my cabin now. I'll try to catch you around."
The stallion stepped back and gave her some room. "Yeah, I'm gonna finish my cider and head back to my cabin as well."
With that Summer gave a weak nod and excused herself. Clashing was left staring into his glass and wondering if the whole trip would be like this.
Reef Skimmer bounded up the ramp to tween deck, his wings half-unfurled to help with balance. The big grey hippogriff reached the main corridor and skidded to a stop, eyes widening as he sees the scorch marks on the deck and singed corners on the tarps covering the crates. The smouldering trail was easy to follow, and he thought it wise to do so, considering the embers glowing in the burnt tassels of the hanging ropes the enraged kirin had brushed against. It didn't look like anything was going up in flames just yet, but it was a fire's tendency to grow.
Reef cleared his throat, about to call for... but instead, a little screech escaped his beak as he realised one scaly foot was directly on a hot spot. Holding the claw up for a moment, he shouted "Fire! Fire in the tween deck corridor! Look lively, get some buckets in here!" A couple of pony faces had already begun to poke out of doorways, and now the crew began to spring into action, splashing buckets of water on anything that looked like it might start a blaze. It took them only a minute or two to put everything out, though the corridor was left considerably wetter than it was before. More ponies continued to arrive and could only stand there with full buckets, with nothing further to do.
Seeing that the ponies had the situation under control, Reef surged forward again, heading towards the rear of the ship. "Nutmeg? Are you there?" he called out. No response was forthcoming. This utilitarian part of the vessel held coal bunkers and steam pipes, oak decking giving way to the imperial iron of the Storm King, without much decoration or embellishment. The pink-crested stallion's claws clicked on metal as he entered the engine room proper: the sturdy iron hatch separating it from the rest of the ship had been left open and unattended.
The bulk of the engine crew were in the mess or resting in their bunks, with only a few ponies present to check dials, operate the coal lifts, or in one case stand there looking at him questioningly. The tawny, blue-haired earth pony stepped forward, saying in a slight brogue, "What'd you do to the chief? She came though here, flamin' mad!"
Reef Skimmer tilted his head a little and stared at the stallion, trying in vain to recall the pony's name. He'd wanted to examine the whole crew before setting off, but between checking and stowing all the medical supplies and getting the sickbay ready, he hadn't had time. Steam something maybe, he thought, craning his neck to catch a glimpse of the pony's flank picture... a pair of blue gears. Hmm, still didn't ring a bell. Oh well... "I assure you, my good pony, my efforts were directed entirely towards preventing a disaster." he began. "It was one of those blasted passengers who took it into her head to soak our engineer in sarsaparilla."
The blue-haired stallion lifted a hoof, opened his mouth as if to speak, then glances down as a chuckle escapes him. "That'd do it," he said, before looking up and approaching the hippogriff. "You know the chief?" he asked in a curious tone, glancing over his shoulder down the corridor to where the turbine of the engine is humming away. "She probably just needs some time to herself."
"Know her?" Reef replied. "No, not really, only a couple of staff meetings and she was all business at those. Fascinating though, a kirin who prefers machines to forests, and ponies to her own people?" Reef realised he was staring into space and cleared his throat. "Which is to say, one hopes she hasn't taken this too badly. We can't have our chief engineer on less than top form when we're trying to steam through a giant storm now, can we?"
Backing off, the pony said "Oh, don't let me stop you. Just keep in mind she might be kind of emotional. Given what she is and all. Just don't act like you think she eats ponies and you'll be alright." Some of the other crew who were looking your way relax at that, and go back to whatever they were doing. Gesturing dramatically in the direction he glanced, the tawny stallion confirmed, "She's over there between the boilers, where there ain't nothing to burn."
Reef gave the pony a curt nod of thanks and cautiously walked further into the noisy engine room, gazing at the crew and the machinery in turn. In truth it was an unpleasant space to be in with the din, smoke and lack of windows, not to mention the source of quite a few minor injuries as the engine ponies cut, scraped and burned themselves doing their jobs. The actual mechanics of it all were quite interesting though; pony technology (or storm beast technology, for that matter) was significantly more advanced than that used by his own people. Not that a hippogriff cutter wasn't a fine ship with a good wind behind her!
The giant drums of the ship's boilers were in a the poorly lit and ventilated area, filled with a constant, pervasive thrum punctuated by occasional hisses of steam, creaking of pipes... and a series of sharp clangs, as if something was hammering on metal. A strange purplish light was flickering somewhere behind the starboard boiler, contrasting with the orange glow of the fireboxes. Reef gulped, before finally gathering his courage and shouting over the din: "Nutmeg Inferno? Is that you back there?"
When no reply came, the hippogriff ventured a little further and caught sight of a beast darker than the darkness itself, enveloped in strange flames that somehow radiate heat but no warmth. Shining against the red wreathed blackness were a pair of glowing eyes, with bright, sharp, predatory fangs fully bared as the unearthly mare took out her frustrations on the sturdy iron wall of the giant pressure boiler. Reef couldn't help staring in wonder at the strange creature: he'd read that kirin had an alternate form, not unlike his own people's ability to assume an aquatic shape, but the sketches in his book hadn't done it justice. This was clearly a creature of magic and passion, her nirik shape possessed of a certain dangerous beauty... and apparently a propensity to vent her anger at the machinery. 'Not exactly safe, but certainly better than doing so on the crew', Reef thought.
Catching sight of Reef Skimmer, the transformed kirin paused her assault on the boiler for just a moment, her face betraying surprise before shed fled with blistering speed, heading deeper into the labyrinthine pipework. The mare herself might be hiding but the eerie light from her flames was all too evident, flaring brighter and brighter as if to consume her.
Reef's concern was rising in tandem with the kirin's magic. Had he made things worse? She clearly wasn't comfortable being seen like this. Shaking his head to dismiss an unpleasant vision of the entire engine room going up in flames, he swallowed and tried to keep his tone casual "I thought you should know, erm, that the crew... that it's fine, nothing damaged, no one hurt. Significantly that is... So! One rather hopes, err, that the silly filly hasn't ruined your whole evening..." His voice trailed off.
The light seemed to be ebbing away now, but still no response came. Following further seemed unwise: the kirin clearly didn't want to show herself and the big hippogriff would have trouble fitting through the tight spaces between the pipes. Perhaps he could coax the engineer out? "It can't be easy." Reef tried in a softer, more calmer tone. "It hasn't been for me, when ponies just see a predatory face looming over them. Add fire to the equation, and... well. This can't be the first time." The griff fell silent, wondering if he should just leave.
At that point a coughing sound emerged from the tangle of machinery, followed by a mare's voice loudly calling out, "It's okay! I'm not on fire!" Moments later an out of the ordinary creature hastily emerged, who true to her word had returned to her previous appearance. Her fiery red ruff was considerably less literal, now made of bountiful fluffy hair. Her eyes were strikingly normal, green rimmed, and looking downward as the horned kirin scurried forward, hunched in an awkward submission.
Noticing who the clawed forelegs of whom she's approaching, she looks up in surprise and says in her cool alto, "Oh, you're not a pony. You're one of those... birdy creatures. Not a griffin, um, I forget what they call you, sorry. I'm a kirin FYI." Flicking an ear and looking aside, she added in a slightly louder tone, "Uh... were you saying something? It's kinda noisy in here, so you have to speak up." The mare still bore an unmistakable scent of sweet sarsaparilla.
Reef gaped for a moment before recovering his reserve, his voice immediately returning to a loud formal tone as he tries to forget the fact he'd started pouring out his heart to this strange unicorn creature. "Hippogriff, my dear; they say we're half eagle, half pony and half fish. Not that you can see the fish part right now. But yes! Reef Skimmer at your service. Surgeon, you know."
"Pleased to meet you, doc!" Nutmeg declared practically, holding out in greeting one of her brown furred forelegs. It ended in the sort of dual-hoof that characterised her kind, as gold in sheen as the smooth scales on her back, "Nice to at least meet someone outside the engine room, at least. I guess you saw me blow up like that." As her ears turn down at that last part, she starts to pull her hoof back insecurely.
The hippogriff took the offered hoof gingerly in one of his claw, looking at it as if it might burst into flames again, before giving it a quick shake. "Indeed I did, and I see that your mane isn't the least bit singed!" he said cheerfully "Not natural combustion then, it must be a transformation of the keratin to a noncorporeal... I mean to say, you seem fine. Good, very good."
Surprised that he took it after the impression she must have made, Nutmeg shook firmly nonetheless. "I dunno how it works, sorry. We were taught it was like a candle wick but something about ethereal something transmution." As her hoof was released, she kicked it slightly against the floor, saying sheepishly, "I didn't set anything on fire, did I? I swear I'm safe I haven't had a flareup in weeks. Not that it... y' know, really matters... in here. Heh heh."
"Oh just a little singing, perhaps a few ropes a bit shorter now, nothing too serious." Reef reassured her, "The crew are well drilled it seems... Captain must have them practicing with those fire buckets every week, heh!"
"I just said it's been weeks," Nutmeg said irritably, ears going flat, "I believe it though. Most ponies here think I'm some kind of a powder keg, just gonna blow up at the slightest thing."
The avian stallion found himself staring at the kirin's horn: a deeper red than her mane, it curved slightly back in an S shape, branched but blunted and smooth, with lighter orange stripes on the main branch in the centre, a neat V pattern that almost look painted on. 'It looks more like an antler really' he thought 'The morphology is quite different to a unicorn's, and the geometric patterning is fascinating. Is it unique to the individual? Would need more specimens to compare...'
"I guess now they'll really think it's true," Nutmeg concluded says glumly, looking up at the considerably taller hippogriff. Then her horn rotated slightly, as she tilted her head in puzzlement. "My eyes are down here, doc," she said dryly.
"Yes, of course... I mean..." Caught in the act, Reef took a moment to refocusing on the conversation "...well that simply won't do! That unicorn was completely out of line, harassing an officer. Why, if she were enlisted the Queen's Navy she'd be scrubbing the decks for a week. I have a good mind to bring this up with the captain..."
"What unicorn?" Nutmeg interrupted his tirade, her expression confused. "The bartender was an earth pony. And you know I can't really blame her for being scared of me. I'm pretty flipping terrifying!" She grimaced before continuing: "Still wish I'd gotten that ale though; they don't exactly have room service down here."
Reef cocked his head again, now equally confused. "The pale blue one, that sprayed you? After telling her pegasus friend what a kirin was? You didn't see her? I mean, the bartender may be stingy with the ale, but he knew better than to hose down his customers, one would think."
Tossing her head back, Nutmeg crowed, "Oh! Her! She was just trying to put the fire out. It's that bartender who was totally outta line." Staring off into the machinery, the brown and gold kirin added in an amused tone, "I forget what she said that really set me off. I was already pretty much ready to toast the place though."
The kirin mare winced and lifted a foreleg, looking down at it and taking a sniff. "Would've been nice if she used water though." Looking up at Reef Skimmer with a sudden smile, she said, "Say, would you mind grabbing one of those water buckets over there, and maybe a washcloth? You'd think catching on fire would get rid of all this sweet root juice, but I'm pretty sure my tuft is glued to my butt." Strictly speaking it wasn't, although the red hairs did seem to be clinging stickily to the upper part of the tail.
The hippogriff considered for a moment. "You know, the sick bay is well stocked with clean water, towels, soap, disinfectant..." Reef looked away, fluffing and refolding his wings. "What I mean to say is, why don't we get you cleaned up, and I can do your physical at the same time! Won't take a jiffy you know, and it's very important that I examine the personnel, particularly the more unique specimens. Crewgriffs, rather... Crew-creatures, even! So that I'm prepared! Should I need to treat you, I mean." he stammered.
"Treat... okay?" Nutmeg said, a little confused by his choice of words. "I usually stay down here, to keep the ponies from gettin' nervous. I didn't know I had to get a physical. How much of your sick bay is flammable?"
Reef frowned with renewed concern. "I suppose... some of it? I confess, I hadn't given it a lot of thought." He decided he was willing to take the risk, ear tufts perking back up as he put on a cheerful tone: "Still, better to find out now than when you are brought in with a serious injury, wouldn't you say? Not that I would want that to happen, of course! ...but, a surgeon must prepare for the worst."
Head sinking, the kirin admitted, "That's true enough. I honestly don't know where the sick bay even is though. I figured I'd just be staying down here for the whole expedition." Giving him a nervous look, she reiterated, "It won't be a problem though, I swear. But uh, might be better to clear out any papers or y'know... flammable pony things, and stuff. Just in case."
Reef cocked his head, considering her advice, then nodded "Indeed, I suppose that's just good bedside manner when it comes to kirin. Well then, no time like the present. If you'd care to follow me..." With that the silvery hippogriff turned around smartly; a little too smartly, as his long pink tail plumes accidentally dusted Nutmeg's face. The lanky stallion failed to notice, taking a few steps back towards the entrance, before looking back to see if the kirin is following.
At that Nutmeg wiggled her snout, crossed her eyes, then sneezed. Her own tail still twisted uncomfortably as the big orange tuft at the end tried to separate itself from the stickiness. Seeing the doctor waiting for her, she shrugged, then hopped along after the hippogriff in a casual, light-footed gait. "Gonna get cleaned up!" she called back to the skeleton crew in the engine room, "Back in a few," to mild grumbles of affirmation.
Reef headed back down the ramp out of the engine room, passing the main deck and continuing down to the tween deck, making a sharp left at the next landing to enter the sick bay. The main area had several cots, currently empty, with tables, cupboards and various bits of medical equipment lining the walls. Evening light streamed in through three portholes, combining with the incandescent lamps to fill the space with a warm, diffused glow. Bottles and jars of disinfectant, saline and other things were held tightly in racks, to stop them falling and smashing whenever the ship encountered turbulence. Two smaller doors lead off to side rooms, bearing signs reading 'Surgery' and 'Medical Stores'. The later had been repurposed by the hippogriff into a rather cramped study area, specimen collection and on occasion sleeping quarters.
"So this is..." the auburn ruffed kirin began, stepping lightly through the door and gazing at the various devices and anatomical charts pinned to the walls. "I'm supposed to wait here, right? I think that's how it works?" She placed a hoof on one of the cots and gripped it lightly, unsure of whether to lay down or stand. "The place I was in last time was something like that. Do you have a... shower somewhere in here? That'd get me cleaned off quick."
The eagle-faced hippogriff looked down at Nutmeg, cocking his head to the side. "Oh, we're certainly equipped to clean up blood, bile, and, erm... mud," he said enthusiastically, "Non-sterile fluids of every kind really." Reef blinked, realising he might have failed at that whole 'bedside manner' concept again. "Erm, so... if you could just step this way, I'll demonstrate!" He gestures with one broad wing to the the door bearing the 'Surgery' sign.
The kirin gave him a long look, again wondering at the griff's choice of wording. Nonetheless, she walked quickly to the side door, pushing a hoof down on the handle, and proceeded into the 'Surgery' room. Nutmeg's broad brown ears drooped as she turned right to avoid a large steel table, bolted firmly to a floor that consists of a dense cast-iron grid. The lights in here were a harsher white than the main room, glinting off the polished metallic surfaces. Her leonine tail curled far out of the way to admit the hippogriff doctor, as she edged to the side of the room, saying, "Well this is a... place." Looking mostly overhead for a shower of some sort, she didn't take much note of the broad sink she was standing next to.
"Hmm, yes, can't say the crew have been all that keen to come in here." Reef admitted. "Terribly practical, those storm beasts, not really much for aesthetics, the opposite of ponies really. Must say, it cleans up in a jiffy though." He grabbed a cylindrical shape from a bin by the wall and with a practiced flourish unrolls the rubber mat onto the central table. The kirin seemed a little nervous, he thought, perhaps sitting on something softer than solid steel table would help? "Now if you'd just hop up here?" His beak hung slightly open in an avian smile, but his eyes betrayed some concern that Nutmeg would be the third patient in a row to run screaming out of the examination room.
Nutmeg approached the table warily, peering at the mat now covering it. "Oh, huh, yeah that'll keep my butt from freezing I guess" she observed, before rearing up and climbing onto it. Standing on the table, her eyes were now level with the hippogriff's; the chocolate mare turned completely around, cloven hooves dimpling the rubber mat as she moved. Giving the doctor a confused look, she asked, "So, where's that shower? On this thing?" Looking up, she could see only the harsh arc lights, nothing like a shower head.
"Good, yes, shower... of course, hold on!" Pleasantly surprised that his patient hadn't made a break for it, Reef spun around, almost whacking Nutmeg again with his big pink tail feathers. He grabbed a spray head from the wall in one scaled claw, then turned back around sporting an almost maniacal smile. 'This Kirin will be so pleased when she's cleaned right up in 10 seconds flat!' he thought. The hippogriff pulled the trigger on the nozzle, and for the second time inside an hour Nutmeg was blasted by pressurised liquid.
Still gazing at the ceiling, Nutmeg had very little warning of the imminent soaking. The jet of cold liquid caught her right in the chest, and she reared up in shock. She tries to protest, struggling against the force of the flow, but her forelegs pedal uselessly, and her words are drowned by a face full of water. The doctor seemed somewhat surprised as well, quickly turning the stream from her front to her flank, and fiddling with the nozzle until it lessened from a torrent into a spray.
The kirin coughed and gasped, trying to speak but breathless with surprise. "You..." she began, as Reef moved around the table to spray her rump and tail. After precisely 10 seconds of soaking, he shut the device off, leaving Nutmeg a shivering, bedraggled mess, limp red mane hanging heavy with water, dripping onto the table with in turn dripped into the mesh floor.
As the results of his treatment became apparent, Reef Skimmer's enthusiasm faded, his feathery ear tufts flattening against his head as he realised he may have overdone this. "Ah, valve was still wide open. Not ideal. Still! I guarantee you are now fully disinfected and ready to assist with surgery! Not that... I need you to do that... or anything." He dropped the sprayer and looked away, embarrassed.
Nutmeg blinked the remaining water out of her eyes, and gave the stallion a look of extreme displeasure, saying, "You couldn't warn me about that?! What's did you say this stuff was, it smells funny?! I wanted to clean off the funny smells!"
"Indeed." It was hard to tell with birds, but Reef was definitely blushing under his feathers. "Well, erm... Let me get you some towels."
At that, Nutmeg's eyes fell into shadow. "No need," she remarked ominously. Then she shook off vigorously, unleashing a wall of water in all directions from her lengthy mane and soft fur, soaking everything else in the room. The hippogriff had just turned back to look at Nutmeg, fresh-scented towel in claw, when the expanding sphere of droplets hits him, making him squawk! and blink several times. Ignoring him for now, the kirin sat back on her haunches there on the table, curling her tail around, and quietly wringing it out in her somewhat grippy hooves.
"Oh, erm, it was just a mild... disinfectant," Reef spluttered, trying to reassure her. "Also works for delousing. Not that Kirin have a problem with that, I imagine, with the flaming... hmm." He barely managed to stop himself launching into more questions, realising he should put the patient at ease first. "I do apologise, won't happen again." he said, regaining a modicum of composure. "Can I get you anything else, tea perhaps?"
Nutmeg shook her head, whipping her still-damp tail out behind her, saying, "I've had enough tea to last me a lifetime, thanks. And uh... I don't have lice, but the whole stream of silence thing kept us from flaming for generations, and we lived in a wood, so... yeah it's been a problem." She motioned to climb down from the table, then stopped, asking him uncertainly, "So do I get down, or what? I haven't been in for a... check-up before. Not sure how you even would do a check-up without you know..." Leaning down, she lightly taps her own horn.
"Ah, of course your medicine would follow unicorn practice." Reef said, beginning to regain his enthusiasm, his ear tufts fluffing out again. "Never fear, we hippogriffs get along quite well with just these..." he holds up a claw and wiggles his dextrous talons "...although I must ask, how does your magic compare to ponies, unicorns I mean? Can you cast the same range of spells? No signature effects I suppose, with no cutie marks..."
"Oh I dunno much about magic," Nutmeg said, her voice uncertain, "but some back at the village were super good at it, making things grow, looking at life forces, that sort of thing. What kind of magic can unicorns do? All I can do pretty much is lift things..." Doubt clouded her face, and she muttered "...and burn things," but then with a head tilt and half a smile, she concluded wryly, "You must get just as many questions about those weird... wiggly multi-hoof things. I dunno what they're called, sorry."
"Claws? Not strictly proper terminology you know, but colloquially 'claw' refers to the whole forefoot and 'talon' to the actual claw." As if to demonstrate, Reef had taken one of Nutmeg's forefeet in his claw and was shifting the two hooves as if to test their articulation. "But yes, not so much... ponies are familiar with birds after all, even if they've never met a griff. Hmm, interesting, interesting."
Her green eyes lit up as she declared, "Oh, yeah! It's like a bird! That makes a lot of sense." With a sheepish grimace to wrinkle her snout, she admitted, "I kinda uh... never was that good at life studies. That's why you're the doctor and I'm just here to keep the ship running. I've seen birds. We're not THAT out of touch back in the village."
"Put that way, I'm just here to keep the crew running!" Reef was now peering at Nutmeg's back and running a talon over the smooth scales he found there; the same golden colour as her hooves. "Though I do hope to contribute to the research effort." he said, optimistically. "You know what little reports we have of these islands mention creatures like nothing in Equestria! Hmm, these scutes seem quite flexible, compared to a dragon at least. Do they shed individually or moult all at once?"
The kirin's scales were interlocking and pliable, with a slight ridge in each ones. She didn't pull away, but she does try to look over her shoulder, shifting at his touch and saying "Uhm, they uh, you have to be really sick for them to shed. Or really old, I think. You didn't know that? Sometimes one or two will fall out if they get hurt. Dragons just shed all their scales?"
Reef adopted a lecturing tone: "Dragons shed scales individually, like most large reptiles, the young more frequently although no one has managed to do a comprehensive study..." The hippogriff had been holding his palm against the kirin's fluffy belly while talking: "Hmm, body temperature definitely feels higher than a pony. Do you feel normal?" Nutmeg blushed, biting her lip as he pushed his palm on her belly, soft beneath the wispy brown fur. "Let me get a thermometer." the doctor said. He moved to the wall and began rummaging around in a drawer.
Nutmeg continued to stand uneasily on the table as he turned his back to her again, her tail curled down against her hindquarters. "I swear I'm not gonna catch on fire!" she called out, "I'm not even feeling a little flarey!"
Reef decided to ignore that part, and came back holding a mercury thermometer: a tiny silvery thread in a glass straw. "Good, good, now hold this gently in your mouth please, if you would be so kind. Just need to get a baseline here, none of my textbooks cover your species... um, which is to say, people, I'm afraid."
"Well, none of MY textbooks cover... uh," she said a little defensively, then carefully bit down on the thermometer... without closing her mouth. "Rike vis?" she asked.
"Uh, if you could rather, I mean one has to close one's mouth and press the tongue against it to..." the doctor instructed; the kirin made a funny face as her tongue rolled the strange device around in her mouth. "...yes, that's it, very good. Now we just wait a jiffy, and... Hmm, that's a little higher than a griffon even."
Reef carefully removed the thermometer, taking a moment to scratch a few notes on a quill pad. As his gaze returned to Nutmeg, he cocked his head and tried again to give a reassuring beak-smile. "Now this fire transformation syndrome, did you say you had a treatment for it back home? Stream of something? Is that not something you could bottle and bring with you?"
"Sometimes I wish I could," she grumbled under her breath, the switching of her tail dropping to let it hang off the end of the table. "No, the magic from Stream of Silence is in the stones, not the water," she told Reef in a resigned tone, "It's a runic resonance array of some sort, way above my head. You wanna ask Rain Shine about it, since she's the one who created it. She's the uh... princess kirin, though we call her our matriarch. The only thing you can bottle is the cure that makes you talk."
"Makes you talk?" Reef Skimmer looked perplexed. "Am I to understand, my dear mare, that your ruler created a magical device to render you mute? How does that help with the fiery transformations?"
Nutmeg looked away, briefly lost in thought. In a bemused tone, she reminisced "It just seemed normal to me. We just... did what was needed and didn't bother each other. I wasn't into... machines, or anything really. I just... got the water, because it was the thing we all did." Frowning now, she continued "They say all this talking is normal, and the silence was an enchantment, but... when I flared up the first time, I was just completely freaking out, and I don't know if I like feeling that way."
Then she stared into Reef Skimmer's intense purple eyes, and said plainly, "No, it was an enchanted stream that washed away our feelings. When you're like that you just... don't feel like talking. We couldn't get angry, so... no fire. So now I have feelings, and they make me talk..."
Outside, in the tween deck corridor, Summer Scribe was pacing nervously up and down. Once she'd felt ready to go apologise to the kirin, she'd set out to find the strange mare. However by the time she'd worked up the courage to enter the engine room, the crewponies there had told their boss had departed for the sick bay. So Summer had headed back down the ramp and waited near the door, practicing what she would say again.
"Sorry," she would lead, lowering herself deferentially to the floor as she spoke. "I'm trained to act on my instincts, and I thought I was saving the day, but I think I only ruined yours. I hope it got better afterwards. I'd like to have a second chance at a first impression, if I may." When talking to new people like this, the little unicorn had always found it a struggle to get the words right. Practicing her lines beforehand usually helped, and she thought this sounded right.
A good fifteen minutes into Summer Scribe's spell of pacing and muttering to herself, a fluffy and fussy Nutmeg Inferno came striding out of the med bay. "Erm, splendid, do come again!" could be heard from inside before the door banged shut. The kirin seemed troubled, if not outright angry. With neither mare paying much attention to where she was going, the red, brown and gold kirin collided head-on with the pacing unicorn, resulting in two confused leaps backward then both falling flat on their rumps.
Summer Scribe let out a shriek as she undaintly landed on her rear. "Umm! Sorry! I was thinking about apologising to you! I mean, again! Uhh, for the earlier! Thing!" she babbled loudly, her words coming out in a stream before she can get control of herself. She rose to her hooves, still a flustered mess. Swirly eyed and holding a hoof to her head, Nutmeg sat up, then shook out the dizziness. Their eyes met.
"Err... I'm sorry that I sprayed you down!" apologised Summer, at the exact same time that Nutmeg began "Woah, um, sorry...". After a moment of silence, the kirin picked herself up and continued "You didn't need to apologise. I mean, again! Uhh, for the catching on fire! Thing!" just as Summer blurted "Um, it won't happen again, I swear!" The combination of mild concussion and both speaking at once was not resulting in effective communication.
Nutmeg blushed and shuts her mouth, while Summer Scribe shrank back and looked at the floor. There was a long beat of awkward silence, before finally a reassured kirin said, "Apology, uh, accepted. You're one of the expedition ponies, aren't you?"
The unicorn's eyes snapped back to the kirin's face; she blinked and shook her head out, considering what to say next. "Wait... I don't need to apologise! But I wanted to! I felt really bad!" she implored... but then she realised her apology had been accepted, even though she'd totally mangled it. Summer looked away again, rubbing a hoof behind her head, her expression relieved.
A deep breath, hold, let it out, now she was ready to continue, a smile back on her face. Talking about the expedition, now this was something she could handle. "Yep, I'm super pumped for it!" Summer said with renewed enthusiasm. "This is like, my dream: I'm going to figure out all the tricks and traps, study all the historical world firsts and write a research paper afterwards that'll propel me to the top of Academia!" she beamed proudly. "Oh.. and the name's Summer Scribe, and you?"
Holding out a dual fingered hoof out, the kirin said, "I'm Nutmeg! Nutmeg Inferno. I keep the ship going." Summer eagerly went for a bump with her own smooth hoof, then blinked as she realised Nutmeg was actually holding it, shaking it and saying "Yeah..." followed by an uneasy chuckle. "Going out into the middle of nowhere. I'm sure there's gonna be lotsa... ruins and old stuff." After releasing the unicorn's hoof, Nutmeg looked away, concluding softly, "You're really lucky that you have something to do out there. Wish I could get out of the ship and explore a bit."
With the intense pressure to make a good impression receeding, Summer could take a moment to look down at the hoofshake: the cloven shape looks really cool, and grabs her attention. She wondered what having opposable digits would feel like: it was one thing to know about a species academically, it was another to shake their hoof! Looking back at Nutmeg's face, she agreed "Yep yep! And this place is *surrounded* by storms, so you know it's gotta be holding something good!"
The little unicorn clopped her hoof down and gave another cheerful smile. "Wellll... Are you just planning on hanging around on the ship the entire time we're disembarked? You should come with me! You could be my... hmmm. How would you categorise yourself, skillset-wise?"
Flat-eared, the red and brown kirin said, "Not exploring, not the wilderness, not nature, and not some dusty old ruins. I'm not good for anything except this ship. If you show me a machine, I can probably fix it. But we're going off to the middle of nowhere, not the middle of Manehattan. These ships are the only machines in a hundred miles."
She sighed, and rubbed beneath her horn with a hoof, saying, "Sorry, it's not something I should complain about. But yeah, not everypony gets to leave the ship. You didn't think we'd all go... exploring, did you?"
Summer Scribe listened thoughtfully, before nodding. "That's okay! I've had advisors like that: prefer to stay stuck in their books. And I like a real good book as much as the next pony, but I've gotta get my hooves dirty, too!" As if to emphasise, she rubbed them eagerly.
"I totally get it, though. How about I come back when I can and tell you about how cool everything is going? I bet you'd at least be interested in that!" She smiled again. "And you can tell me about how your work is going, if you like!" She nodded her head for emphasis. "Well, no, not EVERYONE. But you sounded like you were going to be bored, so I figured I'd offer, yeah?"
Managing a weary smile of her own, Nutmeg replied, "Wow, really? Yeah I'd love to hear about your adventures. My work is nothing to talk about though." Rolling her eyes, she drawled, "We're the best mechanics west of Trottington, and all they have us doing is running an airship." She looked over her shoulder, then leans a little closer to Summer, whispering, "Most days, there's nothing to do but watch the pressure gauges all day!"
The pale blue pony pondered that for a moment, before chuckling and flashing a playful grin. ""Hmm... so what you're saying is, it'd be REAL exciting if we came under attack by sky pirates and we had to push this baby to its limits to do or die!" She seemed enthused with her own imagined scenario.
"You might get lucky, then! You know we don't really have a clue what's inside that storm: we might need the best airship mechanic we can find!" The unicorn bowed her head low again, seemingly oblivious to how close her horn kept getting to the Kirin's snout. "But no matter what, I promise I'll keep you company, Nutmeg!"
"O...kay, great," Nutmeg said, a little uncertain about how this unicorn kept pointing that sharp looking horn at her for some reason. "I could totally get this ship flying ten knots faster if I could rebuild the propellors. But if push comes to shove, this engine ain't giving out any time soon. Those storm guards sounded pretty freaky, but they knew how to build a really sturdy engine." A hoof under her chin, and she pondered, "You know, we don't have superheaters, but if we did the turbines could definitely take the extra pressure. And if we vented the steam out under the propellers, you could probably pick up another three knots easy. Huh, I hadn't really thought about making the ship go fast."
Summer Scribe sat herself down politely to one side of the corridor, blue and white tail flicking as she listens to Nutmeg talk, beaming at the passion the kirin was showing for her craft. 'Now that's more like it!' she thought. "See? You're destined to do REALLY cool things and you know it, too!" she exclaimed. "You just have to wait for opportunity to strike; or make your own, of course!" Some of Summer Scribe's most ambitious finds had been, ahem, self-motivated.
The unicorn's enthusiasm was apparently infectious, because Nutmeg Inferno's eyes brightened, and she asked, "Hey, yeah. Oh hey, did you see that Storm Piercer device though? I'd give my left hind leg to work on that. It's a 730 thaum radio enforced negative air dispersal stabiliser! They say it can literally stop the wind!"
"Oh yeah, you bet I *saw* it." Summer confirmed. "I gave it part of an hour of solid oggling! I bet the pegasi can't get enough of it! And we'll see it in REAL action when we reach our destination, huh?" She made a mental note to be up front for the best view of the show, when the ship reached the storm wall.
"They're the ones who get to operate it. The uh, pegasi that is," Nutmeg said affably, "Oh and if you didn't know, I'm a..." She almost places her hoof on her chest with pride, but remembering Summer's earlier words she stops herself and instead offers in an embarrassed tone, "So, you... uh... heard all about kirin already, huh? I guess they didn't tell you how simple water won't put out the flames."
Summer Scribe shook her head bashfully: apparently her reading had been less thorough than she'd thought. "I didn't know that part: never gotten a chance to test it, so I made an inference and it was wrong. I guess now I have a chance to ask you all I want to know, though!" she said, smiling at the prospect.
"Sure, though to be honest, I just spent an hour answering..." The kirin shook her head, dismissing the thought. "Never mind. You seem like you know a lot more than just stuff about ancient history though."
"Well, what gets MY fires going is learning all about the mysteries left by our ancestors before us!" Summer gushed. "There's so much about the world we don't know, just waiting to be discovered - and it's up to folks like me to brave prehistory and bring it back!" She grinned again, playfully thumping her forehooves on the floor. "Tomb raiding, trap dodging, puzzle deciphering: Summer Scribe's game for it all!"
"I'll have to remember to look you up, if somepony ever gets me one of those dumb jigsaw puzzles again," Nutmeg said happily, "So, no hard feelings then? I swear I don't catch fire that easy most of the time. I was just uh... figured I'd try to get out of the engine room for a bit for that launch party, and of course I start flaring up and scaring everypony right away."
Summer's face brightened at the mention of jigsaws. Oh, she *loved* puzzles! But the puzzle remained hypothetical for now, so she restrained herself. "No hard feelings, yeah! Something you ought to know about me is, when you've explored a few dangerous, crumbling ruins, you learn to act on instinct and think quickly. Sometimes I'll make the wrong choice in the heat of the moment, but... I mean well and I'll own up for it." Nutmeg Inferno : "You don't ever, um... you know?" she pointed a cloven hoof at her own bendy, branchy horn. "Unicorns don't have... horn magic going nuts a lot, do they? Not like fire, but just like..." Laughing nervously, she said, "H-heheh, I mean it's no big deal just wondered if... I uh... yeah."
The unicorn hmmed, and tapped at her own horn in turn, looking at the kirin's. "Well, if I'm upset my telekinesis might squeeze a little too hard or fumble, but nothing like what you have to put up with, no." she replied. "I HAVE heard tales of unicorns getting flustered and casting a spell they didn't mean to, though; would hate to be in their hooves!"
"Sounds like not really then," Nutmeg said, curvy ears wilting a little. "Not that kirin are broken or anything," she added with a nervous laugh, "It's just kind of overwhelming, and I guess it's neat that unicorns don't... do stuff. I'm pretty easygoing... that means I don't catch fire much... so don't worry if you screw up. If I had a bit for every time me and my crew made a stupid decision, I'd be able to buy this whole airship and then some."
The unicorn chuckled nervously at that, giving the back of her head another bashful little hoof-rub. "Yeah, it is pretty nice. Umm. Not that - yeah, you got it already." She quickly nodded her head, as though to change the subject.
With a sigh, the kirin decided it was time to wrap this up, "Well, I'm all clean now, so I guess I'll go check on them. Still can't believe Gearshift didn't go..." her voice dropped to a mumble, as she adopted a thoughtful stare. Shaking her head, she straightened, puffing out her chest and saying "It was nice meeting you, Summer! Let's talk again, maybe, after you went out and solved all the puzzles."
Summer stood up and shook the kirin's hoof again. "Pleasure meeting you as well! I'll keep you on my mind! Thank you!"
The two great airships continued on to Vanhoover, the last major town on their flightpath before leaving the boundaries of Equestria. Here they would pick up final supplies and give the crew one last change for shore leave, before beginning the mission proper: piercing the storm wall around the Cloudbreak Islands. The ships were carefully maneuvered into the largest berths the air docks had to offer.
After the captain concluded a few formalities with the dockmaster, the deck crews began to load the remaining provisions: pre-ordered and stacked in crates on the sky pier or in an adjacent warehouse. Many of the other ponies aboard departed into the town, enjoying a chance to stretch their legs. It wasn't just cargo to be collected here; one final addition would be made to the crew...
The expedition had arrived two nights ago; this was their last day in port, so she'd arrived just in time. The newest expedition member kept to herself as she approached the ships. Goodness, she'd seen airships before, but only for short trips; these two were huge, and one of them would be her home for the next three months.
She was a deep blue unicorn mare, wearing a cloak with a lavender-coloured hood, which blending with the brighter purple and pink of her mane and tail. Despite the fact that she was still affiliated with the Royal Guard, no armour was to be found... but first things first: getting on the ship.
The EAS Harmony looked like a fine vessel; Azure Feather had reviewed the blueprints and the crew manifest, among the documents sent to her when she agreed to join. Other than the expedition leaders, most of the crew didn't stand out, but the kirin she'd heard of. Well, there was a first time for everything, and working with a kirin would be a first for her; although she wasn't sure how much she'd see of this Nutmeg Inferno, as she would no doubt spend most of her time in the engine room.
Azure approached the most obvious entrance: a wide hatch into the lowest part of the hull. The boarding ramp was lowered, and a few final crates and barrels were being hauled up into the cargo bay. Unicorns were making good use of their telekinesis while earth ponies shifted things with brute strength. One unicorn in particular, with a cyan coat and a mane of blue and white stripes, huffed and panted as she sat down on her rear near the base of the ramp, a bit out of the way. "Whew... That's... quota done. What... now..." Summer muttered to herself.
Azure didn't usually seek out conversation for its own sake, but after several days of keeping to herself on her solitary journey to Vanhoover, she felt a little socialising wouldn't hurt. Besides, she might as well start getting to know the ponies she would be protecting. The deck crew were still busy with their crates, so she gave the loading operation a quick glance over before turning to the small unicorn taking a break.
"The Harmony, hmm? Good name for what a ship that can still the wildest storms..." she mused out loud, her tone neutral, but her stiff posture showing that she wasn't exactly at ease.
Summer Scribe's ears perked up at the new voice. She rose to her hooves and regard the fellow unicorn for a moment: 'Oh, we're making small talk?' she thought, 'That solves that. I don't recognise you, but I don't recognise EVERYONE on this ship (that's a lot of faces!) so I don't think anything of it, yet.'
"Well, I suppose so!" she remarked in an amused tone. "Beats being a war machine like it used to be!" Summer chuckled before continuing: "...but I'm thinking of this as more of a research expedition, right now." Her sudden rush of enthusiasm resulted in her tapping a forehoof to her horn in a rough approximation of a salute. "To brave the wild frontiers and seek the unknown! And learn all we can about it! That's our mission!" She nodded for emphasis.
Azure Feather nodded back politely; her fellow species member had quite a different perception to her own... but hey, she had her own opinion, this was fine. In truth Azure was not entirely happy about the ship's complete conversion from warship to this... glorified cargo hauler. She knew, if things turned bad, they would likely sorely miss the stripped out weaponry.
The light blue unicorn seemed confident there wouldn't be any pitched battles though, so Azure would go along with that for now. Perhaps the worst threat would be strange new wildlife; not that wild animals were a matter to be taken lightly, as Azure knew well that many strange and ferocious beasts lurked beyond the borders of Equestria.
After a beat, Summer realised the new unicorn still hadn't replied, and decided to introduce herself: "Name's Summer Scribe, Distinguished Junior Researcher. And you are?" she smiled.
The deep blue mare removed her hood before answering: "Azure Feather, from the Lavender Blades. Nice to meet you." Azure bowed her head formally: her clear blue eyes along with lined streaks of two-toned purple in her mane were clearly visible now. For some reason the unicorn couldn't help glancing back over her shoulder as the hood came off.
Summer gave the new arrival another look over, now that the hood was down, and nodded approvingly. "A pleasure to meet you, Azure!" she said, returning the bow respectfully. She followed the other mare's gaze, tilting her head and trying to peer behind her. Azure covered with a nervous giggle, even though there clearly wasn't nything odd where she was looking. Seeing nothing unusual, Summer continued "Is there something you're thinking about? Did you wanna go out and wander around town? I'd be down for that, I mean."
The prospect did sound appealing to Azure, after spending a couple of days mostly cooped up on trains. After a quick moment of thinking she replied "I've been deployed to Vanhoover in a hurry, but if you say there's extra time before we depart, enough to actually feel the ground under our hooves for even a little bit, then sure. It'll be the last time we're in Equestria for months, won't it?"
Summer nodded in agreement: "Yeah, I was hoping to get a little time on the ground before we continue. I kinda did as much prep as I can and I'm a little overstimulated from just being holed up and thinking and thinking and thinking." She tapped a hoof and took a few steps down the pier, heading away from the ship. "So, what do you want to check out? The local cuisine? The scenic views? The local library?"
Holed up and thinking... Azure gave a quiet nod at that, as she'd been there quite a few times herself. The new unicorn seemed somewhat interested when Summer's mentioned getting some food, but it was the last notion that got her attention, an intrigued look crossing her face. "Y'know, I haven't actually been to the Vanhoover library. Would be nice to check out their collection... How about we head there first?" she asked.
Summer Scribe smiled and clopped her hooves "Oh, awesome! After shifting all those crates, I'm down for something nice and relaxing right now." The two ponies set off from the sky docks in an easy trot, heading across town.
As one of the more remote towns in Equestria, Vanhoover's library was much quainter and smaller than Canterlot's; but every librarian is proud of the books they entrust. There were sections for local lore, mythological fiction, history and cuisine cookbooks to peruse; as soon as she'd entered, Summer Scribe glanced at her companion to see if anything had caught her eye.
In fact, Azure Feather barely gotten out of the lobby before making a beeline for the section speaking of... flight? What use would that be to a unicorn? Without even saying a word, either... the dark blue unicorn looked a little stressed, or possibly embarrassed.
Summer trotted after her, eyeing up the shelves as she passed. "So, what did you want to start with... Azure?" Where had the other pony gone? She peered around, and caught a glimpse of a purple and pink tail turning a corner. Curious what had caught the other unicorn's interest, she followed her into... the Pegasi Flight section, huh? Well, they were going to be in close quarters with a half-pegasus crew and quite reliant on them for a while, so that made sense... right?
If only Azure hadn't already cracked open three books about pegasus wing physiology, that would have made perfect sense. Yet there she was, flank against the back wall between bookshelves, speed-reading through each book... now realising she'd been spotted, she looked up to Summer, halfway through a book. "...Sorry. Couldn't help myself... I haven't, erm, seen these books before!"
Summer paused for a moment... then released a cute giggle as she held a hoof to her face. "Oh, that's really cool! Are pegasi your speciality, then? Do you know everything there is to know about them?" She sidled over to Azure, to try and catch a glimpse at the covers. "Maybe you should bring me up to speed!"
Azure's stress level seemed to jump up a tad as Summer leaned in to read "Principles & Mechanics of Pegasus Flight, Volume 11" on one of the covers. "Pegasi... n-no, they're not my specialty, but... I know quite a bit! I know wing power calculations, Pegasus speed records, Wonderbolts through the years... just need to further my studies!" If this was the case, why did she have Volumes 13 and 14 off the shelf as well?
Summer Scribe's eyebrows inched up. 'This must be some really advanced work! ...and it's still not her speciality?' she thought. "This is just like, a side hobby for you? Wow! That's super cool! Are you going to put this knowledge to work someday? Maybe build some model pegasi and fly them through the skies? Personal trainer in Cloudsdale?" She tapped a hoof to her chin; so many possibilities!
Azure was practically blushing now as Summer continued to excitedly comment on her studies, but the mention of becoming a personal trainer prompted a thoughtful smile to cross her muzzle. "As interesting as a career as personal trainer for Pegasi sounds... I'll leave that to the actual Wonderbolts, past or present; there's bound to be pegasi way better at it than I would be. Yet... those aren't bad ideas, Summer. Got to consider them after this mission. But for now, I should be done looking through these books in a little bit..."
Summer Scribe chuckled again: there was nothing like unbridled passion to get her excited, honestly! Her tail began to swish back and forth as she nodded eagerly along with Azure. "Whatever interests you, interests me too! Feel free to tell me all about what you're working on: it'll get your thoughts in a row. It works for me at least!"
Azure quickly finished skimming Volume 11 before telekinetically placing the book back on the shelf. "Tell you what, Summer..." she replied "how long do we have on the ship, setting off from here to reaching the Cloudbreak Islands? Starting to get an idea here, but I don't want to just... openly test things out of nowhere, either."
Summer thought for a moment before replying "Oh, three, maybe four days, depending on how the winds are. We're heading north up the coast, then west towards the storm." She tilted her head, trying to guess what the other unicorn's idea entailed. "Well, what is it? Don't forget that you'll need to be preparing for the mission ahead, too!"
"Three days?" Azure replied, "Goodness... plenty of time to meet the other crew members then, I guess I can spare, um... a few hours for this little idea. Just, um... not here? And I'd rather finish these-" She cuts herself off, looking at the bookshelves again. "...ah, by the... they have Volume 15?!" She couldn't contain her amazement. "That one was a limited run, last one I haven't read... I gotta read this before we go!" And with that Azure's muzzle was quickly buried in the books again.
Once again, Summer Scribe was left chuckling and rubbing a hoof bashfully behind her head. "Wow, you're a FAST reader. I'm out of my league all of a sudden...!" Was that sweat on her brow? "Okay, if you're on a time limit, lemme find some history books to read while you do that!" she said: the unicorn researcher was always happy to find and absorb some local archaeological reports.
Azure looked apologetic for a few moments as she realised the smaller unicorn was stressing out. "Apologies. I mean, this is the last chance we have to stop at a library... and it's the last chance I have to finish this encyclopedia! Don't wanna miss my chance and don't wanna hold up the crew."
With a cute tilt of her head, Summer agreed "Ok... but... when you have a free moment I wanna hear all about that idea, yeah?"
"I promise, just let me know when you're free, once we're on the ship." Azure reassured her.
"Yeah, exactly, haha! So I won't interrupt; lemme just bury myself into something myself!" Summer nodded, and then she excused herself to head off to the History section. 'Whew!' she thought, 'that was... surprisingly intense!'
Watching the other mare disappear behind the shelves, Azure nodded quietly to herself... and resumed her speed-reading. And so, the ideal outing began: two ponies reading quietly and only minimally interacting.
Fast as she was, it took a few hours for Azure to digest the thick volume and cross-reference the new findings against the previous works in the series. She was looking quite pleased with herself as she rose to her feet and began trotting through the stacks, looking for her squad mate. After all, time was ticking until they both would have to report to the Harmony, and the crew wouldn't be happy if they were late...
The sun was starting to set: on the other side of the library, the warm, rich evening light streamed through the window onto Summer Scribe's third book of the visit. The evening light... she jolted alert, snapping her tome about ancient bullfolk shut! "Azure! Umm.. the ship! Lost track of time!" she blurted out, while hastily... but extremely carefully... shuffling the book back onto the shelf. With sudden nervous energy she trotted back through the aisles, searching for her companion.
The two ponies almost collided as Azure was already looking for Summer... and it looked like her worst fears were about to come true. Late. On Day One. Lovely. "Lead... now! Talk later!" she near-shouted at Summer. Before the librarian could scold them for making such a racket, the two unicorns had rushed out the door and were making a mad dash for the airship docks. 'What a way to join this team!' Azure thought.
The pair galloped through the town, scattering ponies left and right: Summer was in the lead, bumping aside anyone who didn't get out of her way in time. "Sorry!" "'Scuse!" "Pardon!" Luckily, the airships were easy to spot from a distance... particularly as the Friendship was already beginning to rise into the sky! She gulped: their ship, the Harmony, was still tied to the dock, but the loading ramp had been retracted and the cargo door was firmly shut!
"Stars above... so late!" Azure muttered as she spotted the closed hatch. "Guess that idea's going into execution right now: we don't make it if I don't do this!" The hood flew back in a hurry as a purplish magic aura quickly formed around her horn. "I'm so due for a nap after this!" she cried out before zapping the still galloping Summer Scribe with her magic. Ribbons of energy formed and curled around the smaller unicorn, gathering on her back, only to flatten out and produce... wings? A pair of butterfly wings? Sure enough, the gossamer wings formed and solidified within seconds.
Taken by surprise, Summer was stunned to see the huge butterfly wings sprout, glimmering with a white and blue pattern that matched her mane. She skidded to a stop and gawked over her shoulder at the new appendages as she flapped them experimentally. 'Wings...! W-Woah! No wonder Azure studies pegasi so much,' Summer thought, 'it's applied magic! Sophisticated magic, because I can feel and move these like they were part of me!'
Panting heavily, Azure pointed a hoof towards the ship and shouted "Go! Fly! I'll catch up!" She was already relighting her horn for a second casting.
"...Got it!" Summer yelled back. She had no time to admire right now. No time to even wonder why they're not feathered wings. She resumed her forward charge, beat her new wings hard, leapt into the air... and started to climb, lifting into the sky!
Less than a minute later, Azure had cast the same spell on herself and was right with beside her squad mate; she flashed a tired grin as the two headed straight for the airship. Ponies in the street below stared upward in surprise; it was rare enough to see a unicorn who could cast this spell once, never mind twice in quick succession. She could see the crew casting off the mooring ropes as the vessel prepared to take off; all she was hoping for at that point was that somepony in charge would notice that there were some members of the crew who weren't on the ship!
Summer Scribe beat her wings even harder, rising higher, quickly getting the hang of basic aerial maneuvering. You had to flap them just right to maximise the lift and maintain that rhythm, it seemed. The ship was starting to lift now, but they weren't far behind; frantically she waved her hooves, trying to catch the attention of one of the crew. "Hey! Wait up, we're almost there!" she shouted at a pair of crew-pegasi hovering near the gas envelope.
The two winged ponies gawked for a moment at the sight of two unicorns flapping desperately towards them, before exchanging words Summer was too far away to hear. Confident she'd caught the crew's attention, she looked over to admire Azure's own beautiful butterfly wings. Wow! There'd be time for thanks and catchups in a moment, she hoped.
'We're going to make it, yeah, things will turn out fine,' Azure thought, trying to reassure herself. After a good night's sleep, at least: in truth she'd pushed her magic enough to almost exhaust herself. She glanced over at Summer; the smaller unicorn's flight was a little erratic but surprisingly good for a beginner; before fixing her gaze on the airship. They were getting closer, but if the engines started to accelerate... well, the butterfly wings she'd made were hardly build for speed. If only she could create real pegasus wings...
Luckily it wasn't a problem, as the pair of pegasus crewponies swooped towards their trailing comrades. They'd all practiced pony overboard drills until the appropriate actions were instinctive: match speed, lock hooves, soon they were gently carrying the two unicorns back to the ship. Azure did the only thing she could to make the Pegasi's work a little easier: angle her wings to negate air resistance... oh, and curse herself for being late. But that was beside the point. They'd be on the ship's upper deck in a moment, exhausted perhaps but otherwise fine.
A minute or two of tight pegasus embrace and they had reached the Harmony. Summer Scribe thanked and apologised to the pegasi in roughly that order, and then slumped onto to the teak deck in a fit of nervous, exhausted, adrenalin-fuelled laughter. Wheee. "That book was NOT worth it. Let's never do that again." she said to nopony in particular. Though in truth, flying under her own power had felt pretty awesome; fortunately the burst of adrenalin had gotten her through the initial wrenching vertigo and anxiety about having no clue what she was doing. She'd love the chance to try it again under less urgent circumstances.
Just behind her, Azure managed a somewhat more graceful landing, gave her own apologies and thanks to the pegasus who had brought her in... and then collapsed in an exhausted pile.
Noticing that Azure was resting beside her, Summer recomposed herself enough to talk properly. "Azure, that was so cool. Is that why you read all about Pegasi? To get real good at that flight spell? ... Wait a sec..." Her eyes darted to the other unicorn's cutie mark: a magical wand supported by feathery wings. "You told me that was just a side thing for you! It's like, totally your whole thing, right?"
Groaning in fatigue, Azure looked over at the other mare, only to groan again as Summer asked that question. "I... yeah, I stretched the truth a bit. I read those books... because the spell needs more work. At least... to do what I want it to do. But yes, it's my specialty." Well, now one crew member knew what she'd been trying to keep secret. Surely it was only a matter of time until the entire crew knew, and she'd probably end up the laughing stock of the ship for it.
Summer leaned in closer to huddle with Azure for a bit, beaming proudly. "You totally saved us from being left behind, so I totally owe you for nailing that spell!" She chuckled with appreciation. "...and if you want to make it even better yet... I understand that perfectionism streak all too well, so I'll be here to support you to the end!" She didn't see how anypony could find it weird or silly... admittedly, she was only thinking about it from her own perspective, but it did seem way cool, so who knew? "Anyway, you must be wiped: I don't have room to complain. Want to lean on me and I'll walk you to your room?"
'Well, at least one pony doesn't think I'm a freak', thought Azure. She couldn't help but smile at the outpouring of support, and slowly picked herself up and back onto her hooves. The butterfly-winged unicorn frowned as she looked at the size of the ship: it could take a while to find her quarters, and with the way she felt right then, who was to say she wouldn't end up as a flopped mess in a corridor? Best not to take a chance; even if she'd seen at the blueprints, she doesn't really know this ship. "Yeah... that sounds great right now, Summer. And thanks for everything. Interesting meeting to start this journey, you know?"
Summer Scribe laughed again... and then after reflecting on that, grinned. "Happy to make your life interesting! Wouldn't have it any other way myself. I throw myself into danger on purpose! Well, OK, this time was different, but you know what? It was fun anyway." Hup! Summer Scribe scrambled to her hooves and nudged against Azure until the other mare was leaning against her, guiding her to the ramp leading below-deck.
"Take it from me, Summer," Azure said wearily "sometimes it's a good idea to rush into problems head-on, other times, it'll just lead you to things and places you don't want to go. It sounds like mabye... you should be a bit more careful?" she suggested, concerned for her new ally. Sure, the comment might have been a bit generalised, but still...
Summer lowered her head, but nodded in understanding. "Hey, don't sweat it! I'm careful. I still got a ton left to do, so I'm looking out for myself, okay?" she said, trying to reassure her latest friend with a gentle cheek nuzzle.
Azure Feather gave a soft nod and smile in response. 'Good', she thought. Maybe she'd overreacted; she'll need to apologise later. Right now, though, she was staring at the hallways, trying to match up what she was seeing with the plans she'd studied earlier, memorising the layout as best she could.
After a few long minutes of weary shuffling, the pair reached Azure's tiny cabin, ready for her first night on the ship. Summer wished her a good night's rest and made her way back to her own room, ready to wind down herself.
Meanwhile, deep within the bowels of the engine room, a strange creature could be heard quietly singing. The kirin was laying flat on a metal grill and tapping the toes of her hoof on it in time with the rhythm: "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts..."
Around her, several ponies were in varying poses, some sitting, some laying, some looking at dials, some just reading books, and two shovelling fresh coal into the fireboxes. "Hey Divot!" a stallion called out, "Give me a turn at shovelling already!" As things stood, there really didn't seem to be much going on.
The two ponderous airships powered forward through the increasingly turbulent air, their screws fighting hard to drive them forwards through the darkening skies. Ahead the massive churning bulk of the storm wall was almost unreal, writhing tendrils of clouds lit from within by the occasional lightning flash, reaching up to the stratosphere and stretching to the horizon. Massive as they were, the Equestrian vessels seemed like toys against this unworldly backdrop. Below them, the pine forest had long since given way to windswept tundra and now barren jagged rock, an expanse of crags and canyons whistling with a cacophony of a thousand keening notes, as the endless gale battered the landscape.
On the forward deck of the EAS Harmony, first mate Pearl Gleam kept a close eye on the Friendship, roughly a kilometre in front of them. She'd already used the signal lamp to confirm that their preparations for the crossing were complete, and now they were waiting for the final confirmation to proceed. "Captain!" the earth pony shouted, "There it is! Signal from the Friendship: they're starting the crossing."
Some way behind her, Captain Polar Sky stood at the helm, practiced hooves firmly gripping the rudder wheel. Turning aside from the ominous view ahead, he spoke into one of several voice tubes projecting from the deck next to his station. "We're going through." he ordered, "Storm Piercer to full power!"
At the bow, Clashing Gale was strapped into the control cage, one eye on the gauges and another on the storm wall ahead. The long-anticipated order had finally arrived, the captain's gravelly voice made tinny by the long brass tube. The pegasus pushed a group of levers forward to their stops and was rewarded by a mounting hum and crackle that soon challenged the howling storm for intensity. The strange spikes and antennae glowed brightly with corona discharge as the device reached full power. Beside him several more pegasi watched their own gauges, concentrated on their innate weather sense and adjusted further controls to ensure the massive device functioned smoothly.
The bucking of the ship receded as the storm piercer did its work, creating a corridor of calm air for the Harmony to fly down. His control crew each gave a silent nod, signalling that all was well to proceed. Or at least, as well as it could be when their lives would depend on an experimental device that couldn't be tested to its limits anywhere but here. "Device at full power sir!" Clashing shouted into the horn, the tube relaying his words back to Captain Sky. "Everything is looking good."
The old pegasus stallion muttered something, possibly a prayer to some pre-diarchy deity, before speaking firmly into a second voice tube. "Chief Engineer, all ahead full."
In the engine room the overhead lights dimmed, as the device at the bow taxed the ship's electrical system. The whole engine crew were present and moving around quietly, eyes everywhere, everything moving like clockwork. A steady hum filled the room, as dials danced, gauges gauged, and ponies trotted to and fro swiftly and professionally. Little communication was needed as everypony and every creature knew their job and searched steadily for signs of trouble.
"Full speed ahead, aye captain!" the red ruffed kirin replied curtly into the voice tube. She turned from it and announced "You heard him! Get that coal hot!" The sound of shovelling broke the silence, as the diggers fed the fires, while other ponies shifted gears and open vents. The hum rose into a roaring rumble as all propellers engaged, the ship surging forward with a noticeable acceleration, enough to give everypony pause topside, as the Harmony began to close the gap between them and the lead ship.
Meanwhile Summer Scribe was holed up in the forward lounge, trembling with nervous excitement as the ship approached the storm wall, her face pressed up against the big bow windows to observe their progress. "Oh gosh! We're so close!" she squeed, her tail flicking back and forth. 'Aah, but there's nothing to do but watch!' she thought. 'Haaah: at this rate there'll be dry... FLOATING land under my hooves by the end of the day, and a whole new world to explore and uncover secrets in! This is amazing!'
On the other side of the lounge, Azure Feather paced frenetically. Her reaction to seeing the storm wall involved far less excitement and far more concern. Hearing the distant thunder and rising roar of wind, she grumbled "I know a few Pegasi that would throw multiple fits at even hearing this thing, let alone seeing it... and a single machine's supposed to see us through this?" Her stride slowed significantly as she muttered to herself, but then sped up again after she fell silent; the unicorn paused only to give nervous glances every time the diffused flash of sheet lightning lit up the windows.
Within minutes the two ships began to enter the storm itself, the swirling clouds closing around them and cutting off all view of the landscape below. The effects of their arcane devices were now very visible, the twin tunnels of relatively calm air glowing softly, constantly shedding tiny streamers of electricity from their edges. Even with full power the storm piercers couldn't completely calm the rushing wind, and the ships began to buck and roll gently. They could do nothing at all to keep out the rain, which pattered down on the deck and beat against the portholes in waves.
"Convection supercell pushing us down, as expected." Polar Sky shouted, "Pearl, drop three tonnes water ballast."
The first mate, a grey earth pony mare, was unsure "Three tonnes sir?
"Keep us above two thousand metres!" the Captain confirmed. "We don't want to get anywhere near those rocks"
"Dropping three tonnes aye!" Near the ship's wheel several sturdy handles dangled on chains; the first mate hooked a hoof into one and yanked downwards. On the ship's underside, torrents of water poured out of the ballast dump pipes, arresting the ship's descent.
The twin ships slowly rose, the clouds around them changing as they plunged deeper into the storm wall, going from a swirling haze to massive banks broken by pockets of clearer air. Odd luminous balls and filaments began to fill the air, getting denser and denser as the ships progressed, adding their flickering rainbow light to the now continuous flashes of sheet lightning.
In the saloon Summer Scribe sat up, attentive, not missing a single moment of the view. Admittedly, it was hard to make out any particular details: she experienced the crossing as a drowning rush of noise, an outpouring of unearthly visuals, a truly astonishing meteorological sight. Without any formal training to appreciate it properly, she gaped at the crashing of lightning, the pouring rain driven into the ship by the powerful winds, the dark and unearthly colours acting as a backdrop for shimmering patterns of sparks that might well be unknown to ponykind. 'Now this is what we live for!', she thought.
The assault of light and noise did absolutely nothing to calm Azure's nerves; she'd seen some nasty weather, but this... a part of her wondered if even Princess Twilight herself could muster conditions like these. Distracted and muttering under her breath, her pacing renewed in rhythm and vigour. She could only hope these... these devices, these blasted machines would hold on...
Back on deck, everypony was near-transfixed by the dangerous beauty of the storm wall, the violent winds just barely kept at bay by their ship's devices. Crewponies hung in the rigging, staring at the patterns of light. At the helm, traces of foam were beginning to show on Polar Sky's coat, as the stress of keeping ship and crew safe rested on his withers. "Engine room, report!" he inquired, an audible tremor putting a crack in his mask of authority and competence.
"Plasma's fluctuating, but the turbines are still going strong," came the swift reply through the voice tube, "What's going on out there?" He didn't answer, because how could he answer? How could anypony describe a phenomenon of this terrifying majesty.
A beat, and Nutmeg said to her crew, "I'll go check it out. Just to see if it might affect the engine."
Her swift stride out was interrupted by her second-in-command shouting, "Chief! I'll go instead! It might be dangerous."
Nutmeg cringed back, hurt at that, but his face shone with nothing but compassion. "Fine," she grumbled resentfully, retreating back to the engines, "You go check it out, Gearshift." He didn't hear the last part as she drops to a mumble, "...but I bet it's something really cool."
Nodding, the junior engineer headed outside instead. "Chief..." another of her crew said. "It's fine," the kirin replied curtly, checking the pressure reading again, "He's just looking out for me. What a nice guy."
Down in the sickbay, Reef Skimmer's beak was almost touching the porthole, as he stared out at the wild display. Nothing in a decade of travel on sea and though air could compare with this. The rain splattering on the glass mixed with the creaking of the ship's timbers and the tinkling of hundreds of beakers and test tubes as they jostled within their containers. He was supposed to be here, in position in case any of the crew needed his attention, but perhaps a quick check around the ship would be prudent?
At the bow, Clashing Gale was concentrating intensely on the twitching needles and flashing indicators of his console, every effort focused on keeping the vital cocoon of protection around the ship. "That's strange..." he said, in a near-whisper lost to the wind. "...it's never done that before..." Ahead, the streaming lights seemed to solidify into something like a sheer wall, a grid of flickering planes that constantly shattered and re-solidified. Visibility was down to less than a kilometre, just enough for the ships to see each other, and scant seconds after the phenomenon had become visible from the Harmony, Friendship's bow touched it.
With an enormous bang, the lead ship was engulfed in swirling sparks and crackling arcs. The tunnel of safety in front of it collapsed and dissipated, the Storm Piercer and indeed the entire airship going dark. The vessel immediately began to heel and buck, the gale force winds taking full hold.
Below deck, Summer Scribe's fascinated wonder dissolved into confusion, then panic, as the shockwave of the Friendship's encounter was felt as a tremor through the Harmony's decks. The little unicorn sprang to attention, on all four hooves, immediately alert. She looked ahead to see the lead ship start to tumble and descend, quickly lost in the spray of meteorological awe: it wasn't so beautiful now that it was life threatening!
At the helm of the Harmony, Captain Sky was fighting desperately with the wheel, trying to avoid a similar fate. "We have to turn, right now!" he yelled as the ship, as if in slow motion, began to change course.
Beside him, his first mate was already shouting into the voice tube "Engine Room! Reverse port airscrews!" The deck began to tilt as the ship yawed around, but glancing ahead, she could see it was already too late.
"What?! What's going-" Nutmeg was cut off from talking into the tube, as Gearshift charged back through the hatch.
"Reverse port screws! The lead ship hit something and lost power! We need to turn, now!" he shouted. The crew leapt into action with an enviable coordination, not even knowing they faced an impossible task. Steam burst out of valves, one of the great turbines turning the air screws groaning as the ponderous gears shift, bringing the propellers to a stop then beginning to turn in reverse with unbearable slowness.
At the conn, the captain was staring straight ahead, transfixed by the impending disaster. Pearl Gleam did the last thing she could, going from tube to tube shouting "Brace! Brace! Everypony, BRACE FOR IM-" the rest was lost in a crashing wave of sound as the bow entered the phenomenon.
Summer Scribe was already fearing the worst, and was proven right when Pearl's announcement blared out of the voice tube. She immediately took a defensive posture against the floor, curled low, pushing through her legs against the floor for support.
The Harmony was still pulling around to port when it crossed over, penetrating the barrier at a roughly forty-five degree angle. The resulting fireworks were somewhat slower and more drawn out than the Friendship's head on encounter, but no less calamitous for the vessel and her crew. Clashing Gale reached too late for the shutdown lever, as raw magic arced and sprayed across the control area. The cage protected against lightning, but it couldn't shield them from the stinging, burning raw magic that sprayed from the machine. The bodies of all four pegasi in the cage soon lay limp in their couches, fur smoking and heads lolling as the ship began to roll.
The deafening series of cracks and bangs filled every space in the Harmony, and the moment the first shock hit her, Azure's eyes screwed shut for a moment. "...Last time I trust a machine over a pony..." she muttered.
The engine room shook and groaned, as the conduits to the plasma generator burst open, sending sparks and ponies flying in every direction. As the magic went wild, the spherical quartz housing of the generator itself shattered, scattering sharp glittering fragments all over the deck. For one horrifying moment the thaumaturgically sustained ball of naked plasma could be seen with the naked eye, before it burst like a bubble, sending a shockwave that knocked everypony in the engine room off their hooves. All the lights faded out, leaving only the fireboxes casting their orange glow over the space. The groans and shouts of battered, bruised and shell-shocked ponies added to the hissing, crackling and constant pounding of the storm outside to create a cacophony of confusion.
The whole vessel was rocking, hard, sending Summer toppling into an awkward fall, but she at least didn't go flying. With a bzzZZAPP, power wobbled through the ship... and died entirely, taking the lighting with it, leaving the eerie sky as unstable illumination through window panes now marred by snaking cracks.
The airship stabilised for a moment; Azure opened her eyes again and noticed... 'Oh great, the power's already out. Not good.' "Bucking hay!" she said loudly, frustration evident in her voice as she grabbed onto the closest semi-solid thing around: a couch. Not the greatest thing, but something nonetheless. Poor life decisions? Check.
"Shoot, shoot, I'm up..." Summer reassured herself as she wobbled to her feet; the deck had resumed its crazy tilting. "Is... The Storm Piercer must be failing!" she monologued. "I better get to the equipment room and see what's going on! I'm not going to just sit around if I can help in any way!" She raced off and out of the saloon while monologuing to herself, doing her best to gallop up the ramp to the tween deck and locate the relevant door despite the darkness, noise, pitching deck, sliding crates... all her obsessive memorisation was finally going to pay off!
With the magical protection now gone, gale force winds swept across the deck of the Harmony, forcing everypony not strapped down to hang on for dear life lest they be tossed into the maelstrom. The ship slowly lost headway, lurching from side to side as full force of the storm battered the hull. With the airflow over the trim planes disrupted, the nose dipped down, beginning a slow descent into the depths of the unnatural storm.
Back in the engine room, shouts and curses echoed in the darkness, as the crew picked themselves up and began to assess the damage. Nutmeg already knew what had to be done if they were to have any chance of saving the ship: "We've gotta get the power back, we need that Storm Piercer! Gearshift, cut the lines to that wreckage and splice the old generator into the main panel! Sparks, pull that charcoal out and get new fuses in, now! Divot, ready on the steam valves."
The old steam-driven generator was a leftover from before the refit, when the ship was a cruiser in the Storm King's fleet. The fancy Canterlot engineers had deemed it crude, unreliable and underpowered and installed the magical plasma generator to replace it, but Nutmeg refused to let them toss out the old machine, no matter how much weight it would save. A single encounter with a blazing nirik had been enough to convince them, and now her instincts were paying off, as the clunky relic was they only hope of restoring power.
In the saloon, Azure realised her bracing was futile. The couch started to tumble, forcing her to tuck her wings for a moment... but seeing Summer push through the panic and look for a way to help, it made her realise... hay, there were no mere passengers on this ship. Everyone had a job. A task to complete. The impact had been bad enough down in the hull, but surely the ponies up on the deck were faring even worse. Her thoughts went to the pegasi operating the Storm Piercer; they must be in rough shape, she thought.
Pulling herself to her hooves, only a quick flap of her butterfly wings prevented the unicorn from toppling as the ship tilted yet again. Focusing her vision ahead, she pushed up the ramp towards the deck. Azure had spent a few hours trying to get used to the ship's layout; she wasn't as comfortable on board as Summer, but maybe just good enough?
Summer herself had almost made it to the equipment bay. The violent turbulence and tossing deck weren't making her job any easier; she felt like hunkered down in a corner and bracing for the worst, but she wouldn't let herself get sucked out into the brilliant unknown without a fight! "Hnnnhh!" Too dazed to use her horn, the little unicorn grunted as she pushed herself against the heavy door, leaning in against it as the ship tilts, forcing it open and practically skidding into the compartment. Barely avoiding tumbling, she frantically assessed the scene.
The space was packed with transformers, cables, spark gaps, rows of mysterious dials (many now cracked) and even stranger magical devices covered in runes and sigils. The smells of burned insulation and vomit competed with the tang of ozone to assault the sinuses. Blown fuses still smoked all over and residual magical charge pooled and sparked in the coils. The five pegasi here were in better shape than their comrades above, but they were still dazed and bruised, limping between the machinery and trying vainly to make sense of the readings. The sole unicorn seemed to be unconscious, smoke drifting from her horn; a young orange pegasus was cradling her head in his hooves and desperately asking her to wake up.
On the deck above, Pearl Gleam was fighting to keep her footing as she pushed forward towards the bow: determined to help the pegasi there and get that blasted machine back on. Driven rain was soaking her coat and stinging her eyes; worse, it was slicking the deck enough that the earth pony was sliding back and forth even with her hooves planted. Somehow, she got to the bow, but before she could open the Storm Piercer's control cage, she glanced up and caught sight of something that made her blood chill. Movement below the ship... not just coloured phantasms, these were rocky shapes with ominous solidity. Desperately the grey mare whirled and tried to make it back to her captain, her shouts of warning inaudible in the storm.
In the stern, the engineering crew fought with hornlight and head mounted lanterns to screw melted leads to new terminals, and divert steam away from the main engines, twisting open barely used, poorly oiled valves; when the ship wasn't tossing so hard that they were knocked right back off their hooves. Finally the old generator starts to chugg, hiss and whine, slowly coming to life; the overhead lights flickered and faded back on, light spreading throughout the ship as electrical power was restored.
This was no end to the chaos though, because the propellers now fought with the turbines, starting and stopping as the powerful winds continued to toss the ship around like a toy. The whole frame creaked dangerously, audible even within the noisy, iron shielded engine room; Nutmeg had a sudden horrible vision of it becoming an iron shielded tomb, the only intact section after the ship was smashed against the jagged rocks below.
Shaking her head to clear the grim image, she focused instead on the dials in front of her, which did nothing to improve her mood. "Why is the pressure building?!" Nutmeg demanded of the gauges, "The safety valves should have opened by now!" Rousing her crew once more, she shouted "Come on, we have to get those valves open or the boilers are gonna explode in our faces!"
In the equipment bay things were slightly calmer but no less concerning. Summer Scribe's expression fell as she tried to make sense of the crazy mish-mash of unfamiliar devices. Just as she'd feared, the Storm Piercer had been hit hard and was in sorry shape. But what had happened, exactly...? She made her way over to one of the magical devices, closing her eyes and concentrating. Her horn tingled as she 'felt' out the layout of the spell, like it was a physical space to explore. The unicorn's nostrils twitched as she feels something uneasy, like a strange itch, a desire to sneeze.
"Why would these runes form a short circuit? There's no reason to loop them back around..." she muttered to herself. "Oh, shoot, exactly! The spell got scrambled by the storm somehow!" She groped a little more intensively around that area, realising that the flow of magic is 'leaping' over the channels eroded and etched by the original enchanting. And it was like this all over!
"What on Equus could make magic behave like this? Maybe... resetting it will restore the flow, set everything back the way it's meant to be?" Summer desperately hoped that would work, because if it didn't there was no way she could figure out how all of this worked before the ship was torn apart around her.
Suddenly, something tapped her shoulder, causing her to spin around in fright. It was one the pegasi, a tan stallion with a bleeding gash across his muzzle and one wing hanging limp. "Miss, you said... you think you can fix this?" he asked, with the expression of a drowning pony grabbing at a life preserver.
"Uh... maybe?" Summer responded, trying to push aside the queasy feeling of dread welling up in her. Was she really their only hope of fixing this thing? "I mean, sure! I'll try..."
"Good! Great!" he replied "Give me a moment, I'll isolate the power and replace the fuses. You just... deal with the weird magic, somehow?"
"Right! Let's do it!" Summer said, some of her enthusiasm starting to return now that she had an ally. The stallion limped over to the thickest patch of wiring, his muzzle dipping to grab spilled replacement fuses off the floor as he went. Summer turned back to the runes and with a supreme mental effort she blanked out the roaring wind, the tilting deck, the cries of the injured crew.
Her horn lit and she focused on the flow of the magic, tracking back to the central nexus where all the spells were balanced and controlled. If she could channel this power into her own horn and then dissipate it, like a rudimentary countermagic, the whole thing should bottom out and re-settle... It felt electric and hot and her instincts fought against doing something she knew would entail intense pain.
Meanwhile Azure Feather had made it onto the upper deck and was briefly stunned by the increase in noise and light, not to mention the stinging rain. She hadn't gotten everypony's name on the ship; everpony had been too busy preparing for the crossing for further introductions. But seeing one pony struggling to make it to the ship's captain made her decide: this was her cue. Spreading her wings for an extra push, she tried to dash over to Pearl Gleam, but her instincts betrayed her: the wild gusts grabbed at her wings and tossed her to the deck. In these wild atmospheric conditions they were doing more harm than good. Gritting her teeth, she folded them tightly against her back and pushed her way through the wind: head low, keeping three hooves on the deck at all times.
At last she made it, but by the time her attention was back on Pearl... the other mare wasn't there, instead all she saw was a pair of dark grey hooves barely holding on to the railing! Azure's coat was soaked already, but now... no, as much as she wanted to, leaping off the ship to try and save the earth pony, while it would be heroic if she succeeded, would almost certainly end up stupid and leave them both dead. She wasn't a full Pegasus: these magical wings just weren't strong enough. All she could do was cry out "Mare overboard, mid-port side!!", hoping someone else could save the earth pony. She couldn't, anyway...
At the helm, Polar Sky heard the cry and immediately sprang into action; he'd be damned if he was going to lose another crew member to this storm. Unfortunately just as he released the wheel, a particularly violent gust hit the Harmony, causing the airship to roll near thirty degrees to port before the heavy keel could pull it back level. On the rain-swept upper deck, the first mate's precarious grip on the railing gave way, and the grey earth pony was flung sideways into the storm.
PEARL!" bellowed the captain, throwing caution to the literal wind as he dived off the deck. Before his wings were even half spread they caught the fierce wind, hurtling him forward over the railing. Both ponies were quickly lost to sight below the ship, their fate a mystery to those that remained.
Mere seconds later an avian head poked out of the hatch, ear tufts flattened against his skull as the force of the storm hit him. The hippogriff stared wildly at the unmanned helm, the unconscious pegasi at the bow, and the... unicorn? Alicorn princess of butterflies? Changeling-pony hybrid? Whatever she was she was desperately clinging to some rigging and clearly in trouble. Blinking to dismiss the instinctive zoological curiosity, not to mention the water dripping into his eyes, Reef Skimmer dug his eagle talons into the wooden deck and made his way towards the unknown blue mare.
In the engine room, Nutmeg Inferno was wielding her favourite tool: a giant wrench. Throwing her weight behind it, the stuck valve squealed and gave way, finally releasing the steam and briefly turning the engine room into a sauna. She backed up from the blasting valve wet, but none worse for wear. The kirin quickly shook herself out and cantering back to the main control console, wrench trailing behind in an orange magical glow.
Once she reached the array of gauges she swung it around and leaned on it like a crutch, watching intently as the dials climbed and fall. "This doesn't make any sense..." she frowned. "It's just water and air. There's no power in it."
"Chief!" one of her crew called out, an unlucky mare with an eyepatch, "Boiler temperature is climbing!" Divot announced, to which Nutmeg yelped "What?!", before leaping over to look at it. Falling hard on her side as the ship suddenly listed crazily to port, she struggled back to her hooves and kept going, until she reached the port boiler. Her brief hope for a broken gauge was dashed; the iron sides of the firebox were glowing a dangerous dull orange, and a quick glance at the starboard boiler confirmed that it was following close behind.
"What in Equestria?" she remarked in disbelief, before ordering "C-cut off the vents!"
"We can't let the engine die!" the stallion named Gearshift protested.
"We just need to calibrate it." Nutmeg shouted back in what she hoped was a reassured tone.
"But we can't get close-" he complained.
Nutmeg cut him off "Right, got it."; they didn't have time for this. Wincing a little at the blistering heat, the kirin approached the firebox and used her wrench as a lever against the red-hot vent controls, the metal groaning as intake slits slide closed. She placed a cheek against the rivetted iron hull of the boiler, feeling the temperature, then closed another set of vents. Then she backed up, saying more quietly, "The temperature's dropping."
The chief engineer didn't sound entirely confident that the situation was under control, but the alternative was the heart of the engine collapsing into a puddle of molten iron, so Nutmeg headed off to the starboard boiler to administer the same treatment there.
Down in the equipment bay, Summer Scribe was fighting both the recalcitrant, alien magic and the bucking, rolling ship. If this went badly it could easily shatter her horn and leave her bereft of magic; if she even survived. Feeling the uncomfortable burning sensation build up and up in her horn, she kept herself at the task, knowing that the whole ship depended on her success. There was a hot magical HUMmm-vvv-zzzzzZAP that leapt to her horn as she broke the circuit for a split second, squealing in terror as her horn vibrated and her head swam.
After what seemed like an eternity but couldn't have been more than a couple of seconds, the energy was gone, and she awkwardly folded back onto her rump. The runes flickered, dimmed and went out; the magic was purged. "There... Did it..." she shook her head, struggling against the smothering urge to pass out against the floor.
"Erm, miss... should I turn it back on?" a distant voice asked. Summer started awake as she realised the job was still incomplete.
"Yes! Please, yes, it has to work now! It has to!" she cried as her blurry vision tried to resolve the brown pegasus-shaped blob. Switches were thrown, the lights dimmed and flickered again... and then a constellation of glowing runes surged back to life, resuming their original vibrance. It was at that moment Summer realised she couldn't see because tears were streaming from her eyes; pain, exhausion, relief, joy; maybe all of the above?
On the deck, the grey hippogriff had nearly reached Azure, body low to the deck, his claws scoring deep gashes in the planks. Talons were definitely helpful when it came to grip strength, Azure couldn't help but agree to that, but seeing the avian form energe from the hatch was something she hadn't expected at all! But while she still struggled to maintain her own grip, this griff likely had no idea what was going on.
"Captain and an earth mare just went overboard..." she shouted, still struggling to be heard over the storm, "...can you handle the ship?" Her wings were still trying to provide assistance, instinctively, but it was a futile struggle, as she grunted "and... a little help here?"
Reef Skimmer tilted his head, fixing the new mare with an aquiline stare. "One will... certainly do one's best." he yelled back, looking at the rigging behind her. The hippogriff was already struggling to hold himself steady on the deck with both claws, using one to grab the strange pony would make forward progress impossible without risking both of them getting blown away. Unless... there, that one would do.
Naval training kicking in, he lunged past Azure and bit down on a loose rope, his sharp beak slicing through it after a couple of bites. There was no time for proper knots; lashing one end of the cut rope around his foreleg, he held the other end in front of the unicorn's face and shouted "Now grab this in your mouth and DON'T... LET... GO!" She complied, and the pair slowly made their way across the deck to the helm, where there are at least more railings and rigging to keep them in place.
In the engine room, a strained conference was underway. "The backup gauge must have gotten skewed somehow," Gearshift shouted, squinting with Nutmeg at the console, "There's no way we'd be getting that much pressure with the valves open."
"But that doesn't explain the firebox," Nutmeg replied, "It was like somepony was in there blowing on the coals."
The stallion frowned. "And what's the deal with the electrical output?" he asked, gesturing a hoof at a dial that was dancing crazily. "That's... wait," Nutmeg began, then she looked up to the old piston generator with alarm, saying, "How much power are we putting through that thing?"
"Not THAT much," Gearshift retorted. Nutmeg and her crew immediately converged on the backup generator.
The poorly fastened leads still crackled with energy. "Pressure's normal!" Wild Spark yelled, watching the dials on the generator itself.
Nutmeg joined her, peering at the apparatus and confirming, "The condensers aren't busted or the power would be lower."
Just then the eyepatched mare comes charging up shouting, "Chief! Both fireboxes went out!"
"Went out?!" Nutmeg exclaimed in utter consernation, "They were running hot!"
"It just stopped!" Divot protested, "The walls were cool to the touch, like something sucked the fire right out of it!"
"Oh, no..." Nutmeg said, stepping back from the old generator, and looking back at the giant boilers that supplied steam to everything in the room. Even as they all ran over there as if Hell was on their heels, the great turbines sang a descending note as they whined to a stop, leaving the ship's propellers to the mercy of the storm. Even worse, as the flow of steam to the generator ceased, the lights faded away and the power went out again. The only things that can be heard are the howling wind, the sound of crazily flapping canvas and rope, and ponies crying at each other in the distance, their words swallowed by the storm, as the ship drifted along in total darkness.
At the helm, Reef Skimmer was struggling to read the instruments: the airspeed swung wildly and the needle of the altimeter was trembling with pressure fluctuations. "We're definitely losing altitude! I'll hold her steady, you dump the ballast!" he shouted back. The hippogriff grabbed the freely spinning wheel and tried to stop the ship's prow slewing about, but with the engines out the rudders were ineffective. Seeing Azure's blank look, he clarified "Those levers, to your left! Don't touch the chains... they're for the gas valves... I think."
Azure followed orders without argument. This 'griff definitely knew what he was doing, as opposed to what she was doing. And with his guidance, goodness... part of her couldn't help but think, if he would have been at the helm, would things have been different? Better, she wondered?
Turning to find the levers for the ballast valves, she tried to work them manually, but her physical strength wasn't much to speak of. Using the controls with telekinesis? That was another story. That is, until several impacts connected on the starboard and bow of the ship, disrupting her concentration mid-way through. "Bucking... we've got rocks impacting to starboard, near the bow I think! Take us out of here and I'll get the rest of the ballast!" Refocusing, she tried to just do her job... surely this griff could do the rest!
Reef's eyes widened. "Rocks?!" He glanced back at the altimeter. "We're low, but we're not that low... wait, do you mean-"
Whatever he might have said next was lost as a deafening splintering crash sounded from below. The ship bucked and shuddered again, the ship seeming to tremble with agony. "The debris zone! In the briefing, the captain said..." Another, smaller THUMP-crack-hiss sounded from below. The wheel jerked with each impacts and Reef almost lost his footing.
Despite his efforts it didn't seem like he had any control over the ship; after another scan of the instruments, he finally realised the problem. The airscrews were showing zero revolutions, and without power the rudder was useless. Turning back to the unicorn, he shouted "Pony, we've lost all headway. The only way out is to lighten the ship, do you understand? If we don't climb, we'll be smashed to splinters! We've got to drop cargo, dump anything that we can heave overboard!"
Looking at the scared, confused unicorn staring back at him, some vestige of his attempts at 'beside manner' returned. "Look, we can do this. You're... a powerful unicorn, I'm sure. I'll dump the rest of the ballast and stay on the helm: someone has to keep her steady if the engines come back. You... get down to the hold and toss the cargo. Are you with me?"
Azure Feather leaned in close to the hippogriff and stated "If I'm not with you right this moment, we aren't even making it to the islands. You bet I'm with you." The tone in her voice was clear: she knew there was only one way through this. She ran for the hatch, ducking inside and spreading her wings as soon as she was clear of the gale. It wasn't hard to know where the darn cargo hold was: at the bottom, right where the crew had stowed her gear before her ill-timed outing with Summer Scribe. Flapping through the rolling corridors with not-quite-Pegasus skill (not quite a hippogriff's either), Azure went to start on her new mission... and at this point that was nothing less than saving the bloody ship.
A brief, mad dash through the pitching corridors, dodging shifting crates and panicking ponies, and she'd arrived at the cargo hold. Now it was time for another round of magical exercise, but this time, there wasn't any resistance from machines, there wasn't anything but her and the cargo. Cargo that had to get off this ship to save lives. Crate after crate was taken with her purple aura, tossing them into the stormy skies; she knew that without most of this stuff, the best-case scenario was to be stranded on an uncharted piece of land, but that was still better than the current 'we're gonna crash into jagged rocks and die in a few minutes'.
In the bow, despite the crashing impacts and shuddering deck, Summer Scribe still had to fight the urge to give into slumber. She shook her head and swallowed to clear the pressure-pain created by the ship's descent from her ears. "Rrrhh! C'mon, Scribe! We're still... drifting! Falling?" The magic seemed to be fixed, what else could she do? Did the pegasi controlling the machine realise what she'd done? Or maybe they were in bad shape like the crew here? "What am I even doing... Forget it! Figure it out on the way!"
After that rousing pep-talk, Summer Scribe vigorously shook her head again and snorted, turning tail and feeling her way out of the equipment space. Time to make it above-deck and brave the elements! She couldn't rest now, not when there still might be something she could do!
She'd barely made it into the tween deck corridor when a red-hot flying boulder burst through a porthole, bounced through a cabin and smashed into the corridor mere metres in front of her. "Arrgghh!" A scream ripped from the unicorn's throat and she instinctively curled into a defensive posture as she was blasted by splinters. Wincing hard, only the adrenalin kept her from wailing and collapsing into a heap.
Shoot, the corridor in front of her's wasn't BLOCKED as such, a good leap could get over it, but it was boiling something fierce! She could see the wood already beginning to smoulder around the glowing rock; if only... Oh! Her eyes darted to a supply room beside her... "No way!"
She leapt in and rummaged around... telekinetically pulling out a hose linked to a keg, she turned the valve, and sprayed sarsparilla all over the molten rock in front of her! Steam HISSED, making a hot clouds that carried away the heat, the rock finally cooling enough to stop glowing after she'd dumped an entire keg all on it. "HAH! I knew this would work as a fire extinguisher on an ACTUAL fire!" the little mare huffed and laughed. As soon as the passage was safe, she resumed her desperate ascent.
In the dim light of the emergency lanterns, with shadows dancing all around the engine room, Nutmeg continued to struggle with the heart of the engine. With her and Gearshift both pulling, they managed to tear off a lever, opening the intake vents on the port firebox. "Great, just great," he griped, throwing away the useless lever.
"I found the problem!" somepony else called out from over by the vents. As Nutmeg hurried over the pony explained, "See? The vents melted shut! You thought you were only closing half of them, but..."
"You know what?" Nutmeg shouted over the noise with a forced smile, "This is fine. This is just great. Listen help me tear open these vents. We've gotta get airflow in there." Another pony was already there with some impressive looking pliers and a chisel. "You two, check the starboard side," the kirin barked, "probably needs the same treatment."
The crew tore off the useless vent covers one after the other until Nutmeg growled, "Great! That's fine!". Save for Gearshift, her crew hurriedly backed away from the boilers. "Are you gonna...?" the stallion asked, worry covering his face. "Of course I'm gonna!" Nutmeg snapped at him, "And if you don't want a face full of it, then get outta my way!" He stumbled back too, and Nutmeg furiously stormed her way around the firebox, the door open to the piles of smouldering coal and ash inside.
"You all know what to do!" the kirin shouted to her crew. With that she climbed in and pulled the door shut behind her. The firebox lit up with a purple glow, and soon hissing and pinging announced the boiler was making steam again. The great engines squealed and thrummed into life, while in the corner the old generator chugged and thumped, bringing light back to the ship.
Outside, Reef Skimmer was still struggling to get some kind of control over the ship. Yes he knew the theory, he'd even taken the helm of an airship a few times before; in calm weather, on a normal ship, with an experienced captain ready to step in if he screwed up. At last the altimeter began to creep upwards again; Azure's efforts had dumped enough weight that even the new tears in the lifting gas envelope would not stop the ship from rising. The wheel seemed to be doing something now, as the propellers started turning and airflow returned to the control surfaces.
Summer Scribe noticed the lights flickering back on as she makes her way up the last ramp, emerging onto the chaos of the top deck. 'Whew, great!' she thought, 'now if the power can STAY on this time, we might stand a chance!'. Rain-swept and staggered by the wind, she stumbled and struggled to adjust her stride in the soaking gale, before charging bravely ahead. The Storm Piercer controls were just up those steps; with any luck she'd be able to figure out what to do!
Reaching the control cage, Summer looked over the quartet of unconscious pegasi with a frown. 'Out cold, figures...' A certain blue and cyan maned pegasus she'd met earlier was passed out in front of the densest cluster of controls. The unicorn placed hooves on his side and shook firmly! "C'mon, get up, Clashing! We need your help to make it through this!"
Clashing Gale's eyes blinked open. "Who... what... what hap-happened" he mumbled as he struggled to stay lucid. His eyes closed for a few seconds, then with a supreme effort the stallion managed to speak loud enough for Summer Scribe to hear over the storm. His body shifted as he tried to get up, but he didn't have the strength. "Summer? I dont'... ugh, hurts so bad... not sure I'm gonna make it. What... what are you doing here?"
"Doing my best to not crash the ship!" Summer tersely responded. She looked over the numerous controls: she knew ACADEMICALLY how it functioned, yes, but she wasn't licensed to operate this thing, and obviously hadn't had a chance to familiarise herself. "Just stay awake; tell me what to push and I'll push it! You can do it, Clashing Gale!" She looked over to the pegasus for guidance.
"There, pull that to... charge the... that button will start..." His vision swimming, Clashing could see a fuzzy pony-like shape trying to comply with his instructions. "NO not that one... got to.. got to let it build slowly... then just... just keep those two needles in the grief... grease... green..." he slipped back into unconsciousness.
Back in the engine room, Gearshift was now Acting Chief Engineer, as his boss had decided to be a bonfire for a while. "Oh fussbudgets!" he exclaimed, Nutmeg's wrench on his back now as he watched the pressure dropping again, "This time we DO have a leak. I just know it!"
"Are you sure?" his cohort asked over his withers.
"Chief Nutmeg is not gonna let that fire go out," Gearshift stated confidently, "There must be a leak in the pipes."
The conversation was interrupted by the resounding clang of a rock slamming into the side of the metal bulwark around them. The ponies staggered on their feet, fighting to stay standing, as a one-eyed mare looked up at the noise and shouted sarcastically "Gee, I wonder why."
And so a short search began: very short in fact because a burst pipe spraying forth burning hot steam is a very visible and noisy target. The engine room ponies crowded up near the leak, standing in the metal passage through the fuel bunkers, getting bathed in steam and coal dust. Behind Gearshift, somepony spoke up: "How are we gonna get close to it without the chief? The rest of us can't shrug off scalding steam!"
"There's a shutoff valve on the other side," the stallion replied, "Hold on!" Then the earth pony charged forward, leaping through the hot steam, doing his best to avoid the blast, but crying out as his side is scalded in passing.
"I'm okay!" he shouted back through the mist, before trapping the whole spigot in his wrench and making small slow turns, until the spray of steam died away. The crew moved forward then, and the hammering and emergency welding began.
Down in the hold, Azure's efforts would continue until she was literally told otherwise! Cargo crate after crate... goodness, she would at least put a few boxes that held cans and jars aside... surely every creature deserved some kind of meal after this insanity...! She knew she did, at least... As far as everything else went, though... into Twilight's skies it went.
By the time she was done, the only things left in the cargo hold were... edible. As best she could tell at least, she didn't exactly have time to unpack each crate before tossing it overboard. Everything else was now scattered to the wind... The butterfly-winged unicorn nodded and flew up, satisfied with her work. After all, stranded with food was one thing. Stranded without food? Entirely another...
With a crackling hum the Storm Piercer sprung back into life, blasting away the wind and rain and cutting a channel of still air into the roiling chaos. Summer Scribe allowed herself a sigh of relief as the roar of the storm began to subside. Pulling levers, twisting dials, pressing buttons, harnessing all of the remaining willpower in her hammered shell to play a rousing game of 'Keep Talking And Nobody Crashes' with Clashing Gale. "OK, keep maintaining these dials, then... Hello? Oh no, that better have been it... c'mon... c'mon!" She focused intently on the needles, thinking 'green, come on, stay green'!
The battered but intact EAS Harmony began to pick up speed, moving forward into the tunnel of safety. The bucking and rolling quickly subsided as the ship settled, much to the relief of its crew. Which is not to say things were smooth sailing; here the tunnel would flicker and threaten to collapse as the young unicorn desperately searched for the right control to correct it, there the ship came dangerously close to breaching the wall of the tunnel as its inexpert helmsgriff fought to get it back under control. These difficulties were trifles though, compared to the crisis had been met and surpassed.
Nutmeg in the meantime was getting some kind of meal, as she bellowed out from the firebox, "MOAR COAL! FEED MY RAGE!", her exhausted crew doing their best to comply.
Less than an hour later, the ship broke through the last grey cloud bank into the warm, clear skies on the other side of the storm wall. Arrayed ahead, as far as the eye could see, was an impossible floating archipelago. Floating islands as big as mountains, mixed with smaller cousins the size of towns, ringed by tiny islets that bobbed gently in the breeze, all half-veiled in wisps of soft white cloud. It was a riot of colour and texture in three dimensions, the climate and vegetation seeming to vary wildly between island groups.
Summer Scribe let out a massive sigh of relief. It worked! They'd really done it! Realising there was nothing pressing left for her do, she let her magic flicker out. The blue unicorn took one last moment to absorb the view as Harmony left the storm behind, then her body caught up with her. "Made it..." she whispered, as the last of her adrenalin left her system. She wobbled to the side and collapsed into a heap, quickly losing consciousness.
Azure had also returned to the upper deck, tired but still standing. With a sigh, she announced to nopony in particular "I... I really hope some creature finds us in this... this place. We made it... but unless we find something to fix the ship here... we're unlikely to make it back with all the cargo I had to toss. It was that... or we weren't making it at all, but..." She trailed off. Did she really do the right thing? And what about Pearl Gleam and the captain?"
The beauteous visions of the Cloudbreak Islands were lost in the battered, smoking engine room. Forces beyond pony ken were at work there. As Nutmeg's angry screaming turned into angry pacing, then growling, she slowly, painfully ripped herself out of that rage. The nirik climbed out of the firebox at last, that dark fire flaring from her fitfully as her inky black hide returned to a soft brown and gold. She didn't usually have to hold it that long. Herself again at last, Nutmeg declared flatly, "Fireboxes are... lit." With that she sank to her belly, sobbing into her hooves, and her crew at last closed around her. Surrounding her, they held her and helped her up, with that same steady efficiency that indicated: maybe this wasn't the first time this happened. She was okay though. It didn't get... out of control.
It was a quiet day in the Cloudbreak Islands. It was a quiet day far too often, these days. It was a day like any other, in a lasting peace that no one wanted, like that sweater your grandmother knitted for you, and you have to pretend to like it, even though it's ugly as sin. In the distance, a sheep could be heard among the ever-present birdsong, as its sheepy brethren danced through the verdant meadows of the sky islands. The soft puffy clouds enveloping the islands were a dense, swirling bowl far below and all around, ending the boundary of the world, ever shifting in mysterious patterns.
If only we'd heeded the warnings we were given. A lone balloon drifted through the clear air, its colourful fabric shining in the bright sunlight from overhead. They were not the only witness, for everycreature within a dozen leagues would look up and stare at the crackling boom and streamers of light. The wall of cloud forming the boundary of the known world erupted into a swirling tunnel, punching a gaping hole in the insubstantial barrier that no one could ever remember anyone penetrating.
Seconds later, a monstrously huge airship roared out of the disruption, the strange passage collapsing swiftly in its wake. Lightning played along the metallic surfaces of the creaking vessel. The size of a small island itself, the soaring hulk emerged into paradise, coughing black smoke the entire way. The ship's crew were fighting to keep the old bird aloft, but every creature among them paused as one to stare in amazement. Amidst the clear blue sky floated a throng of beautiful and mysterious islands, of all sizes from a modest field up to a respectable mountain, wreathed in tendrils of cloud and levitating far above where land has any right to be. In the distance, crumbling ruins and hints of strange fallen structures could just be seen, hidden under a carpet of verdant greenery; the newcomers could only wonder, what else might be hidden by the mist and foliage?
At the centre of the open deck, a large grey-feathered creature still gripped the wheel with avian talons. In truth Reef Skimmer was desperate to relinquish the helm and get back to the sick bay, where no doubt a score of ponies needed his medical attention. None of the crew had appeared and offered to take over, which left him no choice but to keep steering the vessel until it could find some kind of berth, anchor or failing that a survivable crash landing.
With calm air now filling the sky in every direction, instead of just a narrow artificial tunnel, it should have been safe to just let the ship drift. However a combination of inexperience and fear that some new atmospheric anomaly could strike at any moment left the hippogriff unwilling to abandon his post. Desperately, his eagle eyes scanned the sky for the closest place that looked like it could offer the ship safe harbour. Seeing Azure on the deck ahead, he shouted "Pony! Sorry, I mean... didn't catch your name before. Good work with the cargo, saved the ship no doubt! Now, can you see anywhere safe looking, where we could dock... or at least moor the bow for a while?"
With her mind still on the lost cargo, not to mention the lost crew, Azure Feather was slowly pacing the deck, gazing at the shrouded islands below. The hippogriff's call ripped her out of her train of thought; turning to Reef Skimmer, she nodded and then turned and picked up her pace towards the bow. Reaching the platform in front of the Storm Piercer controls, she got a good look... and turned back a back moment later, shouting back "That island dead ahead looks about as safe as it gets from up here!"
A nearby groan ripped her attention to another point though: it was Summer Scribe, her small equine form sprawled on the deck and barely moving. Wings tensing, Azure rapidly turned her attention to her friend. The light blue unicorn was indeed collapsed on her side near the Storm Piercer controls, eyes lidded and lungs taking deep breaths. Her horn still felt tingly and uncomfortably hot, with the occasional flare up of static that made her wince, toss and turn, or just spasm and shiver for a bit.
As the sound of the howling wind and raging storm at their backs slowly faded away, she cracked open an eyelid and hazarded a glimpse. What Summer could see from her awkward position looked promising: clear skies filled with puffy clouds, and what looked like... yes, floating islands! She couldn't make out any particular details without getting up, but a little groan of restrained excitement escaped her lips, as she let her mind imagine the details and fill in the blanks for now.
The mechanical bulk of the Storm Piercer continued to hum next to the two unicorns, still trying to pierce a storm that was no longer there. Summer's ersatz mentor remained firmly unconscious: the pegasus known as Clashing Gale was still slumped over the console. His four companions in the control cage were even less responsive; troublingly unconscious even.
Looking back down the upper deck from her position near the bow, Azure saw ponies and other creatures rushing to and fro, carrying boards and nails, tying off ropes, flying around the balloon to check for damage, and a few struggling to pull free their companions hanging there tangled up in the rigging. Seeing the small unicorn's eyes flicker open, she asked "Summer? Still with us there?"
Realising she'd just been addressed, Summer perked an ear and managed to get both eyes open. Seeing Azure's familiar colours and shape in front of her, she leaned forward a little and nodded her head. "Yeah, just... Taking a nice nap here. What's up? Is the landing going OK?"
Azure nodded to herself as Summer replied without much of a delay: no signs of concussion. "Landing's..." She dared a look back to Reef. "...going okay, I guess? Speaking of which, I gotta get back..." Relieved that her new friend seemed to have nothing more serious than exhaustion, she started trotting back to the hippogriff's side.
Back at the helm, the ship's doctor, whose experience with sailing clippers was poor preparation for piloting a giant airship, hoped mightily that holding the wheel motionless was a good idea. He held the ship steady as the soft breeze ruffled his pink crest; the calm skies were so eerily peaceful given what they were in just minutes before. His valiant efforts to maintain professional calm were then destroyed, as he was startled out of his wits by a bodiless voice calling out into his ear, "Captain! Have you got the Storm Piercer back online? Please say you have. This boiler can't take any more stresses. We're still leaking like a sieve back here, trying to track down all the pipe fractures. The backup generator is holding for now, but if that gives out, we'll be at the mercy of the storm again. How long until you think we're out of it?"
Reef spun around and found himself looking at an array of brass voice tubes: the very familiar mare's voice was emanating from a tube labelled 'engine room'. "What's that?! The storm... I would say we're well clear, yes well clear now." the griff replied, trying to regain his composure as it suddenly hit him that he had only a vague idea what he was doing up here. "We're, erm, we're looking for a place to heave to. What was that about the boiler?"
Azure, trotting up to the helm, hadn't heard Nutmeg's voice yet. "Introductions later..." she muttered swiftly, as she looked at the 'griff apparently talking to himself. "Need me for anything else?"
"Doctor Skimmer?" came Nutmeg's puzzled reply, causing Reef and Azure to both glance at the tube's flared mouth, "You're not the captain. What's going on out there? We're clear of what? Are there more boulders inbound? Where's the captain?"
"The captain..." Reef glanced at Azure, as if for confirmation, before continuing: "I believe the poor fellow was lost overboard. Right in the middle of the storm wall, after we hit that... phenomenon. Don't worry though Nutmeg, it's all clear out here now, smooth sailing, couldn't ask for nicer skies if I do say so. So... if anything back there looks like it, oh I don't know, blow up or anything, well do feel free to shut it down."
Reef gulped, hoping that sounded professional and reassuring. Noticing the winged unicorn still looking at him, he stage-whispered "Why yes, if you could find somecreature who knows how to fly this thing, I'd be much obliged."
Getting a first-row seat to the state of the ship... ugh. Azure didn't look the least bit reassured, but standing at attention meant being ready for anything... and finding a new creature to command the ship was her next task? Nodding swiftly, she started her hunt for a fitting soul. Unfortunately... the deck didn't seem to have one pony that didn't have a critical task themselves. From repairs to security to rescue to flat-out wounded; Azure quickly exhausted the possibilities on the upper deck, and headed into the lower levels to try and complete this latest task.
"Oh... oh for the love of-" At the bow, Summer Scribe was roused from her barely-consciousness by the sound of a stallion's voice trailing off with a curse, followed by the distinctive sound of electric arcing. She might have ignored this in favour of continuing to drift into blissful sleep, except that a claw gripped her shoulder, shaking her awake. She opened her eyes to see a griffon's upside down head, or maybe that was just because he was standing over her. "Hey, you know how to work this thing, don't ya?" the newcomer asked the fallen unicorn curtly, "How do you turn it off? We gotta get those ponies outta there."
Summer Scribe blink blinked her eyes and groaned a bit, looking up at the griffon's head. 'Oh, hello.' she thought 'I... think I remember a pair of griffons, in the square, back in Canterlot...'. Realising she needed to respond, Summer blurted out "Uhh, KIND of? I was being instructed by..." she looked over as Clashing, "...him, and now he's out cold. I know how to turn it ON, maybe you can just do it in reverse to power it down?" she sheepishly suggested, her brain puzzling over the notion. Not a great time for tech support, but when is it ever? "You have to push those levers there and there to pressurise it, and keep those gauges in the middle green, and monitor the electrostatic charge so it doesn't overflow, and..."
Meanwhile Reef was... fine. Everything was fine. Ponies were dying, and he can't do anything about it because if he did the ship might crash, and there was nothing coming from the engine room now but the sound of hammering and steam. Just then Nutmeg bounded out of the engine room in a total panic. On the plus side, the engine did not explode. The kirin mare screeched to a halt at the railing, her russet mane framed by the serene islands floating in the distance, and her alarm faded before giving way to an expression of wonder and relief. Forgetting the chaos around her, she sank to her haunches, lost in the beauty of the view from here.
She didn't notice a certain grey griff staring at her. She knew machines, Reef thought. The ship was a machine. Of course she could fly it. She must have magically sensed his desperation and come to his rescue. 'Mental note: Kirin apparently telepathic, or at least empathic, needs further study...' shaking his head, he released the wheel from the death grip he'd had on it for the last hour. His talons had left deep scratches on the wood, and now that they were free, he realised his claws were shaking.
"Excellent, good show everyone..." the hippogriff began, then his voice cracked and he quickly blurted "...oh hi Nutmeg great to see you you can take it from here good luck bye", before turning tail and dashing below. Saving dying ponies seemed like the lesser challenge compared to setting down the ship without breaking it in half.
The kirin's ear twitched at the doctor's words; unfortunately, Nutmeg herself didn't seem to notice: she was too captivated by the incredible view. Behind her, the ship's wheel started to turn on its own.
Meanwhile, Azure had been galloping through the lower decks, all ready to save the day. Unfortunately her search went poorly: if anything they were even busier than the top deck, with everypony she saw either hammering pipes, tossing boulders out of the holes they'd made in the hull, boarding up said holes in the hull, or clearing the corridors of fallen items and other debris.
Everywhere down below was smoky and unpleasant, as engine exhaust had apparently leaked out at some point. Making her way back through the tween deck, she spotted two ponies carrying a third pony on a stretcher made from improvised canvas and poles. They seemed to be headed for the sick bay, but unfortunately the ship's doctor was still up on deck, steering the ship.
The winged unicorn sighed: the stallion on the stretcher looked seriously injured, and his best hope was... "Oh, Luna's stars..." she facehooved before racing back towards the upper deck... and passing more injured creatures on the way. Yeah. There was no one else, so she had to do this herself. Resolving to tell Reef just that as she set a hoof on the final ramp, it suddenly became unnecessary as the grey-feathered form of the surgeon darted straight past her.
Blinking in surprise, Azure continued up to the deck, and paused for a moment before realising... the ship no longer had anyone in control. Frantic, she looked around... there was an odd unicorn, with a forked horn and scales on her... no that was the kirin, wasn't it. She'd known the ship's engineer was one of the rare creatures; aside from reading the crew listing, Summer had mentioned an encounter; but this was their first time face to face. Approaching Nutmeg, Azure asked bluntly "Uh... hey, you got any experience driving this thing?" Whether she said yes or no would mean they'd either have an easy way to the islands... or they'd have Azure driving.
The blue unicorn surprised the red and brown curvy horned creature, who turned to look at Azure. Instead of answering her question though, Nutmeg asked Azure in total wide-eyed bewilderment, "Are you a princess?!"
Azure paused for a moment. The princess question: hadn't had that for a while, and it usually came from fillies or small-town earth ponies who'd never seen the wings spell. Not an answer... and she couldn't help but spot the wheel turning on its own, no hippogriff or other creature left to handle the thing... Only one thing left to do! The unicorn ran right past the kirin and to the steering wheel... both forehooves gripping the thing tightly as she tried to stabilise the thing. Flying was second nature to her, almost... flying a thousand-tonne ship with a steam engine... just as easy, right? ...Right?!
Below deck, Reef Skimmer dashed down the second ramp, dodging around ponies carrying things, ponies banging hammers, ponies limping... "No, don't try to walk! Your hindleg is clearly broken!" The hippogriff looked around for something to splint the earth pony's leg with. Seeing nothing obvious, he hunkered down and put a wing around the pony to steady him.
"Now lean on me, good, good, that's it. The sick bay is just a few paces down the corridor..." His voice trailed off as he caught sight of his workplace; cots full of unconscious pony forms, floor full of groaning, twitching pegasi, even more ponies on makeshift stretchers in the hallway outside... Reef closed his eyes. He could do this. He was these ponies' best hope. He opened his eyes again, brow furrowed with determination, and set to work.
Meanwhile near the Storm Piercer controls, the brown-feathered, white-tufted griffon was looking down at Summer like she was an idiot, saying in aggravation, "I don't want to operate it, chit! Creatures are dying here! Isn't there an off switch? Some kinda brake lever or something?"
To Summer it looked like he was just one of the deck crew, with that little hat they all wore, and no fancy medals on his uniform. It certainly didn't look like he could keep up a scholastic conversation with her. The chief engineer sitting by the railing over there would probably be a much more intelligent conversation partner, Summer thought. The one who figured out how to restore electrical power to the ship and the Storm Piercer? "Well?" insisted the griffon crewmate.
The unicorn hmmmed quietly to herself. 'Yeah, this conversation isn't going to go anywhere.' she thought. She legitimately didn't know the answer, and fidgeting with things to learn it was out of the question in her current condition. "Sorry, I don't know how to turn it off. Maybe..." she gaves a shrug of her head over in the kirin's direction. "...Nutmeg Inferno does, or knows someone?"
"The creature?" the griffon replied sceptically, "They're supposed to be some sorta mechanical wizards ain't they? It's likely as any. You, eh, you stay there and take care." He then galumphed towards the helm, where the butterfly-bewinged blue unicorn had just fled from the confused kirin.
A stiff conversation passed between the two, and then Nutmeg was dancing up to Summer Scribe, chanting, "Oh shoot oh shoot oh shoot..." Looking with dismay at the unconscious pegasi effectively trapped in an electrified cage, the kirin declared, "Why did they not let me even look at the manual for this thing?" Whether she noticed that she'd just planted a yellow-gold two-toed hoof right beside Summer's face was a matter of debate.
The little unicorn certainly did notice and took the opportunity to explain the situation to Nutmeg Inferno. "Thanks for the help." she said, still breathing heavily. "When I got here, there was only one pegasus awake, and I barely got enough instructions on how to turn it ON, so I don't have a clue how to turn it off. Good luck, yeah?"
Glancing down at Summer, Nutmeg squeaked and jumped away. "I did NOT see you there!" she declared in a shaken voice, but she listened at any rate, and her ears quickly went down at Summer's explanation. Looking at the console from the left side this time, she griped, "Come on. There has to be an off switch somewhere, or..." then she leaned closer and remarked, "Oh hey look, a brake lever."
The marks on her horn brightened with a green glow, the sound of a lever being pulled, then the whole machine powered down. The glowing arcane and the sparking electrical energies faded, and that ever-present hum went silent. Even the light breeze across the deck stopped as all around the ship air rushed back to its natural motion.
"Right, let's get 'em out of there!" the griffon declared, following Nutmeg into the machine. Heeding his command, two other crewmates, ponies this time, climbed into the cage. Between the four of them they began to carefully unbuckle and haul out the unconscious pegasi still strapped in there.
Clashing Gale moaned when they put him on a stretcher, but it didn't even seem like the other four were even breathing, as more of the crew came with improvised stretchers, to take them to the sick bay. "S-sorry again, Summer" Nutmeg said, after the rest had left with their fallen comrades in tow, "You look... pretty tired, huh?"
Summer Scribe can't help but give an amused smirk at that. 'Oh, there we go' she thought. Probably could have figured out that brake lever on her own, if not for, you know, the whole not being able to stand or use her horn thing. She grinned and said breezily "Yeah, taking a bit of a break. Don't forget about me once we've landed, right?"
In the sick bay, two decks below, Reef Skimmer was checking each patient in turn in a frantic round of triage. Fortunately he had help; Winter Hope and Bluebell, both cross-trained as nurses, had made it to the sickbay with only gashes and bruises. The expedition's leaders had allowed for the possibility of an accident or attack leaving a whole scouting party in need of medical attention; they hadn't planned for the entire crew being shocked, shaken and battered with boulders.
Looking up from an unconscious pegasus mare, the hippogriff gave his verdict "Fluid in the abdomen, severe bruising, almost certainly internal bleeding from blunt trauma. Prognosis, pressure on diaphragm, increasing breathing trouble, survival unlikely without surgery." Turning to Winter and forcing his voice to stay level and cool, he told the unicorn "Get her on the table and give her a sedative. I'll prep as soon as I've checked the others." He glanced at Bluebell, who was splinting a fellow peagsus's wing. "Once you're done, check her blood type, she'll need IV afterwards to recover."
At the helm, Azure had put her hooves on the wheel, but it hauled back against her with surprising force. Although perhaps surprisingly low, she thought, considering what she's piloting. Regardless, she struggled against it, but the wheel did turn, slowly. The only question was, how far to turn the wheel, before the rudder is straight? Or however these balloon ships worked? Otherwise, there she stood, reared up onto a ship's wheel, the whole airship moving at her command.
Strength wasn't Azure's forte, and this was really taxing her, judging by the grunt as she pushed herself... before she went straight to Plan B: magically handling the thing. Telekinesis was a wonderful thing... if she was good enough to keep it in her grip. How did that bird creature even handle this wheel, much less dump the ballast at the same time? To be fair, he was nearly twice her size. But if she didn't do it, the unicorn thought, there was a real chance they wouldn't make it to the islands at all. She pushed away every other distraction in her head, as she had to focus on keeping the ship straight and level.
Her view ahead was limited by the bulk of the ship, but beyond the bows she could see a plethora of islands, many choked with trees, too small to hold the ship, or covered in jagged peaks... but there was a big one not far off the port bow that looked promising. It must have been at least a league across, mostly covered in trees... but the nearest part was flat and grassy, like a big open meadow; right up to the sheer edge where the land fell away. Something was moving about down there, maybe some pony-sized creatures, but it was certainly the largest area of flat open land she could see.
"We're here..." Azure muttered, as her telekinetic grasp held true. "Landing spot located... every creature, please buckle up." she declared firmly into the voice tube Reef had been using, as she steered the ship maybe a little too roughly towards the meadow. "Alright, Azure... you know how landing works..." she muttered again, nodding. Of course, she knew how pegasi landed. This was the same thing, right? Just... a lot larger... and no hooves. Uh oh.
There was a significant delay between the wheel turning and the ship turning. Long enough for a stallion to sound out from the engine room, "Landing? What? You want us power down the engine?"
Near the bow, Nutmeg was smiling at Summer, saying "I haven't forgot you the first time. Say have you seen-" and then the ship lurched, staggering everypony aboard, and knocking things that were just righted back over again.
"Why are we turning?" the mysterious stallion in engineering shouted through the voice tube, "We can't land! We're still going at seventeen knots!" The land before the ship approached far too quickly, the EAS Harmony bearing down on it like a charging bull, sending the placid fluffy creatures scattering at the sight of the approaching behemoth.
"...This is why you don't let a rookie drive a giant airship..." Azure muttered. She had a feeling she was about to receive the biggest stack of complaints she'd ever have in her life. It was becoming clear she's set this airship on a landing approach that was far too fast, and the body language of the winged unicorn was anything but positive.
What seemed like half the crew immediately had plenty of free time to pilot the ship, converging on Azure even as her magic wrestled the steering wheel the other way. Again, with... a long delay before the ship even began to change direction.
"Hold it steady, chit!" shouted a stallion's voice. Azure glanced at the speaker: it was that griffon who'd been talking to Summer, who Azure had only seem in passing before the crossing. With brown fur and a white tuft of feathers on his head, he dived towards Azure... or as it turned out, for that second wheel down there to the right of Azure.
He started turning it like mad, as another crewmate who seemed to know what they were doing cautioned: "Easy, Gustus. We can't go past 25 degrees, not if the keel's going to strike."
"Every creature hold onto something," the griffon declared defiantly, "We're not gonna turn this ship into an accordion today!"
The change was smooth, but soon very noticeable as the ship tilted up, and then further upward, until the deck was a steep hill, with the bow a distant peak overhead. A half-dozen creatures were now crowded around the wheel watching a single dial creep upwards. "We're gonna clip the propellers!" one mare declared in horror.
"23 degrees is fine!" Gustus protested, "We'll clear the land, don't worry!"
The ship did indeed avoid ploughing a furrow in the meadow, although a sheep or two may have gotten a free shearing by the rudders dropping dangerously low. It didn't clear the edge of the forest on the far side though. The battered vessel shook once again, the air filled with screams of wrenching metal finding itself bested by the sacrifice of thick woods. The lower propeller assemblies had been turned into unrecognisable shrapnel littering the unlucky treeline the ship had clipped.
"Maybe 23 degrees was... a little too much," Gustus said in the quiet aftermath. Robbed of half its thrust, the damaged airship slowly climbed as it headed towards the centre of the island; a small lake could be seen nestled in the foliage ahead. The griffon turned the elevator wheel until everything slowly, gently levelled out.
Standing up beside Azure, the griffon said to her in dry disapproval, "We don't steer the ship. We don't land. We steer the ship away from land, storms, and other ships. Other than that... just leave it afloat. We've got the leaks in the envelope patched; we're not gonna fall out of the sky." As if on cue, the remaining propellers ground to a stop, the ship slowing to gentle drift as the engine settled down from a constant whine to a low thrum. As promised, they didn't fall out of the sky.
Azure looked right to the griffon as the engine died down. The tone was clear, and she was in no mood to have any creature worsen her already-poor mood. "Next time, don't let an airship rookie pilot the thing. I'll be on the ground." She didn't give the griffon a chance to reply, instead taking flight and doing exactly what she'd said. Flapping hard, she headed clear of the ship.
By the time dawn came the next morning, the Equestrians had managed to manoeuvre their ship to the edge of the meadow, casting mooring lines to the top of the rocky cliff where grass gave way to sky. The worst tears in the envelope were patched, and the lift holding steady, but the EAS Harmony was in no shape to travel much less brave another storm. The atmosphere on the deck of was peaceful, but sombre. Most of the crew was there, standing in a rough circle, but there wasn't a pony or otherwise among them who didn't notice the conspicuous absence of someone lost in the storm.
"Okay I'll set things off," said a brown furred pegasus mare. Her blue hair, striped with lavender, was tied back in a green bandana. "I'm Set Sail: third mate, technically. We didn't expect to lose both the captain and the first mate. So, uhm, sorry if I'm doing this wrong. Ponies have been asking me about uh... the rest of the ship, so I asked you here so we could all talk about... what's got damaged and what we're gonna do now. So let's take turns and not like, shout at each other... please? How about we start with the whole... ramming into an island thing."
She folded her ears down at that and didn't exactly make leadership-material-level eye contact when she admitted, "I got uh... tangled up in the rigging, but I still should have made it to the helm somehow. Saw someone at it, and just uh... hung on and hoped for the best, so... my bad. Didn't know the captain had... well anyway. I think Doctor Skimmer sailed great; kept us in the tunnel, didn't let us invert. But uh... I should've told him to stop steering after we got to calm air. So, sorry about that. Things were kind of crazy. So Doctor Skimmer, did you really tell Azure we needed to land this thing?"
The grey hippogriff was easily the tallest creature present; he looked like he hadn't slept since the crossing, with bloodshot eyes and pink crest feathers sticking out at odd angles. "Land? Can't recall anything about landing. We'd just made it out of that storm, I was needed below, but somecreature needed to keep us from flying into any more of those bloody rocks. I asked Azure here to find someone else to steer, she went and got Nutmeg, it was all fine. Or so I thought." Reef paused and fixed Set Sail with a piercing glare. "Now see here, none of us would be here if that unicorn hadn't dropped the cargo and gotten us out of the debris zone. I see no point in recriminations over a little bump afterwards."
The unicorn in question clearly wasn't comfortable with having the spotlight directly on her, and even if the doctor spoke favourably, she knew her standing with most of the remaining crew was slightly lower than 'pain in the neck' status. Had she done the right thing trying to find somecreature to steer the ship? Sure. Taking the wheel when no one was available? Maybe. Forcing a landing that necessitated a damage report meeting and Celestia knows what else? The mere reminder of what she had caused was enough to have her lower her head and instead of defending herself...
"He said nothing of the sort about landing, simply steering." she said, flatly. "I wasn't sure how long we'd last in the skies. I don't know the first thing about how to drive one of these. I thought of one thing: getting on the ground before things got worse." Stick to the facts, Azure... even if they're really not in your favour.
Set Sail seemed surprised at their response, saying hastily to Azure, "Oh, no no nopony's blaming you. It's just some ponies were saying they thought he said that to you, and you know how easy that is to get mixed up. Azure, you..." The pegasus mare stopped, the implications of the doctor's words suddenly hitting her. "...Wait, you emptied out the cargo? I haven't been down to look yet. Of course we needed to lose weight fast, but... what did you throw out? You didn't happen to take time to look at it or anything, did you? Because it's kind of important to know what we're missing."
Some way back from the group sat another unicorn mare, groggy and bleary eyed. Summer Scribe's tail swished idly as she listened, as attentively as she could. A combination of not being fit for any other work around the ship (due to yesterday's, well, events) and a desire to absorb any relevant information on their new and rough circumstances lead to her being there on the top deck, much as she'd preferred to be napping in her cabin.
This was the first time she'd heard about the cargo thrown overboard... Hmmh. 'Understandable, but depending on WHAT got thrown out, that could lead to a real rocky start to the expedition...' she thought. 'What if we end up having to scrounge for food? Augh! Please don't let it come to a survival mission, anything but that! So many possibilities to dread! This is why you should fear meetings like these!'
Oh, by Luna's stars... as if having to explain the circumstances of nearly crashing the airship weren't enough to depress her, now having to explain what she's done with the cargo... ugh. Azure was clearly looking for a spot she could shrink down and hide in, but it was her duty to explain the situation... just stick with the facts, right? With a sigh, the winged unicorn began.
"Again... I didn't have much of a choice, I couldn't look through everything... so there's probably some important cargo that was cut. Food, however, was not one of them. Whatever had food inside, I made an effort to keep. I... I can't make any promises on anything else." She couldn't look any creature in the eye after saying that. She'd probably doomed the entire crew because of her stupidity.
"Oh for the love of Celestia," Set Sail groaned, rubbing her forehead with a hoof, "I was gonna drop all the water ballast but of course I had to get tangled up in my own tow rope. I..." she looked up and around then, blushing and saying to Azure, "Sorry, no it's fine. It's good that you saved the food. We're not gonna-"
Just then a certain curvy-horned creature hopped forward into the inner circle, Nutmeg demanding urgently to Azure, "The engine parts. Did you throw out the engine parts? Say you didn't throw out the engine parts!"
Reef Skimmer looked at the cringing winged unicorn, his expression unreadable, before staring at Set Sail again. His claws tensed and his bulky wings unfurled slightly, almost as if to pounce; "It wasn't her fault..." he shouted, before catching himself. Closing his eyes for a second, he drew back and continued in a calmer tone. "What I mean to say is, that I take full responsibility for the loss of any cargo. When I saw the altimeter falling, I instructed Azure to drop all the ballast, and then when the rocks began to hit, I told her to toss the cargo." His gaze moved between Set Sail and Nutmeg. "You must understand, the engines were out; shedding weight seemed like our only alternative to being battered to splinters."
Inspecting the state of the floor of the room even as she heard Doctor Skimmer defend her, Azure managed to raise her head back to take a look... only to see an angry Kirin staring back at her, seemingly treating the question of the engine parts as if it was life or death. The accusing gaze might as well have hit the unicorn in the jaw with a cinder block, for the impact on her emotional state. "As I'd just mentioned..." she said quietly, struggling to keep her voice neutral, "if it's not food... I can't make any promises."
"Why did you keep the food?!" Nutmeg demanded, now looking not so much mad as hyperventilating with panic, "I... I needed those parts to fix the engine! The boiler has a thousand leaks in it. The firebox is practically melted shut! She's on her last legs, I tell you, and you were saving food??"
Set Sail was the one who shouted back at her, albeit while edging away like everypony else, "Hey! Hey! I said no shouting! Just... just tell me the engine status, okay? No need to get mad here, okay?"
"I'm not mad! I'm...!" Nutmeg responded, trailing off sharply as she focused on the former third mate. "The... the pipes were stressed by the buckling of the ship," she said in anxious frustration. "We can't fix them without replacement segment, or welding plates. The firebox needs new vents, or we can't control how hot it gets. Everything's acting out of whack. And thanks to her steering, two of our main propellers are trashed. You think replacement propellers grow out of the ground??"
"Hey!" called out a male voice: the griffon who'd taken charge of the elevators and stopped the ship crashing in the meadow. He strutted toward Nutmeg, feline tail lashing and feathers fluffed up, saying, "Don't talk about what you don't know, hiding back in that engine room there. I was the one who broke your propellers. She was just gonna ram the bow into the island, but I thought we could get off scot free. So blame me if you're gonna blame any. We all screwed up here, and it is a screwed up situation. The Friendship is gone. We were almost totalled. It's a miracle we're still alive."
"Not all of us." Reef's tone was grave. "Three pegasi dead, another two in comas. Strange secondary symptoms as well, skin and fur turning purple even after death... presumably an effect of high-powered magical device..." his voice trailed off, as he realised the audience didn't need to hear this. "In any case, we have another four ponies with broken legs, six cases of concussion, internal bleeding, more sprains and cuts than I care to count... My staff and I are doing what we can, but if we don't get help, ideally magical help, we're likely to lose more."
The room was silent for a moment as the news sank in. The surgeon looked at Nutmeg and continued "I assume going back through the barrier is out of the question." His gaze shifted to Summer, and then Azure. "Do we have any way, any magical means, of contacting or locating the EAS Friendship?" he asked, unaware of what had befallen the expedition's lead ship when it contacted the mysterious phenomenon in the storm wall.
Summer Scribe perked up at the mention of magic. "Well, I know that both the Harmony and Friendship were outfitted with magical locator beacons - per protocol, I think?" she offered. "Buuuutt..." she looked uncertain, "...when we flew through the storm wall, it did something that messed with enchanted items: I had to reboot the Storm Piercer's enchantments since they were on the fritz. So it's possible that, sturdy as they are, theirs isn't working right now... but worth a try."
Nutmeg didn't continue to butt in, instead just wilting back and staring downward, murmuring something quietly to herself. Set Sail didn't seem to know what to do about the situation. So it was Gustus who suggested, "Perhaps you could report on the status of the balloon?"
Eyes widening, Set Sail said, "O-oh, yes, right. Um, we're not going to be sinking any time soon, but several of the cells have gotten tears in them. We patched the worst of it, but there are still a few slow leaks. The heat from the engine should be enough to keep us buoyant, at least with the cargo gone... Uhm..." She gave a nervous look at the diminished kirin, before concluding, "We probably should set up some kind of camp o-on an island, just in case the ship... goes down."
"We can repair the engine," Nutmeg said quietly. Set Sail wasn't the only one to give her a sceptical look. "For the worst of it, we can figure out something I'm sure," Nutmeg explained, "I can probably keep us floating forever. But without those parts, we're not going anywhere fast. Going back through that storm... no chance."
Looking right back at the Kirin, Azure couldn't help but reply. "Next time you want to go hungry instead of this situation, let me know." she muttered, before realising that the very griffon that gave her crap previously had taken the blame for the damage. A momentary look of surprise crossed her face, but one thing was for sure. A lot of creatures had screwed up: she was just one of them. And as the conversation shifted to the medical report... Azure couldn't help but frown. They'd barely arrived, and already lost multiple creatures, even more injured... the unicorn just fell quiet and listened as the conversation went forward.
Set Sail sent a smile Azure's way, saying, "You got that right. Things could get bad fast, without any food."
Some of the crew chime in in agreement, including Gustus who said, "I'd rather lose a few ship parts than a few shipmates to starvation!"
At that, Nutmeg just couldn't resist chiming in as she stared incredulously at absolutely everypony, saying, "Are you all seriously worried about starvation?" Throwing a two-toed golden hoof to point away from the ship, over to the verdant green island they were moored to, she stated in exasperation, "There's food just hopping around on those meadows over there! You realise that, right?"
Summer Scribe blink blinked, and followed Nutmeg's gaze. Sure enough, there were sheep scattered over the island, happily munching away at grass. The unicorn narrowed her eyes: "Nutmeg, you can't be implying that we eat living critters! That's barbaric!"
Nutmeg opened her mouth, but instead of speaking she just blushed horribly, eyes wide. Taking a step back from the critical unicorn, she managed to stammer "Uh, ah, uh, I didn't—I mean—I forgot you u-uh ponies, y' know, y-you don't have to eat them I promise. There's plenty of... of grass, too!"
Summer Scribe stared at the kirin for a moment... then chuckled, looking more enthusiastic and animated than she has all day as she gives a playful nod. "Don't sweat it: I imagine we have plenty more to learn about each other!" She stuck out her tongue. "I don't know how long I want to subside on just grass." Bleh! "We'll have to figure out what other flora's edible."
"Certainly caution is advisable, even if the species look familiar." Reef spoke up. "That said... if the other islands are this verdant, then food is unlikely to be a problem... for our herbivores, omnivores or carnivores." the hippogriff said, glancing at the brown griffon. Was that a smile? Hard to tell with beaks. "Medical supplies on the other hand..." he frowned "We were well stocked, but with half the crew injured and several crates missing, we're burning through our supplies fast."
"We had no idea what we'd find here... if there would be food or not." Azure concluded, wanting to close the issue of what cargo she'd saved and what she hadn't. Finally able to look at a creature without thinking that creature wanted her in pieces, the blue unicorn had kept her mouth shut... simply listening in to the conversation. Yet she clearly didn't look very happy when the doctor mentioned medical supplies were being quickly used...
At this point, Nutmeg didn't seem inclined to do anything but skulk back to the rear of the gathering, away from any critical eyes. Set Sail herself seems shaken, but doesn't bother the kirin, instead saying nervously, "Uh, ohkay so... what about the expedition? You pon—you creatures know all about medicinal uh, plants and stuff, right? Who's your best uh, who's your chief of staff?"
"Professor Mare." a pink-haired, squat green stallion spoke up. "The senior distinguished researcher. Of course, she was on the uh, EAS Friendship."
Summer Scribe sweatdropped a bit as she realised something. It was a bit sudden, but... '... Is it possible that I'M the most senior researcher still extant?' Oh, gosh. Was it finally her time? Not like she was COMPLETELY prepared for this, but, uhh, haha, this'll have to do, right??
"Well how about on the Harmony?" Set Sail was asking the young stallion in consternation, oblivious to the unicorn's excitement. "Who's your second-in-command?"
"He's on the Friendship too," the stallion said unhappily, "I guess... Forest Story, she was our senior botanist, but she uh... went overboard. A huge rock broke a hole in the wall in the cabins. There are only three of us left. And I'm just a grad student."
"Well??" Set Sail asked anxiously, "Which of you three is gonna lead the... uh, scouting expedition?"
Melonwater was sweating nervously, as he glanced worriedly at the excited Summer Scribe, saying uneasily, "Well, uh, technically the technically 'senior' researcher here is... uh... eh..."
Oh goodness. Summer Scribe's brain was lurching, roused into action from its slumber. Alarm! This wasn't how the expedition was categorised! 'You're the most senior researcher now!', she thought. A grin spread across her face as different parts of her brain light up out of order. She looked thoughtful, and then giddy and giggly. "Oh, uhh, my condolences, but, uhh, umm, yes, I guess that DOES make me the senior researcher!" Her hooves clicked at the floor as she did a bit of an uneasy skitter-nervous-dance. Responsibility! Excitement! Adventure! More Responsibility?? But... This is it! Wow!
"...Her," the green stallion concluded, hanging his head in defeat.
Hearing that her friend was now in charge, Azure stepped forward and spoke up. "If you're headed for a gathering expedition, Summer, is it alright if I accompany you? No telling what's out there, and well... nothing against any creature here, but I could use some air. Besides... there could be something interesting here besides the flowers, you know?" She seemed slightly excited herself, the promise of action moving her past her earlier self-doubt and despair.
Summer Scribe was grinning from ear to ear. 'Oh gosh, at last, a leadership role!' she thought. "I'm gonna have to check out who's up and ready to venture out into the great unknown!" she announced to the group. "I'll need all the ponypower I can get, especially botanistic right now, and... oh" her ears perked up and she nodded to Azure. "Of course, I'd be delighted to have you along, Azure! You're in!" Summer tapped a hoof on the floor, then held it out to shake. "There's no telling what we'll find out here: literally! We'll need to be prepared for anything!"
"Okay, great, that's great," Set Sail said pleasantly, a few strands of her mane going unpleasantly askew. "We might be able to contact the Friendship, so we'll try and get that beacon working again. But first Azure and Summer Scribe's team are going to lead the search through this island for food, shelter, and any sort of medicinal plants for when we run outta medicine. Our ship's gonna stay floating, but it's not going anywhere. As our chief engineer pointed out, worst case, there's plenty of... grass to eat. And no more ponies are gonna... die when we... run outta medicine, and..." A crewmate put his hoof on the mare's shoulder as she falls quiet, but she pushed it off, straightening up and saying in a shaky voice, "And I'm the leader now, and...!"
But that was as far as she could get. The pegasus's head sank, before tears flooded into her eyes. Staring at the ground, Set Sail took in a shuddering breath before saying, "Sorry. So that's the situation. Does anypony else have anything to report?"
Summer Scribe shook her head. "Think that's everything!" she said brightly, ignoring Set Sail's near-breakdown. "I better get on top of sorting this expedition out! Azure, come with me and we'll round up anyone willing and able-bodied!" The little unicorn gestured vaguely but enthusiastically with a hoof.
"Wait uh," a purple-furred pegasus stallion spoke up, stepping forward into the circle. "I have something to report," he said uncertainly, "I'm feeling, uh, better?" As he contemplated his next words, everycreature on the deck became aware of his most notable feature: an eerie lack of pupils. "I don't think I'm supposed to."
The day dawned bright in its strange, un-Celestian way, revealing an airship still distinctly the worse for wear. The sailor ponies flew and climbed around the big balloon keeping the ship aloft, but with the supplies gone they were done to whatever scraps of canvas they could find around the ship, and there wasn't enough to repair all the tears. With all the ballast dumped, that left the ship floating squarely at neither up nor down. Winged crewmates actually pushed the ship with great beats of their wings, slowly sliding its bulk towards the floating island until its side butted up against a smooth spot in the edge, where the verdant meadow terminated abruptly in a rocky face.
Ropes were tossed and stakes driven into the earth, and for the time being it seemed like the ship would stay securely anchored here. The only indication that the airship was anything other than a floating hulk was the low, quiet rumble of the engines in the back. From the upper deck a gangplank slid out to thunk onto the grassy land, securely bridging the two worlds, and an intrepid team of explorers prepared to head into the unknown. Four ponies would gingerly cross over to stand on the firm, verdant soil...
Summer Scribe, new to the office of distinguished senior researcher, a young pale blue unicorn mare with a mane and tail in stripes of white and stronger blue.
Melonwater, a pink haired, green furred, and rather short earth stallion in his late teens, who had not quite yet graduated to the point of researcher, but knew a thing or two about Geology.
Blue Type, a Ponypologist just itching to see what strange, alien cultures have left behind: a pale lavender earth mare with her blue mane wrapped neatly in a bun.
Azure Feather, a blue unicorn guardsmare with a grape purple mane and shimmering butterfly wings, there to keep the rest of them intact.
They found themselves on an idyllic pasture, full of rich, luscious grasses, and not a lot of thorns or brambles. The meadow was flat as a plate, stretching for perhaps a kilometre before reaching the banks of a smoothly flowing river. On the far side the grass was interrupted by scattered trees, which quickly became a dense forest of strange, twisted vegetation, with branches that seemed to go sideways as often as they go up. The only possible threats to pony life out in the meadow were the pleasantly bouncy white woolly puffballs that sort of looked like sheep. The creatures took one look at the quartet of colourful equines, then went straight back to eating grass again.
Oh gosh. Summer Scribe was all over herself with excitement! "Check it out, everyone! An entirely new world, unlike anything we've seen on Equestria! Anything and everything could hold a new discovery within it!" Let's see what we immediately have on offer! Grass and sheep in an idyllic meadow; "Wow! You rarely get anything this pristine back at home. It's like it's reached the platonic ideal of harmlessness!"
The ponies trotted across the meadow, soft grass brushing at their legs, and approached the river. A structure immediately caught their eye: out in the middle of nowhere, a stone arch bridge spanned the water course, a work that might as well have been made by pony hooves, if there were any ponies living here. It seemed entirely intact, and though it ended in grass on the near side, on the far side a gravel path could be seen leading away into the dense woods. Stone might last a long time, but surely that path would have been overgrown long ago, had the structure been abandoned?
The river itself emerged from within the dense greenery, far to their right, flowed swiftly down the border of the meadow, then poured heedlessly off the edge of the island to their left, tumbling down into the mist below. The other three sides of the meadow all ended in open air, or rather, a sudden and vertiginous drop.
A stone bridge over there, with path leading out of it... clearly sturdy and well maintained, Summer thought, for lack of disrepair and overgrowth. "Signs of construction and ongoing maintenance..." A forest, full of twisting and baffling trees... "Magically influenced terrain growth. Forest likely to hold danger and discoveries within..." She traced the river upstream, wondering what source was concealed by the thick forest. "Note to self, study Cloudbreak Islands' water cycle... likely to be heavily magical in nature." With the initial survey out of the way, the implications are obvious; Summer took out her notebook and quill and telekinetically sketched one of the sheep! They were white, fluffy and curiously spherical, compared to the sheep one might find in Equestria.
Azure Feather seemed significantly less excited, but wasn't absolutely indifferent to the new lands. 'On one hoof...', she thought, '...you've got a meadow that's a little too perfect, but there are such places in Equestria, too'. Or at least close to it. What Summer Scribe stated out loud, she was noting to herself quietly. That forest, however, was never a thing that she kept out of her field of vision for very long. If magic was a common thing, this was more akin to the Everfree more than anything.
"Sheep likely to be the native civilized species." Summer confirmed, nodding her head to Blue Type! "OK, shall we make First Contact and write pony history?" Without waiting for the other mare's response, she approached the nearest sheep (which was peacefully chewing on grass), keeping a comfortable distance at first so as to not spook it. Hearing Summer now trying to approach the natives got Azure's attention too: as innocent as they looked... house cats also looked rather innocent. Were they? Not so much. Her eyes remained on both the forest and the unfolding First Contact...
"Hello, fine and fluffy denizens of Cloudbreak Islands!" Summer began in a loud, cheerful voice, "We have sallied here from Equestria far below in the name of scientific discovery and exploration! We are ponies, and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance! I hope that our two species can co-operate, as friends!" With that, she held out a hoof to shake!
A few of the roughly spherical sheep turned to look her way with something like interest, as Summer Scribe waited for an answer. Slowly, they chew on their mouthfuls of tasty grass. The sheep she approached finished chewing, emitted a quiet 'baa', then without a word, hopped away. Its fellows all immediately lost interest, turning from the pony to aimlessly gambol about the meadow again.
The forest failed to comment on this. A slight hiss sussurated through the air as a breeze danced across the island’s surface, to entwine with the bright green leaves high overhead. A keen eye would have seen things rustling around back there, now and then on the shaded forest floor, but the movement was too far inside for Azure to be able to identify it.
After a few long moments, Blue Type coughed awkwardly.
Summer Scribe... scratched behind an ear awkwardly. "Not as... amicable to conversation as I was expecting. Admittedly." She lowered her hoof and thought, looking to Blue Type. "Any ideas? I mean, well... I guess if they don't want to talk they aren't gonna. And..." She squinted, walking in a circle. "I don't see any written language or artistic decoration of any kind to study. Or, for that matter... well. Structures of any kind, except for that bridge."
Blue Type shook her head. "It could be a completely alien language, but... perhaps they don't even have speech?" She looked around. "They don't seem to be interested in us." Azure muttered something unintelligible as the sheep turned out to be... well, even less interesting than Equestrian sheep.
“If only Dr. Story were here,” the grad student known as Melonwater said glumly, “She at least specialized in studying plants. I can tell you the stones in that bridge weren’t cut anywhere near here, though. It’s actually kind of impossible to have igneous rock up here. There’s no magma layer under the islands.” He inspected them more closely, declaring, “Yep, that’s granite alright.”
Oh! Summer Scribe nodded to the student stallion. "Good catch! I wonder what that means; we're going to find magma on another of the islands or... A real headscratcher! "For some reason, that stone got used to make a bridge HERE?" She made a note; definitely worth remembering.
“So we can cross?” Blue Type asked, looking to Summer Scribe hopefully, “It doesn’t look like the, err...” she glanced over her shoulder at the sheep, “...residents particularly mind. Forgive me if I had a hard time believing that... sheep could create something like this, even before you tried to talk to them.”
Mentally blocking out Melonwater's talk about rocks, Azure turned her attention to the smooth stonework of the bridge. "Admittedly, I agree, I don't think the sheep built this either."
Summer's thoughts concurred with Blue's. "I think I'm coming around to your point of view, yes. These sheep are... Well, not like the sheep back at home. They seem to be blissful and content just eating grass here! I wonder what..." she shuddered "...natural predators they might have here?" And just like that, gone from seeing them as friends to potential prey! Barbaric!
Her gaze travelled back to the forest. "Well... Yeah! I wanted to go this way, anyway!" she realigned her train of thought, beaming now with a smile! "Within and beyond this forest are no doubt going to be answers to the questions we seek! Before we venture forth, does anyone have any comments or objections? We'll have to all be on our guard and keep our eyes open! We'll want to take stock of any plant and animal life we make out, and any signs of civilization! Yes, I believe crossing the bridge and exploring the forest is our next move."
'That sounded just like what an expedition leader would say, didn't it?' Summer thought to herself. "Shall we then?" She nodded over to Azure, the team's bodyguard, for approval.
Azure's constant scanning of the forest had picked up something moving back there, though, and her attention snapped back to the group as Summer asks for comments on how to proceed. Her wings had spread out to relieve tension before folding again as the issue of crossing the bridge came up. "Unless some creature wants to take a nap this early, then yes, crossing the bridge would be our next move." She would stick with the group. There was no use in moving out in front, not when she was the only guard: what if some creature waited for her to pass then ambushed from the rear? "All I will say is to keep your eyes open for more than just plants and minor wildlife." she cautioned. "There's no telling what lives in this area, and even less telling us if it likes us or not. Be ready for anything." Now if only the serious-sounding guard didn't have butterfly wings, she'd be that much more convincing...
Summer and Blue led the way, and as soon as they marched up onto the stone bridge... nothing special happened and the party crossed without incident. The forest loomed ahead, and the buzz of insects, the spooky murmurs and animal moans in the distance immediately had everypony on edge. The path is clear though, and it’s easy enough to navigate double file, so the forest envelops them as they enter seeking the origin of this strange little chunk of civilization.
Four sets of hooves crunched on the packed gravel of the path, which formed a narrow corridor cutting through the increasingly dense vegetation. Ferns, shrubs and brambles lined the sides while crooked branches laden with creepers and vines closed overhead, letting occasional shafts of brilliant sunlight through to dapple the forest floor. The path curved gently to the right, just enough to quickly hide the entrance. The strange chirping and clicking sounds came from all around now, thousands of unknown species of insects broken intermittently by a musical bird call.
The path snaked back to the left, and a mere five minutes trot from the entrance had brought the group to their first choice of route: a side branch veering off to the right with a glint of water visible at its terminus.
Summer Scribe marched on, in high spirits - vast unknown territory to explore, things to learn - it'd be a lot of responsibility if it wasn't even more fun! Though the actual walking from place to place part mostly consisted of letting your eyes wander: taking in the sights and keeping alert to your surroundings. Not that it took much of a keen eye to notice the obvious side path: her ears perked at the sound of lapping water. "Alright, let's take the right here," she ordered, "I've been curious as to what was upstream."
Azure nodded and waited for Summer to proceed, keeping her in the lead. Next to her, Melonwater mumbled uncertainly: "Perhaps be a spring, some sort of magical source... There's no way rainfall on this island alone could keep a river of that size going."
Summer Scribe nodded in consensus: "Exactly what I was thinking! I mean, islands floating on their own power is one thing, but the water is flowing. It's coming from somewhere, and I want to know where!" The party proceeded forward, following Summer's lead.
A few more minutes trot brought the group to a substantial stone pier, overlooking a small lake. The pier itself was clear, but the lake was choked with reeds, lilies and the rotting remains of fallen trees. A couple of weathered boards sticking out of the water just by the pier might once have been a rowboat. Motion caught Azure's eye and she stared out over the water, looking for danger: a few groups of ducks paddling and quacking around the shallows probably weren't an issue, but the electric-blue glints of light moving under the water might be.
"I don't think this is the source." Melonwater remarked, assessing the terrain. "Look, the river flows in over there... two outlets on the other side, the closer one must lead to the meadow." He stared nervously at the lights moving beneath the surface. "What are those?"
Summer approached the lake, taking in the plant-filled waters, rivers leading into and out of it, and the solidly built pier; granite again, perhaps? "Yeah, I think this is just an ordinary lake: pretty, but little scientific value on its own." She glanced over it again, seeing if anything stood out... then perked, and backed up behind Azure. "Do you see that? Some kind of native aquatic fauna that produces illumination? You'd normally not see that except in the deepest oceans, I'd thought..." Looking more closely, Summer realised that at the glowing shapes were long, squirming fish, likely some kind of eel. Less extravagant species can be seen swimming with them; in particular large plump fish with brick red scales.
Blue Type looked out of her element, staring nervously at the trees, then the fish. Other than the masonry, there didn't seem to be any sign of civilisation here; nothing for her to study. "Perhaps the griffons will appreciate them." she said. Many griffs spending time in Equestria liked to maintain a polite fiction that they satisfied their carnivorous appetites only with fish, to minimise distasteful reactions from their hosts.
"Ooh, that IS cool..." said Summer, trotting to the end of the pier and crouching down, wiggling a little as she tried to get a closer look. "Let me see if I can get a sketch..." She sat down on her rump, taking out her notebook and jotting something up. It wouldn't have the most artistic value, especially given the viewing conditions, but it would make for a nice reference later!
Taking a cue from the expedition's leader, Melonwater also dropped to his rump and pulled out a scroll; fumbling with a quill pen, he began to update his map to show the path, lake and watercourses. Meanwhile Azure had taken to the air, flying out over the water on gossamer wings, to get a better view of anything that might be contained within. "I see another wreck, a little larger, sunk into the mud... nothing else unusual, except... Summer, I don't like the look of those... fish." Indeed there seemed to be more and more glowing creatures gathering in front of the pier.
Summer Scribe blinked, looking up from her sketch at the illuminated and flashy figures lurking and wriggling in the water, congregating at the pier! She instinctively backed off... but then perks and giggles as nothing further happens. "I guess they're hoping I'll fall in! Guess we should skip the swim, then..." She walked back along the pier, thanking Azure for the intel. "I think this is all we want to find out from the lake for now; everyone ready to move on?"
"Yes please." Blue Type looked relieved that she wouldn't be stuck staring at fish any longer. Behind her, Azure drifted down to the stone, landed and nodded; the trees were too dense for her to stay overhead once they returned to the path.
Meanwhile, Melonwater blew on his parchment to dry the ink. "Uh, just a moment... got it." he said, packing the map back into his saddle bag. "Granite again..." he muttered, looking at the pier, "but the fill is sandstone, you can see it where the retaining wall buckled here..." His voice trailed off as he realised Summer and Blue weren't listening.
With her party assembled, Summer Scribe headed back to the main path. "Let's see what's up ahead!" she enthused. A few more minutes trot down the green-walled tunnel and she was again presented with a choice; the path formed a Y-shape, splitting into two branches. The right fork was clear, whereas the left one had weeds growing up through the gravel and ferns reaching out to obscure the view. Its otherwise limited appeal was enhanced by a mossy stone arch that reached up and over the entrance, big enough to admit a minotaur. The remains of a large wooden sign hung from the top of the arch, a few strange symbols barely visible under the moss and rot.
"Is that writing? Those look like runes!" Blue Type said excitedly. "If only they'd carved them into the stone, they might be better preserved." Turning to Summer, the older mare was excited for the first time on the trip: "We have to find more of this!"
Summer Scribe hmmed and looked at the arch, squinting at the sign, but of course they had no way to read it... for now! "Yeah! This probably leads somewhere civilised! Let's check it out." She trotted straight through the arch, eager to see what lay beyond.
The ponies pushed their way down the overgrown path: Azure using her magic to rip away the larger branches, while Melonwater took some pleasure in stomping the weeds underhoof. It was much slower going here than on the open path, but soon enough they made it to a new area of the island. Not a clearing exactly, or perhaps it was once before the vegetation took hold again, but the trees here were smaller and less dense than the forest proper. The air was warmer as well, the climate becoming subtropical as the group travels further across the island.
Blue Type and Summer Scribe paid little attention to the climate though, as dozens of stone shapes catch their attention. Clearly the remains of buildings, many had lost their roof but some still retained a covering of cracked tiles to keep out the weather. Ferns clustered around the walls while vines clung to the sides and crawled through the windows, but the jungle had not yet completely reclaimed this village.
Summer Scribe's jaw slowly dropped as she trembled. "Oh my gosh. Ruins!" She squeed and rushed forward to check everything out. No people, but about the next best thing! "Oh, Celestia! There is so much to do here, I don't know where to begin!" Well, where she DID begin was by running around and checking things out; getting a lay of the land, as it were! Taking note of notable structures, what kind of central hub it had: anything out of the ordinary!
There was a definite structure to the village, even if it took some effort to visualise with the blanket of plant life. Larger, better preserved structures towards the centre of the cluster, smaller less substantial ones around the periphery, including some wooden shacks and barns that time had reduced to a collapsed jumble of rotten timbers. A paved square, the cobbles pushed up and scattered by spreading roots. The far side of the settlement sloped gently down to end at the bank of a babbling stream, apparently distinct from the rivers they'd visited before. A large blocky building projected a weathered wooden axle over a straight section of stream, that might once have held a water wheel.
"What a find!" exclaimed Blue Type, "...and on our first foray. One of these central buildings must be the town hall, or at least the leader's house. There have to be records in here somewhere, oh I hope they haven't all rotted away." She started pushing her way towards the doorway of the biggest structure, only to shriek and jump back as a cluster of furry bodies dashed out of the entrance.
Summer Scribe was been muttering and taking mental notes as she paced around, settling in to become more studious, getting the lay of the land. "Yeah, Blue Type - this is greaaaa woah now!" She rushed over, horn glowing, ready to do battle! Hopefully Azure noticed too: they might be in mortal peril, after all!
A sudden zapp and a glowing bolt of energy streaked over Summer's head, bursting in the trees behind the ruin. Blue Type dropped to the ground with her head between her hooves as Azure flew to the rescue, with Summer not far behind. The family of lemurs wailed and chittered as they ran like they've never run before, desperate to get away from these new magic-wielding invaders. Within seconds they'd disappeared into the trees and the ruins are still, save for the renewed trilling and squawking of a hundred agitated jungle birds.
Azure drifted down to a landing near Blue Type, muttering "Better safe than sorry..." In a louder voice she said "I apologise if I startled you, Blue Type. It seems like there were just a few small animals living in there."
Summer let out a long breath. "Thanks, Azure!" She squinted: "I guess we just disturbed a nest of wild squatting critters, not a pack of bloodthirsty killers. Still, you're right, better safe than sorry!" A nervous chuckle, a quick look around, then she approached the building. "OK, let's check this place out."
The ground floor was mostly one large room, with a couple of doors leading to storerooms at the back. Blue Type wrinkled her nose at the scent of animal droppings; it seemed like a lot of wildlife had lived here at one time or another. Splintered and chewed wood littered the floor, some of which was fallen floorboards from the upper level, but much of it definitely looked like carved pieces of furniture. In fact a couple of tables and the odd chair are still recognisable. Mixed in with the debris were the remains of plates, tankards and the odd fork.
Over the next two hours the ponies pushed their way into a half dozen of the ruined buildings, taking stock of their contents for future investigation. They confirmed that the first building was the remains of a tavern, restaurant or perhaps inn of some kind. Melonwater was fascinated by the rusted machinery and grind stones within the mill, and Blue Type had to fight back tears when they found the library, its contents long rotted away to illegibility. The historian had to content herself with a few slates found in what might be a classroom, still bearing chalked runes where they hadn't been exposed to the weather. Finally Summer came to a curious structure on the edge of the village, with a domed roof held up by stone pillars. Skylights in the dome still held glass, and let shafts of light fall on a large stone table in the centre, but vines had grown all over and obscured the contents.
"Huh, check this out: looks decorative in nature. Spiritual, even?" she remarked. The little unicorn trotted up to the central platform - altar? The solid stone mass formed a pentagon, with each side divided into two sections, each with a contrasting central symbol, surrounded by rows of smaller symbols. "Oh, this is looks like a table of elements? That's fire, that's water - right - there's a skull and a plant, hmm - sun and moon, earth with... guessing that spiral is wind, and then these two are..." She studied the remaining pair of symbols: an eight-sided star and a gear.
"Aha, this one looks an awful lot like Twilight's cutie mark! Magic, maybe? And this would totally be Nutmeg Inferno's if she had one. Hehe! Technology it is." Rearing up to put her hooves on the altar, Summer peered at the numerous statues: each the size of a newborn filly: "Look, creatures in battle poses, and lunges! I guess this is a shrine to the heroes of this place! Are they all from here, or maybe they're legendary across the Cloudbreak Islands?" she mused. "Probably the latter, given the limited scope... and these ten elements are clearly significant."
Blue Type glanced over the statues but then immediately went back to the sides of the altar. "Look at this! What a find, completely intact, if we can just...." The earth mare began pulling vines away with her teeth, eager to get an uninterrupted view of the rows and rows of runes carved there. "...uh, this tastes horrible."
Azure Feather had been hanging back, keeping an eye on the surroundings as her charges worked, but at the mention of 'battle poses' she trots up and examines the statues. "They're all different. A dragon, a griffon, a monkey, some sort of tree-minotaur? I don't recognise the rest." she said, in a curious tone.
Summer Scribe gave the other unicorn a playful smile: at last something for Azure's interest! She wonder if they might meet any of those figures in person... before turning to Blue Type and her runes. "Yes, let's see them! Maybe we can even figure out what they say..." Lighting her horn, she magically nudged and tugged the foliage away from the altar.
Meanwhile Melonwater had been walking around the structure, examining the pillars, the dome, the mosaic ceiling... "Marble, aventurine, betonite... oh and this is good stonework, the best we've seen so far." he muttered.
Blue Type beamed at the fully revealed carvings. "And there we are... thank you Summer. Now, let's see here..." She fished several notebooks out of her saddlebags and began copying and comparing the symbols.
Summer took out her own notes, thinking she'd want a copy sooner rather than later. "I won't expect a complete translation, of course, but whatever you can glean will be great!" Just then felt a slight twinge in her horn; tilting her head, it began to tingle a bit. "Hmm, something feels... funny... I just noticed." Leaning in waaaay close, she touched her horn to each of the large symbols, wrinkling her nose and making a different face for each one. "Yeah, it's faint, but there's something in each of these that feels... magical, but foreign." What could it mean?
Azure was still studying the figures: she'd flown up for a better view, and was hovering carefully in the confined space under the dome. "Those element symbols... do you see, they appear up here as well. Just below the statues. Like each one is assigned an element. Champions perhaps?" She turned to Summer Scribe "Do you think this was a real battle, or just mythology?"
Summer oohed and noted the correlation, peering back and forth. "Yeah! Champions of each Element." She pondered that for a while. "Good question - but this is a world of magic, and I'd expect no less than real living heroes! Though, whether or not they're still around is another story entirely."
"I hope they're not still around," Melonwater said morosely, gesturing with a hoof at the opposite side of the table where a horde of ugly mishappen creatures display frozen snarls or brandishes tiny stone axes. "They don't look like they want to be friends."
At that, Summer pulled a face. "Yeaaah, can we save that part for later?" She grinned. "They do NOT look like they're here to make fr- hah, yeah, jinx. Well, this place at least hasn't been looted or pillaged: we're presumably safe for now?"
Azure frowned. "No burnt timbers, but... we haven't found any valuables either. I think... this place has been abandoned a long time, we don't know why. Signs of battle might be washed away or hidden under the rubble." She fell silent, mind churning over the possibilities.
Summer scratched her head with a hoof, also thinking it over... "Yeah, I don't know why no one lives here anymore. The island looks perfectly fine to me. Conflict would make sense, but we haven't seen any battle damage so far. I think I'll have to keep mulling over this mystery..." As she did so, she suddenly realised it must be noon by now. Fascinating as this was, they'd explored less than a quarter of the island.
Nodding her head, she addressed her party. "Anyway, look, this place is super cool: definitely coming back here." Before Blue Type could object, she continued "...but we need to days to do this properly! For now, our mission is to find help, supplies, useful flora and fauna... and we have more of the island to explore." She rounded up the group, reassuring Blue Type that she could come back tomorrow and Melonwater that he'd have another chance to look at the mill. "Alright! We're continuing on, deeper into the forest. Map making done, Melonwater? Good, let's set off!"
The first expedition was underway, and those remaining on the ship, or at least the ones who could spare the time, watched the four brave ponies travel boldly across the meadow and disappear into the forest on the far side. After that exciting start, the rest of the day on the EAS Harmony proved to be long, stressful and very uneventful. Nothing emerged from beyond the bridge expedition had crossed. Some of the crew busied themselves with scurrying about the nearest section of the meadow, setting up tents and digging out a firepit. Others sat in the engineering room staring at dials, tightening bolts, oiling strained bearings and wondering if there’s anything going on outside for the 7,359th time.
Returning to sick bay entailed renewed frustration for Reef Skimmer. The purple pegasi just did not make any medical, magical or for that matter logical sense. The silver hippogriff had been at this most of the night, in between two more emergency surgeries on the still living crew, and was getting nowhere. Still too stressed to rest, he needed to get away from the stuffy air, smell of disinfectant and constant groans that filled the sick bay. Sleep had claimed Bluebell, but Winter Hope could handle the patients for a while. "Winter, look, I'm going out for a little while. I'll be on the top deck, do come get me if you have any trouble, understood?"
The unicorn nodded, understanding. "Yes doctor. See you soon." He turned back to an earth pony patient, sprawled on a cot.
Reef made his way out of the sick bay and up the central ramp, to the main deck. The larger debris had been cleared from the corridor, but signs of the ship's struggle through the storm were everywhere: broken lights, charred timbers, splintered remains of a door hanging loose where a flying rock had burst through. A few ponies were moving around, checking the damage and checking for intact supplies that might have escaped the exodus from the hold.
He headed towards the bow and ascended the final ramp, emerging from the dark, dusty interior into the bright midday sunlight. The teak deck was warm and pleasant under his claws as the hippogriff made a beeline for the port railing. Reef hadn't had a chance to really look at their new surroundings since abandoning the conn the previous day, so he took the opportunity to drink in the view. They were moored to a verdant green island covered in grass and trees, framed by much larger massings of rock further away, which were themselves surrounded by the tiny drifting shapes of even more floating land. There must have been hundreds of islands in total, just visible from this one vantage point. Unconsciously Reef let his wings unfurl and sprawl out on the deck beside him; the sickbay had been even more cramped than usual with the influx of patients, and he'd been holding them tightly folded all day and night.
The top deck was relatively untraveled, lacking debris as it had been swept clean by the storm. The hippogriff stood at the edge with the great canvas balloon hanging above him, a soft breeze full of peace and life ruffling his feathers, as beyond the ship the shining green meadow spread out in front of him. Fatigue aside, he was sorely tempted to leap off the deck and glide over the field, maybe take a dip in the inviting steam at the far side...
There was a commotion at the door to the engine room then, as a certain kirin engineer stepped blinking out into the sunlight, only to look back through the iron doorway saying, “The engine’s not gonna explode! I’ll just be a minute.”
A green haired mare with an oil-stained apron partially emerged, her voice full of concern: “Just... don’t go off into the woods or anything. We need you now more than ever.”
“You know we’re overqualified for this job,” Nutmeg said, flat-eared, “You could probably fix the whole engine yourself, Gimble. Don’t worry, I won’t... I mean, I’ll be careful.” With that, she parted from her associate, and danced eagerly across the top deck. The kirin skittered to a halt at the sight of the magnificent wings of the hippogriff stallion spread wide across the deck, looking guilty as she blushed and lifted an unsure hoof.
Reef's ear tufts flattened as he pointedly ignored the commotion of the crew behind him. He came up here to get away from things, not have another bloody meeting, and if no one was bleeding, he didn't want to deal with them right then.
Nutmeg stepped forward, then turned back, then hesitated, then just snuck around the hippogriff. She was certainly quiet on her hooves, as she hurried over to the railing. Rearing up to lean on it with maybe a small clink noise, the brown and red kirin looked off across the island they were anchored on, then down to further verdant green sky islands drifting below it. “Wow..." she murmured, tail switching behind her as she gazed over the edge. "I wonder how they stay up."
It took a couple of seconds for the question to filter through to the stallion's conscious awareness: when it did he blinked and tensed with surprise at the familiar voice. Shifting his gaze to regard the kirin sharing the view to his side, he exclaimed "Nutmeg! Fancy meeting you up here. Craving a little fresh air as well, I would think? But yes, excellent question of course. I mean the basis for pegasi settlements is well studied, but the mass ratios here..." Reef's voice trailed off as he realised he's rambling.
Nutmeg gave a mighty squeak at his sudden and enthusiastic address, jolting in place and hopping to the side to face the hippogriff on the tips of her hooves, "Fresh air! Yes! Right!" she said with a forced smile, "Just you know, getting some... fresh air. That's what I do. I don't...." Her loud claims stumbled to a halt as her face fell to curiosity, and she asked him, "Pegasi settlements? I never saw any of those. Are they flying islands, too?"
Reef looked perplexed, unable to imagine what Nutmeg might be denying doing. After a moment he explained "Well, err, not exactly. Pegasi have the ability to imbue their magic into water vapor, you see. Wing magic works a little differently from ours, some good papers on..., erm, but never mind that." He coughed, and tried to summarise "So what they do is sort of compress clouds and stop them from falling, so they can build a house or even a whole city on top."
"You can build a city, on clouds. Wow," Nutmeg said, wryly, "And I thought these things were impressive. But I mean take a look down there!" she pointed a golden hoof over the railing again. "I think this is a whole chain of islands!" she said excitedly, "I mean well obviously it's all a chain of islands up here, but it looks like the ones down there are chained together!" She regarded the distant green pillars, ropes, or chains stretching from island to island, far below the ship, their nature entirely unknown to her. "I wonder if those really are chains," she said, "But they have trees growing on them? I don't think trees can grow on chains, can they?"
Reef followed her lead, staring at the distant islands. "You know I think you're right. Those do look rather like rusty chains with something growing through the links, vines or roots perhaps." He titled his head, reflecting. "No small bit of metalworking either, somecreature around here must have industry... or did at some point."
Nutmeg squinted, and tilted her head, but eventually said, "I can't see it. Whatever it is they're covered in green stuff. I want to..." She stepped back away from the railing, her ears going down as she continued fretfully, "I want to go... down there and see. See what they are." Shaking her head, she tries to sound casual, looking aside, and remarking, "Maybe they have some old ruined forges or something, that... Summer Scribe would know more about than me. And that's why she's out there, and we stay here, right where we're needed."
Reef gave the kirin a long look. "Well, yes, indeed. Doing our jobs... like good ponies, following our cutie marks and all that. Except neither of us have cutie marks, hmm?"
"What do you mean? Ponies don't..." She paused, looking down, "Oh, huh, I guess Gearshift does have gears for his, but Gimble just has a compass rose. The firepony has three daisies I think." Lashing her tail, she blushed, meeting his eyes again, saying, "Sorry. I know I'm good at what I do." A half smile graced her face as she added, "This job is a waste of my talent, honestly. I can't miraculously get that engine good as new, but it's just an engine. I don't mind doing my job. I just wish there was something more... interesting to work on. Something to design, or take apart, or figure out."
"This assignment really was..." she sighed, looking away again, before concluding, "And I shouldn't to burden you with my personal problems. You already got enough on your hands, with all those injured ponies down there. I was lucky to be stuck in the engine room when all that went down. Safest place for a hundred miles from here, for me at least."
Was that a sympathetic look? Bird faces were still hard to read, for mammals at least. The hippogriff had raised his wings off the deck, holding them half-spread to his sides. "Hmm. Were you not... I mean, I just assumed, did you not refit the ship, convert it for the expedition I mean? Build that storm device on the front?"
A surprised laugh escaped the fluffy kirin, as she said, "Are you kidding? That's top secret military research! They didn't even let me look at the schematic! Though it's obviously some kind of antigrounding attractor framework. Looks like they worked backwards from kinetic energy in the air to make a kind of giant antenna that you could charge with the thaumoelectric effect to..." Nutmeg seems to realise something then, and her voice trailed off to silence, before continuing in a whisper, "Uh, hey could you not mention that I might have reverse engineered top secret military research? I'm only supposed to be here to keep the engine running."
This was proving to be a confusing conversation for the hippogriff. "I... see. Well, have no fear my dear, you can consider my beak sealed. And it's quite all right, nice to hear about someone else's problems for once, and it's not as if we have a psychiatrist on staff." Pausing for a moment, he fixed Nutmeg with another of his piercing stares. "Though I must ask... if you didn't build the ship and you don't find running the engine room terribly satisfying... why are you here?"
"It's a long story," Nutmeg replied with a roll of her eyes, "Long story short, didn't read the fine print signing the contract. I thought this ship was gonna be on a trade route, where we could've set up shop in Klugetown. It was top secret until recently, this sky island ruins exploration business, with the whole Storm Piercer device being seriously hush hush. Plus uh... well, let's just say there are some creatures in high places who might want to... get me out of the way, for... various stupid reasons. I can't name names, but... you know, every door starts closing for you, until you don't have any other options, and nobody's admitting they're all working together against you?"
A familiar but still eerie aura traced up her oddly shaped horn as she stomped in frustration. "Nothing I can do about it now though," she growled, before her mood quickly cooled. "It's just rotten politics in the industry. Could've been worse I suppose."
Reef tilted his head, considering, then looked away. "That does sound... unfortunate. Not that we didn't have politics in the Navy, but just about who got the plum assignments, who got promoted first..." He looked back at Nutmeg. "If you did your duty, didn't screw up, then your course was set for life. Not many options really, especially if your family... well, tradition and all that."
She tilted an ear at that, looking up at Reef again and asking, "You didn't get... railroaded here too, did you? I don't know much about family, but I hear for ponies it's like the village sometimes, with everyone in a family just living for the group. That's one reason I left. I guess you didn't though? At least not officially. You uh... you'd rather be working at a big, fancy hospital, I guess? Ponies have these huge buildings called hospitals with a ton of doctors and healers and stuff."
"Oh no, not at all." Reef said, in a surprised tone. "To be entirely honest, becoming a surgeon..." He paused for a moment, considering his choice of words. "...it was the best... compromise I could find. You see, my father was very insistent I should join the Navy, serve the Queen, uphold the family honour... while I, well, I spent my childhood filling our house particularly interesting sea urchins. Heh." The hippogriff paused, remembering those early years spent under the ocean. "Naturalist was... out of the question, for a nation at war, so he said. Medical school, training as a ship's surgeon, well, it was... the closest I could get." Reef ducked his head, suddenly intent on studying the deck planks. "But you probably don't want to hear about that."
"No, no it's fine," Nutmeg said, wide-eyed, "I know a lot of... well, kirin like that. But there was a lot of room for them to do it anyway, since we were nothing but naturalists just a while ago. Would you be any good with it? They were saying the biologist on the expedition was... lost in the storm. Not sure why a biologist would be needed for studying old ruins, but..." she waved a hoof at the verdant greenery adjacent to the ship, "There's a heck a lotta biology out there." Snickering, she continued, "It'd be funny if they came back and needed somebody to study some weird animal or plant or something. You might just get dragged along with!"
"Oh most certainly, that's why I applied for the position." Reef said with enthusiasm. The hippogriff gave a little flap, creating a downdraft that ruffled the kirin's mane, before loosely refolding his wings. "In truth, I was lucky the Queen was pushing the Admiralty to do more with the officer exchange program, otherwise my old Captain would never have released me..." he said, a little more seriously, "but... yes, that's why I am here. It's a whole new biome, multiple biomes even, and that's without the strange magic which no doubt means..." His voice trailed off and he frowned. "Of course, I wasn't counting on having half the crew injured and medically impossible purple pegasi to confound me."
"Well, you know, I might have some uh... notes that I might have taken on the uh... Storm Piercer," the little kirin said hesitantly, "Just in my spare time. It actually looks like it could get into the gigathaums, if the electricity... well I mean maybe we could compare notes sometime? I don't think I ever heard about anything getting exposed to as much magic as those pegasi would've gotten hit with, if it grounded on them somehow. Then again I haven't been around the world all that much, so maybe they have that up in those cloud cities."
"Hmm, you don't say." Reef said, considering, before the intensity returned to his gaze: "You know that might well help with this zombie pony business. No pulse, no breathing, yet not just moving around, fully verbal! Complaining quite a bit in fact. So, if you wouldn't mind... perhaps we could take a look now? If you aren't in the middle of something? Although, I may need you to explain the mechanical parts." he finished, looking down at the deck again.
"Pff, zombie ponies," she laughed, "I'm sure there's a sensible explanation for all this. Don't worry, it's right in the engine room, and my team's got this rig well under control anyway. C'mon, let me show you what I got!" And so tugging on his birdlike foreleg to follow her, Nutmeg lead Reef Skimmer to a tiny little private room around behind the engine, labelled 'Chief Engineer's Office'. The kirin wasted no time in sharing her most intimate and forbidden secrets with the hippogriff doctor. And as luck would have it, some of it even made sense!
All attempts to communicate with any inhabitants on the islands had failed, whether by magical broadcast, or rocket post. Long range mana-sonar mapping had mostly been swallowed by the storm wall; a few blurry but enchanting images had been gleaned, of the dilapidated ruins of a strange civilization unknown to ponykind. It was stated that nothing looked like a building in which creatures would still live, and repeated observations over the years had revealed no changes to the ruins, suggesting an abandoned land. With the life all around here and something clearly maintaining the bridges and paths, that assurance seemed more and more shaky. So everypony kept a sharp eye out for movement, be it eyes glimmering with the spark of intelligence, or intact buildings that might be hidden in the woods.
Following the path out of the village had led to another fork: Summer Scribe had chosen the right path, which had taken them over another well-kept bridge and finally to the overgrown remains of a quarry. Melonwater had been in his element, pointing out one mineral strata after another, commenting on the discarded tools and speculating about mining techniques. Even he had been stumped by the huge cubes that were scattered about the place, carefully carved with giant, flattened faces and serving no apparent purpose. Summer had finally pried him away from the site, much to the relief of Azure and Blue Type, and headed back to explore the remaining path.
Perhaps, after so much trotting back and forth, fatigue was setting in; that or complacency as the ponies became accustomed to the strange surroundings. In any case, one second the four ponies were making their way down the path, the next Summer Scribe and Blue Type had dropped off the face of the earth. Vanishing in front of Azure and Melonwater, the spine chilling shock was relieved by their sharp cries of alarm from below, and immediately replaced with worry for their safety. As the two remaining ponies hurried to the edge of the sudden dropoff in the trail, the ones who slid down into it were already standing up and brushing each other off, seemingly unharmed.
"Alright, I bet we'll be stumbling across the natives any moment noowAAiIieEEE!" Summer Scribe's triumphant spiel turned into a cry of fright, as she plummeted to her demise! ...Or rather falling face first with an oof, and stumbling to her hooves. Ok, demise postponed for now. She nursed her forehead as she swiftly assessed her surroundings: didn't really look like an intentional trap which probably means... she didn't get outsmarted, she just wasn't paying attention. Gah, typical!
Azure cried out as Summer suddenly disappeared down into the pit after wandering a little too far ahead... the unicorn's eyes clearly showing worry as galloped to the verge and stared down... She found herself on the edge of a steep dropoff into a very large dirt pit taking a bite out of perhaps 20 meters of the trail and the surrounding forest to either side. 'Bloody hell', she thought 'I just had to fail my first real test as a guard, didn't I?!' Urgh... she spread her wings, preparing to fly down and offer assistance.
It was a broad, round, flat pit with steep walls, a packed dirt floor untouched by the greenery all around the area, that Summer and Blue find themselves in. Totally empty of anything else, at least until something jumped into the pit from the surrounding undergrowth. The newcomer was a small, goofy-looking green creature, which proceeded to run around aimlessly, its two prominent eyestalks apparently not very observant.
Summer had been starting to piece together how she'll climb out, when they were paid visitor by an unexpected, not to mention novel, guest! Her horn reflexively flares up with magical energy as she turned her body to keep watching it at all times. "What is THIS?... It doesn't seem hostile. I think? But what is it trying to do, then? Umm... Hello, we mean no harm, critter?" she ventured. The creature didn't seem to notice. Summer Scribe side-eyed towards Blue Type, to see if her companion has any observations to make. Azure would doubtless catch up soon, so they probably weren't in TOO much danger. Just had to be careful!
Concentrating on her friends down in the hole, Azure hadn't spotted the creature until it was already falling into the pit. Her head snapped up as she desperately scanned the bushes, looking for further hostiles. Finding none, she lit her horn, mentally preparing to blast the critter if things don't go well. Her two charges seemed no worse for wear on the floor below, but she readied herself for anything as Summer once again attempted diplomatic negotiations, with something far too weird to trust to be diplomatic. She turned to Melonwater "I'm going down; you stay here. If the worst happens... we're counting on you to get help from the ship."
The little dopey green creature turned toward Summer Scribe as she spoke, paused for a few seconds, then immediately made a beeline for the unicorn. Blue Type shies away, and Summer scrambles back, but you know... steep wall behind her and all. Sensing impending disaster, Azure closed her wings and dropped down into the pit in front of Summer, horn aglow, glaring at the creature while snarling “That’s far enou-” before it sprang forward with surprising speed, opened up a big mouth full of sharp teeth, and latched onto Azure’s face.
Summer Scribe yeeped! as the cute little thing went wild and attacked Azure; it seemed you can't trust anything around here! After a few moments to process what was going on, she sprang into action: racing towards Azure, her own horn aglow, to try and tug at the critter with telekinesis and help Azure get it off! Her intervention came too late however...
That was about the last thing Azure had expected... but this wasn't her first battle either. The creature was about to learn that leaping onto a unicorn's face, who'd already got her magic charged, was generally not a good idea. Unable to see Summer's attempts to peacefully tug the thing off, Azure Feather's reaction was rather less peaceful, instead choosing to give the creature a nasty magical shock.
The creature immediately exploded into a rain of sticky chunks, splattering all over Azure’s snout which was already starting to bleed from the thorn-like teeth stuck into her skin. She tried to wipe the mess from her eyes with a foreleg. Strangely it tasted vaguely of banana.
“Oh, oh Celestia I’m sorry!” Summer said, not quite understanding what occurred, getting in Azure’s face, “You’re bleeding! Are you o—” and that’s when Blue Type shrieked. Summer whirls apart from Azure to follow the earth pony's gaze, where two more of those green creatures had leapt into the pit and are already headed their way.
“What? What is it?!” Azure shouted, still trying to clean her eyes out.
"Two more! Get ready to blast, close range!" Summer Scribe replied. She had an idea: after they leap into the air, they're unlikely to be able to change their trajectory, so she'd just go for the old bait and dodge strategy! Summer held her ground, just ahead of Azure to make sure she's the juiciest target; her horn cracked with energy as she charged up a spell. She fired a quick magical blast at the more distant one, and was filled with warm confidence as it instantly popped, oozing goo as it sinks like a deflating balloon. The nearest one was already moving to strike; Summer let it get into range, tensing her legs to leap to the side and roll back onto her hooves. It would miss and be perfectly lined up for Azure's blast!
Meanwhile Azure was grumbling, still trying to clear her sight as she furiously rubbed at her eyes. "Can't see a blasted thing here! Give me a minute!" she cried out, stumbling back as she completely failed to notice Summer's setup...
The critter leapt forward. “Now! Blast it!” Summer shouted triumphantly.. before jerking back reflexively as it goes for her face, instead of dodged right as she'd planned. She tried to recover, but only manages to turn her head enough for it to latch onto the flesh of her thick neck. And of course her supple rear having not moved an inch, is still blocking Azure's shot with her own magical beam of destruction.
"Oww! Shoot! Aah! Nerves!" Summer Scribe panicked as her strategy went south fast. The shock of the direct clamping and nomming down made her spin on the spot, hooves awkwardly stumbling as she couldn't get a moment to calmly reassess the situation. There was no telling what sight would greet Azure once her vision cleared: a complete botch, it seemed! Someone was screaming; she couldn't see but it must be Blue Type, still pressed against the wall.
Azure's sight finally cleared... only to see Summer starting to panic with... oh, by Celestia... the creature was latched onto her neck! "Summer, stop moving for a moment! I got you covered, just... I don't want to zap you!" Carefully channelling a less-intense blast to ensure she doesn't hurt her friend, Azure tried to draw a bead on the creature despite the now frantically bucking pony it was attached to.
The bad news was that Azure’s blast missed the creature. The good news was that it hit Summer’s neck close enough that the violent jolt made the creature let go. Summer crashed down on her side, merely dazed and twitching, while Blue Type shakily took a step forward, wincing before stomping down hard on the twitching green beast, bringing her hoof down again and again until it’s reduced to green mush. Beyond the earth mare, four more of the green creatures jump down into the pit and head directly for the ponies.
Azure bit her lip as she zapped Summer instead of the intended target: argh! She had one job, for goodness' sakes! A good showing from Blue Type, but then four more of the darn creatures made their presence known... okay...
Summer's legs twitched and shuddered as she tried, with great difficulty, to pull herself to her hooves. "Yaaah! Unnh..." she saw four more critters coming out of the edge of her vision, and reflexively winced. "Thanks for the save, Azure; I panicked. Can you take on *four* of these bitey things, or can you evacuate us?" She wearily stumbled onto her hooves and shook out.
"Evacuate, no. I'm not that good yet... all I can do is give you two wings and we can fly out... I think..." Azure grumbled.'...if it doesn't leave me unconscious' she thought. She should have spent more time learning combat magic, and less on her flying fantasies....
The three ponies huddled together, butts against the wall as their four enemies advance. A beam of magic lances out from Azure's horn, blasting one of the beasts into chunky salsa, only for two more of the creatures jump down. Just when it looks like they might be overwhelmed by the horde, a rock comes sailing from above, splatting another of the creatures. At that moment, a thick tendril flops down on Azure’s back. Turning in a panic to face the new foe, she sees it’s just a vine, hanging down the side of the pit. “Climb up!” comes a stallion's voice: Melonwater from beyond the edge of the pit. “It’s secured!” he shouts. Another substantial rock comes flying down: it lands between two of the creatures, leaving them intact but stunned.
Summer Scribe beamed up towards Melonwater: they were saved! "Thanks! Blue Type, you go first!" After all, it was impolite to let your coworkers get mauled - or chomped in this case - behind you! Of the three of them Azure was best placed to defend herself, and could just fly out once the two of them were clear; Summer would take the vine second and take potshots at any approaching chompers. How humiliating to be brought to their knees by these toothy little monsters; but an important lesson to learn: they couldn't slack off for a moment in this strange and dangerous new land!
Melonwater with a big save... Azure sighed as she watched both Blue Type and then Summer clamber to safety, vine in their teeth and Melonwater hauling from above. The creatures kept coming, throwing themselves at the ponies. Adrenalin pumping now, Azure blasted four in quick succession, but one made it through to bite Summer's foreleg; the smaller unicorn had to smash it against the wall of the pit. Another flanked Azure and bit down on a hindleg; she grunted with pain and vaporised it with another lance of magic. Her horn was warm, almost painfully hot... suddenly Azure realised that everypony was clear and there was nothing stopping her flying out of this hellhole.
A few quick flaps brought Azure up and out of the pit, landing heavily next to the others. Injuring her teammates and herself in the first outing: beautiful, just beautiful, she thought. Urgh.
“Well that—” she said unhappily, cutting off at a sudden pain in her ass. It seemed one of the creatures had decided to take a ride up out of the pit; in the fog of pain and anger she hadn't even noticed it latch on. Taking care to blow the thing off of her, rather than blow it up, its smoking remains went sailing back into the pit from which it came. The four ponies crowded together at the edge, watching the five remaining green creatures now ambling aimlessly around below. No more of them appear from the bushes, but the ones already down there don’t seem to be up and disappearing just yet.
With a bleeding muzzle, ear, leg, shoulder, and rear end, Azure had taken the worst of it. She didn’t have a neck wound, at least. Still in an adrenalin fuelled daze, Summer didn’t seem to notice her own wound still trickling blood down to her shoulder. Blue Type had a bite on her chest and foreleg, and... that’s about it actually. Melonwater got off with a minor scrape from rushing around to sever and tie off the vine, not to mention hurling sizable rocks. In summary the party was in a bad way, and though the path continued beyond the pit, the undergrowth grew thickly all around it. Further exploration was out of the question until they could regroup and find another way; or deal with this menace for good.
Summer Scribe carefully watched to make sure no more hostiles are incoming... and then took inventory of their wounds. Wincing, she addressed Azure, "You're looking really real messed up. I think Reef Skimmer will want to tend to your injuries." Blue Type and Melonwater seemed ok, at least. But... Oh goodness, is that blood? Summer hadn't even noticed that her own injuries were pretty serious as well. She winced, and assessed their meagre stock of first aid supplies: not enough bandages for every wound.
Azure sighed. "Nothing broken though, except for my ego. Don't worry... been through a lot worse than this." She shook her head. "I'm going to be honest, I'm more upset that I got you two injured. We'd best head back to the ship: there's no telling how many more hostiles are here, and we need to get our wounds cleaned and stitched, before they fester..."
Summer begrudgingly accepted Blue Type's pleading that she should have her own wound bandaged, allowing it before tending to Azure as best she could. "Yeah, we need to head back, right now: we're in no condition to last another fight like this, and these wounds are only going to get worse without proper attention." This was already a bad note to end their first expedition on, no sense making it worse.
The time spent trekking back to the ship was sombre, but a certain sense of relief prevailed once everypony had calmed down. They were all still accounted for, and nothing truly disastrous had happened. Aid was not yet procured, but many things had been learned about this new world. Returning in late afternoon, they found the crew had set up a small camp in the meadow next to the ship, with tents and a fire pit dug out.
As the battered ponies reach the gangplank, they see the ship’s doctor sitting contemplatively on deck with that engineer kirin, the one who kept the engine running through the storm. The pair are dismayed at the condition of the bold explorers: she backs away with a sheepish smile and one two-fingered hoof raised, as the doctor makes it clear there is no time for pleasantries. There are wounds that need cleaning, injuries that need to be assessed, bandages that need to be applied, and then maybe tales can be told that night, over the very first campfire in this strange place.
Two days after the crossing, the sickbay of the EAS Harmony was still a sorry sight. Creatures lay in cots with splinted legs and bandaged burns, while the shelves were increasingly bare of bandages and disinfectant. Some lay quietly, with shaved strips of fur and stitches, but their chests still rise and fall. The four whose chests no longer rose or fell had been discharged, and were helping set up base camp in the field outside, while creeping out most of their crewmates.
Though things looked bad, every pony, griffon and donkey was aware that it could be a lot worse, and they all know of a hippogriff stallion working tirelessly to keep it that way. He had spent the last two days splinting, draining and stitching with the confidence of a true healer. Groans of complaints rather than agony pierce the silence, and in general the downed crew members have little to do but talk with each other. Two conscripted nurses moved along the beds; a slim white unicorn stallion named Winter Hope, and a brawny blue pegasus mare known as Bluebell; each checking injuries and doing what they can to help.
Into this scene came Doctor Reef Skimmer, busily herding yet more injured ponies. Azure Feather immediately stumbled to the one empty cot and collapsed: the blue unicorn was utterly exhausted. Her fellow unicorn Summer Scribe was tempted to follow Azure's example, but the only remaining option was the floor and she didn't want to get in the way. Trailing behind was an earth pony mare who looked in much better shape, a historian named Blue Type, and a short stallion named Melonwater in need of just an adhesive bandage for his single scrape.
"Substantial lacerations on the left foreleg and rump... will definitely need stitches... perforated ear, punctured cheek... we'll need to get you into the surgery room." Reef said firmly to Azure. As she began to struggle back to her hooves he placed an avian claw on her shoulder and clarified "There there, no need to get up." He turned to the pegasus nurse, who was by now quite used to the procedure: each lifted one end of the cot with their wings and between them they began to maneuverer it into the side room.
The best thing that could have been said about Azure's condition is that it could have been a lot worse. The worst thing? Listening to the doctor's speech... well. It could have been a lot better, too, as she closed her eyes and grumbled something incomprehensible that may or may not have resembled the word 'careless'. Surgery? Surgery in her first job of guarding any creature in this extended mission?! "Onto the operating table, I'm guessing? I know more or less what to do, this isn't my first time in one of these..."
Opening her eyes again, she saw a giant eagle's face hovering over her; the apparition opened its beak and asked "How do you feel? You may have lost a significant amount of blood... and I see you don't have wings any more? Gone entirely... is that supposed to happen?"
Azure's face showed a moment of frustration as the severity of her injuries... her failure... was confirmed, but it faded as the doctor directly addressed her. "I've felt a lot worse, Doctor... felt a lot better, too, but..." Another frustrated and defeated grunt escaped her to conclude the point. And then the wings... oh, she's explained this one dozens of times. "The wings are a result of a spell, Doctor. I'm hurt and by the looks of things headed for surgery... this isn't the time to fly. Or put on a show." Her voice quieted substantially as she concluded. "...or anything for that matter, looks like..."
Summer Scribe's wasn't the kind to complain and mope over injuries, at least not of the kind she'd just suffered: she'd had worse, she'd recovered before and she was wasn't going to let this slow her down. That said, she did find herself fretting and worrying about Azure. The winged unicorn had taken quite the beating... well, chomping back there, and without anything else to do or even conscious thought, Summer found herself following Azure into the side room. Once she realised she was inside, her ears perked and she looked a bit bashful. "Is it ok if I watch? I promise I'll be quiet; I'm just worried."
Reef Skimmer did not acknowledge this: he had placed his claws under Azure's form and was gently transferring her onto the operating table, while Bluebell held the cot steady. His claw lingered on her flank for a moment, after which he turned to address his assistant: "Thank you Bluebell, if you could clean her wounds please, I'll handle the closure. Breathing ok, alert... but check her core temperature, would you."
"Whatever you say, Doctor Reef" the part-time nurse replied, moving to the shelves to find the necessary supplies.
Shifting his gaze back to Azure, the hippogriff said in what he hoped was a pleasant, reassuring voice. "Well, that's good: a spell eh. Fascinating stuff, unicorn magic, you must tell me all about it some time. Now see here, you're going to be fine, won't take a jiffy to fix you up, Bluebell here just needs to get you cleaned up and then we'll stitch those wounds right up."
Azure had been staring at the metal grid floor with an unhappy expression, waiting for the sting of the disinfectant. The bedside patter did have some effect: at the mention of telling the doctor all about wing magic, she managed a hoarse chuckle. "Sure. Will do when we get some free time... when I'm back on my hooves." 'Got to keep my spirits up', she thought...
With that done the griff stallion rounded on the smaller unicorn, his wings half-spread and blocking Summer's view of the examination table. "You... Miss Sarsaparilla isn't it? Or should I say Senior Researcher Sarsaparilla?" Reef caught himself and closed his eyes, before asking in a slightly less annoyed tone "What happened out there? Those look like bite marks... sizeable ones, at that. If so your friend is lucky teeth that size didn't do more damage... individually that is, alas they've made up for that in quantity."
On hearing the new nickname, Summer Scribe flattened her ears; but chose not to object, feeling that her facial expression said it all. She didn't want to get into an argument right now, and besides, everyone knows HER name! Instead she said "We ran into some trouble while exploring into the forest, sir. We got cornered at the bottom of a ditch by these indigenous lifeforms..."
Rearing onto her hind legs for a moment, she made a 'chomp chomp' gesture with her hooves. "Green, eyeballs on stalks, smaller than a pony, but more teeth than anything else... I guess you could call them 'chompers'... because it seems like they've only got one tactic: lunging, and chomping... but they ambushed and outnumbered us, so we had to retreat and tend to our wounds." She was still upset about her earlier fumble: that was the easiest dodge in the world, and her legs just seized up! She shouldn't be making mistakes like this on good spirits! Again, the look on her face told it all, or so she felt.
Reef cocked his head, considering Summer's words. "Ambush predators? Eyeballs on stalks? Hmm, did they look like insects, or reptilian or mammalian? Carapace, scales or fur, I mean to say. Venom definitely a possibility in the former two cases..."
At this point an excited stallion pushed his way into the conversation, saying "They somehow dug this huge pit, right in the middle of the road! Or... something did at any rate. Something big! They dug out all the topsoil, they must've, but it was still dirt down there, not rock! Are these islands dirt all the way down?" He blinked, then blushed, before adding "Eh-heh... and they caught us in there. Well, not me. I managed to throw in a vine, but... if I hadn't been up there, we might've..." He stopped talking and stared off into space, as if he just realised what a close call it had been.
"Uh, yeah, thanks again Melonwater. So... the critters, well they're..." Summer Scribe paused; what were they? "Well, they have, umm..." She made an uncertain gesture with one hoof, trying to visualise one, her memory coming up with chaotic flashes of alien eyes, flailing stumpy legs and impossibly wide mouths, filled with too many needle-like teeth to count. "...They're green? Two legs, spikey little arms? They honestly don't seem to have much in the way of endo or exoskeleton. ... Just teeth." She shivered. "...but they weren't exactly gelatinous either, so... They might be plant based, if I were to hazard a guess?"
"Plants with eyes and teeth?" Reef said, snorting as if offended by the concept. "Unprecedented, although... there are certain hybrids in southern Equestria, which while not technically plants, do possess... erm, never mind that now." He refocused his eagle eyes on the unicorn in front of him. "So... you fell into a pit? In the middle of the road?" Reef sounded sceptical, as if thinking 'why would anypony just walk into a pit'. "But you were able to walk back? No broken bones, torn muscles or sprained ankles?"
Summer Scribe scrunched her nose, looking a bit worried by that possibility as well. But what else could it be? She just nodded along with the doctor's musings, before the conversation continued. "Yeah, l guess... visibility was poor, and we blundered right into it: tumbled down the side, but it was too steep to easily escape from." She indicated the slope and depth with a hoof as she spoke. "So... yeah! Me and Blue Type took the fall surprisingly well, so we can be thankful for that part. No plans to walk into any more pits from now on!"
"We're not that clueless, honest." Melonwater grumbled.
Reef looked away. "Well then, good... it seems things could have gone much worse, as your young friend said. As full as we are in here, hardly want to deal with more life-threatening injuries." He turned back to Summer, continuing in a more apologetic "Look... Summer Scribe, why don't you take this cot here..." he gestured with a wing at the now-empty bed Azure had been occupying, "Nurse Bluebell can take a look at your bites while I attend to..." Reef blushed and coughed in embarrassment as he realised in all the commotion he still hadn't gotten the other unicorn's name. He continued in a quieter tone: "...the magic-winged mare..."
At the cough, Summer Scribe quietly elides in '...Azure Feather...', with a wry smile on her face.
The hippogriff looked grateful, and perhaps a slightly surprised "...Indeed, and you can tell me what else you found out there?"
Summer nod nodded in agreement! "I'm thankful we all made it back in one piece!" She clambered onto the cot and it wasn't until she was lying down that she realised how much her legs hurt, not to mention her muzzle. Those teeth had sunk deep! She didn't mind being deprioritised though, Azure's need was greater. As she waited for her turn with the nurse, she started going down her mental checklist.
"So like, I'll start with the biggest ones: there's a derelict village here, but it's DEFINITELY not for the Sheep, and there's no extant inhabitants that I can see. The occupants might have even been bipeds? More investigation required... particularly of that shrine or whatever it was, definitely important to their culture, and traces of magic as well!" Summer smiled, visualising the details already looking forward to the follow-up visit.
"Hmm, indeed, interesting, interesting..." Reef said, half-listening to Summer's chatter. He checked over the blue unicorn, now lying on her side on the surgical table, before nodding approvingly at the nurse. "Thank you Bluebell, now if you could take a look at Miss Scribe over there, I'll take it from here."
"Oh, and another weird thing: Melonwater pointed out that the bridge leading to the forest is made of granite, but this island doesn't HAVE a layer of igneous rock..." she continued, starting to ramble, "...so it must have come from a different island. There's even a quarry here, and you'll never guess what's mined here; it's marble, by the way; so why not build it out of local resources? Also, there were these weird 2 by 2 metre blocks of solid stone in the quarry, easy to push along particular grooves but solid as a rock otherwise - might be prototypes of a puzzle mechanism? And did you ever think about the fact there's apparently a full water cycle just on this tiny island..."
"Mmm, quite fascinating to be sure..." Reef said, not exactly paying attention but not wanting to discourage Summer. Looking at his patient, the hippogriff asked "Azure, you're holding up well, thank you. Now, I have to ask, would accept a pain-numbing casting rather than a local anaesthetic? I must warn you, it isn't quite as effective, but, erm, we need to conserve supplies... for the most serious cases."
Summer Scribe grinned, pleased that someone listened to her rambling! She wasn't sure if the doctor was genuinely interested or just humouring her, but chose to assume the former. The unicorn showed Bluebell her wounds and accepted the stings of the disinfectant sponge, satisfied for the time being.
"So a pain-killer instead of an anaesthetic?" Azure replied. "It's probably going to sting less than those biters, and if it doesn't, it has to hurt before it can heal. I can take it, Doctor, I get your point. Go for it." Azure had barely listened to the conversation, more focused on her situation and performance in the pit, trying to analyse what had happened and work out how to avoid a repeat of this situation, but it appears she's not fully absorbed in her thoughts.
"Quite so... very good." Reef said, appreciating a patient made of sterner stuff than most of the ponies he'd treated. The griff ducked out of the room to fetch Winter Hope, who'd fortunately... or unfortunately... been getting a lot of practice with his pain-numbing casting recently.
The unicorn did his best, but the stiching was still a stinging pain, almost worse than the bites of the chompers since Azure didn't have to anticipate those. Winter Hope's pain-numbing spell mostly keeps her from twitching, even if the horn of a skilled unicorn would be much more effective at dulling the pain. Winter was better at hauling rope though, so the surgery was a pretty harrowing experience. Now with annoyingly chilly bald patches in her fur, Azure was too exhausted to do much other than gripe about a blanket, before drifting off. Summer Scribe, Blue Type and Melonwater would have a much easier sleep, though Summer did have to assure the doctor that fresh bandages were sufficient, and she didn't need stitches.
It was a more select group than before that met in the mess that evening; perhaps half the remaining crew, with Azure Feather noticeably absent and Reef Skimmer still missing a great deal of sleep. "Now I know a lot of you are wondering," Set Sail began, "why the expedition team came back limping and bloody. We might be up against... some stuff that's nastier than sheep. I'll uh... I'll let Dr. Scribe relay what she discovered on the expedition, and how it uh... ended."
Summer proceeded to give a full account of her team's adventure; the story of their initial explorations was greeted with enthusiasm, but expressions shifted to shock and then horror as she described the pit and the creatures that attacked them.
"...Anypony?" Set Sail asked desperately, looking around, "Does anypony have any idea what we are going to do about this? A pit full of little green monsters, not an hour's trot away from here! I know we were here to find ruins, but if all we can find are ruins and monsters...!" She stomped the deck with a frustrated snort.
"Sorry... I just don't know what to do if our expedition teams aren't gonna be able to deal with those green things, or any more of the nasty critters in this place. We had a creature expert, and they fell right outta the ship. I can't even tell the difference between a chipmunk and a squirrel, and I don't think there's anypony who does. But they almost didn't... make it... back. I don't want to send out another team, if they're not gonna make it back."
Reef took a step forward, claws spread out on the deck. He stared into space for a moment, gathering his thoughts, before saying "Certainly a better understanding of the local fauna would be of use. I... might be able to assist in that area. That said..." he fixed Summer with a steady gaze "...that does not strike me as the most pressing problem here. No, I do believe this is a question of protocol. You see, back in the Queen's Navy, the regulations covering shore parties and unknown terrain were quite specific, and quite extensive..."
Not seeing many, or indeed any nodes of approval, the griff changed tack slightly "Not that one has to stand on regulation all the time, but surely a basic protocol would apply? Overflight to assess the lay of the land before embarking, two griffs armed with wing swords, in the air at all times keeping eyes on the ground party, signal flares in case aid is needed from the ship, and all that? Not that it was my area of expertise, but surely... you ponies have something similar... ?" his voice trailed off.
Blinking, Set Sail asked, "Overflight over the jungle? What for?" Looking left and right, she called out, "Anypony here have wing blades?" A couple of heads shook; the only possible candidate was the pegasus security officer, but she'd been crushed by a boulder in the crossing, and was currently in the sick bay, newly turned purple and inexplicably still animate. "How about signal flares?" the Captain hollered instead.
"One box in the captain's quarters," the male griffon called back.
"Right, there would be there," Set Sail winced. Ears going down, she said with a sigh to Reef, "Signal flares are a good idea... honestly I thought either Doctor Scribe or the security officer would be able to send out a flare with their y'know... horn thingy. Sorry, the captain knew all about all that procedure. I uh... yeah. Wait did you say you understand the local fauna?"
Morning dawned on the expedition's third day in the Cloudbreaks, and once more a circle of crewmates of various sorts could be found gathered on the upper deck of the moored airship. Those sailing the ship, setting up a base camp, working on the engine, and walking off their injuries have come to learn what the expedition's next step will be. The third mate, now captain; a brown pegasus mare with a blue mane and a green bandanna; stepped forward to speak.
A very grumpy looking Reef Skimmer tried not to grind his beak, as Set Sail explained eagerly, "And Reef Skimmer here is not only a doctor, he's an expert on all sorts of creatures and plants! He volunteered, well basically volunteered, to accompany the expedition so we don't get waylaid by strange... thingies like that anymore. Winter Hope and Bluebell said they can take care of everypony still injured back here at the ship, so there's no reason not to send him. And get this, he has a pair of honest to gosh wing blades, so he can even defend himself!"
The grey hippogriff frowned at that, but didn't interrupt, as the mare continued: "So he'll be in the group of our toughest ponies, going to try and deal with that chomping menace out there," the green capped mare continues, "Another team led by uh, Summer Scribe will be doing their... thing in that ruined village. You wanna tell us uh, what exactly you're doing there, Summer?"
Summer Scribe beamed proudly. Messing around with bitey green critters in a dark forest has turned out to not be as exciting as advertised; finally, she'll get a chance to do some real scientific work! "Of course! This is our first treasure trove of indigenous species history: an entire village to ourselves! We'll be doing digs, cataloguing items of historical note, figuring out the local architecture, seeing if we can piece together the language. We'll learn everything we can about who lived on this island!" She picked her head up, beaming: this felt joyous! "And everypony who's ready and able to put in the work will be chipping in! While Reef Skimmer and company will be working on our... Chomper problem." She nodded back at Set Sail, a look of relief on her face!
Reef Skimmer looked troubled, possibly even embarrassed. "Well, one will do what one can, of course... though there may be no remedy other than to avoid the general habitat of the beasts..." Realising that he might be talking himself out of an excuse to get off the ship, he blinked and finished in a more jovial tone "...but eager to take a look of course, terribly exciting, new form of life, happy to help, when do we set off?" The hippogriff fluffed and fidgeted his wings, staring over Summer Scribe and Set Sail's heads.
“Right, okay,” Set Sail said to Summer Scribe in vague comprehension, “Anyway, the ponies going to that monster pit are Reef Ski—” Set Sail blushed, and glanced at the proudly fluffing hippogriff, “The creatures going to that monster pit are Reef Skimmer, Grenelda, and Cloud Cutter, who uh...” she looked with unease at the glassy eyed purple pegasus, “...says she’s fine, and she’s a red belt in wing-fu.”
Cloud Cutter smiled at that... spookily.
Azure Feather had been listening carefully, having made her way up from the lower deck at a slower and more painful pace than usual, still sporting the bevy of the bandages she'd received in the sick bay. "Time for the next mission already? I'm not 100%, but I can walk and stand guard at the very least." Still not sporting the wings that she's usually been seen with, she looked over her shoulder at the spot where the wings should be, before looking to the rest of the ponies. "Need a guard with some creature?" she asked, not sounding entirely sure of herself, but enough to risk going out again.
Set Sail looked thoughtfully at Azure standing there, mostly hale and whole it seemed, give or take a few cuts and bandages. After a quick assessment she asked, “Are you sure Azure? You totally... I mean, we don’t have many unicorns, and you’re the only one trained in those horn... lasery things. But I don’t want you to hurt yourself just for us to go look at the monster pit maybe.”
Reef frowned again, his gaze passing over Azure's wounds, checking no sutures have come out. Hearing Set Sail's words, he nods approvingly to her. "Quite right..." there is a pause as he tries and fails to remember the third mate's name.
Azure turned to Set Sail, reluctant to admit that she might not be able to do her job. "Look. I got injured before, yes, but I can walk, and I'm..." There was a slight hesitation there. "I'm rested. I'll be fine, I can't#"
The doctor cut her off. "Now see here... Azure, that's very noble of you and... I know your magic is our surest defence against many a threat. You really can't hazard another wildlife attack though, a few more bites and those stiches might be liable to tear right out."
Judging by her wince mid-way through Reef Skimmer's first sentence, there was no way Azure was at 100%, and by the end, she was noticeably slumping. "On the other hoof, Doctor, if you get injured, we're going to be in a heck of a worse situation than we are right now. This place isn't safe, and the last thing we need is our doctor to be injured, or worse." Another pause as she tested her right forehoof before continuing with a bit of a sigh. "But if you truly think we're better off with me staying here and recovering, then I won't argue."
Reef Skimmer stared at Azure, cocking his head, before saying in a conciliatory tone "My dear pony I can't count the number of sailors who ignored my advice to stay in their cots, because they put their duty first. I'm not your commanding officer, I can't order you around. My... advice is just... try not to be on the front line this time? Magical support from the rear and all that, isn't it how unicorn tactics go anyway?"
Summer Scribe was listening attentively to the conversation between Reef and Azure, and took this chance to offer her two cents: "It probably won't be as dangerous the second time around, if you keep your wits about you - the fact that we fell into the pitfall meant we had no way to retreat, and their tactics seem to be limited to 'approach and lunge'. They're not even good at flanking! So just keep your distance and a cool head and you'll be safe."
"Sounds good... general unicorn blasting platform tactics." Azure nodded slowly as her unicorn horn suddenly flared to life, channelling magical blue energy towards her own form for a few seconds: within moments those familiar butterfly-like wings had blossomed and melded into her back, but it wasn't without a significant wince as the spell ended. "Okay...! Maybe I shouldn't be casting spells like crazy today, either. Strain, physical or magical, doesn't do healing injuries any favours." She nodded again, "Guess I'll be in the back lines after all... so which group am I accompanying today?" she asked.
Reef stared at Azure's new wings, making a mental note to ask her about the zombie pegasi when he gets a chance (not to mention get a sketch of her wing patterning). Despite Nutmeg's best efforts he still had no idea what kind of magic could be letting the purple ponies move, talk and even eat without breathing, pulse or any of the other conventional signs of life. His gaze shifts to... Cloud Splutter was it? He could hardly tell the pegasus to sit on the ship when he had no idea if she would or even could return to previous state, much less how to accomplish it.
Meanwhile, Summer Scribe was giving Azure a welcoming wave. "Well, how about you act as the guard for the dig?" she suggested cheerfully. "We don't KNOW for a fact that nothing will come by and attack, and I'm sure everypony will be relieved to have someone standing watch. Seems like a win win!"
"Good, good..." Reef mumbled, then more loudly "One had best get a pack together then! Just a few essentials, I'll be back in a jiffy." He unfolded his right wing, eyeing the pinions critically. "Must say I'll be glad to get in the air again." Folding it back up, he said "Right-o, see you on deck in ten.", turned about smartly and disappeared down the ramp into the ship.
Azure watched the griff depart: "You be safe out there, we need to see you again!" She called out, before turning to Summer again. "Sounds like a plan... varying amount of risk, no hostiles on the last visit but no guarantee that will hold, as opposed to... significant hostiles facing the other group." She thought it over for a few more moments, before giving a final, resolute nod. "Alright. Any creature need supplies in this group, or are we ready to set off?" She asked, clearly glad that she won't be spending another day in the ship's quarters, doing nothing while she's classified as injured.
Summer clopped her hooves eagerly. "Glad to have you on board, Azure! I'll be running around rallying up the help and gathering tools and supplies, then we're ready to set off whenever."
Wisps of morning mist still clung to the mysterious floating island as the group of flyers prepared to leave their current home, the Equestrian airship EAS Harmony, currently stranded on the far side of the storm wall. Their mission would be creature control: specifically the small and very bitey creatures the first expedition had found lurking deep in the forest. Gathered in a small circle was a trio of tough looking birds: a sharp-clawed, battle-scarred griffon hen, a pegasus mare in shades of deep purple with empty, unblinking eyes, and a grey hippogriff sporting a magnificent pink crest and tail. The later was bedecked in his long, slender wingblades: priceless heirlooms from his family's martial tradition, that he might even know how to use. Around them assorted crewponies and the odd non-pony got on with repairs and other duties.
The griffon, who went by the name Grenelda, held Melonwater's map in one claw, studying it intently. "This stone bridge in the middle, the one closest to the pit," she said, "Should be able to land there, then it's just a short walk to where those ponies got jumped."
“And what do we do at the pit?” the pegasus once named Cloud Cutter said, making a couple of practice swings with her much smaller and utilitarian-looking wingblades. Her emotionless tone, cutie mark of a cloud sliced into three pieces and softly glowing, featureless white eyes combined to make her a rather unsettling presence.
Grenelda appeared unfazed; “That’s up to the good doctor here,” she replied, looking up at the hippogriff stallion, Reef Skimmer.
Reef had been fidgeting his wings nervously; not that the weapons are particularly heavy, just that he always felt self-conscious with the showy things strapped on. At the mention of the mission, his wings snapped back to his sides as he addressed the griffon. "Why, capture a sample of course! Intact if possible, if not then the least damaged." He waved a claw at his flank, where a bundle of wood tied with rope was sticking out of one of his bulging leather saddlebags. "Collapsible cage right here, assuming the blighters don't chew right through it... in which case we may have to go for dissection in situ. Rest assured, I'm prepared for that as well."
His gaze shifted to the pegasus, where it lingered for a long moment. "Now Cloud Flutter, are you quite sure you're ok to fly? No stiffness in the wing muscles? Nothing feeling too heavy, or too light?"
"Wow, you're gonna stew them? That's pretty ballsy," Grenelda said, with an eyebrow raised. "Guess we could find out if they're good to eat. I’m not takin the first bite though."
Not particularly commenting on that, Cloud Cutter answered the doctor in an even voice, “Nothing stiff. I can fly for sure. What do you mean, ‘too light?’”
"Well my dear, pegasi rely on their magic to fly, even more so than us griffs you know." Reef lectured, seemingly unaware that this was junior flight camp material, if that. "I regret to say we, which is to say, I've engaged the finest minds on this ship to work on it... but yes we, collectively, still haven't pinned down the specifics of your... curious transformation." The hippogriff paused for a moment, suddenly realising this probably wasn't very reassuring for the patient. "What we do know is that you're infused with a strange magic unlike any pony or griff has previously encountered... and lived to document at least... so, umm, be on guard for... things perhaps working differently than you're used to?" he finished vaguely.
While Cloud Cutter stared at her spread primaries and tried to digest that, Reef glanced back to Grenelda and stage-whispered "Now now, biological science first, culinary science afterwards."
“But, you just said...” Grenelda trailed off, looking down at a claw in consternation.
Looking Reef Skimmer in the eyes now, well sort of, Cloud Cutter said flatly, “There was a weird storm. I was knocked out. I turned purple. That’s all I know,” as if she has said that to a certain someone several dozen times over the past two days.
“What colour were you before?” Grenelda asked curiously.
Finally something that could crack Cloud's calm facade: a slight pause, then she turned to the griffon and replied in a surprised tone, “W-white. White and... blue. Blue mane. I had two stripes of blue, not just purple and... more purple.” Her mane and tail were a little darker than her fur, but otherwise she was now in painted solely in shades of purple.
Reef rolled his eyes; ponies were so touchy about their colours. Purple seemed like a perfectly good crest colour. Maybe the mare was concerned about looking so similar to her fellow transformed pegasi? But then they all had those personal flank pictures so surely there was no danger of being confused with each other. Shaking his head, he said "Indeed. Very well then." and turns back to the hen and half-spread his wings. "By all means, my dear, lead the way."
A brief flurry of wingbeats and the trio were airborne, climbing swiftly above the meadow until they disappeared over the treeline.
Below them the dense forest expanded in every direction, until abruptly ending at the shores of the sky island they crossed. The three soar together on gentle skies with the tall tops of the trees far below them. The vegetation steadily progressed from subtropical near the ship to full-blown jungle on the far side of the landmass. The thick canopy only breaks in two spots, one immediately below where the trees circle tightly around a swampy lake, and one further away where a hilltop pushes up out of the woodland, a second body of water glimmering just below the rocky summit. At first it seemed like neither the ruined village nor its adjacent stream will be found within the endless trees.
Reef Skimmer banked and bobbed through the air, giving his wings a nice stretch and enjoying a good flap around after a week confined to the ship. The hen in front was quite striking in that stereotypical, old-school griffon way, all rough edges and fierce predator. She reminded him of that one time he'd managed to... well, let's say griffons didn't seem to have much concept of foreplay, and while she'd been intrigued by the notion for a few minutes it turned out she didn't have much patience either. Alas, it was out of the question here; Reef had been looking forward to the hen turning up for her physical, only to have Gustus appear in his sick bay instead. The tiercel had made it quite clear they were a mated pair and somewhat less clear exactly what horrible fate would befall any creature who might intrude upon that.
Ah well, he thought. In any case, the hen had the map; Reef could only try to recall its layout, and scan the jungle for any break that might be a recognisable landmark. There was a section of younger trees that might be... yes, most likely squarish forms were the overgrown buildings of the village. The bridge they were heading for was supposed to be upstream of that, now if only he could spot said stream through the dense branches and vines.
The dark grey griffon had either paid closer attention to the map or was gifted with sharper eyesight, because she was soon descending towards the isolated stone arch, threading through the narrow open space above the river. The hippogriff doctor followed with some difficultly, his wider wingspan catching a few branches on the way down, while the empty-eyed pegasus smoothly glided in behind him. Grenelda settled onto the bridge and pre-emptively shushed her companions with a talon to her beak. “Voices down," she murmured quietly, "We don’t wanna attract the things.” Stealthily, the three followed the path into the jungle, approaching the monster pit with utmost care.
Thick foliage leaned in from either side of the path, as if the jungle wished to reclaim the meagre open space or perhaps conceal what lay ahead. It made a few lazy turns then descended abruptly into a large, shallow pit. The roughly circular cavity was in no danger of surprising wary travellers though: at least a dozen metres across and completely barren of vegetation, this was obviously the place the ponies had spoken of. No creatures could be seen in the pit though, much less green, chomping ones; the scene was quiescent and still.
Reef Skimmer looked around, wide eyed, gazing at the surrounding vegetation. None of it was familiar! Many of the plants were outlandish in proportion and colouration. Even the species that seemed to be Equestrian, on closer inspection, had some subtle detail that set them apart. This was a treasure trove of new biology. He could only wonder about the bird song they were hearing and whether it was coming from similarly undiscovered species.
Shaking his head, he focused on the pit: this was the mission, there would be time enough to study the surroundings later. "Hmm, curious. No bodies, scraps or even skeletons. Scavengers must have carried them away, or else decomposition is supernaturally fast." the hippogriff mused, scratching his crest feathers with a claw. "No obvious burrows either. Plenty of roots..." Looking to his companions, who were pacing warily around the perimeter of the hole, he asked "Do you see any tracks leading to the pit, or even any spoil from digging it out?"
Cloud Cutter had been stepping lightly around the edge, stopping to peer into the jungle. The purple pegasus glanced back at Reef, saying "Nothing trampled or broken. I don't think anything bigger than a squirrel could have pushed through." She looked back at the route they'd taken. "That trail is the only way to the sinkhole, or whatever this thing is." Regarding the far side, she concluded “It looks like it continues on the other side of the pit. I could fly over there and check it out.”
Grenelda backed up, her avian gaze darting from one tree to the next. “Just watching our six,” she said dismissively to Cloud, “I don’t hear anything. Not anywhere near this, at least." Turning to the hippogriff, she asked "So what is it, doctor? Some kinda giant’s footprint? And where are all the chompers, or whatever they’re called?”
Reef looks up from a particularly interesting flower he was studying. "What's that? Chompers?" He gives the little clearing another quick scan. "Oh yes, well: no remains, no burrows, no spoil from digging, no trails through the undergrowth... and barring unseen magic they didn't sound like a stealthy bunch." The hippogriff looked at the eerie pegasus and gave a quick beak-grin. "I think Cloud Splutter has the right idea, this is most likely a natural sinkhole, the beasts probably just saw two trapped prey and thought it was a free lunch. I imagine they thought our colleagues were particularly colourful sheep."
The two griffs seemed amused by that, although Reef quickly looked away as Cloud Clutter gave him another of her unblinking, silent stares. "Well, yes, in any case, they must have come down the path, so... we may indeed find their lair on the far side. Let us proceed."
"We should cross together," Cloud said distantly, eyes returning to the trail leading deeper into the jungle. "If those things come at us..."
“We run,” Grenelda cut in, “We’re not here to be heroes. The way Blue Type was going on, there was no end to the things.” She looked increasingly unhappy to be stuck under the dense canopy.
“Just... ‘cmon, let’s go,” Cloud Cutter said, spreading her quite modest wings which unlike the griffs had no trouble opening wide in the confined area of the trail. “And be ready for a fight.” She leapt into the air and drifted easily over the pit, shortly followed by Reef Skimmer, then Grenelda bringing up the rear. A growling, scarred griffon, a sleek pegasus with head down and blades bared, and a hippogriff stallion who looked from one to the other, before trying to make a show of baring his wing blades too.
The foliage only got denser as the group continued, the path literally excavated from the dense tangle of choking vines, branches and ferns, snaking from side to side as it went around the largest trees. All sound was muted by the foliage, even the omnipresent birdsong sounding distant and muffled.
Reef trotted cautiously down the path, starting to become nervous. There was nothing obviously threatening, but then, that was kind of the trouble wasn't it? Summer's group hadn't seen anything dangerous in hours of wandering about, until they were surprised by a horde pf bloodthirsty beasts. "Look lively now, if that was a cover-collapse sinkhole... well, there's no telling what else might give way under our weight," Reef whispered. "Still no sign of large animals..." The path seemed to go on and on, all view of the pit already lost due its twists and turns; by now the group was at least a kilometre from their landing point.
"Cover-collapse... what?" asked Grenelda in annoyed tone; geology was not one of her strong points. “You know, uh... I don’t see any green critters over here,” the griffon said, peering around Reef’s stately posterior to scan the trail ahead. "Maybe it was some sort of trap? Set up by whoever is keeping this path clear? But yeah could be more of them."
“Oh no, we can’t fall into a pit,” Cloud Cutter said emphatically to the gryphon, “How would we ever get out?”
A beat, then Grenelda responded flatly, “That was a joke, wasn’t it.”
Cloud Cutter just smiled back in amusement; it was the first time she'd shown emotion since they left.
“I'm saying there's no point going back.” Grenelda said, rolling her eyes, “We’re past the pit. Let’s see where this trail leads!”
Reef frowned and nodded, "Not a bad idea, I have to say. This path was built by someone, it must go somewhere they thought was important. Even if that hole was a trap, well, it couldn't have been intended for us, we just arrived. Besides... look at all this." He gestured at the surrounding greenery. "I could fill every jar and pouch I brought with samples and still only scratch the surface. Even if we don't find those bitey beasts, we'd hardly be returning empty clawed. Aha!"
Spotting a particularly interesting bright blue slug, the hippogriff reached into a saddlebag for one of said jars, set it on the ground with top unscrewed, then reached out delicately with a claw to snag the creature... and SQUAWKED as a tiny flash of electricity jumps from the slug to his leg. The charge was only mildly painful but it was enough to fluff all his feathers up.
"Damned bloody awful little..." Reef's shouting trailed off "...which is to say, hmph, got a little carried away there, one ignores proper procedure at one's peril you know." he finished in a sheepish voice. Extracting a pair of tongs from the other over-filled saddle bag, he grabbed the slug, which is now a rather duller shade of blue, and stuffs it in the jar. Within seconds the whole lot was stowed back in his bag. "So, where were we?"
The trail continued for another three kilometres, with no hostile encounters other than Reef’s brief delight as some slinky beast went rushing across the trail and crashing into the brush just ahead of them. A single side path to the right was thoroughly overgrown and duly ignored; none of the winged creatures felt like pushing into an even more confined space. Finally the woods begin to open up, with light streaming through the branches as they approached the edge of the island: the undergrowth grew sparser but the great trunks only grew taller, towering overhead in a chaotic mass of twisted branches and hanging vines.
At last the group reached the edge, where the land dropped away entirely to reveal a vista of open sky dotted by clouds and the floating island's distant siblings. Many of the enormous trees seemed to have fallen on their side, massive trunks stretching precariously out into the void. Instead of dying however, leafy branches sprouted and flourished upward into trees of their own right, extending the jungle beyond the boundaries of the land that supported it.
Reef Skimmer peered over the edge, letting his gaze follow a particularly large trunk that could have stood in for one of Canterlot's smaller towers. It slanted down a hundred metres or more, before terminating on new ground below. It was an entirely new island, floating adjacent to and below the first, obscured from view until now. The forest didn’t even hesitate at the edge: the eager plants bridged the gap like some kind of living waterfall, stretching all the way down to where a second forest, no, the same forest continued beyond.
The slanted trunk had been hollowed out at some point: they could see the entrance to a substantial passageway, travelled down inside of it, presumably leading to the lower island. The way down was barred by a substantial wrought iron fence and gate, built all around and over the opening, held tightly shut by an impressive brass lock.
Hanging from the lock was a neatly drawn sign, featuring two lines of runes that were completely incomprehensible to the newcomers. Fortunately the four pictograms below the strange writing were rather more comprehensible: a key, a house, several small circles and an arrow pointing right. Indeed to the right of the gate a small side path lead along the side of the island, then up through a small clearing to end at an ordinary looking cottage, just sitting there in the middle of the jungle.
Reef Skimmer spent some time staring in awe at the aerial jungle, before his gaze settled on the locked gate. "What in Equus... I can't imagine the sheep made this." Walking right up to the barrier, he examined the metalwork, the giant keyhole and alien writing of the sign, then cocked his head at the sight of the cottage. Stepping close to Grenelda, he said in a quiet voice "It doesn't look abandoned, but I don't see anycreature around either. Do you suppose there's something else on this island still drawing travellers, wingless ones at that? Anything on that map that might warrant visitors?"
“Why are you asking me? I’m just here to beat up monsters,” the griffon replied vaguely, looking up and all around at the cathedral-like branches as she strutted around.
“I would guess that means 'ask at that house for a key',” Cloud Cutter said, pointing a hoof at the sign, then in the general direction of the cottage. “Those might be coins, indicating payment? You don’t suppose there’s anybody living here?”
“Probably, I mean, someone must be keeping this trail clear.” Grenelda observed. “Well 'cept for that pit we were supposed to be looking at. Unless they were the one that dug it out in the first place. Either way, let’s go see if anyone’s home.”
As the griffon hen took a step forward, Reef put a claw on her shoulder. "I admire your curiosity, my dear: not to mention bravery, given that it could very well be another trap." Grenelda gave him an angry glare that softened only slightly at the compliment. "But assuming there is some civilised creature in there..." the hippogriff continued "...don't you think we should have the ponies present, for first contact with a new culture and all that?" He glanced at the undead pegasus standing stock still nearby. "We're hardly the diplomats... or the friendliest looking... of the crew."
"We're just going to talk, not contact them. What do you think I am, a pervert?" Grenelda asked Reef irritably, “You can go touching strange creatures all you want, but leave me out of it!” she snorted.
“No, he’s... right. I think,” Cloud Cutter said, looking nervously from the cottage to the edge, “I don’t even think we were supposed to be out here. Just a quick trip to the pit, right? How long have we been walking on foot?”
“The sky is right there,” Grenelda replied, pointing a claw at the island’s end, “So you can just go ahead and fly right on out." She turned back to the hippogriff. "I don’t really get that whole ‘culture’ stuff though. You mean we should steal the key instead, so they don’t see us or anything?”
"Certainly not!" Reef hissed. "There will be no stealing on my watch! I mean, aside from the fact that we aren't dishonourable knaves or diamond dogs, why would you risk hostilities for a key we don't even need? We can fly the ponies down there easily enough." He took a moment to compose himself before continuing. "What we truly need are allies that can help us with supplies, repairs... and maybe there are creatures in there who fit the bill, or can at least point us in the right direction. Look... I'm going to... head back that way, collect a few more samples, and report back to Set Sail, I mean, the senior junior research pony Sunset Scribble. This is a major discovery! No need to hog all the glory."
“Fine! Whatever. I was just curious, okay?” the grey griffon said, tossing up a foreleg dismissively and stomping away from the gate. “So we could’ve just flown around here the whole time. What’s the point? I didn’t think this trail would go all the way to the other end of the island! Forget this, I’m going back to camp.”
She struggled up over a big branch and leapt off the edge of the island, catching the wind as her wings spread and soaring swiftly away. Reef just watched her go; he was pretty sure arguing would just turn frustration into anger, and while angry ponies could be kind of cute, angry griffons were always trouble.
“...I think that went rather well,” Cloud Cutter remarked, drifting silently up beside Reef Skimmer. He tensed and began to spread his wings, before parlaying the motion into a kind of shrug; he wondered if the pegasus used to sneak up on creatures before she turned purple, or if it was a consequence of the transformation.
"Hmm, well, can't be helped I suppose, on edge and expecting a fight for the last hour, must be disappointed that we didn't see any action." Reef stared into Cloud Cutter's blank expressionless eyes for a moment, before looking away. "Might be a predator thing. So! As I say, I'll just be collecting a few more samples... if you wouldn't mind, err, keeping an eye out while I do so?" The big grey bird-pony took s a tentative step down the path, back into the forest. It still seemed peaceful... but the overhanging canopy was starting to feel oppressive, and he couldn't shake the image of being overwhelmed by a sudden tide of chomping mouths. He didn't want to be all alone out here.
"I will be with you as long as you like, Reef Skimmer,” Cloud Cutter said smoothly, following his lead as she trotted along behind him, heading back into the jungle. “But don’t wait until it’s too late to escape the nightfall. We wouldn’t want to get caught out here in the dark.”
Reef nodded at this: "Oh indeed, I would hope we'll be back for afternoon tea much less nightfall". The odd pair make their way back down the mossy path, the hippogriff constantly stopping to poke around in the jungle while the pegasus stood motionless, her eyes searching through the trees for any sign of trouble. One by one Reef's jars were filled by various insects and, after a particularly lucky pounce, some kind of rodent. Various pouches were stuffed with seeds, fruits and cuttings of plants. Perhaps two hours later, the two creatures found themselves back at the pit.
The shadows were beginning to lengthen, as the sun sank in the sky, casting the bottom of the pit into twilight. The hollow was still barren of life, even tree roots; nothing moved in the depths. Once again the sounds of animal life were muted, as if everything was avoiding this place, leaving a suspicious stillness that was broken only by the soft rustle of leaves in the breeze. Perhaps that was why the feathers on the back of Reef's neck were standing up.
"Right, here we are again then... and nothing. Not drawn by sound, or scent it seems." the hippogriff looked perplexed. "Although, if they're burrowing... vibration perhaps? Hmm..." Curiosity getting the better of him, he located a sizable rock and strained to pull it out of the ground. The stone was the size of a pony's head, and got significantly easier to carry once the hippogriff had spread his pinions. Struggling to keep them clear of the overhanging branches, he flapped up and hovered over the centre of the pit, before releasing the rock.
The rock plummeted to the bottom and embedded itself in the smooth dirt. Reef thought he caught a glimpse of something else moving, but with the shifting shadows it could have been his imagination. The lump of stone just sat there, and no green creatures came to investigate.
Reef stared into the pit for a few more seconds, before looking back to Cloud Cutter and attempting a smile. "I can only assume that after that licking Azure gave them, the beasts are avoiding the area! Perhaps smarter than they seemed? In any case, nothing for it now, let's head back." He glided down to the far side of the pit, the point where they'd first arrived, and added "Oh but if you don't mind, I'd like to check in with the other group on the way. They might have, erm... something?"
Cloud Cutter followed after, and nodded silently as she landed beside him. She wasn't sure what he meant, but checking in on the other team was a sensible precaution. Crossing the river and travelling on foot into the western forest, the two took the very overgrown southern detour to the abandoned village, slowly being reclaimed by the jungle. Here they would find Azure Feather, Summer Scribe, and the other ponies who'd spent the day sifting through the ruins.
Reef Skimmer trotted into the cracked central square, surrounded by the vine-choked ruins of former buildings. He immediately spotted Azure, sitting on the roof of one of the more intact structures and keeping a watchful eye on the various unicorns scattered around the settlement. Her folded butterfly wings shimmered in the late afternoon light. "Azure!" he shouted, "Good to see you again. No luck with the chomp beasts but plenty of specimens, and oh, guess what we found at the far end of that path? An honest-to-Novo toll gate!"
Azure's stance was a relaxed one, as she maintained her vigil over the ponies investigating the various ruined buildings, but there was still a sense of frustration, judging by the increased tension in her wings, not to mention the quiet muttering. At the doctor's shout, though, her head rose back to attention, and couldn't help but tilt at the mention of the toll gate. "Hmm. Suggests something actually intelligent lives here, then. Promising, at least. It's... been pretty dead here." she called back. She rose to her feet, indulged in a quick stretch and shook out her mane before adding "No hostiles to report."
Walking up to the building she'd chosen as her perch, Reef said "Ah... probably for the best, you still need to heal up you know," lingering concern in his voice. "But yes... does look that way, a little cottage and a neat sign, not that we could read the writing but there were these pictograms... asking for a toll, most likely. Grenelda... you know, the griffin hen... she wanted to go in right there and then... but you know what those unicorns are like, first contact protocol and all that. Best have the actual diplomats to do the talking, I have to admit."
Azure shrugged a bit at the mention of healing. "Honestly, I wouldn't have minded one or two hostiles to make sure the darn things don't bother us again, I've done nothing all day but stare at ruins... but you're right. Is everything okay, though? I notice your squad is down to two members..." she noted, concern in her own eyes now.
"Oh, once it was obvious there wasn't going to be any action, she just took off, in both the literal and metaphorical sense. Didn't have your patience or dedication, it seems." Reef said, in his most charming tone. "Although, speaking of the ruins..." The hippogriff flapped up to get closer to the unicorn, continuing in a quieter voice "err, did you find anything, you know, as we discussed?"
Azure frowned, recalling the various finds of the day. "The ponies down there seem interested by some... box, with brass bits sticking out. I haven't gone down there for a closer look, but from here it just looks like a fancy wardrobe."
Azure gave a quick nod before cutting him off. "Not your average wardrobe. Not with the horn and the glass bits." She shrugged slightly with her wings. "Believe me, if I knew the slightest bit about this place, it might make more sense to me. I think it does fit your criteria though. Maybe that's why the creatures down there are so interested too?" Turning away from the hippogriff, she gave the area another scan, looking for any sign of hostiles, before gesturing with a hoof at the far side of the central square.
"Is that so?" Reef quickly located the relevant artefact, sitting in the middle of a small collection of items in front of one of the larger ruins. "Indeed, that does look appropriate!" The hippogriff bobbed his head in a sort of flying bow. "Thank you!"
He glided down to a landing, eager to take a closer look. Rusted pots, half-rotted books and a great many pottery shards surrounded the artefact, which was clearly the prize find. Formidable in size, festooned with odd protrusions, and seemingly little affected by the passage of time save for a surface patina, it might be just what Reef was looking for. Glancing from side to side, he verified that the ponies were all busy investigating other buildings or uncovering buried objects.
Running his claws over the seasoned wood of the artefact, the big griff moved around to the rear... and discovered a panel, flush with the surface. A quick pry with his talons had it open, and what he found inside confirms his hopes. "Yes... this will do nicely." he muttered. Taking the thing in his claws, Reef struggled and flapped... by Novo the thing was heavy... and finally managed to wrench it into the air, where it suddenly became a bit more manageable albeit still very cumbersome. It was at this point that he looked up, and realised the flaw in his plan.
'Well, at least some creature's happy' Azure thought, nodded with a bit of a smile as she watched the doctor fly towards the weird object, and judging by his reaction, yeah... he was looking forward to this. Though flying with it in tow... and... oh goodness. Didn't doctors stay away from risky, unhealthy ideas? Not today! Azure quickly spread her wings and took off to try and help Reef Skimmer. Was he actually going to carry this thing back to the ship? "Doctor, last thing we need is you injured... let me help you carry this!" She lit her horn and began to wrap her magic around it; it was indeed heavy, too much weight for her to carry alone, but... at least they could take this home together, right?
Registering Azure's presence again, Reef clarified the problem: "Azure, err, thanks for the offer... honestly though... not the weight... that's the issue... once you're airborne." he said, breathing heavily "You've seen... air carriages... right? That canopy though... damned inconvenient... don't suppose... you could arrange... a way through?" Reef looked upward at the tangle of branches and vines forming a dense canopy over the ruined square.
Azure blinked, initially surprised when the doctor declined her offer to help, but it seemed her quick take-off would not be for nothing... clear the way? It's true that flying in the forest was a challenge even for the pegasi, and with his much larger wingspan there was no way the doctor would be weaving his way through the maze. There was no way he was going to carry that artefact back... unless she could clear the way.
"It's true that the quickest place from one point to another is a straight line... and there may not be hostiles, but this'll do just fine!" she called out happily, forgetting her injuries for a moment as her magic came alive in her unicorn's horn. She charged and shaped it into the same beams that she used to annihilate the hostiles last time, intent on cutting a path to the ship... only to get much more than she'd bargained for. Her horn grew painfully hot as the magic built and built, before bursting out in an enormous glowing torrent that smashed into the jungle, erasing the offending foliage from existence.
Reef almost dropped the artefact as waves of light, sound and flying splinters hit him. Maybe this pony really was an alicorn? "Thank... thank you!" he shouted, staring at the tunnel of total destruction sloping gently up through at least a hundred metres of jungle canopy, ending in a circle of sky with the distant EAS Harmony visible at the lower edge. "Most impressive! Take care!" With that the hippogriff flew off, flapping laboriously down the newly created tunnel until he emerges the into open sky. Such was his eagerness to depart, he failed to notice Azure's stunned expression or the steam rising from her horn.
Down on the ground, ponies came charging out of various digs and ruins. "What is it, what's going on? I'm ready!" shouted a certain Summer Scribe, horns lit. Seeing Azure, in flight and framed by a swathe of devastation behind her, she asked desperately "Is it an attack? Where are they? Wait, did you... vaporise them?"
With a distinct clang, the hatch leading from the engine room to the main deck opened, admitting a light grey hippogriff struggling with a pony-sized wooden cabinet. Reef had already dropped his saddlebags, but the wing blades were still strapped on, occasionally clinking against the walls and scratching the metal. Grunting with exhaustion, he pushed the thing over the deck plates into the open space between the boilers.
It stood on a wide brass plinth with four substantial feet, with a circular glass feature on the front and protrusions to the sides, the largest resembling a speaking tube adorned with a lightbulb. The artefact was crowned by two metal rods, linked by a piece of curly wire, the insulation aged and cracking off. "Nutmeg?" the hippogriff asked, panting. "Has anyone seen her? Thought she might... want to take a look... at this."
"Hey hey hey what the hay are you doing?" an off-pink mare shouted roughly, running up the causeway to the hippogriff and his ill-gotten goods, "Is that a... why the hay are you bringing in... the largest radio I've ever seen!? You think tunes are gonna broadcast this far from Equestria?" At Reef's question, she tilted her head, saying, "She's in the back. We found some tin sheets so we're welding the pipes what we can. Why you want her to look at a giant radio? She's very busy ya know."
Reef looked down at the unicorn, unimpressed. "Why? We just found evidence that not only is there industry and technology here, but there might be a way to communicate with the natives without even having to find them! Assuming this even is a radio and not some technology completely alien to us! You don't think that might be of interest to the chief engineer?" he huffed, anger and voice rising at having lugged this thing all the way here only for the ponies to act as if he had it in his cabin the whole time.
"What... what?" she replied in fretful confusion, "Look, I... don't know what you mean but just hold on I'll go get her." She went galloping off into a service corridor.
Seconds later a redheaded Kirin sprang out, saying "Hold on, I'm coming!" Nutmeg fells to a walk upon approaching Reef Skimmer. "You put the fear of Celestia into Sprocket, Reef," she chided, "She almost sounded like she was saying you found some alien technology." The brown furred mare stopped before him, looking to her right at the new machine, then back to him, adding in confusion, "What's a radio doing here? It's huge! I didn't even know we had one of these on board."
Looking at the fluffy kirin, Reef closed his eyes and let out a long, long breath. Calm, stay calm, surely this was a good idea, even if it had gotten a bit out of hand. Finally, he opened his eyes and said dryly. "We didn't. This is from the village. Honestly I'm not sure if it was a radio or not, but it's definitely a complex bit of technology, that seems native to these islands. Thought... you might like to take a look."
Nutmeg squinted at him, then looked at the radio: rusty antenna, warped casing, cracked dial, it had definitely seen better days. Another glance at Reef, then another squint at the device, before saying "Seriously? They had radios here? I mean I... guess I could take a look." She looked at the radio thoughtfully, "I'd have to drill out the screws though... unless this panel here opens... huh." The rear panel came away at her touch, and the kirin stared at the guts of the machine for a long while, before looking at Reef again in disbelief. "They really found a fluffing radio in that village?! This thing's almost intact! It must be a fake or... or a prank or something."
Laughing humourlessly now, she looked away before adding, "Ha ha, yeah you got me good there. It almost even looks like it came from a ruin. Were you the one who lugged an old trashed radio all this way just for a prank, or is someone else watching me freak out here?"
Reef's claws tightened, making an unpleasant chalk-on-blackboard screech as his talons scratched the deck plates, while his feathers fluffed up and his ear tufts flattened. His barely held cool evaporated as he said angrily "I go out of my way to lug this bloody thing back here, out of the foolish notion that perhaps you'd like something interesting and technical to sink your fangs into, and you have the nerve to call me a liar! Well, Chief Engineer Inferno, you've made it quite clear I needn't have bothered! Hmph. Good day to you!" With that the hippogriff turned tail (Nutmeg leaning back instinctively this time to avoid the pink feathers in the snout) and stalked out of the engine room, disappearing into the bulk of the ship.
Nutmeg stares in shock after the hippogriff storming out. Then she looks at the oversize radio again, still sitting heavily there in the middle of the engine room. "He was serious?" she declared faintly, falling to her haunches before the aged machine.
The sun gleamed on the tiny speck flying across the broad expanse of the floating island. A small wooden cart, designed to be drawn by a pair of pegasi, was instead being pulled through the sky by a single larger creature. A hybrid of avian and equine, with the head and claws of a sea eagle joined to the frame and hindquarters of an Arabian horse, the hippogriff's bright pink crest and tail constrasted with the smooth light grey of his coat. Far below, the dense green canopy passed beneath them, turning from forest to jungle as the party crossed to the far side of the island.
Seated in the cart was a unicorn with a mane of blue and white stripes, her fur tinted in pale teal. Next to her sat an earth pony: a lavender mare, with a blue mane once again wrapped neatly in a bun. Following along behind the cart, the purple-maned blue unicorn named Azure Feather was flapping along with a somewhat self-satisfied expression, her magically-endowed membranous wings scintillating in the sun. Blue Type, the lavender mare, seemed nervous.
Summer Scribe was mentally preparing herself for the Diplomatic task ahead, whatever form it ended up taking. This lent itself well to musing out loud about their unprecedented situation. "So, we have a toll gate, our first sapient contact will likely be its owner... Why do they even have a toll gate up? Do the people here use it often enough to warrant the effort? The island seems pretty abandoned now, but the village was bustling at some point, so it might just be a relic of a bygone era. May or may not get to update beliefs with new information..." She hmmed. "Are we hoping to get passage, or just to talk? True, many of our crew can fly around it, but the rest of us would appreciate having a more direct thoroughfare."
Out in front, his wide wings thrumming as he hauled the extra weight across the sky, the unicorn's words didn't register on Reef Skimmer the hippogriff. He stared down at the increasingly dense jungle, not really seeing it as his mind continued to churn on recent conversations. What was going on with these creatures? First the kirin acted friendly, showed him her secret blueprints, then rebuffed his gift and accused him of tricking and making a fool of her. Was she bipolar?
Then there was newly promoted pony captain, Wet Gale, ignoring his restraint in keeping that hen under control and acting as if walking a little further in search of the chomp beasts was some major insubordination. If she was just a strict disciplinarian, he could respect that, but she didn't even put him on report! Just said she was disappointed and looked like she was going to cry, didn't even cheer up when he volunteered to pull the cart. Not to mention the researcher, she couldn't seem to make up her mind how to treat him either, upset one minute, pleased the next. Was he doing something wrong? It was never this complicated back in the navy.
Azure wasn't thinking much about the toll gate: diplomacy used to be something she wasn't too bad at, but her mind was on other things, mainly the... magical working she'd used for the bramble clearing. What was supposed to be a repeated series of cutting beams to clear a path through the branches, had ended up being, well... just the one, enormous... blast. Yeah, blast. Never mind the whole thing sounding like Celestia had followed behind the EAS Harmony and brought the power of the Sun to obliterate the whole jungle. Not something she was keen to discuss; she remained silent for now, flying steadily and keeping the cart in view.
Hearing Summer's musings, Blue Type glanced at her companion, obviously tense but trying to smile as she said, “It’s quite possible the cottage is abandoned too. It may have been a long time since anypony ever lived here. If there is some... creature living there, I think passage through this gate isn’t as important as finding out the hist- finding out what happened here, and why their people have never attempted to communicate with Equestria.” She shivered, scooting closer to the centre of the gently rolling cart, adding curtly, “I certainly wouldn’t turn down a chance to get across without flying though.” The mare kept her eyes down, not looking at the cart’s driver, or the frighteningly powerful unicorn following close behind.
Summer nod-nodded in consensus with Blue Type's thoughts. "Yeah, I basically agree: this'll be our first in-person talk, so we want to be polite, respectful and learn about each other as equals... Well, hopefully! Being this devoted to a toll booth strikes me as a certain hostility... but! We'll just have to see what we can do." Summer settled down and devoted the rest of the journey to note-taking and planning things out in her notebook, occasionally glancing over at Azure. Come to think of it, a blast as big as the one at the one at the dig site would make short work of pretty much any hostile encounter! She wondered if it was a repeatable performance...
As the party approached the far side of the island, the landmass beyond came into view, mostly shrouded in morning mist. Reef banked right, crossing the edge of the first island some way from the tree bridge, before gliding down in a wide anticlockwise spiral. The tangle of trunks and vines linking the two islands was directly ahead, a waterfall of plant life with the massive hollow trunk at its centre. "There it is, dead ahead." Reef shouted. He aimed for the small clearing near the top of the tangle, between the cottage and the trunk entrance.
Azure was still considering the possible hazards ahead. The idea of a toll booth and possibly hostiles more intelligent than those stupid teeth-filled... things, that was something to be concerned about for sure. The one thing that was worse than a enraged predator was an intelligent enemy. As it stood, her mission wasn't complicated: you have allies, you protect allies, and that's it. If they return unhurt, then you did your job well. Though... her mind drifted to another possibility: the danger of friendly fire, previously remote, now seemed quite real. Hay, it had been a close call yesterday when she was trying to do nothing more than clear some branches, never mind casting in a combat situation.
Her train of thoughts was derailed as Reef Skimmer began his final approach to their destination. The griff backwinged and slowed as they came in for a landing; as they approach the small dwelling came into view, sitting on a knoll above the clearing with a clear view of the toll gate and its approach path. It seemed nice enough, Azure thought, but appearances could be deceiving. Touchdown was a little bumpy, but everything stayed inside the cart and they soon rolled to a stop. "And here we are," the hippogriff said pleasantly, "apologies if I jostled you around back there, it's been an age since I last pulled one of these things you know."
The party found themselves in the unusually open space, bordered by dense forest on three sides and the sheer dropoff at the island's edge. It was a nice, pleasant, sunny morning, even in the dappled shade of the dense foliage. Crossing the clearing was a pebbled path, leading down though the undergrowth to the heavy iron toll gate, where it joined the more substantial thoroughfare leading from the hollowed-out trunk to the ruined village. In the opposite direction it curved up around a prominent trunk to reach a quaint looking cottage. Blue Type wasted no time in exiting the wooden cart, clambering onto the grass before hastily trotting further inward, finding a hollow within a tangle of roots and taking a moment to rest there.
Summer Scribe studied her surroundings: in all her travels through the wilds of Equestria, she'd never seen anything quite like this. The little unicorn squeezed her way around a tangle of thick branches, or are they roots, emerging from the earth only to plunge downward to the second island. Now she had a clear view from the very edge of the island, getting a good look at the giant hollowed out tree forming a bridge down to the mysterious neighbouring landmass. Pointing a hoof at the structure, she said "I gotta say, just from an aesthetic and pragmatic perspective, this is a really cool setup." She sighed and turned away from the stunning panorama, trotting back to the path and staring at the cottage. "But I suppose we should start by knocking and seeing if the lights are on! Everyone who's involved with negotiations, come with me please."
Such a nice place. Had this just been a peaceful retreat, a camping trip, Azure would have been first to relax, at least a little. Under the circumstances though, if anything, she was just getting more tense. This was too quiet. Especially since she knew there were hostiles out there, lurking in the jungle. And as Summer requested every creature involved with negotiations to follow her... the blue unicorn was the first to step up. "In case things go wrong," she stated.
Reef Skimmer parked the cart at the edge of the clearing and unbuckled the yoke harness; he'd had to combine the two pegasi-sized harnesses into one to fit his larger barrel. "I'll just, err, stay in earshot then?" he said uncertainly, before looking away and admitting "I realise we griffs can sometimes be a little, erm, intimidating? To non predators I mean."
Blue Type smiled at that, saying, "You are a true gentlepony, Doctor Skimmer." Her smile tensed as she adds awkwardly, "Err, a true... gentlecreature. Sorry, old habits."
She fell in behind Azure and the three little ponies moved towards the dwelling: Summer Scribe first, trying to act casual, seeing if she can catch a glimpse of the occupants through any of the windows... no, that might be rude, the first thing she'll do is knock and stand back. 'Gotta treat people as your equals!' she thought. Reef followed at a distance, keeping a good dozen griff-lengths back from the ponies, glancing around looking for anything that has changed since his last visit, ready to render assistance if things got ugly.
The cottage was very well kept, built of weathered grey stone with a roof of soft red clay tiles, certainly not wreckage like the abandoned village at the far end of the path. It had a glass paned window in the front, but there are shades drawn across it, and nothing could be seen through them. Next to that is a painted wooden front door, with a pull lever for the doorbell on one side. No sound could be heard from within.
Summer checked to see if there was any kind of garden being grown: indeed there did seem to be some rows of vegetables planted around the back, a strong indication of ongoing habitation! "Certainly LOOKS currently inhabited." she remarked. Azure nodded quietly; she was all set to do her part in these negotiations... and that's to just shut up and listen. She'll be ready if things go wrong, but until then...
Without much else to study beyond that, Summer gave the doorbell lever a tug and listened for a response. Instead, a secret trap door suddenly opens... but not underneath the ponies. It was a tiny little door in the bottom of a hidden compartment high overhead, opening to release a single marble. The glass sphere drops down and strikes a bell with a resounding clang, after which a hidden whirring mechanism returned the marble to its hiding place.
Some way behind, Reef Skimmer's gaze had settled on the vines linking the islands; did they grow down from the upper level then put down roots, or did the tree grow from the lower island then fall, giving them a path to grow up? At that height it was really amazing that the xylem could still pull water up, unless of course... he blinked and pulled his attention back to the ponies. This was history in the making!
From deep inside the old stone cottage came a crashing sound, followed by the thump of a flailing body. A stallion’s voice called out from within, “One minute! Just a second!” There was the sound of thumping feet, followed by the clacking of a lock at the front door. As it swung open, a strange creature was framed by the portal, bipedal and very tall. He didn’t seem to have any fur, just leathery green skin from head to toe. He was wearing a half-buttoned shirt, and a brown jacket with one skinny arm threaded through the arm hole. Hastily adjusted suspenders held up his pants, also brown. Judging by the smooth, dextrous digits on the end of his forelimbs, the lack of a tail, and the triangular floppy ears, he looked like some kind of goblin, albeit a rather large one.
“Oh ho ho,” the creature said, his droopy eyes widening in surprise as he saw the intrepid explorers gathered before his door, “You’re adorable!” His face filled with a pleasant smile, “Hey little guys... who brought you here?” Then his expression grew more serious, as he straightened up and looked over everpony’s head, calling out, “Silas? Barnaby? Is this one of your little jokes again?” He looks down at the three ponies again, scratching his head, saying, "Well they seem friendly. Maybe they’re some kind of new jungle sheep?”
Summer had to push past her initial reflexes at the sight of this strange... bipedal creature! As tall as a minotaur, though much slimmer in build, with a face frankly unlike anything you'd see back in Equestria! She stepped back a bit and looked around, expecting to see more... but if 'Silas' or 'Barnaby' were indeed out there, they weren't visible. But... ponish! It seemed like just as in Equestria, writing systems and accents varied, but all sapients still shared a spoken language (save for the Prench, and respectable Equestrian academics all believed they were deliberately putting it on).
To be sure, adorable wasn't exactly the first impression she was hoping for, nor did she envision starting with comparisons to sheep, but at least it implied an openness to discussion! So she cleared her throat and began: "Greetings, inhabitants of Cloudbreak Islands! We are ponies... and a hippogriff... from Equestria far below, and we've come here on a mission of scientific discovery and exploration! I am Summer Scribe, and these are Blue Type, Azure Feather and Reef Skimmer. To that end, we'd like to extend our friendship to you, and learn what we can from each others' kind!"
Azure Feather had stood her ground as the strange green creature arrived. Adorable? There was a slight tilt of her head at the term, but she otherwise had no reaction. As Summer Scribe began her introduction, though, the blue unicorn kept her silence. As long as things kept going well, she had nothing to do. And so far so good.
Some way down the path, Reef Skimmer was trying to get a good look at the new specimen, without drawing attention to himself. 'Fascinating!' he thought 'Bipedal, obviously... minotaur sized, but plantigrade, unlike a diamond dog or most known bipeds. Some kind of primate maybe... but hairless, and how is his skin green? Chlorophyll perhaps?'
At “Greetings,” the creature jumped back with an “euaah!” Staring down at Summer, who was merrily continuing “inhabitants of the Cloudbreak islands we are,” he murmured, “...talking sheep?” He doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to what she’s saying, but when she falls silent he asked, “What the heck is a ponyzanda hippagriff? You don’t look like sheep! Talking sheep from the Underlands? You don’t have a hint of Undead in you though.”
Again he looked over the ponies, staring into the jungle and calling out, “Seriously, is this a joke?” When no answer was forthcoming, he turned back to the ponies, saying, “Look, I don’t know where you came from, but you’re uh... trespassing here on the Blissful Pastures if you don’t pay a toll. Sorry uh, I didn’t think anyone was actually going to come here anymore. I’ll have to dig out the cash register. One sec.”
With that he turned and bipedaled his way back into the house, leaving the door hanging open. Inside, it looked like a relatively bare living room, with some rickety chairs that look poorly hand made, an empty dining table, and a very ratty looking couch.
Summer Scribe's ears were pressed flat against her skull: being talked at rather than with! She was not on the level of a talking sheep! But she couldn't let that sidetrack her now. The unicorn looked around at her allies as the troll moves out of earshot. "Doesn't seem much like diplomatic material, unfortunately... As for the toll, I hope that he takes old coins from the ruins?"
Meanwhile Azure was thinking 'What the heck is a Ponyzanda Hippogryph? This creature thinks ponies are sheep? Ugh.' At the mention of trespassing and a toll, though... Azure seemed to tense up a bit, looking even more uneasy. So much for diplomacy if the creature wouldn't accept their currency, lucky as they were to even have any! She kept all this to herself, staying silent for now.
Summer popped open a saddlebag, and hovered a few small silver discs out: they'd been cleaned and brushed off a bit, but their age was clear. "Hopefully this does the trick." Taking a step forward, she stood on the threshold and peered around the interior of the cottage: it seemed simple and quaint enough, and gives some idea of the level of technology and logistics here... though who was to say this isolated cottage was representative of the other islands?
Reluctant to get close, Reef Skimmer paced awkwardly around through the trees. As the biped seemed to have disappeared for now, he decided to check out the garden at the rear of the cottage, hoping to get an idea of the creature's diet. Given the prominence of the lower canines, it seemed unlikely the species was herbivorous, but exactly how much of their diet consisted of meat remained an open question.
The native returned with his hands wrapped around a rather bulky contraption. It appeared to be some sort of typewriter, but with no place to feed in the paper. There were strange $ symbols engraved in the metal on either side of it. “Okay, it...” he began, dropping the thing heavily onto the table in the room, making the table wobble dangerously on a half broken leg. “It’s thirty gold per... three,” he mumbled distractedly, pressing the keys down with a noticeable clack.
'Thirty gold?' thought Summer, shocked at the price. 'Shoot, I've only got copper and silver here... and wait until he hears how MANY people are here!' She watch nervously, braced for the impeding negotiations breakdown when the creature realised they could pay his toll.
Finally he pulled a large lever on one side, causing a spring to burst out of the top of the machine, knocking aside the upper casing which now dangled askew. Whatever internal process he was attempting ground to a halt: with a final 'sproing' a gear popped out of the hole and just kind of rolled across the floor. “Oh who am I kidding,” he groaned, head sinking in despair. Looking up at the ponies still waiting patiently at the door he said, “Oh you... ponyzandas can come in I suppose. Can’t hurt at this point. Do you like uh... do you like Jungle Apples?”
Summer stared at the broken device for a moment before it dawned on her that they were getting off scott free! What a relief! She discretely tucked the coinage back away and gave a happy nod and smile! "Thank you for inviting us in, sir!" She looks back to her companions as she trotted into the cottage, before giving an enthusiastic nod to her host: "Sure, I'd love some!" How bad could they be, right? Apples were ostensibly edible!
Azure had winced as the strange device... completely fell apart in the creature's hands. The invitation to enter was met with a little scepticism from Azure, but after Summer's cheerful response she moved to follow. No choice now, right? Her wings were tightly folded, and her posture remained tense.
Outside, Reef Skimmer was experimentally poking a... radish? with a talon when he heard the clack-sproing of the broken register. Peering around the corner, he saw the ponies disappear from sight as they trotted into the building. It seemed like things were going well? Thinking he should keep them in sight, and wanting to observe the intriguing biped further, he gave a little flap-jump-glide over to where the ponies had been standing, allowing him to peer in through the door.
“Hold on while I...” He spotted Reef nosing his way in then, tensing at the sight of the much larger creature with a much sharper beak and talons. “Friend of yours?” he asked, not looking away from the pink-ruffed hippogriff. “I suppose you’re not here to pay the toll either,” he grumbled, “You flyers don’t know the meaning of private property. Not that you could tell from looking at this island. I suppose you want a jungle apple, too, Mister Griffon?”
Azure's head gave a sharp tilt at the creature's apparent dislike of flying creatures... but she said nothing of it. She was a flier too, most of the time at least, and darn well knew that trespassing on private property was a mistake... and Griffon? ...hardly... surely the doctor would correct him. The native seemed harmless enough, but she didn't like his tone.
Reef Skimmer blinked: coming from a pony that would be annoying, but he's rather surprised this creature even knows of griffons (to be fair, his hindquarters weren't visible from the native's position). But then... there was that legend, discredited by every serious researcher but stubbornly persistent, that griffons originally came from these islands. The hippogriff raises a claw to his chest and is about to correct the creature, before thinking better of it. "Ah, you've met my, err, people then? Do they come here often?" He cocked his head and stared at the green biped. "I must say your species is new to me, what do you call yourselves? Oh and, erm, an apple, yes don't mind if I do."
"New to you? You've never run into trolls before?" the creature asked, giving Reef an incredulous look. “I don’t see how that’s possible. I know I’m a tall one, but you know, we’re all uh, all over the place. Anyway, I’ll be right back with your apples, hold on.”
Troll? Reef Skimmer racked his memory; weren't those mythical? A creature from nursery rhymes, something that lived under bridges, always grumpy or causing trouble? He'd never heard of a real creature called that... had he?
The green biped returned a few moments later, bearing three pleasantly red fruits. “I’m Abernathy, for what it’s worth,” he said, “Keeping this bridge family owned since, well, forever. I think you said your names already, but I didn’t catch ‘em.” He began handing out the apples.
Summer enthusiastically accepted one in her magic: she bit down on the juicy flesh, discovering it has a tangy, yet spicy taste, not unlike lily or rhododendron. Pleasantly tingly! Seeing that the troll doesn't appear alarmed by Summer's display of telekinesis, Azure took one too, though she doesn't take a bite just yet. He then tossed one to Reef, who caught the fruit in a claw and stares at it, seemingly more interested in its morphology than what it tastes like. Blue Type seemed more reluctant to accept the unfamiliar food, asking, “Ah, I don’t suppose you would have any hay, perhaps?” as she gave the fruit a sideways glance.
“Hay?” the troll replied. “You mean like... sheep?”
"Mmmm! This is delicious! Can you show us where you find these later?" said Summer's, tail swishing briskly as she takes another bite. She smirked over at Blue Type: as bothersome as the connotations were, they were certainly in need of a balanced diet, and hay was an excellent source of fibre. "Yeah, like sheep! But... we're ponies, not sheep. As I said.. I'm Summer Scribe! It's fine if you don't have any, though, this is great!"
Finally taking a bite herself, Azure nodded slowly at the taste of the apple. "Not bad... not bad at all. Thank you." First few words she's said, but at the same time... at least she's speaking now. And with the food, she seems to relax at least a little. "My name is... Azure Feather." Her wings partially unfurled as she looks around, falling silent again.
“I’ve never heard of ponies,” the troll named Abernathy said, sitting down carefully in one of the rickety chairs, “But I haven’t been around a lot. Still if you haven’t heard of trolls, then you’re definitely not from around here.”
He looked up at the shaded window with a sigh, “Regardless, if you came here for the grass, you’re about two generations too late. This island hasn’t been any good for grazing in as long as I can remember. But I guess that’s what I get for being a smarty pants.” Looking away again, he continued, “But enough about my problems. Why are you all here out in the middle of nowhere? I haven’t had any guests, or customers in uh...” He glanced over at the broken cash register machine, “...a while.”
Summer made a mental note of this; it sounded like the island, as expected, used to be a lot more vibrant. Maybe there would be something closer to civilisation on the far side of the bridge? "As I mentioned before, we're here on a mission of scientific discovery and exploration." she said cheerfully.
"These islands are completely surrounded by an enormous storm cell, impenetrable by normal means, so we're making first contact right now!" She nodded for emphasis. "And it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. We're as pleased to see someone here as you are us, I imagine!" Anyway, the thrust of the line of conversation... "Do you think you'll be able to let us pass through your toll gate?"
Azure nodded as well, but doesn't break her silence. This wasn't her conversation, Summer Scribe seemed far more suited to play the role of diplomat... so she just kept munching on her apple.
Reef Skimmer had been absent-mindedly dissecting the apple with his talons, but chose this moment to chime in: "...and if you wouldn't mind giving us a few pointers, you know, to where we might find more speci... inhabitants, griffons especially, one would be entirely in your debt." The griff frowned; hopefully that wouldn't be interpreted literally, although if this 'troll' had an actual map, that might be worth trading for. "And oh, erm, Reef Skimmer, at your service." he concluded, ducking his head in a brief bow.
“A storm cell?” Abernathy said to Summer, seemingly in shock. “You mean the... you mean The Storm Wall? The one that goes around the whole islands? There’s nothing on the other side of that! If you... I mean, no offense but, you’d get torn apart if you tried to fly through it with those little wings.” He gestures at the hippogriff’s flanks, “Nothing could get through it, not even a dragon!” He paid no attention to Reef's question, or for that matter Blue Type, who had abandoned the conversation and was snooping around the house, searching for books she could ‘borrow’.
Before Reef could take offence, Summer nodded in confirmation: "The very same! And believe me, it WASN'T easy to get through: we came in on an airship with specialised equipment. We're lucky to be standing before you today! And we have no way back, until we can repair the ship, or rescuers come..." Summer trailed off, realising she may have said too much. Who knew how long it would take to repair the Harmony, or if it was even possible with the spare parts gone? Even if a rescue ship was sent, how would it survive the storm better than they did or find them if it did get through?
In truth the expedition was stranded here for the foreseeable future... 'Better make the most of it, huh?' Summer thought, 'we still have so much to learn about just these first two islands: hopefully they're not a dead end!'
Azure couldn't think of anything to add to that, but she did seem... at least a little concerned as Summer mentioned they're stranded on these islands for... yeah, who knew how long. Her wings drooped rather significantly. Not good.
“Oh, well that’s too bad. Sounds like you got your hands full,” Abernathy said a little irritably, “I’d be more sympathetic, if you hadn’t gotten to the tunnel leading to this island, seen the sign that says to ring the bell, then flown around it instead of paying. I’m already a laughing stock, and who ever heard of troll who couldn’t keep people from crossing his bridge for free? Between that and the chompy problems I’ve been having, I’m afraid there’s not much I can do to help you.”
Reef's ear tufts perked up at this. "Chompies? Are those... creatures? Small green creatures that live in a pit, by any chance?"
Blinking, Abernathy replied, "Well... you could say they live in a pit. It's more like they are a pit. You miss one rooting itself, and don't take care of its pod, and bam you have a chompy pit in the most inconvenient place possible. They've been infesting the island recently and I haven't been able to keep up with getting rid of all the pits. They're a royal pain, I'll tell you that."
Summer leaned over to Azure, and beckoned Reef to listen in. "Huh, sounds like we have a good opportunity to do a good deed, and learn about a foe that's likely common and indigenous to the islands, right?"
"Oh, don't worry. I know how much of a pain in the flank they are." Azure muttered, shaking her head. "We fought the bastards, and they landed me in the injured list. Would rather that not happen again. Blasted things." The little beasts clearly didn't have a place in her heart.
Reef ducks his head down to the ponies. "Indeed, if this... troll... can help us locate them, capture some specimens, his gratitude would be a bonus." he whispered, rather loudly. "Perhaps then he'll tell us where the native griffons can be found."
"They're on the lower island?" the troll interrupted, half standing in alarm, "I thought that place was clean! Where did you run into them? It wasn't by the docks, was it?"
Summer exchanged glances with Azure. Docks? Presumably a feature of the lower island? "No, we encountered them on *this* island, in the forest, in a nasty pit," she corrected, "Though Reef told me they no-showed when he went to check on it."
"Indeed, no sign of the blighters, not even tracks or bodies; we were there twice, dropped a fair-sized rock in the pit even." Reef said. The hippogriff had been staring around at the furniture, the cupboards, searching for a biology textbook, a cookbook (the next best substitute) or even a map. Failing to find anything, his gaze settled on the machine on the table. The top hanging off and gears lying underneath made it clear that it was broken. "Hmm, perhaps we might also assist... with this? Not my area of expertise, you know, machinery and such, but we do have..." He winced, thinking of how the kirin had acted last time he brought her a device. Maybe her assistant, Rocket? "...ponies, on the ship, handy with this kind of thing."
Azure just let the others talk... as she was rather annoyed to find out that the darn 'chompies' were apparently a widespread problem. It seemed her services as a guard would not be required for this encounter, and that was something at least. But if they had to fight the darn things again...
"There are more of you?" Abernathy said, looking Reef's way with some modicum of hope, "I don't care about the cash register, but if you've got more griffons you can probably take down a chompy pit easy. Uh..." he gave an apologetic wince at the ponies, saying, "Unless you just have ponies. Sorry, obviously darling little things like you can't go out fighting chompy pods. But a griffon or two..." He stood up and paced across the room, looking back at the big hippogriff and saying, "I'll even give you the key, so you can get back through the tunnel to your ship without flying. If you can help me take out a chompy pit, I'll consider your toll paid in full!"
Azure looked more than a tad irritated at the implication that ponies can't fight chompies. "Oh, I assure you... we can fight the things," she said in a confident tone, "I've fought them. I've destroyed a few... and I'd be willing to do it again. I can safely say I'd do a lot better, second time around." Of course, while she was getting herself either frustrated or excited, a glowing charge of magic was building around her unicorn horn... one she dismissed as she reminded herself of what she almost did earlier, and what she was thinking about on the way over. "So! I don't know about you creatures, but if we need to blast that pit to shreds to get through... I've been looking to take down the creatures that put me on the injured list."
Reef tried to offer support, taking a step forward and starting to spread his wings before he realised the room was too small. "We do indeed have more griffons, but I must say, that cute little pony there can... neutralise more foes in a second than a pack of griffons could in a minute! More than meets the eye, these pony-folk, I can assure you. So... if you could just clarify this 'pod' business..."
Abernathy waved the hippogriff away, trying not to laugh as he said endearingly to Azure, "What'd you do, stomp on it with your adorable little hooves? You don't have to pretend you can fight chompies. Not everything has to be all that strong. You just keep using your big, strong magic to pick yourself some tasty fruits. Your friend here will keep any of those nasty bad chompies from getting you." He gave a knowing look to an increasingly nervous Reef Skimmer, his voice full of amusement as he continued "If you can't do more damage to a chompy pod with one claw tied behind your back than these silly little critters can do all day, then I'm a monkey's uncle."
Azure just stared at Abernathy for a moment. "...Well. I see words mean nothing." Her tone was dangerously serene, but the spark of magic was quickly returning to her spiralled horn as she looked to the roof. "I apologise in advance." is all she said, before she fired what was intended to be a tight beam of magic, sized to pierce a neat hole through the roof. As with her last attempt at a beam strike, magic took one look at her intentions and decided to do its own thing instead.
The room was replaced by an intense bubble of light and sound as the entire roof of the building exploded upwards, tiles shattering and timber disintegrating as they're carried away, the fragments swirling around the expanding tornado of destruction. The roaring wind and spiralling debris rushed upward, soon replaced by a steady torrent of crashing and splintering as bits of house and jungle rain back to earth. Slowly everything settles back to silence, the cottage now four stone walls completely open to the sky, the attic floor and roof seemingly vanished from existence. Sunlight beamed down on the group through a neat circular hole in the canopy far above, vegetation obliterated by the same massive beam.
"Well," Abernathy said faintly, covered in the dusty remains of his own roof, "I suppose my third nephew was always the rambunctious type." Her consciousness fading away, Azure Feather collapsed quietly to the ground.
Reef Skimmer immediately dashed forward and dropped to the floor next to Azure, checking her airway and carefully opening an eyelid to assess pupil dilation. "Unresponsive, shallow breathing... pulse is irregular." The hippogriff glanced at Summer Scribe, concern evident in his eyes. "And... this isn't the first incident. I need to get her back to the ship. Right now."
Summer gave a curt nod of agreement. "Seems like some some kind of... obligate laseritis! I wonder what she's come down with?" She planted her hooves, ready to help move Azure with her telekinesis. "I better stay here and, uhh, keep our shellshocked friends company here..." she said, looking up at the giant hole where the roof had been, sweat forming on her brow. This was a hell of a first impression!
With Summer's help, Reef Skimmer soon had Azure's innate form draped over his back, and he carefully rose to his feet. "Out here on your own?" he asked Summer, concern in his voice, "Very noble of you but do you really want to risk it? One could probably manage all three of you you know, perhaps not at best speed, but..." hie trailed off. It would definitely take longer hauling a two-pony cart. He looked at Blue Type, then back at Summer. "...you're sure about this?"
Summer Scribe nodded, her tail swishing with renewed enthusiasm. "If I can't handle this then you ought to kick me off the islands entirely." A nervous laugh, then with more confidence "I'll figure something out."
Abernathy had been keeping his distance, watching the creatures rush to the winged unicorn's aid. "I hope this isn't normal for you," he said, trying to keep the shock and fear out of his voice, "That couldn't possibly have been magic. Do you have some kind of explosives in those horns of yours?"
Blue Type glared daggers at the troll. "It is not normal, and it’s not the time to talk about your silly notions of magic!" she replied furiously.
He dismissed her with a wave of his green, fingered forelegs, preferring to concentrate on Summer Scribe. "I want all you horny creatures out of my house, right now, before another one of you explodes. Do you have any idea how long it's going to take me to rebuild that roof?"
The little unicorn shook her head: "Look, this is as far from normal as it gets! She wouldn't do something like that, unless..." She hesitated, hanging her head down in thought: sometimes the most valuable skill one could apply was listening...
Summer closed her eyes for a moment, before her head came back up: "Alright, no problem." she told the troll cheerfully, "I bet we can have someone fix that for you. Let me just consult..." who? She was the leader of this expedition, and Set Sail was back on the ship, yet she felt the need for moral support. Her eyes settled on Doctor Skimmer, who was standing in the doorway with Azure sprawled on his back, listening to the argument. Trotting over to him, she asked "We can spare some manual labour, right? Rebuild the roof as a token of good will? I know, we have to discuss it with Set Sail and the crew... but we can make a statement of intent, right?"
Reef Skimmer hesitated; it seemed plausible, but he had a hard time thinking about such things with an unconscious friend on his back, in urgent need of treatment. That troll creature could still be a threat, now that it's angry... but he judged the unicorn likely could handle it, at least until reinforcements arrive. "Worth a shot, certainly. I'll inform everygriff, err, pony, on the ship: another party will be right over, I'm sure."
With one final glance at the fuming Blue Type, giving what he could only hope was a reassuring wink, the griff concluded with "Best of luck then, Summer Scribe!" before trotting out into the clearing. Was there a faint muttering of "...and how in bloody Tartarus am I supposed to explain this one to Set Bail" before the sound of forceful wingbeats signalled his departure? Maybe Summer just imagined it.
The unicorn in question just stood there for a moment, before it dawned on her that perhaps a written note to Set Sail was called for. Not that she didn't trust the doctor, it's just that he could be a little... absent minded and with his mind on Azure... "Reef! Wait!" she shouted, galloping out the cottage door just in time to see the now airborne hippogriff and passenger disappear above the trees. She skidded to a halt and groaned; she had to admit, having the big grey griff around was somewhat reassuring, and she hoped he'd be able to return with the reinforcements. Just have to figure out what to do until then!
About-facing to, uhh... vaguely face the cottage, she was greeted by the sight of Abernathy shooing Blue Type out of the dwelling. She took a few steps forward, eager to resume the conversation: "So, umm, yes, we're deeply sorry about the hole in your roof, we'll endeavour to fix it as soon as we can..."
Hearing Summer's words, the troll looked up from the earth pony he was herding and immediately fixated on the spiralled appendage protruding from her head. Abernathy flailed backwards, shouting, "Gah! Don't point that thing at me!" and grabbing clumsily for the doorknob.
'Whoops! Can't even do that...' Summer thought. Trying to minimise any perceived threat, the pale blue unicorn turned her body away from the cottage and talked over her shoulder, looking sideways at the troll and keeping her horn pointed at the trees. "Ok, is this acceptable?" Her expression was almost bashful now; she felt kind of silly, stuck here with an ungrateful troll and without any transportation back!
"...fine," Abernathy said reluctantly, peeking around the nearly closed door, "Bring your crew over and then maybe we can talk. But I don't want any more holes in my house."
By this point Blue Type had collected her wits and tried to reason with the troll, approaching him cautiously. “See?" she said, gesturing with a hoof, "No horn on my head. I assure you that could never possibly happen to me."
Abernathy stared at her, assessing the truth of her words. His gaze shifted rapidly between the earth pony and the unicorn, before he finally relented, opening the door but staying firmly within the cottage. “Okay, you want to talk to me, I get that. But you’re gonna have to answer a few questions. How did that purple... horn pony or whatever you are, blow a hole in my roof? You said all you had was magic.”
Summer Scribe nodded, resisting the urges to turn and face him, making her look unusually stiff. "Yeah: magic! That's what us unicorns do. Well, all ponies have a limited form of it in one way or another... But for unicorns like me and Azure, it manifests in the more stereotypical associations of the word: telekinesis and magical spells." With an enthusiastic grin and further nod, she continued, "And Azure's really good at it! Butterfly wings and magical blasts come easily to her. I know the theory, but I don't have nearly the experience and capacity she does! I bet she's practiced sooo much."
"Those butterfly wings, they weren't magic," came Abernathy's knowing reply, "Magic just isn't all that powerful, not more than any of the other elements. You could make an... illusory wing maybe, but it would take a lot of concentration." He looked thoughtful, trying to puzzle out what had happened to his house. "That... 'blast' must have been more wind than any one creature should be able to channel; a lot more. Just how powerful is your... telekinesis? More than picking fruits, I suppose?"
"Telekinesis is pretty much like flexing a magical muscle: you have to grip and tense and lift. Like this..." Summer clarified. She looked around, catching some rocks in her field and pulling them into a pile in front of her. Then one by one she lifted them up into the air, each surrounded by a glowing aura. The more she lifted, the more she strained, until with a 'whew' she sets them down.
Suddenly she thought of her earlier find: 'Aha! Should've known...' Still avoiding looking directly at the troll, she asked "You're talking about magic being one of the 'elements'? Run that by me again; what about that blast was more 'wind' to you than anything else?"
"It was... windy?" Abernathy said, as if it should be self-explanatory. He let the door swing open as his fingers went to scratch his bald head. "Don't tell me you creatures don't know what air is. It's the stuff that everything floats in. We're breathing it right now. It's just weather, but what she did was like weaponised weather."
"Well, yeah, we know what AIR is." Summer said, trying not to sound patronised and not entirely succeeding. "But that's something pegasi work with, not unicorns! Flying really well and walking on clouds and making them rain and stuff. A blast is just..." She made a vague gesture with her hoof, "Magic magic. Like, a direct release of unstructured energy. It's just pure magic!"
"It was certainly powerful," Blue Type observed, "And usually unicorns aren't at all good at weather magic. But this one seems... fond of the pegasi way. She clearly had a horn surge of some sort, but I wouldn't call it a weapon." She looked up at the hole in the canopy overhead and winced, "Just... destructive."
Summer pondered for a moment, before saying "That said, we don't have analogues for ALL of your elements. There's also fire, earth, water, and uhhh... skull, right?" She blinked, hoping her meaning came across.
"Oh, I suppose you saw the old village," Abernathy remarked, folding his arms, "Darn shame that. My great grandfather said it used to be a mabu village. Haven't seen a mabu in forever. But I've heard they practically worship some kind of balance of the elements. That's what that old shrine used to be about, or so he said. The skull one is for the 'Undead' element, which is like... you know, the stuff that stops things from dying? Or living?"
Drawing a blank, Summer shot a glance at her companion, but Blue Type's baffled expression made it clear she had no idea what the troll meant either. Instead, the earth pony continued her attempts to reason with the troll: "We promise not to indiscriminately use magic, or... wind as you put it." She looked meaningfully at Summer, before continuing: "We will probably bring along more unicorns in the repair of your roof, though, if you'd could trust us for a moment. I mean, one second you're not taking us seriously, and now you're acting like we're monsters. Isn't there some middle ground here?"
Summer nodded encouragingly to Blue, glad to have help in the negotiation. "I think we can work our way through this: surely we can solve this just by learning more about each other, as any good pony ... or troll, should!" She beamed at Abernathy and nodded again for emphasis. "So, back to the elements... We, uhh, had some pegasi turn purple and, uh, 'spooky' when we crash-landed here. Do you think they might be, uhh, infused by this 'Undead' element, then?" She'd never heard of anything like that back in Equestria; it seemed the magic here was weird, following different rules.
The troll winced - 'probably not a good sign', Summer thought - saying, "Only time I've ever seen Undead is when it got into one of my great grandmothers. It's sort of incompatible with Life, so... some creatures who are old or weakened get infected and, well they live longer, maybe, but they stop being able to do the things that make life worth living. There are legends of creatures actually becoming undead, but that was way before my time. These days, the most that element can do is... make old people a little more miserable before they die. Arthritis and cancer and the like."
Fresh sweat beaded on Summer Scribe's forehead as she considered the implications for their friends. "Okay, thank you for that..." This did sound like it a problem that needed fixing, even if the transformed pegasi seemed fine for the time being. "Do you know anything about what makes elements associate with pon- creatures? If what you're saying is true, and Azure is getting, uhh, 'Windy', and those other ponies 'Spooky'..."
"What makes elements associate with anyone?" the troll said, turning and just heading back into his roofless cottage. Glancing at each other uncertainly, the ponies cautiously approached the open door, only to see Abernathy pulling up a rickety chair and carefully sitting down.
Once they were inside, he continued: "Some people have a knack for an element. Nothing like your friend of course. But my seventh cousin Edgar is pretty good with the earth element. Breaking rocks, and... making rocks and stuff. As for why? I dunno. Because they like it? If you have a friendly relationship with air, then the air listens to you. And uh... you can propel a balloon around maybe, or get the rain started earlier. She must just really like air, so it likes her back. Never heard of anyone with a knack for Undead, but I don't expect they would last long. I don't have an elemental affinity though, so you probably should ask someone who does."
Summer Scribe hmmmed: that did check out. So did that mean anypony with enough passion of the right type is going to get magically infused with one of these ten elements? "Thank you, Abernathy!" she said cheerfully, "You've been a big help."
"If you really wanna thank me, you can help me get materials to repair my roof," Abernathy told Summer, standing up again. "I have to do it anyway, now. Is your fancy magic any good at digging up a bunch of clay?"
Reef Skimmer ascended rapidly, flying faster now with no cart to pull. His forelegs were bent back awkwardly, to allow his claws to keep a firm grip on Azure's forelegs, making sure she can't slide off his barrel. As soon as he cleared the canopy, he wheeled around and started flapping straight back across the island, heading for the docked EAS Harmony.
The whistling slipstream and regular thrum of hippogriff wings, not to mention bobbing and jostling of her flying mount, soon brought Azure Feather back to consciousness. Before her eyes even opened, a groan escaped her muzzle, then tension filled her body as she came to her senses. "Air... Doctor?!" she exclaimed... before the magical exhaustion hit her like a brick in the form of a nasty headache. Her right forehoof went straight to her forehead with another groan. "...the heck...?" is all she could manage before her eyes closed again.
Feeling a hoof pull away from his grip, Reef looked over his shoulder and watched his passenger regain consciousness. "Azure? Can you hear me?" he shouted over the wind, "Do you know what happened?" They were above the centre of the island now, passing over the village and only a few minutes flight from the ship.
With eyes still closed, Azure found it easier to respond. Shutting out the light made the headache a little more bearable, at least. "I can hear you, Doctor... I don't know exactly what happened... but judging by the fact that my head feels like I've drained three barrels of cider, and I'm riding on your back instead of flying myself..." She sighed deeply. "...it's not good, is it." Even the smallest movement was an effort; 'why does this feel like another trip to the injured list', she thought.
Some of his urgency draining away now that his patient was conscious and responsive, Reef stopped flapping and settled his wings into an easy glide. The whistling wind died back to a stiff breeze, and Azure was no longer jostled with each wingbeat. "Not ideal no." he said, in a quieter voice. "I have to say, not ideal having a hippogriff for a doctor either, what with one magical calamity after another. Oh I have a book or two on horns and unicorns but no experience treating any of this... maybe I shouldn't have come." A few moments of silence pass before he continued in a firmer tone "Sorry, don't know what came over me. I might not be a unicorn but one will do one's best of course! Now, err, have you ever had... symptoms like this before?"
Reef felt the unicorn tense up even further; silently he lamented the lapse in his beside (or was it wingside) manner. After a few moments of thought, she responded with "I've never had these symptoms, I'll take a mug of cider from time to time, but..." Azure gives another weary sigh before continuing in a tone of pointed concern: "Doctor, what happened? Exactly? Because if it's what I'm thinking... this could be stuff I've learned in Unicorn 101..." The unicorn had shrugged off the first incident, but now that a recurrence had proved it wasn't a random fluke, she seemed severely shaken.
Reef thought back to the event in question. "Well, erm, you apologised, then you looked at the ceiling... your horn began to glow, then there was a glowing magical discharge and... well pretty much the entire roof disintegrated into shrapnel and was propelled at least a hundred metres into the air, cutting a swathe through the branches overhead." He looked over his shoulder again and fixed his passenger with another of his avian stares. "Very much like that trick you pulled back at the village, blasting a flight path through the canopy? That was your general intent, was it not?"
Azure listened carefully to the doctor's explanation, lying immobile on his broad back as they glided through the air. She opened her mouth to respond when the hippogriff drew a parallel to the previous incident... before a slow-building chuckle soon became a laugh... and then a groan as the headache returned. It was several seconds before she could reply.
"Truth be told, Doctor, no. I intended to demonstrate by blasting a small hole, maybe a hoof in diameter, through the ceiling. Not completely destroying his roof. Likewise, the previous time I expected to release several, less powerful rays to clear the way through the brambles. Not... that ridiculous beam. No, Doctor, my intent in both cases... wasn't what happened. And if this is what I think it is... it's not good. Not good at all."
Reef considers that for a moment, racking his brain for details about unicorn magic and how it could go wrong. "I seem to recall there are... structural defects, in the horn core, that can cause 'surges' of excessive or uncontrolled magic? Although I'm sure there was a study that showed a good fraction of cases were psychosomatic... the exact percentage escapes me but..."
He paused for a moment, trying to brush aside the trivia and focus on something that could help his patient right now. "Well, it seems that this... problem only occurs when you're actively attempting to employ your abilities? So... no risk to ship and crew... as long as you don't use your magic?" Realising a little late this could be a major issue for a unicorn, he hastily added "Or at least, stick to minimal telekinesis... just until we figure this out."
Azure shook her head. Horn defect? That... that sounded borderline dangerous, and thinking back to both incidents... yup. Really dangerous. More so than the case of magical exhaustion she was thinking of. Meanwhile, with the increasing tension came a renewed pain from her forehead, as she groaned. "Right... I'll keep that in mind. Right..." Her voice carried even more worry than before. She slumped silently, from sheer exhaustion, but the underlying tension remained.
While his patient didn't seem to be in imminent danger, it was clear she needed rest, and perhaps an aspirin. Meanwhile, Summer Tribe and Blue Stripe were still out there, perhaps facing down a whole family of trolls by now. Reef began flapping again, quickly closing the remaining distance to the ship, flaring his wings to come in for a landing near the tip of the gangplank. Assorted crewponies were wandering around, both in the meadow and on the upper deck. Reef cast his gaze about, looking for the third mate (or should he say, acting captain), or failing that one of the griffons or even that surprisingly helpful purple pegasus.
Once the hippogriff was spotted, a small crowd of ponies and other creatures came running, crowding around as he landed and shouting out several questions at once. The din did very little good for Azure's headache. "Okay, okay, hold on!" called out a familiar voice, and progressively all the other creatures fell silent, turning to look at a pegasus wearing a green kerchief, flapping over to land next to Reef and Azure.
"Where are the others?" Set Sail asked the hippogriff, her tone full of alarm, before leaning in next to his shoulder and asking more quietly "Azure, are you okay? What happened out there?"
With a sigh, Azure slid off the doctor's back, followed by a groan as her hooves touched the deck. "Thank you for the ride, Doctor..." she said, looking groggy but more or less able to walk. Turning to Set Sail, she replied "Long story short? From what the doctor tells me, my 'quick magical laser' turned into a 'house-wrecking magical blast', despite my intentions being firmly the former. Migraines now, might be magical exhaustion, they might mean worse, I don't know, I'm worried and most importantly... I really have no idea what's going on. Not here, not with me, and..." She just trailed off after that, looking confused and frustrated.
Reef frowned: clearly it was down to him to explain things to the acting captain, but how to do it without upsetting her again? He still didn't understand why she got upset last time, but everyone was looking at him now and...
Attempting a cheerful smile, he adopted a jovial tone and launched into his report. "Wet Gale! Just the pony, glad to see you Captain. Err, acting captain. So... a bit of a medical emergency here, nothing too serious but had to get the patient back here on the double... Now, Summer Tribe and Blue Stripe, they were just having a little chat with a... erm, troll, that is to say, one of the natives! And I'm sure they're fine, but no doubt they'd be very appreciative if you could, perhaps consider, sending some help? They might need somegriff, somecreature... somepony! Somepony who could fix a roof, say, or maybe they're more in the need of someponies who could rescue them from a family of giant angry primates. Just as a hypothetical, better safe than sorry and all that! So, erm, I'm sure you have that... all under control?" As the crew falls silent one by one, realisation slowly dawns on the hippogriff that this isn't going well. "That's a lovely bandanna, by the way."
The pregnant silence lasted a good few seconds, before Set Sail said carefully "That's probably a good idea. We'll send some flyers to deal with... whatever is going on over there... And you..." The pegasus choked up for a second, her expression a mix of anger and disappointment. "You can go back to working in the infirmary, until further notice." Another long silence, before she added "Don't forget to take off your wing blades."
Reef treated the much smaller pegasus to perhaps his more intense avian stare yet, and for a moment the entire crew tensed as they wondered who would yield. Then the griff cocked his head, saying stiffly "Just as you say, Captain.", before turning away and escorting his exhausted unicorn patient below deck.
After a quick pep talk from Set Sail and a few hasty preparations, a motley crew of winged warriors were in flight and heading over to the far side of the island. They landed as silently as possible and proceeded to enter and search the cottage, taking note of the destroyed roof and not helping matters by knocking the surviving furniture over. They then inexpertly tracked the footprints and hoofprints leading away from the cottage, down a secret little side trail off into the jungle.
At the sound of sharp cries coming from ahead, they rushed forward, weapons (mostly improvised, or in Griselda's case, natural) bristling, racing into view of a shallow riverbank, full of rich, clay-like mud. There a unicorn was demonstrating her fearsome power to levitate globs of mud and throw them at a tall, green biped. The strange creature couldn't seem to stop laughing as he threw more mud back, splattering it all over Summer Scribe's beautiful pale blue fur. As the pair waded through the mud in search of more effective weaponry to defeat their laughing foe, a blue maned earth pony named Blue Type stood uneasily at the edge of the mud, hanging her head and shaking it slowly at her two companions.
The mare looked shocked to see her crewmates burst into the scene, full of adrenalin and ready to fight. "Oh, hello! Um..." she began. Behind her the sounds of shrieking and laughter alternated as Summer and Abernathy continued their impromptu mud fight. "Err, Summer! Company!" shouted Blue Type.
Summer Scribe perked up, instinctually leaning to the side to duck a splatter of mud as she looked over towards the commotion. "Oh! Cloud Cutter! Grenelda! There you are." she said cheerfully. The unicorn leaned forward and shake-shake shook the mud off like a dog, then playfully pranced over towards her crewmates. "You're here to..." she paused to take in the angry expressions and weapons on display. "...Oh! Go defeat the Chompies while we watch, right?" Summer finnished with a cheeky grin.
"Where's all the giant angry primates?" Grenelda replied, looking around in bewilderment.
Summer Scribe blink blinked, now somewhat confused herself. "Ah, there must be some miscommunication; Abernathy here's quite nice once you get to know 'im!" She leaned in close to the griffon's beak and whispered urgently... "And we'd better get their roof fixed before too long or there'll be trouble..." before then leaning back and smiling again! "Anyway! We're happy to do 'em a favour, aren't we?"
"If your friend is any indication, they should be more than enough to take on a chompy pit," Abernathy said, walking over to join Summer and the others. He was eyeing the new griffon which seemed rather diminutive compared to the big one he'd seen previously. "We got a little ah... distracted getting some clay for the roof though. Give us a sec to get cleaned up, I'll get my stuff, and then maybe we can go fight some chompies?"
Summer Scribe wriggled herself down, a few lingering globs of mud falling free. "Yeah, sounds good! And, uhh, just to set expectations, these aren't the 'beaming' kind of pony, but they'll kick all kinds of Chompy butt no problem!"
“What are you talking about?” Grenelda the griffon said, still giving Summer a bewildered look. “You want us to fight him?” She gestures to the rather muddy and unassuming troll, who wide-eyed, points to himself in confusion.
Blink blink. Were they not told? "Oh, no, uhh. You know the chompy pit, right? Our troll friend here wants it cleared out, as a favour..." her voice dropped to a lower tone "...and revenge is important, too!" Summer was getting the feeling this isn't what the crew were expecting, so she added an escape hatch: "...but we're not in THAT much of a hurry, so we can leave it for tomorrow if needed!"
A pause to process that, or to decide what to do with this pony, then Grenelda said evenly, “...we’re going back. Already bad enough that doctor was talkin’ up his ass again.”
“Wait a sec!” Abernathy protested, “Summer here is helping me repair my roof right now!”
Summer gave a sad headshake to Abernathy: "I gotta get back, I'm sorry. This is my ride home, and I need to check on Azure..." and maybe Reef, too... "Promise we'll all make it up to you tomorrow, OK?"
Sighing, Abernathy waved her off, saying, “Like I haven’t heard that one before. I’m not forcing you or anything. Your ‘ride’ would make a pincushion out of me if I did.”
“He’s not wrong,” the purple pegasus named Cloud Cutter admitted, idly twirling a knife in her pinions.
Summer Scribe squinted her eyes at the knife. Was that really appropriate? Well, whatever... "Ponies make good on their obligations to others: you have my word!" she said sincerely to Abernathy, before bowing, saluting with a hoof, and pads over to the pegasi.
If Cloud Cutter was even aware how menacing she was being, you certainly can’t see it in her blank, empty eyes. She turned to follow behind Grenelda and the others, as the group made their way back to the clearing in front of the cottage, and the cart Reef Skimmer had abandoned there. A flurry of wingbeats and the group are airborne, leaving Abernathy the troll to sit in his roof-less cottage.
Finally the rescue team returns to their ship, their last missing member found and accounted for. Set Sail is perhaps a little too relieved to see Summer return unharmed, so the others take her aside to tell her what’s going on. Summer would have a restless sleep that night, while Azure would sleep through the whole afternoon and night, recovering from her magic exhaustion.
“Hey, Chief Nutmeg. Do you...”
Nutmeg Inferno froze, her expression guilty, the only movement coming from the hovering supplies vaguely bobbing in the air around her. The red-ruffed, brown-furred kirin stood over a set of simple saddle bags, ensconced in the chief engineer’s office, only a thin metal wall away from the rest of the engine.
The grey earth pony had poked his head into the room, his expression turning to disapproval as soon as he saw the bags. “Oh no,” Gearshift said, “You’re packing, aren’t you?”
“I knew you were gonna say that,” Nutmeg replied irritably, turning stiffly to face him, “But I have to. I can’t just stay here anymore.”
“Why not?” he asked testily.
Nutmeg glanced nervously at the oversize radio occupying the corner of the room, still hissing away the eternal forlorn static of a world long gone, as it had since she'd gotten it working the previous night.
“Because what if there are other artifacts?” Nutmeg asked deliberately, drawing herself up to slightly shorter than the stallion’s height, “They need a mechanic to go with them, in case they find more machines like this one.”
“No they don’t,” he said, tone devoid of sympathy, “They’re going to bring any machines they find, back here to you. Because you’re going to stay here, like we all agreed...” at that point he lost his confidence a little, looking away and finishing in a low grumble, “...that it was for the best.”
The blanket and knife descended woefully to the floor as the glow departed from Nutmeg’s branched horn. She looked like she’s going to cry, but instead she shouted, “Dammit!” and kicked that metal wall with as much force as her cute little hind leg could manage. Gearshift backed out of the room as strange fire curls around the frustrated kirin, now dangerously close to flaring up. “There’s always a reason I have to stay here, isn’t there?” she accused him.
“I-i-it was part of the... the deal, you know?” Gearshift said weakly, staring at her in wide-eyed fear.
“Yes I know I’m flaring up,” Nutmeg growled, ignoring the dark flashes of flame along her fur, “I can do it much as I want in these stupid metal rooms, as long as I never leave, right?”
“I don’t know what to tell you, boss,” he said with a desperate grimace of a smile, “You can get out some. Just... d-d-do you need some time alone?”
The kirin looked at her own foreleg, shaking there as its brown fetlock rippled in and out of being just fire. “I-I’m losing it, Gearshift,” she said, “It’s... I swear it’s not that. I swear. I just can’t stop getting angry all the time now, because I just... wanted to...” the fire faded slowly as she concentrated on breathing, and returning to normal, “Because I’m just cooped up in here all the time, and I want...” She sank to her haunches, fully cool for now, “I just wanted to find a way to beat them.” She sighed, hanging her head, “To get out of the... the whole deal.”
“You and I and most of the crew know that you can’t just... get out of it,” the pony said solemnly, “It sucks, but... you know...”
“It’s just stupid, it’s just...” Nutmeg lay fully down on the floor, staring dully at the wall as her tail lashed behind her. “You’re right, I guess, Gearshift,” she said quietly, “I don’t want to hurt anyone. It’s just so hard to resist. I–I’m really curious what else is out there.”
“And the research ponies will bring it right back here, where it’s safe,” Gearshift said soothingly, approaching Nutmeg again, “They’ll find tons of stuff for us to work on, I bet.”
“Yeah, they’ll find it,” Nutmeg replied morosely into her forelegs, “Not me.”
“Sorry to say, but you can’t think of yourself anymore,” Gearshift chided, sitting beside her, “There are other... creatures counting on you. That’s what your role is now, and you have to come to terms with that. And you agreed to stay here, and not do anything risky, so...”
Nutmeg didn’t answer so much as to cry quietly into the soft grey fur of his shoulder. Hating herself for doing so, hating the other members of her crew watching in concerned silence from the door, hating what she is, and wishing that things didn’t have to be this way.
Summer Scribe trotted briskly through the ship's corridors, heading for the sickbay; she'd been told Azure was fine, at least physically, but the unicorn wanted to check in on her friend as soon as possible. It had been a long and tense debriefing with Set Sail; the pegasus seemed even more stressed and upset than before. Soon enough she reached her destination, amidships on the tween deck. The space was still crowded: the population of critically injured creatures was slowly decreasing, but most of the cots were still occupied by ponies sporting splints, bandages or IV bags.
Tears welled in Summer's eyes as she caught sight of the motionless form of Clashing Gale; the pegasus stallion was still unconscious, barely breathing and now almost entirely purple. She could only hope he'd eventually wake up like the others, even if it was courtesy of this weird 'elemental' magic. Sadness gave way to happiness on her face as she spotted Azure Feather: safe, sound, apparently sleeping peacefully, with no further injuries...
'No visible injuries', Summer reminded herself with a grimace. There was still the mystery of the horn surges to resolve, and the possibility of an 'air element' interfering with Azure's workings was still just a theory. At least Azure was in good hooves, or rather claws; the doctor was sitting there in the corner, reading from a sizeable book. Curious, Summer looked closer: she saw an elaborate engraving of a unicorn's horn on the cover, before the book quickly snapped shut as the hippogriff realised she was watching him. His expression was hard to read, his eagle face enigmatic as ever, but from his body language Summer got the impression it was some combination of anger and... guilt?
Now he was staring at her, his eyes bloodshot. 'What's up with Reef? What's with that look?' Summer thought. She'd seen him exhausted and under pressure before, that first morning after the crossing, but this was something else. Breaking the silence, she asked "Azure is OK, right?", giving a little tilt of her head as she patiently awaited a reply.
"As best as I can tell... yes." Reef Skimmer said, frustration evident in his voice. "Two horn surges, it would seem, in the space of two days, and the second took a heavier toll than the first." He looked away. "I wish I could tell you the cause... but all I can say is that physically, her symptoms are merely exhaustion and perhaps very mild concussion." The big griff sighed. "One has administered a sedative, she will sleep soundly at least."
Summer Scribe quietly nodded, sympathizing with Reef's worries. "Yeah: I don't get the impression Azure's ever dealt with this before," she said, "and I wish I knew too... I hope we can get to the bottom of this soon." The cover of the book suggested he was reading up on horns, probably medical problems that could affect them. Certainly seemed like a good idea, but proving fruitless? "Hopefully if she takes it easy she can keep it under control." she continued, trying to cheer the griff up, "Don't worry too much: she'll pull through and adapt! That's what we do as ponies!"
Reef's ear tufts flattened as he stared at the floor. "Indeed, ponies are awfully good at helping one another," he said morosely. "No doubt a unicorn doctor would know exactly what to do." Realising this wasn't reassuring Summer, he shook his head and looked her in the eye again. "No matter though, as you say I'm sure she'll be fine, after all those purple pegasi made a miraculous recovery didn't they?" Although his tone had changed to forced cheerfulness, Summer couldn't help noticing that the doctor's claws were clenched.
Summer Scribe looked back to Azure's sleeping form, shying away from Reef's intense avian gaze. 'Empathy Alert!' she thought, 'Something is Wrong here'. She thought hard for a few moments, tilting her head one way then the next. The subtext seemed clear: maybe should could fix it. "Reef, I... think that something's weighing on your mind," she began cautiously. "When was the last time you had a good, heartfelt talk? I'll be happy to listen!" Hmm, actually this could take a while and all she'd had since breakfast was one 'jungle apple'. "Over food, perhaps?"
"A talk?" the hippogriff sounded shocked. "Well, err, that's not exactly, I mean, one must retain a certain professional reserve..." His voice trailed off. Who else could he talk to? Perhaps he wasn't on the best of terms with the lead researcher, but the creatures he'd thought he'd connected with had rejected him, or were currently unconscious. At least there wasn't much to lose with Summer. Looking around the cramped sickbay, no one else seemed to be listening; indeed if anything Winter Hope was deliberately ignoring them. In a quieter voice, Reef concluded "...but perhaps there are a couple of matters we could discuss?"
Summer Scribe nod-nodded! "That's the spirit! Pon... uhh, critters offer each other shoulders to lean on in times of need! Don't be afraid to bring up anything and everything that's on your mind." Smiling, she trotted out of the sickbay; Reef hesitated for a second before putting his book down and following behind. They headed straight for the mess hall.
"So... how did the troll take the loss of his dwelling?" Reef asked, as they climbed the ramp to the main deck. "One hopes we haven't started a war with the natives, at least?"
"Ah-ha, no!" Summer said nervously, "Everything is... fine, actually! He's developed a temporary fear of unicorn horns being waved towards property, but I've agreed to help him fix his roof..." She returned to an upbeat tone as she asserted "After that and his other errand, relations will be right as rain!" In a mock whisper, she added. "...Also, between you and me? I get the impression he doesn't get out much. Maybe we should encourage him to tag along a bit so he can spread the goodwill we're investing in him!"
"Hmm, not a bad idea, assuming that your diplomatic skills are sufficient to befriend him even after that disast... little setback." The hippogriff stared at the deck again, before the forced cheerfulness returned: "But I suppose that is what you ponies do best! Along with magic of course. Ah, here we are." The pair emerged into the mess; a few crewponies were munching on some hay fries but in mid-afternoon it was mostly empty.
Summer Scribe glanced at the snacking ponies; not exactly the tastiest meal she's had as of late, but food was food! Looking back to Reef Skimmer, she began "Let me get you, uhh..." before blushing as she realised her unfamiliarity with his species. "What have you been subsisting on, lately?"
"No need, I'm not hungry... although, mostly tuna salad, if you're curious." the griff replied. "Just a black coffee for me..." Reef looked at his claw, which was trembling slightly "...although on reflection, perhaps six cups is enough. Tea it is then!"
Lighting her horn, Summer levitated over a portion of hay for herself, followed by a mugs of water and tea respectively. Putting on a serious face, she began: "Now then! This session's all about you, so tell me what's on really on your mind! No holding back: I want your true feelings!" The little unicorn certainly looked prepared; any doubts about her own ability to play counsellor for a giant eagle-horse stallion from a completely different culture were pushed to the back of her mind.
The doctor snorted and leaned back with surprise. "Session? Feelings?! Hmph, are you a licensed psychiatrist or is it more of a hobby?"
Summer Scribe couldn't help but giggle at that. Why was he treating a friendly chat as such a big deal? "It's just something we do, you know! No pony's an island: we all need each other to work!" she explained, smiling and waving a hoof in the air. "I don't know how it is for you where you come from: I assume you had a pretty strict military hierarchy when you were in the Navy. Did you ever just... Find a friend and vent? Or just trudge on on your lonesome through adversity?"
Reef cocked his head, not sure whether the little mare was mocking him or not. After a moment's consideration he decided he might as well play along. "Miss Scribe, the camaraderie of a hippogriff crew is legendary; the officer corps doubly so. Why I could regale you with tales of late night poker in the officer's mess, shore leave misadventures shared, pranks pulled on new griffs..." Reminiscing on what he'd left behind, Reef's manner had begun to warm, before it sunk in how much he was missing it. "Suffice it to say that ponies do not have the monopoly on friendship some might imagine."
Summer, having been enlightened in this moment, didn't express shock or embarrassment, but... excitement and intrigue! "Oh, that DOES sound super awesome!" she said, grinning broadly. "Okay, so I bet your problem is more like, you're not used to solitude. You're totally looking for friends, same as anyone else! You're just having trouble in an unfamiliar environment?"
"That... may well be the case." Reef Skimmer said slowly. "One must confess, to a certain lack of comprehension when it comes to pony behaviour. Or for that matter, kirin behaviour." He sighed. "I've made some efforts, to, erm, engage with Set Sail... which is not to say we are getting engaged, of course!" With a worried look the hippogriff scanned the mess to see if anyone else heard that. "To support her rather, perhaps even... impress her?" Was that a blush? It was so hard to tell with bird faces, but his ear tufts were flicking back and forth. "Much the same with Nutmeg... the ship's engineer, that you gave a good soaking when we first met?"
"Hmm, hmmm..." Summer was tilting her head left then right, trying to make out the griff's expression, straining to pick up every contextual clue she could. "I see, I see! The bonds of friendship do strengthen when we do things for each other... so may I ask what Set Sail and Nutmeg asked of you? Or what you did for them?" She was genuinely curious: it sounded like the doctor was taking some initiative, desiring some closeness... but was he going about it the right way?
Abandoning restraint, Reef launched into an explanation. "Well, for Get Mail... uh, Set Sail rather," he corrected himself, embarrassed, "Oh you were there of course, it was just after your account of the first sortie... I described some naval procedures, didn't go down too well with the crewponies it seemed, but the captain seemed keen for me to take a shore party out. I was happy to oblige of course, but here's the thing, I took pains to rein in that feisty hen... griffon, that is. She wanted to march straight into that cottage there and then, but I knew you ponies... I mean, Sails or yourself, wouldn't want us contacting the natives on our own initiative. So I had Grenelda glaring daggers at me for the sake of following orders, and what do I get for it?!"
Reef paused for a moment, but the question was clearly rhetorical, and he soon continued indignantly: "Set Sail was 'very disappointed' that we even went beyond the pit at all! It's not as if her orders designated the area of operation..." Pouting was physically impossible with a beak, but for some reason Summer imagined Reef doing it anyway. "So of course I thought, what can I do to get back in her good books, why volunteer to take the unicorns out in the cart. Make an advantage of my stature for once, instead of just bumping into everything. Yet somehow, that only made her more unhappy! And then... she ordered me to take you out, all the same!" Reef snorted, staring at Summer intensely now.
"And to cap it all, right after I brought Azure back to the ship, she could barely listen to my report before she ordered me confined to the sickbay! And had the gall to look upset when I obeyed! Now I admit it wasn't the most coherent report, one's tongue may have gotten a bit tied from the stress... but still. What kind of officer gets upset when their orders are obeyed!"
By that point the hippogriff had stood up and leaned over the table, talons digging into the stained wood. At some point the other crewponies had decided they didn't want to hear the rest of his monologue and slipped out, leaving the mismatched pair alone in the mess. Reef looked down at his shaking claws, before dropping back to the floor (he was too big for the bench). "I'm sorry. That was... uncalled for."
Summer Scribe found herself enthralled by Reef Skimmer's tale of woe. It was clearly spoken from the heart, and when described from Reef's perspective, it did seem like a morass of unfairness and confusion... But! Summer had her own perspective on the events and persons involved, so she starts cross-referencing it in her mind, brow furrowed... before clearing as insight dawns. The unicorn smiled wide, giddy at the realisation that this could be a simple misunderstanding. Seeing Reef's bemused look, she composed herself, excited to give a lesson.
"I hear you! And I think I know the fundamental source of your confusion. Watch this..." she said, making a pouting, teary, trembly face. "This is Concern." Then she made a harsher, frowning, indignant face. "This is Upset." Shaking it off, she explained: "Set Sail isn't Upset; she's Concerned! Concerned because she's been thrust into a job she didn't ask for, responsible for the whole ship and crew, concerned because everything she sends you to do is dangerous and seems to lead to people getting hurt. And that's not your fault: she's just worried sick!"
Nodding with satisfaction at a puzzle well solved, Summed added: "And I wouldn't be surprised if you're missing other cues, too. No shame in admitting you can't read a pony's face if it's something you haven't learned to!"
Reef frowned, trying to digest that. "I suppose then... she is mostly concerned, not upset? Though I definitely saw that second one, from the rest of the crew, up on the deck today." The griff sighed and sat back on his haunches. "Which strongly implied... this problem can't just be Set Sail, I must be doing something wrong. But tell me..." he looked imploringly at Summer "...if she's so concerned, why didn't she just ordering us to minimise the risks? Or... wait, I hope you aren't saying that the acting captain confined me to the sickbay out of concern for my personal safety? She can hardly wrap the whole crew in cotton wool!"
Summer Scribe waved a hoof vaguely, wondering how to explain it. "It's like... Well, I guess the quickest way to say is that us ponies don't typically organise in the kind of military hierarchy you're used to. We're just sort of... read each other's body language and don't always say everything out loud! You know, a lot of the time you just kinda know what's going on with each other, without realising." She tapped her hoof on the table for emphasis. " So... you're probably not doing what Set Sail REALLY wants you to do. And that's okay! It's just culture shock, for the both of you. But it still means that you're not on the same page: she probably thinks you're blundering over the most obvious signs."
The unicorn looked Reef Skimmer in the eye and said earnestly: "Safest way to find out? Own up to everything you think you might have done wrong; ponies love a good apology; and ask what she really wants from you!" Summer smiled broadly at that. "As for the 'grounded in sickbay thing... yeah, I think that you might be right! Set Sail couldn't figure out how to keep you safe and this was a means of last resort: an order you couldn't refuse or misinterpret." Sighing, she explained "It probably felt painful, even! And I'm sure that's hard to understand, but we have totally different social and communication norms like that: we try to be easy going and loose."
The griff stared into space, turning over Summer's proposal in his mind before responding. "Heartfelt confession, you say? You really think that might help? If she thinks I'm so useless outside the sickbay that I'm only going to get myself or other ponies hurt, telling her I have no idea how ponies communicate is only going to make things worse." His ear tufts drooped and his voice was pained. "If I really can't understand what she wants... and she doesn't want to give me orders... then maybe there's nothing to be done. But if I'm not on cordial terms with the captain, what hope is there with the rest of the crew?"
"Uh-huh! It really does help! And I know you can do it." Summer encouraged, smiling again. "Set Sail will really appreciate you coming clean; I'm sure of it. She's probably as confused about you as you her, and these kinds of things are perfect for setting the record straight and getting expectations right." The hippogriff seemed to be coming around to her argument.
"There's no way she thinks you're useless." Summer shook her head, trying to dispel Reef's doubts. "We're all here for a reason: we're ready to do whatever the job demands! And that means lots of failure, confusion and uncertainty. By saying you don't know how ponies communicate, it actually shows good communication skills! We all need the flexibility to admit when we're at fault or nothing can ever get done." She eagerly clopped her hoof on the table. "Don't act like this will be the first or last thing you learn in your life: own it, embrace it! You can do it, Reef!"
Reef Skimmer took a few moments to absorb all that, before giving a weak beak-gaping grin. "I must say I admire your spirit, Summer. One might almost classify it as an infectious disease! Um, just a little medical humour." He continued in an earnest tone. "But yes, you are right of course! To do less would be cowardice. I feel we can ill afford fear or division, so far from home."
Summer Scribe chuckled, holding a hoof to her mouth for a moment. "Yep, exactly! And that's why you have to be open with your friends... err, coworkers... whatever you wanna call 'em. It shows you're ready to put in the work, and the biggest part of a lot of jobs IS the communication part!"
Reef's wings unfolded and fluffed up a bit, before settling back at his sides. "Thank you. You didn't have to do this... unless, of course, that scroll on your flank is actually a license to practice psychiatry?"
The unicorn twisted to peer at her cutie mark... and then smirked. "Nah! This..." she gestured a hoof at the griff then herself, before smiling again, "...is just... what any good pony ought to do for a friend."
Reef smiled warmly at that... or at least opened his beak in a manner that didn't seem to imply an imminent desire to consume the pony opposite him... before frowning again. "In that case, I hate to impose, but perhaps... you could shed some light on the other matter? Not that kirins are ponies, but I feel when it comes to communication they are closer to your kin than mine."
Summer Scribe nodded encouragingly; she was on a roll. "Well, yes: I think I can weigh in. What exactly is the problem, with you and Nutmeg I mean?" This would be harder; unlike Set Sail, she hadn't seen the pair interacting. Though at a guess... repairs aside, Nutmeg was probably bored witless cooped up on the ship, which couldn't be helping.
Reef Skimmer leaned back, thinking over his encounters with the kirin. "Well. Obviously we first met in the saloon, when I was unsuccessful in preventing you from soaking her. We had a good chat after that about her species, in the examination room you understand, did you know their leader used an water-based magical artefact to suppress all their emotions? And any desire to talk, it seems." Reef shook his head; Summer might well be interested in the tale of the Stream of Silence, but that could easily fill the next hour and leave no time for the matter at hand.
Summer Scribe had, of course, heard of it: the kirin village in the Peaks of Peril had hosted a steady stream of pony research teams as soon as the news had gotten back to Canterlot. Not that it wasn't interesting to hear about every time, but the hippogriff had a more pressing matter just now.
"Oh but I digress.... So, we met again while you were off making first landfall, and that was a much more sociable affair. We talked about our pasts, the situation, and she showed me... some private things. All very friendly, I thought! But she was clearly bored of her role on the ship, maintaining the engines not providing much challenge, it seemed. So I thought, if we could find any machines on the island, perhaps it would cheer her up, raise her spirits: taking a look, figuring them out? So one asked Azure Feather to keep an eye out for anything that might fit the bill... she pointed out the radio, which seemed perfect!"
Realising this might be a touchy subject, Reef dipped his head down to Summer and said hoarsely and rather quickly "Sorry again by the way - got carried away there - should have cleared it with you first - won't happen again" Pulling back again, he continued "So, where were we... ah yes well I hauled the thing back to the ship, brought it in for her... and she accused me of passing a fraud! Of deliberately tricking her to make her look foolish! Now I'm not averse to a good natured prank but really, it seems like something convinced her I'm an irredeemable scoundrel!" The hippogriff glowered, staring into space.
Summer smirked, thinking back to that first Horn Surge incident: what a fright it gave her, and it was just to clear some foilage in the end! She didn't mind about the radio, it would have gone back to the ship anyway, although it would've been nice if Reef had asked first. Never mind that now... she tapped her chin, thinking about the kirin's behaviour. "Yeah, I'd say that you're not the only one with pent up emotions in this scenario."
Summer chuckled again. "Think about it from Nutmeg's perspective: you're brought on as an engineer; treated as a safety hazard; mostly confined to the metal underbelly of the ship. Where, after we crashed and lost the spare parts, her job is nearly useless! She's reduced to hearing about all the cool things everyone else gets to do, because there's no airship to fly. In that kind of mind state... Having an artifact brought to you by someone else FEELS like a practical joke. Something to try and keep you company, you know?"
Summer frowned, showing 'concerned' face again. "I think what Nutmeg REALLY needs is to feel like she's here for a reason - like her contribution matters. And you just happened to be the messenger who got shot. If it was me who took the radio to her, I'd be the one eaten out. Get it?"
Reef cocked his head to one side, then the other, considering. "I can't honestly say that I do. Surely taking a look at some alien device is an improvement on just running the engines? I thought, well, I was overjoyed to find some prize specimens on my first sortie, I thought that artefact would be a fine 'specimen' for her? Now I admitt, being stuck in the sickbay and having somegriff, erm, somecreature just hand me, say, an intriguing electric slug in a jar... Well that would be somewhat less satisfying, but still, much better than nothing, and I'd certainly share a round of brandy with that creature!"
Summer couldn't help but wonder if slugs in jars are typical gifts for courting hippogriffs; presumably they had to switch to sea slugs when they went underwater... Ignoring that for now, she nodded to Reef. "Mmm... under normal circumstances, you'd be right! But I think Nutmeg let her unresolved emotions speak for her, and let them all over you like a downpour of molten lava. So this is a case where like..." she made another vague hoof gesture, "You didn't even do anything wrong. But it's still probably the right play to chat her up and give her a space to talk about her feelings and what she wants. You know? She doesn't REALLY hate you!"
Reef looked deep into Summer's eyes, before saying in a tone of utter gravitas, "Am I to understand that as the senior academic on this mission, you are conferring on me an honorary degree in kirin psychiatry? If so one must of course accept, to do otherwise would be most unappreciative."
"Umm, well..." Summer Scribe stammered. "Not EXACTLY like that. It's not in anyone's professional capacity to, well... Just be a good friend!" She smiled again, perhaps a little nervously this time; did the hippogriff get it? "It IS hard work, it's true... but it's the kind anyone can do."
As Summer stammered Reef turns his head to the side, a twinkle in his eye. "I did say I was not adverse to a good-natured prank." Another avian beak-grin. "In all seriousness that is a splendid suggestion, pay it forward and all that. Can't vouch for my chances of success, but if she is in truth struggling, well, as you say, everycreature deserves a friend. One shall do one's best, inscrutability of fuzzy twitchy muzzles be damned."
"Pfff, okay, prank successfully executed!" Now Summer had a playful grin on her face as well. "And, yeah, you totally got it! Nutmeg's probably desperate to get off of the ship and feel like she's a part of the action, you know? You might even figure something out just by working through those feelings! ...Wow, this was productive..." The blue mare took a deep breath, then let it out with a pleasant sigh. "And a lot of fun. Um! We should do this again sometime." She hoped that didn't sound like a counter-prank: sincere tone, eye contact and everything!
The big grey griff rose to his feet, saying "Indeed! Most productive, I couldn't ask for a better therapist... or should I say, friend." He extended a claw, easily reaching over the table, and held it in front of the unicorn.
Summer Scribe was cheerful as can be at that, holding a hoof out to shake the claw: it was a bit of an awkward cross-species grip, but somehow it worked. "Yes: friends! That feels nice to say." Didn't it always?
The sun peeked through the clouds, throwing a patchwork of light and shade on the floating island, somewhere near the edge of the Cloudbreak archipelago. A sizable airship was moored to the rocky edge with a makeshift collection of lines and anchors. Little figures could be seen moving around the Harmony; some flying, some on deck, some out in the meadow; ponies, mostly pegasi, and a pair of griffons.
High above the deck, Set Sail had almost finished stitching together the balloon canvas, covering up a ragged hole with a large piece of improvised, but airtight cloth. The dense clouds that she coaxed back in through the hole would definitely not be able to escape as easily. She had some goop in a cannister around her neck that sealed off the seams and sealed the patch tightly to the rest of the balloon. She would have replaced the whole cell if she could, but there wasn't nearly enough material; the patch job would be enough for it to slowly reinflate with warming air from the engine below.
With four other pegasi up there doing the same thing with her, the blue and brown pegasus still did her job next to her crewmates. However with the captain and first mate lost in the crossing, and the second mate stuck in the infirmary with multiple fractures, Set Sail had been thrust into the role of acting captain. She now found herself responsible for the whole ship and crew, including the small camp taking shape in the meadow, on top of her normal job of keeping the vessel afloat.
The mare descended to the ship’s deck, glue pot attached, to find a certain grey hippogriff loitering under the envelope, apparently waiting to speak with her.
Reef Skimmer had been watching the ponies work for some time, taking in their chatter, their jokes, their expressions and in particular how the new captain treated her crew. He stood with his wings tightly folded and his claws tucked together; somepony might thing that they were clenched, until they looked into his eyes and found them strangely calm. Neither confident nor nervous; resigned perhaps, possibly even sad.
He waited for the pegasus to notice him, then just as she was about to ask, opened with "Captain... Set Sail." His tone was low and smooth, a voice last heard by those patients unlucky enough to be in the sickbay right after the crossing, being reassured that they would make it. "...if you could spare a few minutes, there's something I'd like to discuss. Privately, I think, would be best."
“Well, hello to you too,” Set Sail responded, still looking a trifle miffed at the griff. “Sure, if you need to say something, the chart room’s probably unoccupied. You wanna meet me there? I should only be a minute." She hovered just above the deck without landing, furtively waiting his answer.
“Very well,” he said wearily. “Shall I...” but she’d already flown off to the supply locker, ready to stow the sealant.
The chart room hadn’t seen much use since reaching the Cloudbreaks: with nothing but scattered mana-sonogram impressions of the islands to go by, there were no maps of these skies except those they made as they explored. Reef Skimmer did not have to wait long, before Set Sail came poking her green-topped head in the door. “There you are,” she said, at the sight of the big bird-stallion; she trotted in and closed the door behind her with a swish of her tail. “You said you had something you wanted to discuss?”
Reef ducked his head for a moment, apparently examining the mare's forehooves, before looking her in the eyes. "I... need to speak frankly. And then... I need to listen to whatever you want to say." He sounded less certain of himself than Set Sail's few previous encounters, but also strangely less stressed. "So, the bare bones of a discussion, at least." The hippogriff tilted his head, waiting for her response.
The acting captain stood there for a while, looking at him with a puzzled expression puzzlement. A tilt of her head, before asking "So... what is it you want to say? Is this about the monster pit?" The mare certainly had an impatient twitch in her tail, trying to figure out what this strange creature wanted of her.
Reef looked away, his gaze travelling over the largest (if least useful) map: the known regions of Equus, pinned to the wall. "Not exactly, though I wish I could tell you something of use in that area. Of course haven't had time to analyse the samples..." The griff suddenly closed his eyes, gave a little shake of his head and quite deliberately cleared his throat, interrupting himself. When his eyes opened he was looking directly at Set Sail again.
"Captain... one has had a little time to reflect on recent events... and a little help, I'm happy to say, from a... new friend. In truth, I owe you at least three apologies..." Again, his gaze dropped to the floor and his ear tufts drooped, "The first of which must be, that you are my commander and yet I did not support your authority. Undermined it, even. Not with a will, you understand, but in ignorance and lack of consideration."
“Well...yeah,” Set Sail said, taking a step back from the intense eagle eyes. “I know I’m only the third mate, but you know, I’m trying. It was worse that you ignored me. You can tell me if I’m wrong, but when I was asking for a status update I wasn’t just asking for me. A lot of the... crew were kinda peeved at you for brushing it off like that. We almost... we almost attacked the natives because you didn’t give us the whole story. That could be really bad, you know? Really...” she sighed and looks off in dread, “...bad.”
Reef nodded at that. "Yes of course! A leader needs the facts to make the right decisions, and I didn't furnish them!" he said, with sudden vehemence. "Which leads me to the second apology, Captain." The hippogriff turned away and took a single step across the room; spacious for the pony but cramped for his larger frame. He stared at the map again, looking at the tiny symbol for Mount Aris. "I... didn't realise it would be this difficult. I hadn't spent much time with ponies before, but... well you all seemed so friendly. How hard could it be?" Looking back at Set Sail, his beak opened in a weak smile, but it died and the sadness returned to his eyes.
"The expedition wasn't military, but a ship's crew is a ship's crew no? Perhaps not, it seems, because I find myself adrift trying to understand how things work around here. Looking for the chain of command, yet you seem to operate with only a suggestion of one; quite effectively though, I should say!" He paused for a moment, then in a softer voice continued "I wanted to help, needed to help, but I didn't know what to do. And I must confess, the harder I tried to say the right thing... well you heard. Drowning diamond dog in a storm and all that, latching onto anything that floats; I latched onto your order to return to the sickbay and ignored everything else." The hippogriff looked away. "Summer helped me admit that."
Her ears drooping, Set Sail didn't meet his eyes as she admitted, “I’m not a good captain. I’m not even supposed to be captain. Just the captain... and Pearl, and I was just stuck in the rigging the whole time. I didn’t even try to get out. I was just... so I’m just captain by default, until Wind Waker recovers. The crew like me, but... y’know, and I try, but...”
The tears belied her angry eyes when she looked up at the imposing hippogriff stallion, saying, “You were blowing us off again, and I just got so mad, I...” her confidence wavered as her gaze dropped, “I wanted to show you I wasn’t a... a pushover, and I should have just kept asking you for the details, instead of sending you away.” Sighing, she concluded, “But instead I almost ruined the whole expedition sending Grenelda and the others out to... do bad stuff to the monsters. It could’ve started a war between Equestria and... whoever lives here. So I don’t know why you’re apologising. I was the one who told you to go back to the sickbay until further notice.”
Reef straightened and fluffed his wings, some of the usual intensity returning to his gaze. "Captain! Don't sell yourself short. Your crew was in danger, what with the first party attacked by monsters and who knows what other beasts lurking about! For all you knew, for all we knew, the first shot had already been fired, albeit by accident and the war was already underway!" Realising his talons had tightened and his wings were half spread, the hippogriff ducked his head again and took a step backwards. "What I mean to say, Captain, is that you didn't start a war, and everyone made it back safely. By every account, the crew trust you to do the right thing, and you haven't betrayed that trust." He caught Set Sail's eye again. "I don't believe you will."
The pegasus managed to smile at that, though her eyes were still sad as she said “Yeah, I'll do my best. But I mean I didn’t come here to cry at you or anything. Just want you to know that things aren’t... okay. We’re all in a lot of trouble, and we’re just trying to do what we can now. So there’s gonna be a lot of mistakes, and we’re not always gonna do it the right way. If you wanna...” She blushed a little, admitting sheepishly, “If you wanna go, then y’know the explorers do need a pony who can y’know patch them up.”
Set Sail caught herself and blushed harder, pinions quivering and stammering nervously, “Need a–a creature, I mean. Anypony... creature who can patch them up, I mean. S-so if you want, you’re not confined to the sickbay or anything. That’s why you wanted to talk to me, right?”
The hippogriff frowned, saying "I do appreciate that Captain, but..." before trailing off and turned away again. He raised a claw, absent-mindedly placing it on a map case, before it dropped back to the floor. "...I have to say, I... shouldn't be here." The stallion glanced sideways at Set Sail, before turning away completely, staring out the porthole and leaving her face to face with his long pink tail feathers. "It was foolish. I thought, well, I've treated enough shipwreck survivors, volunteered a few times, read the journals, it would be fine. Doctor Pulse was a legend, the senior surgeon that is, with him on the expedition, well we were more than covered, medically speaking. I fancied I could just indulge myself in a spot of natural history..." His voice trailed off and he turned back to the pegasus, his eyes moist but his voice angry.
"I pushed my way into this voyage, and if I'd bloody well left it alone, well... you'd have a unicorn doctor who would know what's wrong with Azure's horn! Who would have more than a vague hint of a clue about these medically impossible purple ponies! You needed some... pony who could make sense of all this magical malarkey..." The anger in his voice receded as he took the pearl amulet hanging around his neck in a claw, staring at its faint glow "...rather than a griff with only the slightest acquaintance with it." Reef closed his eyes and sighed again, before looking back to Set Sail. "I'm sorry, Captain. I suppose that's all wash under the keel now. One will... do one's best of course." He paused, seemingly for some kind of confirmation or instruction.
Set Sail gently pressed her hoof into his shoulder, probably unintentionally near where the pearl hangs. “That’s what you’re worried about?” she asked, looking up with a wry smile, “Unicorns aren’t that great. We've got like a half dozen, and none of them knew how to do all that stitching you did. Or half of how to put a pony back together again. You’re probably the best uh, crew member we got right now. In terms of skills.” Pulling her hoof back, she paced over to gaze out the viewing window, saying sombrely, “We don’t have many unicorns at all, because this is a flying ship going to a flying island. When you see somepony falling and you can’t save them, but you know you’re safe just because of your wings...”
She turned to look back at him, saying frankly, “You think we’d have a unicorn doctor? Besides Doctor Pulse, over on the Friendship? Both ships with unicorn doctors? We’re lucky to have one! And I wouldn’t blame ‘em, because you’d have to be a crazy pony to come on this mission without wings. Unicorns can’t do what you do either. They can’t transport somepony all the way from the other end of the island in minutes. And it doesn’t really matter what you are, because no matter what you are, some of you are good doctors and some aren’t. And you’re a better one than we would’ve gotten without you. Does that make sense?”
The hippogriff's beak opened slightly, and a good approximation of levity returned to his voice: "Well, it does seem, that you got a sawbones and a cart pilot for the price of one griff." In a more serious tone he added, "My services are at your disposal, Captain, but..." he looked away for a second, before returning to an intense avian stare. "I must ask, could you make your intentions as clear as possible. Not that I intend to stand on formal orders, it's just... with the best will in the world, the subtext may continue to escape me, where ponies are concerned."
Set Sail blushed horribly at that, immediately looking away (probably in admission of defeat in the pecking order!) and replying, “S-s-services at my—? You mean uh, you can’t really mean uh, I mean... y-yeah. Clear as... possible! That’s me! I’ll be clear as the sky when it’s... clear! Like a clear sky. Yup!” Her very cute coverts look a bit ruffled at his sudden intensity, as she looks stiffly out the window, her face still red under her fur.
Reef continued staring at the pony, perplexed. Could she really be... ? Surely not, although, well, her wings were fluffing up a bit and... well, certain regions of his anatomy might be starting to respond... "Yes well, jolly good, glad we understand each other!" he said with sudden urgency. "As you are... my commanding officer now, and, erm... yes. I should probably go..." The hippogriff turned to leave, but then remembered the request he'd wanted to make, if the captain accepted his apology. "That said... just one last thing, Captain, a, erm... mental health issue?" he said uncertainly. "With a member of the crew? Would you mind if I..."
Dawn was still unfolding as Reef Skimmer made his way into the mess; indeed, with the limited sleep over the last few days he might have missed the engagement had Winter Hope not done the courtesy of waking him. The grey hippogriff once again had his ornate wing blades strapped on; he still hadn't corrected Set Sail's dubious assumption that they would enhance his ability to defend against any hostile natives that might appear.
In the mess he found a clawful of ponies and one donkey taking a breakfast of toast and oats, but no kirin. Determined to carry out Summer's suggestion, with a twist of his own devising, he proceeded up the next ramp into the machinery spaces.
Reef made his way through the metal doorway, to be greeted by the ever-present hum of turbines and hiss of steam through pipes, quiet now as the engine idles. In the corner the old backup generator was still knocking away, keeping the lights on. Only a few of the crewponies were present: two were sprawled out in front of the main control panel, and one up on a maintenance platforms, all looking sleepy and/or bored. Seeing no sign of his quarry, the griff approached the largest and most active group.
Three ponies were gathered around some sort of contraption, looking like a tower of metal scaffolding with a cage of sorts inside it, festooned with assorted wheels, gears and cables. The device was clearly a work in progress as they were adjusting screws, tightening bolts and fiddling with levers. One looked familiar: the creamy pink unicorn mare with a brown mane and tail, Reef Skimmer had met her on his previous visit. All three looked up as he approached but she was the one who spoke, taking a step forward before saying “Can we help you?”
"Good morning, ponies." Reef said, in what he hoped was a pleasant tone. Although he recognised the pink one, as usual it was hard to place the names; the stallion he'd met on the first day, Steer Shift, stood out in his memory but he wasn't present, and the others were a bit of a blur.
"I trust things are going well back here? You do seem to have repairs well underway. I imagine it must feel like you're being asked to work miracles, given the sudden absence of spare parts!" He made eye contact with the other two as he spoke, before his gaze settled on the lead mare; he couldn't help checking on the crew's physical condition, the engineer ponies were particularly bad about not getting proper treatment for their scrapes and burns.
“Yeh, not a lot more we can do without parts, but it's runnin'" the unicorn said, glancing over at the engine.
The green earth stallion up on the scaffold placed a hoof on the contraption, saying “We were just working on a little elevator!” He moved one of the wheely things, but his demonstration didn’t make much sense at least from a laygriff’s perspective. Reef did notice a couple of bandages on his foreleg that he hadn't administered, spotted with oil and grease; the mare in front seemed unharmed, though the dark grey mare hiding shyly behind the ‘elevator’ looked a little scuffed up. Nothing seriously concerning, he thought; usually he'd insist on changing the dressing but they were getting low on supplies.
“So you just came down here to say hello, doctor?” the creamy-pink mare at the front asked, warily. She noticed the big griff was wearing ornate blades on his wings, gleaming softly in the warm glow of the electric lamps. Was those normal accessories for him or was something amiss?
"Oh, It's always a pleasure to get to know the crew," Reef began jovially, "not to mention check there isn't anything in need of treatment that the patient was too busy to report." he finished in a more serious tine, craning his heck to try and get a better look at the mare in the back. "You look rather busy just now though." He stared at the unicorn, cocking his head. "I confess I am rather curious about that artefact we recovered, radio was it? Do you know if Nutmeg had a chance to take a look?"
“Oh, yeah!” she said enthusiastically, trotting straight past Reef, “Don’t worry we’re just passing the time. Gotta watch the engine. Lemme show you what I did with it!”
“What you... did with it?” Reef asked, raising a judicious eyebrow, but the mare was already progressing deeper into the engine room, so there was nothing to be done but follow.
She led him to a long metal table, near the chief engineer’s office. On it was what was left of the radio. The decaying wooden case had been delicately removed, and its internal components were laid out, strung together by wires. Glass tubes, metal coils, gears for some reason... Reef couldn't make much sense of it.
"Check it out!" the brown-tailed mare said eagerly, gesturing at an array of little light bulbs, lighting up in a particular sequence, "I made it run as a clock!" Between that, the jury rigged metal detector next to it, the mysterious box with a single switch on it marked 'Completely Useless Machine' and the completely functional toaster made from scrap iron, it looks like somepony may have too much time on their hooves.
Reef frowned. "Well, that's... ingenious... but can it tell us anything about the natives? For example, do they prefer hard rock, or smooth jazz? A matter of some importance, you understand, as one has something of a bet going with Summer Scribe." Reef's beak was gaping half-open as he glanced at the cream pony.
The mare looked at him with clueless concern, saying, “Oh, no. The chief got the radio working right away, but it doesn’t look like anypony’s broadcasting. All we could get was static. It’s got some super cool components though. See these vacuum tubes are nothing like the ones we use in Equestria, and this tuner, boy howdy that was tricky to figure out. The diodes are twice the...” her attempts to describe the radio quickly lapsed into technical jargon, and she didn’t seem to notice.
"Mmm, very good, well perhaps if you could write that up, I'm sure the senior unicorn would love to see your notes." The hippogriff's idle claw was fiddling with the toaster. "Senior researcher even." he corrected himself. 'Useless machine'? A talon was drawn inexorably to the lone, enticing switch...
The mare quieted down as his talon approached, but she did not object. Tension mounted as they both watched with baited breath. Reef carefully, delicately flipped the switch. Machinery whirred within the box, and a compartment opened on it, from which emerged a small metal rod to press against the switch. The rod flipped the switch back, then receded back into the compartment, which closed.
"Heh. Not bad, not bad at all." Reef chuckled. "So, is the Chief Engineer around, or does she tend to sleep late? Came through the mess on the way here, didn't catch her eating breakfast though."
“Didn’t you know we’re taking shifts?” the mare replied, tilting her head at him, “We can’t all be up watching the engine all the time. She’s probably in her cabin.”
The hippogriff frowned again, annoyance creeping into his voice: "Wasn't clear on the specifics, no. There was, erm, a matter I need to discuss. Would she be sleeping at present, do you think?"
The mare shrugged "Her shift's in a few hours," she said, "So she's probably up by now. Might as well go check."
Reef Skimmer gave a little bow, dipping his head and bending his forelegs for a moment. "One is in your debt, miss... I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name?"
Holding up a hoof with a little blush at his gesture, she said, “Sprocket, junior engineer. I-it wasn’t no big deal. Thanks for stopping by!”
Curious that her cutie mark was a golden bird, Reef thought, since both her name and profession suggested something more technical. Perhaps she had a passion for ornithology, or just kept avian pets? Something to ask later, perhaps.
After getting a few more directions, Reef Skimmer was back on the main deck, in a corridor lined with doors to the VIP cabins. On the Friendship they would have been full of expedition bigwigs, but on the less populous Harmony the senior crew had the luxury of individual rooms. Walking along the wooden decking with a soft click-clop of talons and hooves, he reached the door to Nutmeg’s cabin, which was open just a crack.
The room was barely big enough for a storm beast to lie down in, but relatively generous for a pony, or kirin. There was no window, and when Reef pulled open the door slightly, calling softly, “Nutmeg? Are you asl—” it was easy to tell that she was still sleeping. There was no sign of a bed: her brown-furred and golden-scaled body lay on a small mess of blankets and pillows on the floor, curled in a little ball as she quietly slept the morning away.
As the light from the hallway fell upon her sleeping form, Nutmeg’s ear twitched amid her thick red ruff, before sleep released its grip. Stretching her gold tipped forehooves forward with a big toothy yawn, she settled to her haunches, blinking her soft green eyes sleepily. Then she looked to the open door, with Reef standing wreathed in the hall’s light. Then she startled up, saying wide-eyed, “Oh! Uh-uh, sorry I was just uh... h-hey there, Reef!”
The hippogriff took a step back into the corridor, his wings fluffing up before resettling. "Nutmeg! Oh, erm, terribly sorry, didn't intend to wake you there. Was just checking in, you know, since I had a few moments..." He looked away. "Perhaps I should go. We can always catch up later."
At that Nutmeg quickly relaxed, lifting a forehoof where she sits and smiling, saying, “Nah, nah, it’s fine. I was getting ready to wake up anyway.” Standing and stretching out her hind legs one by one, she headed out of the room with a saunter that belies her nervous tenseness. Looking up to meet the eyes of the much taller creature with some trepidation, Nutmeg asks, “I-is this about the radio?”
Reef waited for her to exit, then followed along beside. "It does appear the device provided some amusement, Rocket... Sprocket! Yes Sprocket, seemed quite entranced, showed me her new clock even. Although poor consolation for the lack of smooth jazz, I have to say." He looked at Nutmeg. "You know, I wasn't sure what to make of your reaction, when I dropped the thing off."
“Yeah, I’m really sorry about that,” Nutmeg said, ducking her head shamefully as they headed for the ramp to the upper deck, “You were totally right. There is no way that could’ve been made in Equestria. And I couldn’t even believe it. Thought you were joking with me.”
"Yes, well, I have been known to indulge in the occasional prank. Would like to think none of them were cruel... discounting my days at the naval academy, of course." As they emerged onto the open deck, Reef gave Nutmeg a meaningful look that was completely lost on the kirin. "In any case, I regret I did rather lose my composure there."
“Do you realise what this means?” the kirin said in a tone of wonder, making a beeline across the deck for the engine room, “Not only are there creatures here, but they have technology! Well at least a little technology. Do you think there are any cities here? I thought it was all just a bunch of mud huts and broken pottery!”
Reef took a running step and leapt into the air, wings snapping out for a powerful flap, soaring over Nutmeg's head before landing heavily on the deck in front of her, a loud clack-thump of claws followed by hooves. He whirled around, wings still spread wide, ducking his forequarters to bring his beak down level with Nutmeg's muzzle. His manner was playful but the speed and force of it was a little intimidating, and it drew a couple of stares from the few crew ponies who were up on deck early.
"Would you care for breakfast first? A picnic, that is to say? Summ.. Somepony pointed out that you might appreciate a spell off the ship." The big griff gestured with a spread wing at the wooden cart, which was parked on the side of the deck, harness ready and a wicker basket stowed in the back. "No need to worry, applied for and received full permission from Set Sail, as long as I keep these on at least!" Reef waggled his wings, bringing the gleaming weapons strapped there to Nutmeg's attention, while his beak gaped open in another avian grin.
Falling to her haunches at that startling display, Nutmeg looked back at him owlishly a moment, before declaring with growing excitement, “That’s... a... great idea!” She leapt back to her hooves, darting over to the cart, “I've had to eat in the engine room ever since I almost set fire to the mess hall. This is great! This...”
Reared up on the cart, she paused and looked back at him with a worried expression, saying, “Why are you...? I mean, I know I... apologised, finally.” She clambered back down, facing him and asking, “Do you throw a picnic for everyone who apologises to you? I mean, it’s cool if you do, but are you gonna fly me somewhere in this thing? I just don’t know what I did to... deserve it?”
Reef drew in his wings and trotted over, returning to a more serious expression. "My dear, as a fellow officer and vital member of the crew, I am compelled to ensure that your wellbeing is promoted and maintained. Now I can't say I'm an expert on equine behaviour, but it does seem to me that something is troubling you, and a change of scenery might be in order." He turned away, preventing Nutmeg from seeing him blush as he starts strapping the harness around his barrel.
“Oh, I... suppose, yeah,” Nutmeg said, ears drooping at his explanation, “Sure, whatever you say, doc. I sort of kind of miss... talking with you though, and it’s okay, but I am happy in the... engine room, but...” Clambering back into the cart, she declared, “A change of scenery would be... healthy yeah. But I really am sorry I stuffed my hoof in my mouth over that radio. So where do you think we should go?”
Harness buckled up, the griff looked over his shoulder to check that the kirin mare was properly seated in the cart. "Not sure if you've travelled in these before, but... you might like to stay near the centre of gravity there, I hear it helps. Now, I had to clear our destination with Set Sail, promised we wouldn't go anywhere else, she's so protective you know and feels... well, yes anyway I think you'll find it suitable." Reef Skimmer spread his wings again, the feathers shading from light grey at the root to almost white at the tips, shining in the bright morning light. "Here we go then, all ready back there?"
“It's my first time. Is it different from the ship?” Nutmeg Inferno asked worriedly: she was sitting in the exact centre of the conveyance, right up against the picnic backet, tail curled around her butt, “I mean not that I’ve y’know, been out on the ship much and...” her voice trailed off, then she shook her head, saying, “Y’know what? Go ahead. Let’s just go.”
"Righty-o then, hang on." Reef said, tensing up. With a brief canter along the deck and a few downstrokes, the griff rose into the air and flew out over the bow, cart following behind. A couple of ponies in the rigging waved at the pair as they departed. Once clear of the balloon, Reef banked left in a gentle descending turn: reasoning that Nutmeg might appreciate a chance to assess the damage, he made a slow loop around the far side of the ship. Once they passed the propellors, his wings pumped harder as they climbed up above the edge of the island, flying across the sheep-filled meadow.
Several calm, restrained seconds passed, then Nutmeg was up on the edge of the cart, looking from one sight to another before saying, "Woah, those sheep are so small! You can see the river from up here!" She continued to state the obvious for quite a while, as Reef headed for his destination, until when they were sailing over the forest canopy like a whispering green sea, the lady kirin just looking quietly around.
The hippogriff continued to climb slowly as the terrain rose, flapping almost lazily across the sky. The cart was rather lighter with one kirin instead of two ponies, but they were in no rush, and the weight of the wing blades was a little awkward anyway. Their destination was the highest point on the island, not worthy of the term mountain, but certainly a large outcropping of rock rising up above the trees. As they closed the distance the sparkle of crystal-clear water came into view, filling a sizeable depression within the top of the formation. Some unseen source of water had filled this lake, which in turn fed the rivers and streams snaking out across the island.
Reef's wings slowed and stilled as they entered a long glide, circling the lake as he looked for the best landing spot. The side nearest the ship, above the abandoned quarry, was rather barren, but the far side had shrubs and a few small trees poking up around a beach of mossy pebbles. The hippogriff came down low over the water, almost meeting his reflection before pulling up into a landing flare and coming to rest on the beach. The cart's wheels clattered over the pebbles for a few seconds before it too came to a stop. "And here we are then, nice little place for a spot of breakfast, wouldn't you say?" Reef said, as he began removing the harness.
“B-breakfast, yeah,” Nutmeg said, somewhat dazed by the dramatic location. “This place is... are we on a hill? You can almost see above the trees even from the ground here. Wow, I didn’t even know there was a whole lake here.” Hopping out of the cart, she took a few steps towards the lake, then turned back, and asked curiously, “You... need any help with that?” to the unbuckling hippogriff.
"Quite all right, thank you." Reef said, detaching himself from the cart and turning to stare intently at Nutmeg. "Looks much nicer than the lower one doesn't it... oh did you see the map? Set Sail managed to pry it away from Grenelda, made by... err... Melonjuice I think."
“Oh, okay,” she replied, watching the unbuckling process curiously, eventually remarking, “Those... claw things on your forelegs are pretty handy.” As he comes to meet her eyes, and asks her about the map, Nutmeg blushes and looks aside, saying, “I didn’t see the point. I’m not even supposed to be here.”
Reef frowned. "No reason not to stay informed, I'm sure you can borrow it if you like." In a more cheerful tone he continued "Now... breakfast, how does the notion of fresh fish tickle you?"
Nutmeg sighs, her ears flattening down, not particularly encouraged even about breakfast, until... she snaps up straight, staring at Reef in open mouthed disbelief: “Did you say fresh fish?“
The hippogriff winked at her: "Don't hold me to it, but I did see a few fish down there on the way in, so... one will see what one can find. Just need to stow these for a moment..." He fiddled with some more buckles and removed each wing blade, placing them carefully in the back of the cart. His claw re-emerged holding the wicker basket. "Here you are: loaf of bread, dried tomatoes, two jugs of cider..." Reef waited for a moment to watch the sudden look of horror on Nutmeg's face before continuing "Oh dear, strike that, looks like I accidently brought ale instead." He placed the basket on the pebbles and reopened his wings. "Now, you stay here for a moment..."
The bird-horse flapped into the air again, downdraft from the close take-off ruffling Nutmeg's mane and tail, and flew a short way out over the lake. Suddenly, ribbons of bright golden light formed out of nowhere, wrapping around the hippogriff's body and reshaping it. The newly transformed seapony had silver scales, bright purple fins on his head and tail, and giant grey dorsal fins where his wings had been. As if it was the most normal thing in the world, he dropped into the water with an enormous splash, and started zooming around under the surface.
Nutmeg did stand motionless on the shore for a bit, still staring in shock at her companion’s strange transformation. As he landed in the deep lake and vanishes beneath the water, she ran up to the shore to look down into it, though it was hard to see much more than flashes of scale and movement, even beneath the now-rippling surface. Lifting her head to look off distantly, Nutmeg declared to herself, “That was more impressive than I thought it would be.”
She looked back toward the picnic basket, adding, “I don’t think he meant fresh fish in there.” before her gaze went to the lake, “He meant in there.” Then she traipsed over to the picnic basket, saying fondly, “Oh, I hope he did manage to find ale.” Her horn markings lit up, as she started pulling things out of the basket.
The first thing she removed was the red and white checkered picnic blanket that was covering the food. She looked at it thoughtfully, before folding it and putting it back into the empty basket, while she tried to find a good place on the ground to set down the bread and cheese, and a small armful of curious oblong fruits, somehow fresh despite all their travels. “Did he harvest these here?” she remarked, squinting at the fruits hovering before her nose, limned in her green magic.
Reef Skimmer swam happily through the lake, twisting and turning, the water pleasantly cool on his scales. While it didn't quite have the appeal of soaring free in the skies, it was good exercise and always made him nostalgic for a childhood spent under the ocean, searching for new kinds of marine life to study. Unlike the barren shores, the bottom of the lake was carpeted in aquatic plants, on which many varieties of fish were nibbling.
Valiantly resisting the urge to spend the next few hours studying them (although he promised himself he'd come back later), the seapony zeroed in on some of the larger specimens: fat, juicy-looking red fish. They were wholly unprepared for a giant aquatic predator to suddenly appear in their lake and a quick lunge sufficed to catch one in his mouth. Happy not to disappoint the kirin, he swam up to the shallows, broke the surface and with a flick of his head tossed the fish onto the shore. It landed with a splat a few metres from where Nutmeg was unpacking the basket.
Delighted, Nutmeg leapt over to the fish, not just in excitement, but to put an end to the flopping around by quickly and neatly killing them. Worrying open a gash in the side, she left them bleeding out on the rocky shore, then looked out over the lake. As soon as Reef resurfaced again she called out, “Okay! This is plenty!” He probably already knew that, the thought, but her smile is genuine and her boisterous attitude is the polar opposite of malice.
The seapony nodded, then disappeared below the surface again, following the bottom of the lake out into deeper water before angling up towards the surface with powerful strokes of his tail fin. About ten seconds later he breeched the surface with another huge splash, his whole body shooting into the air before the ribbons of light returned and transformed him back into his familiar quadrupedal-bird-shape.
Reef flapped over and landed back on the beach, looking with concern at the amulet around his neck. The organic looking purple lump, which Nutmeg had assumed was ornamental, was glowing with blue light and humming like a struck tuning fork. However over the next several seconds the light faded from dazzling to bright then to a slight glow, slowly dying away to nothing as the humm also got quieter, slipping below the threshold of audibility.
“That was so cool!” Nutmeg said eagerly, cantering up to the emergent hippogriff, “You just sploosh, and bam, and fish just flying out of there! They said you turned from some kind of sea creatures, but I didn’t think about how you could actually go get the fish. You guys are great in every environment!”
A beat, then she added, “Well, except for environments that are on fire. Oh, speaking of fire, this’s a great place to build one! C’mon let’s go find some sticks!” Then she bounded off into the wilderness, leaving Reef standing there without a word in edgewise.
Glad that the kirin seemed to be happy, the hippogriff trotted along amiably behind her, saying nothing but keeping an eye out for trouble. It seemed unlikely the chompy beasts would pop up in such a rocky area - the topsoil here existed only in scattered, shallow patches - but this was still unexplored wilderness.
Nutmeg Inferno didn’t wander far. The trees up on the rocky peak were a scattering of stunted, weathered pines, a far cry from the dense, lush forest below, but they were quite sufficient for Nutmeg's needs. The kirin showed her companion how to break off dead branches, and levitated them into a growing bundle on his back. Soon they were back at the lakeside, where Nutmeg shifted the rocks and pebbles to make a circular, stony bowl. Reef watched curiously as she arranged the sticks there in a sort of pyramidal shape, then jammed two of the branches vertically into the rocks on either side of it.
The brown-furred kirin then squatted beside the structure, lightly shaking a foreleg and grumbling at it, “C’mon...” Then her hoof was engulfed in that eerie red and blue flame that once consumed her. Without skipping a beat, Nutmeg lay her burning hoof against the stick pyramid, which hissed as she did so, but didn’t immediately erupt into a roaring bonfire. She just kept her hoof there then, muttering as she moved it around now and again.
Reef Skimmer watched Nutmeg curiously, wondering if kirin spell casting inherently involved more gestures than unicorns, or if it was just something Nutmeg liked to do.
Nutmeg continued being a little on fire. The sticks caught eventually, and adopted a normal-looking fire colour as she pulled back and blew on it to fan the flames. Sharpening a stick between her hooves as the fire grew, she used it to spear a fish and suspend it between the forked sticks as a crude sort of spit. “See? That's how we did it back in the village,” she said, gesturing proudly at the simple setup, “Makes the fish nice and seared!”
Reef cocked his head. "You didn't use your horn at all? Fascinating..." He blinked and gave a little shake of his head. "That is to say, awfully convenient and, we can only hope, tasty."
“Well, I usually use my horn for catching them,” Nutmeg admits thoughtfully, “Guess it’s just not too much trouble to put the fish up on sticks with ordinary hoofiwork. She looks up at her own horn, and it glows green, along with the spitted fish, which rotates once slowly, before the glow fades. Then she rotates the fish with a push of her hoof, saying, “See? Not much more convenient. Wouldn’t think you would be surprised, since you do everything without a horn.”
Reef turned around in a circle, trampling down an area of loose pebbles, then sat down heavily, staring at the fire. "Your hooves do seem quite dextrous, my dear, but I was referring to the fire. I once saw a unicorn light a fire in a tavern, it was just a few seconds of her horn glowing, maybe a little grunting, and then hey presto, the logs were burning. That was more like, hmm, coaxing it from your hoof?" The hippogriff snorted and fluffed his wings.
"You know it took us a while to get the hang of that, after coming back to the surface. Cooking in general really, best we had in Seaquestria was that one place that broiled everything in a hot spring, but fires in particular, not a few griffs came to me with singed feathers after..." He trailed off, remembering that the goal of the trip was to get the kirin to open up more, not regale her with his medical student tales. "Well, it wasn't pretty."
“Oh! Yeah, actually,” Nutmeg stomped her forehoof and upon lifting it, a little fire flared from it, burning freely. “It’s more like... taking out your frustrations on your hoof,” she explained, giving it a conflicted look, before waving it out. “Horns actually don’t catch fire at all. They get really... cold though? Not cold, but like mean. I really don’t know how it works. I catch fire from the bottom up though, not from my horn.”
She looked back at the fire, then at Reef saying, “Well don’t worry about singing your feathers. I’ll take care of the fire. That... wing fluffy thing you’re doing means you’re worried about them, right?”
Reef frowned and stared at a wing for a moment, before folding them both down as tightly as possible. "Hah, not at all, just getting comfortable you know, sometimes the pinions sit at an awkward angle and you just want to preen them there and then... Oh, never mind about that." His eyes went back to Nutmeg, as he said in a concerned tone "How are you feeling now? You do seem less tense than, well, last time we spoke."
“Tense? When am I ever tense?” Nutmeg asked in confusion, then blushed, saying, “Oh yeah, the whole engine contract. Yeah it sucks, but what are you gonna do? Thanks for... getting me out of there a little. Heck, you threw me a whole gosh to honest cornucopia here! Or whatever you call this basket full of food thing.”
She gestured at the foodstuffs that were placed rather haphazardly around the area, as if by someone unsure of where to put them. The picnic blanket was still folded up in the basket. “So come on and sit by the fire and enjoy yourself too, okay?” the kirin asked hopefully, “And maybe we can try out some of that ale?”
"Oh, least I could do, cook seemed happy for me to take the provisions actually, at least after the first ten seconds of staring at him, ha ha... eh." Reef cast his eyes about, looking for the bread, before grabbing a piece of fruit he could reach without getting up. "Honestly I usually take brandy these days, goes better with the coffee you know, but back at the academy, before we could have a proper party we'd plan out a whole mission, to, uh, 'liberate' a few kegs from... heh, there I go again."
His ear tufts flattened as he thought over the kirin's earlier statement. "Problem with a contract did you say?" She'd said something before, what was it, a pony expression... 'railroaded here'? He'd assumed that just meant taking a train to Canterlot, but maybe he had missed something. "I thought you said you didn't build the engines?"
“It’s not much of a story,” Nutmeg said dismissively, mincing over to sit on her haunches beside the hippogriff, tail neatly tucked around her feet. “Our contract is to work on the ship’s engines for the duration of the trip. Turns out the fine print said round trip, and I didn’t know it was going to be going out into the middle of nowhere.”
She did use her horn to levitate the jug of ale he brought with him, giving it a hungry look before taking a swig out of it, and then another one. “Oh fires, I have been dying for some this,” she said, leaning back and heaving a relived sigh, “I haven’t had any since Manehattan. It’s not the same stuff as back home, but... yeah.”
Nutmeg proceeded to float up a piece of bread, breaking it with her hooves, and sending half over to the hippogriff. Along with the jug of ale, a little reluctantly. Setting them on the other side beside him, she added, “Thanks for... bringing me that radio. I think I might actually have some fun on this trip, if you keep bringing me back stuff like that to tinker with.”
Reef grabbed the bread out of the air with a claw, setting it aside for now, before frowning at the jug. After a moment he grabbed that too, tipped his head back and poured a generous slug into his beak. "Not bad, not bad at all!" he exclaimed "Those earth ponies do know what they're doing, well, compared to griffs at least. Try as we might I don't think we've quite got the knack for it, although, I heard Griffonstone finally has a proper brewery going again so... mmm."
After a moment, he continued. "Oh and that radio, think nothing of it, hate to see a fellow officer going to waste. Does seem promising doesn't it, if an abandoned village just inside the border has something like that, must be more to find further in."
“You wouldn’t know it at a glance, but it was definitely not built by ponies,” Nutmeg happily agreed, finishing her bread in two bites, “I bet you’ll find all sorts of awesome stuff,” she said with mouth full, “Even if it’s jus’... hold on.” After swallowing, she continued, “Even if it’s just ordinary appliances, the parts’ll be all different on the inside. Could learn something from that.”
She snagged the jug for another drink, before setting it down and heading over to the fire. Turning the roasted fish, she takes a deep breath, before lifting it off the fire with her hoof, pulling the spear out, then transferring the fish to float in her horn’s magic, while she speared a fresh one to take its place over the flames. “Seems like they’re pushing you around to places you didn’t sign up for as well,” she said, heading back to Reef Skimmer, “Sending you off on those missions just because you’re big and tough. I bet all you thought you were gonna do is do medical stuff the whole time.”
"On the contrary, one appreciates any excuse to get out here and study new species!" Reef replied, staring at the dancing flames, then out into the water. "Do you realise this one lake must contain enough finds to populate a book on Cloudbreak aquatic life! I mean, I was optimistic about the prospect of new species, but literally every creature we've encountered has been unknown to Equestrian science!" he continued enthusiastically. "Much like finding entirely new kinds of machine parts, I suppose?"
“Seems like a lot more creatures out there than machines,” Nutmeg countered in an amused tone, giving Reef a joking nudge to the side. She led her hovering cooked fish to float before him, adding, “Like these for instance. Here go ahead and have the first one. You caught ‘em after all.”
The hippogriff looked nervously at the kirin for a second "Ah, erm, thank you..." before grabbing it in a claw and tearing strips of flesh off it with his beak. "mmm, gud, qite delishus in fac! Do tri sum!" Reef exclaimed, mouth full.
Nutmeg beamed at that, saying, “What’d I tell ya, kirin cook ‘em the best.” She hurried over to check the other fish, turning it over, and feeding a few more sticks into the fire. Not that there was an emergency, but the smell of cooked fish pervading the air lended a sense of urgency to her movements. Tail swishing playfully, she returned, noting “Second one’s all mine. Needs a little more cooking still.”
Reef was now picking the remaining chunks off with his talons and dropping them into his beak; Nutmeg thought it was kinda funny how his tongue wasn't long enough to stick out of his mouth. She supposed that prevented griffs from biting it off by accident, at least.
"You did say something before... mmm... about wanting to go to Klugetown, instead of here... must take a couple of these back for Grenelda..." The stallion froze for a second "...and the whole crew to try! Uh... the non-herbivores that is. Like Grufftuss!" Reef stared at Nutmeg for a second, crest feathers sticking out in different directions and ear tufts twitching and looking utterly befuddled. "So, err, yes Klugetown! Awful place I hear, don't know why you'd want to go there."
Raising an amused eyebrow, Nutmeg replied, “Awful, maybe. But there’s all sorts of strange creatures there. I’d hardly be noticed, compared to trying to work in a pony city. They got a legendary mining industry, too. I’m sure we’d find something to do.” She picked up a piece of fruit in her forehooves, then asked sweetly, “So, Grenelda, huh?”
Reef looked down, apparently inspecting his claw. "Us griffs have to stick together you know... oh maybe you don't know her. Came with me to the chomp chomp pit you know, seemed upset she didn't get to fight anything. Gustus, well, they're paired, very firmly it seems, at least to hear him say it..." Reef was frowning and staring into space now. "Cute couple I'm sure.
Nutmeg’s ears drooped as Reef mentions Grenelda’s beau, saying, “Right, you don’t want to actually do anything, because it’d break the poor guy’s heart. Even I can tell he’s a softie under that grumpy exterior. Still doesn’t hurt to look though, if that’s the kind of girl you fancy.”
Reef blinked and refocused on the kirin. "Well anyway, erm... I'd always thought, well, always heard, ponies were very welcoming! Compared to all the other species at least. You must have... had it bad, if a dusty dump like Klugetown seems more promising than Manehattan."
At his protest of her life choice, Nutmeg griped around eating her fruit, “Yeah, they sure are welcoming, until you try to do anything. Then it’s oh no we can’t have that. It’s too much risk! It’s too weird, and I don’t like things that are different, and weird. I can’t believe ponies even got a railroad built with the attitude of some of them. They’re herd animals, you know? They have a hard time thinking straight in large groups.”
She paused for a moment after finishing her fruit, then said, “And they already took away my license to work in Manehattan. I had to go somewhere, so we all decided... well, obviously we didn’t make the greatest decision.” Looking off over the water, she asked, “You ever... feel like you don’t fit in, no matter where you go?”
Reef frowned. "If you'd asked me before I set claw on this crazy ship, I'd say definitely not, but just recently... well, it's been harder than I thought. I imagined that was down to the whole bird among mammals situation, but I suppose a tendency to catch fire would spook those little ponies as well..." Reef stopped, wondering if this was insensitive. "Is that what happened in Manehattan, they were afraid of your flames?"
Nutmeg started to shake her head, but then nodded, saying, “Yeah, something like that.” Standing and strutting over to check on the fish, she returned with it in tow, sans stick. “I met some amazing ponies though,” she said, sitting down with her fish, “Who didn’t even care if I flared up just...” Biting into the crackling skin of the fish, Nutmeg’s eyes half closed, as she concluded, “Mmm...”
Reef was biting chunks off the bread now. "Novo knows the Navy could use your help, what with phasing out sail and going steam-only, more than a few false starts there you know. Keep running out of coal in the middle of the ocean... don't tell anyone I said that!" He looked shocked for a second, before continuing "Of course the younger griffs tend to say it's a fool's errand, should just replace the whole fleet with airships, no matter if they crash every time there's a proper storm." Ear tufts dropping, he explained "I guess we don't quite have the way with the weather that the pegasi do."
Nutmeg paused in devouring her fish to shake her head, saying, “If I ever see another ship’s engine again, it’ll be too soon. No offense. We’re more about... personal labour saving devices. Like that hair dryer that’s been all the rage in Equestria. That was one of our designs. Subcontracted, of course.”
Using her powerful magical abilities to toss the bones on top of the remains of Reef’s fish, Nutmeg lifted the ale jug in her hoof and took another swig. “Ah, yeah, that’s the stuff,” she purred warmly, setting the jug down and laying back. She sat up again hurriedly then, blushing through the brown of her fur as she looked Reef’s way and said, “Sorry I forgot it was your turn at the ale.”
"Oh, quite all right... Sails does want me on the shore party by noon after all. Set Sail, that is. The captain." Reef stopped to glare at his wings, which has somehow become partly unfolded again. Pulling them in tightly, he continues. "Our? Oh of course your herd, erm, group? You're the leader aren't you, before you even came on the ship I mean. They do seem to like you, that stallion in particular... Steer Shift, he was quite... protective, when I followed you after the saloon incident."
“Yeah, I guess I ended up with a herd, heh,” Nutmeg said, laying back in soft disbelief, just gazing upwards, “Kirin aren’t as herdy as ponies. Mostly we just live together. But I’m not gonna say herds are a bad thing. Got some good ponies in my crew.”
She cast a lazy look Reef’s way, “Gear Shift’s the one you’re thinking about, I think. He really doesn’t mind you or anything. He just doesn’t want me to go get myself killed. Poor guy has his hooves full, I’m afraid.”
Struggling up again to a sitting position, she hastily added, “Oh, we’re not together, if that’s what you’re asking. He’s with Static and Sprocket right now. He’s just somepony who’s been with me since graduating. Cares about me like a... like a brother would.” She didn’t seem entirely pleased with that conclusion, sighing and holding before herself one of her uniquely two-fingered hooves.
Reef blinked. "Static... and Sprocket. I suppose stallions are hard to find, in ponyland. I'm aware of the genetics of course, read quite a few papers on it, it's just... well, it's always a bit of a shock. Griffs are 1 to 1 you know, same number of males and females, even if us hippos are a little more relaxed on the pair bonding than the cat-birds..." Reef looked thoughtful for a moment before giving Nutmeg a curious look. "Can't say I've ever seen the figures on kirin sex ratio, I just assumed things worked for you like they do for ponies? Reproduction that is."
Giving Reef a leery look, Nutmeg asked, "You know about the Stream of Silence, right?"
The hippogriff frowned, thinking back. "Just what you told me, that time in the sick bay. Magical device suppressing emotions and all that. Hmm, one imagines your, erm, leader? ...must have just ordered you all to, err, procreate. To continue the species and so forth."
“It’s called the Stream of Silence for a reason though,” Nutmeg said, “It goes beyond just removing emotions. It takes away... I mean I just... no, the leader didn’t order us. She didn’t say anything. It was just, when you went into season, you counted how many kirin had died the last year, and then you just randomly assembled, and... had that many babies. We didn’t have pair bonding, or any bonding. And it wasn’t terrible. It just... was.”
"Huh." Reef looked away for a while, unsure what to say about that. Tentatively, he asked, "erm, if you don't mind me asking, did you... participate? Do you have any foals, I mean to say."
Nutmeg was quiet for a moment at that. “No, I haven’t had any, err, foals yet,” she said, “I was getting on to that age when we awoke, but then we, y’know, awoke. I haven’t known how kirins are supposed to love each other ever since. I don’t think it’s like ponies though, even if we’re also one of the creatures with more females than males.”
With a smile, she added, “But it was nice to get my emotions back right when I was starting to appreciate males. That’s a crazy feeling, I’ll tell you.”
The hippogriff looked away for a long moment. If we was blushing, he managed to hide it by the time he faced Nutmeg again. "Indeed, no doubt, teenage hormones, bad enough without magical artefacts complicating things, can't imagine... well." The stallion rose to his feet.
"So! I regret I do have to get back, have to prepare for the sortie you see, certainly can't let Sails down. We do have a little time though, if you'd like to go for a little swim? Try being a seapony for a bit, I mean." Another pause, then "Oh you might not have heard; you know us hippos, we can transform other creatures into seaponies you know. Well usually seaponies. I hear dragons can be a bit unpredictable, eh heh, but it's all fully reversible, I assure you."
Nutmeg blinked, staring at Reef like a deer in headlights. "Wait... what?" she asked incredulously, "You can turn me into a seapony?"
"One certainly can, should you desire, nothing to it really, the Queen did all the real spellwork... oh, not to rush you, wouldn't want to spoil your breakfast." Reef Skimmer took a few steps down to the lake shore, dipping a claw into the gently lapping water."
Nutmeg didn't follow immediately, saying from where she sat "I... but... you didn't even have any hind legs," she says faintly, "What would that even feel like?"
The hippogriff looked back at his own hind legs: long and covered in short grey fur. "Hah! Quite normal I would say, you know when I first turned at seventeen, I had no idea what to do with these things! Must confess, I still turn seapony at night sometimes, if I can't get comfortable..." Reef blinked: maybe he didn't need to confess that. "Well anyway, not exactly like your legs are tied together, more that your body just sort of, tapers down to your tail... maybe a little like a snake? No that I've ever been a snake, so..." The griff trailed off, realising he might not be making a good case. "Must say it's nice to have a good splash about... unless... that doesn't cause problems with your fire does it? Wouldn't want you going, out, ha!" His beak grin was short lived. "That can't happen can it?"
“Water’s never put out my fire before, but I’m not even on fire right now,” Nutmeg said cautiously, taking a step forward, then a step away, then bounding up to him, saying, “Oh what the heck, let’s try it!”
Nutmeg Inferno's red ruff and chocolatey brown fur quickly became soaked, plastered against her as she kirin-paddled away from the shore. "You know I'm n-not entirely sure this is a good idea," she said nervously, sticking close to Reef, who was swimming confidently even in hippogriff form, though at least she wasn't having much trouble staying afloat. "Are you sure it'll even work right on me? I can't really turn into a... a fish, can I? Maybe we should..."
Reef gently placed a claw on Nutmeg's flank, saying "No need to worry, very reliable this single-purpose magic. It all feels quite natural, so I hear, even for first timers; certainly the ponies I've see give it a whirl were swimming around confidently after just a few minutes. Wouldn't suggest it otherwise..." He frowned: this was supposed to cheer the engineer up. "...but if you're having second thoughts, we can give it a miss and just head back to the ship."
Clinging to Reef's arm for support, she started to speak, then looked back to the shore, then turned forward again saying, "But you know then I'd have gotten all wet for no reason and... yeah let's do it. Before I get tired from all this..." a bit self-consciously, she pushed free from Reef, floating on her own, concluding, "...paddling around."
Reef cocked his head, looking at the kirin with an unreadable expression for a moment, before continuing "Righty-o then. Now the one thing that can panic a landlubber, err, pony, is if you think about respiration too much. You see what actually happens is that your trachea gains two additional branches that lead to your gills, the valve action is reflexive when..." Seeing the kirin's confused stare, he summarised "Yes, well in essence you can breath air or water, you won't drown, no need to worry about it. Understood?"
Nutmeg nodded, looking his way seriously. "Don't think about it. Got it. Let's do this." She sounded more confident than she looked, which wasn't hard considering her timid demeanour. "So how do you... I mean go ahead and zap me, or whatever."
Restraining himself from delivering another confusing explanation, or perhaps preferring to preserve a little bit of mystery, Reef Skimmer nodded silently and swam over to Nutmeg, placing one claw on her shoulder while the other grasped the amulet dangling around his neck. The hippogriff closed his eyes and concentrated: almost immediately an irregular humming started, rising in tone while beams of bright white light escaped from between his talons. A few seconds later, the magic reached a crescendo and burst out, wrapping the two creatures in swirling ribbons of energy. It left Reef in the sleek grey seapony shape Nutmeg saw earlier.
As for the kirin, the light enveloped her, slightly lifting her in the water as her tail expanded through the water into a huge muscular snakelike rudder, sucking her hind legs right into her body and leaving only a pair of small fins where they had been. Her slick brown fur became smooth scales, though the golden ones remained on her back and rear, now extending all along her tail. Her hooves became more cuplike and prominent, the tuft at the end of her tail became a large sail-like crimson fin, and her ruff shrank slightly while staying fluffy. Her horn didn't change at all, though it already resembled coral so went along nicely with the whole aquatic theme. Nutmeg twisted around on the surface of the lake in confusion, exclaiming, "W-woah, what?"
For a long moment Reef Skimmer just watched the transformed kirin: he had been thinking of her as 'kinda cute, in an extra-fluffy-pony way', but as a seapony his impression was 'really rather pretty'. He shook his head; he should probably be doing something more supportive. "That's it, just go with it." he said, swimming in a slow circle around Nutmeg, "Tail drives you forward, angle your body to steer."
Nutmeg was still unconsciously attempting to paddle along with her forelegs splashing on the surface, turning her tail slowly left and right, more to keep herself upright than to move forward. "Woah, my tail is... HUGE," she said in astonishment, twisting in a circle to openly stare at what was now the lower two thirds of her body.
"Indeed it is, and a very shapely tail it is..." Reef blinked, realising what he'd just said. "Erm, I mean to say, that's the expected shape! More or less, vertical caudal fin rather than horizontal, and pectorals too, definitely closer to fish anatomy than... erm, I mean to say, the transformation, well, it came through just fine, fine indeed..." he blurted, blushing and turning his head away. Trying to focus, he suggested "Perhaps you might try just tucking your forelegs in there?" He pulled his own forelegs up to his chest, the fins that had replaced his claws folded back. "Let the tail do the work, you see."
"Oh yeah, I... I see," Nutmeg said, cautiously snaking about, still on the surface. "You like tails, huh?" she asked in amusement, trying to strike a pose for him, but her upper body just flops back to splash into the water when she tries. "Whoops, ha ha..."
The question immediately took Reef back to certain escapades as a teenage seapony, which he considered sharing with Nutmeg for about half a second before classifying the whole notion as hopelessly embarrassing. "Hah, yes, surprisingly flexible you know... One does wonder how dragons feel, lugging theirs around all the time, no buoyancy to help."
"Oh, right, yeah, s-sorry," she said, somewhat mollified by her awkwardness as a fish thing. She managed to swim up to him uncertainly, saying "I dunno about dragons. I don't even have hind legs though, so my tail would be lugging around me!" Swishing her rear fins, she qualifies, "Well... sorta. Am I... supposed to be this long? I mean you don't know you said every creature is slightly different, but it's just really... I mean..." Flopping her tail over her shoulder, Nutmeg looks wide-eyed around it at Reef, explaining, "See? I can hug my own butt!"
"Indeed you can." Reef beak-gape smiles, swimming backwards for a little way before flipping his own big pink tail fin up between the two of them, poking just above the water, and resting his forefins on it. "You do seem to have stretched out to more like hippo proportions, ponies usually look a bit more, erm, stubby? Not that my sample size is comprehensive." The griff seemed very interested in the anatomical differences in Nutmeg's tail, compared to his own more dolphin-like setup. Yep, that was definitely why he was staring at it, Reef told himself. Realising it was starting to get awkward, he turned away from Nutmeg and disappeared under the surface with a quick splash.
"Well, I guess I... follow him," Nutmeg said to herself, left alone on the surface, "N-no problem, right...?" She hesitated, but then took a deep breath and just sort of pulled herself underwater by the power of that thick tail. Squinting her eyes cautiously open, she could see Reef descending away from her. It was a simple enough mathematical vector, to angle herself at the hippocampus and undulate her tail back and forth to quickly catch up to the male... whatever male sea ponies are called.
Seeing Nutmeg make it under, Reef thrashed his tail up and down and zoomed around for a bit, kicking up swirls of sand, pushing through strands of kelp and setting the whole kelp bed twisting and undulating in his wake, before slowing to a stop near her. "Oh good show, you're taking this in your stride! Couldn't ask for better conditions, this water is crystal clear." Indeed, the two could see clear across to the far side of the lake and down to the bottom, which was laced with bubbling cracks.
Curling around in a half loop to right herself, Nutmeg smiled nervously and nodded. She seemed to be more focused on him than the surrounding lake though. Or focused on something, at any rate. Still very tense, she certainly wasn't swimming around and having a blast.
Reef admired the transformed kirin, now fully underwater and bathed in shifting rays of light, for another long moment. He was definitely tempted to... well, no, that would be unfair wouldn't it. He did rather have her at a disadvantage; the kirin was completely reliant on him to turn her back and get her home, and she might feel pressured to accept any advances on his part. Hardly sporting. He started casting about for something else to engage her with. Hunting fish was probably asking too much for a beginner, not to mention they'd just eaten. In Seaquestria or even the nearby reefs there would be a multitude of attractions, but this mountain lake was relatively barren, except... hmm.
Giving Nutmeg a little fin-wave, the stallion swam away for a while, heading down to the bubbling cracks in the central lakebed. He darted about down there for a bit before making his way back to Nutmeg. "Substantial outflow, and looks like some interesting polyps in there... I mean to say, they're, erm, nice and warm! Must be what's keeping the streams going." He cocked his head, looking at Nutmeg. "Want to try one? Might relax the muscles.."
Nutmeg frowned, and waved him off with an oddly-shaped hoof, instead concentrating intently on herself and her intention here. She quivered there, scrunched her eyes shut, and then exhaled just a bit of air. That made her gasp, and all her air rushed out at once, which made her reflexively suck in a bunch of water. So far so good, but she'd never breathed anything as thick and heavy as water before, so her eyes snapped open as her muscles strained to pump it into her. She overcompensated and began to spasms, hyperventilating and writhing and yeah to be honest, totally absolutely panicking.
"Nutmeg!" Reef Skimmer looked shocked for a moment before bursting into action. With a few powerful strokes of his tail he was positioned behind the mare and able to grab her smooth-scaled body in his forelegs, wrapping them around her chest and holding her tight. She was still small enough that his tail was free to propel both of them rapidly upwards, breeching the surface in a dramatic spray of water.
Reef's dorsal fins spread wide as momentum carried them above the water, then at the top of their arc, just before they begin to fall back towards the surface, the ribbons of white-gold magic returned and transformed them back into a hippogriff and a kirin. Nutmeg found herself staring at her own reflection in the water just below her hooves, held aloft by the claws of a hovering hippogriff, her spine still pressed against his keelbone.
The transformation spared her a lungful of water, but Nutmeg was still dripping and bedraggled, hanging there in the arms of Reef Skimmer, gasping for breath as she stared at the water below. Her tail lashes behind her as if... well... as if she still were mostly tail. She slowly relaxed though: her breathing evened out, and she began to chuckle, then to shake with laughter, still hanging there.
Reef dipped his head and looked at his patient; his eagle face upside down from Nutmeg's perspective. Seeing she's fine, he gradually relaxed. "Perhaps that's enough swimming for now? You were doing well there until, err, hmm. You know maybe that explanation was counter productive. Can't recall any other griff mentioning it and the ponies just, well, didn't give it any thought. Ah well". His amulet was doing that odd blue light and ringing sound again, but he didn't have time to worry about that right now.
A few powerful flaps and they were rising away from the water, before gliding down to the pebbled beach. Reef dropped Nutmeg off next to the cart, landed, then began to pack away the picnic materials. Still chuckling to herself, Nutmeg caught her breath upon returning to dry land. "I, heh... I thought about it, sorry," she remarked, ears dipping a little guiltily, as she pulled the picnic blanket out of the basket and unfurls it to hang suspended in the air, while the two of them worked together to return the remaining foodstuffs to the now empty basket
"So, erm, how was it: two legs and a tail fin, that is?" Reef asked, uncertain. "You did make a lovely seapony." He blinked, then turned away. "Err, that is to say... I hope... you enjoyed the outing?" He busies himself backing into the cart's harness, fussing with the straps.
"It was... strange," Nutmeg admitted, "Not the sort of thing I'd ever have dreamed of experiencing. I'd love to try it some more." She floated the blanket down and secured it tight over the contents of the picnic basket, just like it was when they came here. She shook off here and there, the remaining water scattering from her fur and helping to put out the fire, before she stomped its embers into ashes. Some burned sticks and a few fishy skeletons were all that's left of their little meeting, as she came up to Reef with the basket floating behind her.
"You keep saying that about me," she remarked teasingly, "But you don't give yourself enough credit, I think, because you make a pretty lovely sea pony, or... bird pony too. No matter what you are I mean, you are yourself, and... I kind of like that guy." He might have caught her blushing at saying that, but she made a single swift leap into the cart, and busied herself with important things in there like putting down the picnic basket and finding where to sit.
"Indeed! Well then. Erm..." Reef muttered something Nutmeg couldn't quite hear, before saying loudly "Jolly good then. Better get back to the Harmony, wouldn't want Sails... the Captain, rather, getting stressed!" He looked over his shoulder at her, beak-grinning "After all, we've only got the one cart left and I had to swear I'd bring it back intact." The hippogriff spread his wide pinions, preparing to take to the air. "Ready to fly?"
"Ready!" Nutmeg called out, and with that they take to the air, soaring over the woods and heading back to the damaged vessel and the beleaguered crew. Approaching from the air, things did look a lot better than when they first came out of the storm. The balloon had mostly been repaired, all its cells gas-tight and full. In the adjacent meadow the array of tents, tables, and fire pit for cooking are looking pretty solid, though camped out on a wild island isn't exactly a permanent shelter.
Extra fluffy from the blow-drying on the flight back, the kirin again thanked the hippogriff doctor, and retreated nervously back into her beloved/hated engine room. And somewhere far across the island, something ancient and lost awaited, ready to change her future and the fate of them all.
The fourth day dawned, and most of the crew were again gathered on the upper deck for a meeting, led by a weary eyed Set Sail. “We’ve been really lucky, so far,” she said to the crowd, “We have a solid landing without anything directly menacing us, even if those... “chompies” are out there in the forest. We haven’t started a war or anything, and we haven’t lost anyone... else. But we’re low on supplies and stranded here, so if there are talking creatures living here, we’re gonna need their help. So uh, Summer you want to say what this troll you met wants us to do?”
Summer Scribe nodded eagerly. "Of course, it's nothing we can't handle: we just need to take care of the chompies in the pit while he's watching, to get his friendship. It's practically a Win-Win!" In a more bashful tone the unicorn added "...oh, and rebuild the roof of his house. I Figure that's pretty much a given: not too hard, and we'd be making a good impression on our first contact!"
"Or at least, a better impression on our first responsive contact... at least, better than what I did..." Azure Feather said, shaking her head slightly. She was still struggling to recover from magical exhaustion, but judging by the wings still attached to the unicorn... she was at least able to cast spells again. "Chompies?" She asked, tilting her head. "Awfully simplistic, but we're talking about the type of creature that sent me to the injured list three days ago?" She looks less than pleased as she concluded "They were only dangerous because of the pit and the ambush. Are those things causing trouble elsewhere now?"
Reef Skimmer was standing at the edge of the group, staring up at the rigging and seemingly a bit distracted, but the mention of chompies was enough to draw him into the conversation. "A dozen of the beasts put two ponies in the infirmary, and from all accounts might easily have done worse. Now granted, they had the element of surprise, but the troll mentioned 'chompy pods'. We don't know what those are or how many chompies there are on the island. In short... caution is advisable."
“The doctor’s right,” Set Sail said grimly to Azure, “If they sent you to the injured list, then they’re a problem. They’re blocking the path anyway, and not all of us have wings.” Turning to Summer Scribe, she added, “And maybe if we ask the troll, then he’ll tell us what a chompy pod is. It seems pretty reasonable that we could help him out." The pegasus sighed. "Plus we do kind of owe him for wrecking his roof.”
Summer Scribe nodded in agreement. "Exactly: he helps us, we help him. And yeah, I don't think we should get too hung up on our first encounter; sure, the Chompies absolutely demand our fear and respect, but we were ambushed in un-co-operative terrain. With a proper fighting force and plan things will go MUCH easier."
The captain turned back to Azure and asked “Anyway, how’s your magic doing? You’re casting spells alright again, I guess. Any more surges?”
Azure shook her head. "No surges since the incident in that creature's house... my magic's fine, which is a relief... but for all the times I didn't want to use such a destructive spell, I do want to use something just like that on those darn things. I have my pride as one of the Lavender Blades... and they won't get the best of me twice." Never mind the fact that she still hasn't figured out why these surges are happening: it's become a case of making the best out of a bad situation at this point.
Reef hung his head, looking a little sheepish "Now, I can't claim to be an expert on unicorn magic; far from it in fact; but I do know that horn surges can be triggered by certain workings." He'd read it last night in fact, in the one relevant book he had with him. Looking at Azure, he continued "So I can only suggest Azure Feather refrains from casting the spell she used on the previous occasions, at least until we can explain this. Perhaps your telekinesis alone would suffice to squash the beasts, or at least fling them away?" he suggested, not really sure what Azure's magic was capable of. "In any case I must say her physical wounds are healing up nicely... very nicely. Faster than anyone else on the crew even, by some margin! You're sure you, or indeed another unicorn, didn't cast anything to help that along?"
Azure paused for a second, before nodding slowly. "Likely best, Doctor... apologies. I still do want another fight with the creatures. I've got my pride." she repeated, before turning her attention to the other point. "Magical exhaustion... I'll admit I feel better than I should considering it was just yesterday? Physically, though, you're right... I'm feeling pretty good, but I didn't cast a spell to speed up the healing. Did any other creature here...?" she asked, curious.
“Maybe it was that spell that made her pass out?” a certain griffon hen called from the ranks, “But I don’t want to drag some dipsy unicorn’s unconscious body out of the middle of a battle!”
“That dipsy unicorn is a member of the Royal Guard, Grennie,” Set Sail said, sending a stare her way, “She’s the best fighter we have, and the most powerful magic user. So please try not to antagonise her, okay?”
Grenelda just folded her scaly forelegs.
Another enthusiastic nod from Summer Scribe: "Yeah, we can't not take Azure. She knows what she's doing, and she's the best guardpony we've got here! She knows her own limits better than anyone else will, I'm sure."
The hippogriff had been muttered something; to Azure, standing closest, it sounded like "Oh wonderful, another magical medical mystery." At Set Sail's words though his head comes up and he grinned (or at least, beak-gaped) cheerfully at her. "Quite, would be foolish to keep our only combat caster on the bench wouldn't it! Now, perhaps if we could swing past the troll's house on the way, as you say lend him a pony or two to help with the roof situation, he might let slip a little more detail on this pod business? One would be glad to assist with taking the thing down, erm..." Reef's gaze fell to the deck again "...if the Captain desires that is."
“Yeah, anyone who thinks they can take a few bitey monsters,” Set Sail said with a glance to Reef Skimmer, “But before we fix his roof, we have to at least clear the path, so that’s what we’re gonna do.” To the crew at large, she announced, “The flyers are going to rendezvous with the troll, then our ground uh... creatures are going to approach the pit from the other side. Once we’re all together, we can... y’ know... see what he has to say.”
Spreading her brown wings, and looking off toward the forest, the green kerchiefed temporary captain concluded, “I know we didn’t come here to fight things, but there might be even more danger on other islands. If we can’t teach these chompy creatures a lesson, only a matter of time before we run into something worse. But if we can kick their tails,” she looked around at the crew again, “Then nothing is gonna be able to stop us! That sound good?”
A cheer went up from the crowd.
“Then let’s get to work!” Set Sail declared, and the meeting was unofficially over, with most of the crew heading off immediately to continue repairs on the ship, or to prepare for the coming fight.
A tall green troll named Abernathy walked with a purple pegasus named Cloud Cutter, the lady gryphon Grenelda, Azure Feather the butterfly-winged unicorn, a second pegasus, and the hippogriff doctor, Reef Skimmer. The only weapon the troll bore was an unwieldy looking club, but he seemed confident, when he said “Okay the first thing you gotta understand is that once a chompy pit has formed, it’s going to be making pods all along the edge of it."
"Best strategy is to have someone or uh... a sheep in the pit, so you can see where the chompies are popping out from." he explained. "That’s what you flyers are gonna do so you can fly out quick. The rest of your crew can go along the sides, clearing away the brush and eliminating any pods. Once you’ve gotten all the pods...” he smacks his club into his hand, “Then I can take it from there. Sound good?”
Reef Skimmer frowned. "And the creatures gestate inside the pods, you say? Do you have an idea of how big the population can get, for the one pit I mean?"
"Alpha team draws out the enemy, delta and gamma teams fan out to take down the side threats, while you've got the main one once the sides are clear?" Azure Feather said to herself, apparently to make sure she's got the objectives of each squad clear. Hearing the doctor's question, she looked over and added "Doc's got a point. How many hostiles are we looking at?" The blue unicorn was stomping and pacing a little as they approached. Time for a second round with those creatures...
“I’ve never counted, to be honest." Abernathy said. "Dozens, at least. Not nearly as bad when it’s just the one pod. But it’s easy to let things get this bad, when you’re the only one around to take care of it. They take a while to pop out though, and they’re slow, so if you keep on top of it, they won’t overwhelm you. It’s more them trying to wear you out. But that won’t happen, since we’re also taking them out at the source. Won’t take more than a half hour with you guys to help.”
They approached the pit from the west, while on the east side a force had already gathered: Summer Scribe, Melonwater, two more tough-looking sailor-mares, and certainly not even the slightest sign of any creature able to set fire to anything and everything around them. “How did you guys get all the way over there?” Abernathy called out curiously across the pit, “You didn't cross the pit, did you?”
"We jumped good!" Summer Scribe shouted... then giggled. "Just kidding! We walked here from our ship." She gestured behind her with a hoof. "It's YOUR team that flew over to you!" The little unicorn studied the terrain: indeed, there were no signs of anything hostile yet. But if she heard it right, the moment something sacrificial entered the pit, that's when the game would be on!
“What are you... ugh, never mind. Let's get started!” Abernathy loudly declared. “Anyone who can fly get down there and start acting sick and vulnerable. But don’t hesitate to destroy them before they can leap at you. Everyone else up top, when you spot a place the chompies are popping out of, start clearing the brush towards it, and be ready for chompies to come at you too, when you get close. Pods are big... green and red ugly gourd looking things. Just cut ‘em to pieces or blow them up and the rest of their chompies will go with them. OK, go!”
Reef Skimmer had just finished fiddling with the straps of his wing blades; not that he was confident they'd do more harm to the creatures than himself, but he couldn't disappoint Set Sail, now that she had set the expectation. "Perhaps one will be bait enough!" the hippogriff shouted, leaping forward, wings half spread. "No sense wasting fighters down here when they could be sweeping the forest!" He landed heavily in the dirt and stared upwards expectantly.
Summer Scribe smiled and turned to her contingent. "Alright, you heard them: there'll be pods to bust all around the pit, as soon as the fight starts. Keep your eyes peeled and call 'em out when you see them!" The other ponies nodded (or in one case, saluted), and spread out to cover as much of this side of the pit as they can. Summer Scribe kept her eyes on Reef Skimmer, her horn charged up, ready to give covering fire for the chaotic start of the fight!
Azure immediately prepared to follow Summer's lead, charging up a full-fledged blast, but stopped as she recalled what happened the previous afternoon. She wasn't keen on putting any friendly near the line of fire; especially not when the first creature in the Alpha team is the doctor himself! Instead, she thought about what Summer had said; something about her having... some windy element? The unicorn decided to try and channel a more restrained spell, perhaps a blade of wind, ready to fire when the fight broke out in earnest.
For a long moment everything stayed silent and still, then a small green creature with two prominent eyestalks popped out of the undergrowth on one side of the pit, descending in a long slow arc into the pit in front of Reef Skimmer.
"Chompies out!" Summer Scribe called out, keeping her focus on the imminent fight down below. 'It looks like the chompy is following a predictable arc,' she thought, 'so it should be a simple matter of geometry to aim a magical blast at the spot where it will land... and fire it off with just the right timing!' She aimed her horn and prepared to release her magic. Meanwhile, her three companions stayed alert for pods to smash!
Down in the pit, Reef stared at the small green creature, fascinated. "Those really do look like modified thorns-" His musing was cut off as the creature dashes forward, coming directly at him. Forewarned of the threat, the griff took a step backwards, wings still spread and claws tensed, then pounced. The chompy's dim awareness seemed to register its entire vision filling with giant predatory bird, just as Summer lets loose with her bolt of magic. The hippogriff's talons struck the chompy, making it explode into green chunks, just as the unicorn's precise shot burned a neat hole through his pink crest feathers.
Flush with adrenalin, the griff noticed the shot strike the ground nearby, but not the tragic damage it had wrought on his prized crest. Looking up at Summer, he shouted "Got it! And, erm, thanks for the assist. Do you see the pod?" Much as he wanted to see one for himself, Reef resolved to stay down in the pit for now, until all the pods had been located or he was faced with more chompies than he could handle. Sure enough as he waited for a reply, two more chompies popped out of different locations in the jungle, both landing behind him.
Up on the rim, Summer saw the smoking hole in the doctor's mane-feathers and winced. Well, at least her aim was on point. She was about to apologise when she noticed the new wave of creatures, instead calling out: "Behind you! Take the one on your left, I'll get the other one!" With that division of labour established, she charged her horn for a second shot as quickly as she could.
Meanwhile Azure Feather had found her horn could slice the air more like a blade than a cannon, its magic producing a sickle-shaped shockwave of compressed air which shot forward away from her, thin enough cut through the underbrush like a hot knife through butter. A broad swath of the jungle was cut down where it stood, clearing the ground between her and the now-revealed chompy pod. The attempts of the two sailor-ponies to clear it out just got a whole lot more efficient, leaves flying everywhere as they cantered forward and began to buck it.
Azure couldn't help but smile a bit at the effectiveness of the new spell. Not only did it do exactly what she wanted it to, it didn't knock her out this time, either! Heck of a bonus, that one. But her attention soon shifted to her allies: particularly the doctor, and his predicament in the pit. "Doc, two on your six, watch it!" Much as she wanted to help, she had to leave that to Summer: every creature's got their role to play, and it was clear her magic was best employed helping to find and destroy the chompy-spewing pods.
Hearing the thumps but not certain exactly where they landed, the hippogriff took heed of the calls from above, flapping hard and taking to the air. He hovered in the exact centre of the pit and twisted around to see two chompies staring up at him. Would they leap up at him, a couple of metres off the ground? Was one of the unicorns going to blast them or should he pounce on them? Should he just clear out of the pit? Reef hesitated for a second, as he realised his crest feathers felt funny and wondered exactly what Summer had done, before her instruction clarified the situation.
The chompies leapt up at him just as Reef folded his wings for a dive; his claws now too low, he lunged with his beak and slices into the one on the left, the unwanted morsel exploding into green slime. The big griff slammed into the ground, knocking lose the second chompy which had latched onto his right side: it tears away along with a mouthful of grey contour feathers. Reef squawked loudly, spitting out gunk that tastes of rotten cabbage, and whirled on the remaining chompy, glaring at it with murderous eyes.
His revenge was forestalled by Summer's magic bolt zipping down and striking home: the beast exploded in a brilliant burst of glimmering blue. There are already three more chompies inbound though, and one on the edge of the pit that hasn’t quite made it in yet. Meanwhile Azure’s efforts at clearing the jungle have revealed a second pod: like a weird spikey gourd twice the height of a pony, flexing oddly as a chompy rockets out of the orifice on its top. This one arced upwards on a trajectory away from the pit... and directly at the winged unicorn.
Summer Scribe's eyes dart around between waves, as the rest of her team continue their mission with newfound ease, thanks to Azure! She notices the new chompy pod disgorging another combatant: ech! "Second pod's over here! Let's smash it good!" she shouted. The unicorn refocused her efforts, treating the plant creature to a full-power magic blast, thinking 'let's see how well it holds up to THAT!'
Seeing the pit filling up and their doctor at risk of being surrounded, the griffon Grenelda leapt into the pit, landing with her back to Reef Skimmer as she shouted "Here they come!"
Azure's fight was going much better than her first encounter, but it was far from over, and to see the Chompy rocket out of the pod, heading straight for her... she nodded. If there was a time to see what her new spells could do, it was now. Focusing her magic into more of a bullet than a cannon shot, she planted her hooves, aimed carefully, then released the energy. Sure enough, the spell did just as she asked, forming into a swift bullet that blasted the Chompy apart in mid-air, leaving only a few fragments to rain down just short of her position.
"Not sure even a stew would help with these blighters!" Reef shouted back at Grenelda, his beak open in a grin. "Looks like I ended up taking the first bite after all." His ear tufts pricked up as the two griffs heard the distinctive spurt-whistle sound of more chompies incoming. "Good, good, the more we draw down here, the less there are to mob the ponies!"
As far as anyone could tell, Cloud Cutter had disappeared; certainly she began the fight standing near Azure and the troll, Abernathy, but in the first few seconds of the engagement no one saw her. That changed as a trio of chompies burst from the undergrowth and charged straight towards Summer, distracted by first the pit and now the pods. The purple pegasus materialised out of nowhere; perhaps not literally, but it certainly seemed that way to Summer Scribe; and made two quick, precise slashes with her wing blades. Chompies burst, splattering her with green goo, but her expression remained blank and unfazed as she effortlessly dodged the clumsy lunge of the third creature before stabbing it with a blade, turning it into another pile of plant entrails.
The chompy pods proved tougher than their progeny by far. Summer’s magic blast definitely made the thing burble violently, but it continues to extrude chompies like clockwork. Azure has somewhat better luck: her new magic technique keeps going after destroying the chompy and thumped right into its parent pod, while the two other ponies on her team ran up and bucked they thing for all they were worth. Seemingly trying to defend itself, it spat out another chompy to land right next to them, but a quick kick from one of the pegasi exploded it like a watermelon.
Azure fired off another air-infused blast at the nearest pod, then glanced over to see how Summer's team was doing, just in time to see Cloud Cutter's display of fighting skills first-hoof. "Not bad! Scratch three more, let's see what else is hiding in there!" Charging her magic, she shot several more cutting beams into the jungle, looking for more pods.
More chompies were descending in lazy arcs, but a quick, silent pass by Cloud Cutter slashed two apart while they were still in mid-air. The one-and-a-half predators in the pit handled the rest: Reef pouncing two more to bits, while Grenelda tore through five of the mindless green monsters in a flurry of beak and claws. Meanwhile Melonwater had been watching Summer's attempt to take out the pod and had an alternative suggestion, shouting “Here, use this!” as he hefted a sizeable rock into the air.
Summer had been totally focused on the effect her magic was having on the pod;. much to her detriment, as she was caught totally off guard by the chompies! When Cloud Cutter burst into action and dismantled her attackers, she could only gape, both at her own lapse of attention and at the swiftness of it all. "Thanks for the assist, Cloud Cutter!" Summer whirled around, anxious to spot any further assailants... before her frown turned to a grin as she saw her team members were are already on it! Turning back to the pod, she grabbed Melonwater's offering in her field and telekinetically hurled it at the source of her frustration, grunting with the effort. The rock smashed into the already-damaged plant, bursting it into tatters and scraps of vegetable matter.
“Nicely done! It looks like there are five pods left!” Abernathy called out from where he stood, up on the edge of the chompy pit.
"Five targets left..." Azure muttered under her breath as she noticed, much to her disappointment, a single decent spell won't do the trick on its own today. Or at least, not without risking severe magic drain and unconsciousness again. She spread her wings and flapped into the air, getting a better look of the battlefield from above. With the locations of the remaining hostiles scoped out, she selected a target and began unleashing a steady stream of wind blades, cutting deeply into the pod. 'A decent bucking, or for that matter magically accelerated boulder, should finish it off,' Azure thought. "Next target!" she shouted, hoping some creature would follow her lead while she concentrated on softening up another enemy.
His body still pumping with adrenalin, Reef Skimmers's gaze flicked rapidly from one moving target to another. Ambush tactics, swarming, surrounding their prey, targeting weak points... it seemed like there was a real danger of being overwhelmed. The hippogriff leapt into the air and brought his wings down as hard as possible, deliberately avoiding the usual mass-lightening. Instead of the usual gentle breeze of a hovering flyer, the full force of his six metre wingspan drove air down into the centre of the pit, blasting the chompies back and causing Grenelda to crouch and flinch, her feathers tossing about in the wind.
Foes thus incapacitated, however temporarily, Reef closed his wings and dropped with a thud, smashing an overturned chompy under a claw and instinctively grabbing another in his beak... before realising too late what he was doing. The thing burst, and once again the hippogriff was gacking and spitting out foul green goo.
Heeding Azure's call, the Summer-Melonwater Large Rock Collider sprang into action, smashing the weakened pod with one well-placed shot. And so it continued, with Azure's wind blades softening each target up for a telekinetic boulder to smash, All the while Cloud Cutter’s eerily silent death on four hooves mopped up the chompies spat out by the pod's futile attempts to defend themselves. Soon the ponies had cut a swath all around the edge of the pit, and only one pod remained, battered and bruised. Feeling playful at this point, Summer swung the last rock in a high arc and stuffed it into the orifice at the top of the pod. The thing strained and convulsed, trying to push out one last chompy, before exploding into pulp. She shared a high-hoof with Melonwater, delighted at their success.
Down in the pit, Reef Skimmer and Grenelda were similarly elated, having ripped apart the last of their adversaries, but were soon squawking in alarm as they felt a tremor in the ground beneath them.
“OK! Everybody out of the pit! Now!” Abernathy shouted from the overlook. The two griffs immediately lifted off, pumping their wings and climbing out of the pit.
Summer started into the pit, wondering what would happen. Turning to Cloud Cutter, she began "Do you think..." but the purple mare had vanished, apparently swallowed by the earth oh no wait there she was, alighting calmly next to Azure Feather. How did she do that?
Azure would indeed follow the green creature's order: keeping back from the pit, rounding up the other ponies and leading them over to regroup with Summer and Melonwater. Professional as she was, she couldn't keep a smile off her face. Watching the entire team just fight as one true unit... oh, this felt like home again...
As progressively stronger tremors shook the ground, the floor of the pit seemed to be rising, no, bulging upward, until the dirt bursts open and showers down all around it. A quivering green column of eyes and teeth thrusts upward and towers over the Equestrians, its side dotted with swollen blisters that burst to reveal yet more chompies. From its many mouths issued a deafening, discordant roar.
Calmly, Abernathy pointed his club at the horror, and with a deafening boom and flash of light half the abomination sheared off in an explosion of green gore. With another explosion from the troll’s club, the central section shattered into mulch, and the infernal column toppled over, deflating like a wilted vine.
Club now held over his shoulder, he looked over the edge of the pit, at the dirt sifting off the walls like falling sand, already softening the sheer edge of the cliff. A single surviving chompy leapt at him, and he just kicked it back into the pit, declaring, “That’ll do it, I think. Nice job, everyone! Just clean up the last few chompies, make sure they have no chance to root, and this road will be passable again.”
Summer Scribe's eyes widened as she falls back in a panic, terrified by the huge, monstrous thing that had emerged from the pit! This kind of eldritch horror would take a whole army to fig- aaand it's gone. What? What? She came to, shaking her head and looking around, as if worried that her senses were deceiving her. "D... Did Abernathy just take that thing out in a single hit?? Why did he even need help if he can do..." She looked down at her own hooves, briefly feeling like a very small and meaningless pony. "Huh? I mean, uhh... H-happy to help!" she said, sweat foaming on her coat.
“It took two hits,” Abernathy clarified for Summer, “And I only have two shots before I have to reload. Not so great against chompies. I always save the shotgun for last. You just saved me a heck of a lot of time, trouble, and chompy bites.”
Still airborne, Reef Skimmer hovered over the remains of the pit for several seconds, stunned by the sight of the huge animate plant. "Some variant of Tatzlwurm?" he muttered, before coming to his senses and realising there are hardly any chompies left. "Good show every... creature! Good show all around... And bravo, Abernathy, bravo there!" he shouted down. "Now, would one of you unicorns mind bagging me a specimen or two? If you can pick it up without popping, that is."
Azure Feather actually seemed afraid for a moment as she saw the gigantic animate plant rise from the pit... only to see it absolutely torn to shreds by Abernathy himself. Wind seemingly completely out of her sails, she stood there for several seconds, as it starting to dawn on her that maybe... maybe she's not as good as she thinks she is? Legs trembling for a moment, she finally came to her senses as the doctor asked his question, and she shook her head clear of her previous train of thought. "Can give it a fair shot, Doctor." she admitted, as she started to look around for any more of the darned creatures.
Summer Scribe, still gobsmacked, was roused into a sense of purpose by Reef. Brought back from the brink by a newfound connection to life! "Oh, sure, getting on it now!" She paused, as the hippogriff landed next to her and her eyes went to the still-smoking hole. "Apologies for nailing your crest!" she quickly added, lowering her head. "Tactical mis-co-ordination. I'll be better prepared for your fighting style next time now that I've seen it!" She saluted, then trotted off to help Azure capture and/or splat the remaining chompies.
Azure managed to levitate one chompy without too much trouble, though the other ponies seem very intent on squashing all the rest for some reason. It sort of pinwheeled its little limbs in the air, gnashing its teeth mindlessly in her general direction.
Reef frowned, raising a claw to feel his pink-striped crest feathers; in the commotion he'd almost forgotten. Instinctively he glanced at Grenelda, who'd just landed next to him, before remembering that griffons didn't have crests to speak of, and she probably wouldn't care. He did note that she looked rather attractive, eyes still ablaze with wild intensity and claws glistening with chompy juice. Shaking his head, he glanced over at the ponies and spotted Azure's floating catch. "Ah, a fine specimen, thank you." the hippogriff congratulated her as he trotted over. "In here, if you wouldn't mind." he said, taking a collapsible cage from a saddlebag.
Azure didn't waste any time, shoving the plant creature into the cage with... some restraint? It's clear from the frown on her face as she places her enemy in the cage... still alive... that she has no love for the beasts. "There. I hope that's the last we see of these things." she concludes, before looking back to Abernathy... hmm. Maybe she'll figure all this out at some point. Reef snapped the cage shut and wrapped it in a sheet, causing the creature inside to fall dormant as it was left in darkness. He tied the bundle to his saddlebags and that was that.
Meanwhile Summer had spotted a single chompy, half-buried in the dirt and struggling to free itself, and picked it off with a precise bolt of magic. With no more enemies to be found, she trotted back over to Azure. "Reload...? Shotgun...?" Clearly some kind of heavily weaponized native tech... She'll have to investigate this lead further later! "You saw that weapon Abby used, right Azure? Imagine if we had something like that." She grinned!
Azure, still reviewing the battle in her mind, was somewhat surprised by Summer's approach. She turned to her friend, saying "I saw what it did; not so much what it was. Hmm." To Summer it looked like something was bothering the other mare, but as Azure shook her head slightly, it seemed like it a discussion that would have to wait for another time.
“I don’t even want to know how many of these things are on the island,” Abernathy was lamenting, with a frustrated sigh. “It’s so hard to get rid of them once there’s an infestation. You think you got ‘em all, and then the ground’s collapsing under you into another chompy pit. But at least we got the one blocking the path."
"I know what you mean..." Azure replied, echoing his sigh. "They seem just like a species from back home... except meaner. And lots of teeth." She gave a weak chuckle. "We'll see if there's more, though. Goodness knows we're not headed back home for some time yet." she noted, but managed a smile. "Now that I've figured out a little more of this place, though... I think we can hold our own here. At least for now."
Abernathy looked thoughtfully at the winged unicorn, then her smaller wingless friend. "Though... I’m still curious why some of you went all the way onto the other side of the chompy pit." he asked. "Didn’t you come from your ship, down at the docks?”
Summer nod nodded, gesturing again for reference. "Yep! Like I said, we unicorns and earth ponies walked to the near side and Azure and the others flew to the far side. You've not got wings to fall back on, so I can see why you'd have a problem."
"The docks are that way," Abernathy informed Summer, flinging a thumb over his shoulder. "And your ship is that way?" he pointed forward, down the trail toward the meadow and crippled airship.
Summer nodded again. "Yeah: it's not going anywhere any time soon, it's not flightworthy for the time being. Why?"
Meanwhile Reef had been studying the caged chompy intently. "Fascinating, a new class certainly, possible a whole new phylum." he said to nocreature in particular. Confident now that it was safely contained to be studied at leisure, he flapped over to the remains of a pod and started picking it apart, teasing out the various vegetable structures.
“You’re not supposed to park on this island!” the troll said, stomping a clawed foot in aggravation, “It’s private property! Don’t you know you’re supposed to use the docks to... wait-a-sec. You didn’t come from the lower island?”
At that Grenelda stopped preening the green goop out of her feathers and stared at the spindly biped. It seems to be angry at the unicorns; she wondered if this was going to get ugly again. If so she'd have to get that miniature cannon away from him...
"Nuh-uh." Summer gestures way off into the distance, waving her hoof. "We're from Equestria: far down below! We had to pierce the Storm Wall surrounding the Cloudbreak Islands to even be able to get in here. This is first contact for us!" She beamed! So proud to be ponykind's representative to a new species!
“Then that means you didn’t bypass my bridge. Oh, this is wonderful!” Abernathy said, instantly cheering up and flashing a big, gap-toothed smile, “I thought you bypassed it because you didn’t want to pay the toll. Have you even been to the lower island?”
Sweat began to form on Summer's brow again. "No, we haven't..." she said uncertainly, looking down the path behind Abernathy. Hopefully he wasn't going to demand they pay the toll for real now? She didn't know how long it would take to dig up 'thirty gold' in the village ruins or if it was even there to be found.
“Come on, let me show you around!” the troll said, excited, “I’ll give you the grand tour!” Then he went jogging off back towards the tree-bridge.
At that, Summer perked up. Apparently he was making good on his promise and more. "This could be a source of vital information about this land!" she exclaimed, turning around and cantering after Abby. "Coming!" she shouted, not seeming concerned about whether anypony else will follow or not.
It was right then that Reef Skimmer trotted up to Azure, saddlebags bulging with gelatinous lumps of plant creature. "You know, this orange part really is quite pleasant! Would've even have realised if I hadn't got distracted and licked my claw there, and... erm, where are they off to then?"
Azure lifted her head; she'd fallen into silent reflection again. Shrugging, she replied "I think Summer's really become our diplomat... she seems to have made friends with the green creature. That's a good thing for all of us. As for where they're off to... I think I heard them talking about a tour?" She slowly turned to look at the two forms, disappearing down the path into the forest, before nodding quietly in approval.
The alien forest seemed less dangerous, less menacing, with the chompies reduced to a manageable threat. A procession of creatures made their way down the path to the bridge, untroubled by the alien birdsong and strange cries from the jungle around them. Leading the group was the tall green figure of Abernathy the troll, followed by an assortment of colourful ponies and a pair of griffs. Melonwater and Cloud Cutter, the distinguished senior researcher unicorn Summer Scribe, the wary winged unicorn Azure and the burly sailponies who helped her with the chompies, the hippogriff doctor Reef Skimmer, still wearning ornate wing-blades, and the gryphon hen Grenelda.
It was not long before the group emerged into the cathedral-like space at the edge of the island, where the undergrowth thinned out and the trees grew even taller, their great boughs twisting high overhead, while tap roots plunged off the edge in their endless quest to grow from one island to another. Their guide headed straight for the iron gate at the entrance to the enormous hollow log, flourishing an oversize brass key. A swift turn, a click and the barrier swung open; Abernathy stood aside, giving a dramatic bow. “After you, little ponyzandas,” he said, gesturing at the open passageway. The tunnel sloped steeply downward, though the ridges carved into the floor prevented the travellers from sliding.
Summer Scribe had been enjoying another opportunity to take in the amazing view; clear blue sky, dotted with the hazy shapes of distant floating islands hiding among drifting clouds, all framed by the thick trunks of the giant trees. At Abernathy's prompt she returned the bow, smiling appreciatively at the troll: "Thank you very much, Abby!" Hmm, accuracy aside, 'ponyzandas' did sound pretty cute... Anyway! The little blue unicorn stepped confidently into the wooden tunnel.
Reef Skimmer was not as comfortable entering the confined space, particularly when he could easily fly down; glancing at Grenelda, it looked like the griffon shared his sentiment. He didn't want to be rude and anger the troll, but he hung back, letting the ponies enter first.
Azure nodded calmly to the troll as Summer entered the passage. "While that battle removed the obvious hostiles, that doesn't mean we're can drop our guard." She folded her butterfly wings tightly as she ventured into the toll bridge herself, keeping her eyes open. Goodness knows they couldn't afford her spending another spell on the injured list.
To begin with the wooden walls practically glowed from reflected sunlight, the air filled with twinkling motes of dust loosened by their passage, but as they continued the ambience shifted to a warm, quiet twilight. The only sound was the soft, echoing clopping of hooves on wood, emanating from everyone except Abernathy and Grenelda. It took several minutes to traverse the tunnel, the two griffs looking steadily more unhappy as they did so, but they persevered and came to the lower gate.
“Don’t worry, it takes the same key,” Abernathy said, his mood jovial as he opened the barrier from the inside. Soon he was leading his new associates out onto the mysterious second island. The area holding the bridge was a continuation of the forest above, with trees that grew even taller, their upper boughs joining to the roots that trailed down from above in a frozen arboreal waterfall. The upper island loomed over them, its rocky, mossy underside impossibly free of visible support, while the earth here was covered in ferns and shot through with exposed roots.
Near the entrance to the hollow log was a sign similar to the one above, with two rows of unknown runes above a series of pictograms. The key and coins were the same, but the house symbol was replaced by a bell and the arrow pointed to a dangling pull cord. Sure enough, looking up the ponies could see a large brass bell mounted one of the huge branches snaking overhead. “This’s what you pull to get the toll collector’s attention,” Abernathy explained, giving the rope a good yank and filling the air with a deep, sonorous tone. Demonstration complete, he shuffled to the front of the group and began heading down the trail; as with the upper island, the twists and turns of gravel path were soon hidden by dense jungle.
Happy to be outside again, Reef Skimmer had already moved away from the tunnel exit and found himself following close behind. At the mention of the toll, he asked "I was wondering, erm... Mister Troll, what entices travellers to pay 30 'gold' to visit your island, if the village is long fallen to ruin? I heard there's a quarry on the far side of the lake, is it still worked?"
Abernathy’s ears flopped even more and his shoulders sank at the hippogriff's comment. “30 gold used to be nothing,” he said morosely, “It was 30 for three, but still. I haven’t had a customer in... well, almost a year, but I think Jolene is just doing it to make me feel better.”
Azure was looking around, taking in the layout and checking for movement. The giant trees forming a living bridge between the floating islands... it was impressive, enough for her to say out loud "I can think of quite a few ponies back home who would love this place." Yet she still seemed tense at the issue of the toll, and the open question of what further threats might be lurking in the jungle. "What about hostiles?" she asked Abernathy, "I take it there's still going to be some creatures here that won't be too happy to see us."
The troll shook his head, saying, “There really isn’t much that goes on around here. Chompies, the occasional bush crawler. I think I’ve seen a leozard before, but they stay away from paths. Most of the dangerous critters are only active at night anyways.” He certainly seemed relaxed, clearly confident that this path wouldn't collapse into another chompy pit.
Frowning at the idea he might have undermined the pony's diplomatic proceedings by further depressing the troll, Reef remained silent. He focused instead of the surrounding forest, noting various new species of undergrowth he hadn't seen on his previous outings.
Bushcrawler? Leozard? More terms Summer Scribe didn't know, but she made a mental note to check them out later. Hopefully her first encounter wouldn't be another life or death situation! As long as they avoided wandering around the woods at night... Shaking her head, the little unicorn looked all around, eyes wide open in awe and interest. There's nothing immediately new to see, as such, but her mind churned with all the possibilities. The first island was exciting enough: surely there would be even more finds to come. "What's there to see down here?" she asked.
Smiling at Summer’s enthusiastic query, Abernathy responded “Oh, it's not far to the docks. I can show you those, and maybe a special little secret beyond them.” He gave the unicorn a little wink.
Summer returned the wink: "Ooh, I love secrets! I can't wait!"
As Azure spent more time with her crewmates it had become clear that for one, Summer Scribe was far and away the team's best diplomat, and thus, it was best to let her do the talking. Secondly, Azure was not the only one who could be trusted with the safety of a team. Nodding softly at Abernathy in thanks for the information, Azure adjusted her pace to draw alongside Reef Skimmer. The hippogriff had dropped back to the middle of the group and seemed more interested in the foliage around them than the path ahead.
In fact the griff was so absorbed in the frond structure of the colourful giant ferns, he didn't notice the winged unicorn's approach until she was right next to him. "Azure! How are you holding up? I confess I missed most of the battle back there, not much of a view down in that pit you see, but I trust you avoided further magical mishap?"
Azure couldn't help but smile at Reef's inquiry. "Not going to lie...." she started, before staring ahead, choosing her words carefully. "Haven't felt this good since we landed on the island. The battle was a good one: all hostiles defeated, no casualties, no magical mishaps to report, and... I'll admit, you definitely showed promise. I suppose it comes with the territory, being part-eagle and all, but still..." She trailed off, still smiling before adding a quick note. "Remind me not to get into a fight with the resident doctor, hmm?"
"Oh, not at all, don't mention it..." Reef said, looking away. "One has a basic proficiency of course, which is to say we hippos might not be quite the hunters griffons are, but any officer of the Queen's Navy must demonstrate and maintain a certain level of martial prowess..." Feeling suddenly self-conscious, the big griff pulled his wings in right, as if to try and hide the still-unused wing blades strapped there. Looking back to Azure, he said "...which is to say, I appreciate the compliment, coming as it does from a true expert in the field of combat."
Was that a hint of a blush around Azure's muzzle? "You're too kind, doctor." was all she said, as they made their way deeper into the jungle.
The troll led them around another bend and the group found themselves skirting the southern edge of the island, the trail offering glimpses of the sudden drop-off and open sky beyond through the trees. Soon enough they were at the promised docks, which were what one might expect to find on a lake or coastal village, not bordering a headlong plunge into the abyss. Weathered hardwood planks, nailed to rough wooden posts, driven deep into the island’s soil or pinned to the exposed rock.
“This is where ships are supposed to dock,” Abernathy said, walking onto the creaky structure, “So you probably should move yours down here. Can’t be easy docking your ship to the side of an island. It’s free for anyone to dock, just glide right up and hitch your ship at these dock hooks here. And uh...”
Rubbing the back of his head, Abernathy added, “I did say you guys paid your toll by helping me with those chompies. So you won’t have any trouble getting back to the upper island. Not that I could imagine anyone wants to these days. But you know the drill. Dock here, come up to the uh... ‘Blissful Pastures’, and you can hunt your weight in sheep.”
Summer Scribe peered at the docks, before tentatively trotting onto them and looking out into the open, cloud-spotted sky. It was a moment of serenity, the homely feel of the old docks and the warm wood underhoof combined with the still amazing vista of the Cloudbreak Islands all around them. Floating rock after floating rock, separated by many kilometres of open air, going on for who knew how far!
At Abernathy's suggestions she... had to bashfully rub a hoof behind her head. "I don't know if we can do that so easily, just now... We'll have to check in with Nutmeg. To be honest our ship is not exactly airworthy at the moment!" At the mention of hunting sheep, she pulled a face, before noticing and hiding her disgust. "Well, we don't... err, we MOSTLY don't..." glancing at Reef and Grenelda for a moment,"...eat other animals! But if there's good grazing material here too, that'll be more than enough for the bulk of us!"
“Oh, sorry if I scared you,” Abernathy replied, his face showing concern for the little unicorn, “You definitely don’t see anyone docking here who isn’t interested in anything but sheep. My father used to say, at any rate.”
Reef vaguely heard the pony being squeamish about something, as he poked around at the so-called 'docks'. Was this really it, just a couple of rotting jetties? He spread his wings and rose up into the air to get a better view, but nothing further could be seen; no warehouse, no dockmaster's office, not even coal bunkers, just a couple of piles of rotting boards that might have once been crates. Folding his wings, he landed and walked up to Abernathy, trying not to stare at him too intensely lest he have another emotional breakdown. "Must confess, can't quite see why one would build this out here, what with the lack of facilities and all. If it was built by the villagers, or by your family for the benefit of griffs taking on, erm, provisions... why not just build it on the same island to start with?"
Looking at Reef, the troll asked sceptically, “If you put the docks on the upper island, then where would you put the bridge?"
It was Azure's turn to look towards the ground and away a bit. Yeah, some creatures really had no idea how to drive an airship, and she was the first name on that list. Too bad she didn't tell anyone. At least she knew where the ship should be instead of... well, wherever it was now. Not that Reef didn't have a point...
“Anyway,” Abernathy said, shaking his head with a bemused expression, “My father guarded this island for most of his life, and so did my father’s father. It’s been in the family a long time, but they say we, err... acquired it when the villagers left. Without them to tend to the sheep and cut back the forest, it was... pretty inevitable it was gonna get like this. I do my best, but the rest of my brothers could care less.” He sighed, saying in conclusion, “Sometimes I wonder if they’re right.”
Reef snorted and huffed at this nonsense: these creatures clearly had no idea of how to construct proper dock facilities to the standards of the Queen's Navy. He left Summer to continue with her diplomacy, idly poking at one of the ruined crates with a claw.
As it became clear there were no new hostiles to be found here, Azure Feather gradually relaxed, idly looking at the surroundings for anything of interest other than the docks. She supposed with a few days and a lot of sweat the pegasi could tow the Harmony down here, but there didn't seem to be anything that warranted the effort. Though Abernathy did say he had a secret to show them...
Summer Scribe pondered: this sounded like a good opportunity to figure out some of the history of the place. She turned to Abby and asked: "Guarding it against what, exactly? Is there some threat in particular you're worried about? And more to the point, why DID the villagers leave? Did something change?" ... ... Uh, oh! "...and you mentioned a secret??"
"Well, uh..." Abernathy's eyes were downcast, as he thought over his sad predicament. He'd rather talk about something more positive: "Yes I did, didn't I! Follow me..." He beckoned with a finger and headed for a second trail leading from the far end of the docks, choked with undergrowth and almost invisible until the troll pointed it out. Without hesitating Summer trotted cheerfully after him.
Reef Skimmer and Melonwater shared a knowing look, before following themselves. Grenelda and Azure Feather brought up the rear, still wary of any beasts that might try to attack the researchers. Not wanting to spend the afternoon watching Summer dig up more ruins, the three sailponies who'd helped with the chompy fight took their leave, heading back to the Harmony.
Despite the jungle's enthusiastic efforts to reclaim the path, Abernathy knew exactly where to go, leading the ponies slowly upwards until the trees began to thin out again. The path ended at a pair of substantial stone pillars, each twice the height of the troll, curving to form a circular aperture through which the group could enter. Though weathered and half-obscured by vines and leaf litter, it was clear the pillars were intricately carved and inlaid with a complex pattern of glass and crystal. Brass forms emerged from their outer surface, circular and toothed like stylised gears. Perhaps there was once a gate barring the portal, though if so all that remained now was a few shattered pieces of crystal that crunched underhoof as the group entered.
Inside was a sizeable clearing, once again positioned on the edge of the island such that it was bordered on three sides by dense undergrowth and one side by open sky. A few trees had managed to penetrate the space, their canopies dappling the ground with alternating light and shade. Abernathy made his way right to the edge, ducking and weaving around strange metallic shapes poking out of the earth. “This is the best view on the island,” he said fondly, gazing out at a whole sea of islands of all sorts of strange shapes and colours, quietly drifting to and fro in the distance. “We're looking directly west: you can see the sun set over all of the Skylands.”
"Oooh..." Summer Scribe gaped, in awe. She took a little spyglass from a saddlebag, floating it in front of one eye and peering out into the distance. "It does look awfully pretty from here! Thank you!"
In truth though she was more interested in the clearing itself. Packing the scope away again, she trotted around the strange artefacts, peering at the engraved metal-work. In many areas the dirt had washed away to reveal a regular surface of gleaming ceramic tiles. Over here was a row of giant metal discs, half-embedded in the ground, over there was a forest of fluted pipes, reminding her of oversized speaking tubes. A little further and she found what seemed to be two halves of a stepped pyramid, knocked over and out of place, and beyond that was a haphazard pile of gleaming golden rods and mismatched gears, half-hidden by ferns growing up between the parts.
Summer's voice was uncharacteristically quiet with wonder: "Say, what's all this..." She looked at Abernathy with an infectious smile. "Ruins? Some kind of ancient device? I bet Nutmeg would love to see it, whatever it is!""
“Oh that? That’s just some junk that’s been lying around here for ages,” the troll said with a shrug, looking over to the unicorn heading over there, “It doesn’t even work. You find a lot of those here and there on the islands, all broken. Just more of those ruins left behind from the old days.”
Summer Scribe shook her head. "Ruins aren't trash, they're important archaeological discoveries! Who knows what they were for or what they do or why they were put here..." she had to stop to catch her breath "...until someone investigates, right?" She stroked her hoof over a pipe, gave a cylinder a gentle tap, and peered at the pile of parts to see if they might fit together.
Following Summer's lead, Reef Skimmer wandered among the mysterious machinery, stopping to peer inside the open-ended tubes. Their original function remained a mystery, though they now seemed to make a fine home for nesting birds; fascinating birds indeed, those curious structures on their heads were almost like...
With a loud SQUAWK! a plump bird popped out of the tube, cream underneath and dark blue on its wings and back. The hard, shiny crest on its head really did resemble a propeller, particularly once it started to spin. Reef Skimmer jumped back, claws tense and wings spread as the bird dived at him. SQUAWK! the hippogriff's call was even louder, and momentarily stunned the odd bird. Squawk? it said. Squawk! Reef replied enthusiastically. The bird flapped about for a bit before settling onto the top of the pipe, warily eyeing the colourful quadrupeds now surrounding its nest.
Azure performed her customary scan for threats; predators could be hiding in the ruins, even the machinery itself might pose a threat... but everything seemed quiet and still, at least for now. "Nutmeg... yes, this looks like it would completely be of interest to her..." she began saying, before being caught off guard by the sudden bird noises. It seemed they were actually nesting in the pipes; she supposed they made a fine home, from a bird's point of view. It was an interesting specimen, with that odd spinning crest, and the winged unicorn was rather curious, though readied her magic just in case it did prove hostile... before being completely startled at the even louder noise from the hippogriff.
Azure shook her head at the display. Was this one of those 'screeching contests', supposedly a cherished cultural tradition among griffs of both species? Ouch. She backed up a few steps, subconsciously putting some distance between herself and the annoying sounds, and as she did so a ceramic tile under her left hind hoof sank down with a distinct click. Everycreature's eye was drawn to the centre of the clearing, where with a faint hum and a soft glow, a large golden disc rose from a socket in the ground and hovered passively in pace, a metre above the ground.
“Oh, you figured it out!” Abernathy declared, walking up to the ponies combing through the ruins. “That’s the only part that works. You can read it if you walk up close to it. You have to hold down the switch though.” the troll said to Azure, glancing at her hoof still on the pressure plate.
Summer immediately cantered over to the thing, her eyes as big as saucers, arriving just in time to see a holographic display spring into existence atop the plate. It showed a glowing red square surrounded by more of the native runes. "Awesome! What does it..." Summer began to ask, but as she stared at the runes they seemed to shift and reform, becoming Equestrian letters that clearly spelled out the enigmatic phrase, "SYSTEM ERROR". Through all this the propeller bird remained completely and entirely unimpressed.
Summer Scribe huhed and squinted at the message. "It's in Ponish! I mean... the letters, they're Equestrian now. It must be translation magic! But... Sees-teem Error? Does that mean... it's not working?" She grinned from ear to ear: if this site was even partially functional, that still made it the most exciting thing they'd found so far. "But that means it did work once... and perhaps it still COULD? Probably take a long time to figure out, but... I bet for Nutmeg it'd be a cinch." At this point her tail was swishing briskly back and forth.
"Why would adding a spice make it work better?" Abernathy asked in honest confusion.
"No, no, Nutmeg Inferno! She's our chief mechanic, and... she's pretty overqualified for her position," Summer Scribe admitted. "I bet this is exactly the kind of thing she'd love to sink teeth into!"
“Oh, there are even more of you?” Abernathy asked curiously, “with even stranger names. But yeah, she sure can try... though this thing has been broken, like forever. If these ruins could be fixed, you’d think someone woulda fixed them by now.”
Reef Skimmer looked over at the floating artefact. Curious, but... nothing further seemed to be happening. Well, as least Summer was happy; in any case the unicorn was much better qualified to investigate such things than him, and if she couldn't divine its purpose maybe the chief engineer could help. He returned his attention to the bird. "Aren't you a pretty one?" The griff stuck a claw into a saddlebag; it came back out with a slice of something juicy stuck to a talon "Could I interest you in some jungle apple?"
The bird tilted its head left, then right, before suspiciously hopping closer to the hippogriff's proffered gift. He was so engrossed in his ornithology that he didn't notice Summer trotting up behind him, and she had to nudge him to get his attention."Hey, you know, why don't we bring Nutmeg here... right now? It's not like we have anything more pressing to investigate: this is about as interesting as it gets!"
Reef stared at Summer for a second. This was his first chance to observe a native vertebrate up close and... well, he did owe the mare for her help in the mess yesterday. His expression softened from annoyance to a smile. "Capital idea, happy to help, if you wouldn't mind just taking over here? Now here's another apple..." he said, tossing it at Summer for her to catch in her magic, "...and here's a sketch book: dorsal, ventral and a naturalistic pose would be ideal... best of luck!" the griff concluded, taking a few running steps and launching into the air before she can respond.
A befuddled Summer watched Reef fly out of sight, off the edge and back around over the trees, before realising that a much smaller avian is staring at her with a rather less friendly manner than before. SQUAWK! Hurriedly she set the apple down and fumbled with the sketchbook a few times before laying it out. "Guess I'm on birdwatching duty then!" she said, chuckling nervously.
A slightly longer flight this time, covering the length of both islands as the hippogriff made his way back to the moored airship, but within half an hour he was gliding down to land on the main deck. First order of business was to update the Captain on the results of the chompy fight; he was happy to report complete success with no casualties; then brief her on what they'd found on the second island.
“Are you kidding?” was Set Sail's immediate and eager reply, “We have to get her over there, right away! She’ll be thrilled!”
She accompanied Reef Skimmer, hurrying up into the engine room, finding Nutmeg right in the middle, tinkering with some kind of crane or mechanical grabber. “You won’t believe it," the pegasus enthused, "Doctor Skimmer says they found some kind of incredible machine! And it’s way too big to move. He wants you to come take a look at it! Right, doc?”
"Oh certainly," Reef said, "Which is to say, Summer Scribe is doing her level best, but it seems this find requires more in the way of mechanical insight." He concluded with a slight grin "Not to mention, to expedite the investigation, a hippogriff skilled at pulling carts."
“Oh. Um...” Nutmeg began, anxiety creeping into her expression as she turned this over in her mind. The kirin stood up, shook out her crimson tail and said, “Yeah, that’d be... fine. It’d probably make the crew feel better if... somepony came with me. Is that okay? They get kind of nervous, if I just vanish on them, you know? Plus two heads is better than one.”
Reef stared at the kirin, his head turned to one side and beak half-open. "Oh I do understand, my renditions of traditional hippogriff sea shanties are an acquired taste after all. The cart fits two so feel free to bring somecreature else to entertain you, perhaps with a more up-to-date singing repertoire!"
"Yeah, erm, well..." Nutmeg stammered, not sure how to respond to that. Eventually she settled for a relieved "Thanks! Hold on just one sec, okay?” Traipsing off, she hurried across the engine room, to exchange some quiet words with a certain purple-maned orange stallion, the one with three gears on his hindquarters. Then some less quiet words, in which Reef made out “C’mon! It’s just across the island.”
Finally the two of them came trotting back to the hippogriff. “I don’t know if I introduced Gearshift?” Nutmeg said, gesturing to the earth pony, “He’s as sharp as I am. So let’s go do this thing.”
“Hi, I uh...” Gearshift said with an awkward smile and a hoof wave, faltering a little under Reef's disapproving gaze. “Just need to get some um, supplies, yeah. Be right back.”
As he scurried away, Nutmeg smiled sheepishly saying, “Sorry, he’s a little shy. But when hoof comes to shove he’s one of my best ponies. Is your cart ready?”
"Cleared for take off, but you'll have to share the centre of gravity this time." Reef said, still frowning.
The return flight took a bit longer: true, there was the heavy cart with its two passengers, but perhaps it hadn't been strictly necessary to swoop down through the gap between the islands and perform an aerial slalom through the waterfall of trunks and roots. Be that as it may, the trio passed the rickety wooden piers of the docks and were making their final approach to the drop-off near the artefacts. A number of sounds filled the air... lots of high-pitched squawking, punctuated by the occasional much louder screech, along with zapping and thumping. Flashes of coloured light briefly shone through the trees, as Reef's apprehension grew. Finally the landing site came into view; occupied by a dozen ponies, one griffon, one troll and about sixty highly agitated plump little birds.
The entire clearing at the island's edge had been invaded by the pinwheel-crested menace. Well, considering that they've been living here longer than the ponies have, it's probably the other way around. Regardless, these bitter birds were earnest in their determination to drive everyone out of the area, or off the edge of the island, or both. They hopped and darted everywhere, sharp crests a spinning blur as they tried to drive off the equines, buffeting, biting or clawing every creature in sight.
Enmeshed in confusing combat were Azure, Summer Scribe, Abernathy the troll, Melonwater, Cloud Cutter, and the griffon hen Grenelda. The birds were giving the griff more space than the others, probably because of her own sharp beak and claws, but they still dove at her from every direction and the hen looked about ready to take flight. Cloud Cutter was having a harder time of it, flapping around trying to buck off the two birds on her back. Melonwater had scurried off to hide behind a skewed stone plate sticking out of the ground, peering over its edge to see if any birds come his way. Abernathy was running around waving his hands over his head to ineffectively shoo the birds away.
"By Novo, a whole colony!" Reef Skimmer exclaimed. Looking back over his shoulder at Nutmeg and her buddy Gearshift - both looking shocked by the chaos below - he shouted "Can't land in that! I'll take you back to the dock, such as it is, it's a short trot." He began a banking turn away from the island, as hard as he could without risking somepony falling from the cart.
'Gaah!' thought Summer, 'worst of all, I didn't even get my sketches finished before they attacked!' Said sketchbook now hastily stuffed back into her saddlebag, she was doing her best to take the birds on a wild chase around the ruins! Diving and leaping under and over branches and bits of machinery, occasionally hefting up a rock or chunk of something and tossing it behind her! "Shoo, birds! You won't be chasing off THIS pony!"
The angry avians back-winged and squawked in their pursuit of the agile unicorn, attacks disrupted by the flying debris. Summer managed to get far enough away to turn and face the things coming at her, but they weren’t even slowing down in their approach, save for one unfortunate specimen who was wobbling towards her with a bent propeller. Still, she perked up as she saw sees Reef and Nutmeg fly past: perhaps reinforcements would turn the tide! "I'm coming!" she yelled out, whipping a quick burst of magic behind her to keep the birds at bay as she began galloping towards the gateway, heading for the docks.
Trying to defend a group of ponies and creatures from a small pack of Chompies was one thing. This was entirely another. Initially driving the first few birds off with minor wind spells, Azure Feather shook her head. There were dozens of hostiles already and yet more seemed to be arriving from the jungle. She needed cover if she was going to do anything good in this fight. Quickly searching for something such as a rock outcropping, or anything she could use for ten, or fifteen seconds of focus... there!
She blasted her attackers away with a sudden burst of wind blowing out all around her. Path cleared, she galloped to the skewed stone plate jutting out of the ground, only to find a young stallion crouched behind it. “Hey! Get your own hiding spot!” Melonwater hissed.
"Tell you what," Azure quickly replied, "You stay behind me and I'll get us both out of trouble. You kick me out and we're both in this terrible situation together. Your pick." She surveyed the battlefield: too many friendlies around to risk a major spell. If she tried to clear the entire flock with one blast... there's no way it wouldn't hit her own team and that went directly against her primary objective. Giving it a few more seconds thought, she instead continued on her last course of action: sniping unsuspecting hostiles with a stream of rapid-fire spells.
An ear-splitting screech cut through the air, momentarily stunning the hostile avians. Distraction achieved, Grenelda leapt into the air, straight towards one of the buzzing birds. Seeing its doom approaching with outstretched talons, it desperately tried to get its bearings and escape, but it was too slow and the griffon snagged the plump creature in her claws. Seconds later she was back on the ground and had finished it off with her beak. This time she'd definitely be trying something new for lunch.
By this point Cloud Cutter had managed to eject her attackers, though the fact that both birds were lying stiff and motionless to either side of her didn’t bode well for any others that would get that close. She didn’t press her advantage though, just standing there with a distraught expression as more birds flocked to attack, heedless of the fate of their comrades.
"Must be nesting 'round here, or they'd be gone by now." Grenelda shouted angrily. The purple pegasus was fine of course, she was competent, it was the unicorns she was worried about, either they were going to get pecked to bits or they'd start firing off freaky magic and do more harm than good. Maybe both. The smaller one was galloping around... oh she was retreating, back down the path. Sensible, but that still left three ponies enduring the feathery assault. Maybe a different strategy was needed.
Reef flew the cart back to the docks as quickly as he could; a quick emergency landing and Nutmeg and Gearshift were scrambling out. Following behind Nutmeg was her trusty giant wrench, hovering in her magic as she scanned the area for usable materials. “We need live branches, bendable!” she called out to her orange companion.
“Got it!” Gearshift called back, galloping across the dock while Reef uncoupled himself from the cart. Gearshift went to shimmy up the nearest tree, breaking off branches that tumbled downward. Nutmeg in the meantime went and started pulling down long vines with her wrench, breaking them off with her teeth to drape at her feet.
Reef Skimmer watched Nutmeg doing... something, for a second, wondering if he could be of assistance. Most likely not, he thought: the kirin mare and pony stallion seemed to be working seamlessly together and stopping to explain to him would only slow things down. "Straight down there, can't miss it." he shouted as he shook the last strap off, gesturing towards the overgrown eastern path. "Do take care!" With that he leapt back into the air and headed back around the edge of the island towards the clearing, flying faster now the cart is sitting parked at the dock.
The directions proved redundant as a few minutes later Summer Scribe appeared, barrelling in out of the jungle. Smiling in relief as she saw Nutmeg and Gearshift, she skidded to a stop next to the kirin. "Hey, nice to have you out here!" the unicorn said, curious as to what they were up to but glancing anxiously back into the forest in case any of the birds had followed her to the docks.
“Just help me tie these up,” Nutmeg said curtly to Summer, not even looking the unicorn’s way as the kirin stepped around the branches, dragging them into position.
"You got it, boss!" Summer was quick to help out and good at following directions. With her magic added to the effort, the rickety device was soon lashed together, and they were ready to move out: she lead the two engineers back down the path, racing through the woods with their hastily assembled contraption in tow. Though once they were in motion, Summer couldn't help but ask: "So, uhh, what exactly is this thing?"
Azure’s blasts were effective at knocking the birds right out of the air, once, twice, and then the rest of the flock regrouped and swarmed her, closing in on the stone slab she was crouching behind, which offered no protection from flanking attacks. “Oh no!” Melonwater shouted in alarm; the stallion was still cowering next to Azure, though now he was looking desperately for somewhere else to bolt to. Cloud Cutter had vanished again and for some reason the griffon was stalking around the perimeter of the forest instead of coming to their assistance.
Shaking her head and sighing, Azure called out "Should've guessed these birds were smart... stick close, I'll clear them out!" She channelled more power into her horn, muttering "This might not be a great idea, but it's better than nothing..." With a decisive nod, she shouted "Let's see if the wind answers now!", shaping the magic into a whirlwind with Melonwater and herself in the eye of the storm. Melonwater grabbed Azure in a bear hug, screaming like a little filly as the birds dove for the kill. Azure’s airburst went off, sucking up the birds and whirling them around as for a few seconds a tornado ravaged the clearing, bouncing feathery bodies off tree trunks and metal pipes. Stunned and confused, the propeller birds milled about but showed no sign of leaving.
Reef Skimmer came in hot for a landing near the edge, trotting to a stop. His first impression was chaos, even more complete than what he'd seen earlier: a mass of avians flapping and spinning around, half-concealed by billowing clouds of dust whipped up by the miniature cyclone, branches strewn everywhere, with Azure and her friend hunkered down in the middle. He could try to pick the birds off one by one, but he wasn't exactly an agile or experienced hunter and in any case it would take too long. Instead he tried something they might understand; hunkering his chest down, hindquarters in the air, wings spread to full span and tilted to face the birds. His tail feathers stuck up in the air to complete the threat display, before an even louder screech filled the air. 'If that doesn't spook them' he thought, 'maybe it will get them focused on me at least.'
Indeed, every propeller bird was drawn to the sound of Reef’s mighty squawk. They had no idea what was going on, but they beheld his resplendent display of fearsome aggression and dominance, and collectively decided what had to be done. The threat was clear. Ignoring the other creatures now, every last one took to the air and flew straight at the monstrously large bird of prey that had just invaded their territory, claws outstretched.
'It worked!' Azure thought '...but it isn't going to be enough... far from it in fact.' Cursing under her breath at the stubborn persistence of the little hunters, she returned her focus to defending Melonwater, even if it meant getting herself scratched and clawed multiple times... before an ear-splitting screech filled the air and the two were suddenly left alone. They'd all flown off... to attack the doctor, of all creatures! "For a medical worker... he sure as heck can fight." she muttered. "Stay safe!" Azure called out, before spreading her wings and preparing for aerial combat. No way was she leaving the medic to fend for himself against these birds! "On my way, Doc!"
While some part of Reef's mind had allowed for the possibility of complete success, the sight of a hundred or so little feathery bundles of pure rage heading straight for him did stun him for just a second. The plan (or wild notion, to be honest) had been to turn around, fly away from the island and outrun them, but by the time he'd done that they'd be on him. Instead he galloped forward, directly towards the path to the docks, taking two flaps back into the air before pulling his wings in and trying to dive under the onrushing wave of beaks and sharp crests. He could only hope they wouldn't react in time and fly over him.
Azure found herself in the enviable position of being behind a bunch of birds who did not know that she could fly. They squawked in complete surprise as she started knocking birds out of the air left and right, hitting them from behind. Having dived down and covered his head with his claws, Reef didn’t have the opportunity to see this precisely, but he did see hear the squawking, and he did glimpse, peeking through his talons, the hooves of two ponies and a kirin trotting into view.
“Herd them all together!” Nutmeg called out, as she, Summer Scribe, Gearshift galloped through the pillars that formed the entrance to the clearing. Trailing behind was an odd, spiderwebby ball of leaves and vines, held in Nutmeg’s glowing green magic. Summer was grinning; it seemed the purpose of the odd device was about to be revealed. Seeing Reef barrelling towards her with most of the birds in tow, she grabbed a couple of stragglers with her telekinesis, pulling them back into the centre of the flock. Between her efforts and Azure firing wind blasts to each side, the hostiles were pretty tightly bunched together near the centre of the clearing.
Having ploughed rather clumsily into the earth, Reef struggled back up, looking behind him to see a literal ball of birds tumbling and squawking and bouncing off each other, small wings buzzing as they regrouped to come at him again. Lacking any further plan at this point, he galloped towards the exit. Distracted by the birds, he saw Nutmeg Inferno and Summer Scribe just in time to avoid running them over, twisting sideways and crashing into the undergrowth near the entrance pillars.
As much as Azure was liking her sneak attack revenge bird after bird, it was time to finish this off. The hippogriff was out of the picture, but the propeller birds were corralled and Nutmeg seemed ready to launch her... giant ball o’ sticks? Azure banked to the side, flapping clear as the kirin hurled her device towards the flock. It had no trouble beaning one right in the beak, which triggered an explosion of motion, the tightly bound mass springing into a frenzy of whip-like branches that closed around the whole bunch of birds, inverting and expanding the sphere into a misshapen but tightly tangled cage.
The whole mess crashed to the ground; unfortunately a few lucky birds had escaped the trap and they seemed even more incensed, spinning around it enraged, dive-bombing every creature in the vicinity even though they were woefully outnumbered at this point. That was when Grenelda returned, shouting something like “Hey bean-heads!” as she flew in. Her exact words didn’t really matter, so much as getting the enemy's attention, because she held in her claws a thickly woven nest of brown sticks and twigs, in which several large, blue eggs were nestled.
Every propeller bird still free to do so made a beeline for the griffon, squawking and screeching, but she easily flew to the edge of the island, and just... tossed the nest over the edge. “Have fun with that,” she said in amusement, as the last of the birds dove over the edge in pursuit of the falling nest. At last, there was silence. At least until Abernathy ran in with a fishing net, shouting, “Hold on, ponyzandas, I’m coming!”
Summer Scribe was left gawking at the kirin's ingenuity. You could make something that precise out of just a bunch of twigs and vines? She didn't even know what they'd been working on! She offered Nutmeg a high hoof. "That was AWESOME! I'm speechless!"
“Well uh, thanks it’s... I mean it worked, so... yay?” Nutmeg said to the unicorn mare in her face, backing up as Summer raised her hoof as if to strike. Looking nervously between Summer and the cage of angry birds, she added, “I don’t know how long it’ll hold.”
Abernathy addressed that by throwing his net over the bird cage, securing it a lot better, before saying, “Thanks for that. I didn’t even know the buzzer beaks were nesting around here. They get very territorial when they feel their eggs are threated.” Folding his arms, he added, “Which is a shame because their eggs are really tasty.”
Having seen Nutmeg's trap neutralise most of the hostiles, and Grenelda finish the job by throwing what Azure assumed was these birds' last nest off the island, the unicorn closed her wings and landed heavily. Sighing, she remarked "You creatures can fight better than some of the Blades..." A weak chuckle followed before she looked around at the rest of her team. "Every creature alright? That was rougher than I thought it would be..."
Grenelda was still looking over the edge, seeming satisfied with what she saw down there. Melonwater was crawling out from behind a rock. And Cloud Cutter was still nowhere to be found. “I’m alright Azure,” Melonwater said, walking up, “But your Blades must be pretty terrible at fighting if I can do it better.”
After a fair amount of rustling and cursing Reef Skimmer pushed his way back into the clearing. To say his feathers were ruffled would be an understatement: they were pointing in every possible direction. His wings were trailing bits of vine and his crest and tail were completely tangled with leaves and twigs. Still full of adrenalin, he was panting with break wide open. Staring at the instant cage of squawking birds, then Nutmeg, Summer and Azure in turn, he could only say weakly "...good show... everycreature." before sitting down heavily and staring into space.
Summer Scribe tilted her head... and then shook it. "No, no, this isn't an attack! This is, uhh, how to demonstrate it..." She waved Azure over to help. "Like this! See?" Summer giggled as Azure gave her a slightly stiff hoof-bump. Now, since things seemed to be calming down... she remembered what was happening before the avian assault. She turned to the two engineers, looking positively giddy. "Oh! And you know why you're out here, right?" she said, waving a hoof towards... The Machine.
Nutmeg gave an excited squeal, and bounded over to the strange artefacts they’ve discovered. Gearshift followed after, saddlebag full of tools in tow, as the red-ruffed kirin darted about the ruin, saying “This is... but what’s this? And is this really a... what is this? Oh wow, this is actually a...”
“So... this must be what you wanted us to come take a look at?” the stallion known as Gearshift said, watching as Nutmeg poked around in the half-buried ancient machinery, the exposed components gleaming quietly in the afternoon sun.
"Yes indeed..." Summer replied, "but the best bit is over here! Follow me!" Brimming with excitement, the little unicorn over to the centre of the clearing, then waited for the others to join her.
“Ok... let’s see what you got?" Nutmeg said, wondering what else there was to see. She and Gearshift followed Summer over to stand near the flat golden disc, nestled in its socket in the ground.
"Now how did it go..." Summer mumbled, tapping her hooves for a moment, before the location of the pressure plate came back to her. "Yeah, you just put your hoof here, and... presto!" Once again the disc floated up to head height and the magical lettering flickered into existence above it, showing the same mysterious message as before.
"You can read that right? It was native runes to start with, but then it changed to that: 'System Error', in Ponish no less!" Summer stated. "It's clearly trying to communicate something, but I'm not qualified to know what this thing does or how it works!" She tilted her head, looking at Nutmeg imploringly.
Gearshift startled back as the artefact began to move, then stared at the magical display above it. “What... what is this?” he declared faintly, “I’ve never seen anything—”
“I’ve never seen anything like it!” Nutmeg declared with unbridled excitement, rushing up to rear up onto the plate and staring all over and under it, “How is it still active? How does it even work? Are there buttons? There must be an engine underground! What are these materials??” She barely gave the display a second glance before feeling around the disk, then the recess it had risen out of, searching for crevices, panels or controls. With a slight hesitation, Gearshift is right there with her, the two creatures utterly taken with a pillar that’s just sitting there being a pillar with an error message projected atop it. It looks like they might be at it for a while.
At the edge of the clearing, Reef sighed and began the long task of preening his flight feathers back into working order, glancing over every so often to watch the ponies (and kirin) fiddle with the artefact. On the plus side, there were plenty of specimens to study now: the mass of propeller birds still trapped under the net.
With her task of guarding her team complete for now, Azure took the opportunity to sit quietly and rest. Between the chompies and the birds she'd fired off more magic today than she had in the last month. Keeping a wary eye on the machine, she seemed at least somewhat pleased that every creature made it through the battle okay. Though she took a look at the preening hippogriff... well, mostly okay, anyway.
Summer Scribe looked amused by Nutmeg's antics, but at a loss to answer the flood of questions. "Afraid I don't have anything else to suggest: I've poked all over this place with everyone and it just looks like a bunch of mechanical stuff, to me. I can sense some sort of weird magic in there, but... I think this'll be your treat!" Smiling, she turned away and trotted over towards Azure Feather: Summer wouldn't mind a chance to cool off and breathe a little herself. "So... Azure!" Striking up conversation, no problem: "I saw that spinny-windy thing you did back there. Is that new for you?"
Azure stood at attention as Summer spoke to her and inquired about what she could only assume were the new air-based spells. Stretching her wings a little, the unicorn guard quickly responded, "I had to try something to get those birds away from... Melonwater, I think it was?" Something like that. She'd studied the crew roster, really, she had. "As for the 'windy nature' of the spells, it's true that the... highly-powered spells, as I'll refer to them..." She paused, shaking her head slowly before continuing. "They had shown distinct air-elemental properties, and since forcing my other spells to form from the same element, I haven't had any other casting mishaps... quite the opposite in fact. So I'd best just stick with that strategy, I think."
Reef paused his preening for a moment to listen in on the unicorns, cocking his head. 'Forcing spells to an element' was caster jargon he didn't understand, but he was glad to hear Azure's magic was working better: the horrible possibility of horn damage now seemed unlikely. Even as he watched them his claws continued to run nervously over his primaries: no griff liked to be grounded. Meanwhile Melonwater was mumbling about unidentified ceramics and poking at the tiled surface exposed in some areas of the clearing.
Summer Scribe nodded to Azure: "Oh, that's really interesting! Because Abby over here was telling me about how your blast from earlier looked like a 'windy thing'. Like, they seem to have a totally different system of magic around here, and whatever you do is wind-affine. So I think we're onto something with that... and it makes me wonder if it maps onto everycreature who come here, though..." she glanced at Melonwater, who seemed oblivious "...perhaps it takes longer for some than others."
"It's... entirely possible." Azure replied. "As far as who would align with which element, I really couldn't say... but if that temple we came across the other day is any indication, we may have a couple of creatures who have already shown some signs of elemental affinity other than myself... hmm. Now I wish I'd paid more attention to the carvings while we were there, instead of being on guard all the time..." Another of her soft sighs.
"It'd be nice if you knew someone who knew all about the elements," Abernathy suggested, walking over to (and towering above) the two unicorns. "You could just ask him."
Summer Scribe was all ready to pull out her notes and go over them with Azure... when the troll's approach made her chuckle. "Oh, of course! Well Abby, you've been around us for a bit, now: what are your thoughts? Could you assign us pretty confidently?"
Azure gave a curt nod. "Sorry... figured you'd be a little more... unfriendly towards somepony who destroyed your roof yesterday..." Her head lowered and her ears flattened at the thought. "I have to apologise again for that... but I admit I am curious, what could you tell us, having seen us in action now?"
Now that his wings were more or less flight capable, if still untidy, and with the adrenalin gone from his system, Reef Skimmer's sense of duty resurfaced. There had been no howls of pain or shouts for assistance, but there might still be minor injuries that needed his attention. Or... had anyone taken a headcount? Somecreature might have been knocked unconscious, unable to call for help. Rising quickly to his feet, the hippogriff trotted around the clearing.
Nearby were the unicorns and the troll, talking about magic, and over there were Nutmeg and Rear Shift, poking at an engraved panel, then Melonwater over by those gears, Grenelda reaching into a pipe pulling out a clawful of eggs... somepony was missing... the purple one? "Cloud Flutter?" Reef asked, thinking she might be sitting behind a bush or a rock. With no immediate response he flapped clumsily into the air for a better view. "Cloud Fl... Cutter?" he shouted, getting everyone's attention. Looking down at Summer, he said "Has anyone seen her?"
Summer Scribe perked up! "Cloud Cutter, umm..." She looked around. In all the confusion and excitement, she had to admit she hadn't exactly taken a head count! "Sorry, I can't say I know where she is. Do you need help looking?" she asked.
Azure was way ahead of her. "Ah, Cloud Cutter... you know, I haven't seen her either. I'll scout from above!" So much for rest, as she sprang to her feet and fluttered into the air again, ready to look for the purple pegasus...
Reef hovered over to Azure. "Then... she may have gone back to the ship... or she might be lying unconscious in the jungle! One does think a search is warranted." He turned away, moving to cover the opposite side of the clearing from Azure.
The search grew in numbers, area and urgency as the Equestrians combed the ruins then the surrounding forest, without any sight of Cloud Cutter. Flying carefully between the tree branches, Azure was the one who at last spied the very purple pegasus, just sitting there in the woods with her back against a tree. She wasn’t moving.
Azure drifted down to a landing nearby, looking quite alarmed. "Cloud Cutter, are you alright?" she asked, worried that the pegasus might be concealing a serious injury. Why had her ally run off? Did she fail in protecting a team member after all?
The purple mare was sprawled out vaguely on her haunches, with a foreleg resting on her knee. She didn’t have any visible injuries, and there was no blood to be found where she'd crashed through the foliage. “You know, I can’t even cry,” Cloud Cutter remarked without looking at Azure, just staring forward with those empty eyes, “I wonder if I’m even a pony anymore.”
To Azure Feather it was a rather unsettling sight, but she'd seen far worse in her years in the guard. Still... Cloud Cutter's wounds didn't seem nearly as physical as they are emotional... "You still are." Azure said, as reassuringly as she could. "Goodness, believe me, I've struggled with this place myself... all we can do at this point is keep going. Equestria needs all of us..." She thought over the last part, staring into the distance. It was only a week since they'd left Vanhoover, but Ponyville and Manehattan seemed like they were on a completely different planet than this place. But Cloud Cutter, even if they looked different, was still a pony, like her. That had to mean something, right?
Cloud Cutter closed those solid white eyes; at least that was something she could still do. A long pause, then she opened them again, standing up and preparing to return to the group. “Keep going...” she mused, looking through the trees at the golden glints from the ruins. “Yeah, you’re right. All we can do is keep going.” Azure felt a chill go up her spine, as the purple pegasus strode past her, and without another word, rejoined the expedition.
Summer Scribe perked up as the two ponies returned, waving a hoof in their general direction. "Oh, there she is! You found her, Azure! Thanks a bunch!" She trotted over, though her enthusiasm was muted as she saw Cloud Cutter's... well, 'neutral' expression. Even as stiff as the 'spooky' ponies were, you could still get a bit of a vibe off of them. Summer nodded her head solemnly, assuming Cloud would speak out if there was a problem.
Reef flew over next, looking concerned as he dropped to the ground. "Cloud Cutter! Good to see you whole and..." He quickly assessed the pegasus; no obvious cuts, moving unhindered if somewhat stiffly, didn't appear to be in pain "...uninjured, one hopes?". Cloud Cutter nodded back; she didn't seem eager to converse.
Azure had been following just behind, still looking concerned as she returned to the rest of the squad without a single word herself. She'd been thinking things over, and it was clear that this place had given some ponies wounds other than physical: she had seen that first-hoof now. The winged unicorn returned to Abernathy's side, quietly hoping the troll would explain this... elemental puzzle. That would have to wait for another time though, as now that the group was reassembled, Nutmeg took the opportunity to call them all to the central hollow.
“Alright, I think I can fix it,” the kirin informed everyone, as she paced back and forth in front of the quiescent console. “That’s the good news. The bad news is I have no idea how it works, no idea how it’s powered, and it doesn’t channel magic in any way I’ve ever seen before. Almost as if there are conduits... but the point is this is a machine. A broken machine, but if we put all the parts back into place, it should work again.”
“T-the facility is mostly composed of some sort of ceramic,” Melonwater said, stepping forward, “The outer casings at least. There are some stainless gold alloy parts to it, but most of it we can’t get at, because...” The green and pink earth pony stallion held up one of the tiles in his hoof, saying, “I managed to pull up one of the tiles from the floor, but it’s tougher than any ceramic I’ve seen before. I can’t break it at least, so that makes it a little harder to get inside these things.”
“The question is if we should fix it,” Gearshift said grimly, “We don’t know anything about what it does." the orange stallion stated bluntly. "It could be a weapon.”
“If we can repair it, then we’ll know,” Nutmeg said encouragingly, “We’ll find out in the process of fixing it, I just know it.”
“Yeah, I suppose... if it is a weapon, we don’t want somepony else fixing it, without us even knowing what it does,” Gearshift reluctantly admitted. “So... that’s what we’re going to tell the captain.”
“Sound like a plan?” Nutmeg asked hopefully.
Summer Scribe had been sitting politely, but she was positively giddy at the thought of reproducing some who-knows-how-ancient-or-important native machine! "Absolutely!" She gave a little whinny of elation. "Just let me know if there's anything any of us can help with... just think of what an incredible discover this will end up being, Nutmeg!"
Reef Skimmer, on the other claw, looked confused. "Fix it? I must say I assumed this was a ruin. Are you saying all the pieces are still here? Just... disassembled?" He suddenly thought of the innards of the radio, taken apart and reassembled into a clock on Sprocket's table.
“These other pillar thingies are jammed in their sockets, but the mechanism to lift them is still working underneath,” the red-ruffed kirin says, “There’s no sign of internal damage. The thing has a freaking magical projector screen that’s been functional for who knows how long. Why not the rest of it? It looks partially complete even. Some of the pieces are just piled up around here. I need to get a look under the surface, to see how this stuff works. But... yeah, basically?” She seemed more focused on the details of the repair than what an incredible discovery the whole thing was.
"Well, erm, that does sound exciting then!" Reef said jovially, beak-gape smiling at Nutmeg, glad to see her engaged and enthusiastic. Then he leaned his head down to Summer Scribe, and whispered in a more concerned tone "Any leads on the subject of who built the thing, why, or where they might be now?"
Summer Scribe paused, squinted... then shook her head. "With all due respect, I don't know if this is troll stuff." She tried to keep her voice to a whisper: this was sensitive! "But we already know there's at least two civilized species in the Cloudbreak Islands: who's to say we won't find a third or more later?"
"Indeed; one certainly hopes the native griffons are civilised." Reef whispered back to Summer, glancing over at Grenelda, who was having one of the bird she'd caught as a late lunch. Looking back to Nutmeg (and ignoring the stallion next to her), the hippogriff cleared his throat and asked "Shall we return to the ship then, and see what Sails, I mean, Set Sail, err, the Captain! ...has to say?"
Azure Feather was still focused on Cloud Cutter, concerned but not sure how to help. She'd just started to come to terms with her own air-elemental nature; the pegasus had been aligned longer, having been transformed by the crossing, but whether she'd truly figured out her element... Azure didn't know, and the purple mare didn't seem inclined to talk about it right now. Keeping her own counsel for now, she listened in to the other creatures talking happily about the alien machine, but to her... it's not like it meant all that much. After all, she was just here to keep them safe, then it would be back to the Lavender Blades... assuming any of them made it back to Equestria.
As for Cloud Cutter, she was pensive as ever. Who knew what her fate would be, after the expedition? Who knew much about her at all, in fact? Who she is, who she was. She wore wing-blades, but had yet to use them. Was she unskilled, or was she just restrained? Or... something else?
In any case it was getting late, and the Equestrians would soon return to their ship, where the captain was delighted to hear she hasn’t been kept out of the loop this time. Nutmeg and Gearshift would be back first thing the next morning to resume their studies of the mechanical anomaly, bringing more of their engineering crew to come and fiddle with it.
Meanwhile with earth ponies to harvest, pegasi to lift, and unicorns to bind together, the rest of the crew had enough ponypower to repair Abernathy’s cottage in a single day, much to his delight. He had not yet been invited to the ship of course, but any bad blood between him and the little ponyzandas seemed to be smoothed out. That night everycreature slept easily for the first time in a long while.
It seemed like the whole engineering team had come to take apart the mysterious device. Ponies levitating, lifting, and prying at the various inner workings. The chief engineer, a red-ruffed brown and gold kirin named Nutmeg Inferno, kept disappearing underground and then popping out again from various access points shouting things like, “The left conduit still has power! This is incredible! Oh wow, look at that! You gotta see the tooling on this! I just found a squiggly thing that makes a whomp noise! Where’s my wrench?”
She wasn't the only one plying the machine’s inner workings, but she was certainly the most enthusiastic. A team of ponies carried the golden fluted pipes, to crudely but carefully weld them back into place, forming a sort of symmetrical bow shape. Other ponies cleaned and oiled gears, connected cables, realigned crystals and reassembled linkages. It took several days, but the work went surprisingly swiftly, with Nutmeg's almost supernatural insights into what needs to be done. Finally the machine was rendered functional, and the engineers were ready to report back to the Captain.
Once again the crew were gathered on the upper deck of the EAS Harmony, this time just as sunset was casting a warm glow over Blissful Pastures and the sky beyond. The acting captain was presiding as usual, but it was Nutmeg who stepped forward and announced seriously: "I think we’ve figured out the purpose of this mechanical anomaly. It’s some out of this world stuff, but from what we can tell, it seems to be some sort of long range transmitter.”
“That’s... oh, so not a weapon?” Set Sail replied, looking genuinely caught off guard by the kirin’s words. “Even though it makes a sorta bow shape?”
“That's just the focusing system,” the orange stallion named Gearshift said, stepping up to Nutmeg’s side, “The beam itself isn't even powerful enough to give you a sunburn.”
With a small smile to the earth pony, Nutmeg added, “We’re thinking of... turning it on. Just to see if it can pick up anything. It uses some—”
“Super cool gears that turn themselves!” declared a cream-furred unicorn, pulling a few interlocking metal gears out of her saddlebag and holding them on an upstretched hoof: they quietly sat there, spinning away. “See? No magic!”
“It’s gotta be some kind of magic, but nothing anypony has ever seen,” Nutmeg said, gazing with fascination at the smoothly twirling gears, “I wonder who built all this stuff?”
“So anyway, we’re asking uh, the captain, and now the whole crew I guess,” Gearshift said, looking around at the ponies and other creatures Set Sail had insisted on assembling for the meeting. “Because maybe whoever’s on the other end could come assist us... or destroy us. But we’re already good as wrecked if we can’t make real repairs to the Harmony. So we want to make sure that it’s... okay.”
He backed off then, as Set Sail replied, “Sounds fine to me. We were trying to transmit a signal anyway, to try to locate the Friendship." She turned to the crew "But I don’t want to just tell everypony what to do. What do you all think of the idea?”
Summer Scribe had been having a blast since they found the device! While it wasn't exactly in her wheelhouse to figure out that kind of techno-contraption, she'd been taking notes all day, translating the various runes they'd found, sketching things out and trying to fit together the puzzle pieces for herself. After all, this was just the first island; if they were going to keep finding devices like this, then it was just preparing for the future! She'd been starting to suspect it was build to shoot some sort of beam, and was surprised to find out it was actually a communication device.
The little unicorn smiled from ear to ear. "Well, we can hardly say no to turning it on! Not only are we here to explore and learn, we're also stuck here unless we get a LOT of help with our ship, so why not try to get the attention of the more technologically advanced natives and see what we're dealing with here?"
Azure frowned; she was one of the few ponies not terribly enthused by the entire idea of turning on an alien machine, so she focused on the raw facts of the matter. "So this is a communication device, and if we don't turn it on, we're stuck here with little hope of fixing the ship, and if we do turn it on, there's a chance we might draw hostile attention, but a much better chance of finding a way to go home. The question answers itself."
After a few days of casual zoology, and no more wildlife attacks, Reef Skimmer was looking more rested than he'd been since the crossing. He stared at the gears for a while, transfixed as the unicorn fiddled with them, making them mesh together then separate again. He winked at Sprocket before turning to Nutmeg. "Did you say 'beam'? That sounds like... something along the lines of a very bright signal lamp? Now with a lamp, standard issue I mean with the lens and shutters and so on, you have to aim them at the other ship... Do you know where to aim? Or am I barking down the wrong tunnel and it is more in the manner of a radio transmission?"
“It’s more like some sort of virtual dish-shaped etheric projection,” Nutmeg explains easily for Reef's benefit, “We should be able to tell where the signal is stronger, if there is one. It does make a, uh, beam though, but collects parabolically, so we should be able to align it.”
Cloud Cutter seemed unusually enthusiastic as she stepped forward from the tight group of purple pegasi assembled at the edge of the deck. “If there’s any chance that they would know what happened to our storm piercers back there, it’s really ...important!” she said.
“This really affected you four more than any of us,” Set Sail replied with a sympathetic look her way. “Clashing hasn’t woken up yet, then?”
Glancing down, the purple mare replied wanly, “N-no. His condition is stable at least.”
Azure listened with concern, tilting her head: much as she was happy that relations with Abernathy had been smoothed out, Cloud Cutter's situation still worried her.
“Anypony at all have any objections then?” Set Sail asks, looking around.
“Just turn it on already!” the two griffons among the crew declared simultaneously. Then blush, and look at each other, quietly cooing giggles.
“Okay then, how’s it gonna work, Nutmeg?” Set Sail asked, “You just turn it on?”
“Well, everything’s pretty much together, but it could just fizzle out for all I know. But basically, yeah,” the kirin replied.
“If it works though, I think we the crew should have a chance to be present,” Set Sail says hopefully, “So, anyone up for a trip over there? I hear the path has been totally cleared of monsters, so it should be safe.”
Reef Skimmer flew Nutmeg and Gearshift ahead to set up, accompanied by Azure and the griffons, while the rest of the group make the trek on foot. Crossing the chompy pit is simple thanks to the sturdy wooden bridge, assembled by the crew both for their own convenience and as an extra thank-you to Abernathy. By the time they make it past the docks and up the newly-cleared path to the artefact, the sunlight had all but faded away. Oil-fuelled lanterns and magical light sources glowed softly, scattered over the various parts of the machine.
“Okay, here goes,” Nutmeg says, “you two on the pressure plates, it has to be both at once.”
Two engineer ponies stepped onto the plates as one, and the lights on the structure grew brighter as it began to emit a low hum. A swirling, sparkling light converged between the golden arms of the bow-shaped collimator, and a translucent purple dish shimmered into existence. For a moment, its energy hung serenely over the bow, until the growing ball of brilliant white light at the centre erupted into a shining beam, firing out into the heavens.
Summer Scribe was a ball of curious energy, eager to see this unprecedented alien machine in action! The lights flashing, the machinery thrumming... and it seems to be working! She watched in tense anticipation for a response to their transmission.
Nothing happened at first, then as she watched the control console, Nutmeg declared triumphantly “We’re getting a signal! Rotate the aligners three degrees left! One more... just a little to the right... there! We’re getting... it.”
The pronounced dip in her enthusiasm was due to the change in the holographic message above the central control plate, which had changed from red to yellow, now proclaiming “HUB CONNECTION FAILED. MALFORMED SIGNAL. PLEASE DISPATCH A MAINTENANCE TEAM IMMEDIATELY.”
Summer Scribe squinted at the disappointing message. "Hub connection failed... Malformed signal?" The unicorn rubbed at her forehead with a hoof, frustration replacing her earlier enthusiasm. "Does it mean the signal we sent? Did we get it wrong?" 'Do we have any options here? Can we send something more specific?' she thought, looking around for more controls to adjust. As for a maintenance team... - well, it seemed they were the maintenance team, with the machinery abandoned for so long. Summer bit her lip; they had to figure something out!
Reef Skimmer sat back on his haunches, impressed by the light show. It sounded like the machine found... something? Somewhere? It seemed there's still some sort of technical problem though, so the hippogriff waited patiently for the unicorns to fix it, or failing that, explain what just happened.
The display of technology did catch Azure's attention: for all the times she's read magic books, machines like this weren't exactly common in Equestria. When the beam shot skyward, she looked as interested as any other creature there... until Summer's reaction said it all. Given time the engineers might be able to fix this, but in the mean time Azure occupied herself making a quiet sweep of the perimeter, checking for the hundredth time that no creatures are sneaking up to ambush the team. Sure, the captain told everypony it would be a safe trip, but she couldn't be absolutely certain. Especially since half the crew had turned out, and Azure knew many of them were no use in a fight...
The night wasn’t entirely quiet, with hoots and chirps coming from the surrounding jungle, but thankfully the propeller birds seemed to be staying well away since their involuntary relocation. If any creature out there was of a mind to mess with the Equestrians, it’s was keeping well away for now. In fact the greatest threat out here that night seemed to be the ponies themselves.
“No we’re signalling right." Nutmeg said softly to Summer. "That..." she gestured at the display, her features illuminated by its glow "...is a signal coming from the other side. The machine must be broken over there too. Wherever that is. See, they want us to dispatch a maintenance team...”
Summer Scribe tilted her head and ooohed. "Okay, thanks for the clarification..." she began, before being pushed out of the way by... Set Sail? She stumbled and huffed, wondering why the captain felt the need to push in.
“Well that proves it!” Set Sail declared earnestly, ignoring Summer in her eagerness to approach the kirin. “The expedition team DOES need an engineer! There could be dozens of these, all over the place! Or even more things for you to fix! You don’t have to keep moping around the ship all the time. We’re gonna need your help!”
Nutmeg looked at Set Sail like a drowning pony in the ocean, who'd seen a life preserver hurled her way. She opened her mouth to speak, but then Gearshift stepped forward, saying firmly “I’ll do it.”
“What?” the kirin and the captain both squeaked in surprise, turning to the junior engineer.
Summer was still grumpy about the shove, but it seemed it was for a good cause: Nutmeg was gonna get to come along on their field trips! "Yeah, that's right! Your expertise is going to be invaluable..." she began, trailing off as she realised what Gearshift had said. "Okay, sure, but... This isn't to say Nutmeg ISN'T going, right?" she asked the stallion.
“No. Just... just me.” he said with tortured determination, “I’ll fix whatever it is, and find parts for the engine. The chief needs to stay on the ship, where it’s safe.”
“But why?” Set Sail protested, facing off against the unmoving stallion, “She can make her own decisions! Why are you so worried about her?”
"Yeah!" said Summer, confused. She tilted her head; didn't Gearshift understand how upset Nutmeg was, stuck in the engine room? How could she convince him? "Sure, it's dangerous out here... but ponyfolk are resilient, versatile and we lean on each other! Nutmeg's got us all, she won't be going it alone!"
Battered by the torrent of enthusiasm, Gearshift took a step back. “I-it’s complicated,” he stammered, “Look... it’s not my place to say. I have to be the one to go, though.”
Hearing the raised voices, Reef Skimmer rose to his feet and trotted up to the conversation, head tilted down and wide wings half spread. He glared at the stallion for a few seconds before asking coldly "And where do you imagine you'll be going, exactly?"
Gearshift found himself staring up into the hard eyes and sharp beak of the hippogriff, and took another step back. “On the expedition team!” came his angry reply, “To the other islands, with probably have monsters, and booby traps, and... and worse!”
Azure had quietly joined the group at the central hollow; her expression showed some enthusiasm over the idea of the Chief Engineer joining the field party, then became a frown as Gearshift started to argue. It was time for her to step in: "Sure, somepony needs to watch the engines, but... I really don't see how the Chief staying back is going to help anypony... those on the ship, or us out here. What happens if we need her expertise with another of these machines? You're skilled, Gearshift, but you and the Chief together? I think it'd be the best course of action... but that's just my opinion." Azure ended her contribution to the argument rather lamely as she took a step back.
As more of the crew piled onto him, Gearshift only got more desperate: his legs began to shake and flecks of foam began to form on his flanks. “And what happens if the... if the ship has a problem or, you know, they need her back there! What good is the engineering team without our chief?” His eyes darted around to see if anypony was buying this, as he desperately tried to think of some way to convince them.
“Look, we can’t both come, because... it’s just too dangerous,” he said, looking unhappily from Summer to Set Sail, avoiding eye contact with the frightening griff. “The chief is a one of a kind... there aren’t any other kirin here! She’s... I’m sorry but she needs to...”
Nutmeg suddenly spoke up. “Please Gearshift, don’t do this to me,” she begged, her voice hollow, staring at Gearshift with fear for the first time. “Please, I need this! Just this once! It’ll be fine I–I promise! I need to know what’s out there!”
The earth pony locked eyes with Nutmeg Inferno for a few solid seconds, before turning tail and galloping away.
In the ensuing silence, Nutmeg tried to reassure the group: “I swear it’s... it’s fine. I don’t know what got into him. He knows how I feel about this. M-maybe he could fix those machines. But doesn’t it mean anything if I just really... want to? I just... feel so useless.” She stomped a hoof in frustration, but not even a hint of flame danced up her fetlocks.
Reef Skimmer placed a claw on Nutmeg, saying in a soothing tone "Nutmeg Inferno, you are the chief engineer, and you enjoy the full support of the Captain..." The griff gave a little deferential nod to Set Sail, beak opening in a smile "...and you fellow officers." He removed the claw, gesturing to himself then Summer and Azure. "You can tell Gear Grift you've taken his opinion under advisement, which is to say, he can button his beak and do what he's told." he finished, frowning.
Summer Scribe sighed; the griff was always so formal. She trotted up to Nutmeg and nuzzled gently against her chocolate-coloured flank. "You don't have to go along with Gearshift's wishes! You're you, and you get your own say. It's not like he's right, you know: there really isn't much for you to do on the ship. It's grounded, so that kind of goes without saying, you know?" A little chuckle escaped the unicorn's muzzle. "You need to be out here with us: you need to help us figure this place out! This is where you belong, not just because you've got the skills we need, but because your heart yearns for it, and who can deny you that?"
“Yeah, I just... I’ll have a talk with him,” Nutmeg said, looking folornly at the newly cleared path the stallion had disappeared down. “He’s gotta understand that you can’t just be sheltered all the time. A little risk is just part of life.” She leaned into Summer's cuddle, snuggling her with with a very soft and fluffy ruff, laughing with the unicorn and saying, “Yeah, you get it!”
Azure was all set to continue the argument, but after the stallion's rapid departure... she just sighed softly. "I'll keep her safe..." she vowed quietly, beneath her breath, before she turned to the kirin. "She has quite the point," Azure said, gesturing to Summer, "The ship is grounded, and to have our best minds stuck in there instead of working out here... would be less than optimal. The fact that you've so eager for this, by the sounds of things... is only going to help us further." Certain of her argument, the winged unicorn nodded for emphasis.
Quirking an eyebrow at Azure’s choice of words, Nutmeg replied, “You’re right, you know. And Gearshift totally underselling himself as well. If we had the parts, my team could get that ship running at three times the speed of awesome, without my help at all. Just keeping it afloat? Easy peasy.”
“So... you’ll do it then?” Set Sail asks hopefully, glancing apologetically at Summer before meekly creeping up to the kirin, “You won’t be moping around the ship all day? The rest of us can see how much it hurts you to deny yourself, and that hurts us too.”
“Yeah, I’ll do it,” Nutmeg confirmed, flashing a sheepish smile. “Can’t pass up an opportunity like this. I’m just glad I’m so... weirdly appropriate for this sort of adventure thing. Or else you all might not have tried so hard to keep me from getting left... behind.”
Summer Scribe nod-nodded! "You can't live life without raiding a few ancient tombs and triggering a curse or two. That's just what makes you feel alive!" She laughed; it seemed like her personal philosophy worked for the kirin as well! Pulling back from Nutmeg, she smiled and said "Ok, go sort your differences out with Gearshift. Welcome to the adventure, in an official capacity this time!"
Azure Feather nodded slowly, happy that the issue was resolved. She wasn't sure if she'd helped or hindered; in her opinion, her social skills were... well, less than adequate it seemed. Her wings drooped slightly; maybe she'd overdone it as far as guard training went? Either way... staying quiet and only speaking when addressed was starting to look like an option... She drifted away from the group and began a fresh sweep of the perimeter, falling into her comfortable role of keeping watch for hostiles.
Relaxing now the obnoxious stallion had fled the field, Reef Skimmer had a question for the kirin before she retired: "Speaking of this 'hub'... It seems you have a bearing, but do we know how far away? At least, is it somewhere we could take a quick cart trip to or clear across the other side of the archipelago?"
“Hmm... as for how far to the other side, well I can’t tell you for sure, but I'm pretty sure there can't be any islands in the way, or we wouldn't get a response” Nutmeg said. She turned back to the control console, tapping an unseen pressure plate with her hind leg to switch it to some sort of complicated diagram. “We could roughly measure the round-trip time it took a signal to get there and back, if we had a kind of photographic shadow-exposure-thingy propelled at high speeds. So... maybe?”
Summer Scribe squinted at the new display. "Sorry, do a what, now?... Techy stuff! I got it. Something you can handle, if we need to do it, I guess!" She bashfully rubbed around the base of her horn with a hoof. "But we can't exactly GET there if it's too far to fly, right? Are we gonna have to find what islands lead where and explore on hoof?"
Reef was staring out into the twilight sky. "We can certainly do a little scouting, survey flights along the general axis, assess the terrain and make camp as necessary." He turned to Set Sail, "If you agree, Captain. One assumes moving the ship is still out of the question."
“It's as good a direction to start as any,” Set Sail said, shrugging. “It’s away from the storm wall, so it’s pretty much the direction we’d be going anyway.”
Nutmeg grimaced at Reef’s casual assumption. “Yeah. The ship’s not moving,” she told him him flatly, “Not until we get, or make the parts that got bent, melted, or blown up.” She looked down, scratching at the ground with a hoof. “I still don’t know much about this weird machine...” she continued cautiously, “But I do know that I’d like to see if there’s still any actual industry in these islands. If we could get our horns on some decent-sized propellers, that’d do a world of good for getting the ship moving again."
"And... if anyone messes with us, I’ll just whack ‘em with my wrench.” she finished brightly, before blushing. Looking Azure’s way, the kirin added loudly, “Or y’know, let the actual guard deal with it.”
Azure shrugged as she looked back. "It's what I'm here for. This place, as we've already seen, does have its share of hostiles, and I'm pretty sure they'll get worse than the garden variety of teeth we've seen so far." Never mind the fact that she'd already been put on the injured list by their first encounter with hostile wildlife. "I'll do what I can."
“Well if you ever have trouble in a fight, I won’t hesitate to fix it for you through blunt force trauma,” Nutmeg replied with a smile, “You seem pretty good though. From what I heard, those chompers could get just about anyone if they caught you by surprise.”
Summer Scribe was nod-nodding in agreement again. "We do know airships exist here - the docks made that pretty obvious - so it's just a matter of time before we see something like that sitting around, yeah?" She grinned, before adding "...and raid it for parts, I guess? Well. Hopefully we can find a workshop or wreckage or something. Thriving industry, here we come!"
Nutmeg smiled back, her enthusiasm returning: “Yeah, those docks wouldn’t be there if they didn’t have any ships to dock at them! I’m just so curious what we’ll be looking at.”
Summer Scribe trotted over and snuggled the kirin some more (to be fair, that mane was irresistibly soft and fluffy). "I can't wait to find out either! I wonder if they'll be like ours or totally new - all we know right now is that they DO dock."
Backing off from the emotional ponies, who seemed dangerously close to collapsing into a pile of hugs and friendship, Reef Skimmer made his way over to Grenelda and Gustus: the two griffons were sitting together near the edge of the island. "Some serious flying ahead, it seems." he said conversationally. "Ponies have a notion to head that way but no idea how far or what we'll find on the route. I do like a good flap about, not so keen on that bloody cart but at least it's a real workout for the wing muscles!"
The hen and tiercel both looked at him in puzzlement, before Grenelda asked curiously, "At night?"
"Oh no need, I imagine it'll be a few more hours of hugs and apologies and friendship bracelets at the very least!" the hippogriff said jokingly, before frowning "In all seriousness, this will be a tricky business what with our vessel immobilised and half the crew non-flyers. It'll be days if not weeks, we'll have to take it carefully, no telling what other dangerous creatures are out there. At least, not until we catch them and dissect them." Reef's beak smile faded as he realises that might not have come out right.
A bit more silence, then it was Gustus who spoke up, saying "You know what? You're okay, doc."
Meanwhile Azure Feather was looking curiously at the oversized wrench strapped to Nutmeg's back. "Sometimes you just have to use whatever weapon you've got on hoof... a wrench suits quite well, I'd say." She chuckles at that, but her mirth died away as she thought back to the chompy encounter. "First contact on the island... I hate to say I wasn't appropriately prepared, but there it is." Everypony's had their share of mistakes... admitting to them wasn't exactly a bad thing. Goodness knows she'd made more tactical mistakes than she could count.
“This... oh, it’s actually custom made. I forged it myself!” Nutmeg said, levitating the giant tool out of its holster and over her head, to float in front of her and Azure. “Best tool I ever had. See? It’s adjustable!” Nutmeg twirled it once before planting it on the ground and leaning on it like a cane.
Azure had seen her share of crazy stuff: after all, she was part of the Twilight Guard, and Ponyville had more than its fair share of weirdness. The chompers? New, unsettling, but she's handled it. A kirin casually swinging around a freakin' wrench as long as a pony?! Azure instinctively took a couple of steps back at the sight of the monstrosity of a weapon, before muttering under her breath "The buck did this thing come from..." Regaining her composure... well mostly... she said "Remind me not to anger the engineers then... angry kirin plus giant wrench equals bad day..." Now she was looking at the details of the weapon, which did seem to have mechanisms built into it... hmm, the Princess would find this one interesting...
Summer Scribe couldn't help but stare at the huge wrench, gaping while Nutmeg flourished it. "Yeah, that looks like a hell of a bruiser... Making me wonder if I've not been going underequipped in comparison!" She gave a nervous, though impressed, chuckle.
"Well, I can't shoot explodey beams out of my horn like you unicorns, so it's like the mare said, I use what I've got," Nutmeg replied, with a playful roll of her eyes.
Summer grinned back, sharing the mood: "What, you can't just set yourself on fire or something like that? Weird!"
"Fire has this nasty way of getting out of control," Nutmeg replied uneasily, "It's kind of... weird feeling. Anyway this wrench isn't just a weapon it's a tool. See, if you turn it like this, it's got a blade on the side I can saw stuff with, for instance. Good for cutting through pipes... amongst other things..."
The Equestrians had now spent a week in the Cloudbreak Islands, and while they were still stranded in a strange and uncharted part of Equus (if this even was really part of Equus), the initial shock of the crossing had worn off. As had become customary, an hour after sunrise most of the crew could be found assembled on the upper deck of the EAS Friendship, attending an informal meeting lead by the acting Captain, Set Sail.
"Okay... we've had a little bit of a rough start, but we're doing okay-ish," Set Sail said to the surrounding creatures, "The balloon isn't leaking anymore. We have a good source of food and water. There's not a lot of attention on this island, and the stallion who owns it is on our side, mostly. The bad news is our engine is barely functioning, but... if there's a toll bridge here, then there must be a lot more civilization than we expected. We should be able to get supplies, and make repairs, but on the other hoof you might have to deal with the natives."
"I know we're not a diplomatic team but we should try not to piss anyone off too bad. If they need work to pay for repairs or supplies, then we work. If they come after us, well... we still need a better idea what kind of pon— creatures live around here. So I think we're at the point we can start sending out scouting parties. There are islands past this one that need to be surveyed, before we drop everything and try to drag the ship over there. We need to know who's friendly, and who's... hostile, and what sort of challenges we're up against. So, anyone interested in taking a long flight?"
She raised a brown feathery wing, adding, "Oh you have to be a flyer though. As I said the ship's not going anywhere fast."
Summer Scribe listened intently, nodding her head and then chipping in: "We know that there's at least two different sapient species around the Cloudbreak Islands - it's likely there are even more! - and that the capability to build airships and technology hereby unknown to us exists here. Or existed until fairly recently, at least." she conceded. "Given that we're just one ship's worth of ponies, our contact should always start with peaceful diplomacy! We're here to learn and explore, and the better the terms we can be on, well, the better!" She nodded her head again and smiled at the crew.
"I'm not a flyer, so... I guess I won't be going on aerial scouting team... but I trust that whoever goes in my stead can carry out the principles of Friendship and Harmony!" the little unicorn said emphatically, before blushing and pushing a hoof into her mane nervously. "Uh, yeah, and in the mean time I'll be continuing my explorations of the machine and the surrounding locale..."
Azure Feather stood silent and motionless while the captain and the senior researcher made their speeches. So it was finally time to shine some light on the uncharted regions of the Skylands, hmm? Goodness knows there was a lot of sky to cover... The butterfly-winged unicorn gave a curt little nod: "Well, I can help with two things... first and foremost, I can be a part of the expedition, and if there's a creature that wants to be a part of this and can't fly, there's always these..." She half-spread her wings for emphasis; despite being a unicorn, she could certainly fly, and with some effort, she could bestow that gift on another.
Concern flashed across Summer Scribe's face; she waved a hoof at Azure, as though she needed to be given binding advice in her absence. "Now, remember: no blasting people unless diplomatic negotiations have already broken down! We don't want to get a reputation for blowing up critters at the slightest provocation!"
"Now Summer, one would be a fool not to bring our only combat-trained spellcaster on such an expedition, no telling what creatures we'll run into..." Reef Skimmer said, looking approvingly at Azure. Then the hippogriff frowned "...awfully generous of you with the wings spell, but I have to ask, isn't that rather exhausting? We need you in top form if we're going into unknown skies."
Azure looked fairly pleased at the compliment, but slumped a little when her proposal to cast the wings spell was pretty easily shot down. "Call it me just trying to see if any creature wanted in despite not being a flier." She knew from years of personal experience how badly a grounded pony might want to join her fellows soaring above. "The spell is a bit tiring, though, Doctor, and you're right in the end..." Well, that was that option done; turning to Summer, she admitted: "As much as I hate to say it, my diplomacy is only slightly better than that wooden plank here." She gestured at the deck with a hoof for emphasis. "Reconnaissance is a thing I'm decent at, but diplomacy, not so much."
“Well fantastic, I was gonna ask if you didn’t volunteer,” Set Sail said to Azure with a smile, “We need skilled ponies like out there, where it’s gonna be dangerous.” Her smile dipped a bit as she added, “We don’t want too large a scouting party though. But thanks for offering to use that amazing magic of yours on somepony else. Let’s see how many natural fliers want to go first.”
Nutmeg Inferno stayed back in the crowd; the kirin looked thoughtful rather than dismayed, thinking intently about what was the scouting party was likely to find out there. Her train of thought was interrupted by a green earth pony clumsily bumping her as he maneuvered through the crowd. The young stallion trotted up to Set Sail, looking a little shy, a roll of paper held carefully in his mouth. Melonwater gave the pegasus a bashful look, before enthusiastically thrusting the paper forwards: "Here. It's a new map, just what I could see through the telescope, but.. better than nothing right?"
Summer Scribe steps closer, peering at the map and giving a quick smile and nod to her, well, underling... she still wasn't exactly used to having ponies to boss around rather than the other way around! "Oooh, excellent work, Melonwater!" Summer said, grinning at the teenager, "Seems like we'll be relying on your map making expertise for the rest of the expedition! Were you thinking of going with or staying here, by the way?"
A certain griffon hen squawked and looked less enthusiastic about the prospect. "Didn't you hear the captain? It's bad enough babysitting one unicorn, at least she's got some practice with the wings." Grenelda was scowling, but nodded curtly to Azure: after the chompy pit she had a certain respect for the mare. "I'll go but I'm not waiting around for any newbies getting their first taste of magic flippy-flaps."
Reef Skimmer's ear tufts perked up. "Good show, Grenelda." he said, "One is keen to assist of course, no doubt there are many more novel species waiting for us out there."
Meanwhile Azure's curiosity had drawn her closer as well, examining the map carefully and then giving a slight nod and smile to Melonwater. "Useful thing, especially for us."
The young stallion beamed at the praise, though he glanced nervously at the griffon. "Thanks Summer, err, Senior Researcher I mean... yeah yeah I was trying to survey with my theodolite, it didn't have enough magnification, then..." The earth pony looks over his shoulder into the crowd, where a blue pegasus mare is smiling and giving him an encouraging look. "Bluebell saw me on the deck; she took me up to the crow's nest, let me use the spotting scope. Then, um, we... erm, we went on a little trip, to the far end of the island? I hope that's ok." he concludes nervously, looking at Set Sail.
"...wait, ...going did you say? Oh no, I'm not trying that spell, those things look horribly fragile and how do you even steer I'd just crash!" he said, eyes wide and backing away from the mares. "Look maybe if the scouts make sure there are no, uh... giant flying monsters..." he gulped "...then I could go, uh, in the cart. You know, to make another map. Yep."
Summer giggled: "It's ok Melonwater, yeah, you can come with me in the cart, once it's safe."
Cloud Cutter probably should have volunteered. If only she wasn't standing there silently looking at Set Sail with an unblinking stare, along with another of the pegasus storm piercer crew, now as purple as she, by her side. Could the spooky mare be asleep with her eyes open?
Reef Skimmer had joined the circle of creatures staring at the map, which was now unrolled on the deck, cocking his head before looking at Summer Scribe, then Azure Feather. "Any particular destination? Or just out and back, in the general direction of that arrow there?" He gestured with a claw. "I must say that 'floating water' sounds like an interesting biome. Now those small islands, if those really are chains that suggests large-scale construction... did anyone ask the troll, erm, Abernacky?"
Summer Scribe shook her head. "Abernathy. ...and no, it didn't come up. I'd suggest that we prioritize signs of civilization, past or present; as good as impressive terrain is, we'll have plenty of time for that after we get the critical repairs done!"
“Worst comes to worst, we can dismantle those chains and use the metal to fix the engine,” Nutmeg pointed out cautiously, “Assuming there isn't a huge monster guarding it or something. We'd need to build a forge too, to reforge them, but I have some ideas there.”
“If they even are chains,” Melonwater said, rolling his eyes at the engineer, “I couldn't see what they are in detail. They looked like chains, with what might have been links, and they were drooping down between the islands like chains. But... for all I know they're made out of papier-mâché.”
Summer Scribe considered the interesting notion of dismantling the (hypothetical) chains. "Well, assuming we should be doing that at all? Maybe they do something structurally important and we should leave them be? I guess that should be part of the survey, huh?"
Meanwhile Azure was taking stock of the creatures who had volunteered. The doctor seemed very interested, the griffon Grenelda was ready to fly, yet there was one pony Azure was kind of hoping would speak up, and with a quick look around the meeting room, there she was, seemingly staring blankly: Cloud Cutter. For now she held off on pushing the other mare to volunteer, instead getting a better look at the map.
"How about this: we split up into smaller units; two, three creatures at most per unit, then do a scouting flight over each island, without landing. While we've got no shortage of combat-capable creatures, diplomats are in far shorter supply." Leaning in for a closer look at the map, she began muttering a little. "One... two... that's it." Moments later, she would look around at the group. "There are two islands within easy flight, potentially four if we really have a good number of creatures joining..."
“No dismantling the chains!” Set Sail said nervously, “That’s right, not until we know what we’re dealing with. We don’t want to bring whatever can chain whole islands together down on our heads.” Tilting her head at Azure, she said leerily, “We can’t spare too many pon-creatures. We’re still barely enough crew to maintain this ship. We could have a couple of survey teams I guess, but there’s no hurry or anything.”
"So we'll check it out, maybe take down a giant monster, the doctor can haul you over once it's safe, right?" Grenelda broke in, pulling her head out from under her wing where she'd been giving it a quick pre-flight preen. "Let's just go already."
"You know I'd come, 'cept that somegriff has to stay and stop the ponies crashing the ship." a male griffon replied to Grenelda, beak open in a grin.
"Ya lazy bastard," Grenelda growled playfully at him, elbowing Gustus in the side.
"Alright, alright, look, enough with the hypothetical talk, let's get some proper numbers, okay?" Azure said. "I'm in, that's for certain, I..." She trailed off, looking back to Cloud Cutter. "Hang on..." She clearly looked at least a little torn as she headed over to the purple pegasus' side. "Hey, Cloud Cutter... you alright there?" She asked, sounding concerned...
Summer Scribe perks an ear, looking over at... oh, one of the spooky pegasi. She had to admit she'd been so busy that she hasn't spent much time looking into the creepier side of the ship's crew. If Azure was taking the initiative to handle that, she'd leave her to it!
“I’m fine, why?” Cloud Cutter asked without missing a beat, tilting her head to give the winged unicorn a curious look. “Do I not seem fine?”
"You'd look like you'd fallen asleep, that's all. You've been here the whole time without saying anything..." Azure replied, looking a little unsure of herself. "So what do you think? Heck, I'd trust you to either lead one of the scouting teams, or hay... you and I scouting one of the more dangerous islands? Maybe that desert one to the north? Don't trust these wings in a volcanic environment, but..." She suddenly blinked, sighing. "Though I don't want to leave a team without a top fighter..."
“Oh, sure I would love to,” Cloud Cutter replied with an empty smile, “It would be kind of silly if I just stayed here.” She looked off to the distance, saying, “Plus we might find somepony who knows more about my... our... condition.” At Azure’s praise, the purple pegasus revealed that she could close those eyes, saying frankly, “I’m not a top fighter. I’m just a scientist with some wing-blade training for self-defence. But I might be very effective at killing anything we encounter.”
Azure couldn't help but chuckle. "Just a scientist with some wing-blade training? You could have fooled anyone seeing you against those chompies." With a nod, she spoke up again. "Alright, last call, who's in the expedition team?" She turned back to Cloud Cutter. "Come on. Let's go see just where we can go, hmm?"
“Well I am curious about those chains,” Cloud Cutter said with a shy smile, “As much as I'd like to explore a desert, focusing on the places we can get assistance... does seem like a good idea, doesn't it?”
Reef Skimmer half-spread his wings, eager to get out of the sickbay again. "I trust you can handle things for a few hours Bluebell?" Seeing the pegasus nod, he smiles and begins "Righty-o then, let's... erm..." seeing Set Sail looking his way, he finished "...just go get our wing-blades, then."
Gustus watched the hippogriff disappear down the ramp into the belly of the ship then discreetly padded over to Set Sail. "Captain, I don't like it. The doctor and Grennie on their own. What if... he gets hurt or something. Grennie can't haul his big hippo ass back on her own."
"Oh so now you're the one thinking about hippo ass?" the hen retorted, teasing her mate. Several crewponies blushed at this.
“You know, I hadn’t considered that,” Set Sail says with notable concern, “We certainly wouldn’t want anything untoward happening. Maybe Dr. Skimmer should stay here, instead of going out on his own...”
“What?” squawked Grenelda angrily, getting in the captain’s face, “You saying I can’t take care of myself?”
“No no, I!” Set Sail stammered, backing up at the griffon’s sudden fury, “I just... think maybe it’s better if you s-stick together with Cloud Cutter and Azure. We’re not fighting a... a war here. We don’t have to sneak around like this is some kind of... like we’re doing anything wrong!”
Set Sail stomped a hoof at that... then blushed, adding, “We don’t have to be foolish, but... I think we don’t have to keep scouting parties to only two ponies, especially a male and a... I mean, it’s just... um...”
"Are you saying she needs three ponies to take care of her??" Gustus demands coming up beside Grenelda. Blinking, he added angrily, "Two and a half ponies?" Set Sail found herself facing two angry eagle faces and flinched. "Or are you saying males can't be trusted?" Gustus accused.
Just then Reef Skimmer re-emerged onto the deck. "Very well then, let's get..." He frowned as he saw his fellow griffs apparently trying to intimidate the captain. "Now what's all this? Back off there, show some discipline! That's Captain Set Sail and we're going to follow her orders." he says angrigly, coming up to stand beside Set Sail, spreading his wings (one right over her) and ducking his head, glaring at Gustus then Grenelda.
Azure couldn't help but shake her head a little at what's going on. One minute she's trying to get scout teams together, the next, everything seems to be going as well as things did when Azure tried flying this blasted ship. Taking a step back to ensure she wouldn't get a screeching gryphon in her face, she decided to stay quiet and wait for things to calm down...
Summer Scribe helpfully facehooves on Azure's behalf, standing near her. "Need any help getting this under control?" She said, hopeful that she doesn't actually have to do anything... but it was only polite to offer!
Set Sail quivered there under Reef's wing, and as Gustus looked her way his expression softened. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean any harm in saying," he says.
Grenelda doesn’t look as mollified, but said in a more even tone, “If Azure doesn’t want us to go with her, then I don’t wanna go with her, reasonable or not. I don’t see what the big deal is though. The... the captain’s right. This ain’t a war zone.”
Azure just looked to Summer Scribe after her offer and couldn't help but facehoof as well. "I've got nothing against any creature in here or on the ship. I initially thought that we could cover two islands at once, but... the captain has a point... maybe there is safety in numbers after all. One squad of four members, and Cloud Cutter mentioned possibly looking at the chain island. Every creature all right with that?"
Reef's stare softened as he he drew his wings in, snorting. Looking at Azure, he said "Very good. We'll follow your lead then," before fixing his gaze on Grenelda again, waiting for her confirmation.
"I'm fine with whatever you want," Cloud Cutter said neutrally. "Safety in numbers is a good idea."
"If you want it, fine. I just want a decision already. Nobody made me captain," Grenelda states, scuffing her hind leg on the ground.
Set Sail looked between them all before confirming, "Okay then... you four will go take a look at those chains. Once you come back with more information, then we can think about splitting up and searching around further islands. Is that a good enough decision?"
"Fine by me," Grenelda grumbles, folding her scaly forelegs.
"As you say, Captain." Reef acknowledged, impassively.
Summer Scribe tried to ease the tension, saluting the brave volunteers and saying cheerfully "Best of luck to the flyer team!"
"Let's take the first step then and figure out what's on the chain island. Then we can re-assess the situation, once we have an idea what we're dealing with." Azure seemed... a little frustrated, but able to keep it in check.
The quartet of flyers is soon airborne and climbing over the first island: a griffon hen out in front, a hippogriff stallion flying just behind her, then a blue butterfly-winged unicorn with a purple pegasus flying along side. Their wings beat slowly as the group pace themselves for a long flight; save for Azure, whose wings are flapping fast to keep up, though she has the benefit of magic to mitigate the strain.
The team soon passed over the linked islands the troll called 'Blissful Pastures' and headed on into open sky; looking down they see only roiling cloud and mist, far below. It's another beautiful sunny day with only scattered clouds to obscure the view.
Ahead the curious structure on Melonwater's map can be seen as a massive array of floating rocks: a scattering of larger ones nestled within a vast cloud of smaller specks. Thin arcs join the larger islands, segmented in places and irregular in others. As the group closes the distance the details become clearer; the dozen or so larger rocks are the size of Canterlot Castle, roughly spherical and each crowned with a modest copse of trees and an array of spindly, metallic spikes. They are surrounded by hundreds of house-sized islets, each of a more flattened pancake shape. Each appears to feature a pool of water ringed by a few low bushes. The arcs linking the large islands are revealed to be huge chains, apparently of bronze, largely covered in moss and vines. They appear to lead to a central landmass, peanut-shaped and perhaps three kilometres long.
Now she was getting a closer look, Azure's seemed a little surprised at the state of the place. "It's like someone decided to fire a shattering beam at a huge floating boulder and this is the result..." she mused out loud. Her wingbeats slowed as she surveyed the scene, weighing her options before speaking up. "Alright, logically, we're starting out, maybe going to the heart of this island... yes, the largest landmass is the best option, then we can work our way outwards, perhaps splitting up, but safety in numbers to start..." It had just occurred to her that she was actually leading this unit; a troubling thought.
Grenelda stilled her wings, dropping back a bit to fly parallel with Azure. "Didn't quite make that out. You wanna head for that big rock in the middle?" She peered into the distance; they're about five kilometres out now so the features are beginning to resolve. "Looks like some buildings on there, various sizes, and something jutting out, might be more docks."
"It's our best option. If we find friendlies there, we can learn more about this if some creature can... sound friendly?" Azure began, shaking her head. "On the other hoof, if there are hostiles... this is going to be a long day... but if it looks inhabited, then... definitely start with the heart of the formation. Thank you for the information, Grenelda."
The flyers banked slightly, adjusting their flight path to head straight for the central landmass. From their current position this would entail passing a couple of the mid-sized rocks and flying through the outer layer of smaller, flattened islets.
Cloud Cutter sensed it first; an unseen force pulling her off-course. She tried to correct, flapping hard to pull away, but the effect pulled her sideways through the air. The two griffs were caught in it seconds later, screeching in alarm as they tumbled and skidded sideways through the air. Azure Feather had a few more seconds to watch her crewmates being dragged away before the force grabbed onto her as well, reeling her in like an invisible fishing line. She was still heading down, but now on a definite slant away from the central island.
Surprise turned to confusion and then alarm, as Azure watched Cloud Cutter banking off course, followed by the screeching griffs. Of course she did her best to fight the pull as well, but sure enough... it was far too strong, and goodness knew where it was coming from. It felt a lot like telekinesis; not that many unicorns had the capacity to lift another pony, but she'd met a couple in her adventures. If so there was no coloured aura, and... she looked around frantically... no sign of any creature that might be casting it. All she could do was try to avoid being pulled too far away from the rest of her squad.
Their destination soon became clear; each flyer was being pulled towards one of the smaller rocks, heading straight for the centre of the upper surface. The two griffs flapped and struggled but had no more luck breaking away than Azure; once it became clear they weren't getting away, they held their wings in a gliding position and let the unknown magic run its course. Cloud Cutter seemed strangely resigned to it, holding perfectly still and letting the force pull her down.
"Ponies, any bucking idea what's going on?" came a panicked shout from Grenelda.
"It's almost like telekinesis, but not quite! Something's got a hold of us and it's dragging us down! Don't fight it, we're not getting out of this quite yet!" Azure cried out, at least she knew where the other members were, but... it was clear the four would be separated... Celestia knew what was pulling them down, though.
As the flyers approached their landing sites their courses diverged slightly, each being pulled down to their own islet. Up close it's clear that the rocks are topped with shallow crystalline bowls, several metres in diameter and holding a hoof-depth of rainwater. With thuds, clops and splashes the two griffs are each forced to land, separated but within shouting distance. Cloud Cutter and Azure Feather followed a little way behind.
"What in Tartarus..." Reef Skimmer bellowed angrily. "More inexplicable magical nonsense, no doubt."
"Now the first question is... can any of us travel between islands..." Azure mused, before trying to spread her wings and fly to Cloud Cutter's little island. At least, if they could get to the same island, it'd be a start, right? Alas, as she spread her wings, the unseen force intensified, pushing her down until she can barely stand... instinctively she closes them again, and the force slackened off. Her hooves still felt kind of... sticky? ...but she was able to walk around the little pond with minimal difficulty. On their own islands the two griffs had resumed their flapping and struggling, Reef forced down to his knees, while Cloud Cutter is just standing there, wings folded, staring at their surroundings.
Azure shook her head, calling out "No good, we're stuck!" Way to state the obvious, guard... and way to make another stumble. There was nothing else left to do other than study the island and the water they'd landed in; perhaps that had an answer for her?
There was little to see on her rocky prison; a smooth shallow bowl of light grey... crystal of some sort? embedded in a flattened lump of stone. Rainwater had pooled in the depression, and a few weathered bushes and tufts of grass clung to the cracks around the perimeter. Floating around her group were many similar rocks... and a few hundred metres away, the rounded shape of one of the larger masses. An oversized brass chain emerged from one rock face, arcing away to connect the larger rock to one of its fellows, a kilometre or so in the direction of the central island. Not a lot to see... closing her eyes for a moment, Azure concentrated on the invisible. The magical force was definitely coming from the crystal bowl, but it did not itself seem like a source of power; more like a passive conduit, or perhaps a reflector.
If only Azure Feather had continued her studies, she thought, she would have been in a better position to figure out what this place was... "This entire structure seems to be a network of prison cells... but the magic that pulled us down has a source..." She then turned her attention to the giant brass chain, trying to feel for power flowing through it. "...one I'm going to bet is on that central island, perhaps distributed through the chains... now as far as getting out of here goes..."
The unicorn pointed her horn one way, then the other, trying to sense the flow of the unseen magic powering their imprisonment. A stream of energy was definitely coming from the larger rock, energising the crystal pad she was standing on and presumably those of her fellows as well. Without specialist training she couldn't be more specific, but there did seem to be a new shine to the giant brass chain, despite its weathered and overgrown surface; not to mention a flicker of light around the metallic spikes projecting from the top of the mass.
"Can you feel it?" shouted Cloud Cutter. "An elaborate trap, it seems."
"Well figure it out, ponies!" Grenelda yelled out, "because we've got incoming!" Now that she'd folded her wings away the griffon was able to point a claw in the direction of the central island, where she'd spotted movement. Something mobile had detached itself from the side of the mass and was heading their way, a flickering dot at this range but making a distinct whirring sound.
"Incoming?!" Azure turned towards the sound, nodding. "Remember the captain's orders! Diplomacy first!" she cried out, recalling Summer's advice... not like they really had much of a choice. Best case scenario was that they could actually talk to someone and possibly get out. Worse case scenario was, well... they wouldn't get out at all...
"Diplomacy!" squawked Grenelda. "How about you shut down this magic junk and then we can talk about diplomacy. We're totally exposed here!"
"Much as I support your sentiment," Reef shouted back "...Grenelda does have a point. If it comes to a negotiation, our position is hardly enviable."
"Then I can employ the fruits of my studies and hope for the best!" Azure replied swiftly before beginning to charge up a wind blade spell, levelling her horn at that chain. She didn't like the idea of blasting an unknown artefact, but she didn't feel she had much of a choice, with potential hostiles on the way. Magical force gathered and focused around her horn, before leaping forward as a bolt of condensed elemental energy. Unfortunately while devastating at short to medium range, the shot steadily lost cohesion as it travelled to the distant rock. By the time it reached the giant chain, made of forged links each bigger than a pony, it had defocused into a blast of gale-force wind that merely stripped away the vegetation. The chain itself creaked and gently swayed, its structural integrity unaffected.
Meanwhile the whirring dot had become the shape of a small ship, supported by a pair of rotors spinning above it and driven forward by smaller propellers to the sides. The hull was a patchwork of weathered wood and ugly iron plates, festooned with assorted spikes and blades that did nothing to suggest peaceful intent. Green shapes could be seen moving about on the deck, the details still indistinct.
Grenelda tried raking her claws across the crystal bowl, which produced nothing but scratches and a nasty screeching, oddly muffled by the shallow water. Following her lead, Reef Skimmer kicked at it with his hooves, which produced cracks and a lot of splashing but no apparent reduction in the force preventing him from taking off.
'Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Great.' Azure thought. She looked at the struggling griffs, then sighed; she couldn't fix any other creature's problem without first fixing her own; the tried pounding a hoof on the crystal bowl. It seemed thin enough, and maybe with a little force, say, another wind blade, she could shatter the thing; that would be a start, wouldn't it?
Summoning her magic again, Azure slammed an ethereal blade into the crystal just in front of her. Immediately she was doused in blinding spray as the intense wind blew the bowl dry of water. A sizeable crack snaked across the structure, which started to emit a wavering humming sound. The sticky feeling in her hooves was still there, but now pulsing and fluctuating. Meanwhile the flying vessel continued to approach, the crew now clearly bipeds but much shorter than Abernathy, perhaps half his height with even more prominent pointed ears. Several of the creatures are visible, wearing helmets of some sort.
Blinking away the spray, Azure snorted in frustration as her attempt cames up empty again, her anger rising at the builders of the trap. A few cracks wasn't good enough; she spotted a heavy rock nearby, a makeshift weapon at best, but grabbing it with her telekinesis, she's soon hurling it directly at the cracks. If she can shatter this, it should break the spell...
Swinging the boulder with her magic, Azure smashed in into the crystal bowl again and again until her projectile shatters, only to be immediately replaced by another rock as she continued her assault. The relatively thin crystal disintegrated under the pounding, giving off a weird oscillating warble as it starts to vibrate and shakes apart. Chunks of stone split away from the sides of the islet as the whole thing threatened to fall apart under Azure. The restraining force surged, flickered and disappeared, while in the distance Azure spotted a flash and crackle of energy around the metal spires crowning the large, chain-linked islet.
Her eyes soon lit up as the force was released... and Azure finally knew what she had to do! "That's it, shatter the crystal! That'll release the prison!" It only took her... way too long to figure it out, but she did... although elation was immediately replaced by a sinking feeling as she realised there was nothing to stop another of the bowls grabbing her if she tried to fly away. Still, it was better than nothing; Azure spread her wings, intending to fly over and release Cloud Cutter. Unlike the griffs, the pegasus had neither grasping claws nor telekinesis; the unicorn was her only hope of getting free...
In a small cluttered office, tucked away in a corner of the EAS Harmony's engine room, Nutmeg Inferno pored over a schematic. It was mostly just scribbles on top of some geometric shapes, growing more complex as she worked on it, lit by the warm incandescent lights still running on the old backup generator. The kirin was sitting at her drafting table, scritching around with ink and quill; next to her hovered one of the strange rocks they'd found at the edge of the island, floating serenely above the table despite the lack of visible support. The mare sneezed; dust was a constant irritant in the engineering spaces.
Summer Scribe was preparing to do some exploration of her own around the lower island; she'd been all over the machine, but perhaps further secrets lurked in the surrounding forest. After rounding up Melonwater and Blue Type... the former wanted to spend the day helping out in the sickbay for some reason... she gave her own little pep talk and got her team down the gangplank, ready for another day of exploration.
She'd trotted as far as the stone bridge, considering whether to head up towards the mountain lake and investigate the water cycle or sweep the rest of the second island (and trying to avoid thinking about the sheep incident, at this very spot), when Blue Type suddenly spoke up. "Erm, that doesn't look like a... a pegasus. Or a griffon." the older mare said.
Summer followed her gaze upwards and sure enough, a lithe bat-winged shape was gliding over their heads, with a triangular head and long tail. It fell to Melonwater to state the obvious: "That's a dragon!"
"Woah! There are dragons, here?" Summer Scribe gaped as she turned in a circle to follow it overhead, whipping out her sketchbook, trying to hastily get something down! "Do you think it noticed us?"
It was hard to tell for sure from the quick overflight, but the dragon seemed relatively small, bigger than the average pony but not by much. It headed straight for the ship, getting within a couple of hundred metres then... disappearing! In a literal puff of purple smoke no less. None of the crew seemed to notice.
"Hmm, seems relatively close, not huge and far away, looks like it's heading towards the... bwuh?" Summer's quill dropped from her telekinesis, as her jaw dropped in shock! "I believe we just witnessed a draconic vanishing act!" She thought for a moment... then stared at her sketchbook, that mystery left hanging in the air. "Say, the dragon looked an awful lot like some of those statues we saw in the village... I wonder what significance they have to the locals?"
"In ancient Equestria, there's evidence some of the largest dragons were actually worshipped as..." Blue Type began, only for Melonwater to interrupt "There it is! Look, it's on the ship..." Sure enough, the purple dragon could be seen crouching on the deck of the ship. A thin, barely visible trail of purple smoke connected the point where it had disappeared to its current position. As Summer watched, it waited for a moment (possibly until it was sure the crew weren't watching) then slipped inside the door to the engine room.
Summer Scribe gawked! "Woah, good spot! I thought it disappeared out of sight, but it actually just teleported forward!" She watched closely to see what it does next... "It's on the ship! We need to get back and warn them; who knows what it's planning! Come on!"
"Maybe... huff it's just... huff curious?" said Blue Type hopefully, galloping behind Summer.
Melonwater was less optimistic, wailing "Dragons! Why did it have to be dragons!"
"Oh, it can be curious all it wants to! But dragon curiosity often ends in the subject on fire, and we've only got the one ship!" Summer Scribe forced out between breaths as she headed for the gang-plank.
The intruder managed to spend several minutes undetected in the engine room, demonstrating an uncanny awareness of where ponies were and where they were not looking as the dragon snuck from one hiding spot to the next. Ultimately it was Sprocket, emerging from a service crawlway, who caught the creature unawares. Intending to trot back to Nutmeg and ask about a pressure reading, she was greeted by the sight of a scaly tail lashing back and forth, as the intruder sat on a catwalk, apparently watching the kirin work. "Du.. Dra... Dragon!" the unicorn shouted.
In her office, Nutmeg was redrawing a wing shaped protrusion on her design, subtly changing the geometry. Hearing the shout, she bolted upright, leaping over the table and out the door. "What? What's going on?!" she asked, hooves planted against the metal floor as she looks wildly about.
Meanwhile Summer Scribe, with Melonwater and Blue Type in tow, had reached the ship and rushed into the engine room. "Dragon intruder! Show yourself!" she shouted dramatically, flourishing a hoof out as her eyes scanned around to look for anything out of place... only to hear Sprocket's cry out "Help! Up here!"
Looking in the direction of Sprocket's shout, Nutmeg's gaze immediately went to the creature sitting on the catwalk, its intense blue eyes looking directly at her. The dragon was the size of an adolescent, but with the fully quadrupedal stance and wide wingspan of a mature specimen. It stood a little taller than a pony, covered in smooth, dark purple scales which contrasted with magenta belly plates. Its physique was thin and lithe, its movement fast and fluid. The head was adorned with numerous horns of various sizes, all tapering to sharp points, while the tail ended in a razor-edged blade. In the centre of its forehead was a strange marking of four grey triangles; similar detail could be seen on the shoulders and hips. Combined with the prominent claws and spiked silver collar and bracelets, the creature projected an aggressive, combative appearance.
"Dragon?!" Nutmeg squawked, "Where's the dragon? I don't see a... dragon?" She squinted up at the catwalk, saying, "Oh. Huh. Dragon. Why is there a dragon in the engine room?!"
The dragon whirled around, glaring at Sprocket (who squeaked and forced herself backwards into the crawlspace), and then at Summer Scribe on the lower level. "You're responsible, aren't you." she said, in a distinctly female voice with just a trace of crackle and hiss as she pronounces the words. "You interferred with the nexus, made it send that signal." Not a threat exactly, but her tone was not reassuring.
"We saw it flying towards the ship!" Summer Scribe panted out, as she ran over to Nutmeg. "And we came back as fast as we could. We don't know anything about its intentions or desires, so hopefully we can establish a friendly rapport! But if not, I'm ready to do what I must!"
Turning back to the dragoness, she narrowed her eyes and stood firm. "So what if we are? It's not a weapon, it just sends a signal! What's the big deal about that?"
The purple dragoness stared at Summer Scribe for a moment, before responding "Do you even know what you did?" She takes a few paces along the catwalk, looking at Nutmeg again, then back to Summer. "There have been no unicorns in Skylands, since... ages past. Where did you come from?
Ah! Time to establish interspecies contact! ... Again! Summer made a wide gesture with her hoof, pointing in various direction, pantomiming. "We came here, from Equestria, far down below past the Storm Barrier, on a mission of scientific discovery and exploration! We are ponies: earth, unicorn, pegasi, even kirin and hippogriffs... and we come here peacefully!" She nod nodded! "And, I mean, we fixed a machine that was broken for goodness knows how long! Where's the crime in that? We put together old things all the time: it's what archaeologists do!" She gave Nutmeg another tentative hoof-bump. "And engineers, in this case!"
Another long silence. "Nothing can get through the barrier. Everyone who tried, died." The dragon snorted in contempt... no hint of flame or smoke, Summer wasn't sure whether to be reassured by that. "Equestria? Is that part of the Outlands? The whole region was thought lost in the calamity, but perhaps a part survived. Perhaps... yes, you tried to get through the barrier, and your ship was carried along the wall until it was thrown out here. Foolish. You're lucky to be alive."
Summer Scribe squinted and gestured at herself like 'hello, I'm right here?!'. Man, no one understands the ingenuity of Equestrian science and engineering around here! "The Out Lands... The Calamity? Are you saying that the Storm Barrier came into existence in your living history? Huh." Something to look into the records for later... "Anyway, we didn't come here escaping anything! Our land; it's called Equestria, not the Outlands; has everything we could ever want! We're here just to explore, like I said!"
"So uh, what have we done?" Nutmeg asked the purple dragon, walking up with a glance Summer's way. "Don't worry, she's just being an archaeologist. You said something about do we even know what we did. Because all I did was try to fix a broken machine, and fail, since the receiver is also broken, and we're nowhere near that thing. Do you know something about that machine? What do you need us to do about it?"
Again, several seconds of silence as the dragon seemed to consider the situation. "You fixed a tech nexus, disused and ruined. You could only do that if..." She stared at Nutmeg. "You're a tech elemental, aren't you. Fully aligned, or... a natural talent." Her lips curled upwards in a smile. "That's just what we need."
Summer Scribe perked up. "A tech elemental... Huh, of course! That must be the gear thingy, one of the ten elements..." She still didn't know if she represented anything, but Azure seemed to be Wind. Curious! She tilted her head, regarding Nutmeg curiously. Looks like it's the kirin's time to shine!
"A what now? Gear thingy?" Nutmeg asked, tilting her head in confusion, "If you mean an engineer, yeah. Everybody who works in here is an engineer. I wasn't the one who fixed it. My team was! You saying you have some misaligned gears you need fixed? We're not too busy here, but we're kind of land locked at the moment. You... wouldn't happen to know where we can get some engine parts do you? Because if so, then I'll do whatever you want."
The dragoness looked confused by this. Another pause, then she said "You don't even know... An elemental that doesn't understand elements! You're right though, you will do what I want." In a deadpan, emotionless voice she stated "You're coming with me. For... the good of Skylands. One way or another." The dragoness stared at Nutmeg, body tensed and ready to leap from the catwalk.
Meanwhile Summer Scribe had a look like 'wait wait wait' on her head, shaking her head and stepping in front of Nutmeg. "Now hang on, dragon! You can't just sneak on board our ship and kidnap our head engineer! We're willing to help out, but you gotta ask first! What's this 'good of Skylands' stuff, anyway?"
Nutmeg peered warily around Summer, staying put to keep the dragon talking, but also keeping in mind how sturdy the door to her office was. Might give her enough time to put together a counterattack.
The dragon's gaze went back to Summer, noting the other ponies now beginning to crowd around her. "I'm a Skylander. That's what we do, defend Skylands from... Darkness. Invaders. Barbarians. Threats of all sorts." Her eyes narrowed. "Including mutant unicorns, if necessary." Seeing Summer's confused look, she lamented. "You don't know about us either, do you? I can't say I'm surprised. So many have forgotten."
Summer blink blinked. "How could I forget about you? We don't have 'skylanders' back where we came from, and you've never seen us before either." She tilted her head. "We must LOOK like something you've seen before, I guess... hmm. But... we have seen statues celebrating your type! You're a hero in the flesh, huh?"
Another stare, then the dragoness actually gave a dry, throaty chuckle. "Yeah, that's me, a hero in the flesh." Then the humour was gone and she turned away from Summer, leaping off the catwalk and landing on the metal deck directly in front of Nutmeg with a loud 'clang'. "You will be... rewarded. You'll have all the parts you want. After you come with me."
Oh gosh, she got a chuckle from a living legend! Squee! Ahem. Summer Scribe consoled herself... before blinking as the purple creature leaps past her mighty bodyguard positioning, turning to watch with a gape! What will Nutmeg say?
“I’d like some assurance of that,” Nutmeg said warily, backing slowly away from the dragon towards a steam pipe behind her, “A second ago you looked like you were just going to grab me in the name of... whatever it is you think rules these sky lands.”
"It's for the greater good!" the dragon said, advancing towards Nutmeg with slow paces. "Not that you have a choice. Any true Skylander can out-fight a hundred trolls, you think a few unicorns can stop me?"
"You bet they can!" Summer Scribe objected, grinning! The dragon had been given a chance to listen to reason, but now was the time to protect her friends! She assessed her surroundings, quietly picking up a loose wrench in her magic and preparing to bringing it down on the dragon's head from behind!
“You still haven’t told me what we did by fixing that machine,” Nutmeg told the dragon sceptically, half hiding behind the narrow pipe with her forelegs curled around it, “If your greater good is so great and good, then why don’t I have a choice? Not like I would choose the poorer bad, right? Also-think-fast” With that she yanked the pipe free of its very weak and unsound patch job coupling, blasting hot steam in the dragon’s face, before high-tailing it for the relative safety of her office.
Azure Feather took to the air, wings almost buzzing, flying towards the still-imprisoned Cloud Cutter as fast as she could manage. As she feared, the unicorn only made it half way before the alien force returned, pulling at her wings and dragging her down to land heavily next to the purple pegasus. Cloud Cutter's expression was hard to read; a hint of relief, shaded by annoyance? "We can't break them all." she said, unnaturally calm given the circumstances, "We have to find a way to disable the magic."
Perhaps thirty metres away, Grenelda continued to score lines into her trap with her claws, while Reef Skimmer was making only slightly more progress smashing at the crystal with his hooves. The alien flying machine loomed behind them, seconds away now. Much smaller than the EAS Harmony, it was nonetheless menacing, sporting what Azure recognised as a ballista at the front, manned by a little green biped that seemed eager to shoot. The wooden hull was scarred and patched, covered in a patchwork of irregular steel plates and rusty spikes. Two propellers whirred at the sides, driving the thing forwards, while much larger rotors intermeshed overhead, keeping it aloft.
Azure stared at the oncoming ship before stomping a hoof in frustration. "I know that thing over there is the core now, it's the real problem, but... it's too far, my magic isn't enough to break the chains!" The unicorn grunted and tossed her head. "I can't figure it out! And now we've got these... creatures aiming a ballista at us... I'll try and deflect it!" 'Heck of a leader I'm turning out to be...' she thought unhappily, trying to focus on where they were aiming the weapon, her magic charged and ready...
Cloud Cutter shook her head at the desperate unicorn, now trapped in the same enchanted crystal bowl as her. All she could do was continue trying to break the trap; backing up to the edge, she reared up on her hind legs and brought down a pair of ironshod hooves, driving them into the smooth surface as hard as she could. Tiny cracks crazed outward from the impact points; another five minutes of this should destroy the trap, but it didn't look like they had five minutes. "Thank you for defending me!" she called out to Azure, "..but maybe we could use their own weapon against them? If I dodge at the last moment, and the bolt hits the crystal..."
In the time it took Cloud Cutter to say this, the native craft had flown right past the rock they were trapped on, turning to circle the group. Another ballista was revealed on the stern, manned by a second biped, while two more crouched on the central deck. The pony's sensitive ears could actually hear the crew over the whup-whup-whup of the rotors; "Not one but two griffons, full-grown and a young one! And two sheep! What a catch." came one voice. "Those aren't sheep, you idiot! Sheep are white with no wings. They must be goats!" came another. "I saw a black one once." came a muffled voice from the stern. "I don't care!" shouted the first voice "Take down the griffons first, we can collect the lunches later."
Azure had a stunned look on her face after Cloud Cutter's suggestion. Was the purple pegasus really offering herself as live bait? Either Cloud Cutter knew something about her powers that Azure wasn't aware of... or she was betting on these creatures being as stupid as they sounded; never a safe bet in combat with a novel enemy.
"Wait, it's too dangerous..." she began, "...I did see something when I broke my bowl... let me try one more thing first..." That glowing structure on the top of the core... was that the power source for the traps? Too far for simple telekinesis, but perhaps if she combined it with her newfound command over the air... With no time to lose, Azure hefted a sizable rock out of its mossy resting place, holding it in her magic as she prepared another blast of elemental energy. In seconds her horn was stinging hot with as much energy as it could hold, and with another grunt she released, flinging the stone as hard as she could at the distant spires.
Azure's hurled rock glided in a long flat arc, quickly exceeding the range of her telekinesis but sustained by the focused blast of air it was riding in. The projectile smashed into one of the delicate metal spires projecting from the top of the larger mass with a loud 'sprang!', causing it to vibrate faster and faster in a rising metallic howl before literally shaking apart into a rain of steel shrapnel. The remaining two spires warbled and flash as well, overtaxed and battered by debris. The force binding the pony's hooves weakens, while the battered crystal under Reef Skimmers hooves shatters completely.
He enjoyed a few seconds of freedom, spreading his wings joyfully, before the first voice shouted "The big one is getting free! Shoot it, noooow!" With a clatter the forward ballista fired, flinging out a tough rope net ringed by heavy weights. The big grey griff instinctively screeched as he was covered and entangled by the net. "Got it!" the forward gunner shouted, while the one at the rear of the craft was more interested in Azure's activities. "It's breaking the trap! The flying goats are breaking the trap!" she screamed.
As much as Azure was overjoyed to finally do some real damage to the core, her joy was quickly cut short as she watched her hippogriff squad-mate entangled under the heavy net. She shot the creature responsible an angry look as her horn began glowing brightly again. "No more games." she muttered, aiming a wind blade directly at the gangly biped struggling to aim the second ballista at the pool she was sharing with Cloud Cutter. They wouldn't get off another shot if she could help it.
Giving up on destroying the bowl while they were under attack, Cloud Cutter instead hunkered down and hooked her forelegs over the edge. Even if it resulted in her being dragged back down a few seconds later, hurling herself off the edge seemed like the surest way to evade an incoming net... or harpoon.
It was a tricky shot at the circling, bobbing copter, but Azure's magical projectile managed to clip the drow's shoulder, knocking her back to slam into the railing at the edge of the deck. The gunner crumpled down, bleeding, while the shock of her fall triggered the mechanism, launching the second weighted net into empty space. "What in the underworld was that?! I didn't see a weapon?" came a surprised shout from the foredeck, as the first gunner struggled to reload his weapon while the other two bipeds just stared at the ponies. "Killer chaos goats!" the smaller one shouted hysterically, before the larger one clouted him around the head. "Bows out! Take them down!"
Meanwhile Reef Skimmer continued to struggle and squawk under the net, while Grenelda just glared at the enemy, still stuck in her crystal bowl and shouting "Get me loose so I can take these jerks down!"
"You ask, I deliver..." Azure smirked; with the trap weakened, she should able to fly closer to the central spires and give them a much more direct application of "rock meets stupid mechanical thing that doesn't like rocks". Now she understood the mechanism, it should be easy to get another ally... a very angry ally at that... up in the skies and ready to destroy the enemy. Struggling and straining her butterfly wings, the blue unicorn managed to lift off, coming into telekinesis range of the larger island just as the drow flying machine finished wheeling about. A swift application of magic and the over-stressed, under-maintained magical transmitter was reduced to sparking junk. Finally, things were looking up, she thought.
"No!" shouted the lead drow, "Kill it! Kiiilll it!" Arrows leapt from two drawn bows, flying straight at Cloud Cutter, but with the trap deactivated she simply jumped over the edge of the bowl, falling into open air and spreading her wings as the arrows clattered into the shattered crystal plate above her. Finding herself free to maneouvre, she pulled out of her tumble and shot forward, wings blurred with rapid beats, streaking towards the drow ship in total, eerie silence.
As the spire flickers and flails, Grenelda gave a malicious gape of her beak. "Oh, you are all going to FEEL it now. You're gonna wish you never built this junk!" With a powerful beat of her wings she leapt into the air, an incarnation of rage rendered in tawny fur and grey feathers rising from a now-deactivated trap. After soaring practically vertically she nosed over and put on a burst of speed, heading straight for the copter with claws and beak brandished.
"Hey, hey guys!" came a muffled shout from inside the cabin, as in their haste to take down the 'chaos goats' none of the drow on deck had been watching the griffons. Meanwhile the remaining gunner managed to fire the forward ballista at Azure. This time the weapon spat out a harpoon, which trailed a thin rope in its wake as the projectile streaked towards the butterfly-winged menace.
Azure Feather knew all too well that an angry gryphon can be worse than any pony in a fight, and knew all too well that Grenelda was not just angry she was furious. What she didn't account for, however, was her conjured wings exploding into puffs of magic as the harpoon passed straight through them, sending her plummeting down. "Ah... you can't take me down that easily..." Closing her eyes and ignoring the spinning horizon, she focused and recast the very spell that granted her the mark on her flank. "Time to go Skyborn!" With that her wings reformed, good as new, and the unicorn pulled out of her dive and headed straight toward the enemy copter. "Hey Grenelda, leave some for me, huh?!" she called out, thinking 'Oh, this will be glorious...'
Grenelda's eagle eyes darted around as she keep an eye on the ballistae and the enemy crew as she closes on the copter, pitching over and converting altitude into momentum for the final approach. She had one of the archers in her sights, and simply slammed into him with claws outstretched, smacking the unfortunate creature down hard onto the deck. Her claws tore deep gouges in his flesh before she leapt away, looking for her next victim. She gave a harsh laugh at Azure's call out; "Alright, you get the captain! You deserve it!"
Meanwhile Cloud Cutter was taking advantage of the distraction; while the creatures focused on Grenelda and Azure, she flew silently under the ship before wheeling around and landing on the stern. Crawling up over the railing, she passed over the fallen drow by the spent ballista and made straight for the hatch, quiet as a mouse. With a quick, empty-eyed glance to reassure herself that her friends had the situation in had, she eased open the cover and descended into the hull, seeking any reinforcements that might be lurking within.
Some way behind now, Reef Skimmer had finally found a use for his ornate wing blades: the hippogriff's struggles had sliced at the net around him to the point that it began to disintegrate. He strained to open his wings until the restraint burst apart into falling fragments of rope, then the enraged eagle-horse took to the skies, flapping after the fleeing copter.
Two of the small green bipeds were left on the forward deck, clad in mismatched pieces of armour, faces half-concealed by the black clothes wrapped around their heads. The male had been operating the ballista and looked frightened out of his wits at the sudden appearance of the eagle-lion chimera, while the female who'd been giving orders seemed to be made of sterner stuff. "Surrender or die, griffon!" she spat, as both of them drew long curved blades.
Azure Feather was now close enough to hear the enemy leader threatening her ally, along with Grenelda's response: a cocky chuckle, followed by "Your cluelessness amuses me, biped!", her down feathers bristling up as she taunted the drow. Before the creature could make a move, she had another wind blade charged up and ready to fire. It shot forward and smashed into the scrappy armour covering the creature's chest, hurling her back into the craft's hull. Her helmet cracked as as it bounced off the wooden planks below the cockpit and she slumped to the deck, leaving just the dagger-wielding male facing the angry griffon. Azure was pretty sure who was going to win that fight.
Grenelda let out an exultant screech at Azure's swift takedown of the enemy captain, before turning to face down the last drow still standing on the forward deck, showing no signs of fear at the long dagger he was brandishing. Though she wasn't used to this kind of fighting, her instincts were sound, and her plan was simple: charge in, bait out a swipe, leap over it and take him down from behind. With her powerful limbs and wingbeats, she can change direction on a dime, like the terrifying rampaging raptor she was, and attack from any angle!
The griffon's plan seemed to unfold perfectly, the inexperienced drow reacting just as she expected; a wild lunge, easily dodged by a wing-assisted leap, then the younger drown was down on the deck, armour torn asunder, chest covered in gashes that bled out onto the deck. Grenelda stood over him, crowing at her victory, oblivious to the figure creeping out of the cockpit, dagger raised as she lunged at the hen's flank. It seemed the rear gunner had come around and managed to sneak into the cockpit, waiting for an opening to strike the boarders. The griffon let out a pained screech as the blade stabbed into her wing muscle, before skidding sideways as the whole copter lurched and turned about. The pilot opened up the throttle, pointing the small vessel back towards the central island and accelerating as hard as she could.
Intense pain filled her breast and shot through her wing every time she tried to move it, but Grenelda paid it little heed. She was angry before, but now she was fury incarnate, leaping at her attacker in a blind rage! The drow's dagger was no defence against the ravaging claws and beak, and the poor creature was torn apart in a frenzy of vicious swipes and bites. Even Azure, coming in to land just behind Grenelda, was shocked by the violence of it. Grimly she regarded the three drow bodies; one clearly dead, one severely wounded, with the leader knocked unconscious. "That doesn't look good, Grenelda..." she muttered, seeing the blood dripping from the griffon's wound.
"I've had worse," Grenelda spat through her clenched beak. Her injured wing drooped down to the deck while the other remained firm and strong. The hen's adrenalin was still pumping and she kept herself in an aggressive posture, ready to spring and unleash havoc, watching to see if any more of the creatures would come out of the hatch. Azure shook her head, though her mood improved a little when she caught sight of Reef Skimmer, flying like the wind and about to catch up with the copter.
Below deck, Cloud Cutter found an engine room barely merited the name: cramped and dark and extremely noisy with the clatter of poorly maintained gears and drive shafts. The pegasus advanced into the narrow space, only come to come face to face with a spindly green creature, clad in only a loincloth and head wrap. "Argh! Get out, uh, I mean, stay back! Help, some help down here!" he shouted desperately, looking out of the forward hatch only to see the fallen, bleeding bodies of his comrades.
Eerie light limned Cloud Cutter, as she advanced silently forward. The spindly drow backpedalled away from the engine, tripping over a pipe and falling on his ass, yet still trying to push himself away from the purple death goat. "No! No don't take me, it's not my time! I can pay, I mean my clan, they'll pay my ransom... look I can get you anything you want, anything, JUST PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"
Something heavy hit the back of the ship, making it buck and toss in the air. The pilot was fixated on the scene of carnage on the deck in front of her, so it came as a total shock when the aft cockpit door burst from its hinges and a giant eagle head thrust through the splintered frame. Puffed out grey feathers framed the huge, sharp, gaping open beak. "This vessel is taken! Land on the large rock, or meet your end right here!" the creature bellowed, right in her face. Shaking and scared out of her wits, the drow could barely keep the copter steady as she complied.
The sudden buck of the ship startled Azure, before she chuckled. "Oh... I think that puts the ship under our control... let's see if we can find any supplies, to try and patch up that wound..." she muttered, looking around the deck for anything suitable. Seeing no further adversaries, Grenelda managed to relax a bit: "Alright, do what you can." she says gruffly, keeping a close eye on the downed drow while Azure searched.
Meanwhile Cloud Cutter found herself sitting in the belly of the engine room, staring at the floor, alone.
The drow copter came in for a rough landing next to the sparking remains of the magical transmitters, bouncing and skidding as its terrified pilot tried to keep it under control. No sooner had the vessel come to a stop than Reef pulled his head out of the cabin and clambered around to the foredeck, eager to inspect Grenelda. "Straight into the pectoral, looks like the tip hit the keel..." he muttered. "It's ok Grenelda, you'll be fine, just... don't move your wing, and try to stay awake." The hippogriff began taking first aid supplies from his saddle bag, focused entirely on his patient.
Grenelda beak gaped! "Oh, Reef Skimmer! You're a sight for sore eyes, right now." She tried to extend her limp wing, wincing a bit before seeing the folly of her ways and letting it hang limp. "Sorry, doc." She tilts to one side to give the hippogriff a good view of the wound, trying to breathe more slowly and relax. "Do what you have to."
Reassured to see the squad's medic taking care of the injured griffon, Azure nodded softly. "Thanks, Reef Skimmer. I'm going to go find Cloud Cutter..." She must be on the ship, not on the fore deck or in the cockpit... that didn't leave many other places on the small vessel. Azure decided to check below before proceeding to the aft deck, and sure enough she found the pegasus down in the cramped, smoky engine room, sitting on her haunches beside an unmoving enemy.
A raggedly dressed and conspicuously unarmed enemy, slumped against a wall and staring off into infinity. "I didn't mean to," Cloud Cutter said without turning around, "There's something... wrong with me."
"Wrong?" Azure quickly came up to Cloud Cutter's side, for one moment forgetting about the dead drow. "What do you mean, wrong?" She tilted her head, worry on her face; her closest ally had a problem...
Cloud Cutter continued to turn away from Azure as she approached, refusing to make eye contact and saying quietly, "I never killed anything before, and... now I do. It just keeps happening. It... came out of me, and took his life away. Something strange. All I could tell him was to run. But there was nowhere to run. From me." Azure turned to look at the fallen form of the mysterious biped, and one thing she could see was that it had no wounds, abrasions, or apparent injuries of any kind. Just a death-mask of fear, frozen on its face.
And Azure tilted her head, staying by her ally's side and thinking for a moment before speaking up: "Listen, Cloud Cutter... you and I have similar problems, in a way, but I'm sorry... we don't have time to compare notes right now. We have to fly this thing back to the Harmony: we've neutralized the enemy, but with their home base nearby, and Grenelda injured... We've got to get out of her, right now, and this ship is our best and fastest way back. But.. I'm up for a chat once we get back?" she suggested, smiling and trying to reassure her ally.
Cloud Cutter had been hanging her head, but she responds to Azure's urgent need, turning to face the unicorn at last. "Fly the ship?" she said. "I... might be able to do that. You're right. We need to hurry." She stood up and unceremoniously strode up the stairs, before pausing just outside, framed by the hatch opening. "That chat would be nice too," the empty eyed pegasus said, smiling weakly before continuing on, without waiting for a reply.
Just as Azure started to follow, a male voice came from the deck outside: "Azure! It seems we have a new problem, if you'd care to take a look..." Reef Skimmer shouted.
"A big bucking problem coming right at us!" Grenelda cut in.
The unicorn trotted out onto the deck and sure enough, the two griffs were staring into the distance at a flicker of motion, over by the central island. Azure's gaze wasn't as keen as theirs, but she could see something pulling away from the island; something much bigger than the craft they'd brought down, more on the scale of the airship they'd come from. "Blighters must've noticed the disruption to their traps." Reef muttered; he was glaring fiercely at one of the fallen drow even as he bandaged the creature's wounds. "This one should live; those two... not looking good... and that one... already gone."
"Cloud Cutter! Get this thing off the ground, we got pursuers!" Azure ordered, staring at the incoming airship. "I've got one thing that might work on something that size... but last time I tried it, it left me... well..."
The enemy pilot took that moment to make her move, nervously biting her lip and looking between the larger griffon and the butterfly-goat, trying to work out who was in charge. She settled on Reef Skimmer. "Look, my clan is on the way, and your daughter can't fly can she? The Manticore will blast us all to bits, unless... you let me negotiate. If you fight in the arena, willingly... then we'll keep her alive, I mean, look after her. And your pets... friends... whatever, we'll let them go. How does that sound?"
Grenelda had been inspecting Reef's patch job on her injury. "
"Daughter?!" Grenelda squawked, before clicking her beak and smirking, looking at the bandages Reef had placed over her injury. "Arena combat, is it?" she said eagerly "I get to pick on more of these weaklings? I'm down. Even down a wing... you have no idea what you're signing onto."
"Arena combat..." Azure sighed; under other circumstances, she might relish the practice, but this proposal was basically slavery, and with one of her team already injured... "I really hope not. Cloud Cutter, it's up to you."
Back on the EAS Harmony, it seemed like the time for negotiation was over. The purple draconic intruder had made her intentions clear: kidnap the chief engineer, for 'the greater good', whatever that entailed. Nutmeg Inferno had declined the offer, lodging her objection in the form of a blast of scalding steam from a loose pipe. The dragoness vanished in the billowing cloud, which didn't seem to cause her any trouble breathing (she was a dragon after all) but did disorient her and gave the kirin a chance to bolt into her office, slamming the heavy door behind her.
Meanwhile Summer Scribe was already in the process of bringing a wrench down on the intruder's head; the sudden cloud of steam prevented her from seeing the blow connect, but she could feel the impact through her magic. The dragon's limbs seemed to spasm as she fell flat on her belly. For a second there was a blurry vision of flapping bat-wings and half-concealed lizard, before she'd scrambled back to her paws, rage written on her face. The jet of steam died down as the pressure fell, the cloud the steam rapidly dispersing into the rest of the compartment. The dragon's eyes were wild, searching the space for any sign of the kirin; finding no sign of her quarry, her gaze settled on Summer Scribe. "How dare you!" she hissed, with rather more electric crackle to her voice than before.
"That's for not asking nicely!" Summer Scribe smirked! "We might look cute, but we're not going to be bossed around by any dragon, including you!" She took a defensive stance, backing up a step, wrench still held in her telekinesis and ready to parry any counterattack. "If you want Nutmeg so badly, then you'll have to get through me, first!"
Enraged, the dragoness opened her mouth, revealing a bright blue-white glow in her throat. Her answer came as a fan of crackling electricity... which was immediately drawn to the iron deck plates. The lightning flashed down and grounded out just in front of Summer, flowing into and through the deck, the pipes, the machinery and pretty much everything else in the engine room. Everypony within the space was treated to a stinging sensation in their hooves and involuntary spasms in their legs, as the energy arced from pipe to railing to lever. Gauges surged, fuses blew and light bulbs shattered as the Harmony's already abused electrical system took another blow. The madly flickering light, combined with the clouds of steam, treated Summer to a series of flash bulb images of screaming ponies dashing about and desperately trying to get out of the engine room.
Summer Scribe winced, her ears flattened as the lightning surged and crackled all around her. She felt the tingle in her hooves, her fur standing on end, her legs twitching involuntarily as she staggered in place. The wrench slipped from her magical grasp and clattered to the floor as she closed her eyes and fought to remain calm. Overwhelmed though she was, she barely managed to avoid panic and register what just happened.
After a few seconds of chaos the blue unicorn had regained her footing and opened her eyes, levitating the wrench again and growling at where she thought the dragoness might be. "OK, now you're going to get it!" she cried out, leaping forward and swinging the wrench wildly in the general direction of the she-dragon's face. Summer's dazed mind had a vague notion of smashing her in the snout then bearing her down to the floor, heedless of the difference in size, armour and natural weaponry.
The purple dragon's face went from snarling to... an odd expression, not fear, frustration perhaps? She looked genuinely concerned by the screaming ponies, as if this wasn't supposed to happen. Now that she was facing Summer, the unicorn's shouted threats and lingering dizziness gave her ample time to dodge the incoming wrench. The dragoness stared at the little unicorn, cocks her head in incredulity at the boldness of the attack, before... vanishing. All that remained was a fresh cloud of purple smoke that mixed with the steam and further reduced the already minimal visibility in the engine room.
Summer screeched to a stop where the dragon had been standing and clumsily turned around, coughing and waving the wrench in front of her, futilely trying to disperse the smoke. "Okay, okay, I know she teleports when she does that... so where is she now?!" But with the poor visibility, all she could do was spin in a circle and look around desperately... Realising she was a sitting duck for another lightning strike, Summer made a dash for cover instead, leaping over a couple of supply crates and hunkering down to peer around the side. Sweat foamed on her flanks as she waited tensely for the intruder to make a move.
For a few seconds... which felt like an eternity to the unicorn... Summer could see no sign of the dragon. Then her position became apparent, as the hatch swung open and she was briefly silhouetted in the doorway, surrounded by sunlight streaming in from outside and steam flowing out. The scaly creature emerged on to the upper deck, just as Set Sail fluttered down, crewmates in tow. The brown pegasus found herself face to face with a sizable, on-edge dragoness, sparks still crackling around her muzzle.
Summer Scribe perked up, scrabbling around the crates and heading for the hatch, seeing the dragoness and Set Sail staring at each other. "Look out: she breathes lightning and she's pissed!" Summer called out, galloping clumsily and groggily towards the opening, legs still protesting from the electric shock.
Out on the deck, Set Sail emitted a bleating noise and toppled over while her crew advanced forward, glaring menacingly at the intruder. "Why don't you see how many of us you can beat, before we take you down?" growled the griffon, Gustus. A hefty earth mare beside him effortlessly shouldered an iron anchor.
The dragoness screamed in frustration, took two steps forward and disappeared again, leaving the ponies coughing and blinking in yet another burst of purple smoke. Summer dashed out from the engine room just in time to see the intruder reappear in mid-air, now some way from the ship and dropping rapidly, pink wings folded tightly against her serpentine body. Within seconds she is lost to view, sight line blocked by the bulk of the ship.
Following just behind Summer a red, brown and gold kirin came charging out, with some sort of jury-rigged contraption crackling with electricity strapped to her back. Looking around wildly, Nutmeg shouted triumphantly, "Okay, where's the dragon??"
Summer Scribe perked up as the creature teleported again! "Where is she now?" she called out, racing over to the railing, hoping the dragoness is in full retreat by this point... Her suspicions were confirmed when she caught sight of the flyer, still dropping rapidly. "Well, this is no good; our would-be kirin-napper's still on the loose, and we haven't settled the score!" She thumped a hoof against the deck, thinking dark thoughts, glancing back at Nutmeg and noticing that... imposing looking makeshift weapon.
Summer's jaw dropped, as she pointed a hoof into the sky. "If you think you can make THAT shot, go for it!" Maybe it's not over yet after all! She watches with bated breath...
...but before Nutmeg has any chance of making the shot, they watched as the dragon's dive flattened and carried it out of sight, beneath the nearby island. "Shoot! I mean, don't shoot, the other kind of shoot." Summer facehooved and laughed, the nervous energy getting to her.
Nutmeg peered over the side, saying "Yeah, it's not a homing missile or anything, needs line of sight." She sounding remarkably casual for a mare who'd just avoided being kidnapped, with a heavy and dangerous looking device strapped to her back.
"Okay, so we might have a little bit of a persistent dragon problem." Summer said, between deep breaths. "Nutmeg... think your new weapon can take her down? I'm sure she'll be back, probably when we least expect it." The unicorn researcher continued to admire the device, a puzzled expression on her face, as if to say 'what does it do, exactly'.
Looking to Summer, she lifts a hoof, saying "It's just that this lightning gun wasn't going to cut it against a freaky dragon that breathes lightning, so then I rigged it to use the lightning to accelerate these uh... these biscuits I had lying around. Don't worry they're pretty much inedible."
"Ooh!" said Summer, nodding. "Yeah, if Plan A for surprise dragon attack was the lightning gun, I guess a proverbial wrench got thrown in your plans!" She chuckled "But this looks super cool, too!"
Nutmeg's piece starts beeping then, causing the kirin to blush and say sheepishly, "Sorry, I gotta go unplug this thing before it, uh... explodes." With that she backed into the engine room and disappeared leaving the ponies on deck to wonder whether it would have exploded after she fired.
Summer just stood there blinking for a moment, saying "Please do not explode that thing around me, Nutmeg." to empty air, before shaking her head and trotting after the kirin. She wanted to head back into the engine room anyway, to check on everypony caught in the dragon's lightning... then she should debrief Set Sail (once the pegasus came around) and check that she was ok too!
Trailing behind Nutmeg was a cord, which she followed back into her office; it ended at a power socket, plugged in next to a lamp now missing its own power cord. The kirin pulled the plug out and the whirring, crackling hum of the apparatus on her back slowly died down. "Okay, so far so good," she said distractedly, looking back at it as the hardtack vibrating in the centre ceased to be surrounded in blue glowing energy, and settled to the bottom of the tube which has been duct taped to the rest of the thing. At last satisfied, Nutmeg turned back to Summer, saying "No it is pretty cool! I had the idea when... well uh... I've been having a lot of ideas lately. It's kind of weird actually. But this's one of those things we could defend the ship with, and uh... wasn't intended to be mounted on me, to be honest."
Summer Scribe clopped her forehooves in giddy excitement. "Oooh, that's awesome! Yeah, we can mount this on the railing! Shoot it at that dragon if and when she comes flying back? Now we're talking! I guess even if this ship can't fly, we can at least make it into our fort, huh?" The excited unicorn grinned with enthusiasm. "Though, I guess we'll need to figure out what to do while you're out and about, too. That dragon's not gonna be easy to take down, even with your super-electric-hardtack-launcher!"
Smiling at Summer's enthusiastic appraisal of her work, Nutmeg replied "Thanks! It'll probably be more helpful than that uh... self-actuating automatic toaster I threw together. But would you like to come look at this other idea I had, for a ship that floats without a balloon?"
Summer Scribe gaped! "Without a balloon?" She thought for a moment. Maybe you just magically propel... no, wait, this is Nutmeg who came up with it. She somehow looked even more excited! "How? I wanna see!"
Unshouldering her device and leaning it against the wall, Nutmeg said eagerly, "C'mon! I'll show you the prototype! It uses virtual momentum to..." and still explaining, the kirin lead Summer to look at the little toy ship on the kirin's workbench, hovering serenely right by a detailed schematic of it.
Summer's ears perked: "Wooaahh! You already have a scale model?" She had to gloss over the technobabble; this was definitely not her field; but to see it in action was amazing! "So, we gonna try to make full scale ships out of this?"
"Well I dunno about that," Nutmeg replied cheerfully, "You need more than just scrap parts to make a full sized ship. But it's a super neat idea. See how the propellers... they're just prop propellers but they'd propel it forward, while..."
Summer Scribe nod nodded, peering closer. "I see, I see!" Alas, she missed the extremely beautiful underlying theory that no one present but Nutmeg was qualified to understand. "Yeah, it sounds like it'd be a lot of work, but maybe we could make a little one, just for a couple of ponies?" she pondered out loud.
In the cockpit of the commandeered drow vessel, Cloud Cutter found herself staring at the controls. The copter was a whole different deal to a full-size airship, but there wasn't that much to see. Two control sticks, and a throttle lever. Not a lot different than a pony helicopter, but no pedals... and no tail rotor, so yaw must be controlled by one of the sticks, she thought. She'd only had basic training, enough to take the odd unicorn or earth pony researcher up to the cloud observatory, but...she pulls the lever, and the rotors begin to turn. Left control stick back... nothing, must be the pitch for the propellers, right stick back... the ship quivered and began to lift off, that must be the collective.
A twitch of the left stick and everything tilted as the ship wheeled around. Simple! Assuming nopony had fallen off at that little flight test, that is. Out of time for further experimentation, Cloud Cutter opened up the throttle and ship surged forward, rapidly gaining speed and altitude as it pulled away from the wrecked magical trap.
Azure seemed nervous, standing on the lurching deck and watching the massive enemy airship following behind. She couldn't help but think of the rest of the crew; the civilians, back at the Harmony; leading this battlewagon to them would be... awful. There was a good chance she'd lose a lot of friends if that thing got their ship in its sights. Not that being thrown in a fighting arena wasn't just as dangerous... but if they couldn't get away... she was a fighter. The drow didn't know about the Harmony, they could just pretend they were on their own. There was a chance she could survive and escape... as could the rest of her squad. But what if the creatures forced them to fight each other?
Reef staggered and spreads his wings for balance as the ship lifts off. Glaring daggers at the conniving drow pilot, he turned to Azure and pushes his head close to hers. "We need to get Grenelda back to the Harmony as fast as we can, one has done what one can in the field, but without proper treatment there's a risk she could lose use of the wing." he said, his pink crest feathers tossing wildly in the downwash from the rotors. "What about these creatures though?" he asked, gesturing with a wing at the three injured drow.
"Their best hope is probably with their kin, but..." He looked at the distant airship, which was ponderously picking up speed. The distinctive shapes of cannon muzzles poked out of each side and a giant barrel extended from a superstructure on the bow. "...one hopes we have enough of a head start to outrun tha battlewagon, but do we have time to stop and drop the enemy casualties on one of the platforms?"
"On the one hoof, we could drop them off and risk the fight... but the amount of armour on that thing, my strongest blast might just bounce off. Even if they don't catch us, once in range of that central gun... I can't see this flimsy little ship surving even one direct hit." Azure's voice hardened, her decision made: "If we run now and don't stop, we stand a much better chance of living through this. It's their lives or ours, doc. That's what it boils down to, if you ask me."
Reef gave the winged unicorn a hard stare, locking eyes for a long moment, before ducking his head. "Very well, if you insist. I'll... tie them up then. I won't have any killing in cold blood."
Azure nodded to the doctor. "In the long run, more lives are saved this way." she concluded, before dashing up into the cockpit, where the purple pegasus was still piloting the copter. "Cloud Cutter. This ship's a little fish compared to that behemoth behind us. Looks like we're faster, so we can get away... but if that thing finds the Harmony, it's a lot more trouble for everyone. Our only advantage is, they don't know we came in a bigger ship, for all they know we came from one of the islands. So do you think you can outrun them without giving away the Harmony's position?"
"Oh, I hadn't considered returning to the Harmony," Cloud Cutter said in surprise, turning away from her forward vigil to regard Azure, "We shouldn't lead them to it, you're right. But what direction should we go? Aside from towards the warship, of course."
Remembering the map, Azure nodded. "We could circle around, head north and lead them on a goose chase... if you think we need more time to get out of sight... but if you think we might run out of fuel... then south. The Harmony's to the east by south-east." Azure froze for a moment, unsure what to do, before her gaze settled on the injured griffon sitting just outside the windows. "Take the south route. It's faster and with Grenelda injured, time's not on our side." she said firmly, before placing a hoof on her friend's shoulder. "You got this, Cloud Cutter."
"South it is," Cloud Cutter says in relief, not changing course since they were already heading more or less directly south. "I don't know how much the ship can take," she admitted, fiddling with the throttle, "But pulling this lever up seems to make it go faster. Unfortunately I've only had a few trips in helicopters and... had to rescue ponies from them on a couple of occasions.... so this is a bit new to me." Nonetheless, she managed to guide the alien craft with increasing confidence as it whirred away from the shattered island and its murderous inhabitants.
The Wyvern's Sting (as the pilot had called the copter) easily pulled away from the ponderous ironclad, heading south with the throttle wide open. It was a mere twenty kilometres to the nearest landmass, a collection of sheer, broken rocks taller than they were wide. They formed a maze of aerial canyons, swept bare on the outer faces but with the sheltered interiors covered in hanging greenery and filled with flocks of colourful birds. Cloud Cutter carefully maneuvered the drow copter between the cliffs, threading through until they passed out the far side, now thoroughly out of range of the enemy.
Cloud Cutter brought the little ship around in a slow arc, drifting further south before flying east, skirting another more contiguous island formed of dark grey basalt. Jets of flame shot up from the hundreds of pools of lava dotting the landscape; there was a glimpse of crumbling stone towers and impossible floating platforms, shrouded in heat haze, but right now nocreature felt like getting closer to check them out. All the time Reef Skimmer did his best to keep the strange bipeds, or 'drow' as the pilot called herself, alive. Despite his efforts one passed away before they even reached the cliffs, and another, his chest crushed by griffon claws, breathed his last as they pulled away from the volcanic island.
By this point Cloud Cutter was starting to have serious trouble with the controls; the craft felt sluggish and was losing speed despite the throttle being firmly in the wide open position. Yanking the collective, she struggled to keep their altitude up as the copter made the final leg north towards the twinned masses of Blissful Pastures and the stranded Equestrian airship. It was late afternoon by the time they finally made it back to their home ship, with the copter's engine spluttering and the craft lurching heavily through the air. The drow pilot begged to take the helm, but the two griffs stared at her coldly while Azure encouraged Cloud Cutter one final time (although, in all honesty, Reef's wings were tensed in case he had to haul Grenelda out of an imminent crash).
Pony head poked out of tents and over the ship's rail, drawn by the sound of the rotors while sheep scattered in every direction to get out of the way. The copter came down hard but intact in the meadow, skidding to a stop near the pony encampment. With a crack and wheeze, clouds of smoke blew out of the lower deck, as the over-stressed engine gave up the ghost. Deep in the Harmony's engine room, Nutmeg and Summer lifted their heads up at the muffled impact of the crash, abandoning their discussion on autolevitation and galloping out to see what had happened.
"Just enough to get us back to base and in the fastest way we could. Cloud Cutter... that was amazing. Thank you." Azure seemed absolutely pleased with how things went in the cockpit, even if she had no idea what was going on outside. "Now how about that little chat?" she said, smiling to her friend.
"I um..." Cloud Cutter looks down at her hooves, kicking a foreleg shyly as she watches its very important motion. "I suppose so..."
"Azure, wait... what about them?" said Grenelda, gesturing at the two surviving drow, sitting tied up and blindfolded in the shallow cargo hold under the forward deck. "Over the edge or... you feel like asking some questions first?"
"Good idea. The questions, I mean." Azure said, though in truth after the various threats the horrid creatures had made she wouldn't mind tossing them over the edge of the island. A long silence, then "I suppose we can start with figuring out a little more about the islands surrounding their home base... right? Some information on the general area would be a good start."
At that point Set Sail came trotting down the Harmony's gangplank, staring at the new arrival in the meadow before shouting up at the creatures on its deck: "What the hay was that?! What the hay is this?!"
"Sails!" Reef Skimmer shouted down. "I mean, Captain. Oh, the heart warms at the sight of you. Safe and sound, I mean. So... yes, erm, I realise this must be a bit of a shock, but I want to start by saying everycreature performed above and beyond the call of duty, commendations warranted all round, and truly... they started it!"
A few flaps of her wings and the green-kerchiefed captain had swooped up onto the copter's deck, landing and looking around with eyes wide. "Is this... is this a ship?" she said incredulously. "Where's the balloon? Where did you get this?" Behind her the rest of the Harmony's crew was approaching the little ship, their expressions showing varying degrees of curiosity and dread.
"Would love to explain, but I regret to say, I do have a casualty here needing immediate treatment, so..." Reef said, gesturing to Grenelda. The griffoness had a substantial dressing sitting behind her shoulder and her left wing tightly bound up to her side with rope; she was carefully climbing out of the ship, annoyed at being unable to fly. "...if you wouldn't mind postponing that discussion until after I've gotten her to the sick bay?"
"No, no not you," Set Sail cautioned, holding a hoof to Reef Skimmer's chest, "You don't explain anything. Just go do your thing. I'll ask somepony else."
A brown winged pegasus with a green kerchief holding back her blue mane hovered anxiously at the threshold of a very dark place. There were noises within, but her ears were turned away, afraid to hear what terrible things that frightfully intimidating hippogriff and that somehow more intimidating royal guard must be doing to those poor creatures. She never was a fan of going below deck in the first place, and now that the starboard quartermaster's stores had been converted to an impromptu prison... it certainly was not what she signed up for.
Set Sail should have been fixing the balloon while the real captain made decisions over life and death. In fact there shouldn't have been decisions over life and death in the first place. The storm was the only obstacle to some nice, abandoned, empty islands in the sky, for the sciencey ponies to crawl all over, with Set Sail there just to make sure they had a boat ready to carry them when it was time to return to Equestria.
The words were indistinct, muffled by the ship's thick wood structure and confused by the echoes from the hard steel plating. She could make out three distinct voices in this conversation. One was high-pitched with a trace of sibilance, and she seemed to do most of the talking, alternating between arrogant and ingratiating, then eventually between wheedling and begging. A deeper, almost monotone one was recognisable as the unicorn battle mage, at least at first, before it became harsh with rising anger and contempt. Finally there was the stallion: controlled, clipped, more concise than she remembered him being. Professional even; as if he'd done this before.
At last the heavy door banged open and Azure Feather stalked out, ears flattened and eyes ablaze. Her extravagant butterfly wings were pressed tight against her back, and motes of light continued to shed from her horn even after she'd released her telekinesis; the sign of a unicorn who wished they could express their frustration by blasting something. Faced with an angry combat-trained unicorn in tight quarters, Set Sail instinctively sank back into the corner. Azure didn't even notice the pegasus as she trotted over to the ramp and headed back up to the main deck, her mind already examining possible strategies for putting an end to the pirate base.
It would be another minute before Reef Skimmer followed, having secured the prisoner and checked provision of water and basic sanitation. The huge eagle face looked even fiercer than usual, brows furrowed and beak clicking as he closed and locked the door, but his feathers were still smooth and his manner didn't radiate the anger that Azure's had. At first the grey hippogriff didn't notice Set Sail either, but as he turned towards the ramp he saw a pony face staring up at him. "Captain." he said formally, "Eager to hear my report, I take it? We've done what we can, within the bounds of reason and decency."
"Report! Yes!" Set Sail squeaked, unable to escape further into the corner. "That's what I was! Um! Here for!" the flustered pegasus blurts out, eyes darting nervously, "I wasn't. Listening or anything but. Is it... are they still a-alive?"
Reef Skimmer cocked his head, trying to discern the captain's intent. He'd asked if she wanted to be present and she declined; had she changed her mind? "The older female, or 'Jagged Blade' as she called herself..." The griff snorted at the name. "...two fractured ribs but no significant internal bleeding, symptoms of concussion seem to have cleared up. She should be fine; physically that is. Mentally, well... all we got out of her were threats and insults. When she wasn't sobbing."
Reef sighed. "It seems Grenelda fatally wounded her mate in the altercation; self-defence of course, but Miss Blade doesn't see it that way. I did what I could, but..." The griff looked away, then ducked his head. "...I couldn't save either of the injured males, they died on the flight back. I did beseech Azure to leave them for their kin to find, but... unless these 'drow' possess undisclosed and powerful healing magic, I doubt that would have made a difference."
Reef stared into space, saying vaguely "And let's not even speak of the poor soul in the engine room, if he even had a soul after whatever Loud Cutter did." Blinking a couple of times, the griff realised this might not be what the Captain was interested in: after flubbing his last two reports he needed to do better. Reef shook out and refolded his large wings then caught Set Sail's eye again. "But of course you mean the two we have here. So yes one lightly wounded, while the younger one is in perfect health. And very talkative, if not entirely cooperative."
Set Sail's wide green eyes stared back in stared back in paralyzed panic, before the mare said, "Good! That's... g-good. Self defence, alright. B-b-but the younger one, Loud Cutter, why did she d-destroy the engine room? Engineer! Why did she destroy the... h-her own crew?" Wings half spread, still backed into the corner by the obtuse hippogriff, things weren't looking too good for the little pegasus's self confidence.
Reef's head tilted again as he tried to make sense of that. 'Destroy her own crew?' Cloud Cutter wasn't... oh, of course. "Do forgive me Captain, still not immune to hitting the wrong note on these reports, hah!" The barest imitation of a laugh. "To be clear, the younger specimen... drow that is, erm... says her name is 'Silent Arrow'. She was the pilot of the enemy vessel, had to, err, persuade her to land the thing before...' Reef enunciated carefully "...Cloud... Cutter... could take over and fly us home. That was right after the, erm... incident in the engine bay, no witnesses so all I can tell you is Cloud Cutter went in there, there was a deceased drow in there after she came out, body still warm... and not a mark on either of them..."
As he looked at the captain, Reef got the impression something was wrong with her. Eyes dilated, ears twitching, wings drawn in but not properly folded, muscles tensed... perhaps this was triggering some kind of anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder? "Captain... Set Sail, that is, are you alright? Correct me if I'm wrong but you do seem rather... uneasy... with all this."
"Oh me? I'm fine!" she loudly replied with a forced smile, "Could we just... how about shall we... let's just continue this, um... discussion. Up on the... um, outside." She cast a hoof in the general direction of the ramp.
Keeping his eyes on the pegasus mare, Reef began slowly walking up towards the upper deck. "As you wish, Captain."
She remained frozen until he was out of line of sight, then sagged in something like relief. Horrified relief. "I am not ready for this," she muttered to herself. Then taking a deep breath, she followed the good doctor up and out into the sunlight. "What did Cloud Cutter do?" Set Sail asked quietly, as she trotted up behind the hippogriff, "She didn't say anything about k-killing anything. She didn't say anything, in fact. She hasn't spoken much at all. Not that any of them ever do anymore, but... what happened in that ship?"
Reef Skimmer looked at the little brown pegasus, trotting out onto the open deck with evident relief, then around at the assorted ponies moving supplies around or working on repairs. Keen as ponies were to share everything, this did seem like a matter of some sensitivity. Normally he would suggest the chart room, or the officer's mess, but if Set Sail did in fact have claustrophobia... "Of course, Captain," he began "...but perhaps you'd prefer to hear this in private?" He looked up at the balloon above their heads. "Bluebell mentioned that the crow's nest has a splendid view of the sunset?"
"Oh, that's a good id—" she says, looking upwards with bright eyes, then blushes, repeating seriously, "I mean, yes that seems like a good idea, doctor. Shall we uh... meet you there?" The mare immediately flapped into the air and headed out into the sky.
Nodding, Reef Skimmer launched himself off the deck and flew in a wide, ascending circle, climbing up above the balloon. Sure enough the little hollow in the ship's plated upper surface was empty; not much call for lookouts with the vessel firmly moored to the island. The hippogriff drew up to a hover then touched down gently in the crow's nest.
Fluttering down alongside him, Set Sail didn't seem immediately eager to interrogate him for details. Torn between looking his way and rearing up on the edge of the hollow, to gaze out across the forest, she finally confessed to Reef Skimmer, "I think there's something... really wrong with the ponies. Who were in the Storm Piercer when it failed."
The relentless informality of these ponies still didn't sit well with the hippogriff officer, but in the hope that it would put the captain at ease he sat down, barely fitting into the available space. "Indeed; unknown magical energy, creating and maintaining a medically impossible condition, quite unprecedented... why, if I didn't know better I'd say they were zombies!" Again, the attempt at levity didn't really work.
Reef sighed. "Alas it appears that may be a best case outcome. Flashing Gale is showing similar symptoms; coat colour changing to purple, steady decline in breathing and heartbeat. Yet he's been unconscious since the crossing... oh, and the poor chap's lost all his feathers! Not just a moult either; crumbled away, almost to dust. Checked for parasites of course, but... nothing." He clicked his beak. "Yet another medical impossibility."
The pegasus paled at such a casually clinical mention of what was happening to that poor stallion. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. The hippogriff cocked his head, waiting for a response; when it was apparent none was coming he continued: "In all honesty, Captain, you'd be better asking Summer or even Azure. I... recall your encouragement, that unicorns aren't the answer to everything, but when it comes to strange magical phenomena, well..." He gestured above his forehead with a claw "...neither of us are equipped to analyse it."
Frowning, he concluded: "All I can tell you is that above and beyond moving and talking without the aid of breathing or heartbeat, Cloud Cutter in particular has demonstrated... some form of ability, to terminate the life processes of organisms in close contact with her. It does seem to be voluntary but exactly how much control she has..." Reef looked away, pausing for a moment "...or how it feels, I don't know."
"She what?!" Set Sail exclaimed, turning to stare at Reef in shock, "You didn't say that she... she used her wing blades! Didn't she? Close contact?! She could be touching anypony right now!"
The griff looked back impassively at the pegasus, eagle face unreadable again. "As I said," he repeated in a neutral tone, "there were no injuries, no signs of trauma on either Cloud Cutter or the drow engineer. Close proximity and, one can only hope, intent, were sufficient." He looked away, staring into the sky. "I didn't see it happen, but from the... remains... left behind, I believe something similar happened during the 'buzzer beak' attack; that's what Abersathy calls the propeller-crested birds."
"T-that's terrible!" Set Sail declared, sinking to her haunches, "We have to stop her! We have to i-isolate them or something. We can't even throw them in the brig because they'll kill those other creatures though! What are we gonna do?!"
Without thinking, Reef Skimmer extends a wing to comfort the Captain: it completely covers her body, leaving just her head peaking out, before he realised what he was doing and snapped it back to his flank. He had to remember, this was the captain, not a scared hippogriff chick that needed comforting; no matter how much the size difference made her seem like one.
"Captain, I understand your desire to protect the crew, by all means. If I thought they were contagious, or that this... effect was happening at random, I'd be the first to insist on quarantine. But we've only seen it twice, both in a life-or-death, or should I say death or undeath, ahem... situation. And so far only Cloud Flutter... Cutter rather, has been placed in such circumstances. So before insisting on isolation of four ponies, one of whom is our only combat-trained pegasus, perhaps we should discuss the matter with her?"
"Right, right, we can talk to them. I can just talk to her. And you'd know if she was gonna... if she was contagious or s-something." Set Sail says in a fright, forelegs wrapped around her head, "I just need to... but can we talk with them? They're just so... different! They're not getting... excited over anything anymore, and they never laugh okay they do laugh but not really not like, really. How do you talk with somepony who just... stares right through you? They'd just ask me what I want them to do. Go jump off the ship, anything, because I'm the captain or... or something. What if they don't even care if they're killing anypony?"
Reef couldn't help himself: captain or not, it seemed like the pony needed some support. Slowly, he extended his wing again and gently folded it around Set Sail. "I must confess, I was so focused on their physical condition, I didn't give much thought to the psychological impact." Perhaps he should have been focusing on Cloud Cutter instead of Nutmeg Inferno? Was he really expected to be doctor and psychiatrist and cart puller and zoologist? Surely someone else...
"I did get the impression... well, she did seem somewhat distressed, after the skirmish. Not that she had much chance to ruminate as Azure immediately recruited her to fly the ship. Some amount of dissociation might be inevitable, but... look, Sails, this speculation is getting us nowhere. You could try asking the unicorns, or we could just interview Cloud Cutter."
At the touch of his feathers she tensed for just a moment, then leaned against him letting his wing snug tight. "I'm just not cut out for this," she said softly, "The captain would know what to do. I'm just a ballast engineer. All I know is balloons. Don't tell anypony, but I... I really screw things up sometimes. I don't know why everypony seems to like me being captain. This new ship lands with d-dead creatures and actual prisoners, and... Azure said you needed to question them or something, but I wouldn't even know what to ask, if I had to do it."
"Am I to understand that you're transferring command to Grenelda?" Reef suggested, finally managing some genuine levity. "If you insist, Captain; I'll prepare the necessary paperwork post haste."
"Grenelda?" the mare squawked in indignation, twisting to look up at him under his wing, "Are you insane? She'd probably send us on an all out attack against those pirates! She'd probably question them on what kind of meat they eat or something like that, or how tough they were. A-actually those might be kind of good questions, but... the point is she doesn't... want to be captain. And I don't either but I can at least... save her from the trouble? Save us from the trouble of her being captain."
A dry chuckle escaped Reef's beak, startling Set Sail as it seemed she hadn't yet worked out griff smiles. "So you admit that you are the best mare for the job. The crew is, of course, in agreement. I've served under my fair share of captains and most of them would envy such regard from their crews." He looked away for a moment, before fixing Set Sail with an intense gaze. "Speaking of the interrogation, do you wish to hear my report?"
She thankfully didn't notice his intense gaze, instead sighing and staring forward beyond and through the wall of the crow's nest, before saying shortly, "Yeah. Tell me everything you know. Then maybe we can figure out what to do to make the best of this."
Reef couldn't help resuming a somewhat formal attitude; he withdrew his wing and sat up straighter before explaining. "As mentioned, the older captive called herself 'Jagged Blade' and was generally hostile and uncooperative. The only thing she confirmed was that one of the males, who died on the trip here..." Reef couldn't help sighing again at that, "...was her mate. The younger one, on the other claw..." The hippogriff cocked his head, considering his words. "She was very talkative, seemed to treat everything as a negotiation. Wouldn't tell us anything outright, save that her name is 'Silent Arrow', other than that it had to be 'trading information'. Oh she demanded various other things, some of them ridiculous of course, though we did let her have nicer food." He frowned. "She wanted to go on up deck for a bit, but Azure wasn't going to allow that, not after... what she'd let slip."
Set Sail doesn't immediately ask, looking forward quietly, but then says, "What did she let slip? It sounded like you two were pretty angry in there."
"Well to summarise, these 'drow' are a kind of 'elf', as you saw a bipedal sapient species similar to but somewhat smaller than our troll friend. 'Drow' seems to be a cultural distinction though that wasn't entirely clear. This group... well in short they're pirates, they raid nearby islands, attack civilian airships, rather like the kind we hippos had to deal with back home... except for that magical trap business. It seems to be partly a defence mechanism and partly a source of meat... or slaves, on the rare occasion that a griffon flies too close."
Seeing the pegasus's shocked look, Reef said softly. "Oh yes, they're slavers all right. It seems they make the stronger specimens, of which griffons are particularly prized, fight in their 'arena'. Apparently it's some kind of barbaric, violent entertainment that other ruffians actually pay to come and see. The rest, like the 'gill-men' they like to raid... they end up with whatever menial and dangerous work the drow don't feel like doing, unless they can find a buyer."
Reef snorts. "One must note Miss 'Silent Arrow' seems to be a canny little creature. She rattled off a list of her people's crimes as if she was proud of them, then when she noticed our reaction, immediately began informing us that she 'just follows orders' and 'doesn't approve of any of that, but has no say in how things are run'."
Conflicting emotions run across her face, probably inscrutable to the poor hippogriff. At last hanging her head, Set Sail sighs, hunching forward and saying, "It's like the Storm King all over again..."
Anger flashed in Reef Skimmer's eyes at the mention of the tyrant, before his expression softened as he attemted to console the pegasus. "Oh, it's not all that, Captain. We aren't dealing with a massive military force bent on conquest. If they're really like the Lucia Sea pirates back home, then I'd would guess more of a lazy, amoral, opportunistic rabble. Violent, certainly, dangerous, in our current situation no doubt. But it does seem we've had one stroke of luck: the captive made is clear they used to be a much bigger operation."
"An assault on their base, she wouldn't give us the details, but it clearly left them with a much diminished force, likely just the one capital ship. Apparently they used to use their device to pull in ships from long distances and collected tribute from several towns, now they're reduced to just local raiding." The griff snorted again. "Whoever it was, we may be in their debt but I wish they'd finished the job. Do you know she actually tried to barter for our 'help' to repair their magical devices? The gall of it, after trying to kill or enslave our scouting party!"
"Sounds like she didn't know any better," Set Sail said frankly, shaking her head, "Some creatures teach their young to be very cruel." Her grim tone turned excited though, when she said, "Better than a stroke of luck though, if we could find out who assaulted their base, maybe they could... well—" she blushed, "I know they could be just as bad, but that makes it even more important to find out about them. If they can... aid us, and aren't also pirate slavers, then we might be able to get back on our hooves again. Did they say which island the assault came from?"
"I'm afraid not." Reef said, looking away from Set Sail and staring into the sky as if trying to find the island in question. "No, Miss Arrow wanted a high price for that information, and at that point neither Azure nor myself were in a mind to entertain further 'negotiation'." After a moment he looked back at the little pegasus, and said encouragingly "Oh but we did find out a little about the local vicinity! They've been raiding a community of 'gill-men', fish-like bipeds it seems, for food and wood. Poor fellows don't seem able to put up much of a fight, but when the pirates come for them they hide in a 'force field'; the drow seemed to think it was a pre-existing feature rather than crediting them with any magical ability."
"Anyway, the place is over by that impossible floating river Melonjuice spotted. Then there's yet another sapient biped species, she called them 'Land Sharks'..." the hippogriff was clearly excited by the prospect of all these new species to investigate "...now they live on an arid island not too far north of here. Tough customers though, at least for the pirates; the drow said they'd been stealing parts from there to repair their fleet, but they had to sneak in at night because of the 'land ship' which is 'covered in cannons'. Oh and that they used do well in their 'arena', but it's hard to kidnap one as they 'travel in shoals'. Make of that what you will."
"Seems like we should at least check them out," Set Sail remarked, adding with a wince, "but maybe those gill-men first, before we try approaching something called a land shark with a ship covered in cannons. Maybe they'll know who's friendly around here." Standing, the pegasus said with a smile to the excitable hippogriff, "Thanks for your report. I know things look bad now, but... if we know what we're up against, we might even stand a chance."
"Indeed, start with the least threatening, sound strategy, not that we can be sure Miss Arrow is telling the truth, but... well..." Reef Skimmer closed his eyes and ducked his head for a few seconds, before looking at Set Sail and cocking his head. "As you say Captain, one is sure all aboard will rise to the occasion." His beak gapes open a touch. "The fresh air up here does seem to be doing you some good at least. Though..." Reef frowned again, trying to recall the chatter between Gustus and Grenelda as he'd treated the latter. "...I did hear about a, erm, dragon incident? No injuries, at least nothing serious I understand, but I imagine... it must have been a bit of a shock?" Probably best not to outright say 'So Captain, I understand you fainted in front of the crew', he thought.
Blushing hotly, Set Sail said in a furious fuss, "Of course it was a shock! It was a freakish mutant dragon that breathes lightning instead of fire! A-and it managed to knock me out while it was escaping. D-don't let anypony tell you differently." She totally didn't scrunch her muzzle at that whatsoever. "I g-gotta go check on Clashing Gale!" Then without another word, she spread her wings and leapt out of the crow's nest, soaring off into the sky.
Reef muttered something to himself, watching the pony fly away; she might not be a fighter herself, but pegasi were proud in their own way, and made a big deal of bravery in the face of adversity. If the monster encounters and magical weirdness kept up the hippogriff was at risk of spending as much time playing psychiatrist as doctor, a role which despite Summer's encouragement he found himself ill-suited too. He shook his head, trying to dismiss the prospect, then took flight and headed back to the deck.
It had been two days since the recon team set out on their ill-fated mission to investigate the skies in the direction of the mysterious signal. Two days since the escape from the magical grip of the shattered islands and their unfriendly inhabitants. Nutmeg had been happily disassembling, reassembling, adjusting, criticising and improving the captured drow copter. Their two 'guests' had been kept away from the crew, in a lower storeroom hastily converted to a makeshift brig. Azure Feather and Reef Skimmer had spent hours in there, only to emerge with angry eyes and clenched teeth (or in the latter case, grinding beak). Summer Scribe had recounted the incident with the purple dragoness to the flyers, and they in turn had given a full account of their near escape.
It was time to decide on their next course of action; once again the bulk of the crew was assembled under the balloon, on the top deck of the EAS Harmony, where it fell to the acting captain to summarise their predicament.
"I would just like to say," the ersatz captain Set Sail states nervously, pacing before the rest of the crew, "That it is PROBABLY not a safer option to just fly back into the storm. We don't know that all the sky islands are full of meat-eating pirates and killer sharks with guns, and those uh... gill men seem... nice? I think we need an uh, an alliance, or something. With someone. It's not safe to explore without knowing anything about what we're getting into. So, we uh, I can't believe we had to take PRISONERS but here we are. We're pretty much sitting ducks out here if those pirates find out where we are. So... that's the situation, and I know it looks bad but... well we're doing okay so far, and Nutmeg tells me she can get that smaller ship back in order."
"If we find some place with supplies, we can use it to transport them. Or we could... take everypony somewhere safe, a few at a time, and just... abandon this ship. I don't want to do that though. The Storm Piercer's irreplaceable, and we already put so much work into saving her. Does anypony else have any more ideas? I'm for trying to... get supplies, hopefully not by s-stealing them, but... I don't want to die out here. So we might have to... do some... things."
"Things like stealing them!" Gustus shouted supportively from the peanut gallery.
For the past few days, meanwhile, Azure hadn't been resting much. Irritation was clear on her face as her ship now held a couple of slavers; she paced slowly up and down the deck as she listened to the captain. Sighing lightly at the mention of prisoners, she shook her head to try and clear out her regrets; Set Sail needed her to focus on making a plan of action.
"Option one, land sharks. Lots of guns on that landship and as good as ponies and griffons are at flying evasively, one mistake there and we're done. So no." She paused for a second before continuing. "Option two, the volcanic island, we're still flying blind there, no." She just shakes her head to emphasize before moving on. "Option three, fight back against these slavers: someday! Someday... but it won't be now. By Celestia, I'm not going to let that stand for much longer though..." she trailed off before sighing again. More sleep would have been nice. "Finally, option four..." Azure looked into the distance. "The gillmen are our best shot. And when 'best shot' means 'not openly hostile' - that's saying something..." The unicorn fell silent, continuing to think about possible strategies.
Reef Skimmer had also been staring into space, with a haunted or perhaps conflicted look. Now he addressed the crew, looking from one face to another, trying to judge their mood. "It should go without saying, that as creatures of honour and resolve, we have a moral duty to rescue those poor creatures enslaved in that floating pit. Nor can any right-thinking griff, or pony, abide the existence of this nest of slavers and murderers. The Queen's Navy made a point of eliminating every trace of such malfeasance... where feasible."
The big griff hung his head. "I must confess though, we hippogriffs lacked the means to do anything about the Storm King, nor the flesh traders of Kludgetown, and now this crew finds itself in a similar situation. One ship, damaged, unarmed, against a tribe of warriors and criminals, diminutive though they are." He sighed. "Azure is right; for now we can only hope to find allies, gather strength, bide our time, and..." he glances at Nutmeg "keep our engineer away from curious dragons, I suppose."
Summer Scribe furrowed her brow, considering the possibilities. With everything she'd seen and heard, it seemed they might be surrounded by folks and factions that might try to blow their ship to smithereens; it was so much easier when it was just chompies, ruins and Abby! "As much as I'd like to see the best in everyone and make friends with everycritter..." she gave Azure a quick nod, "It seems we'll need to make strategic alliances in a hostile, cutthroat place like this."
"Running and hiding won't work: the Storm Piercer's our only ticket out," she countinued, "and we don't have anywhere else to make shelter. Our best bet is to go with 'the enemy of our enemy is our friend' and show the firepower we bring to the table. We'll have to build up a reputation as peacekeepers, springboarding off of what we've done this week."
The purple pegasi, those ponies first touched by the magic of this strange place, were again huddled in a group apart from the others, with Cloud Cutter at the front as their spokespony. "The last thing I want to see is more death..." she said, her tone hollow, "but... some things deserve to be ended. Like forcing innocent creatures to fight and die in a pit for the amusement of savages." She took a deep breath. "When you need us, we'll be there, to do what has to be done." The other pegasi stood behind her, staring with their empty white eyes and silently supporting her position.
Azure nodded slowly as everyone seemed to agree with her point of view, but as Cloud Cutter voiced the purple pegasi's opinion as a whole... her ears flattened with shame and regret. With all the interrogation and stress from it, she'd completely forgotten to go and support her allies... with even just a talk. It was at that moment that Azure did the only thing she could think of at the moment, walking over to Cloud Cutter to stand by her side... just trying to make sure they weren't forgotten. Or at least... trying to get that message across.
"Yeah! Put me down for clearing out those little assholes as well, just as soon as this wing's healed up." Grenelda blurted out. The griffon's left wing was still tightly bound up to her side. "They aren't so tough really, they just caught us by surprise with that freaky magic." She turned to her mate, Gustus, and crowed enthusiastically "Which the butterfly pony smashed to bits, you should'a seen it, it was glorious!" She looked at Azure appreciatively: "I bet if we came in for a surprise attack, you blasting away their defences, me and the doctor swooping down, Cloud Cutter doing... whatever she does... yeah we could take 'em"
"Come on Grennie, this isn't your fight." Gustus said, looking at the hen with concern. "Sounds like there could be hundreds of them, with guns and harpoons and who knows what else. Let's just leave it well alone."
Grenelda just snorted at that, but did shift closer to Gustus, prompting him to extend a wing over her back. "You know I could never keep out of other griff's business..." she muttered quietly.
If Azure's face showed disappointment before, Grenelda's speech got her right back on track, as she chuckled. "Thanks for the praise, Grenelda. Every creature in the attack squad was incredible, that's really why we did as well as we did." She paused, remembering the details. "Just remember... our captive said most of their warriors were out on a raid. Best case scenario still has us fighting one huge ship, worst case, five or more. We need to build up strength before even thinking we can win."
Nutmeg does make a point to step stiffly forward then, the red-ruffed kirin saying tightly, "I don't know what... slavery or pirates or anything like that is. But I can get the ship working once I figure out how those... crystally things in the engines generate heat. I hope none of this stuff is as bad as you're all acting like, but... I think we can make it, if we just... try to keep each other safe. So um, no problems here."
"The little ship was such shoddy construction it was practically falling apart once you go it here, and that's actually a good thing, because once we put it back together right, I bet she'll fly twice as fast. Only minor damage from when the engines overheated, and no missing parts. We could... scrap it for parts to repair our big ship, but the propellers aren't strong enough to replace our old ones, and I think a working little ship is just what we need, even if it means all my designs are totally ruined and... uh..." She blushed and retreated, "...yeah..."
"I confess to no small amount of unease regarding this dragon." Reef said, looking at Nutmeg and trying to gauge if she seemed worried or stressed by the kidnapping attempt. "These 'drow', well we have at least some intelligence, dubious though the source might be, but..." his gaze shifted to Summer "...do we have any idea where that draconid came from, or if we're likely to encounter more of her kind?"
Summer Scribe thought back to their conversation, before shaking her head. "No, she wasn't exactly forthcoming with information, and readily escaped our grasp... She definitely wanted Nutmeg because she's a 'tech elemental', in this world's understanding of magic." Or actual functioning of magic, she thought to herself. "Claiming it was for the greater good and all... but it was basically a kidnapping since she wasn't offering a choice about it."
Azure Feather turned her attention to the other tactical concern, from the engagement she hadn't been a part of. "I'd love to see that dragon face to face... at the very least make that thing know that we aren't just harmless creatures, we can defend ourselves... even if we're not from around here, it doesn't mean every creature has a right to walk all over us..." She finished by muttering something incomprehensible...
"What I want to know is how did the dragon breathe lightning!" called out a voice from the engineering team. It was Sprocket, the unicorn mare who'd turned the ancient radio into a makeshift clock. "That was out of this world!" she declared, "and then she just teleported? There's only one dragon in Equestria who ever teleported anything. Do you think she was hatched with pony magic too?"
"Hmm, interesting theory..." a long pause as Reef strained to remember the young mare's name... "Sprocket!" He smiled, partly at her and partly at finally managing to get a pony's name right. "Yes, well Summer did mention she seemed familiar with unicorns, though more in a historical context, so perhaps not exactly but... possibly an analogous process with similar magic? It does seem like there's plenty to go around, in this place."
Summer Scribe nod-nodded! "We're still looking for more data points, of course, but it looks like Azure is 'Wind' and Nutmeg is 'Tech'. Something about how our Equestrian magic manifests differently in this place?" Of course she was still quietly wondering to herself about what kind of 'elemental connection' she might manifest...
"I dunno, but we're gonna need some rubber boots if we ever wanna tangle with her again," the young unicorn said to Reef, ducking her head and swishing her tail playfully in a pose she probably thought made her look badass.
"Wait wait hold on," Nutmeg exclaimed, pushing her way through the jabbering crowd toward Summer...
Reef Skimmer winked back at Sprocket. "In any case, I do concur with Azure..." He nods to the winged unicorn. "...that our best option does seem to be attempting to contact the species least likely to attack us, which is to say, these semi-aquatic bipeds. Assuming miss 'Silent Arrow' was telling the truth. Any chance of some confirmation from that Aberwacky fellow?" he asked Summer hopefully.
Summer Scribe nodded again. "Yeah, I ran everything the drow talked about past our, well, only other contact." Best to be thorough, she thought. "He's heard of them and he agreed that the fishmen are likely to be sympathetic allies, since we've got an enemy in common: they don't like the pirates any more than we do."
"What do you mean Azure is wind, and I'm tech?" Nutmeg asked Summer, flouncing up in frustrated confusion, "You mean tech, like technology? All my magic can do is levitate things, and I guess set them on fire. It helps a little with technology, but mostly it's just... having good ideas, you know? Everyone keeps acting like it's some special thing. Are you saying you have some idea why that dragon wanted to kidnap m—the lead engineer?"
Summer regarded Nutmeg with a startled expression, a little flustered by the kirin's semi-hostile opening, before trying to compensate. "Yeah, I do, actually: everything I've seen and read so far indicates that the Cloudbreak Islands have their own special system of magic. The interference when we passed the storm barrier, the spookified pegasi, Azure's trouble with her magic... it seems to be because Equestrian magic is being mashed into this new system of 10 elements: Wind is one of them, Undead is another, and so is Tech." Nodding to Nutmeg, she continued "It's reasonable to assume that if Azure's skillset is changing, so is yours, or at least manifesting in a new way! As for what it can do that it couldn't before, that I'm not sure of yet, but our would-be captor seems to have ideas!"
Raising a hoof, Nutmeg declared irritably, "That can't be right, because that would mean..." She fell silent then, forehoof still upraised, staring off into space.
Summer Scribe rolls a hoof, "It would mean...?" she asked encouragingly, but the kirin didn't respond. It looked like Nutmeg would be standing there for a while.
Set Sail had been looking from creature to creature, eyes wide as she watched her crew apparently planning a military operation against a pirate base and/or a nest of dragons, before digressing into unicorn shop talk that was lost on the majority of those present. "Alright, friendly fish, that sounds great! Umm, so we'll need to get our... chief diplomat?" she says, smiling unevenly at Summer Scribe "...over to their island. Which I guess is this twisting river thing on the far side of Melonwater's map." She stared at the chart: at least it made sense. "That's 100 kay-em each way, you think you can manage the cart for that long Doctor? Or... do we risk the little ship..." she looks uncertainly at the spaced-out chief engineer.
Summer Scribe gave a cheerful nod and smile at Set Sail's recognition of her talents: 'senior distinguished researcher' and now 'chief diplomat'! Sure it's a lot of responsibility for her, but really it's gone remarkably smoothly so far, and why would that change anytime soon! "Yep, that sounds good! And hopefully it'll be an uneventful negotiation." She turned to Nutmeg and beamed, but the kirin was murmuring something about line integrals and still standing there on three legs, staring forward into space. 'Hmm! Well, maybe she'll be talkative later. Alright!' Summer thought.
"Hey the doc isn't the only one who can fly!" Grenelda declared, "I'll go help kick some fish man tail any day."
"Absolutely not." Reef Skimmer says firmly. "You need to rest that wing, Grenelda, or there could be complications. Why, if there was another fight it could become torn, infected, form an abscess... you might be grounded."
"Yeah... and woah, wait, calm down. We're not kicking fish man tail!" Summer Scribe shook her head for emphasis. "We're trying to make them our friends!" she said cheerfully, before murmuring "...and if they don't want to be our friends, I don't actually know what our plan is..."
"So either a ride in the ship we captured, provided we can repair the thing... or we use the cart and go from there..." Azure mutters as she turns to Grenelda. "Summer is right, admittedly... if talks of an alliance fail, future plans don't look nearly as bright."
Grenelda grumbled at that, but didn't object. "If we need to make up the numbers, then... perhaps Gustus could join us instead?" Reef suggested.
"If she ain't flyin' then I'm not flyin'" Gustus says stubbornly, "You think I can just leave her to be grounded like this?"
"To be fair, this is more of a diplomatic mission, and if that dragon comes back for Nutmeg, I'd feel a lot better personally, if some of our battle unit stayed here to protect her. That being said, I could stay behind with that purpose in mind as well..." Azure mentioned, unsure where she fitted into this 'diplomacy' strategy.
Sprocket grimaced before trotting up to the chief engineer. She'd seen this a lot in the last few days. "Psst, boss, Captain's asking you..." she whispered, bumping her shoulder into Nutmeg.
"Wh-huh?" Nutmeg asked the universe, looking Sprocket's way. "Galvanized!" she declared in triumph about an inch away from the filly's nose, then without another word the kirin went bounding off into the engine room, heading for her work table.
Summer Scribe squinted after her. 'Just what is that kirin up to? Well, that can be worried about later!' she thought.
"Understandable..." Reef says vaguely, watching Nutmeg disappear. What was she up to, ignoring the Captain like that. He turns to Sprocket: "Well my dear, perhaps you could enlighten us, on the condition and viability of that drow craft? Are we to understand the chief engineer has delegated its operation and navigation to you?" he suggests, in a playful tone.
"Didn't the chief say just a minute ago?" Sprocket replies in confusion, turning from watching the chief charge away, "It was built busted, but all the parts are there. It'll take a few more days, but we'll fix it, and it'll work better than before. Long as nopony goes full throttle all day."
Set Sail trotted over to Reef Skimmer, standing at his feet. "Doctor, we can't wait any longer... not with slavers out there. I believe you can make it all the way on wing, with just Summer in the cart. Somepony else can escort you, like Cloud Cutter, and maybe take the cart for a bit so you don't have to fly it the whole way."
"Very well then." Reef says, a little disappointed. He glares at the cart, sitting on the side of the deck. "My old friend, time to do battle again..." he mutters, before looking at Set Sail "One will give it one's best of course, but that is a two pony cart, so it would be prudent to have a pair of pegasi ready to take over, in case of injury, exhaustion and so on."
Set Sail looked away at that. Then she gave Reef a conflicted look, before turning away again. Finall the green kerchiefed mare looked squarely up at the hippogriff and said firmly, "...okay. I'll go."
"I get what you're saying," Set Sail continued, ruffling her wings nervously, "I know I'm the... captain, and if we're going to go ask these gill men for help, I should be there asking them. It's... important for me to be there, for the crew. How else would they ever take us seriously?"
"Captain!?" Reef retorted, his ear tufts flicking up in shock. "General Order 15 clearly states that the commanding officer shall not lead a shore party into enemy territory unless... erm... unless... well, perhaps we aren't operating under that rulebook here, but..." he looked at the deck, before catching Set Sail's eye "Sails, are you sure you want to risk it?"
Azure seemed unsure already, and now to hear that the captain herself was coming on the diplomatic mission just made the issue even worse, as her eyes went wide for a moment. Oh, for Celestia's sake... "Just... be safe, okay? I know this is only a diplomatic mission, but..." If only there weren't two parts of the equation that needed defending...
"What should I do, send somepony else out there?" the pegasus asked hopelessly, "If it's not safe for me, I can't just go sending them out there. It's like Azure says. Just a diplomatic mission... right? I just don't wanna be the last one...left. After everypony else has... I don't want anypony to— ...just for my sake just because I'm the captain, I don't want anypony else to... die."
For several seconds, nopony spoke. Then came a solitary hoof stop, followed by another, then another... and then the deck was reverberating as dozens of ponies stomped their hooves, or clapped their paws. "Go captain!" somepony cheered, followed by whoops and shouts as the tension is released and the crew shows their appreciation.
Preparations went swiftly, as saddlebags are packed and laced shut, and a few provisions are placed in the cart and safely tied down. Soon enough the two pegasi were flexing their wings and ready to depart, while the hippogriff was hitched up and ready to take off.
Nutmeg ceased using her wrench as a welding torch, and galumped onto the deck of the captured ship, her ticket to adventure, to see the others off.
Summer Scribe hopped into the cart, and waved a hoof to everyone watching. "I'll do you proud, everyone! I'll make us the allies we need, on behalf of all of the expedition!" Even more than her expedition to the first island, this was a journey into the unknown, and she had no idea what to expect; she was hoping that they'd be able to earn the trust of the fish creatures, but that's a hurdle she'd pass when she got to it!
Azure had stayed quiet, though, assisting the departing crew in securing everything as well as reminding every creature to come back safely. Her squad had been lucky to get through the last mission with just one injury, she didn't want to see any more of the crew hurt. Staying behind while others went off into dangerous skies didn't come easy to her.
Reef Skimmer galloped down the deck, wings spread wide, lifting into the air and soaring out over the bow in a now well-practiced motion. Wheeling around, he headed south; Set Sail had laid out a route that kept them well away from the shattered island, heading for the volcanic island and then passing the south side of the floating cliffs before the final leg to the sky river. It would be two hours flight at a measured pace; they needed to save their energy in case a sprint to escape pursuers became necessary.
It had been a long journey for the three flyers, as they kept clear of the smaller islands and well south of the shattered rocks where the drow lurked. The two pegasus mares were out in front, Set Sail leading with Cloud Cutter close behind. Trailing behind was Reef Skimmer, the larger hippogriff pulling the two-pony wooden cart on his own. In the back of the modest conveyance sat Summer Scribe, with nothing to do but check her notes and watch the slowly drifting clouds.
A few curious birds paced them for a while as they passed the aerial cliffs, but other than that there was no sign of another creature. Ahead, their destination appeared as an impossible twisting ribbon of water, suspended in mid-air, connecting four major islands and weaving through or brushing past several smaller islets. Slowly it grew larger until at last, nearly two hours since leaving the Harmony, the impossible waterway filled the sky in front of them.
The blue and brown Set Sail tried not to let her lack of endurance show, but all those weeks of keeping close to the ship and only flying up to the balloon and back had taken their toll. She stubbornly flew on, determined not to be the one to drag them down, distracting herself from the impinging soreness by worrying about the future, and thinking on what her grandfather told her about fights.
Cloud Cutter continued onward, occasionally glancing back at Summer; she admired the unicorn's courage, coming this far without wings. The little mare seemed unfazed by the prospect of a long fall down into the clouds below so far away that they almost faded into the blue of the sky. It was easy to fly ahead of her, for though she didn’t tire, she didn’t feel very energetic either. Just cruising along, not really feeling like doing anything else, or doing anything for that matter, unless someone here wanted her to.
The highest and most distant island appeared as a great massing of grey rock, capped with flecks of white, from which the river emerged in rushing rapids. Winding past a few small rocks, one sporting a protrusion that definitely looked artificial, the water made its way down to a much larger, flatter island, where it broke up into a myriad of small streams winding through a broad swamp, ringed by woodland. A scattering of structures nestled in the trees at the edge of the marsh, though the details were hard to see at this distance. The water gathered back together to exit the marsh in a slower, lazier section that wended its way to the third island, flanked by oxbow lakes that like their parent hung impossibly in the air.
The third landmass was as large as the second but split into two levels, prominent cliffs dividing the forest and creating a series of dramatic waterfalls as the river made its way from an upper pool to a lower one. A tight group of large buildings could be seen in the upper regions, while the lower sported a scattering of ponds and odd unidentifiable structures, hard to see under a kind of misty haze that covered a wide roughly circular area. Finally the river made its way down, past a few more secondary islands to end at the fouth major massing, dominated by a central lake. This final island was ringed by waterfalls where the river ended its journey by plunging into the void, the water turning to spray and disappearing entirely a hundred metres or so below the edge.
The remains of what had clearly been a castle could be seen in the jungle bordering the lake, broken towers anchoring tumbled-down walls ringing a relatively intact central keep, while a few isolated huts could be seen in the rest of the swamp and on islands in the central lake.
Despite the relaxed pace, Reef Skimmer's wing muscles were starting to cramp from the exertion, and the cart's weight felt like it was slowly but steadily increasing. Panting through wide-open beak, he struggled to pull ahead and close the gap with the pegasi. "Where.... to... Captain?" he shouted.
"Okay, first order of business is to find a landing point!” Set Sail calls back over her spread brown fletched wings, eager to be done with this flight, “Preferably somewhere secluded and out of sight!”
Summer Scribe barely heard; she was gaping at the floating, forking, weaving, defying gravity rivers. 'How interesting!' she thought, 'I mean, the islands themselves float somehow, but these aren't even pretending to have any kind of physical coherency or gravity defying mineral in them! What kind of magic could cause this?' As far as she could tell from her squinting, it didn't seem like the water really came from anywhere. Was it a closed circuit, or was it condensing from the air somehow? "Fascinating..." She twirled her quill in absent thought and squinted again before calling out "I think I can see structures, too. Plenty of them!"
"Very... well... but... which island... do we... start with?" Reef panted back. All except the mountain had visible structures, and for all they knew that had buildings as well, hidden from their current position. He had no idea which the ponies would find most enticing.
Set Sail scanned around the nearest, lowest island, declaring, “That looks like a castle! With all that jungle around it’s gotta be abandoned, but there might be jungle creatures living in there! You think we should give it a shot?”
Summer Scribe gave it a few seconds thought, then nodded. "Yeah, that should be good! It'll give at least makeshift shelter and maybe even grazing in the courtyard." 'As for the carnivores amongst us,' she thought, 'they usually sort themselves out!'
Cloud Cutter descended without a word, but Set Sail for the first time let her go ahead, drifting back towards Reef Skimmer. The sailmare was breathing hard, but she still wanted to help out the doctor, who'd pulled Summer and their supplies all the way from the ship. Pulling alongside the cart, she realised there was no way to fit into the hitch; the hippogriff was centred between the shafts and in any case his huge wings precluded fitting a pegasus alongside. Instead she went to the rear, hooking her forehooves over the back panel and taking some of the burden.
There was that vague feel of being connected to the vehicle, that meant that her own wing magic was helping to lighten it. Sensing the change behind him, the hippogriff looked back over his shoulder, his beaked face as inscrutable as ever to Set Sail. “You... doing alright?” she asked, a bit breathlessly, tired wings straining to push the cart forward towards the castle.
Reef Skimmer appreciated the Captain's choice of destination: as the lowest point, it would be the least strenuous to reach. "I was... starting to think... of this cart... as my personal nemesis" he said "...but perhaps... it just wants... to be my personal... trainer. In any... case... my thanks... for the... assistance." Soon they were close enough to just stretch out their wings and glide the rest.
The three flyers, plus one passenger, drifted down towards the bottom island, all alert for any sign of life. Waterfowl were present in abundance, along with larger four-legged shapes moving in the trees; from the pointed snouts, most likely pigs. Scaled, fishy bipeds were nowhere to be seen, but there was some of the clutter and detritus of sapient inhabitants; trails wound through the marshy jungle adorned with marker posts and the occasional wooden bridge or jetty, drums and boxes lay scattered on the shoreline, a discarded fishing net here, the remnants of a cooking fire there.
The jungle grew right up to the castle ruins, vines crawling up the walls and slowly pulling down the stone, but the courtyard inside was relatively clear. "One will do one's best, but... best brace yourself, Summer." Reef aimed for a cleft in the curtain wall and glanced at Set Sail; she nodded back and they came down to land in front of the keep, the cart pushing noisily into the long grass and coming to a rapid stop.
"Got it, bracing!" Summer Scribe tucked her head down and body low, making a curled shape, hooves pushing hard against the jostling as the cart stops. As soon as the immediate danger passed, she hopped down and streeetched her legs! "Whew! That was a long trip. I hope we find a better travel solution than 'cart' soon; I'm sure you agree, Reef!" She chuckled at the hippogriff, as she looked around, just basking in being on land again for the moment, but that ruined castle soon got her attention...
Cloud Cutter was already down and standing in the courtyard. Once the cart had settled to a stop, she trotted up to it, ignoring Summer to stick her nose into the piled up supplies, lifting a canteen of water up by its neck strap and hurrying over to the two hardest hit fliers. Not sure whether she needed to say it or not, she sloshed the water canteen suggestively before them.
"Ah, the soul of courtesy, embodied as a pegasus." Reef remarked, grabbing the canteen in a claw. He took a quick swig, before looking guiltily at Set Sail and thrusting the container over to her. "Apologies, Captain first?" She waved him off with a hoof, uncomfortable with the idea of special privileges just for being the notional leader.
At one point, the castle was some combination of serious fortification and symbol of authority, with a few crenelations still visible, the fallen lumps of gargoyles under the grass in the courtyard and the weathered remains of what were once complex carvings all around the main gate. That must have been many centuries ago though. Now the rusted remnants of a portcullis made a last stand against the encroaching jungle, looking like they might crumble to dust with one good kick. The door to the keep looked in somewhat better shape, the wood almost fossilised.
Summer Scribe's attention was glued on the fortifications. "Now this is cool. Biggest native structure I've seen yet!" She beamed, tail flicking from side to side as she paced around the keep, studying every detail. "Looks centuries old, too. No sign of a town around it. I wonder what geopolitical plays it was a part of!"
“Yeah it is... cool. Not well defended of course, but it kept the jungle back,” Set Sail said, stretching like a cat to work her wings out, if cats had wings that is. “How about we rest here for a bit, then we can start searching around for those gill men?” Her eyes fell on Cloud Cutter a moment, before turning away in an unsettled quiet, while the curiously serene Cloud Cutter herself frowned and stared at her hooves.
"Gill men, right." Summer Scribe realised that she couldn't just distract herself with archaeology indefinitely, and looked around. "Hmm... they're meant to be behind a forcefield, right?" She looked into the distance, spotting something shimmery on the next island upriver. "So probably on that landmass over there. Course, they could be all over the place if they venture over their own island chain."
Reef Skimmer sat down heavily, flattening another patch of long grass under his rump. Nodding to Summer, he confirmed: "Miss Barrow... Arrow... the drow that is... said that the gill-men hid in the 'force field' when the pirates came to raid them. Which implied that they don't live under it all the time. One does wonder why; if it's so safe, must be some drawback... or perhaps a cultural factor?"
Summer Scribe nodded in agreement to Reef. "Right, makes sense; maybe it feels stuffy under there. I mean, if you have all this island space to work with, you'd want to use it all, right? And it might not be self-sufficient in the dome itself, and so on. It's basically the same reason why you build castles: they're your line of defence." she said, gesturing at the ruins.
“This castle sure didn’t succeed as a line of defence,” Cloud Cutter remarked, looking around at the shattered stone: ancient, preserved evidence of the castle’s fall. “I wonder what destroyed it.”
Summer Scribe nodded again. "I am curious, but it'd take a while to figure out, and we have more pressing matters." They couldn't just indulge her curiosity; she felt dutiful now that there was an actual goal besides 'look at ruins'.
"We might never know, after all this time." Reef said, looking around as if more interested in the vines than the walls underneath. "Unless you have a spell for that, of course." Reef said, looking at Summer Scribe and cocking his head.
Summer chuckled at Reef's suggestion; he had a very high opinion of unicorn magic, it seemed. "Well, there's spells that enhance fine details so you can better make out engravings and faded writing and stuff, and I can do that just fine. But I don't have any serious past-scrying or truth-determining magic..." She chuckled: "If I did, I'd probably be on top of the world! Anyways..."
Having drunk his fill from the canteen, Reef stowed in back in the cart. He'd managed to get out of bringing his wing blades, suggesting that they should avoid scaring the natives and also they could ill-afford extra weight. Meanwhile Set Sail was busy testing the tall grass for edibility, head buried in it as she nosed around. It had a sharp, unique tang to it that would probably make it a trendy side dish at an overpriced Canterlot restaurant. Edible albeit an acquired taste.
As she chewed on the grass, the pegasus spotted movement through the rusted portcullis... something was out there, something pony-sized and curious with two beady eyes, large curling horns and a flat pink snout that nosed through a gap in the bushes. Hunkering down in the grass, Set Sail scurried backwards until she bumped into Reef Skimmer. “There’s a pig!” she hissed to him urgently, staring through the obscuring, odd tasting fronds, “What do we do? There’s a pig!”
Summer Scribe perked up as she saw Set Sail's panicked look. "Hang on, I'll handle this, as the Lead Diplomat." She trotted forward, cleared her throat and locked gazes with the pig's beady eyes!
"Greetings! We are ponies, from Equestria, here on a scientific mission of exploration and discovery, and we come in peace, hoping to make friends wherever possible!" ...Squint. "I don't think the pig can understand us." Eardroop. Well, it was worth a shot, she thought.
It did look like a tasty bit of meat, Reef thought; not that the ponies would appreciate the sentiment but perhaps Grenelda would be cheered up by the prospect of fresh bacon. "Oh, I don't think it can get through that gate, just curious I suppose." he said. "Rather ordinary compared to the plant life, which is to say, it's bright green, but other than it could be a South Equestrian wild hog."
Summer Scribe gave a kind of nervous chuckle, trying to deflect from her error. It didn't really matter, right? "Yeah! I guess we should leave it be, right?"
“Well, yeah, but...” Set Sail said, standing up in the grass sheepishly, still looking the pig’s way, “He can’t get in, that’s okay then. I just thought he was gonna attack.”
The pig replied with a string of grunts and snorts. It pressed forward against the portcullis, making it creak and then crack as a sizable lump of metal, more rust than iron, broke off. The scrap clonked the pig on the neck, causing it to squeal loudly and run off into the jungle. Birds started cawing and several took flight at the commotion.
Set Sail squeaked in fear at that, flapping up into the air. The pig retreated though, so she ended up just hovering there, wings gently buoying her up, feeling very silly.
Summer Scribe watched with interest and rising concern as the pig began to infiltrate the castle grounds... only to pause and snicker-giggle at the slapstick that follows. "Oh dear, I hope he'll be OK." Clearly this was not the impenetrable fortress they might have been led to believe!
Reef Skimmer beak-gaped at the retreating pig, before spotting Set Sail's nervous take-off and frowning. "Are you all right up there Captain?"
The blue and brown pegasus let out a long breath, descending to the ground saying, “Just a little... jumpy. I just don’t want us to get attacked by pirates, or worse, or stuck in a griffon trap, or... y'know.”
Summer Scribe wiped her brow with a hoof as she watched Set Sail descend. "I think we'll be relatively OK here? Like, this is Gill-Man occupied, and they presumably have to deal with raids a lot, yet they're still standing strong. So as long as no airships suddenly descend on us, we should be fine..."
Cloud Cutter was still sitting a little way back from the group, her gaze slowly roaming around their surroundings. "It's all right Set Sail. If it had gotten in, I would have... stopped it." She looked down, as if guilty, but then her glowing white eyes settled on Summer Scribe. "So, where shall we attempt first contact with the fish creatures?" she asked neutrally.
The unicorn tilted her head. "That's a good question. We don't have a confirmed location except the forcefield dome, and they might only go there during attacks. We could search for them across the island chain; there were buildings scattered all over, but they might be as abandoned as this one seems to be? Maybe we should just head for the nearest cluster and hope there's someone to say hi? We should look distinctive enough that we don't pattern match as a typical threat."
“The troll was not afraid of us, though perhaps he should have been,” Cloud Cutter said thoughtfully, still looking at Summer Scribe. “So there’s no reason to think the gill-men would cut our heads off or anything. Would you like me to do some aerial scouting, before we head off again? I think I saw some places which may have been their home.”
Summer Scribe smiled at the suggestion: "Sure thing; would you like to check around the island with the forcefield? I think I saw some bigger buildings on the upper part: perhaps they're still inhabited?"
Nodding once, Cloud Cutter took off, casually making her way up into the air. Apparently immune to the fatigue experienced by the rest of the team, the purple pegasus gained speed quickly and was soon out over the lake. There were a few huts down there, on the far shore, and... yes, there was a blue biped, covered in shining scales and adorned with translucent fins, just sitting by the lakeside, watching the water.
Passing over that possibility for now, she flapped harder and rose higher, ascending towards the next major island upriver. Spread out before her was a gently sloping woodland perhaps three kilometres across, dominated by the shimmering dome of the 'force field', like an impossibly huge soap bubble.
Such a thing was hardly unprecedented in Equestria; particularly powerful unicorns could cover whole towns in such fields, albeit for a few most days before becoming exhausted. Within the dome is a sprawling collection of pools, buildings, paved areas, and... aqueducts, painted in bright colours? The shifting optical distortion makes it impossible to distinguish motion, but no fishy bipeds or indeed creatures of any kind are apparent. The bubble of magic was interrupted at only one point; a rounded structure, possibly a gate, on the side facing the river.
Having peered into the bubble as best she could without risking landing on it, Cloud Cutter continued her ascent, up the face of the cliffs to the higher part of the island. Here there was a tight group of rectangular buildings, surrounded by lesser sheds and a jumble of mysterious cylinders and pipes, the complex bounded by substantial stone walls. As with the castle: time, weather and vegetation were doing their best to overtake the structure, but with much less success; yes there were many missing tiles and grass sprouting through the tiles, but someone was clearly cutting back the branches and clearing away the vines. Again though no sign of motion with or habitation. Indeed as the pegasus continued her flight up to the top edge of the island, she flew over the crumbling remains of a village in no better shape than the ruins back on Blissful Pastures, the expedition's first find.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Cloud Cutter said upon returning to the castle, with an ironic tilt in her ear. With her glowing white eyes, nopony could see them rolling. “Gill-men have gills. So they are all by the water,” she explained as Reef, Summer and Set Sail gather around, “We won’t find any inland here. But what’s interesting is they definitely live here, and there are more ancient ruins all about, that the gill men don’t seem to have anything to do with."
"The force field was... well, it looked like a... a water park." she continued. "With slides even! I couldn’t see very clearly through the dome, which is large enough that trying to maintain it would kill the average unicorn in short order. I don’t know what the source of the magic could be sustaining it, but there appeared to be... some sort of entrance. That might be how the gill-men get in.”
The purple pegasus looked off the way she came saying, “There are some tall cliffs that I passed, and another sort of castle beyond them, bigger than this one, also in ruins. It didn’t look entirely abandoned though.” Report complete, she stood there silently, having nothing more to relate.
Reef Skimmer looks up from preening his secondaries to listen to Cloud Cutter's report. "You're putting us to shame, my dear, flying around like a Wonderbolt while we all laze about in here!" he says jovially, hoping to cheer up the pegasus. When that doesn't get a response he looks from Summer to Set Sail, asking "So... over to the water then?"
"Sure, it sounds like we have a few gillmen to talk to on this island." Summer said. "Why don't we start local and get a feel for the mood around here? If it seems fine to head straight to the force field after that, we can." The unicorn peered out through the rusty portcullis. "So is there a path, or... you know I'd love to get a better view first?" she smiled at Reef Skimmer.
Happy to oblige, as Summer on her own was a lot lighter than the cart, the hippogriff lifted into a hover and carefully grabbed the little unicorn's shoulders with his claws. With a few flaps he rose to the top of the ruined battlements, depositing Summer on an intact section before landing alongside. Dislodged by the sudden weight, a few pebbles clattered down into the courtyard below, but otherwise the structure seemed solid.
Set Sail and Cloud Cutter hovered just behind, giving four creatures a good view of the nearby lake. The castle was set on a low hill rising out of the swamp; it looks like perhaps 15 minutes trot to the nearest shore. A cluster of rough wooden buildings could be made out a bit further around the lake, perhaps another half hour away, but with all the weeping willows and other vegetation it was hard to pick out any details.
Summer Scribe peered out from the ruined castle walls, spying a few gillmen fishing on the shore of the lake. "Yeah, there they are! Let's go!"
"Jolly good then. Can just glide down there or... would you prefer to trot?" The hippogriff glanced over his shoulder. "One supposes the cart will be safe enough here."
Summer considered the proposal, but felt a bit bad about making Reef Skimmer have to carry her again, after such a gruelling flight! "How about we let your wings rest and trot over?" She nodded; it would be a nice change of pace anyway, after all that time in the air.
Set Sail looked at the hippogriff easily holding up the little unicorn in his claws, with those broad glorious wings. "We should approach them by land, don't you think?" she asked thoughtfully, "Wouldn't want them to think we were swooping down on them like a— uh like a fish eating..."
Reef looked at Summer sceptically, then dubiously at the steaming swamp down below, but his expression softened when he hears Set Sail's concern. "Ah, good point, Captain." The griff looked at the glinting waters of the lake itself - he wouldn't mind a quick dip to cool off, perhaps later - then sighs. "Very well then." And with that he took off, grabbed Summer again and glided down to the only open space near the castle walls; the remains of the causeway leading to the front gate, a short stretch of weed-choked cobbles in the final stages of disintegrating under the assault of encroaching tree roots.
Set Sail gave a grateful sigh and followed after, hoping she wouldn't keep sticking her hoof in her mouth like that around him. For her part, Summer Scribe stretched a bit after being dropped off by Reef, ready to have a pleasant walk through a nice new environment! A whole new island chain, no doubt there would be wonderous sights to see!
A hundred kilometres east, the stranded EAS Harmony still floated alongside the pleasant meadow at the edge of Blissful Pastures. Azure Feather had spent most of the morning making sure their kirin engineer stayed safe, but she was also concerned about the rest of the group's morale. Grenelda and Gustus especially, given the former's injury; she knew most winged creatures were badly affected by losing their ability to fly, even temporarily. She was worried about the research team too: staying behind hadn't been an easy decision, but with the looming threat of the dragon's return... she couldn't afford to have Nutmeg fall into hostile hands.
And so the blue and purple unicorn stood on the forward deck of the drow copter, scanning ground and sky for any sign of sneaky teleporting draconids. The artificial butterfly wings were on her back of course; she just wished they weren't so fragile, one touch of dragon breath and they'd be dust. Meanwhile, in the belly of the little ship, Nutmeg had disconnected the electrodes from one of the reddish crystals at the heart of the engine. Tilting her head in puzzlement, she tried just tapping the crystal to see if it provoked a reaction. All it did was make a faint 'tink tink' sound against her hoof.
Content that they weren't being observed, the guardpony gave a quick glance at the Harmony to check that all was well; things looked fine, crew on deck making minor repairs while other ponies continued to work on the meadow camp. Satisfied, she ducked into the engine room and nodded to Nutmeg. "Nothing to report outside. Likely going to be a quiet day, but we still need to keep our guard up." She wouldn't say it out loud, but a confrontation with even a lone dragon wasn't something to take lightly, especially one with magic... but she'd cross that bridge once she came to it. For now... "You need anything?" she asked the engineer, while staring at that red crystal the kirin had unearthed.
“Do you have a clue about this?” Nutmeg asked distantly; the kirin was still staring in puzzlement at the crystals set into the engine, “I could really use one of those. I repaired the engine damage, but these crystal thingies are where the firebox of the engine should be. I can’t figure out how to get ‘em to... do whatever it is they do.”
Azure stared at the crystal, considering Nutmeg's question. "I'm not an engineer by any extent of the imagination. I do work with magic, and... my best guess is that magic powers these. It seems magic works differently here than back in Equestria... from what Summer said... it's divided into 'elements'. And since this is an airship... it would only make sense that air magic powers this? Now I know my magic's more attuned to that element here, so... I could run a test for you?" She suggested, stepping forward, but then frowning and looking away. "This is only a guard's best guess."
Looking away from the crystal for the first time, Nutmeg regarded Azure with a thoughtful appreciation in her warm, green eyes. “Huh,” she said casually, “That’s not a bad idea. Lemme climb out of this and you can give her a shot.” Leaving the crystalline apparatus open and exposed, the kirin climbed out of the innards of the engine with a minimal amount of wiggling, catching herself against Azure’s side as she stumbled out. “Sorry, heh,” Nutmeg says, a little worn out it seemed as she took her hoof back to herself.
Concern flashed across Azure's face for a moment as Nutmeg seemed about to face-plant. Then she demonstrated her inexperience working inside engines by taking a minute to squirm and shove her way through the pipework; her larger frame also made it tougher than it had been for the kirin. She ended up having to dispel the Skyborn spell to get into a good position: sometimes - very rarely - wings would just get in the way. Finally she got where she needed to go, nodding with determination as her spiralled horn began to glow. First, to confirm that this engine was indeed powered by magic; if so, was it air magic...
Azure Feather closed her eyes and dipped her head, channelling a flicker of power into her horn and letting it diffuse out into the surrounding space, concentrating on the resulting sensations. The cramped space hardly warranted the name 'engine room', compared to the cavernous machinery of the Harmony; with her and Nutmeg in there it already felt full. There was some sort of magic in the surrounding hull, reminiscent of pegasus cloud techniques. There was the kirin, hot and bright and... fuzzy, somehow, flickers or filaments of something... coming out from her. Almost like mind magic, except that it didn't connect to anything. Strange, but not what she was looking for.
“Ehhh you sure about that?” Nutmeg said, coming up to the open iron boiler, looking worriedly after the unicorn making her way in. “Just get out of there if it starts turning on,” she added, “Remember you’re not fireproof. And wow, your magic is... crazy good. What does that even...?” She watched Azure work with the vague understanding of a unicorn foal watching a professional casting their complex spells.
Concentrating on the engine itself, Azure felt... something dark, something terribly unsettling that made her want to bolt out of there right now, a hollowness... but it was just an echo. Something... grim had had happened here, and Azure couldn't help but wonder what exactly it had felt like for Cloud Cutter... but no, this wasn't what she was looking for either. Steeling herself and trying to ignore the traces left by a soul being forced from its shell, she felt for the crystals. There... that must be it. Magical, but not like her own techniques... more akin to the kirin perhaps, but it felt like... a sponge? Like it wanted to suck energy in, and hold it inside, presumably to release when the time was right. A magical crystal sponge? Azure opened her eyes and blinked, wondering if her horn was playing tricks on her.
Her scan completed, the unicorn turned back towards Nutmeg, her expression troubled. "Oh, it's a magical power source, all right, it's... hungry... for something. The crystals themselves don't feel 'airy', for lack of a better word, though perhaps the hull benefits from some workings along those lines. But... those creatures seemed to have love for slavery, battle... and death. Part of me wonders if... are these creatures insane enough to use life force, even living sacrifice, to power their engines...?!"
“But... that can't be... this is a steam engine, it runs on coal, not... souls! You don’t really think they love death, do you?” Nutmeg asked uneasily. "Ok... so maybe not coal, but this part of the engine is definitely supposed to get hot, and there's no tanks of air or oil or chemicals around here, just these crystals. So I thought, they must be able to produce heat, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to get them to start doing their thing." She looked at Azure's horn, pondering. "Do you think if you feed enough air magic into them, it'll... light ‘em up?”
"That I can't say. My initial thought was just that this place is full of magic, airships fly, air magic, two plus two, you know?" Azure started, before her brows furrowed in thought. "You know, the traps my unit fell into were designed to catch birds... griffons... flying creatures of all kinds, all with wing magic. Maybe it takes a particular kind of life energy..." Azure looked even less comfortable at this notion, and part of her just reaffirmed her wish to get the heck off this ship...
Nutmeg's big round-cornered ears went flat at that, and she sent an unappreciative look Azure’s way, the kirin saying dryly, “I’m not gonna stuff a bird into it. I don’t think they’d do something like that, even if it did work. Maybe you... maybe you are being a little too hard on these creatures. Yeah slavery is... is bad, I guess. But they had like an arena or something, so that’s pretty cool right?”
"Cool if you win, yes, cool if you keep winning, but these monsters won't let you stop until you lose! And if you lose, it's lights out!" Azure said angrily, getting worked up.
“They wouldn’t do that!” Nutmeg retorts at Azure in confusion and disbelief, “They’d run out of creatures to battle then! Why wouldn’t they take care of them? You can't know that!"
"She boasted about it!" Azure said, almost shouting. "That horrible drow told us... ah..." Seeing Nutmeg's horrified face, the unicorn closed her eyes and tried to calm herself with a few deep breaths. Finally, she continued in a more level tone. "Maybe you're right. It might just be what happened here, whatever Cloud Cutter did, if it left traces on the engine somehow. Something just feels wrong with this place. But as for the crystal itself, my main impression was of a kind of magical sponge. A kind of fuel tank, in short..."
"R-r-right." the kirin stammered nervously. "M-maybe this crystal just needs a bit of magic to sponge up. It’s not a blood crystal, even though it’s red. Those are actually black! So why don’t you try zapping it?”
Azure paused... and nodded a bit, sighing. "Sorry. Got carried away. Always hated slavery." The fear and rage had dimmed in her eyes, enough for her to focus on the task at hand. Summoning up her magic once again, this time, she wouldn't give it a form, simply trying to feed it to the crystal. A slow trickle at first, as Nutmeg's warning about the engine bursting into flames lingered in her mind. The gentle stream of unformed, almost raw magic flowed out from Azure, surrounding the red crystals... which just sit there, unresponsive. She tried a few tricks, varying the frequencies in the stream, but no dice. The crystals felt hungry, but they didn't want her magic.
After a few seconds of trying to fuel the machine up, Azure soon shook her head and stopped the flow. "Wrong analysis... it's designed to absorb something, I'm pretty sure, but not magic." she concluded, soon starting to make her way out of the engine's vicinity, leaving the area once more accessible to Nutmeg. "It was a valid train of thought, just... not what we needed to get this thing off the ground."
“Aw, well it was worth a shot,” Nutmeg said, her muscles relaxing after several tense minutes preparing to tackle the unicorn at the slightest sign of danger. “Maybe we should take a break on it for now. See if any ideas pop into my head. I’m the one who’s supposed to figure it out, but... y’know it’s not mechanical or anything. It absorbs... something, then releases heat... huh, do you think it could just be a thermal battery? Like... a ridiculously high specific heat capacity? Maybe if I tossed it in the Harmony's firebox for a while..."
The engineer carefully levitated the crystal out and stowed it in her saddlebag. Now that she wasn't completely focused on the problem, she suddenly realised how hungry she was. "Uh, yeah, you want to go get some food first?”
"Sounds like a heck of a plan, Nutmeg." Azure said with a smile. She had no idea what a 'thermal battery' was, but was liking the prospect of getting some lunch. "I'd happily take a field ration right now." she admitted, giving the engine one more look before trotting back out onto the deck. The unicorn wondered if there was any cider left, it'd been a while since she'd had a chance to partake.
“You’re a pony, aren’t you?” Nutmeg asked the unicorn in clueless if bemused curiosity, “I thought you were all happy eating grass and stuff.” Just a few tools to tidy away and she'd follow.
"Grass is most of the pony diet, yes. But you'd be surprised what some ponies can do with it!" Azure mentioned with a chuckle... before she quickly added "Just don't expect any culinary magic from me..." Her voice trailed off as she spotted movement near the stern of the Harmony. Billowing black drifting movement. Smoke in fact, pouring out of the portholes at the back of the ship.
Without another word, Azure recast the Skyborn spell and sprang into the air, heading straight for the smoking stern of the giant airship. To her, it's was clear that this was enemy action, and she mentally prepared for a fight; but was it another dragon, or the drow, or another threat entirely? She'd been so keen to assist the engineer... that'll teach her to let her guard down!
Nutmeg came outside in short order, saying amiably, "I'm sure you could make something I never tried before. It—" Where had the unicorn was gone... her gaze settled to the billowing black smoke and the kirin immediately dashed forward, hardly noticing Azure soaring up over her head as she bounded straight for the ship.
The smoke was definitely coming from the galley, at the back of the middle deck... right below the coal bunkers. As Azure flew over to the Harmony the air filled with the shouts of crew members rushing to assist, pierced by the distinct sound of a screaming mare. Without their first, second or even third mate to direct them, the firefighting response seemed enthusiastic but disorganised.
"Some creature's stuck down there..." Azure muttered as she arrived, casting about for options and seeing Nutmeg charging up the gangplank. "Nutmeg, could you...” and Nutmeg went on charging wordlessly past her, heading down the ramp to the lower decks, where ponies with buckets were frantically and all too infrequently carrying them down into the ship. “Well okay then,” Azure concluded, glad that somepony seemed to know what she was doing. Nutmeg was fireproof, so she’d probably be fine. But still, with all that smoke... Azure was torn between trying to get down there herself and try to do something about the smoke with her new skill at air magic, and helping out on deck. It looked like the crew could use some direction as well. This was one fight she didn't expect to be in today...
The smoky main deck was full of activity, but no one was trapped down here. Her huge ears perked for the pony in trouble, Nutmeg winced as she heard the cries coming muffled from further below. Ponies weren’t going down there, from all the thick smoke billowing out of the entrance to the tween deck. The pony down there was worse off than Nutmeg though, and the first thing the kirin had been taught in dealing with fires she hopefully hadn’t caused was to forget about the fire, about the burning things, and make sure everyone was out of the smoke first. Scurrying down the second ramp, it was hard to see clearly. The smoke was already making Nutmeg’s breath come short and her eyes water. Nopony at all was going in from where it was billowing out of the galley into the mess hall, but Nutmeg was sure that’s where she heard those weak cries.
A chill going through her as she realized that the pony had stopped crying out for help, Nutmeg lit up her horn and pushed as much of the smoke away from her face as she could before venturing in, fearing the worst. She was never all that good with magic though, and shielding from an amorphous expanding cloud of smoke particles was not something that was easy to do, so she just tried to keep her breath shallow and pressed forward.
With Nutmeg already rushing into the ship, it was down to Azure to coordinate the firefighting, and while she's not very good at it... "We need more water, or we'll lose the ship! Rainwater would help, but the clouds are too far. Do we have any water supply nearby..." she muttered. Her eyes settled on river, at the far end of the meadow. "Okay... okay, we've got water in the river, gotta get it back"
A crowd of pegasi, earth ponies, unicorns, they were all flying above or running around the deck now. Trying a bit of a trick, Azure cast a weak, but visible walls of shimmering wind all around the deck, trapping the crew inside. Another touch of air magic amplified her voice to Royal Canterlot proportions. "Unicorns! You're on bucket duty, grab all the containers you can find, gallop to that stream and bring more water! Pegasi! Clouds, get them down here now, once we've got rain I can use my magic to blow it inside! Earth ponies... you're on the front line, dump all the water we've got into the mess, then get everything flammable out of the nearby corridors! Come on, no time to waste!
The stunned crewponies (and one crewdonkey) looked at each other, and collectively decided not to argue with the winged battle mage casually tossing around powerful magic. As soon as the wind walls dropped, they streaked off, the small herd of unicorns heading for the water with levitating buckets in tow, while the larger flock of pegasi sped off seeking clouds to corral. Azure herself automatically went with the unicorns, flying over their heads towards the river as well: water was the highest priority, and perhaps a couple more buckets made the difference... but immediately she started questioning her plan. Was this really the most efficient way she could help? Her Lieutenant would kick her flank for this such a simplistic plan... but in the heat of the moment it was the best she could think of.
In the mess hall, ruddy light flickered beyond the doorway of the galley, as the flames licked up from the dried hay locker to catch on the tables and cupboards. The door was hanging askew like it had been forced open, and about two steps out the door, a blue pegasus mare with a cutie mark of heart-shaped flowers lay there collapsed on the floor. Nutmeg gave the flickering flames a helpless look, then rushed to the blue mare’s side, murmuring, “Don’t breathe. Short breaths only,” in case she was still conscious. As it so happens, the flower-rumped pegasus was completely unconscious, making it easy to shoulder her upper body onto Nutmeg’s back. Unfortunately, the flower rumped pegasus was a larger mare, and Nutmeg was not, so her upper body was about all the kirin could shoulder. With her horn holding the smoke back from both of their heads, Nutmeg draped the pony’s foreleg over her shoulder and hung onto it firmly with her teeth. Slowly, the kirin dragged her away from the fire and the heat, out the door to the mess hall and back toward the ramp.
Fortunately Nutmeg didn't have to go far before help was at hand. Standing nervously at the base of the main ramp she found Winter Hope, the unicorn nickering and stamping his hooves, apparently scared half witless by the prospect of the ship catching fire. "Who's that... oh, oh it's Bluebell, oh no..." he said, kneeling down beside the mare and checking her over. "She's unconscious... still breathing, thank Celestia. Did you... you saved her?" the unicorn added, looking at Nutmeg as if seeing the kirin for the first time. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"
“We need—” Nutmeg coughed at her burning lungs, “—out of the smoke!”
The stallion's eyes widened, and his horn lit, adding his much more powerful telekinetic push to Nutmeg’s efforts. The two backed up in the corridor and up the ramp with the heavy mare, until they were all out of the ship and clear of the smoke.
“You know how to—you know about the poison in smoke,” a panting Nutmeg asked the white unicorn stallion, afraid to leave the mare like this, “The poison that takes away your breath even after it’s gone, right?”
Blinking at her in confusion, the stallion said, “Carbon monoxide? Y-yes. I can—”
“Do that!” Nutmeg shouted with a push of her hoof against his chest. Then the sooty kirin mare leapt straight for the engine room, bounding across the deck in two shakes of a kirin’s tail.
In a cabin at the far end of the ship, two griffons had been carrying on a spirited argument about just how long one should rest an injured wing before flying again, when the muffled shouts of "Fire, it's a fire!" started echoing up the corridor. Gustus sprang to his feet and was already half-way out the door, before he turned to his mate and beseeched her, "Grennie, sounds like they need help... just, stay here, alright, I don't want anything else happening to..."
"Shove it in your cloc, Gusty!" the hen shouted back, her feathers puffing up. "I'm not sitting here while..." Focused as he was on his mate, the griffon's keen eyes picked up motion behind Grenelda... something green, creeping across the floor in front of a porthole that had been closed a minute ago, light glinting on the knife raised high in one hand, ready to be plunged into the back of his beloved Grennie...
Gustus's eyes narrowed in a sharp and horrified look at the creeping figure! "Grennie, look out!" he squawked, leaping forward to try and intercept the intruder. That weapon was small but no less dangerous for that; he went for a grab, trying to wrestle it out of the small biped's grip before it was too late!
His mate's eyes went wide: she started to twist and look over her shoulder but was body-checked sideways as Gustus lunged forward. The griffon's claw reached out to grab the drow's arm, but he was off balance and facing a bloodthirsty, battle-hardened enemy. The drow didn't fare much better, instinctively adjusting her aim as Grenelda shifted sideways before realising she'd over extended. Both parties missed their mark, but Gustus found himself with a slashed and bleeding claw while the tips of his own talons scored deep red gouges in the attacker's forearm. She screamed and nearly dropped the butcher's knife, before managing to transfer it to her other hand. "Die, just die, like the animals you are!" she raged, stress and her bizarre accent making the insult barely understandable.
The griffon let out a screech of pain, as this hostile creature drew blood! He might be panicing, he might not be an experienced fighter, but he was an apex predator and the adrenalin was flowing. He grabbed again for the drow's wounded arm, while his other foreclaw reached for the first place his instinct said to strike: the attacker's face!
Jagged Blade's first instinct was to parry, but the knife was in her off hand and the griffon was much stronger. Instead she flinched back, just fast enough to avoid getting her face ripped off but not enough to avoid losing most of her left ear to Gustus's claw. The drow screamed again, desperately twisting and managing to slip out of the griffon's grip thanks to the lubricating effect of her own blood. She pulled back, preparing to make another slash at her tormentor... but now the female griffon had managed to turn around in the cramped cabin, and was glaring murder at her.
However full of grief and rage she might be, the sight of a pair of giant eagle faces intend on ending her forced the drow to the realisation that her plan to assassinate her mate's killer had failed. Desperately she scrambled back out the open porthole, climbing onto the hull where the much larger griffons could not immediately pursue.
By now Azure had made it back from the stream. A pair of sloshing buckets held in her magic, but that didn't stop her pounding a hoof into her face. "I have air magic now... I should be choking out the fire, cutting off the oxygen, dealing with the smoke..." Why couldn't the Lieutenant be chosen for this mission? "Take them!" she shouted to one of the earth ponies, dropping the buckets at his feet, before flapping down into the ship. If she could push the smoke and stale air back into the galley, then block the doorway with an air curtain, perhaps that would stop it spreading...
“You blooming idiots!” Nutmeg shouted as she ran full tilt into the engine room, “Why haven’t you—?” The kirin cut off as Sprocket and Gearshift ran up with a grey hose carried between the both of them. “Oh you guys are awesome,” Nutmeg declared with a rough smile, turning around as the other two made haste to strap the hose tightly to their chief engineer. With it in tow, Nutmeg went mincing out of the engineering room, hoping to all heck that there’s enough spool on this hose to reach the galley.
Her ears went down at how dizzy she was already feeling, but Nutmeg led her crew downstairs anyway, and promptly ran into Azure’s fire suppression squad. They had already closed all the internal hatches, cutting the fire off from the draft and choking it in its own smoke, and yet the mess hall was mostly clear of smoke. Ponies rushed up and down the ramp carrying away tables, chairs, anything wooden or flammable. Nutmeg pressed on into mess hall itself, where she saw Azure standing there in the middle, horn aglow, holding back the black smoke with a wall of air.
“Azure! Head’s up we got water incoming!” Nutmeg called out, biting the handle on the spigot to send a short blast of very hot water at what the fire she could see licking at the edges of Azure’s wind wall, steam bursting from the spot with a furious hiss.
In the griffon's cabin, Gustus glared with a deathly gaze at the retreating drow, breathing heavy, muscles tensed, feathers flared, ready to pounce. When the biped disappeared through the window, it seemed the immediate threat is gone. Gustus lets out a sigh of relief, turning first to hug Grenelda protectively, then checking on his own wounds. "What in Equestria is going on around here? I hardly feel safe anymore! I mean, we knew that we were heading into danger, passing through the storm barrier and all, but now we have assassins crawling over the ship! Where does this malice come from?"
"Shoulda killed that little bitch when we had the chance." Grenelda spat, taking Gustus's claw in her own and checking it over. "You gotta get that bandaged." The hen pressed her beak against her mate's neck. "Gusty, oh Gusty, ya did great just there, she had me cold."
Gustus flattened his feathers. "It went so fast - I hardly had a moment to think. Next time." He seems obliging with his choice of words, but he's scared on the inside.
"Yeah, but... look, we gotta take her down. Before she does any more damage." Pulling out of the hug, the griffoness pushed out into the corridor, heading for the upper deck.
Gustus looked down, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, I do... Ah, where are you going, Grennie?! You need to rest!" He perked up, and hurried after her.
As he padded after his mate, Gustus spotted another of the creatures, crouching inside a darkened cabin. The furless green biped seemed smaller than the first one and less sure of herself, with no obvious weapon. In her haste to get topside, Grenelda swept straight past the doorway and disappeared up the ramp. The little drow watched the griffon go and seems to sag with relief, before turning and seeing Gustus staring at her. Her face contorted in shock and fear.
Gustus put on a scary face (an easy feat for a natural predator) and approached the drow, claws brandished. "Are you feeling remorseful for your horrendous actions yet, little green creature?" He clicked his beak and stared.
"W-What? What do you mean? Look, I didn't do anything, I swear" Silent Arrow squeaked. "It was all Jaggers, she's the one you want. And... I can help you find her! I know how she thinks! You're a smart griffon, r-right, so d-don't eat me, 'cause that would be dumb!" The little drow nervously glanced around, avoiding Gustus's gaze and considering whether to make a break for it.
Gustus thought for a moment. Well, the little thing does seem to be missing its knife... suddenly he remembered his mate mentioning that two of her would-be slavemasters had survived. "You would lead me to your brethren? I swear if you're trying to set a trap for me, you're gonna find your guts all-"
Up on the deck, Grenelda was leaning over the rail, one wing extended and squawking with frustration. "Azure!" she shouts. "Gustus? Someone! That little elf bitch is crawling on the hull!" If only she could fly right now, it was like her enemy was mocking her.
His ears perk up at Grenelda's shrill voice! "Nevermind. Coming, Grennie!" Gustus gives the smaller drow one last glance as he scampers onto the top deck. "Point me and I'll take flight, dear!"
Down in the mess, Azure's kept her spell stable, keeping the mess clear of smoke while Nutmeg fought the flames in the galley. The bucket brigade had cleared and were in the process of slowly drenching anything flammable left in the room, while outside the ship, the first drops of rain began to patter on the portholes as the pegasi worked their weather magic. A little more and the ship would be saved... but who could have started this? Little that she knew, they weren't the only ones having problems...
Nutmeg's supply of pressurized water from the boiler ran out quickly, but she used it in targeted blasts to kill the worst flames first, so by the time her hose went dry, there were just a few smouldering timbers for the bucket brigade to deal with. Azure pushed her air wall forward, blowing the rest of the smoke out the portholes, while the earth ponies rushed in, stomping on the embers. The terrible smell of fresh charcoal and burned provisions filled the air.
At the cry from Grenelda, Azure looked up. "...The drow escaped?! Damn it..." she cursed, flapping back out of the ship in short order, looking for the enemy. "Guess we need to go hunt, then..." The winged unicorn looks less than happy. "If they caused that fire, I don't care how much they plead..." She shook her head, starting to look...
Far away, in some abandoned castle, a cold chill went down Set Sail's spine.
Jagged Blade had expertly climbed her way around to one of the mooring lines attaching the ship to the nearby cliff. Wincing with pain as she forced her wounded arm to carry her weight, the drow managed to get on top of the rope and balanced on it like a tightrope with catlike grace. Clearly visible to all on deck, she didn't stop to look back, just ran for the relative freedom of the meadow, hoping to reach the treeline and lose her pursuers in the jungle.
Gustus peered into the meadow as Grenelda pointed the way! "I see them: I'm in pursuit!" He leapt off of the deck railing, wings spreading as he arcs up before diving down, claws spread, in a swoop towards the drow. She might be a fast runner but there was no way she was getting away from an airborne griffon!
The predator slammed into the drow warrior, his claws bearing her to the ground and pinning her there. The shock of the impact had stunned her beyond any prospect of immediate counterattack, and he easily pulled the knife from her belt and tossed it away while keeping the other claw on her back. A shrill screech of triumph escaped his beak before he leaned down to the enemy's face. "You're going to regret what you've done today." He held off on the killing blow though, hesitant to take a sapient life no matter what the crime.
Pursuit? "Not alone!" Azure cried out before launching into the air herself, her face grim and resolute as she flapped after the griffon (though the effect was slightly diluted by her glittering butterfly wings). The eagle-lion chimera was far faster though, and it looked like he'd have first choice on the drow's fate; a fact that's further driven home as she spots the gryphon pinning his prey. A few seconds later and the unicorn was right next to him, her disgust evident. "Lit the ship on fire and hoped to get away, huh?" She's jumping to conclusions, but judging by the race's track record...
Jagged Blade let out a frustrated scream. "Nearly took all of you down, didn't I?" Then between ragged sobs: "Do it! Just do it! You killed my crew, you killed my mate, I'm an... exile.... now, because... of you... stupid. freakish. beasts!"
Azure regarded the drow stonily for a few moments, then flapped back into the sky. The mare's voice was devoid of emotion as she said "Bring her, Gustus." The griffon followed behind, the biped held in his claws; her struggles subsided as she realised what escape now would mean. Azure flew over the island's jungle until they were out of sight of the ship, then veered off over the edge, until they were hovering in open sky.
"By your own confession, you are a slaver, a thief and a murderer." Azure's voice was like an icy gale worthy of the windigoes themselves. "Despite this you were granted prisoner of war status, and you responded by trying to burn down a civilian ship and assassinate the crew. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
Knowing the game was up, the drow leader still managed to muster a cruel, coughing laugh. "I'd do it all again. You think you've won? My kin will come, every single one of you will be a slave or a meal! I just wish I could see it."
A final dismissive snort from Azure, then a nod to Gustus. Jagged Blade's last scream quickly faded away as she became a dwindling dot, eventually disappearing into the bowl of clouds far below. Gustus's claws were trembling; Azure took them in her hooves. "It's ok, Gustus. Two days on the ship was enough for her to nearly kill Bluebell-"
"And Grennie." he whispered. "If I hadn't been there-"
"And Grenelda." Azure stated. "One way or another, it was us or her. Remember that."
Traversing the exciting new environment of the swamp island turned out to entail a lot of pushing through wet bushes, hooves suddenly disappearing through the moss into the sucking, cloying mud underneath, jumping over streams only to have the far bank collapse into yet more mud, detours around smelly stagnant ponds and thickets of dense spiky plants, and the flyers repeatedly having to force their way through the branches overhead to pop up and get a bearing after three of said detours in a row.
All the while the explorers marinated in the scent of rotting vegetation and freshly turned mud, while the hissing croaking rustling sounds of the verdant swamp came from all around. Every few minutes there would be a sudden, loud 'oink!', each time causing Set Sail to flutter into the air and scan the trees for their pursuer, though they never spotted it. Reef's offer to 'put down that specimen if it's bothering you Captain, need a dissection anyway, to confirm its anatomical similarity to the swine back home...' only made her look like she was going to lose her lunch.
The explorers made it to the lake shore, only to find abandoned fishing rods and in one case a row of gutted and cleaned fish, which Reef Skimmer eyed hungrily but politely kept away from. It seemed the fish creatures had little trouble detecting the ponies' approach and chose to avoid the encounter, leaving only ripples on the surface of the lake in their passing. Declining Reef's offer to turn everyone into seaponies so they could follow underwater (which Set Sail seemed to think was a joke), Summer Scribe did her best to rally her troops, telling them that the village was 'right around the corner, and sure to be friendly!'
"Well great. And after all that, they're still scared of us," Set Sail groaned. Most of the discolouration from all those times she fell in the mud was hidden by the brown colour of her fur, but she was nursing a sore hoof. "I didn't even think bugs got that big," she grumbled, looking back with a baleful eye at the jungle they'd emerged from.
Huuuuffff! The unicorn mare pushed out of a clump of bushes and collapsed, muddy and panting. "Okay, I admit, that trip was a lot more pleasant in my head." Summer Scribe said, her tone exasperated. "I miss Blissful Pastures already." She gave herself a quick look over, decided that her coat was unpresentably dirty, and hazarded a dip in the lake to try and clean off at least a little. "Okay! Village right up ahead!" she said, enthusiasm returning as she shook the water out of her fur. "This is our first contact, so let's be on our friendliest behaviour!" With that Summer trotted ahead, refocused and determined to reach the cluster of buildings they'd spotted from the castle.
After an interminably long time trudging up and down the shores of inlets, and getting excited about stumbling onto a path only to find it twisting through the swamp and seemingly ended in the middle of nowhere, the tired, scratched and very muddy party finally reached said settlement. Perhaps a dozen shacks formed a loose circle, built on stilts to cut down on rising damp, walls of weathered planks and rooves of thatch or rusty mismatched metal sheeting. This time, the fish creatures decided to stand their ground.
Cloud Cutter looked a little irritated at the jungle, yet other than the momentary look of frustration, still followed with little more than a thoughtful look as she spotted the fish creatures. "I don't think they want to run this time..."
Summer Scribe took a deep breath and let it out again. 'Okay' she thought, 'perhaps they're a bit skittish, but they don't seem to be outright hostile. Let's make some new friends!' She raised a hoof, gently waving it. "Greetings! We are ponies from Equestria, here on an expedition of scientific discovery and exploration! We come in peace, and wish to build new friendships!"
Set Sail started to say something, but then blushed, glad that she had Summer to think of how to introduce themselves. The trip through the swamp had left her so flustered, she hadn't even thought to try approaching the village secretly and scoping it out first, instead just walking along with the others right up to it.
Six of them stood in the middle of the clearing, staring nervously at the approaching creatures. They did indeed look like bipedal fish, scaled in various shades of green and blue with great staring eyes and oversized paws ending in squishy looking 'fingers'. Fins poked out from various bits of their body, with the membranes tattered and decayed. They were wearing simple shirts of rough canvas and in one case a hat. Two of them were holding three-tined tridents while one was clutching what looked like an oversized butterfly net. All of them stared warily at Reef Skimmer as they approached, before Summer's words took them by surprise.
Summer Scribe paused, watching the biped's faces carefully, trying to gauge their reactions. She waited a moment for a response, before continuing, waving her hoof a bit: "Can you hear me? Can you understand me? Can you talk? Is there another way you'd prefer to communicate?" How did fish communicate anyway? Perhaps this was all in vain...
The gill-man with the hat took one step forward from the rest of the group before freezing, staring from Summer to Reef and back again. "Well I'll be, whadda we have here, can't say I ever saw no talking deer not with a griffon nor otherwise, cute little things you got here haven't you say are these your pets or, uh..." The rough male voice trailed off as the creature looked worriedly at Reef Skimmer's impassive visage.
Before the hippogriff could respond the biped bent down on one knee, beamed at Summer and continued. "You talk real good, little deer, uh, not making a whole lotta sense there but you got those words down pat, uh, darned cute if I do say so myself." He glanced nervously at Reef again. "Are you selling 'em? Or I don't suppose, just thinking out loud here, maybe you can train otters to talk instead? Cause my cousin would just love it if, uh, well..." he trailed off. Behind him the other fish-creatures seem to relax a little but haven't let go of their improvised weapons.
Summer Scribe pulled a face. "Uhh, they think we're Reef's pets?!" she scoffed, feeling suddenly humiliated by the interaction! She, hied behind Reef, nudging him a bit to continue the conversation, since it seemed he was the de facto Figure of Authority here. "Can you, uhh, tell them we're not for sale, please...?"
Set Sail's wary stance lasted long enough for her to stare dumbly at the gill-man just trotting up and giving Summer a big old eyeball. "W-we're not for sale!" she called out bravely from a few pony-lengths away, ready to take off at the first approach of any of those slavers, "And buying and selling pon— crea— people is bad!"
Cloud Cutter was still looking on with those empty eyes, but took a slight step back at the first speech from the gillmen. She was soon quietly mouthing the word "Deer?" These things thought they were deer now?
"Now see here," Reef began, huffing with annoyance, "these are ponies, not deer, completely different order, I mean look at their hooves..." Giving a kind of frustrated caw at the blank, glassy stares he tried again. "Look, that one is the Senior Researcher and this one is Captain Set Sail" he declared, gesturing from pony to pony, his larger size and wings spreading protectively over them not doing much to dispel the notion that they actually were his pets "...and you would do well to treat them with respect!"
Summer Scribe smiled, feeling bolstered by her friend's support... and now that the immediate annoyance has passed, worried that perhaps these gillfolk aren't as rational as she was hoping for. "Mhmm-mmm... yes! I'm my own pony and perfectly capable of holding my own conversations, here!"
The fish creature with the hat took a step back, seeking safety in his group. "Oh sure whatever you say mister griffon, you gotta re-search po-knee, a captain po-knee, uh, a purple... birdie... po-knee, you got all the po-knees!" He looked helplessly from one brightly coloured quadruped to another. "Uh... so... uh... what brings you cute little po-knees... and griffon! uh, yeah, what made ya wanna drop in on us folks down here in Rushreed Hollow?"
Summer Scribe let out a sigh of relief. Progress! She waved a hoof, pointing at the eastern sky, roughly to where Azure's scouting team had their first run-in with the drow. "We have a common threat: the drow. Since we began to explore, they've also raided us and attempted to capture and wound our people. And we know that you too live in fear of them: hence the forcefield dome. We were wondering if you'd be interested in a strategic alliance: to seek shelter against the Drow together and fight back!"
At the word 'drow' the whole group of fish creatures broke out in an agitated babble of "They know about..." "You don't suppose..." "It's a bad omen..." "Shoulda just..." "Wait wait..." that died away as Summer continues. All of them listened intently as she continues to speak, before looking back to their apparent leader.
"You don't capture and raid people too, do you?" Set Sail added warily, "Because we need to find p-people who don't do that! And wait-a-sec what do you mean fight back, Summer?? We're gonna fight the drow?!"
Summer Scribe blinked at Set Sail. "Well, we kind of don't have a choice: if they just attack us all the time, we're not getting anywhere. Plus, they have airships and we're inside the Storm Barrier, so we can't run or hide!" At this point she noticed that the gillmen were having quite the cautious reaction to her speech, so she improvised, directing her conclusion to the gillmen as well: "Our only choice is to teach them a lesson they won't forget!"
Cloud Cutter turned to Set Sail before nodding a little. "To be fair, Captain, hostilities are already underway. And I don't think the creatures back at the ship will take too kindly at being told to run from every fight."
"Yeah but... if these guys couldn't beat them," the acting captain whispered harshly to the cool purple pegasus, looking around at the gathered fishfolk all with weapons ready, "We're just a bunch of science ponies and sailors!"
"Now how did you get that idea, captain po-knee, we don't do no raiding nor slaving nor killing or stealing of any kind..." The gill-man's eyes shifted to Summer "...and you'd be a-feared too little deer, uh, po-knee, if you'd been about when those creatures 'o evil did come looking to steal away your fish, your tools, your, uh..." his voice choked up "...your daughter. The worst kinda bad news, those drow, we ain't in no position to fight 'em and if you think you're gonna do better..." He trailed off, confused by the po-knees seemingly arguing among themselves.
Summer Scribe picked up on that, trying to not shed a tear herself as she looked sad. Pony empathy powers go! "We don't want you to live in fear of an oppressor, either! We can stand together and fight against those bullies! Before they can do anything worse!" She thumped a hoof down and gave a resolute nod! "We're ponies! We don't stand down when folks are in need!"
Cloud Cutter turned away from Set Sail to listen to what she assumed was the gillmen's leader had said... before nodding slightly in response, then looking pleased with Summer Scribe's assertion, though she staying quiet for the time being.
"That's mighty touching of you, uh, 'search po-knee', spreading around your concern like that, but you see those drow, they got copters, they got cannon, they got a whole load o' archers and pikers and sneaky little buggers who descend on an unsuspecting village in the middle of the night like... uh... it's like... uh" The older gill-man stared into space, seemingly trapped in the recollection.
Set Sail looked ready to stridently object to Summer digging them even deeper, but instead her frustration broke, at the fish guy's words. She gave him (at least) a heartbroken look, saying, "Oh no! Your daughter?"
Behind him a younger, female voice piped up "Like the worst nightmare you ever did have, little po-knees! Now I'm thinking, not to be ungrateful here but I'm thinking, why would some strangers who never seen these parts before go sticking their necks out for us nobodies, and then I'm asking, yeah I'm asking how ya came to know about some 'force field' hereabouts. 'Cause I'm not saying you're spies for no drow, but..." The aquatic creature looked down. "...it's just mighty peculiar ya know?"
Summer Scribe pondered that, looking around the rest of the group as she huddled in. "Hmm, that's a good point... How can we prove that we're not Drow spies?" Not something that occurred to her earlier.
"My dear... fish lady..." Reef began.
"Sliptail, that's the name my mamma gave me, and you just done upset uncle Scalesbook there." she cut in.
Meanwhile Set Sail was whispering to Summer: "Do we need to prove we're not Drow spies? They can have their force field. We just need some friends around here, and help fixing our ship!"
Sweat was beading on Summer Scribe's brow, but she deferred to Set Sail's judgement. "You're right: we don't need full-blown sharing, everything-together-as-one relations, we just need to help each other out. Okay, I'll go down that road." She looks over to see if Reef is still talking, before butting in.
Cloud Cutter nodded again. "I'll side with the Captain as well on this one." She tossed in her two cents on the argument, even if it seemed over.
"...indeed. One does offer the most sincere apologies for that." Reef continued, ignoring the ponies whispering to each other in front of him. "In any case, please accept my assurance that we are explorers, conducting a survey of the Cloudbreaks, with particular attention to the biological and magical anomalies to be found here. And I must say that giant magical bubble over there, well it sticks out like a sore talon, so to speak. One would hardly have to be a spy to be drawn to such a sight."
"We're not looking for any trouble or anything. We're just really... really new to these lands, and we want to know if you... capture creatures and sell them," Set Sail offered, coming out of the impromptu huddle, ears down. "I-i-it's fine if you do I don't judge we'll just... go elsewhere nice and peacefully. We just don't know who's friendly around these parts."
"Yeah, umm, I do hear tell it's the grandest water nexus to be found in these parts, that's to be sure, but, ummm, you know about the pirates, and you know something about us, so someone done gone told you a whole lot, uh..." Slipscale tailed off, not sure what she's trying to say.
"I told you po-knee, we ain't no slaving stealing despicable little drow!" the older male cut in angrily, staring at Set Sail. "And I ain't too happy with anyone making the comparison!"
Summer Scribe bumped Set Sail, leaning in for a sharp whisper! "They're not slavers: drop it." Uncharacteristically angry for her! Then she settled herself in, and addressed Slipscale: "So, when it comes down to it... It's totally fair if you don't trust us yet. And that's fine! What we need the most is more transactional: we need help fixing our currently grounded airship. Are there any among your people who know their way around an airship, or even just good carpenters? I think once you see what we have, you'll agree it's unlike any Drow ship you've seen - and we'd be happy to show you around! And perhaps there's something we can do for you in return? We have capable fighters, magic..." She thought about offering supplies, but they were a little short on, uhh, everything really.
"I capture creatures and sell them!" another gill-man shouted unhelpfully from the back of the group. "I got me some gold-fish, red-fish, blue-fish, speckled-fish... uh... toads, coupla' snakes... all bottled up, ready ta take home... and good prices on each and every one, Burbleweed won't rip ya off, if ya got... gold for spending?" he pattered with a hopeful look. The rest of the fish creatures stared at him, rolling their eyes.
Reef Skimmer looked startled at this, then leaned his head down to Summer, stage-whispering "One doesn't suppose you brought those antique coins along? Live specimens already bottled up, did you hear?"
Summer Scribe blink-blinked, and opened her saddle bag, levitating out a few coins that jingled in front of her. "I mean, if any of this counts as 'gold'..." She looked sheepish.
Cloud Cutter finally decided to speak up, stepped forward with eyes showing no sign of emotion, but her voice made up for it. "We're not here to fight you... Summer is correct." Maybe she could stop this conversation from getting any worse. "The Drow have already caused us some problems, and some of us are very unhappy about what they've done... and most will be even less happy to hear what they've done to you." she concluded.
"Found yourselves on the wrong end of a dark elf pike, did ya now?" Scalesbrook said, taking a close look at Cloud Cutter for the first time. "Say, you got the way about you don't you, like you, uh, you... you been to the other side, and come back somehow." Eyes wide open, the fish man shivered, taking a step back from the pegasus.
Slipscale steps closer to her uncle and puts a clammy hand on his shoulder. "And that one done got some Magic in her." she said, pointing at Summer's glowing horn. "You suppose they all got elements on their side? Can't see no other way they'd get away, if the drow came a calling on their camp."
"Make no mistake, we defeated the drow on our encounter, my allies and I..." Cloud Cutter began, but as Scalesbrook continued... the pegasus took a step back as well. It was clear that the gillman had mentioned something she wasn't comfortable with. It took some time for her to even look back to the creature, though, and as Slipscale spoke... there was a sense of hope to the purple mare's words: "...I'm afraid I'm not quite understanding it myself. Could you help me there?"
"Unicorn ponies are uh, magic, yes," Set Sail clarified uncertainly, "We've still been trying to figure out what happened to Clashing Gale's team though, like Cloud Cutter here. If we did have these... element things on our side, we'd never use them to harm you, but we're kind of in the dark here, to be honest."
The older gillman looked perplexed. "Po-knee, now I can't say we had no spooky gillmen here no not in living memory but if I do recall they say those who've been to the other side, don't shed no light on the mysteries, now I always thought that was 'cause they just like being mysterious, but, uh..." He stared at Cloud Cutter again "...look we're just simple gillfolk here, fishing and cooking and a little of the farming and smithing on the side. We ain't got much in the way of elementals, mostly just the chief's line who got the way of the waters oww!"
Slipscale had elbowed her uncle in the ribs, glaring at him for revealing that to the strangers.
"You sent them drow packing?" Burbleweed said from behind. Turning to a fellow gillman he asked "You believe that? Those cute little things fought off a whole crew o' pirates? Unless..." he looked warily at Reef, still standing just behind the ponies with wings half-spread "...they got a whole lot more griffons back at their camp."
Cloud Cutter looked torn for a moment on how to respond, but then decided it would be better to seek a second opinion. She sidled over to Set Sail and whispered: "Should we tell them we captured their ship? Maybe then they'd believe we're on their side..."
Summer Scribe oohs. Their chief was all magical too? "...Don't suppose we could get a meeting with the chief? Friendly chat, exchange powers?" she said, with a smirk on her muzzle.
Harshly elbowing Summer, Set Sail said out loud, "We're not asking for miracles," with a sympathetic look to Slipscale. "We're just a group of explorers who got... a little waylaid, and we want to help however we can, so we can get a little... help in return. And mostly we just wanted to see if you were a friendly folk or not, since the only talking creatures we've run into so far are the Drow, and one creature who calls himself a 'troll'."
Summer Scribe oofs! But okay, that was fair. She rolled her leg a bit, nursing it. "Abby was pretty nice, though! Just a bit hermity." She perked a bit at Cloud Cutter and Set Sail's whispering, but missed the content.
"You wanna talk to the chieftess?" Slipscale said. "Yeah that'd be about right I guess, what with this talk of helping each other out, and she'll know, yeah she'll know if you're spies, or... umm, yeah, old Smoothfin 'll know if you folks are on the level. Friendly like. She looked around at her fellows. "Cause we're real friendly when you get to know us, right?" The gill-men all nodded, as if this was a point of pride.
"You won't go finding nowhere more welcoming than Witchway Marsh, not if you done hate those dark elf bastards nearly as much as we do!" Burbleweed said enthusiastically. "And we got the best selection of fresh, uh..." Seeing Set Sail's muzzle scrunch up he adjusted his pitch on the fly, "...pet! Yeah pet fish you'll find this side of Syklands!" he finished.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Set Sail replied, "We'd be happy to talk with her, if she's available! Where can she— I mean, if you could point us to where we might speak with her? We're not..." she eyed the giant floating islands and rivers all around them above, "...a very large group, but I think she might want to hear of us, and what good we can do together."
Summer Scribe nodded in agreement! It seemed like the conversation was heading in a productive direction. Hopefully the elder could be relied upon to be reasonable! Cloud Cutter also nodded and quieted down as she trotted back to her previous position. Perhaps now was not the best time to boast about how badly the drow had fared in their first encounter.
"Oh you'll be wanting to get up to the village then." Scalesbrook said, reaching up to adjust his broad-rimmed hat. "It's on the big island up there..." he waves at the sky "...just down the way from the source. Seeing as you're so polite and all I can offer ya all a ride on ma raft, ain't no better way to take in the sights downriver." He looked at the ponies for a moment. "'less you'd prefer to fly, I guess, say did you carry that little one all the way here?" he asked Reef Skimmer.
Summer Scribe looked up at the hippogriff. "Taking the raft does sound nice! But if we want to be expedient, Reef here can carry me, yes."
"Most of us are flyers, but a chance to see your magnificent river doesn't sound like such a bad idea," Set Sail sort of agreed, "We're not in a huge hurry, as long as it won't take days. Not like the ship'll burn down without us, right? H-how much... gold does it cost to ride?"
"Oh, one has gotten used to carting ponies around, so to speak." Reef said vaguely. "But one certainly wouldn't say no to a... raft..." he continued, "...assuming you have some magical means of propulsion? Wouldn't want to tire you good fellows out, pushing us all the way upriver!" He supposed he could transform and assist, would that startle them or reassure them, to see a fellow aquatic creature?
"Well you don't say, for the full tour it's just four gold ea- ow!" Burbleweed's pitch was cut off by another well-placed elbow from Sliptail.
"Can't be seeing to charge you folks what with offering to help us with the drow and all." Scalesbrook said. "Maybe you can even help us man the turret, if those sharks ever get it working! Uh." His niece was glaring at him again. "Uh. Never mind that. Yeah, so it's this way to the landing, if y'all will just follow me."
Summer Scribe nodded enthusiastically: "Lead the way, please!"
The older gillman lead the ponies through the cluster of huts and down a winding boardwalk into the swamp. It was just a couple of planks wide and creaked ominously under Reef's weight. "Uh, mind that one there, gotta replace that rotten plank some day, heh." he said. The hippogriff frowned and kept his wings open as much as possible, as another dunking in the smelly mud didn't appeal.
Slipscale followed at the rear of the group, wanting to keep an eye on her uncle, who seemed far to willing to spill the tribe's secrets to these strange creatures. The trip went much faster than the pony's journey from the castle, and soon enough the party was at the bank of a small river, flowing out from the central lake to the edge of the island.
Cloud Cutter didn't seem too keen on the idea of raft riding, but she didn't want to be that one creature that wouldn't join in with the group activity. Thankfully, the trip wasn't long... at least, not nearly as long as the flight there, or the trek through the jungle to the village...
Floating in a small cove was the raft, consisting of a rubber donut perhaps four metres in diameter, covered in patches sewn over many past punctures and topped with a platform of weathered, creaking brown planks. The cove itself had a nice sandy shore and clear water, contrasting with the muddy pools in the swamp behind them.
Fed up with the mud caking his feathers, Reef couldn't contain himself; with a quick flap he was in the air and over the water. Ribbons of golden light appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around his form; within a second they'd obscured it completely, and with a bright flash the hippogriff was gone, replaced by a seapony with grey scales and hot pink fins. Reef fell into the cove with an enormous splash, spraying droplets over the ponies and gillmen on the shore, and making the raft bob up and down vigorously. He swam around underwater for a few seconds before his head popped up above the surface.
Summer Scribe was approaching the raft to board it - hopefully this would be far more pleasant of a trip than our, uhh, unrecommendable one! She perked at the sight of Reef transmuting, and a big smile formed on her face. "Looking good!" she shouted, "How's the water here?"
"Much better, if I do say so!" Reef replied eagerly. "Now, erm, would you like me to help push? One wouldn't mind a good swim you know, not that flying isn't enjoyable. but one hasn't had many chances to get the fins out recently..." He trailed off, seeing everyone staring at him. "Ah, yes, I suppose it was just Nutmeg last time wasn't it."
Set Sail is having some second thoughts at the state of that raft, but she figured everyone else really wanted to go on a ride too, so who was she to object? She paused at the sight of Reef's transformation, smiling fondly at the magic there. She'll never get used to seeing hippogriffs doing that, but it sure will keep him safe from any raft related shenanigans.
Even Cloud Cutter can't help but stare at the doctor's transformation into a seapony. She'd rarely seen it herself, but it was quite different from the unicorn magic most ponies were familiar with. Nodding softly in understanding: at least there was one additional safety measure, if it came to that.
Still grinning, Summer Scribe continued the banter: "Well, if you want to get in the exercise, I'll hardly say no. Sounds like a plan!"
"Uh, you're... you're... you turned into... a fish..." Scalesbrook boggled, before Sliptail cut him off.
"I told you!" she said excitedly. "That one's got the power of Water in 'im. A griffon water elemental, now who woulda imagined that one? In the stories, all they was interested in was Air, like you'd think."
Reef Skimmer stared at the gill.. woman? wondering if it was worth trying to explain that the magic had come from his pearl amulet, much less the difference between griffons and hippogriffs. It didn't seem like this was the right audience for that lecture. "Quite, erm, yes. Water you say?"
"He's not a griffon actually, he's a hippogriff," Set Sail pointed out cluelessly for Scalesbrook, "They hail from a kingdom under the sea, or... half under the sea, so they live in both worlds." Looking down to Reef, she called over, "I think they call you a hippo...something else, when you're a fishy type creature?"
"Well I'll be, Mr Fish... Griffon... wait what'ya say your name was? That's a mighty fine trick you've got there, the chieftess'll wanna see for sure, but don't you worry now there's no pushing to be done, not with old Nessie here. You just, um... hop... back on there and sit back, and let ol' Scalesbook handle all the rafting."
"Hippocampus, yes, erm... well said, well said there Captain." Reef said, looking at Set Sail and... blushing? Maybe? It was hard to tell. Frowning, he thrashed his tail and stood up in the water, another flash of light returning him to hippogriff form so that he could flap up onto the raft, which settled noticeably in the water as he sat down. "Reef Skimmer, junior surgeon in Queen Novo's Royal Navy, erm... on secondment to the Equestrian Expedition to the Cloudbreaks. At your service." he informed the gillman formally, with a dipping bow of his head.
"Not that the navy is here!" Set Sail yelped nervously, "Strictly 100% civilian operation!"
Summer Scribe settled calmly in the centre of the raft, ready for 'Clueless Tourist' mode, enjoying the scenic trail and all the sights! The blissful smile was still plastered on her face... wait, 'Nessie'?
"Don't look like no hippo to me." Sliptail muttered, stepping onto the rear of the raft.
"Err, the etymology of the hippo- prefix is... you know, nevermind." Summer Scribe trailed off, still basking in the river trip and not feeling like an academic debate right then.
Set Sail fluttered down on the raft, testing the boards underhoof, then standing firm against them. She was set! ...and not at all as excited as a little schoolfilly!
Scalesbook was utterly bemused by all this. He stares at Reef's amulet; now that it was out of the water, the blue glow and humming was obvious, like a struck tuning fork, the sound and light slowly dying away. Thinking better of asking about it, lest he be confused by another upwelling of unfamiliar words and concepts, the old gill-man shook his head. "Yeah, well good for you, Mister Hippo-griffon, that all sounds great. Now all of you just grab onto the ropes there and hold tight, I gotta get us moving here."
He picked up a long pole and shoved it into the bank, grunting as he pushed the raft out into the river. Said ropes turned out to be some loops of rough, fraying hemp rope sitting on the platform, tied into the rickety structure of the raft. The raft was immediately caught by the current and carried downstream, heading towards the edge of the island. Scalesbrook works his pole, navigating the fragile vessel to the right as they come up on a fork in the river.
Set Sail winced at the state of the ropes, wrapping one around a foreleg, but mostly relying on her hoofing on the boards. Meanwhile Cloud Cutter, for once, wasn't buying the gillman's advice. Her wings were folded but held tense, and it was fairly clear to any creature on her squad that she would fly at the first sign of trouble...
A rushing roar of falling water became louder and louder as the raft continued downriver, picking up speed and jostling from side to side as the watercourse narrowed further. "Erm, not to criticise your navigation there, old fellow, but, erm... aren't we going the wrong way?" Reef Skimmer asked, speaking loudly over the rushing water.
"Now y'all just hold on tight there, maybe close those eyes if you're feeling squeemish, old Scalesbrook has done this a million times now, here about, and we'll be just fine, ya hear?" The raft surged forward and it became clear that it was heading directly for the head of the waterfall, where the river plunges off the edge of the island and disappears into the void below.
"It's fine, Reef. We don't know our way around the area," Set Sail remarked in amusement with a look back to the nervous hippogriff, "I'm sure he knows where he's going better than we do."
Summer Scribe nodded in agreement! "The rivers in this place go all over: could have missed something on our way in."
"But... we're going straight over that waterfall!" Reef said, gripping the raft tightly with his claws. His wings were already half open as he prepared to leap off and grab Summer... he wasn't sure if he could manage to grab one of the fish creatures as well, certainly not both of them...
"W-wait, Waterfall?!" Summer gawked! Her ears perked, trying to hear the rushing of water up ahead. The unicorn tensed in case she needed to jump off and swim, but the water was flowing fast and it seems like she'd need a rescue from Reef if it came to it!
"Oh yeah, we gonna go straight over the top, this is always the best bit!" Sliptail shouted from behind, startling Reef who gave a loud squawk. Cloud Cutter had already taken off and pulled away by this point: falling off a waterfall wasn't on her list of plans going into this voyage!
"Waterfall? What are you talking about?" Set Sail asked Reef with a look of complete puzzlement as the roar of water grows around them, "The only waterfall is the one right off the edge of the—"
"Bail!" Summer Scribe cried out, as she desperately made a jump for it, leaping off of the raft and immediately being carried away by the rushing current, far too strong for her to reach the bank before...
And with that the raft plunged over the edge of the island and fell into space, tipping forward as it plummeted down amidst the falling rain and spray of the dissolving waterfall. Everyone on board was soaked to the bone. Reef let out a loud screech as they fall, his claws still gripping the raft tightly, at least until they emerge from the spray and he can see who he needs to rescue.
Set Sail's wings snapped out as she turned forward, and the pegasus rose off the boards as they drop out from under her... before the rope she'd tied around her fetlock dragged her screaming into the abyss with the rest of them.
Cloud Cutter's wings were stretched wide as she flew out over the lip of the waterfall, staring down at the doomed raft with its screaming passengers falling into the void below. At least... until the raft, and a small equine body that had just separated from it, disappear in a brilliant flash of light, leaving a cloud of glowing, drifting motes that slowly wink out as the water itself vanishes, a hundred metres or so below the edge of the island. There was no trace of the raft, the ponies or the fish creatures.
Cloud Cutter found herself alone, beating her wings to hover in the sky just above the edge of the floating swamp. Beneath her water from the central lake poured over the cliff, dissipated into spray and disappeared, in defiance of everything she knew about metrology and hydrology. She wasted no time pondering how this was possible; soon she was diving down through the mist, hoping to locate her team-mates flying below or perhaps clinging to the cliff.
Instead she found no trace; not even falling pieces of the rickety raft. Her expression became more and more concerned as she widened her search pattern to the surrounding area. What kind of game were those fish creatures playing? After ten minutes searching for any clue to what had happened, the purple pegasus flapped back up over the rim of the island. She decided to head straight back for the hamlet, where some creature would have to explain... and fast.
Elsewhere, a raft, two screaming (or in Reef's case screeching) passengers, two gillfolk wondering what all the fuss is about, and one unicorn now finding herself overboard and trying to swim in churning water, all appeared in a dark, gloomy, echoing underground space.
Set Sail landed cheek-first against the boards as the raft abruptly bobbed up and ceased to be in freefall about 10 centimetres from her face. With a grumbling moan, she moved her hoof against her other hoof, until the rope fells off of it.
"-...waaah!" Summer Scribe yelped out as she was teleported, gasping for air as she surfaced again. She paddled desperately in the general direction of the raft, looking a bit sheepish as she managed to get her front hooves onto the deck. "OK, so we're not dead. What just happened?!"
"Summer!" Reef shouted, relieved to see the unicorn. He offered her a claw and pulled her up onto the platform; her fur was sopping wet. "Teleportation, at a guess? In all honesty you're better equipped to speculate than I." he said morosely, gesturing with a claw at Summer's horn. The two gillfolk were just staring at them, apparently wondering what all the fuss was about.
Summer took the claw thankfully, hauled up with his help then shaking to clear some of the water from her coat. "Yeah, I guess we teleported here." She squinted around at the damp, underground environment. "Teleportation... Do all the waterfalls-into-nothingness do this? It'd explain the water cycle..." Oh no, she was thinking about the water cycle again; something had better happen to distract her! She peered around again, focusing on the rapidly growing light of the approaching cave mouth. "So where ARE we now? Is this where the elder lives?"
Presently the raft emerged out of the natural tunnel into bright sunlight, which streamed down on the rocky, mountainous surroundings. It seemed they were in the bowl of a large crater, heading rapidly for a lake filling its centre, considerably smaller than the placid swamp-fringed body of water they'd seen earlier. Despite the mid-day sun there was a chill in the air here, but at least it smelled fresh and invigorating after the musk of the swamp.
"I gotta say I'm sorry if I gave you folks a shock there," Scalesbrook said sheepishly, "guess I gone done this business so many times it couldn't occur to an old gilly that some folks might not be so comfortable with the trip back to the source and all. But, uh, you seem fine, uh... weren't there four of ya?"
"..." Summer Scribe glanced around the raft. "Cloud Cutter got left behind." Her eyes narrowed. "Umm. So worst case scenario, she thinks we're dead and she's going to seek revenge," the unicorn thought out loud. "That sounds slightly bad. Can we get in touch with her?"
"The spooky one did jump off right before the lip." Sliptail piped up. "Saw her flyin' with those birdie wings, she must've missed the falls and be still flapping around down near Rushweed Hollow!"
Set Sail struggled to a standing position, stammering "S-she can k-ki—" before falling silent and giving the fishy biped a panicked look, then just saying, "We have to find her!"
"Uh, say that's the case, we ain't got no fancy radios nor nothing like that here in the marsh." the older gillman said uncomfortably. "She ain't gonna steal no one's soul is she?"
"Of course not! Haha no of course she can't do anything like that, ha ha," Set Sail replied with a very broad, toothy smile.
With a few splashes and jostles the raft emerged from the rushing stream and started drifting placidly across the crystal-clear waters of the crater-lake, heading slowly but inexorably for the source of the main river.
"Uh, well then, that's good," Scalesbrook began. "Don't want no more zombies causing trouble 'round these parts, last time it took-" Sliptail wasn't able to employ her eblows this time because the big hippogriff was in the way, but her glare was enough to make her uncle shut up.
Summer Scribe blink-blinked. "Anyway, more importantly... we'd like to speed up this conversation, if we can, since we need to let Cloud Cutter know we're not disintegrated somehow!"
"I'm sure your friend is fine, she got those wings after all, wish I had wings..." Sliptail said wistfully. "Eh heh, yeah now if you folks'll look to the right, that there is Granite Peak Croft, where Splashway does tend the only flock 'o sheep we got in these isles." The 'croft' was a cluster of rough stone, thatched roof cottages near the mouth of the river. "Now we'll be heading down the river proper in just a minute."
"Wish you had wings too, miss," Set Sail said honestly. "I didn't want anyone coming on this expedition who couldn't fly. But I'm not the uh... wasn't the captain. Still, you seem to be doing okay for a creature without wings who just fell off the edge of one of these islands. There must be other ways you get along."
"Look little po-knee, it's too bad your friend didn't come with y'all, but we ain't got no quicker way to get back there than ride the river to the bottom." Scalesbrook explained, nervously adjusting his hat again. "'less you feel like taking off I 'spose." he added, looking at Reef Skimmer's wings.
Reef followed the gillman's gaze and opened his wing a bit, staring at it for a second before looking to Set Sail. "What say you, Captain, shall one go round up our missing pegasus?"
Blinking, Set Sail blurted out, "O-of course! You're the fastest, Reef. Go find her, and hurry!"
Reef dipped his head to the brown pegasus. "No sooner said than done. Do take care, Sails... err, Captain." With that faux-pas he looked away and awkwardly rose to his feet, before leaping up into the air and flapping away.
The raft bounced and bobbed as his weight was removed, and the strong downdraft rustled the manes of the two mares left onboard. The rickety vessel was speeding up again now as it was drawn into the first part of the river proper, once again rushing towards the edge of the island. This time though there was no waterfall; the river simply continued, an impossible ribbon of water flowing through space, suspended in the air by some unknown force.
"He's heavy, but he's fast," Set Sail said with nervous relief, staring fondly up after the departing hippogriff, "He'll get there before..." She winced and looked nervously at the gillfolk. "...she uh, gets too worried. About us. Wouldn't want her to worry."
"You don't suppose that hippo-griffon'd let me ride on his back, do you? Ya know, just for a quick fly around the neighbourhood." Sliptail asked, watching Reef flying away before glancing at Set Sail.
"Oh, well you'd have to ask but I don't think he'd mind," Set Sail said curiously to the female fish-creature, "You like flying, huh?"
"Can't say I've ever had the chance." Sliptail looked down. "None-na the traders would take me on their ship, not like we see many of them these days ya know, and those who do come a calling wanna just get business done and clear out, 'fore the drow have a chance to rumble 'em." She stared at Set Sail's folded pinions. "Always thought it must be nice, though."
"Well it's..." Set Sail briefly spread a brown wing, looking back at it, "It's like walking for me. Or swimming for you, I suppose. It can be fun when you get into a good dive, but mostly it's just..." she blushed self-consciously, "N-not to sound ungrateful or anything. You have um..." Set Sail took a long look at the gillman's forelegs, "...hends I think they're called. Do you think a lot about how nice they are?"
"Uh." Sliptail spread her webbed fingers and stared at them. The webbing was as decayed and sickly as her fins: spotted with tears, holes and discolouration. "They're just hands. For holding stuff. I guess we gill folk got hands suited for swimming, maybe trolls have an easier time with the holding, but... they're just hands right? Haven't just been a might sore though, these last few years."
"Now don't go complaining to our guests, Slippy." Scalesbrook said. "We're coming up here on one of the greatest sights to see on our river, the statue of the greatest hero that ever did come out of the marsh, Gill Grunt!" he proclaimed in a reverent tone.
Sure enough, the river widened out into another fair-sized lake, this one mostly suspended in mid-air with only one side abutting a strip of land. A huge stone plinth rose out of the trees there, topped with an enormous statue about the size of the EAS Harmony's balloon. The details were weathered away and covered in moss and lichen, but it was unmistakably one of the fish creatures, holding a barrel with a trident sticking out of it.
"Oh no, it's fine!" Set Sail said to Scalesbrook, "Doesn't bother me a bit." Back to Sliptail, she says, "I'm just saying I feel like you could appreciate flying more than somepony who's born this way. Maybe you can get a ship someday, or a... companion to help get you up in the air. But for now let's just... oh my." She fell silent at the sight of the statue, looking up at the amazing sculpture, of such a heroic looking creature, and practically the size of a small town!
Down on the lower island, Cloud Cutter closed rapidly on the gillfolk village, if the cluster of rusty shacks merited the term. With no sign of her team, the raft or their fishy hosts, along with no answers... a decent day had turned sour for the purple pegasus. She spied the would-be merchant Burbleweed still standing in the clearing, having an animated discussion with another of the gillmen, who kept gesturing with his trident. The other two are nowhere to be seen, presumably inside one of the buildings or returning to fishing.
Cloud Cutter quickly and silently swooped down to a landing. Realising her obvious anger wasn't going to lend itself to asking for help, she tried to reign in her emotions as she trotted up to the pair of gillmen...
"Oh hey, it's, uh... that spooky po-knee," Burbleweed said, stepping backwards and looking around as if about to make a run for it. "G-Guess you done worked out Burble's deals are just too good to pass up, right?" he stammered, "What can I get'cha?"
Cloud Cutter shook her head at Burbleweed's ridiculous sales patter, frustration boiling just under the surface. "Now, I'm sure there's a reason behind this.... but I just watched my entire team and two of your people just... vanish at the bottom of a waterfall just now. There's... there's a reason for that... right? ...Right?!" The mix of anger and fear for the loss of her friends was stronger than any emotion she'd had since the crossing, stronger even than during the drow attack. As much as she was trying to hold it back, the sheer thought of having to go back to the Harmony and announce that she was the sole survivor of the diplomatic trip... it was too much for anypony to bear.
"Uh, vanish.. well yeah, that's what happens... when you fall! Over the falls!" Burbleweed was shaking now as he backed away from Cloud Cutter, before his back came up against one of the huts with a thump. "Please po-knee, they're fine! They're at the source! That's what happens... you go back to the source!"
The anger seemed to be replaced by absolute confusion: Cloud Cutter just sat down and shook her head. "...To the source? What... what do you mean?! I-I don't get it... I don't get much here." The hostility had evaporated, replaced by an absolutely confused pegasus that only seemed increasingly lost in a world she barely understood.
"Ya know, the source! The source... of the river. You don't know? Well, you need Burbleweed's All-Inclusive Guide to Witchway Marsh, only... ten... gold... for-you-only-five!" the gillman finished, suddenly realising he might be pushing his luck... and there was no sign of his companion. And all the doors had been slammed shut and bolted. And he was unlikely to make it to the lake before the flying zombie deer swooped down and...
"...Pass." Cloud Cutter said flatly, shaking her head. "They... they aren't dead, right? That's all I need to know..." she concluded, standing up again. At least she got half of her answer, the most important part, right?
"Dead!?" the gillman gargled hysterically, misinterpreting her advance as a renewed attack. "Why would they be dead?! Of course they're not dead?! They just went to the source! You know, on the top island."
"On the top- got it, thank you!" Cloud Cutter didn't waste another second feeling sorry for herself. She knew one of the advantages of her state was that she was nearly tireless in flight... and if she didn't waste time, she should be able to catch up and maybe even get the answers she wanted!
Meanwhile Reef Skimmer had been flapping steadily down towards the team's initial landing site, crossing over the river again as it twisted and turned through a cluster of serpentine, floating ponds. Perhaps half way down, he spotted a tiny purple shape making its way up towards him; it had to be the pegasus, looking for them. He headed straight for her, then turned aside; Cloud had spotted him in turn and adjusted her own course until the big hippogriff stallion and smaller pegasus mare were gliding parallel to each other, a couple of wingspans apart. "Cloud Flutter! Cutter! Good to see you! On the way up to look for us, I see. I trust... everycreature is ok down here?" he called out uncertainly.
Even if Cloud Cutter's eyes were unable to show emotion, the smile at seeing the hippogriff doctor flying right at her and coming alongside spoke volumes. "I'm glad to see you too, doctor... goodness, I'd feared the worst!" she admitted, as the two flew back towards the top island. "I'd looked for you at the bottom of the waterfall, the village, and when that merchant... gillman told me you were at the top island, I started flying immediately!"
It took her a moment before the mare could reply to the other half of the question. "Every creature is fine. Scared, but fine. I didn't hurt any creature... at least, I don't think I did..." she reassured him.
"Indeed, well, glad to hear it, glad to hear it." Reef said, relieved. "Some kind of teleportation, you'd have to ask Summer about the specifics, but yes... we all reappeared in a cave! Came out in a crater, up on that top island, that's where the river flows from. Sails and Summer are enjoying a lazy ride downriver right now in fact. Captain Sails, I mean. Captain Set Sail! So... if you'd like to follow me, we can join them?"
Cloud Cutter chuckled a bit at Reef's fumbling of the Captain's name, but the response was immediate. "No questions asked, doctor, let's go find them! Lead the way!" It had been some time since Cloud Cutter had been this enthusiastic about anything. Then again, finding out your entire team isn't dead, and instead is fully healthy, well and concerned enough to send out somecreature to look for you, did tend to raise the spirits.
Back on the raft, Summer Scribe gawked up at the statue. "Woaaah, cool. Is this a statue of a hero of yore? A 'Skylander', I think they're called? Perhaps even water elemental, descended from here...?"
"Mayhaps you've heard the legend?" Scalesbook said. "Just like you said, he went away to join some big old army of creatures of all sorts, called themselves the Sky Landers. And Gill Grunt fought with the best of them, against all kinds o' vicious monsters and infernal machines and frightly spooks and... the worst o' the lot, the bringer of darkness, The Chaos Master! They say he was twenty feet tall and could kill a warrior just by glaring at them!"
"Oooh..." Set Sail said appreciatively, her haunches planted as she gazed upward.
Summer was enraptured. "The Chaos Master? Huh, that sounds kind of like..." She blink-blinked: Discord? Though killing people wasn't his style! Maybe this was a different Chaos Master...
"So ya heard that one did ya?" Sliptail pipes up. "Bet ya haven't heard it two hundred times over, 'round each and every campfire plus when we gotta hide in the nexus, like old Scales here can't shut up about the one gilly who had the guts and gumption to break right out of this dump and make a real name for himself." She sighed, looking up at the statue adoringly.
Summer Scribe waved her hoof dismissively. "Pfff, sorry, we're like, really new around here. And I'm still wide-eyed and taking everything in! So apologies if I'm all nosey about your lore. It's still exciting to me!" But it was clearly a bit of a sore spot to them: everyone else was stuck here living in fear of the drow, huh?
The two flyers headed back up, catching up with the raft just as it was passing through a section of aerial rapids, the river splitting and winding and churning around a series of floating rocks. They paced the modest vessel, listening to Summer scream and 'woo-hoo' with excitement while Set Sail looked upward and gave a little wave of her wing at the sight of them, otherwise unwilling to extract her hooves from their tight grip on the platform.
Soon enough the raft was out of the rapids and floating smoothly down the next part of the river; a long sweeping turn leading to the edge of the second island. Reef landed as gently as he could, the raft still bobbing and splashing as he settled onto it, while Cloud Cutter drifted down to a silent landing as if weightless.
Summer Scribe waved over to Cloud Cutter and Reef as they returned. "That was fun! I mean, uhh, hey, welcome back! Sorry for the scare, Cloud Cutter; I had no idea any of that was going to happen. Everything is ok!" She nodded over to Reef as well, as thanks for the 'rescue', then steadied herself on the raft, looking downriver with anticipation.
"You weren't lyin', that was fast." Sliptail said to Set Sail, assuming the hippogriff had been all the way to the Rushweed Hollow and back.
The brown pegasus was too relieved to see her crewmate back to reply. "Oh thank Celestia, are you alright Cloud Cutter?" she asked, prying her hooves from their death grip as the river calmed, but hesitating before hugging the purple pegasus. "I should have noticed the raft was gonna fall sooner. I can't believe that rope dragged... but you were smart and flew free, and all you got for it was us making you worry."
"It-it's fine, really... I'm sorry if I scared you..." Cloud Cutter replied, as she settled onto the boards before shaking her head. "Apologies to all of you and especially to, um... Sliptail? And... your uncle, forgive me for forgetting your name... I should have trusted more." She bowed her head. "I... may have scared your merchant, too, he was the one that told me where you were... and I have to apologize to him too."
Summer Scribe chuckled! "Hey, no sweat: you didn't scare us, we scared you! I'm just glad everyone's on solid ground, so to speak."
"Didn't steal no souls then? Heh." Scalesbrook said wryly."At least you won't be worrin' 'bout your friend and such when you get to meet the chieftess. Witchway Marsh is just ahead there."
"You mean I didn't miss that?!" Cloud Cutter exclaimed. "Oh, thank Celestia..." Glowing blank eyes aside, the relief was absolutely clear from her posture. "Not doubting you gillmen again after that, I really do apologize!"
"Don't think nothing of it Miss Po-knee." the gillman said, making a dismissive gesture with the hand that wasn't holding the punting pole.
"Yeah, one of us shoulda warned ya." Sliptail added. "It's just... we don't get so many visitors these days, and like I said, those that come, they don't wanna stick around, much less take a tour down the river."
"I can see why," Set Sail said with a stomp in frustration, "Those drow are a menace! I don't know what we can do against them that powerful creatures like you cannot, but if that's what it takes to deal with all this... then maybe ponies can find a way."
"We've fought them, we've won against them. I'm sure Azure and Grenelda will want another round against them if asked... as will I." Cloud Cutter stated. "Even more so if I can figure out just... just what the heck is going on with me. It's not wrong, it's not right... it's just weird. Like... why can I fly two hours to this island, up to see this island, back to the village, up to the top island, and back on the raft and... not even feel tired? It just doesn't make any sense."
Suspended in the sky, the impossible river twisted and turned its way down from a floating mountain to a swamp-fringed lake, its course passing through two more sizable islands as it descended. On the lazy curve of water approaching the largest island could be seen a makeshift, tube-based raft, laden with a cargo of two fishy humanoids, three colourful ponies and one grey and pink hippogriff.
The ominous drop to each side gave way to muddy banks, choked with bright green plants. The terrain was a little drier than the swamp they'd fought through earlier by virtue of being less flat, with numerous hillocks poking up through the marsh. Scalesbrook worked his pole to keep the raft near the left bank, where signs of habitation began to show up; a pier, then a hut, then a mill with an undershot waterwheel.
Set Sail was busily working her wings out, making sure every feather was sleek and presentable as possible, from their formerly flustered and bedraggled state. She didn't spend a lot of time looking at the burgeoning signs of civilization.
Summer Scribe rubbed a hoof behind her horn. "Okay, here we are! After a bit of a teleporter fright - gonna have to remember that one for next time." She sweat-dropped, studying the village ahead. Looked a lot more impressive and built up than that first cluster of shacks, and unlike the castle, populated and in use! You didn't need to do any archaeology when you could just ask a local specimen about their customs and what they're up to! Of course, first things first, they had their hooves full with meeting the elder and asking for help!
Cloud Cutter had remained quiet for the rest of the trip downriver, calming herself after getting so worried about losing the rest of her team. As civilization presented itself, she gave a quiet nod to Summer Scribe. Help for the ship was definitely top priority. She could only wish for answers about what happened to her in the crossing.
Soon enough the river began to fork, splitting once, twice, thrice into smaller and smaller streams. The visitors found themselves watched by more and more scaly faces, as gillmen stopped their tasks and came out of their huts to regard the newcomers. A few more minutes downriver and the craft came to an actual dock, a sizable pool boarded by a wooden wharf with projected piers. Here were a couple more rafts, several rowboats and a modestly sized paddle-wheel steamer, all patched and worn and looking like they might sink at any moment.
Indeed the prows of several wrecks stuck out of the water just outside the pool. Scalesbrook guided the raft up to the wharf, where Sliptail jumped ashore and fussed with a rope, securing it against the current. Behind her were a full-blown crowd of gillmen, a muted commotion going up as they speculated about the unfamiliar creatures that had suddenly appeared among them. Behind the crowd the village itself could be seen, several dozen ramshackle buildings of weathered wood broken by the odd bit of corrugated metal.
Summer Scribe waited patiently for docking to complete before hopping off, tail flicking as she takes the village in in more detail; it definitely looked jury-rigged and thrown together from the scraps of civilisation. Given that airships are also about, she thought it likely that there's a variety of technology levels and things filtered down! She perked up as gillmen crowded around her field of view, giving a sheepish hoof wave. "Hi! We're not from around here," she correctly and helpfully pointed out. "Nice to meet you all!"
The volume of the crowd increased, with the predictable "talking deer?" "no... sheep?" as well as "haven't seen a griffon since... "ya think they're here for..." "maybe they want..." A shoal of little fish-children ran out and skidded to a stop a few body lengths away from Summer, before pushing one of their number forward to go and pet her.
"So here it be, Witchway Marsh, most substantial community you'll find about these parts, just the place for tradin' or eatin' or talkin' or whatever other foolin' around ya might wanna do, if I do say so." Scalesbrook said. Turning to the crowd, he shouted "Now see here, I know you be thinking, here's a griffon with some funny little pet deer, that be what we all assumed down in the hollow. But no these be po-knees, seem friendly like and smart as you or me, come to see our town and jaw with the chieftess."
Summer Scribe... flushed a bit? Then accepted the pettings. This was a bit surprising, but her tail was flicking? It felt nice?? But at the chance to be dignified, she shook her head out and nod-nodded agreeably! "Yes indeed: we are Ponies, from Equestria, and we hope to forge good relations with you all!"
Cloud Cutter seemed a little uneasy at first, then slumped again at the mention of sheep and deer. Again? What the heck was with every creature here? Thankfully, Scalesbrook put that confusion to rest quickly as Summer Scribe spoke again, and the winged purple pony regained her composure.
Set Sail smiled at the enthusiastic unicorn, so helpful at making them known, which is nice when it's a good idea. "Thank you Scalesbrook!" she declared, fluttering up into the air, facing the crowd and adding, "Hope you all don't mind! We're just some travellers in a bit of trouble, and we could really use her advice."
Most of the gillmen hung back, staring up at Set Sail and saying things like "would you look at that", "think that griff dyes 'em those colours" "never hearda no Quest-ria" and so on, while the more nervous individuals shot furtive looks at the eagle-faced hippogriff following behind the ponies. One did step forward, a dark green specimen wearing an apron.
"Mayhap you folks will be wanting to park your butts in Pebbleskip Tavern, where good ol' Pebbleksip is serving up the most tastiest stew, the craziest moonshine an' the cosiest conversation you'll find hereabouts." he said hopefully.
"Oh there you go again." Scalesbrook groaned. "I know you be hankering for fresh travellers ever since those ents stopped a-stopping 'round here 'Splish, but these po-knees wanna talk ta Smoothfin, and I'm betting she'll be burstin' to talk to them too, soon as she hears all this commotion."
Summer Scribe chuckled nervously. "Yeah, I think we'll save the moonshine for later when we're not on business..." Lacking experience with moonshine in general and fish-folk brewing skills in particular, she wasn't sure how hard it would smash her. "But thank you for letting us know! We can check it out later!"
Cloud Cutter, on the other hoof, quietly made a note. Moonshine? Sounded like a darn plan if ever there was one. Princess Luna would no doubt approve. After all... this trip has been far from fun and games, she wouldn't mind the opportunity to unwind a little.
Reef Skimmer trotted behind, wings tightly folded, expression neutral, taking in the sights but letting the ponies do the talking. True to form, he was making mental notes about the anatomical variety on display and the development indicated by the juveniles; would have to confirm egg laying later. Seeing a whole crowd of the creatures it did strike him how bad the condition of their fins was, each and every one ragged and disintegrating.
The little gill-girl had backed away from Summer as soon as the pony started talking. Not wanting to interfere with an adult conversation, she made for the other grounded pony: Cloud Cutter. "Um... can I pet you... um... miss... um... pony..." The little fish girl stood transfixed, staring into Cloud Cutter's featureless white eyes.
Cloud Cutter couldn't help but tilt her head. Petting? Her? Far be it from her to decline such a thing, but... why her, she wondered idly, before snapping back to reality. "Petting? Um... sure?" She sounded a little dazed, as if surprised any creature would even ask her that.
The girl slowly stretched out her hand, her arm shaking as she managed to break away from those eyes and look the other way. There was something... off, something terribly unsettling about this purple creature, cute as it had looked from a distance, but all her friends were watching, and... now her hand was in its mane, and it was incredibly soft and silky. "Oh, um, that's some lovely hair you got, miss pony."
"Hope you do grace us with the pleasure o' your business, you won't be regretting it!" Pebbleskip managed before Scalesbrook shoed him away. Set Sail had to hide a giggle under a forehoof at the enthusiastic seller. She certainly didn't mind the attention, or the distraction from the task at hand.
"Now you be followin' me close, I'll be taking ya straight up to ol' Smoothfin before she starts frettin' about what ya'll are up to here." he said to Summer, waving an arm at Set Sail in a 'come on' gesture before turning away and stomping deeper into the village, the crowd parting around him.
Summer Scribe looked over at Cloud Cutter with a pleasant smile on her face. How adorable! But yes, they had work to do - she turned her head to follow Scalesbrook. For her part, Cloud Cutter chuckled slightly at the attention, but part of her is thankful for Scalesbrook bringing the group to the chieftess. At least... at least she won't be hurting this little fish creature. Bowing her head to the gill-girl, she turned away without a word and was soon following along behind Summer Scribe.
"That'd be great. Sorry to drop in on you all like this," Set Sail told Scalesbrook, walking along behind him with much lighter more staccato clops of her hooves, falling in line behind Summer and Cloud Cutter, alongside the hippogriff doctor who saved everyone from a huge incident just earlier.
The group made their way through the village, constructed as a series of boardwalks linking the buildings, some on raised stone foundations and others on stilts. On closer inspection it was clear that the general disrepair of the place was not so much through neglect, as from having to make constant repairs with improvised materials. Some of the patches were old and weathered, while here and there were freshly broken planks in a wall, or scorch marks on the shingles yet to be softened by rain.
All the way more and more fishy faces could be seen watching through windows and standing in doorways; there must be at least a couple of hundred of the creatures living here, Reef thought. Eventually the group came to a round stone building, older and more substantial than the others, with a door of thick carved wood that looked like it had been made from a section of salvaged hull. Two burly gillmen stood to each side, bearing sizable bronze tridents and looking suspiciously at the newcomers; particularly the hippogriff.
Summer Scribe peered around, taking note of the constant repairs the villagers must have to do in the wake of the drow attacks; it certainly meant they had some skill at building and crafts. She perked up at the standing guards, looking towards their tour guide and assuming they'd be given a pass once they talk.
"Now these here visitors need to see the chief." Scalesbrook began "All o' them, these little ones be talking po-knees and they do got a lot to talk about, now I know what you'll be saying so I'll just go ahead and vouch for their good behaviour."
Set Sail shrunk against Reef at the sight of the burly fish men and their unfriendly demeanour. Alas, she was not exactly the picture of an inspiring leader. Cloud Cutter, on the other hoof, didn't seem surprised to see the guards. After all, if they've got to deal with the Drow on a regular basis - this was the type of creature that could fight them off. If fact she gave them a little nod, standing against superior weapons and numbers deserved at least some respect...
The guards looked from the gillman to the strange creatures and back again, trying to judge if these newcomers posed a threat. "You be known for some strange catches in yer time Scaly, 'corse half o' more o' them were tall tales an' all, but I do say this time you outdone yourself." said one of the guards. Turning to Summer, while still keeping a wary eye on the griff, he said "Alright little pokey, do your talkin', but we'll be watching close like with these here tridents a-ready so don't thinka trying no crazy magic nor nothin'."
Summer Scribe sweat-dropped, but nodded her head. "You got it! We're just here to talk." She wasn't planning on trying anything fancy, but if she was, this would be an excellent deterrent!
At the touch of Set Sail against his flank Reef Skimmer instinctively extends a wing over her, though catches himself before actually giving her a hug. He didn't want her to seem undignified, after all. The pegasus was subtly but frantically making cutting gestures with a forehoof under her chin, not that Summer seemed to notice.
With that the other guard pushed the heavy door open and headed inside, her voice echoing back out "Chieftess! Four... creatures, they wanna talk, yeah they're... oh you heard, yeah... of course Chieftess, right away." That was apparently sufficient confirmation for Scalesbrook, who strode up the steps and into the dimly lit hall inside.
Summer Scribe finally caught Set Sail's look and gave a bashful nod of understanding, saying no more. The brown pegasus didn't hesitate to leave Reef's protection in order to scurry up to Summer and be ready to elbow the little unicorn, on the off chance that she made any more efforts to chat with the guards on the way in.
As usual, Cloud Cutter followed silently behind as the group made their way through a short hallway into the building proper. She could only hope answers were to be found here...
The interior of the building was a roughly semi-circular space, big enough for perhaps forty creatures to gather. The side walls were lined with shelves full of books and jars and a jumble of weird knick-knacks, while the far wall was dominated by a huge and elaborate wooden chair, seemingly made from salvaged ribs of ships, adorned with bits of net and carvings of various strange creatures that might once have been figureheads. A spiral of stairs off to one side lead up to the attic, while a sizable pool in the opposite corner hinted at a flooded, underground escape tunnel.
In the giant seat ('throne' might have been overstating the case) sat a tiny, ancient-looking fish woman, sprawled on a mass of mismatched cushions, bright eyes peering at her visitors. Before she could speak there is commotion to one side as a gangly gillman came barrelling down the staircase; a teenager perhaps, shouting "I found it, I got it!" presumably referring to the heavy book he was carrying.
'Cool throne room, by the way' thought Summer Scribe, as she lifted a hoof and opened her mouth, as though ready to speak, but her train of thought is interrupted by this book business. She paused to see what this could be about; could it just be a coincidence?
Rolling her eyes and ignoring the young gillman for now, the chieftess proclaimed in a slow, reedy voice "Strangers, you be finding yourself before Smoothfin, leader of the Witchway tribe, and she's mighty curious about what manner o' creatures be visiting her today, and what purpose they do have coming to the Marsh."
Scalesbook stepped forward and got his word in first: "Smoothfin, this be Search Po-knee, and her friend Captain Po-knee, and that one back there is... uh... Spooky Po-knee? And by all appearances they be friendly and smart as you or I."
At the back, Sliptail leaned around the hippogriff and shouted "And this is Reef Skimmer and he's a hippo-griffon and that means when he's in the mind to he does turn into the biggest fish you ever did see!"
Reef Skimmer 's ear tufts flicked out in surprise, before he stared at the ceiling with a sheepish expression.
Okay, she was up! Summer Scribe bowed low to show her deference, before speaking with a smile: "Thank you so much for your time, Smoothfin! We are ponies, from Equestria - beyond the Storm Barrier, far below. We arrived on an airship which crash landed, and we find ourselves in a strange and unfamiliar world, on a mission of exploration and scientific discovery."
Boilerplate so far, but now came the important bit: "And so, we find ourselves looking for new allies, friends who can help each other out! We offer our services as fliers, as engineers and our magic and combat capabilities, and wish to extend the olive branch of friendship to you. Our biggest priorities right now are to get repairs for our airship so it can take flight again, and to find shelter and common ground against those who would do us harm here." She bowed again and awaited the fish creature's reply.
As much as Cloud Cutter wanted to be involved in formal first contact with a new civilisation, Summer Scribe... pretty much set the stage perfectly, as she saw it. And so, the purple pegasus held her tongue for now...
Smoothfin blinked, digesting the unicorn's little speech. "Beyond the storm? Now Smoothfin, she always did hear tell the great storm is the edge 'o the world, that there be nothing beyond, just an howling wind an' rain so hard it'd flay the skin from any creature who be so foolish as to fly into it. Not that us folk think much of it, not anymore. So you be saying, you got a ship that did crash, now would that be in these isles of ours?" she asked, peering closer at the mare. "Sure I did see something just like you, Smoothfin knows she did." she muttered.
Summer Scribe shook her head. "It's a fair ways off: way outside of this island chain. So you'd have to get transport by flier, assuming we can't get any other airships working. We've already commandeered one of the Drow's and Nutmeg's been taking a peek at how it works..." ...just casually dropping that in like it was the easiest thing to do in the world. In truth it had been a lot of work, but maybe the feat would impress Smoothfin!
At that the old gillwoman jerked upright, staring from Summer to Set Sail and back in horror. "You did what? Smoothfin just did hear these po-knees saying they stole a ship from under the drow, but she's having a hard time believin' it!? You folks saying you took away their galleon?"
"We didn't commandeer it!" Set Sail yelped, stepping forward. "We... were forced to board one of their smaller ships during an attack, and are in the process of recovering it from when it... crashed." Meanwhile the teenage gillman had set the heavy tome down and was paging through it furiously, adding more must to the already dusty air in the room, while shooting furtive glances at each visitor in turn.
Now that they were talking about Azure's ill-fated scouting trip, Cloud Cutter felt she had to step in. "I was in the squad that took over the ship. We travelled to an island chain and were trapped when the creatures found us, and attacked first. We fought back, won, and took the ship." Short, sweet, to the point, she thought.
"If you'd stolen their 'copter you wouldn't have crashed it into the island," Set Sail insisted to Cloud Cutter, "It's okay to admit if you had trouble. Those creatures were mean!"
Summer Scribe nodded to Cloud Cutter. "Purely in self-defence! Before that attack we didn't know there were critters so bloodthirsty and relentless in the Cloudbreak Islands! If we're going to survive them, then we need to get ahead of them or we're sitting ducks."
"I wouldn't have crashed it if it was more than a poorly maintained, flimsy piece of dragon dung!" Cloud Cutter defended herself. "That engine was... well let's just say Nutmeg wouldn't have been happy!" The usually calm purple pegasus seemed uncharacteristically agitated.
"So lemme get this straight, you... you... went to the isle o' misery and stole one o' the demons' 'copters? And then gone done smash it into the ground?" the chieftess said. "Oh, Smoothfin ain't liking what she's hearing here, you tangled with those drow and riled 'em up no doubt, they'll be chasin' you to the end 'o Skylands now. You best be hid good, po-knees, 'cause the demons 'll not never forgive ya for that. Smoothfin's wondering, you done got any elementals among ya, 'cause the bubble 'round a nexus is the safest place to hide, been working for us folks for generations."
"Yeah they done got some elements, they do..." Scalesbrook broke in "...Search Pony got magic and Spooky pony... she's spoooky and hippo-griffon, he must be real friendly with Water to turn fish the way he did..." The old gillman stared at Set Sail before muttering "...not sure 'bout Captain Pony."
Summer Scribe looked curiously at Set Sail. She doesn't say anything, but she's also not sure. ...What's her element? She looked down at her hooves, thoughtfully. Does everyone get one? Maybe not? If so it was no big deal, right?
"Elementals? Well..." Cloud Cutter started. "I think another one of the squad I was in might be one." She looked over to the hippogriff. "Azure's pretty clearly attuned to the Air element, isn't she?"
"What happened was the demons came to... enslave and eat one of our exploration teams," Set Sail explained, feeling very small right then. "Reef Skimmer here managed to figure out how to destroy their trap, but they were too close by then and opened fire. They hadn't expected that flyers would escape their trap, so... it was possible to engage them. Once Cloud Cutter had control of the ship, she took it out of the sight of their... galleon, and managed to land it... relatively intact. We had to... borrow it. If we just flew away from a ship like that, then they would know where we are!"
"One can't take credit for disabling the trap device, my dear... erm, Captain, that was quick thinking and yes..." he nodded in acknowledgement to Cloud Cutter "...an impressive display of magic from Azure Feather." Reef corrected. "Indeed one must confess, my main contribution to the engagement was, erm, 'persuading' Silent Arrow to put the copter down post haste... and in one piece. That gave Cloud Cutter the chance to take the prize, and one must say it was a damned fine piece of flying, getting a strange craft in poor condition all the way back to the Harmony."
Cloud Cutter bowed her head to the griff in thanks for the credit and backup. She'd tried to defend herself, but... yeah, it always helped to have a witness back you up, right?
Summer Scribe gave a firm nod to that. "Ultimately, if the drow are going to play dirty, we're not going to hesitate to do so either!" She grinned. "They're the aggressors, and we have an important lesson about friendship to teach them! Should we, uhh, be able to do so safely, first."
"Oh Smoothfin be' liking this less and less, she can't be blaming you folks for defendin' yourselves, but you shoulda let that 'copter alone and run for yer lives, 'cause now..." The chieftess was interrupted by the teenage gillman, who seemed very excited about something in the book: "Gran, I found 'em, I found 'em, well one of 'em at least. See here, this be her, don't ya think?" He brought the ancient book over to the chieftess, who peered at the indicated page. "Uney Corn. Good likeness ain't it. Yes indeed, Smoothfin thinks you've found the measure of our guests. You done good Brightfin."
Set Sail sagged in relief saying, "Thank you chieftess. We would never do anyone harm except in self-defence. Creatures like you are just the sort of people we hoped to find, so we can work together, and perhaps do something about those demons who... steal our children away." At the teenage gillman's words, she tilted an ear, saying, "You mean Summer here?" looking over to the sprightly speaking unicorn archaeologist.
"So I'm hearing Summer's your name, Miss Uney Corn?" the younger Brightfin said cheefully. "Says here right in this ol' book, Uney Corns did live in Rainbow Valley, not been seen since long ago and seems like they were reclusive folk even back then. You decide to go on a grand trip all of a sudden?"
Smoothfin waved the young gillman away. "Never mind that, can't ya see we got more pressing concerns here?" Peering at Set Sail she said "Now you just tell old Smoothfin what your notion o' 'doing something' about the demon drow does entail. 'Cause the Uney Corn there sounds half-daft with her notions o' friendship and such, which ain't something no drow is gonna understand not in a million seasons."
"Hold on, may I see that book?" Summer Scribe waved it over to take a look, squinting. "Huh... ooooold. These are your runes, but... fascinating! That illustration looks just like Princess Luna, if she didn't have wings..." She perks her brow, smiling in surprise! "So it seems you do know of us after all! Fascinating!" Diversion over for now, she tilted her head at the mention of drow. "Well, we can't not try." Summer informed the chieftess. "And we certainly can't let them trample all over us! Friendship also means standing with your friends!"
Closing her eyes a moment, Set Sail looked up at the chieftess on her creative and impressive throne. "We came through the Storm Wall as explorers, in a ship that managed to survive the trip, but barely. On the other side is a big ocean, then Equestria, the land we call home. We need safe harbor and repairs for our ship, so we could hardly say no to sharing it with you, and giving you defense in the air against these pirates. There are not... many of us. No more than 50. But we're able bodied ponies who do have uhm... elemental magic."
The acting captain took a moment to compose her thoughts before continuing. "We can manage your weather, and help with anything you need built. And we CAN fight. We're not fighters, not all of us, but we have defeated those... Drow before. Between them and defeating chompy pits, I think ponies may be... helpful. At least some of us can join your defense, to give the others time to get to safety."
Giving a troubled huff, the brown pegasus concluded, "It's absolutely inexcusable that those creatures are taking slaves. Ponies are not warlike or anything, but... we have some... unfortunate experience with slavery in the past. If there is anything we can do to rescue your people, we'll fight as if they were our own, because if we don't, then one day it'll be us in those cages."
Several seconds of silence followed Set Sail's speech as all present absorb it. Brightfin's eyes were shining with eagerness at the prospect of fighting the drow, but Smoothfin looked aghast. "So you're the captain of a crashed ship, now? Smoothfin can understand, that'd be hard to live with. Don't think she's ungrateful now, for such brave folks offering to fight the demons, even if it is in trade for helping with your ship."
"You folks just don't see the truth of it though. Mayhap you got lucky in your first scrap with the 'em, surprised those drow with the grace of the elements while they're a wonderin' what to make o' these strange creatures come a-calling on their isle. But you got one ship, one ship and one stolen copter, both crashed you say."
In a bitter, weary tone she explained: "Smoothfin's seen a whole armada o' ships, crammed to the gills with a mess of vicious trolls, they all went a-fighting the demons with our some of our finest to show 'em the way. And what did happen? So they did put down a few demons, even sink a couple-a ships, but of the eight gillfolk who did go with 'em, we saw only two return to us. A victory you say? Not for us it weren't, not a half season later when the demons did come back twice as angry as a-fore. Darned near burned down the whole marsh they did, such was the spite of 'em. Weren't no sign nor sight of the trolls then, promises to help turned to ash and went a-drifting away on the wind."
"Smoothfin can't see you pony-corns doing no better than a whole army, no matter how many elements you befriended. So there won't be no more fighting, that's for sure; she don't even want no drow to see hair nor hide of you here, 'cause it'll be us that bear the brunt of their rage 'gain should they think we be harbouring their enemies."
Cloud Cutter remained quiet through the entire exchange. She wasn't anything close to a diplomat, and this wasn't a time to be asking what happened to her. But after Smoothfin's latest response... their situation wasn't looking great. Far from it, in fact.
"Hmmmm...." thought Summer Scribe, falling back on her rear as she swished her tail and considered the gillwoman's words. These creatures had clearly suffered through a lot more in Cloudbreak Islands than the ponies had imagined... and likely learned the lesson to live a secluded life and not mess with powers beyond your reckoning. "Smoothfin, we understand; if your kind are done fighting, then we won't ask you to help out in battle. But, we still want you to know that should you find yourself embroiled in conflict not of your choosing, we're willing to lend a hoof."
"Hmph. Easy to say, pony-corn, harder to do, harder still to see an end to the fightin' once a feud gets started. Demons don't forget, they don't just let things slide, and Smoothfin don't either, you folks keep that in mind now." The old gill-woman was leaning foward, perched on the edge of her seat; her now expression softened as she relaxed back into the cusions.
"Now here's what I'm saying, you folks are free to visit the marsh, 'long as you don't come near 'fore sun-up and get well clear before sun-down, you hear? I hear tell of you sleepin' over or sneaking around in the dark, you ain't coming back here, not on friendly terms that is. Smoothfin knows we don't see a lot of trade these days so she won't say no to you folks doing some honest custom where you can find it, but she don't want to hear her folk upset with more talk o' fighting demons, that clear?"
Fair enough, thought Cloud Cutter. No allies to be made here, not yet. Judging by Smoothfin's reaction, any further answers will have to wait until another day: the spooky pegasus realised they'd be pushing their luck to ask for more here. Looked like they were on their own against the drow.
Summer Scribe nodded sadly at that: well, maybe it had always been a reach to hope for anything more? The gill folk seemed pretty much battered and beaten into a corner, after all. Hiding her disappointment, she said brightly: "OK, loud and clear. Thank you for your hospitality!" The unicorn did wonder what the rule on being out past dark was about... most likely it was to do with high profile gillkidnapping.
Set Sail sank to her haunches, but wasn't about to give up so easily. "What you've told us... it's awful... and... you're right that there's probably not much we can do to stop them, but they don't know we're their enemies yet. I don't think we can turn the tide or anything like that, but I don't think those Drow are as unstoppable as they seem. They may have been angrier, but... how many ships do they really have left? I have ponies who might be willing to find out." The brown mare stood up again, saying, "You're their enemy as much as we are. Everyone is their enemy, since they attack everyone. Your children are—" Her voice choked off.
With a shake of her head, the pegasus concluded more calmly, "They'll attack you no matter what advantage you have. Ponies, weapons, prosperity, you can't gain anything without getting their attention. Does that mean you should just give up and let them take away your..." She sighed, bowed her head and admitted, "But I can understand why they'd be afraid of a few ponies, who just sort of... defeated one of their smaller ships, without knowing who they were. We did come here to ask for help, but all we really wanted to know was if you were as awful as they were. If you think leaving us to them is the safest thing for your people, then we'll do what we can alone, and be glad to call you friends. Thank you chieftess."
Almost as an afterthought, the mare lifted her head, and looked up to the old fish creature, adding, "But ponies can be very helpful, even as slaves, so if they do take us, just... watch out for what they might make us do. We're not just colourful deer."
Smoothfin looked thoughtfully at Set Sail. "You don't look like much, but you be a smart little thing, ain't you Captain Pony-corn? Just like Smoothfin here, maybe." She gave a dry chuckle. "Now see, we gillmen aren't what we once were. Us folks been in a rough patch for a long time, that's to be sure. Lost our chief, lost our heroes, such as they were. Smoothfin ain't saying it'll always be that way, not at all, no she hopes that when she's gone and Brightfin here steps up to chief, someday we'll be all set to face down the drow, beat 'em back so hard they don't dare set foot here again."
"You see Smoothfin's doing what she can, but we fell so low that climbin' back'll take a lot more seasons yet. We go pickin' a fight 'fore we're ready, we'll be knocked down again, maybe even lower. So, mean times, you folks can help with the climbin' up, Smoothfin'll be glad to see it. Somethin' she can do to keep the drow off yer tails, she'll do it, 'long as it don't involve more of her people dyin'. But she ain't gonna live to see the end of the demons, that's for sure."
"Now... you folks go run along while there's daylight to spare. If you wanna get any business done, Smoothfin is saying. You come visit her once ya got more sense in your heads."
"Thank you chieftess. We'll do our best not to make any more trouble with them," Set Sail said, turning to leave. Over her shoulder she looked at the others and says, "Uh, p-permission for everypony else to leave, granted?" Then she kind of awkwardly headed for the door alone.
Reef Skimmer closed his eyes and gave a little bow, dipping his head and half-spreading his wings. "On behalf of Queen Novo and the hippogriffs of Mount Aris, thank you Chieftess Groovefin; one does hope you succeed in your quest to regain your freedom and past glory." With that he did a formal about-turn and trotted out after Set Sail, heedless of the giggling Brightfin and his grandmother's annoyed glare.
A quiet nod from Cloud Cutter in thanks for hearing them out and she was heading for the exit as well. Had this gone any better, this might have been a chance to find out more about her condition, and what the 'elements' had to do with it, but... looked like that would be a question for another day. For now it seemed they'd be heading back to the Harmony.
Summer Scribe nodded her head in understanding to Smoothfin. "We wish you the best of luck in flourishing as a people, and we'll always be open to further discussion in future - thank you again for having us!" With that she was slowly trotting over to join Set Sail and the others at the door. Well, all things considered, it went about as well as it ought to have been.
The visitors began to make their way back through the town, whispering to each other about what had just happened and what to do next, but they didn't get far before the sound of webbed feet flapping rapidly on timber came from behind: looking back they see the gangly young gillman, Brightfin, running after them. "Hey! Hey wait a minute! Mister Griffon! Pony corns!" He caught up, putting webbed hands on his knees and panting. "Uh, Mister Scalesbrook, will you give us a moment here?" he asked.
"Hhph!" the old gillman replied, "Come on Sliptail, I've a-feelin' we don't wanna be a-witness to whatever mischief this one's plannin'." The two wander off, leaving Summer Scribe, Cloud Cutter and Reef Skimmer alone with Brightfin. Set Sail was nowhere to be seen; as soon as the doors opened, she'd spread her wings and leaped into the air, shooting up into the sky and making a beeline for the nearest cloud.
"You folks wanna fight the drow!?" the young gillman said eagerly. "That's so cool? You know my pa, he almost finished them off! Took down a couple-a giant galleys all on his own, so everyone says! Would'a taken 'em all down if those sneaky trolls hadn't betrayed him, I'm sure of it! Ha-ha, yeah, hey... wasn't there another flying pony-corn?" he concluded, looking cluelessly around.
Cloud Cutter gave Brightfin and odd look, tilting her head again. She's not the leader here, far from it, but listening to him speak... she decided it was best to stay silent. For his part Reef Skimmer looked around, alarmed, then caught sight of the brown pegasus, a dwindling brown dot heading up to the nearest cumulus. He glanced at Summer Scribe, wondering if she could handle this kid.
Summer Scribe huhs, listening to Brightfin's tale ... Say, where did Set Sail get to? Well, anyway. She grinned! "Well, it's not so much that we WANT to, so much that we won't go down without a fight if it's what it takes!" She made a proud, thrusting motion with her cute little unicorn horn. "Right, Cloud Cutter?" The little mare pondered that for a moment, before asking "Huh, so what did those trolls do, specifically?" She suddenly thought that it might be a good thing they didn't have Abby along with them...
Cloud Cutter finally spoke up. "I'm not the most enthusiastic creature when it comes to conflict, that's more Azure's and Grenelda's opinion and... I'm sure Reef agrees with them, too, but I'm willing to fight." She sighed. "Just wish I knew what happened when I became... this." A gesture with her wings, indicating her own body.
"Well...." Brightfin said nervously "...see I was just a kid back then, wasn't in the ne-goat-ee-ations and such, but the way gran does tell it, trolls don't care a lick about other creatues 'cept how you're useful to them. Not so in-your-face outright evil as the drow, but maybe that just makes 'em more of a danger, 'cause you won't see it coming when they decide you're no longer of a use to 'em and leave you twistin' in the wind."
"So yeah, my dad, 'course they asked him to lead the attack 'cause he was just so brave and strong and knew all about takin' down drow, but... I guess..." His voice cracked, and he continued unevenly "see they were mad that the drow was pulling their ships in, but once my dad did smash the machine that did that, those trolls, they got what they wanted and packed up and left. So I hear it tell, they left him there, and didn't give a hoot what happened to him nor us folks left behind." The kid seemed about to break out in tears, but he choked it back. "You ain't like that though, are you??"
Summer Scribe pondered that for a moment. Abby wasn't like that, was he? She guessed that for the most part, Abby lacked the resources to get anything out of double crossing them. Well, it was something to consider in the future: for now it was just an anecdote to think about. The cyan unicorn perked up, feeling the tremble of empathy behind her face as she listens to the kid's sad tale and nodded along. "Of course not! We ponies believe in the fundamental values of friendship: we help each other out, because that's what friends do!" She emphasised her declaration with a cheery nod!
"Well that's great, Miss Summer Pony-corn! So, uh, do you really have elementals and a battleship and griffons and, uh, stuff that can smash all those drow done good? Like their whole isle o' misery and everything? Cause..." His voice dropped to a loud whisper "...there might be some folks round here itching for a rematch no matter what the chieftess does say, if you and me were real convincing, you hear what I'm saying?"
Reef Skimmer had meanwhile taken a step back and was also whispering, though in Cloud Cutter's ear. "Do you think you can keep her out of trouble? One is rather concerned about Sails, on her own up there."
At that Cloud Cutter shot the hippogriff an understanding glance, tilting her head and lowering her own voice to a whisper. "Keep Summer out of trouble? I could, yeah. Go ahead and find the Captain." She quickly turned her attention back to Summer and Brightfin: she had an assigned task now.
Summer made a hoof-circling gesture. "Weeellll... I won't make any guarantees like that. We don't even know how strong they are in total! But..." She tilted her head at his proposal. "...I shall have to keep that in mind, for the future! I think it's too early right now, but certainly the Drow are in need of being taught their lesson! Thank you, kind one."
"Yeah! We gotta get some, uh, recons!" Brightfin enthused "Like how many did my dad kill, three quarters or maybe only two thirds?" The teenage gillman smiled at the thought. "Look we gotta convince every gilly round here, so they be knowing you ponycorns are the real deal, the real hope we been waiting for. Any other cool things you can do? Fix our turret? Put a bubble 'round the village, like at the nexus? Heh, even if you got more cure for fin-rot..." the teen's webbed fingers went to the fins on his head, full of holes and frayed at the edges "...cause we all got that real bad since the ents don't come no more."
Reef nodded in thanks to the pegasus. "Thank you.... and do take care, Summer." he said, before spreading his pinions and flapping up into the sky.
"...what's with your griffon?" a surprised Brightfin said, watching the hippogriff's sudden ascension.
Summer Scribe tapped her hoof in thought. The shield: they'd likely have no clue how it works, so it was a wash on whether they could do anything with that - but the 'turret' sounded like a machine, and Summer was confident Nutmeg could take on any challenge in that domain. Perhaps tit-for-tat was the way to go here? "...I believe we could fix your turret, but the pony best suited for that job isn't with us. I'll ask about it, and perhaps you'll have your wish!"
Suddenly registering the griff's sudden departure, she blinked. "Err, well, he's technically a Hippogriff..."
"Oh yeah! Sliptail said somethin' 'bout that, hippo-griffons who turn into giant fish, right? Yeah she's cute and smart ain't she." he said, staring off into space with a smile at the thought of the gillwoman.
Meanwhile Reef Skimmer was climbing steadily, just a slight twinge in his wings after the long flight in the morning, heading for the last place he'd seen Set Sail disappear into the clouds.
"...Anyway," Summer Scribe continued. "What's this fin rot thing you're talking about? We do have a medic who's interested in novel species, so maybe there's something for us to do there too?"
Brightfin's mind snapped back to the present. "Uh, well, it's just, uh, you know, like your fins are sore all the time, and they get holes and tears and sting when you're swimming and it just sucks, ya know? The ents... uh you folks know 'bout ents right, tree people with flowers and leaves and such growing outta them? Yeah they used to come by, traded a potion to fix yer fins right up for a good load o' peat, but we ain't seen them no not for years now."
Summer Scribe tilted her head. "Ents? Tree people?" Her first thought was of timberwolves, but... these 'ents' sounded nicer and more reputable. "Okay! So, if I see any ents, ask them about your fin problems. Can remember, thank you!" Levitating out her notebook, she jotted a new entry. Perhaps this was a good deed in waiting!
"You ponycorns can't make potions? Oh, I was thinking potions be magic, and Scalesbrook said you be the magic elemental, but, uh, never mind then." Brightfin said sheepishly.
"Mmmm, well, we can make potions, yes." Summer explained. "But we didn't exactly come prepared for alchemy, especially not after crash landing. That and not knowing the recipe makes it unlikely we'll figure it out on our own, with apologies!"
Hmm, Brightfin seemed to be rather talkative, Summer thought, so why not ask try and satisfy her curiosity? "Your magic shield: if I may ask, how does it work? Is it a spell, an artifact, a natural occurrence?" She thought it unlikely that the effect was reproducible, but on the off chance it was... imagine the new possibilities for fortifications back home!
"Magic shield?" Brightfin asked cluelessly. "Us folk don't really carry shields, prolly 'cause it's too hard to swim with 'em."
"No, uhh, the..." The unicorn gestured with a hoof into the distance, where she remembered seeing the shimmering magic earlier, on the next island downriver. "The forcefield? The big bubble shield around one of your homes?"
Brightfin's face lit up with realisation. "Oh, yeah! The great bubble, 'course that's the power of Water, but it must've been ancient gillies that built the gate and the made bubble itself! You can tell 'cause who else woulda made all the slides and fountains and pools and stuff! And yeah, you see it's like... only water elementals like me and gran and... pa..." he looked down for a second "...yeah we be the only ones who the gate will open for, but it's a long trip downriver to the bubble, gotta do it every time the demons come and..." he looked imploringly at Summer Scribe "...sometimes, not everyone makes it."
Cloud Cutter was just sticking to what she's asked to do at this point. Summer didn't seem to be getting into trouble, but the talk about elements seemed promising, even if she couldn't quite grasp all of it... so she was just listening in and quietly keeping an eye on the comings and goings of the surrounding village.
Summer Scribe nodded her head in low, sad understanding. "Thank you for letting me know, Brightfin." She wondered: if Reef Skimmer was water elemental, maybe he could just... open the bubble? It'd be even better if he could change it or even make a new one on top of that, but that seemed a bit of a stretch, surely?
Brightfin was looking nervously back over his shoulder at the chief's hall; the guards had returned to their stations outside and were giving him curious looks. "No problem at all, Miss Summer Pony-corn, you be taking care now, Brightfin'll see ya around, to be sure!" With that he waved and padded off towards the river.
Reef Skimmer's wings thrummed as he climbed higher and higher above the marshy home of the fish people. Finally he caught sight of Set Sail; a brown dot sitting motionless on the upper surface of a cloud bank, slowly drifting on the light breeze. He stretched his pinions out and glided gently down, preparing to join her. Cloudwalking was mostly instinctive for the flyers of Equus, but there was a certain knack to it, and the hippogriff hadn't had many opportunities to practice in the last few years.
Curled in a tight ball there on that fluffy white expanse, the ragged looking pegasus didn't even notice his approach. Ears flat against her head, hidden in those wavy lavender and blue tresses, Set Sail seemed to be trying to scream, if she weren't hyperventilating too much to manage it.
Reef landed heavily on the cloud, embedding his legs about a foot into it, which proceeded to kick up swirls of vapor as he clumsily cantered towards the stricken pegasus. "Captain! Sails!? What's the matter, can't you breathe?!" She must be having some kind of attack, he thought. Reef tried to remember her initial physical, summoning a vague mental image of the mare standing nervously on his examination table, but he didn't recall her mentioning any conditions that cause a seizure.
Set Sail jerked around to face the hippogriff, her eyes staring wide, but whether she saw him was unclear. There were pupils somewhere in those green irises, but they were narrowed to pinpricks. Breathing too quickly to speak, she flailed against the cloud, twisting about and flapping her wings randomly, pulling herself up and desperately trying to get away from him.
Reef Skimmer rapidly assessed the situation; probably not epilepsy, the movements were still somewhat co-ordinated and the hyper-ventilation was more typical of... panic? He quickly surveyed the surroundings but there was nothing obvious that could have frightened her, just blue skies and puffy white cloud. Her flanks were starting to spot with foam but her mouth seemed clear; though it was hard to tell with all the snorting. For a second he considered giving her space and letting the attack run its course, but there was too much risk of her flinging herself off the edge or even through the cloud; in her current condition there was no guarantee the pegasus would recover her composure before she hit the ground.
Instead, Reef opened his wings, sprang forward and with a few flaps was on top of the much smaller pegasus; she screamed and flapped ineffectually but had no chance of escape. The big griff wrapped his forelegs around the base of her wings and then grabbed her front hooves in his claws, holding her tightly to his chest as he sank back down to the cloud. She squirmed and struggled but couldn't break free; Reef kept his head up and clear of her tossing mane, wondering if she was going to bite him. "Set Sail, please, calm down. It's ok, you're safe, you're safe." he said, doing his level best to be calming and authoritative with the patient, and hoping this wouldn't result in a court martial.
Set Sail refused to look or listen, single-mindedly struggling to get away, but she couldn't last long. He'd barely grabbed her before panicked squeals faded in strength and she stopped fighting to escape his grasp, until at last the captain relaxed in his arms, then slumped in his arms, her upper body sagging to dangle down limply over his arms. "There now, see? You're safe here," he said gently.
Reef brought his catch firmly down onto the cloud, then lay down on the cloud next to her, keeping one arm around her shoulders and folding one wing tightly over her body, his weight and strength keeping her own wings from doing anything but twitch back and forth. "Sails. Sails! Look at me. Focus on my face. You're safe now." The sight of a giant eagle face would no doubt have been reassuring to a lost griff chick, perhaps not so much for a pony.
She didn't respond, so he gingerly turned her limp body around to face him, holding her head up with a wing. With her eyes closed, her mouth slightly hanging open, the soft little pony seemed like she was sleeping peacefully in his embrace. He pulled open one of her eyelids to reveal an unfocused and much more dilated pupil. "Hmm. Unconscious," he muttered to himself, letting her eye close again.
Reef sighed; there was no pressing need to wake her up, but they would need to set off for the Harmony well before sunset, as no one wanted to risk a night flight. He shuddered at the thought of flying tired with even more weight in the cart, but he supposed that he could always ask Cloud Cutter for help; she never seemed to be tired. In any case he wouldn't mind a rest himself, after all the exertions and excitements of the day, so he lay the pegasus mare down back down on the cloud, draped one wing loosely over her and sunk back down to his belly.
The hippogriff had forgotten just how soft and comfortable a nice cumulus could be, as long as you spread your weight out and didn't have to concentrate on keeping your claws from sinking in. Reef's eyes closed as he slowly relaxed, not in need of sleep yet but appreciating a moment of calm.
It wasn't that long before the mare stirred against him. "Where...?" she murmured, eyes sliding open as she looked at the grey wing draped over her, then followed it back to the restful hippogriff, half sunk into the clouds with her. Set Sail immediately tensed against him, biting her lower lip. Was he asleep? She'd never been this close to the... creature before. Creature was the right word, right?
Reef slowly opened his eyes and turns his head to stare at the pegasus, trying to avoid startling her.
Set Sail had the calmest possible reaction which is to say she blushed hotly, stammering, "Uh I um I uh I uh—" scooting out from under his wing like it was on fire, leaping back to perch on the cloud like a startled cat, staring back at him saying shamefully, "I wasn't—um, I didn't mean to uh, w-w-w-what happened?"
The hippogriff continued to lie on his belly, scaled forelegs stretched out in front of him, nonchalantly drawing in and folding his wing. "Captain, I regret to inform you, that you appeared to suffer... some sort of mental episode." He continued to stare at Set Sail, trying to judge her reaction and mental state. The ears twitching back and forth probably meant something, hopefully not the severe head trauma it would indicate for a hippogriff's feather tufts. "No sooner had we emerged from the chieftess's abode, when you took off up here on your own. One caught up as soon as one could, but... well, do you have any pre-existing conditions that might cause, erm, loss of composure?"
With an outraged scrunch, she declared, "Episode? I didn't suffer an ep—I was scared, okay?" Sitting her butt down with a huff, she wasn't looking at him, still blushing as she explained "Not everything's a medical episode or whatever you call it. I just needed some time to myself to... I was just gonna freak out a little at how we're all doomed and it's my fault and it just c-c-caught up to me all at once." Staring down at the very important puff of cloud beside her, Set Sail asked, "H-how much did you see? I mean I must've passed out before you found me. I was just having a little... trouble that's all."
Reef sighs, wondering how it was that he of all creatures had ended up playing equine psychiatrist, first to the chief engineer and now the captain. He considered sugar coating things, but aside from his fundamental distaste for mis-stating the facts, it seemed best to just get whatever this was in the open and deal with it. "Captain, it seems you were having a panic attack. I confess, my judgement may not be... impartial, right now, but you did seem at genuine risk of doing yourself injury. So I found it necessary and prudent to subdue you, after which you were unconscious for oh, I don't know, a quarter of an hour or so."
The griff had started off in a calm and professional manner but was starting to get flustered. "One does apologise for any improprietary, after all you are the commanding officer, and, erm, well... if you feel it necessary to lodge a formal complaint to the admiralty, one will understand..." He broke eye contact, starting down at his claws as the implications of griffhandling the captain began to sink in.
Set Sail glared at him and started to shout but was too conflicted to have a voice, so she just angrily turned away again, then looked back at him after a pause. "I'm not the captain," she told him bluntly, "There's no admiralty here... there's just clouds, and... us. I don't want to be this... this thing you're afraid of, who tells you what to do. I'm not your commanding officer now. I'm just a pony. Just a... creature. Like you."
Reef sat up abruptly, now looking down on the pegasus again, his expression shocked. "You are the captain!" he said emphatically, as if affirming that water was wet or the sky was blue, before tilting his head and relenting "...but, erm, one supposes, you don't have to be the captain... all the time? Nothing wrong with taking a break." Ducking his head, he added "Oh and of course I won't mention a word of this to the crew, medical confidentiality and all that, not to mention... common decency, for a friend." He looked away.
Blushing the lost-looking mare glanced aside saying, "R-right. A friend. Well as a friend I'm telling you that ponies are... you might not know this but ponies can be kind of... skittish sometimes. It's no big deal. I've always been kind of a scaredy cat, well you know, after the Storm King. And I've been under a lot of stress w-with ponies—with creatures expecting me to make the right decision. So it's nothing serious. I just really... scared because I messed up and I wasn't gonna let the chieftess see me freaking out so I had to hold it in a little bit."
Reef stared into space, his eyes fierce. "Oh believe me when I say, we hippogriffs are quite familiar with the damage wrought by that mad tyrant; physical and psychological. Can't count the number of griffs I grew up with who had one hang-up or another, from the invasion itself or being unable to go home for so long." He sighed, then regarded the little brown pegasus, his gaze softening. "One does understand, you're in an impossible position here. Novo knows the burdens of command are hard enough under the best of conditions, for experienced captains with a full crew and undamaged ship."
He tilted his head, and said in the most reassuring tone he can "All I can say is, the crew are behind you, and we all think you're doing a damned fine job, under the circumstances." He hadn't actually asked the whole crew but the mood in the last few crew meetings seemed quite clear. "I mean none of us are diplomats, but how do you think today would have gone if you hadn't come along? Or if we'd brought Azure and Grenelda instead." Reef's beak slipped open a bit; much as he liked the rough-and-tumble pair, the thought of them conducting delicate negotiations couldn't fail to elicit amusement.
A grateful smile graced Set Sail's face, and she guessed that beak thing must be him smiling too. "Thanks for your support," she said, walking lightly along the cloud to him, "I don't know what I could've done better, but you heard the chieftess. We lost our chance the moment we s-stole that ship." Her ears dipped down as she tells him increasingly mournfully, "Nopony would doom themselves by allying with us anymore. It's only a matter of time before the drow... p-put us all in cages, and they'll never give up and they'll never let us go—" She choked on her words, stopping just short of leaping into his embrace. Trembling there, trying not to cry, still trying to be the captain he kept telling her to be.
Reef lifts a claw and places it lightly on her shoulder, looking into her eyes. "Sails. Now it's true, none of this has gone as planned. Far from it. But... remember what happened to the Storm King? A vast army of monsters, backed up an armada of battleships... all defeated and passed into history, through the efforts of a mere clawful of ponies... with a little help from their allies." He winked, then gazed into the sky, beak opening wider. "Summer Scribe would probably call it the 'power of friendship' or some such, but whatever it is, it's undeniably effective." His eyes met Set Sail's and his tone became serious again. "No doubt all this will takes a little while to figure out, but when we do... well, I don't think that miserable gang of outlaws will know what's hit them."
"Yeah, well why couldn't they stop him first why couldn't they—" Set Sail's tear laden eyes are angry as she glares back at him. "You just don't get it," she huffs, turning to stalk away from him, "There's no heroes coming to save us. We're all alone here, and when we're all captured, there's nopony who can rescue us! They'll never let us go and—" she sinks to her belly, still facing away from him, repeating, "They'll never let us go. It'll never end I just..."
For a long moment Reef just watched the pegasus walk away, wondering if he'd be doing more harm than good if he tried to uncover whatever trauma she'd suffered. After all, it wasn't as if they were in the relative safety of the sickbay, having a proper counselling session (not that Reef was in the habit of doing those, but he'd dealt with more than a few anxious ensigns in his time). They were on an away mission in unexplored territory where hostiles could appear at any moment.
Still... the hippogriff felt like he had to do something to help the captain, and he might not have another opportunity any time soon. He followed Set Sail and lay down beside her, refraining from the wing-hug this time. He looks straight ahead, and in as calm and neutral a tone as possible, suggested "Perhaps you could tell me, what it was like for you... what happened, that is to say, in those days when darkness fell over Canterlot. You don't have to, but... if you feel it would help.... I'm listening."
"It was... nothing special really," she replied unconvincingly, hunched forward without turning around, "I don't remember much I was p-pretty young at the time. They separated me from my family so I didn't know what to do or what happened to them, or if I'd ever... I–I think they were... training us for something? They would have us run in circles, all the foals I mean. And they'd... they'd let me go sometimes, just one of us at a time, and then chase me until they caught me again, and then put me back in the cage. I think it was a... a game, or something. I didn't know what was going on; I only knew the monsters wouldn't let me escape, but I tried anyway because I just... just wanted it to work that time, every time."
Trailing a hoof in the cloud before her, Set Sail casually related, "Lots of foals were there, but I don't know why it stuck with me so much. I've just been a little shier than before, and not really comfortable around cages, or... b-bipeds." Turning to look at Reef at last, she finished in tearful anger, "And now we're all gonna have to go through that, because I couldn't convince the fish creatures to help us, and I sent you out to explore the chained islands not even thinking you'd get attacked. So sorry if I'm a little u-upset about all this. I'm not crazy just... I don't know what to do. What can we do? I don't want to go in a cage again..."
Reef stared at Set Sail again. His tone this time was hard, unrelenting. "You won't. I won't let it happen, and neither will Azure or Grenelda or any of the others. Does that sound like bravado? What do you think the pirates are feeling now, with one of their few remaining ships overcome and commandeered by four strange creatures they thought were trapped and helpless? Perhaps they have these fish creatures cowed, but it's clear they aren't the threat they once were and... I think they're the ones who should be afraid." He sighed, realising this kind of military outlook might not do anything to reassure the civilian pegasus, but unable to think of anything else to say. In a gentler tone, he concluded "No need to apologise, Cap... I mean, Set Sail. This is hard on all of us... but we'll get through it, together."
"But you heard what the fish lady said!" she protested, "I couldn't get her help, because I'm a terrible captain and can't talk to anypony, and what are we gonna do without their help?"
"Sails! Enough!" Reef said loudly and angrily, finally losing his cool. "You're holding yourself to an insane standard! Not that I know much about statecraft, but... I do know alliances aren't made in an afternoon! Imagine you were in her... fins, oppressed for your whole life, and the last time you believed some strangers who said they'd help you fight back... you lost your son! Would you commit your people to an alliance with a clawful of weird little aliens who just turn up on your doorstep one day?"
He snorted, then closed his eyes and shook his head, before saying wearily "Really I think we were doing rather well... you did rather well, that is... not to be thrown out on our ear. At least she's willing to watch and give us a chance..." He realised the captain had missed Summer's little encounter afterwards; "...oh, and it seems her grandson is rather more keen on the notion of an alliance. Summer was wrapping the kid around her hoof when I left."
Shrinking back, Set Sail stammered in confusion, "Yea but she—I mean you're right that—but... I–I guess an alliance could be... but then... I mean... I can't see why not? Her grandson? Really?" Blinking, the flustered pegasus blurts out, "Summer? Really?!"
"Really. You know her enthusiasm can be infectious... with the right audience." Reef said, his beak hanging open again. "Oh it's all right, Cloud Cutter promised to keep her out of trouble, and you know how seriously she takes her promises."
"Gosh I guess she would be more effective against pon— creatures who are less um... cranky," Set Sail admitted, rubbing her chin with a hoof, "I just thought, because the fish lady said... but I mean, what does she know?" Scrunching, she added, "O-of course she knows way more than us, but her grandson does too, and... maybe the pirates aren't as... tough as she says they are? E-even the pirates weren't saying they're as tough as she said they were!"
"Indeed. And there's no reason to think the rest of the Cloudbreaks are so bad. Of the three islands we've seen to far, two were inhabited by friendly creatures. And look at this place..." Reef gestured with a claw at the miraculous sky river, a ribbon of shining water winding its way through the various floating masses, each covered in verdant greenery and begging to be explored. "...it is rather amazing, isn't it? Perhaps it was just part of our bad luck, making landfall so close to the drow base." Reef hoped she won't think of the dragon, which honestly concerned him more than the pirates; they had no idea where it had come from, how many more there were or why they wanted Nutmeg Inferno.
"It is awfully pretty," Set Sails said, not even remembering her ill-fated dragon encounter as she gazed over the cloud's edge at the impossible rivers tying together the great levitating islands all around them, sparkling in the sun. "Never thought I'd be seeing this when I signed on with an airship crew." Tail swishing, she looked up at the larger hippogriff, saying, "I hope it was bad luck. It would've been awful if every creature here was as bad as they are."
"Indeed." Reef said, taking a measure of contentment in the implication that the current situation was not awful, or at least not as awful as it might be. They should head back to the cart soon, but... he supposes Summer might appreciate a little more time to chat up the townsfolk without the captain looking over her shoulder. "So... how are you feeling now? If you're still tense, perhaps I could provide some relief." the griff said, looking at her back.
It might not mean much to a hippogriff that her face flushed, as subtle as it is to see beneath her brown fur, but her eyes did widen, and her irises briefly narrow, before returning to normal. "I... I wouldn't say no," she said faintly, not losing his gaze, "But how do you... I mean I don't even know how you..."
"Ah yes, you'd be used to hooves..." Reef held up a claw "...but I assure you are quite effective, moreso even. Now this isn't my speciality, but I do have some experience..." His voice trailed off and he cocked his head, trying to make sense of the weird look the pegasus is giving him "...at spinal massage, that is... Sails are you alright?"
Well, her tail was somewhat between her legs and her blush only deepened at his words. Her scent might be a trifle stronger than it ought to be, and she stated less than calmly, "O-oh I-I-I'm fine. I am kind of... s-stiff I suppose. You don't mind uh... you mean right here?" Other than that, the blue-and-lavender-haired mare seemed completely normal. There was no hint of the panic which plagued her earlier...
"Good, very well then, erm..." Reef said, suddenly feeling less sure of himself, "...just lie back down there then, and... try to relax?" The brown pegasus sank down to her belly again, still watching owlishly as Reef positioned himself next to her flank. Starting with one claw, he began applying pressure to the muscles around each vertebra, taking care not to press too hard as the little mare was rather less substantial than the average griff.
Laid there amid the white fluff, Set Sail watched with interest, then leans on her forehooves as he works his way up her spine. Her hide is supple yet strong, and oddly she doesn't seem to have all that many knotted muscles under his probing talons. "Mmm, this's nice," she purrs, her eyes slipping closed. "You do this for mares often?"
"Well, erm, on occasion, as per medical necessity and so forth..." Reef says, distracted. The pegasus didn't have as many fused vertebrae as a griff, just three at the wing roots. He worked his way up her neck, claws running through her mane, then used both claws to massage her scalp and behind her ears, which kept flopping back and forth for some reason. Next he went to spread her wings, but apparently she'd anticipated that part of the treatment as she'd already spread them on her own. Quite forcefully it seemed.
Reef's claws worked their way up from her wing roots to the wings themselves, massaging the muscles under her (super fluffy and terribly cute) coverts. He's rather tempted to preen them, but wasn't sure how she'd react; though it always looked funny to him to watch pegasi trying to preen themselves with lips rather than a proper beak. Huh. It seemed his own wings had spread out of their own accord as well.
The mare was putty under the hippogriff's talons, objecting little to anything he needs her to do in his ministrations. Eventually he finished checking her over, and working everything out, and ran out of polite excuses to continue. Set Sail stood a bit woozily, a grateful smile on her muzzle. A few more words between them, before they both leapt off the cloud, the pegasus cutting through the air with her smaller but still effective wings. They didn't look nearly as ridiculous in action, Reef thought. Presently his own broad-winged glide caught up with her, and the two soar together down to the gillmen village, seeking out the others.
Following the teenage gillman's departure, Summer Scribe busied herself accosting one bipedal fish after another, overflowing with questions about their history, culture, surroundings and present situation. The general experience had been superficial friendliness, but reluctance to give too much detail or talk for too long; it seemed the gillmen took pride in their hospitality but remained guarded around strangers, particularly colourful little quadrupeds claiming they'd won a fight with the dark elves.
For Cloud Cutter, the hopes of getting answers to her questions had come and gone, and Reef mentioned that she had to watch over Summer Scribe to ensure she doesn't get into trouble. With these gillmen, it seemed unlikely, but Azure did have one thing right, you never knew where hostility lurked. Staying a fair distance away from Summer but never out of eye contact, the purple Pegasus kept true to her word. After all, the last creature you wanted to upset was the one that would keep you alive if you got hurt.
Eventually Summer had hit her personal jackpot, a general store that was for the most part filled with pickled fish, fishing hooks and sundries, but boasted a tiny shelf at the back filled with second-hand books for sale. The little unicorn had immediately sat down to sample the wares, notebook out, painstakingly translating sections of runes and agonising over which ones she might be able to afford with her small collection of excavated coins. She seemed to be completely oblivious to the increasingly annoyed looks from the proprietor and would likely be here until the rest of the team dragged her away.
Cloud Cutter could only smile and sigh lightly at her ally. Always wanting to learn more and more about other races. After a quick check with the shopkeeper to ensure Summer's safety, Cloud Cutter looked to another building: 'Pebblesplish Tavern'. The mention of moonshine earlier had definitely caught her interest. Most likely Princess Luna's drink of choice, she thought, as she approached and soon entered the establishment, looking around at the area before her. Nothing like a drink from another species to make things interesting, right?!
The tavern was one of the largest buildings in the village, as ramshackle and patched as any of them, with its roof of rusty corrugated iron and walls bearing the cracks and scorch marks of many drow raids. Still the interior had a certain undeniable charm, with dozens of bottles and jars of different coloured glass lining one wall, and various strange looking aquatic creatures squirming around in fish tanks or hanging preserved from the ceiling.
It was late afternoon so the establishment was quiet, but a few of the fish creatures were sitting around the rough wooden tables, nursing drinks or playing card games with each other (the cards themselves bore pictures of more strange creatures and machines, all different). All of them looked up as the purple pegasus entered and the conversation died away to silence, only broken when Pebblesplish himself called out from behind the bar: "Well how do you do there Miss Po-knee, we sure are glad you found time to come sample the leg-en-dar-ee hos-pee-tal-ity of Peeblesplish Tavern!"
The more things change, the more they stay the same, hmm? Cloud Cutter didn't seem one bit surprised to see drinks and card games populate what action there was in the tavern, it wasn't any different from pony taverns, and there was a faint smile as the aquatic theme of the tavern gave the place a nice charm to it. The greeting was soon responded to in kind: "Glad to be here, place looks pretty nice."
Never mind the old look of the place and the obvious marks of drow attacks. But one thing caught Cloud Cutter's mind, and currency wasn't in large supply. In fact... she had none. This place was a business, they needed to turn a profit, she knew. A shame... some moonshine would be nice right about now after the diplomacy with the chieftess went nowhere as well as she'd hoped.
"So what would be your please, uh, Miss... it ain't actually Miss Spooky Po-knee is it? 'Cause I can't for the life of me recall ol' Scalesbrook attaching any other name to your person, but that ain't to say the old gilly weren't talking outta his cloc, if you do pardon my language." the gillman rambled, ending with an embarrassed look.
"Cloud Cutter." She started, with a bit of a smile. "Don't worry... no need to apologise. I'm not the prettiest pegasus in the world at this point," she finished with a rough chuckle. "Truth be told, there's a lot I don't understand going on right now." She looked away for a moment at an aquatic creature attached to the wall. "Currency's one of those things I don't have." She concluded with a slightly embarrassed tone herself.
"Oh I wasn't thinking you'd be carrying cloud dollars, but we here do pride ourselves on accepting troll silver gears or old mabu golden circlets or even fairy sparkles, if you've soaked them overnight in vinegar that is, or... uh..." Desperation crept in as the gillman wilted under the blank stare of Cloud Cutter's unblinking white eyes. "uh... gold nuggets... uncut gems... old sports day trophies... any kind of negotiable goods at all?" He seemed ready to cry as the prospect of a new customer was slipping away.
Cloud Cutter's eyes showed no emotion, but it was clear at the mention of all these... exotic currencies that the gillman was hoping to sell Cloud Cutter a drink... just as she was hoping to get one. Disappointment, however, seemed to be creeping onto her face as she had absolutely none of the currencies he mentioned, as simple and as silly as they got. At the end, she couldn't help but sigh.
"Tell you what, best I've got is maybe cleaning a sink or... or something." She slumped. "You want to sell a drink, I want to get a drink, it's only fair I at least do something for the drink, right?"
"Uh, that's a sad situation to be, to be sure, Miss Cloud Cutter. I wouldn't be wanting you to go away thinking Peeblesplish here isn't a generous soul, but you do understand I'm running a business here and if it got out that we were giving out free drinks, well..." Pebblesplish stared into space, apparently not sure exactly what calamity this would result in, but possessed of some deep-seated moral objection to giving away his product.
"Of course, of course." Cloud Cutter nodded, thinking back. "Well, is there anything you think this place could use?" She started to think back on her travels; had they found anything that might be of interest to a tavern owner?
"See here missy, I can set you up with a tankard of whatever takes your fancy..." came a voice from behind "...if you'd be willing to listen to a little proposition, that is." Cloud Cutter turned to see a dark green gill man standing behind her, waving one webbed hand at the table where he'd been sitting.
"Hey now Gargle, you know I said you weren't to go bothering the other customers again, 'specially not cute little deer uh I mean po-knees who aren't wise to the ways of the marsh just yet..." Pebblesplish said, with a mixture of annoyance and anxiety.
Cloud Cutter had been deep in thought until the second gillman came up from behind and spoke directly to her, startling the 'spooky pony'. "A deal for a drink, hmm?" she began, as she turned around to look at the creature. "Heard better beginnings for things like these, but I can hear what you've got to say. You have my attention."
"Just what I wanted to hear, Miss Cutter..." He face filled with an uneven smile, revealing several sharp teeth and a lot more gaps where teeth had once been. "...now can your chatter it 'Splish and serve up a double shot of moonshine each for me and the po-knee here." He continued to smile at Cloud Cutter while the bartender fussed with glasses and bottles, Pebblesplish mumbling and griping to himself the whole time.
"Here you are, Miss Cloud" he said to the pegasus, grinning, before looking at the other gillman and saying "...and don't think I'll be giving you a tab this time, Gargle, it's cash only from now on."
"Wouldn't expect nothing less." the green fish man said, idly tossing a few worn silver coins with serrated edges onto the ancient wooden counter.
"And just what I wanted to have, too... you know how to get my attention." Cloud Cutter replied with a nod. "Thank you... now, to business, shall we? I believe we've got something... important to discuss?" She did look to the coins, though, taking note of what the place's currency looked like. At least now she knew what to look for!
The gillman picked up both glasses and took them to the table, apparently assuming the pony had no way to carry one. Now ensconed in a cosy little nook formed by shelves and an internal wall, the two were free to converse in relative privacy. "The name's Gargegill, trader and purveyor of salvage, scrap and, on occasion, items of unique and wonderous nature. Fully half the buildings round these parts were built of materials from the Gargle & Son yard." The creature seemed quite proud of this, though his unkempt appearance and extra strong fishy smell didn't scream 'successful businesspony' to Cloud Cutter.
Cloud Cutter's attention wasn't on the drink but rather the business at hand. Gargegill was a trader: by the sounds of things, one that occasionally hit the jackpot, but was only getting by on most days. He was unlikely to have anything close to resembling the answers she was really looking for, but that was secondary on her mind now to what this 'deal' might entail. All she wanted was to hear what they needed, so she could do it, get the drink and move on...
Garglegill pushed one of the glasses over to the pegasus; it was filled with an amber, slightly oily liquid. "I heard them gillies out there calling you the 'spooky po-knee', and if ma eyes ain't lying, not to mention the quiver in ma dorsal fin, I do believe that's just what you are. Sitting close, looking into those... eyes of yours, it's clear to me you're a creature with more than a passing familiarity with the other side, if you know what I mean." Perhaps he hoped the drink would make her more agreeable.
And Cloud Cutter's initial reaction to this wasn't a word, but rather, a front hoof tapping square on her forehead as she sighed lightly. "Do I really look like this... this death-loving creature to every creature now?" There was a disappointed sigh as she returned to fully sitting. "Look, I don't understand exactly what's happened to me, okay? I wasn't like this two weeks ago," she concluded, not yet taking a sip of the drink. That would mean agreeing to their deal, whatever it was.
"Uh... I ain't saying that... uh... two weeks? Really?" Garglegill said. "Was that when the spirits came calling, or was that when ya took a trip to the underlands and, uh.. you know it don't matter. I know you lot ain't supposed to tell us fully livin' folks about none of that stuff. What's important is... huh, say did anyone tell you what put the Witch in Witchway Marsh yet, or was that superstitious old Scalesbrook too a-feared of the curse to give it the least mention?"
A shake of her head was how Cloud Cutter's response began. "Two weeks is when the ship I was on crossed the Storm Wall. Haven't been the same ever since. I know it sounds crazy, but we're not from around here." All these questions, no mention of the deal... and now talk of a curse. "Never heard of this curse." she stated. Whether it was ignorance or fact, the untouched drink in front of her told the story.
"The Everlasting Endless Storm o' Certain Doom For All Who Enter? Pull the other one." Gargegill said "Oh ho I know your game, didn't I just say you spooky folk never give a straight answer 'bout how a creature gets stuck half way to the underlands." He lets out a ragged laugh that turns into a chesty cough. After the coughing subsided, he continued "So, let me tell you 'bout the witches, if all of these sods are too scared to speak of it. They say it started with a coven and a single giant cauldron, deep in the marsh in the days o' yore, brewing up potions that could cure a dying gilly just as soon as curse a healthy one to waste away to nothin', change a mabu into a troll as easily as they could make a brew that'd grow an elf into a giant or make a cyclops float through the air like a balloon."
"'course soon as they got bored foolin' around one of 'em saw how much gold they could make sellin' the fruits o' their labours and that's how it got started. Soon enough there were a whole convent of witches, built up on the high cliffs, brewing huge quantities of potions of every kind to sell to the Skylands of old. Must've been a sight." He sighed, in a manner that suggested he was thinking more of the huge quantities of gold the legendary witches must have been raking in rather than the wonderous effects of their potions.
A clear look of irritation crossed Cloud Cutter's face at the fact that Garglegill wasn't taking her seriously. The story of the witches was one she listened to, but part of her couldn't take his story seriously either. All this talk sounded so incredibly special to these creatures... while half of the unicorns back home could do at least one of these things. The Princesses? With their eyes closed. Nothing to it. And Princess Twilight? Haha... she could do all of these. Easily. A chuckle escaped her lips as she continued to listened. Maybe someday they could finally get to business. And if Reef found her first, well... Garglegill could have both shots. The more time passed, the less the Pegasus seemed inclined to even drink.
"So... 'course they ain't round here no more. Don't see any mabu nor trolls ridin' 'round on brooms and coming down to sample the smoked fish, do you? Whole lot of 'em vanished, done been gone ten generations at least, but their convent's still up there, you can see it clear enough from the Whistleway Lake, that's at the head of Grand Cascade if you ain't been there yet." He licked his lips. "Now you might be thinking, if you're a smart creature, well old Gargle if them witches been gone hundreds of years then there can't be anything left but some tumbled down ruins all picked clean o' anything o' use or value, right?"
Finally: down to the actual bloody talk of the deal. "So looking for another jackpot, you want me and my allies to go there and get you something in particular or just something valuable? If there's anything left?" At this point, after the gillman seemed to think she was some death-loving pony and hadn't taken what happened to her seriously, it was getting pretty clear that the purple pegasus wasn't a happy pony. Definitely not that idealised stereotype so many of the creatures back home had of her entire race.
"A jackpot, yeah, a jackpot for sure!" the fish creature smiled, first earnestly before his grin turned vicious. Either he didn't recognise the pony's contempt, or he didn't care. "But if it were just a case o' hiking up there and grabbing whatever takes a gilly's fancy, well, there wouldn't be nothing left would there? 'Cause Gargegill could pick that place down to rubble in a month, and his pa or his grandpa would've done it years ago, if it weren't for the spooks hauntin' the place."
"So I got most of it right... except there's a fight to be had to get 'em. Alright." Cloud Cutter nodded. "I'll see what I can do to get some allies together and give this a shot. But risking my life and my allies' life all for a simple drink... it's a high price, don't you think? How about a little bargain so we can see eye to eye here." She started, with a slight smile. Heck, if she could do something like this and get the crew of the Harmony a decent amount of currency so they don't have to do charity work for every creature, bonus, right? "So let's get this done. You got me a drink, so I'm willing to slant this in your favour. Slightly. If we find something, 55-45 profit. You get the larger cut."
"Fight? You wanna fight 'em?" The gill man sat back, looking sceptical "Uh, I was thinking you'd just, uh, you know, as a fellow creature of the underlands and all, you'd just convince them to go haunt somewhere else? But, hey, you think you can take them down, Garglegill here won't be the one to stop you!" Another uneven grin. "Don't you worry 'bout no shares, it ain't like I got a deed and title to the place, no gilly does. Bound to be treasure in a place like that, the four of you flyers can take away whatever you can stuff in your packs. Then once you've flapped off Gargle & Sons'll be free to roll in and salvage the place, like I said, down to the foundations, and I might be fixing a deal on those too. That sound fair to you, Miss Cutter?"
There was a part of her that wondered if unicorn magic could affect spirits. Whether her team would even be willing to fight these creatures. Whether her team would even be willing to go to those cliffs in the first place. But... she was in too deep in this to say no at this point. At worst... she'd go alone. It'd be only fitting. "So to confirm, you want us to go to the cliffs and convince the spirits to leave it alone. Any profits we can get from the place are ours to keep?"
"That's a fair summary, so it is, Miss Cutter. See this is the legend, those witches were working on their greatest potion, 'course it was for immortality, always is in these bedtime stories ain't it? So a bunch of them brew it up, but things don't go like they want, the ones who try it get turned into spirits, worse they end up making a giant monster that chased their sisters right off the island. They do say the Skylanders themselves had to come put the beast thing down, but they overlooked the spirits, cursed to wander the halls of their old convent 'til the end of time." Another laugh, this one a deep and lengthy.
"Course you can't put too much stock in old fishwive's tales. There sure are some spooks still up there though, chasin' out any young gilly foolish 'nough to ignore the warnings." He leaned forward and whispered into Cloud Cutter's ear "I'd know 'cause I thought I'd make my first big pot o' riches just that way, would be livin' in the lap o' luxury in the core, not stuck in this dump till I grow old!" With that he threw himself back into the chair and resumed laughing, slamming his glass down on the table. It was empty.
Cloud Cutter listened carefully to the idea of a spirit monster wandering the halls. Of course, if that was the case... this would be a pain in the neck to take care of. She would have to see what her folly had gotten herself into this time. With one last sigh, she concluded: "Well, let this be your answer, Garglegill." Cloud Cutter wasn't an alcoholic, far from it, but she knew how to seal a deal when she saw once. Grabbing the double shot of moonshine, she would treat it as it deserved: downing the entire thing in one go, only to pause... blinking at the empty shot glass and wonder out loud. "Is this stuff supposed to be strong?"
Garglegill's laughter died away. "Hey careful there Miss Cutter. That stuff's near on hundred-ten-proof!" He looked over to the bar "'less 'Splish has confused the still with the laundry tub again!" he shouted, apparently finding this hilarious, though the gill man behind the bar just glared back at him. The salvage merchant looked at the purple pony again, trying to recover his train of thought. "So that's a deal then, good to hear it." Leaning forward for another whisper, he added "And let's just keep it between you and me, alright? Too many superstitious fools 'round here, don't want to spook 'em. Hah. You hear what I said there? Spook 'em! Hah hah!" And with that he was collapsing in his chair again for another round of ragged laughter.
It was at this point that a giant grey eagle poked through the entrance to the tavern, the hindquarters of a stallion following closely behind after a moment's pause on the threshold. "Cloud Cutter?" Reef Skimmer said uncertainly. "Are you in here? Erm, has anyone seen a purple pegasus... pony?"
"Felt mild to me. Hmm." Cloud Cutter shrugged as she got back on her hooves. "Yeah, it's a deal. I'll gather my allies and see what we can do." Hearing a familiar voice, she turned happily to the entrance. "Ah, speaking of them, there's one now... guess that's my cue. I'll see you again." She finished with a soft bow before heading towards where she'd heard the hippogriff's voice.
"Yeah, Reef, I'm on my way. Sorry. Had some business to take care of."
The copter whirred steadily across the sky; repaired, repainted (from black and red to electric cyan with purple highlights) and no longer the 'Wyvern's Sting'. It was now the 'Second Chance'; Nutmeg had proposed 'The Propeller Thingy', but Summer managed to overrule her before she could paint it on the hull. The weather was warm and dry again, although it seemed like it wouldn't be for much longer: the wind had picked up, intermittent gusts driving increasing numbers of clouds across the sky. It had been two days since the scouting party had visited Witchway Marsh and established contact with the gillman tribe there. Now the Equestrians were eager to return, each for a different reason.
Out on the front deck of the ship, manes tossing in the wind, were...
Summer Scribe, a young pale blue unicorn mare with a mane and tail in stripes of white and stronger blue, and a cutie mark of a stylus writing on a scroll. Originally a rising star in the Canterlot University history department, with her career only moderately encumbered by persistent rumours of risky and unprofessional methods behind the acquisition of the many new pieces she'd discovered. Since the crossing she'd been given a field promotion to both 'senior distinguished researcher' and 'senior diplomat', roles she was overjoyed to fill. Between mysterious ruined settlements, first contact with multiple new species, giant alien machines and whole new system of magic to investigate she was brimming with excitement and enthusiasm for their mission. Today she was focused on the promise of a ruined apothecary - what new magical secrets awaited them there? - though the notions of investigating the giant force field bubble and continuing to make friends among the fish creatures appealed as well.
Melonwater, an earth pony stallion in his late teens, with green fur and a pink mane and tail, and a cutie mark of a sliced open geode. An undergrad geology student, he didn't let his love of rock formations stop him from helping out in other areas, such as filling in as the expedition's cartographer. It had been a tough crossing for the research team, with the loss of several of their fellows and all of their leaders on the other airship still unaccounted for. Although initially horrified at the idea of Summer Scribe taking over, Melonwater had begun to warm to her leadership, even if it was still somewhat scatter-brained. His desire to see the impossible 'sky river' had trumped his fear of flying; he certainly wasn't taking the dangerous mission to impress a blue pegasus mare back at the ship, or so he told himself.
Set Sail, a brown pegasus mare with a blue and purple streaked mane and a cutie mark of three stylised hot-air balloons, usually found wearing a purple kerchief around her head. Formerly third mate and ballast engineer, Set Sail had found herself promoted to Captain after Polar Sky and the first mate Pearl Gleam were lost in the crossing, with the second mate still in the sickbay with multiple fractures. The sudden rise to command had been the last thing she'd wanted, but she was popular with the crew and had managed to struggle through despite the ponies finding the Cloudbreak Islands far from the peaceful deserted ruins they'd expected. After the drow incident she'd refused to send more creatures into harm's way without taking at least some risk herself, and had shared the negotiation with the fish creature's chieftess with Summer, at the cost of a panic attack afterwards. Content to leave the magical convent and its mysterious spirits to the unicorns, she would accompany Reef Skimmer and the engineers to continue improving relations with the gill men.
Crates of jungle apples, a recommendation for trade goods from the troll Abernathy, were stowed in the cargo well beneath their feet, along with some basic supplies. Sheltering in the enclosed cockpit amidships were...
Cloud Cutter, a purple pegasus mare with glowing white eyes and a cutie mark of a trisected cloud. This was her second time flying the commandeered craft, under more relaxed conditions this time than that first desperate escape from the pursuing drow. Originally a meteorological researcher, she'd become fascinated by the natural flow of magic through the land and skies of Equus, travelled to the badlands and beyond chasing her theories. She'd joined the Storm Piercer team as a way of getting on the Expedition, eager to find out if the Cloudbreak Islands were real and what kept them aloft and veiled behind an impossible permanent storm. She'd gotten more than she'd bargained for when the Harmony had hit the mysterious barrier at the centre of the storm wall: it still wasn't clear if she'd truly survived the incident. Now she had to grapple with the physical and metaphysical implications of being an unliving entity, while doing her best to help defend and support her fellow ponies. Today she would follow Summer Scribe to the 'haunted convent', and if she was lucky there might be answers there for her.
Azure Feather, a deep blue unicorn mare with a magenta mane and a cutie mark of a flying wand. As usual, she sported a double pair of butterfly wings, created by her signature spell. A member of the Twilight Guard, who'd served with distinction in the Lavender Blades, a unit well known for popping up in every corner of Equestria, ready to deal with unique threats and strange situations that the regular guard or local constabulary couldn't handle. Azure had worked her way up from private to sergeant before being quietly reassigned to the Cloudsbreak Expedition by Captain Gallus. Though a full squad of regular guards had been loaned to the expedition by Princess Twilight, the captain had reviewed the proposal and found it prudent to add some extra magical backup. Now with the lead airship gone, Azure found herself as the only representative of Equestria's military in the expedition, not to mention the first to demonstrate strange changes in her abilities due to the alien magic of the Cloudbreaks. She worried constantly about her ability to keep the crew safe; particularly on this latest mission with twice as many bodies to protect as before.
Below them, in the cramped and noisy engine bay in the centre of the hull, worked...
Nutmeg Inferno, a brown-furred, gold-scaled kirin mare. Chief Engineer of the EAS Harmony and leader of her own engineering company, it seemed she'd been somewhat surprised to find herself on an expedition to a near-mythical region in the furthest reaches of Equestria, rather than Klugetown. She'd been even more surprised to find herself venturing off the ship to repair fantastic, alien devices, and to be the subject of an attempted kidnapping by a purple dragoness that spewed lightning from her maw. The interloper had accused her of being a 'tech elemental', which might well have something to do with the torrent of new insights and ideas for inventions she'd been having recently, though the specifics remained elusive. For now Nutmeg was content to take the refurbished craft on its first real shakedown, after a quick test flight around Blissful Pastures. She'd heard that there were friendly creatures at their destination with a 'gun turret' that needed fixing, and that definitely sounded promising.
Gearshift, an earth pony stallion with a tan coat, a deep blue mane and a cutie mark of intermeshing gears. Second-in-command of the engineering team, he and Nutmeg went to school together, and he left his own job at a machine shop to join her when she set out to form her own company. He worries about her safety perhaps a little more than is called for, but ultimately respects her too much to hold back her free spirit. When Nutmeg was unable to back out of the contract to pony the expedition through the storm, he was more than happy to follow, and it helped that she insisted on hiring his sweethearts so they didn't have to leave each other. Standing at the side of his exotic friend, he had a nervous eye on the engines, still unsure about these burning crystals that powered the vessel, or the alien magic that flowed through them.
Lashed down on the fantail was the expedition's sole remaining two-pony cart, ready for use when they arrived. This left no room or payload allowance for a certain hippogriff, who was after all nearly twice Gearshift's height and about as heavy as the four mares combined, but he was content fly under his own power, pacing the ship fifty metres or so off the starboard bow:
Reef Skimmer, a chimeric combination of giant sea eagle and arabian horse, light grey save for his vivid pink crest and tail feathers. Junior surgeon in the hippogriff navy, on assignment to the Cloudsbreak Expedition via the officer exchange program. An amateur naturalist who was keen to study the unknown species of the floating archipelago, he's had to deal with mass injuries in the crossing, medically impossible purple pegasi, his oversize wings landing him the job of designated cart-pony and having to play equine psychiatrist despite being consistently baffled by pony body language. He was keen to return to Witchway Marsh, hopeful that he might have a treatment for the 'fin rot' the gill men all seemed to be suffering from.
Before them, the sky river slowly emerged from the drifting clouds, an impossible ribbon of water winding its way down from a floating mountain to end in a swamp-fringed lake, passing through two large islands and several smaller ones on the way. Cloud Cutter began to fly the copter in a sweeping arc around to the top of the third large island, hoping to avoid the notice of any gillmen below. From what they'd heard, the creatures rarely travelled to the third island save for when they had to hide from a drow raid in the 'water nexus'.
Down in the engine bay, a certain red-ruffed kirin said jovially to her partner in crime, “C’mon, we’ll be two seconds away from the engine,” poking his side with a golden yellow two toed hoof, “Don’t you wanna see what this place looks like already? I’m heading up top to take a looksee.” She stepped away from where they shared the one-pony monitoring station for the engine, crewed by two because good engineers never settle for merely adequate, and went trotting spryly away, her red tufted ropey tail the last thing to be seen as she climbed up the rickety steps and out into the sunlit sky.
As she exited onto the front deck she brushed up against Melonwater, who paid no notice, as he was staring transfixed at the scenery. "But that's impossible..." he mumbled, over and over "...the amount of mana it would take, just for this one river... uh gotta try that calculation again..."
Gearshift rubbed the back of his head with a nervous chuckle. "OK, ok. You're right, it won't blow up the moment I turn away from it." He just... wanted everything to go right on their maiden voyage! Well, okay, it was only a maiden voyage under the ship's new name. But he was still nervous and it was comforting to tend to the engine! He followed briskly in Nutmeg's wake, flincing and shielding his eyes briefly, before they adjusted to the outside light.
"You know, I still can't get over the fact that everything here flies. How much energy would you need just to defy the pull of gravity day in and day out? It keeps me up at night, you know..." He peered back over his shoulder - ok, engine still fine. whew! - and tried to keep himself distracted.
“I know... look how far away it is!” Nutmeg declared at the river flowing from the upper island, a glimmering ribbon of water high overhead, “And that’s a place where you can go? It’s like we’re looking up through the inside of a mountain, that a river was flowing around, except only the river and a few chunks of uh... mountain are left. You know?”
Gearshift chuckled at that! "It's so, well... My mind can't make heads or tails of it. It's pretty , how inscrutable it is. Like it defies your understanding on purpose to make you feel humbled." He gives a bit sigh at that, chuckling lightly.
That snapped Melonwater out of his trance, albeit briefly. "Huh! Now there's a theory." he smiled at the kirin "...removal of the physical matter of the original terrain, yet leaving behind an electromagnetic field that... hmm..." and he was spaced out again.
“You’re way too modest, Gear,” Nutmeg said with a laugh, “I bet you could whip up one of these in no time flat. Just get your old... floaty riverifier, and your mountain disapperifier and bam!” Her bountiful ears went down though, as she concluded gazing upwards, “There’s so much we don’t know... things we just have to accept because they’re right there in front of us. But you know, maybe we don’t have to understand it. I think we should just... live with crazy floating rivers and focus on what we can understand. Like massively endothermic fire crystals.”
Gearshift laughed: okay, that's some good engineer humour. "Yep! If it's part of a closed system of energy, then I can reason about that all day long. Thanks, Nutmeg."
Azure was in the cockpit with Cloud Cutter, doing her best to help and relieved that the aircraft seemed to be functioning better than on their first desperate flight. "Tell you what, this is a heck of a better ship after Nutmeg's worked on it, hmm? Also helps a lot we've actually taken care of it and especially that I'm not driving..."
“It’s definitely something,” Cloud Cutter replied, her hooves on the controls, her glowing white eyes staring into the distance. “The copter feels like it handles better than before. We studied them in aeronautics of course, but I’ve never actually piloted one before. Honestly I am mystified why the others think I should be the one to pilot.”
Summer Scribe pumped a hoof in a response to Azure! "Isn't this super cool? Like, we can just have a mini-airship now!" She grinned broadly! "I don't know how long this would have taken to make from scratch! It's more than just a silver lining, it's practically glowing incandescent! My compliments to the chief engineer, for sure!" She chuckled as she peered between Cloud Cutter and Azure, feeling a bit relieved that she missed out on the whole commandeering an enemy ship adventure. Hmm!
The peanut-shaped island was about eight kilometres on the long axis, split into two levels separated by dramatic cliffs and rock screes with a combined drop of nearly a kilometre. Along one side flowed the river, cascading through a vast series of rapids and waterfalls, with a series of locks cut alongside to allow the gillman boats to navigate down. Through the cliffs themselves a narrow track wended its way through a dozen switchbacks to provide a land route between the two plateaus.
Both plateaus were covered in dense forest, the upper one broken by the regular forms of huge rectangular buildings placed in a tight group in the middle of the woods, while the lower was dominated by the shimmering surface of the bubble, over a kilometre in diameter. There were hints of smaller structures, in a group some way from the main complex, but they were barely visible through the branches.
In any case Cloud Cutter's target was clear; a substantial set of air docks build on the far edge of the upper plateau, out of sight of the rest of the sky river. The wooden piers that had once jutted out into the sky had rotted and crumbled away, but there was more than enough room on the stone quay for the relatively small copter. The purple pegasus brought the copter down with a moderate 'thump' and closed the throttle, leaving the rotors to slowly wind down. As the ponies began to disembark, Reef Skimmer the hippogriff glided down to hover over the stern and began unloading the cart, which would ferry Nutmeg and Gearshift to the gillman village.
Set Sail helped unload the cart, heaving it off the edge of the ship so Reef could drag it down to the ground. The wheels landed with a soft crump, begging the question why does this cart have wheels at all? She didn't concern herself much with it, conferring with Nutmeg to make sure they had everything as Gearshift tossed the tools they'd need into the cart, including a certain kirin's favourite six foot long adjustable wrench. “Yes I'm sure I remembered everything,” Nutmeg said with a roll of her eyes, “We won't know what supplies we're gonna need until we take a look at it.”
"Yes yes," Gearshift said absently as tools went flying in neat arcs, landing in a remarkably neat pile. "So that's why we need to take everything."
"One is certainly glad it's a short flight to the village." Reef said, eyeing the growing heap. "Nutmeg, is there something you can do to preclude the possibility of some random fish creature flying off with our ship? Jigger the engines in some way only we can unjigger, or some such." he suggested, making a vague gesture with one claw.
“Oh, good idea, I’ll go take care of that,” Nutmeg said, toppling Gearshift’s neat pile of stuff as she levitated her wrench out of it. Then she bounced down into the engine room.
Reef Skimmer stared at the pile, sighing. "Steady on there Steer Shift, not sure what's going to break first, my back or the cart. You do realise we can always make another trip if you find yourself missing something?" He began strapping himself into the harness with a resigned air.
Gearshift looked horrified as his perfectly organised pile was ruining: now they’d never find the number 37 hex driver, just when they need it most! He hung his head and groaned. He managed to ignore his instinct to reorganise it from scratch: he really needed accompany Nutmeg and make sure she didn't do anything too drastic.
Melonwater was, as expected, wandering around examining the construction of the docks, staying as far away from the edge and the yawning drop into the sky as he could. They were a grander affair than the one back on Abernathy's island; rectangles of stone outlined where small warehouses might have stood, though the structures themselves had long since gone.
Summer Scribe trotted over to accompany the earth pony while they waited to set off, curious as to his observations. "It sure looks like everything here's built on ancient history, doesn't it? Like different folks used the islands over the years. Do you think maybe the positions island shift in comparison to each other over time?"
Melonwater jumped up and stared wildly around before realising that it was just Summer; it seemed the long trip in the noisy copter had left him on edge. "Oh, Summer, uh... yeah! Yeah that seems likely doesn't it, do you think they ever collide? I suppose we could ask the natives..." he said, his expression implying that it would be best if somepony else did the asking.
Summer Scribe chuckled lightly. "Yeah, sure, when I get time! It is a bit more esoteric, and we have more pressing concerns right now: like making good on our promises to the gillmen! If we can't make friends with them, then it's a poor tiding!"
Nutmeg and Gearshift eventually re-emerged, and Gearshift assured Set Sail that the ship was most certainly not rigged to explode. Then with Reef Skimmer hitched to the cart loaded up with Nutmeg, Gearshift, and way too many tools for the job, they went soaring off into the sky, heading for the gillman village on the second island. They could only assume repairing the 'turret' would put the fishy bipeds in a better defensive position against the drow, and win them some favour in the process.
Watching them flap away, Cloud Cutter remarked unappreciatively, "They don't have a ghost of a chance." Then she looked back at the four ponies remaining, saying, "Fortunately, we do."
Azure chuckles a little at Cloud Cutter's attempts at levity - it was good to see her lighten up a bit. "With Summer and Melonwater here, yeah, we'll be fine. Not to mention we're pretty good in a fight, you and I."
The way forwards was obvious; a wide avenue paved with worn stone flags, leading away from the dock and winding lazily through the forest. The weeds poking up through the cracks between the stones made it clear it no longer saw traffic, but something had prevented nature from completely reclaiming the road despite supposedly being abandoned for centuries. This was emphasised when, perhaps half way from the dock to the main compound, Summer spotted a stone archway to one side of the road.
Beyond was a side path leading away into the woods, thoroughly overgrown and barely visible in the undergrowth, while the arch itself was crowned with a petrified wooden sign carved with several native runes. Summer couldn't translate them, but it very much reminded her of the entrance to the ruined mabu village, back on Blissful Pastures. On the opposite side another trail lead off towards the cliffs and presumably the water nexus, marked only by a couple of fossilised wooden posts.
Summer Scribe perked up, waving the party over. "This looks like it's worth a quick check-out!" She sweatdropped, having big ambitions as always, but admitting: "Obviously not a full archaeological dig right now. But I'd love to get the lay of the land and figure out if it's worth a second look later!"
"It's strange though," Cloud Cutter said, peering at the wooden sign with even less understanding than Summer. "They didn't say anything about this. Only that there had been a potion operation of some sort, up on the high cliffs. I assume said cliffs would be that way," She briefly pointed one purple wing at the trail heading toward the drop off, then looked at the archway again. "I wonder what this place could be. Could it be part of the convent, somehow? Or maybe this is one of the warning signs he talked about."
Melonwater tapped one of the causway's flagstones with a hoof. "Must be a solid sub-base on this, to resist subsidence for so long." Glancing over to the spooky pegasus and trying not to shiver, he said "Somepony built this road to move heavy things from the big buildings to the docks, no other reason to go to all the trouble. Those side trails, they look like they've only seen hoof traffic."
"One thing's for darn sure up here." Azure remarked, giving a wary look at the sign. "Short of that drow island? This is probably the most hostile place we've been yet. Keep your guard up."
Summer Scribe nodded in agreement to Azure: "I hope we don't get attacked here, but the possibility's on the table." She looked at Cloud Cutter. "Hmm, can you clear the foilage out? Path's a bit overgrown."
“Stay clear of me, just in case,” Cloud Cutter said with worry at Azure’s warning, taking a few steps from the others, “I don’t know what happens exactly, but the last time I was attacked I... just don’t get close to me.”
"Understood, Cloud Cutter... as far as clearing the foliage, leave that to me... air blades should care of this stuff in quick order." Azure nodded, stepping up. "So the village first, then the cliffs?" she confirmed, not wanting to spend more of her magic than she immediately had to. A tired mage in a fight, not so much use...
Summer Scribe, for her part, was very ready to give Cloud Cutter all the space she needed. "You got it!"
Azure nodded, trying to go a step further with her casting... could she maybe create a solid blade of wind to use multiple times instead of just casting the same spell over and over again? Seemed like it would be a heck of a lot more efficient...
The winged unicorn lowered her head, pointing her horn at the space beyond the stone archway. Energy swirled around her horn, surrounding her with gusts that stir up leaves from the path, before shooting forward as a now-familiar blade of air elemental magic. This time though it flew 10 metres forward then froze in mid air, shifting and shimmering, twisting in Azure's magical grip. She was trying to hold the thing as if it was a conventional blade she would wield telekinetically, but the phantom construct felt insubstantial and slippery in her grasp. Furrowing her brows in concentration, she was able to slash it once, twice, three times up and down the path, scything down ferns and bracken, before with a loud pop the wind blade shattered, creating a tiny tornado amongst the trees for a few seconds before the energy dissipated.
Summer Scribe gaped, as her mane flowed around from the incidental breeze, watching that wind cutter just... freeze in mid air, like it was held telekinetically. "Cooool..." She gawked, wide eyed and open mouthed, as it gets wielded as though a melee weapon in a dance of destruction. "I hope that wasn't too much effort for you, Azure, but that was awesome! Have you been practicing?"
Unlike the previous times she'd used the 'wind blade' spell as an attack, this seemed to actually take significant effort, to the point that after that first cast, she shook her head. "Okay... no idea how far we're going here, but there's no way that I can keep that up for miles. I'll go standard from here." Taking a few seconds to regain her composure, she continued at a slower pace, firing off the lightest blasts she could that would still clear the way. "My old Lieutenant would have loved that wind sword, though..." she mused.
Not to say Cloud Cutter was envious or anything, but she watched enviously at the unicorn's skilful mastery of magic. If only. "You know what you're doing," she said following placidly along behind, "Just lead the way. Unless Summer knows better spells for clearing a path."
Melonwater trotted along behind the unicorn, flinching only slightly each time she fired off a blast to clear the next section of path. "That's so cool, Azure! This is gonna go so much faster than last time."
Indeed, it was only ten minutes and two dozen air blades before the four ponies reached their destination: what had once been a large clearing in the woods, now just a less dense section dotted with the tumbled down remains of small buildings. The settlement was of a similar size to its twin on Blissful Pastures, but in even worse shape. The houses had used more wood and less stone in their construction, and in many cases just the outline of the foundations remained.
In one corner stood a stone plinth or altar, smaller and simpler than the shrine Summer had seen before, but carved with the same ten elemental symbols around its perimeter. The tiled roof over the little structure was bowed and splintered and looked ready to collapse any moment.
By the end of the trail, though, Azure looked a little fatigued, chuckling as she looked to Summer. "I haven't really practiced outside of the fights with the chompies and the drow. I really should though if my skill's going to keep up with my creativity... oof, that first spell wasn't a good idea in retrospect." she muttered. "Best if Cloud Cutter or somepony else takes the next clearing. Gotta be ready for a fight."
“Just another ruined village, it figures,” Cloud Cutter said dismissively, her fluffy ears expressing irritation. “With another one of those strange altars in it. Does anything jump out at you, Summer? If not, we probably should get on our way. You’ll want to gather a team to go over the site more carefully later, I assume.”
Summer Scribe peered around: as the stone altar was the most sturdy thing around, it got her initial attention. "Looks like another shrine to the ten elements," she nodded her head. "Seems to have about the same stuff as the last village, but let me do a quick check first..." She closed her eyes, her horn shimmering before releasing a wave of magical energy, searching for the tingle of any latent magic nearby, or just the way metals interact with magical fields when pinged.
Tiny chiming tones emanated from several places around the ruins, as the blue unicorn's arcane pulse reveals... something, small and buried in the dirt amidst the remains of the houses.
"Uh, Summer, you know I heard that spell can set off any unstable magic-leaking artefacts that somepony might've left lying around? You know that, right?" Melonwater said nervously, before wandering over to one of the houses and poking at the dirt with a hoof.
That one didn't sit too well with Azure, who looked to Summer. "Um... you have any idea what you're finding there? I know a scanning spell when I see one, but uh..." she glanced at Melonwater. If there was any proof to what was just said...
Summer Scribe nodded her head. "Yeah, I know! This is my area of expertise! You gotta give it the long, medium and short range scans first to see if it's about to blow up before unearthing it." She summarily trotted over to a house, like she knew what she was doing. Scanning again: ping. Stepping to the doorway of the house: ping. Then delicately pulling the dirt aside to unearth...
It was a small, rectangular brass plaque, the size of a library card, embossed with a line of native runes. A faint magic clung to the metal, but there was no immediate clue as to its function. Melonwater's find was similar, hidden under a rotten wooden ladle, and a quick trot round the village turned up several more of the artefacts, along with a fair amount of loose change.
Cloud Cutter found herself distinctly out of place here. She did however stand aside and smile a bit at the enthusiastic archaeology ponies going about their trade.
Azure looked quite impressed at the description of the scans and their nature, even more so with the finds! "Goodness, I'll sleep less stupid tonight after learning this..." She looked even happier as she noticed some currency among the finds. "You three are pretty darn good ponies to be around, you know that?"
If there was anything else of interest to find in the ruined houses, it would require a full-on dig site. Summer decided to give the little shrine another quick look before moving on. She was trotting over to it when, from somewhere not too far away, came a loud, canine "Arroooo!" followed by barking, panting and the distinctive sound of undergrowth being smashed to splinters as something large and heavy barrelled through the forest. Melonwater leapt clear off the ground, staring into the trees and shouting "What... what's that?!"
His question was answered seconds later when a huge bulky creature burst into view, a clumsy lump of grey and green as big as a grizzly bear. The creature had a vaguely canine body-plan, but its flesh was green and smooth like a chompy, in the few places where it showed between the thick stone plates covering the beast's body. Tufts of grass poked out of its head and neck, giving the impression of a mane, while a single flower grew out of the top of its head. The thing skidded to a stop, boulder-like paws digging furrows in the earth, and stared at the ponies. Then it opened its oversized jaws, slobber dripping out between its thorn-like teeth, and let out a low growl.
"Alright, nice find! We'll have to figure out what these are for later..." Summer had stowed the plaque in her saddlebag, before freezing at the howls and the heavy movements. One look at the monster and she was dashing for cover, quick as she could... which meant Azure! "Umm, help!" the little unicorn pleaded, turning back to gawk at what, to her, looked like an advanced cousin of the regular Chompy! "Ugh, they come in extra large too!"
For her part, Azure stumbled back seeing the massive creature before them. "Big, canine, and covered in stone plates... oof, this is not a good fight for me..." she muttered, before looking over to Cloud Cutter. "Best I can do is a distraction, fly around and hope this thing is as stupid as it looks. Think you can take this thing?" she asked, looking quite concerned.
Cloud Cutter had leapt back into the air the moment the huge creature... thing charged into the cleared area. Then she noticed Azure's more level-headed response and replies, a little shaken: "I really don't know. There isn't enough room to pick up speed under the trees here. My blade instructor said never get in close if you can't get enough speed. That thing could eat me in one bite!"
"Mine!" bellowed the creature. "Mine!" It looked at the startled Summer, then at Cloud Cutter hovering above, rocky brows furrowing as if confused. "Deer? Bird?" Focusing on the unicorn, it shouted "Tasty tasty!" in a gleeful tone before lumbering forward, mouth open.
"Mine? WHAT'S yours? And we are NOT food!" Summer yelled back. That's pretty much all it took for her to not be on good terms, of course! She backed off, turning to flee and reaching a full gallop in no time. The moment she slowed down she was chompy chow, but she could at least be a distraction for the two better fighters - if she didn't come up with anything herself!
Azure nodded to the purple pegasus, then looked up... only to hear the creature actually speak. Oh, hay: it wasn't quite as dumb as it looked. "You've got the sky... and you've got... your other powers! I still don't know exactly what they are, but they gotta do something...! We'll distract the thing - you do what you have to!" Significantly less confidence and calmness there. Uh oh.
The creature had the agility of a rolling boulder, but its stumpy legs carried it surprisingly quickly, and it just crashed through bushes and wreckage that Summer had to twist around. With no clear space to gallop in, it seemed like only a matter of time before the snapping jaws of the beast caught up with the little mare.
"A little help, here!" Summer Scribe called out nervously! The way it crashed through anything in its path, there was nothing to put between her and her pursuer to gain ground with, so it was just a matter of time! Gulp...
"They— they— alright!" Cloud Cutter called out, watching helplessly as the unicorn fled the savage beast. Why wasn’t she doing the... whatever it is she does? For a few seconds all she could do was hover in place, as if she was frozen with fear. Then she dove at the creature, taking advantage of its fixation in the unicorn to land on its back. The beast reared up as the pegasus squeezed her eyes shut and a little flash of purple light just burst out from her in all directions. It was enough to get the beast to roar in pain and devote all its attention to the pegasus pony, who crashed to the ground on her side, trying to rise quickly enough to spread her wings as the thing opened its yawning maw and lunged at her.
Azure Feather recalled all those times Cloud Cutter had told the squad about staying clear when it came time for her to attack... but seeing her ally injured, seconds away from being monster-chow, she had to act. She took aim at the creature's face and let fly with another wind blade: anything she could do to just distract the darn thing from its prey!
Summer Scribe was thinking along the same lines; she probably couldn't do much to really hurt the beast, but now that she'd escaped mortal peril (however temporarily), she could at least aspire to being annoying! The unicorn levitated a nice chunk of rock from the ground and lobbed it at the super-chompy! "Take that, you brute!" Without waiting to gauge its reaction, she went right back to galloping away as fast as she could.
The wind blade sprang from Azure's horn and nailed the plant beast right in the snout. It yelped and recoiled, head swinging around as it searched for the source of the attack, ignoring its prey for a moment. That left it unprepared for the rock that clouted it in the side of the head, resounding with a sharp crack against the creature's own sandstone plating. Unfortunately it seemed more enraged and confused than injured.
That gave Cloud Cutter a moment to get away at least; she launched back into the air and flew up out of its reach; assuming the beast didn't have projectile attacks. "I'm so sorry!" she called down, looking between her two saviours, once again wracked with uncertainty.
The slobbering plant-canine let out another blood-curdling howl. "Hurt! Not Fair! Bad Food!" it shouted, turning clumsily in place until it spotted Melonwater, who'd frozen in horror as he watched Cloud Cutter nearly being devoured.
"Do what you can!" Azure called out to her ally before casting another wind blade at the creature's face, trying to blind it, before looking to Summer Scribe. "Are you alright Summer?" she shouted, before noticing the stunned Melonwater... oh goodness... "Move!!"
“Just a sec!” Cloud Cutter called back in frustration, staring forward intently with those blank white eyes, "It... it takes a while!”
"Yeah, no problem..." Summer reassured her, looking back to see... "Oh, shoot! Melonwater, look out!" The little unicorn changed course, looping around to rush past Melonwater, giving him a little bump to help coax him onto his feet! "Hurry, follow me!"
Melonwater stared, wide-eyed, at Azure for just a second before Summer literally knocked some sense into him. He turned tail and galloped after Summer, his short legs and lower agility making it hard to keep up with her.
Azure facehooved. The chompy-dog-thing was after them again, and there was no way Melonwater would escape... wait... of course. Her favourite spell wasn't just for her... he'd never tried it before, but there was no choice. Trusting her friend could keep running at least for a short time, she soon focused on the stallion... "Time to greet the skies, Melonwater!" She cried out, trying to give her ally wings... that would get him into the clear, right?
"What?" yelled Melonwater hysterically, looking over his shoulder just in time to see a burst of light from Azure's horn form into swirling ribbons that leap to his back and solidify into butterfly wings. In an utter, bleating panic, the stallion buzzed his new appendages in an uncoordinated frenzy. With the slobber beast only a body length away from chomping him, the earth pony lifted off into the air and went tumbling wildly across the clearing, veering drunkenly through the trees before crashing into the branches overhead. His wings immediately popped into twinkling motes of light, leaving the green earth pony clinging desperately to one of the sturdier branches, high above the ground.
The plant creature stared at its prey's strange transformation, fascinated even as it kept running blindly ahead. "Uh? Fly? What? Come down!" Distracted, it didn't see the oncoming tree; it slammed head first into the trunk, coming to a halt and dropping to its haunches, a dazed expression on its face. The impact was too much for the tree, which cracked, creaked and split, falling down in a crash of broken branches.
Summer Scribe gawked as Melonwater took flight! "Yeah! Nice save, Azure - wait, look out for that tree!" - Crash, wince, "Oh no, Melonwater!" Her eyes widened as the big dog-Chompy crashed nearby! "Oh no, Melonwater!!" Deep in concern, she rushed over: he probably needed rescuing! ... Again!
Overhead, Cloud Cutter wasn't just flying now. Eerie white motes swirled around her as her form began to glow with a foreboding violet light, crawling over her body like tongues of ethereal flame. Her eyes had transformed into gateways to the everlasting nothing.
Azure had already charged up another Skyborn spell for Summer Scribe which she soon released, but she couldn't keep her eyes away from Cloud Cutter and her strange magic. By Celestia... that must be her element, and it was unlike anything she'd seen before. Spooky pony? Right in this second, yeah, Cloud Cutter was looking like quite the threat to anything that lived.
Concern for her friend overriding all other concerns, Azure Feather cast the magic wings spell again; the first time she'd ever tried to cast it three times in one morning. The ribbons of light appeared again, this time homing in on Summer Scribe and granting her the gift of flight for the first time since their mad dash to catch up with the departing Harmony, back in Vanhoover. Azure smiled at the success of her spell, before immediately grimacing. Her horn felt like it was ice cold and burning hot at the same time, while her brain pounded in her skull as the magic drain gave her a splitting headache.
Meanwhile the slobbering plant beast had struggled back to its feet. The plating on its snout was cracked and its eyes stared in random directions as its tiny confused brain tried to work out what was going on.
Summer Scribe perked up as she's bewinged. "Thanks, Azure!" she called out... but she was concerned for Azure's magical wellbeing. She thought the other unicorn would know her limits! But there was no time to check on that right now. Summer floated up, as gracefully as she could given her panicked state, and grabbed Melonwater, ready to descend as soon as the beast was dealt with.
Even the sight Cloud Cutter's lightshow made her eyes hurt. Grunting in pain, Azure nodded weakly to Summer before trying to ignore the pain and pay close attention to Cloud Cutter's strike. She'd definitely overdone it with the magic this time.
Cloud Cutter was not even flapping her wings anymore. She descended to the earth in front the creature, tendrils of purple light licking up her hooves as they touched the soil. The slobbering beast faced her, and... did not charge. Its tiny brain tried to understand what it was feeling, this desire to somehow run backwards. Cloud Cutter scraped a hoof, then charged, galloping at the big bulky creature which just stared at her with dull eyes. Its assumption that its armour would never fail left it an easy target; it opened its mouth to devour her, the only thing it knew, as she leaped directly to her doom and then-
A flash. Not so much a flash: a break. As if the world around her itself was shattering into a coursing violet light. Hard to watch, hard to even see, it burst out from her almost faster than the eye could follow, and then the pegasus was gone. Well, half gone. The front half of her was entirely in the creature’s gullet. It didn’t chomp her though. It didn’t do anything anymore. The red and yellow flower atop its head had shriveled, the verdant greenery brown and dead. It looked more like a pile of packed mud in the shape of a creature, cracked and ready to crumble away.
Cloud Cutter wiggled her hind legs ineffectually.
Seeing the threat neutralised, Summer was finally able to bring her research assistant back to the earth. Melonwater's eyes were screwed tight shut as he clung to the branch, all four legs wrapped around it, body quivering. Summer had to touch a hoof gently to his shoulder and spend some time reassuring him before he'd consider letting go. "How... how... do you... make that... look so... easy?" he asked, still hyperventilating.
"Presence of mind. Gotta be ready to do anything on the spot; even if it's use limbs you didn't know you had." She clutches Melonwater comfortingly, trying to take her down to the ground below in a gentle descent. The 'lowering gently' part proved a little harder than she expected, as Melonwater was surprisingly heavy. Fortunately her frantic fluttering mostly arrested their descent and neither of them were seriously injured in the ensuing crash, which left the bewinged Summer sprawled on top of the collapsed form of the young stallion, both panting and shaking with exhaustion as the adrenalin drained away.
"Geez, what in Celestia's name just happened? It's like everything around Cloud Cutter just... decided being alive wasn't such a good idea." Summer Scribe comfortingly cuddled with Melonwater after that near crash landing, lungs heavy in a sigh of exasperation and relief. It looked like the threat was gone; they were all exhausted, but no one was seriously injured! As long as Cloud Cutter wasn't, like... doubly spooky after doing that.
'The light just happens and... Cloud Cutter kills things' Azure thought. Something that looked so fearsome and... deadly and the purple pegasus just... literally took its life energy. Azure was left just shaking her head slowly after seeing that display, nodding at Summer's words. "I don't know about you, but that... that was special, what we just saw. That... now I understand why Cloud Cutter said to get away... I think... I think that energy doesn't care who it hits... come on, we gotta get her out of there..."
Cloud Cutter once again wiggled her hind legs, but didn't seem to be able to get enough purchase to pull herself out, then went limp again.
"Uh, wow... that was... that was terrifying." Melonwater said, still trembling. "I thought the chompies were bad, but.... I'm sorry, Summer. I should've stayed behind."
Summer Scribe huuuuged Melonwater. "It's scary for all of us. But ponies can do anything together!" She smiled... and peered over at Cloud Cutter. "...I think she needs help. Hang on." Summer was still feeling a bit exhausted, but she managed to trot over and brace herself against the ground, grabbing around Cloud Cutter's hindlegs and... yank!
Azure was darn well worn out too, judging from her slow pace as she headed over to the remains of the creature, but if Summer was taking care of getting Cloud Cutter out... then Azure would do what she could to help her friend afterwards...
As soon as Summer Scribe came into contact with Cloud Cutter's purple hind legs, absolutely nothing special or supernatural happened: they felt pretty much like ordinary pony hind legs. There wasn't much resistance to pulling her out, as it was more an issue of leverage than anything, and soon the pegasus was sliding out of the maw, while crumbling bits of... monster sifted off her. “Thank you,” she said, standing by the creature and shaking the dust out of her mane and wings. Regarding the crumbled shell of a creature, she said uncertainly, “Well, that... worked.”
"Sure did!" Summer Scribe nervously chuckled. "What exactly was... all that?" She tilted her head, puzzled. "Was that a... Spooky Element thing you can do?"
Azure was soon looking right at Cloud Cutter, and clearly is stopping herself from saying a few things. Awesome job, you saved us? No. Comments about her powers? No... hay, Summer Scribe's done that one. No... all Azure could do was to nod her approval and let the pegasus know that she'll stand by her no matter what.
"I don't know," the pegasus replied, looking at Summer inscrutably, then turning her nose down, repeating, "I don't know. It must be the Undead element they have here, but I don't know why it... happens that way for me. None of the others have... things happening to them." She gave Summer and Azure a hollow smile, before continuing, "Anyway the point is: it's dead, and you pulled me out, so we're all okay." Lifting a hoof to her chin to frown in thought, she added, "Though I suppose you could have left me in there. It would have saved a lot on funeral costs."
With Azure exhausted and Melonwater jumping at every shadow, the ten minute trot back to the Second Chance took half an hour. The four ponies climbed up to the deck and took a moment to recover and reflect. Azure was soon laying down on the foredeck, wings spread out in the warm sun and eyes closed, apparently deep in thought. Melonwater sat nearby, pulling out pen & paper and distracting himself by starting to make a map of the area. He kept opening his mouth as if he wanted to ask the guardpony something, but then closing it again without speaking.
It looked like the two would take a while to recover; in the mean time, Summer Scribe kept fluttering her new butterfly wings with excitement and looking at the sky. Perhaps a quick overflight of the 'ancient witches' convent' wouldn't be a bad idea, before they galloped in? Hmm, yes indeed! She still had energy for it, and while the rest of the party is resting, she may as well try out her wings: she barely got a chance to back in Vanhoover!
"Hey, I'm gonna do a fly-over of the convent..." she said, looking around, "Anyone coming with? Cloud Cutter, maybe?"
Melonwater looked up, startled, then shot nervous glances at Summer and Azure. "Heh yeah you go on ahead Summer, sounds great, have fun. I've gotta... gotta get this map done, very important, but, uh..." The earth pony stared into the sky. "Stay safe up there, ok?"
Summer Scribe nodded back. "Just gonna look around, not gonna do anything dangerous, promise!" The young stallion smiled weakly and went back to fiddling with his theodolite.
"Yes, I will depart with you," Cloud Cutter said amiably, the blank eyed pony not moving until that moment. Something like amusement did cross the purple mare's face as Summer fluttered up into the air, like a newborn foal who'd just discovered that she could fly. She takes off afterwards, keeping a steady pace just behind the unicorn, ready to swoop down and catch her, should the magic expire and leave Summer Scribe falling to her doom.
As they ascended into the blue, the ship and its two passengers grew tiny, until Summer and Cloud had achieved a dizzying height. Drifting south over the central cliffs, Cloud Cutter gazed downward, trying to make sense of the terrain they'd be facing, though she was far too high to spot any restless spectres that might be floating around.
Summer Scribe turned out to be a pretty confident flyer for somepony getting their first real practice! She already seemed to have a good sense of how to float, dive, glide and propel her body around, and didn't need much in the way of assistance, but the unicorn seemed awed by the vista spread out below. "Goodness..." Taking a look around as she beats her wings, seeing the three-dimensional puzzle of the floating river winding through the scattered islands, it was like she was her own airship! "Okay... let's check out the convent, Cloud Cutter. Must be those big buildings, over there."
From their vantage point above the highest point of the third island, the two ponies could see the full length of the sky river, save for the topmost lake, still hidden within the rocky peaks and misty interior of the mountain source. The upper plateau was covered in a forest several kilometres across, bordered on two sides by open sky and the others by cliffs and rapids. Down below, at the far end of the island, was the impossible shimmering dome of the enormous magic 'bubble'. The flickering and distorted forms of pools, buildings and some kind of elevated structures could be seen within.
Tearing their eyes away from the fantastic view for the moment, the mares focused on what was immediately below them. The forest was broken by various small hills and clearings; in one they could make out the outlines of the ruined village they'd visited. By far the most obvious feature though was the huge complex of buildings, penned in by a rectangle of high stone walls. The structures were simple stone with tile roofs, like long barracks or warehouses surrounded by smaller sheds, chimneys and a tangle of pipes and tanks. Not exactly like a purpose-built factory, more like an older structure that had been steadily overtaken by a tangle of industrial technology.
'It's a really nice perspective seeing the islands from here!' Summer thought. Like looking down on the world's best map, and being able to just point yourself where you want to go. No reliance on carts or airships this time: sweet! She studied the building complex before swooping down to take a closer look.
From their elevated perspective it was clear the cobblestone road from the docks took an almost direct route to the complex, making only a few lazy turns that had obstructed their line of sight when grounded. The causeway ended in a set of enormous gates, set into the wall of the compound and flanked by ornamental-looking but still substantial towers. There was some kind of sign over the entrance, but the covering of moss and vines makes it impossible to decipher from the air.
Circling around, it seemed like the structures might have been abandoned a few years ago, not a few centuries ago; there were broken tiles, missing panes of glass, rusted steel rails and grass poking up through flagstones, but everything seemed basically intact: no gaping holes in the walls or collapsed sections of roof. None big enough to fit a pony through at least. Circling around to the far side, the ponies saw a particularly thick tangle of pipes extending through the stone perimeter wall and snaking down to a nearby lake, where the river pooled before feeding into the cascade of rapids and waterfalls along the south side of the island.
"Be careful not to fly too low!" Cloud Cutter called after that eager hummingbird of an archaeologist, still trailing behind. A flicker of confusion crossed her face as she looked beyond Summer to what they are approaching. This was a far cry from the ancient stone cathedrals she'd seen as a foal. In fact it looked more like a factory one might spot alongside the train tracks in Southstock. "Does this look like a convent to you?" she asks uneasily as the two ponies watched from above.
"Huh, it's still in PRETTY good condition. I wonder... Oh! Sorry, Cloud Cutter." Summer shied away from diving any lower, admiring from a distance. "Well, a convent for witches, certainly! It looks hooked up to the local water supply: I bet you could use it to brew all kinds of potions. Still could, possibly even? And it's definitely a delight to see facilities like this in the Cloudbreak Islands! Makes me wonder where these airships come from, you know, where they're made and what that might look like..." Whoops: she caught herself rambling again.
"You could use it to brew potions alright..." Cloud Cutter replied, coasting in a circle as she stared pensively at the warehouses, tanks and pipes below. "A whole lot of potions."
Summer Scribe grinned at that, circling lazily with Cloud Cutter to get a look of the ley of the land... but given that it looked like what they were after and doesn't seem obviously dangerous or a waste of time, that seemed to conclude the scouting trip. "OK, shall we head back? Next time we'll come on hoof."
Nodding, Cloud Cutter said, "Anything further we could do here, the others could do with us on the ground. You fly very well by the way, though I don't know how much of that is the magic of the spell."
"I'm a natural, spell or no spell! Nutmeg could whip me up a wing-pack, I bet I'd handle it no problem." The little unicorn grinned, self-assured.
"I don't think she has the tools for crafting artificial wings," Cloud Cutter said, giving the other mare a sceptical look, "But given what that creature has done with the ships, I wouldn't be surprised if she somehow managed it."
"I'm learning to raise my expectations: she's already surprised me enough times!" chuckled Summer.
Cloud Cutter gave the desolate site a final look as they swung around to begin the return flight to the docks. The only motion was the rustling of leaves in the wind and a few small birds perched on the gantries, although... was that a flicker of light in the windows? Might have just been the sun glinting off the glass. The two ponies covered the few kilometres back to the ship in no time and are soon gliding down to the deck, where Azure stood watching their approach.
Seeing both fliers make a safe approach to the ship, Azure nodded softly. She'd needed time to recover after her magical exhaustion, and while an hour was enough to stop the headache, her magic hadn't fully come back. She'd have to be careful to conserve it for the rest of the day.
Cloud Cutter landed lightly, folding her wings, looking to Summer and saying, "Well, what would your assessment be of the facility ahead?"
"Looks like it's what we're after! A relatively recently abandoned alchemical facility." the cyan unicorn replied. She looked excited to go check it out! "It's not like anything we've seen before!"
Azure tilted her head at that. "So that's what we're looking for? Hmm. Sounds like a plan, but again... I won't be of too much help if we have to fight again. Just... a fair warning." she reminded her squad, although she was ready to travel at least.
Summer Scribe grinned back. "Well, we're looking for a LOT of things: we're basically just looking to help out our new Gillmen friends in any way we can, and seeing if we can brew potions to fix their fin-rot is one of those!"
Melonwater trotted over to Summer, uncharacteristically eager to rub his flank against hers, as if to reassure himself she was still physically present. "Abandoned?" he said hopefully. "You're sure?"
Cloud Cutter was about to give her assessment, but at Melonwater's question, she said with an uncharacteristic smile, "I'm fairly sure one of the ghosts made themselves known before we left. Whether it was a ghost, or just somepony with a light in the window, will not be revealed until we creep in and investigate."
"G-g-ghost? You're not... serious?" the stallion said, looking at Cloud Cutter with wide eyes. She certainly seemed serious. "Ghosts aren't real! Not in Equestria..." he trails off. Zombies weren't real either, but here he was staring at one.
Summer tried to reassure him: "It sure looked abandoned..." She couldn't outright dismiss the possibility of ghosts. I mean, you can't just assume every cool abandoned place is haunted! Most of them weren't.
Cloud Cutter was quick to lose her smile, given the way Melonwater was looking at her. "It's probably nothing," she said neutrally, turning her gaze away from his sight, "Just be ready for company, and if nopony is there, then I'll say it was nothing more than a trick of the light."
Summer Scribe thought out loud: "So if there hypothetically is a ghost, is your spooky skillset any good at dealing with that, Cloud Cutter...?" Might be a rhetorical question, given their lack of knowledge!
Azure chuckled a little. "Just keep your guard up. They might not even be hostile. Then again..." she trailed off as she started to think. Most of their encounters had been hostile up to this point, precious few were actually friendly. She suspected this wouldn't be one of the friendly cases. That plant creature had put them all on edge...
"Uh... ok. Ok." Melonwater repeated, breathing out and trying to psych himself up. "We can just leave if there's... something unfriendly... in there, right?"
Summer Scribe nodded, reassuring Melonwater. "Yep! No problem there, we're not in a hurry. We can take this at our own pace."
The four ponies made their way onto the docks and down the track, trotting through the forest to the mysterious complex. Without further excitement they arrived at the gates Summer had spotted from the air; huge, solid, made of ancient oak bound with iron, flanked by stone towers and surmounted by a decayed, half-collapsed sign the height of a pony. It was adorned with the painted outline of what might be a potion bottle, along with fragments of runes once outlined in golden paint. The gate was solidly secured by several extremely rusty chains, meeting at the centre in an elaborate looking lock of weathered brass. Instead of a keyhole it had several dials and levers.
Cloud Cutter walked up to the gate, stopping short of attempting to walk through it, and peered at the apparatus that looked something like a lock. Then she shrugged, trying to peer through the cracks and get a glimpse of the courtyard beyond.
Summer Scribe inspected the locking mechanism, and got straight to the safecracking! She sent out a gentle feeler pulse with her horn, getting a sense for what mechanisms are hidden inside, before sticking her ear close and twisting the dials and levers back and forth, listening to the faint clicks and clacks and chacks. "Easy! I have to solve puzzles like this for my day job." She grinned, taking a bow of satisfaction as the lock clicked open... then realised that they could have just flown over, and briefly reflected on her life choices that lead up to the point.
The lock seemed to involve two glass sliders that move through a series of one-way channels to unlock the tumblers, in a manner equivalent to but more elaborate than a standard combination lock. Whoever designed it obviously wasn't counting on the unicorn's divining magic or lockpicking experience, and the device was soon crashing to the ground, rust flakes going everywhere as the disused chains fell away.
"Well, at least we're 'knocking' on the door and announcing ourselves instead of breaking in. You know, the proper way in and all." Azure noted, as she smiled to Summer. "Seriously, nice work there."
"Heheh, thanks!" Summer Scribe bashfully rubbed the back of her head. It's nice to just... Do something normal and get praised for it, for once!
The courtyard beyond was filled with empty carts, much more substantial than the one the expedition's hippogriff had been pulling around for the last two weeks, probably for moving heavy goods to and from the dock. One of the main buildings loomed ahead, the double doors facing the main gate, while a ramshackle collection of outbuildings, cranes, scaffolding and pipework surrounded the courtyard. Small doors to the side led into the towers next to the gate. The sense of stillness was even stronger here; it was obvious that the place had been a bustling hub of industry at some point.
"That was unexpectedly easy," Cloud Cutter said, poking a hoof at one of the crumbling chains, "Are you sure these things didn't just fall off on their own?" She stood up straighter, unsure of how to feel about this place as she continued to gaze within. "It's a lot less spooky, and more dangerous than I imagined," she remarked, "No ghosts trying to scare us off yet. We should be careful though. Those chains were either meant to keep us out, or to keep something in."
Summer Scribe waved a hoof dismissively. "I mean, in some cultures you use locks to keep people out of your private property, just because it's important enough... It doesn't necessarily indicate anything bad, just a cultural difference." She hmmmed and looked around: it looked even more vast and impressive from down below! Like an alchemical factory and shipping yard. "Alright, shall we start poking around inside the buildings? Get a feel for what makes what."
"I'll bet on the former, Cloud Cutter. So far so good, but... uh, this place has definitely seen better days..." Azure admitted with a sigh. She wasn't leading the pack, either, keeping her eyes open for anything valuable while keeping the fact that she wasn't at 100% in mind.
Melonwater trotted in behind the others, staring around, taking in the details of the architecture and the machinery. "Somepony is doing basic maintenance, at least. Keeping the plants back and... look, see that section of wall?" He gestured with a hoof. "It's been repointed, quite recently, the mortar is fresh. Clumsy job though, look how crude it is compared to the original stonework."
Summer Scribe perked. "Good spot, Melonwater!" She stroked her chin: "That increases the odds we'll find someone inside. I'll have to look lively."
And so far, nothing to report on the profit side, Azure thought. She glanced at the repairs, but she had no experience to let her discern good work from bad. She was keeping an eye on Cloud Cutter though, making sure the Pegasus wasn't heading into danger.
Cloud Cutter looked too, but she was hardly an expert at stonework. She glanced at the clouds overhead with a tactical eye, gauging what weather could be made useful around here, but if her new powers included a spook detector, it certainly wasn't going off at the moment. Trotting past Melonwater, she looked around the courtyard, checking for ways through the clutter and access routes to the interior.
Cloud Cutter confirmed that the facility goes on for some distance, rows of larger buildings looming over the smaller sheds and offices. There was junk piled everywhere; crates of empty bottles, barrels of unknown substances, engine parts, but they were all shoved to the sides and stacked up against walls, keeping the throughfares clear. Summer Scribe, however, wasn't interested in the smaller buildings and assorted industrial detritus; she trotted straight up to the largest building and wrapped her magic around the doorhandle... then furrowed her brows and strained to move the heavy, swollen doors.
They slowly opened with a series of loud cracks and creaks, exposing the interior beyond. The pony's first impression was of an endless series of vats and pipes; giant house-sized ones, pony sized ones, scattered about the stone floor of the huge open area, lit by shafts of sunlight coming in through the dusty skylights. Catwalks criss-crossed the upper areas, providing access to the higher pipes and lip of the bigger vats. More barrels and crates were stacked around the floor, along with creaky tables covered in centuries of dust, and the collapsed remains of chairs, filing cabinets and other furniture.
Summer Scribe peered about, catching her breath after the exertion of the door opening: the place won her over pretty much immediately! Quite inactive, of course, but a sizeable and serviceable potion distillery operating at massive scale! "Cooool." She grinned, trotting around and inspecting every bit and bob and loose end, skimming over the detail but concentrating on making out the overall process and functions.
Two things caught Summer's eye as she peered about the dusty, quiet space. Firstly; the largest, house-sized vats formed a line down the middle of the facility, and everything else seemed to feed into or out of them. Moving to one side to peer around the first mixing vat, she saw the remains of a second one further inside; it looked like it had exploded, the copper shell torn apart and the adjacent pipes ruptured and bent. Even the roof above was crudely patched with scrap steel from where an enormous hole had once been carved out.
Two more of the giant vats could be seen further down inside the building. Secondly: what looked like a control centre of some sort, half way up one wall. Many of the pipes and catwalks converged there, and the windows granted a commanding view of the rest of the factory. Melonwater's voice broke her concentration: "Do you... uh, do you, hear something?" he asked. He was probably talking about the distant, regular "clang... clang.. clang...". The confused mass of echoes in the huge cluttered space make the sound difficult to pinpoint, but it was definitely getting louder.
'Alchemical explosion in the past! Duly noted.' Summer thought. She wondered if that was why the place had been abandoned, or if it was just the cost of doing business! The unicorn's eyes were on the control center when Melonwater got her attention. "Yeah, I hear it too. We should probably check that out...?" Where had Cloud Cutter gone?
Still outside, Cloud Cutter trotted past the piles of rusting engine parts, tsking and thinking maybe the ship's engineers should have been here, not a zombie weatherpony. She stopped near one of the smaller buildings; a lean-to, built into the side of the main structure. The pegasus peered through the windows, wary for any movement within. It looked like it was once an office; a mass of spiderwebs covering the tumbled down remains of what probably had been filing cabinets. Many of the documents within had slipped out and rotted into mulch, but some survived in the less damaged areas. To the rear of the office was a small door, probably a side door into the main factory floor.
With a grimace of a smile, Cloud Cutter moved around to the door, testing it with a wing to see if it was locked. She didn't know what was in there, but it certainly wasn't large enough for anything monstrously gigantic to be laying in wait. Her companions were probably checking the other small buildings right now too, for that very reason. Not like anypony would just walk into the center of whatever disaster befell this place in that central factory, opening themselves up to attack on all sides.
Melonwater's warning prompted Azure to pay close attention. "Maybe now we'll find some creature here. Because right now it's just ruins and little else..." she admitted, trotting in close to her two companions and staring ahead, trying to spot the creatures. "Guards up. No idea if this thing's friendly. Seeing how the place is, in any case, gives me even less of a clue..."
Flickering red light was now visible, reflecting off the bits of metal not covered in dust or a patina of corrosion, as the unseen entity approached. Quietly slipping into a defensive stance, Azure Feather was soon on full guard, her eyes constantly scanning the labyrinthine mass of machines and catwalks for oncoming threats. Whatever was making that noise, it couldn't be more than a few seconds away: she had no idea what it was, but she knew this could get ugly fast.
Summer stood her ground, flanked by Azure and Melonwater, as the entity clanked into view. Their first impression was of a giant metal humanoid; a collection of steel plates, as if it was an enormous suit of armour, made for the biggest minotaur anypony had ever seen. There were great gaps between the plates though, and in those gaps was nothing but pulsing orange light and flickering flames. The eyeholes in the great domed helmet glowed bright yellow, but showed nothing but emptiness within. The thing marched forward with regular, thunderous steps, leaving steaming footprints behind, until it spotted the ponies and clanked to a stop. "INTRUDERS." it intoned in a booming, hollow monotone. "UNCLASSIFIED QUADRUPEDS. BEGINNING WILDLIFE EXTERMINATION PROTOCOL."
"Oh, shoot! They have magical guards here?!" Summer Scribe gaped. She wasn't liking the idea of a 'wildlife extermination protocol'! The unicorn backed up, thankful for Azure's protection. "What's the play, Azure? What are the chances of just blowing it apart right now?"
The construct took a step forward, its arms snapping up to point at the ponies, ready to unleash fiery energies at them. Then it stopped and stood motionless for a second. "REQUEST NOT UNDERSTOOD. INTRUDERS. UNCLASSIFIED TALKING QUADRUPEDS. BEGINNING FACILITY DEFENCE PROTOCOL." A shrieking, whooping sound assaulted the pony's ears, coming from all around them. "LEAVE NOW OR HOSTILITIES WILL COMMENCE. YOU HAVE TWENTY SECONDS TO COMPLY." the thing thundered. Melonwater didn't even need that long, immediately turning tail and galloping for the main gate.
Cloud Cutter heard the thundering footsteps and that amplified voice, her ears going flat as she moved away from the office, looking at the main factory with disapproval. She reluctantly headed back towards the entrance, moving with a leisurely gait.
Azure's eyes were wide open. Wildlife extermination protocol. Commence hostilities. Yeah, okay, if that's not Hostile with a capital H, Azure's been an earth pony this entire time and hasn't told a soul. "Cloud Cutter!!" she called out. "Full retreat! We've got a hostile and I don't think we're anywhere close to being able to take it!" She hoped to Celestia her friend heard the cry. Looking to Summer, she said "No way I'm taking that. Run for it! I'll go find Cloud Cutter..." There was no time to plan. She had to go with what she thought was right...
"Yep, running!" Summer Scribe didn't need to be told twice; ponies are excellent at galloping in straight lines, and there wasn't much in her path, so she should be able to make it out in time. Once she'd had a moment to catch her breath outside, something occurred to her... She clicked her saddlebag open and took out the brass plaques found at the village earlier today. A single row of mysterious runes... "Azure, you don't think these are like..." she waved one with a chuckle, "ID badges for this place or something, do you?"
The ponies collected in the courtyard, pausing just inside the archway of the gate, as the golem clank-clank-clanked its ponderous way to the main doors. "EXECUTING DEFENCE PROTOCOL" it bellowed "YOU HAVE THREE SECONDS..." then its deafening voice wound down, getting lower and lower pitched like a grammophone running out of power. The internal flames died down to a simmer and the infernal screeching finally stopped. "WELCOME FOREMAN FIZZO. CONFIRM PROTOCOL FOR THREE UNKNOWN QUADRUPEDS. DO YOU WISH TO REGISTER GUESTS?"
Summer Scribe sweated nervously as the golem was about to totally obliterate her! ...but it seemed her hunch was right. Whew! She nervously held the card up: "Uhh, y-yeah... Foreman Fizzo would like to register three guests. Melonwater, Cloud Cutter and Azure Feather." Indicating them one by one!
Cloud Cutter ceased trying to lift Melonwater bodily into the air and let him drop, looking up at the constrosity in disbelief.
"GUEST PROTOCOL ENGAGED." the thing declared, before stomping backwards into the building again, apparently as happy to move in reverse as forwards. Then it just stood there motionless, just in front of the first vat.
Azure looked stunned as the huge golem that was about ready to incinerate everypony just falls into an almost-friendly... no, actively helpful state within a few seconds. She turned to Summer and face-hoofed. Did that really just happen? With just a bunch of... ruined pieces of brass... oh, what the hay...
"... Okay! Back to exploring?" Summer Scribe looked about as shaken as everyone else, but that wasn't going to stop her! "Ha-ha, so I'll be honest, that was just a hunch."
"Aaah no no let go zombie, put me down..." Melonwater shouted "...ah, what? What?!" He collapsed to his knees, hysterical giggles escaping from his muzzle. "Oh awesome, Senior Researcher Fizzo, that's... that's perfect!" He continued laughing his head off.
"I think Melonwater needs some time to rest," Cloud Cutter said, lifting a hoof at the hysterical stallion, "...in peace. Perhaps he can keep watch here while we... dig around in there?"
"Hey I'm fine, it's fine..." the green stallion said, alternating between giggling and gasping for air. "I'm... yeah, just give me a minute here."
Summer Scribe smiled and shook her head, before walking back straight back into the factory. "Ok, Senior Researcher Fizzo is on the clock!" She had the rest of the main building to poke through still!
Azure just followed "Fizzo" inside, still muttering to herself. It had only been a couple of weeks and she'd already seen a lot of crazy things here in the Cloudbreak Islands; this may just beat all of them...
Back inside, another of the animated constructs was now visible. Similar in size and general design, this one was lit up with blue energy instead of orange, and crusted with sparkling ice crystals instead of licking flames. It clanked along some way behind the first, which was still standing like a statue near the entrance, glowing eyes fixed on Summer. "FOREMAN FIZZO. PRODUCTION HAS BEEN HALTED FOR ONE-HUNDRED-SIXTEEN... THOUSAND... TWO-HUNDRED-THIRTY-FOUR... DAYS. DO YOU WISH TO RESUME PRODUCTION?" the fiery golem asked her, in its halting, booming monotone.
One hundred sixteen... thousand days. Give or take 320 years. Azure just shakes her head at the realization. Yeah, this place has been... well, dead. Shaking her head and shrugging at the decision, it seemed like every creature's eyes were on "Fizzo" now.
Cloud Cutter lifted her hoof to Summer, opening her mouth to shout as if moving in slow motion.
Summer Scribe perked. "Oh, you mean this place still works? Then I'd absolutely love to resume production!" Just look at the big grin on her face! And is the place really as old as the golem said? Because wow is that old if so. It must be getting maintenance non-stop!
"RESUME CONFIRMED." the golem boomed. Was there a hint of satisfaction to is scratchy voice or was that Summer's imagination? "EXECUTING STARTUP PROTOCOL FOR MAGIBUBBLE COLA PRODUCTION LINES ONE... THREE... AND FOUR. LINE TWO REMAINS UNAVAILABLE PENDING SERVICE." It clanked over to a set of huge wheel valves and began to turn them, while the second blue-coloured construct began climbing the stairs to the control room, the whole system of catwalks shaking and spilling dust into the air with the vibrations from its steps. Yet another of the golems, this one with no distinctive glow but with turning gears visible through its joints, started moving around at the back of the building.
"Magibubble Cola?" What kind of a potion is that? It sounded like a soft drink, almost... or did it give you magical powers? "Who dibs taste testing... wait, silly me, we can just ask. Hey, golem! What is Magibubble Cola?" Summer asked. She gazed around happily at the majesty of the factory re-activating around her! Well... Give it a moment, first!
The golem's head spun round a hundred and eighty degrees to face the little unicorn, while its body continued to work at the valves. Instead of the previous monotone, a catchy jingle played, still at deafening volume "Refresh and amaze, transform your world, it's MagiiiiBubbbble Cooooola! Fly through the sky, grow up so high, flame at your command or the cool ice your drink demands, it's all just a ring-pull away, with Maaaagiiii.... Bubbbbllle.... Cooooooola!" The jingle ended, replaced by the sound of creaking, groaning pipes, the thump-thump of pumps and the whine of turbines starting up.
Melonwater, not wanting to be left alone outside, trotted into the doorway. He stared wildly around before focusing on Summer Scribe: "What's going on? What... what did you do?"
"... I think I jump-started a magical soda company entirely automated by golems." Summer enthused. "And the jingle is REALLY catchy." She was nodding her head to it as she imagined it again! Earworm time! "And I've DEFINITELY gotta try some once it's poured out! You in?"
"So... unicorn without being unicorn." Azure Feather stated, shrugging again. "Trust me, I know how that feeling is." Never mind the whole fact that she was a unicorn trying to be a pegasus, sort of. Turning to Melonwater, she explained: "Long story short? Researcher Fizzo here restarted production in a three-twenty-year-old factory. With one sentence."
"...what?" Melonwater boggled at Azure. "A factory? Over three centuries? How could that possibly work?" If in answer to his question, a pipe some way behind Summer split open, spraying a continuous stream of reddish-brown goop out onto the floor.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Summer," Cloud Cutter said warily, "Actually I'm almost certain you don't know what you're doing."
Summer Scribe nodded to Cloud Cutter, still grinning: "I EXTREMELY have no idea what I'm doing, but that's what I'm good at!" She was trying to sound reassuring, but... she started sweating after the pipe burst. "Uhh, lemme just..." levitating a piece of scrap metal into the air, "Paaaatch that up real quick..."
"PRESSURE ON FEED THREE ABOVE TOLERANCE." the golem boomed "PRESSURE ON FEED EIGHT ABOVE TOLERANCE. PRESSURE ON FEED ELEVEN ABOVE TOLERANCE..." Its monologue was interrupted by the sharp pings of rivets popping out of pipe fittings overhead and bouncing about in the catwalks, before dropping to the floor with a gentle patter of thuds.
"Um... y'know, maybe we should try and reduce the pressure before-" There were already a few bolts scattered around her. "...before this entire place comes down on our heads?" Azure ventured a guess, looking a bit nervous. "Else we may be forced to try that Cola... and not in the way I was hoping..."
Cloud Cutter backed up at the rising volume of malfunctions, bumping into Melonwater who startled and skittered away. "Maybe you should shut this thing down, Foreman Fizzo!" she suggested.
Summer Scribe was sweating profusely now! "Okay, yeah, looks like this is more than a quick fixer-upper!" She called out to the golem: "Shut down all feeds immediately! Foreman Fizzo says so!"
With a resounding clang, a joint on one of the large pipes was forced open. Water, or something close to it, sprayed out and splashed around the pipework, turning inches of accumulated dust to mud, but not with anywhere near the force or volume the ponies were expected. After a pregnant pause, something... else slithered out of the pipe and dropped to the floor with a splat. A thick rope of translucent blue goo, perhaps three metres long, that began to writhe and slither like a snake. "INTRUDER. ANIMATE MAGICAL WASTE. EXECUTING CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL" the golem declared, staring down the animate slime, before its head snapped around to regard Summer again. "PRIORITY CONFLICT." it intoned. "CONFIRM PROTOCOL, CONTAINMENT OR SHUTDOWN?"
Summer Scribe's ears were flicking nervously. "Great, we have magical goo outbreaks too?! Well, cola at least we can swim in, but we don't know what this thing does. Containment!" If the fire golem was strong as it looked, it should be a cinch!
Cloud Cutter took wing just in case, not sure of where to fly or what to do, so she just hovered there near the ceiling.
Well this wasn't looking good, Azure thought. The cola being about ready to explode out of the pipes was one thing. Animate magical waste? Entirely another. At Summer's command of containment, though, Azure decided it might be better to stand back and let this golem take care of it... if it could. If not, though, this could be a headache...
"CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL ENGAGED." it confirmed, but the time it took to converse with Summer was more than enough for the goo-creature to coil and strike. The thing leapt forward, wrapping itself around the golem's head and body. The construct's arms snapped up and began to flail about wildly, as the golem stomped forward, body rotating. "ERROR! VISION IMPAIRED! ERROR! VISION IMPARIED!" it bellowed, before tongues of flame shot out from its arms, torching random bits of machinery and setting fire to decayed desks and paperwork. Steam hisses and rises as the flames from the golem's body eat away at the goo creature, but it seems to be taking some damage as well as its metalwork begins to warp and soften. Meanwhile more of the characteristic cracks of pipes being forced open and thump-slither of the goo worms emerging into the factory could be heard.
"Augh! These golems are total idiots at fighting!" Summer exclaims, her tone exasperated. It was breaking more of the factory and itself than its actual opponent. She looked around nervously as more and more goo-creatures emerged. "Shoot, they're probably going to overwhelm the golems running this place! What do we do?" She didn't want to abandon the facility, but it might be a sad necessity!
Cloud Cutter could have tried to do her spooky thing, but she was hearing sounds of these creature waste things coming from all over the place. "We could we could draw them out, so they only damage the surrounding woods?" she suggested frantically.
"If this thing can't fight, at least make sure the factory's shut down before it keeps running with no pipes and a flood of cola running through this island! I'm sure the gillmen don't want to drink that stuff instead of water!" Azure suggested, seeming more nervous about the cola than the worms. With her fighting ability impaired... this could be a bad day.
Melonwater was backing away from the flailing golem, flinching at the flames, but shaking his head. "If they get into the river? With that teleportation effect you described? They'll be all over the place in days." Turning to Summer he asked nervously "Do you... do you suppose... can they reproduce? Outside the factory?"
Summer Scribe looks distraught at the thought! "I hope not! We have to pray that they only get made here and..." She yelled at a nearby golem, "Shut down production, now!" Nodding to everyone else, "We'll just have to figure out the rest on our own! Somehow..."
"I-I can't do this very fast! Just give me a sec!" Cloud called out, already starting to look more purple than usual.
The fire-powered golem didn't seem able to respond any more; it continued to flail wildly at its gooey assailant, smashing through and then setting fire to a pile of crates. Of the other two golems, one was last seen in the control room and the other at the rear of the factory floor; neither had line of sight to Summer or could hear her over the din.
"Shoot, hang on, I need to escalate this request to a higher-up..." Summer Scribe raced off, heading deeper into the factory before anypony could object. "Shut down production! Shut down production!" she cried out, to anyone who'd listen!
Cloud Cutter, on the other hoof, could see straight into the control room from her vantage point flapping up near the ceiling. The icy blue golem was in there, engaging two of the worms. It seemed to be going better than the fire golem's engagement; as Cloud Cutter watched it shot out a blast of ice crystals that froze an attacking worm solid. However three more had picked up on the noise and vibrations and were converging on the control room, oozing their way along the catwalks.
It seemed like all the fun was happening in the control room, so Summer Scribe started scaling the stairway and cantering along the catwalk, hoping to meet up with Cloud Cutter. "OK, maybe we can shut down production from here?" She could see ooze monsters heading the same way, so she'd have to burst in and figure this stuff out quick!
With a snort of frustration at her tortuously slow magic, Cloud Cutter shouted, "It's not working Summer! There has to be a- a manual break lever around here somewhere!" She headed for the control room, flying with the difficulty of somepony really trying hard to concentrate right now. She ignored the ice golem to land near the controls, arriving ahead of Summer. If she couldn't get things stabilized fast, she'd be trapped in there by three of those things! Though maybe that was her plan...
Azure's was still trying to make heads or tails of the situation... She took off, ready to assist wherever needed, her eye soon drawn to the control room. She should be able to catch any worms with wind blades, magical exhaustion be damned...
The little unicorn bounded up the metal stairway, only to be faced with one of the goo worms, about to slither through the open door into the control room. Detecting her hoofsteps on the metal, its eyeless head swung around and began weaving in her direction.
Summer thought for a moment. Maybe these things can't actually see, only hear sound? Her horn flared with magic as she wrenched off a loose piece of railing and hurled it off to the side. Clank! The worm outside the door coils up then springs at the noise, slithering off to consume the annoying piece of scrap. Success! Summer Scribe snuck by the distracted worm, heading into the control room to join Cloud Cutter. Hoof raised, she made a 'keep your voice down' gesture!
The ice golem is covered in frozen and half-frozen bits of worm, its armour melted and pitted. It moved jerkily forward toward Cloud Cutter, staggering off balance. Unable to comprehend Summer's gesture, it bellowed "GUESTS MUST VACATE THE AREA. CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL IS IN EFFECT."
Summer Scribe found herself looking at a massive bank of gauges, dials and levers, with wide windows overlooking machinery now clanking and shuddering, spraying different coloured fluids. Worse, the third of the great vats was beginning to bulge out noticeably, at risk of bursting the same way its neighbour did, long ago. The rear wall was covered in diagrams, charts and noticeboards, all yellowed, dusty and written in the native runes.
The unicorn huffed. "Shoot, I can't believe I was so excited that I let this place fall to pieces!" Well, what to do? Maybe one of these levers was an emergency stop lever or something? She couldn't read the local language yet, so it'd be too long to parse through labels! Just look for something big and imposing!
Cloud Cutter had backed away as Summer trotted in; she looked dishevelled and... glowing wrong. The pegasus backed up hastily all the way against the golem bellowing at her, declaring to Summer, "Just do something! It- I can't read any of this!" She looked for a way out of the room without going near the other pony.
"Working on it!" Summer Scribe huffed back! OK, it was worth a shot... "Hey, Golem! How do I shut this thing down?"
"REQUEST UNCLEAR" the construct intoned, voice cracking and warping. "DOES FOREMAN FIZZO REQUEST SHUTDOWN PROTOCOL?" Meanwhile the next three worms were converging on the control room. Azure zeroed in and fired off a flurry of wind blades, slicing one into a blue goo approximation of salami, the pieces splattering on the factory floor below. A second reared up and smashed its way through one of the windows, its featureless head weaving back and forth in front of Summer Scribe as it searches for prey... before Azure's horn finished charging and released a powerful blast, blowing the thing clear off the catwalk.
The worm tumbled end over end through the air before the gale dashes it against a staircase, splattering its body into harmless globs. "Aah!" Azure cried out as pain stabbed through her horn; that last blast was a little too much after the earlier exertions. She watched helplessly as the third worm slithered through the broken windows, into the control room.
Cloud Cutter couldn't risk doing the spooky thing, not with Summer in there with her, but she could still kick the offending worm in the nose. Her hoof connected, but had little effect on the goopy mass. "Yes! Say yes!" she urged her companion, as she tried to use her body to block the way in.
"Yes, yes!" Summer Scribe told the golem, as goo critters ran havoc all around her! "Shut it down! And hurry, please!"
"SHUTDOWN CONFIRMED." the golem confirmed. It took a step forward, one arm reaching towards a small cluster of controls in the corner of the room... but the invading goo worm had already wrapped around its waist. With a crack and then clunk the construct's torso separated from its legs, pitching forward and crashing to the floor. "ERROR! MOBILITY IMPAIRED! ERROR!" it warbled, jerking back and forth uselessly.
"Uurgh! Dang it, it's so close!" Summer stomped her hoof in frustration. "What do I do now?" She looked over to the rune-lined board. Maybe knowing where the golem is trying to initiate shutdown could be cross-referenced with the instructions for a good guess at which control to pull?
Summer tried to recall the translations Blue Type had managed from the old shrine, along with what she'd picked up in an hour or so of speed reading on the last visit. There was a valve wheel with 'somthing flow', a button with 'something energy', a large red lever with "bad event something empty'...
Cloud Cutter was still trying to stop more worms getting into the control room, without releasing the deadly purple energy. She wasn't having much success...
"Okay, here goes an educated heat-of-the-moment guess!" The unicorn's horn lit up... and a one, a two, a three! Grab the wheel, squeeze it shut! Hit the button nice and firmly! Grab the lever and ppuuullll! And if we did the dance right...
In the main part of the factory, worm creatures continued to squeeze their way out of pipes. As Azure watched the last golem stomped about, zapping the goo with bursts of lighting, which made them crackle and explosively vaporise where the electricity touched them... yet more emerged faster than it could zap them. With the cracks and crashes and pops and clangs, the spraying fluids and hissing steam, the scene was a chaotic mess of noise and motion, yet when the deep, resonant rumble starts up it still managed to overpower all of that and fill her perception.
The rumble became a rushing, swirling sound, as if the plughole had been pulled on an enormous bath. Overhead the lights blinked on, the lamps flickering and surging brightly before popping like firecrackers, adding sprays of sparks to the general confusion below.
Summer Scribe stares out of the windows, heart in her mouth! "Seems like I guess right... huh, better get ready to run with me if not, Cloud Cutter!" She winced and shielded her gaze as the lights blow out: woah, this place had been out of commission for a while!
"Get out!" Cloud Cutter shouted desperately, back to her state of inverting existence that's hard to even look at, "Get away from me!"
That sudden, overpowering rumble was enough to make anypony uneasy, never mind Azure in her current frazzled state. Hearing lightbulbs suddenly popping all around her? The final straw. She was soon down on the ground, struggling to deal with the chaotic situation. "Melonwater! Out, now!" she shouted; she couldn't see him and could only hope he'd heard her. Then with Cloud Cutter's warning.... she was soon dashing out herself.
Summer had forgotten just how profoundly disturbing Cloud Cutter's new ability was. "Right, getting out as fast as I can!" Cantering out the door, she made a hard right and leapt through one of the exterior windows!
The unicorn fell one story to land hard in a disused cart, which creaked in protest before shuddering forwards and rolling through the yard. It picked up speed, bouncing off walls as it barrelled down a passageway, heading towards the main gate. Melonwater was already outside, standing just beyond the threshold on the track to the docks, staring at the factory with a horrified expression.
'Totally planned!' Summer told herself. She grabbed Melonwater with her magic as the makeshift getaway vehicle rushed past the stunned stallion! "We're getting out of here: Cloud Cutter's doing the spooky thing again!" A combination of levitation and momentum managed to scoop the dazed Melonwater up into the cart just before it slams into him; the vehicle rattled out onto the causeway, shedding bolts and chunks of rotten wood as it went, while Azure flapped straight over the wall and flies above them.
Following after Summer, Cloud Cutter shakily made her way to the door, before the worm she was kicking recovered enough to tackle her, sending her falling to the factory floor below. She got up in a mess of wings and hooves, wincing at a pain she shouldn't have been able to feel. Limping over to a girder, Cloud kicked it again and again, making loud clangs until every last goo creature was heading her way. A bright blue slimy worm the size of a pony wrapped around her and started crushing her, with more piling on in a blinding rush of impacts as she crashed to the ground.
The purple light filled the entire factory, if not its effects, reflecting eerily off of every surface as the wave of eldritch energy burst out from her form. The mass of writhing, snaking blue tendrils around her was instantly dehydrated into sparkling sapphire dust by the violet magic; the remains collapsed and spilled onto the floor like sand.
Slowly, gradually, calm returned to the abandoned factory as turbines spun down, pumps ceased pumping, and another of the ice golems puts out the various small fires started by the original golem. Cloud Cutter slumped, drained in a way beyond normal exhaustion, as she listened to the drip-drip of spilled fluids, the creaking of cooling boilers, and the clank-clank-zap of the tech golem exterminating the last few worms.
In the courtyard, Summer Scribe was looking back at the factory; she'd let out a sigh of relief as a brilliant purple flash erupted through everything, and the noise seemed to be dying down. "That was, uhhh, something." She gave Melonwater an apologetic look. "I guess I should have known better, huh?"
The stallion was still speechless, but Azure was quick to reply. "You don't have to worry. Honestly, in your shoes... I'd have probably done the same thing, really..." She sighed, looking back to the factory. "Crazy day. And two headaches, too."
Inside, Cloud Cutter was still sprawled on the floor near the control room. After a while the zapping sound stopped, but the clanking continued and got louder as the construct approached the purple pegasus. Hearing the thing approach, she lifted her head weakly, not even trying to get away, just remaining perfectly still.
"UNKNOWN QUADRUPED GUEST." the construct declared, "MAGIBUBBLE COLA COMPANY HOPES YOUR TOUR OF OUR FACILITY WAS PLEASANT AND EDUCATIONAL." The thing's arms extended jerkily forwards, presenting its offering for Cloud Cutter's consideration: a small crate of bottles, all full of brightly coloured carbonated liquids. "PLEASE ENJOY YOUR FREE SAMPLES."
Cloud Cutter heaved herself to her hooves, standing unsteadily for a moment before the golem. Then she bit the cap off one of the bottles and tilted her head back, chugging the contents of the little thing all in one go.
A mismatched group of creatures soared through the sky, high over the impossible floating river. A grey hippogriff stallion, hitched to a small cart completely full of fiery kirin mare, earth pony stallion and their tools, with a brown pegasus flying close behind. The village group (or 'beta squad', as no one other than Azure Feather called them) had left their ship and their friends on the seemingly uninhabited third island, and were making their way up to the second island, which held the gillman village of Witchway Marsh.
Reef Skimmer's wings thrummed as they slowly climbed, passing over a series of floating rocks and oxbow lakes, just hanging in the air next to the snaking river. The river actually crossed over itself in front of them, one twisting rushing ribbon of water sailing clear over the other. The flyers headed up over the top section and then settled into a glide, descending toward the marsh. There the river split again and again into a maze of little channels and ponds, stretching for several kilometres across the bulk of the island.
At one edge of the marsh proper the village was visible as a tight cluster of shacks and cottages, all stone and weathered wood and salvaged sheet metal, linked by boardwalks and surrounded by bits of salvage and wreckage. Further out individual dwellings could be seen in the surrounding woods, many with little fields or at least vegetable gardens. Where the village abutted the marsh was the harbour, a muddy pool where a few boats, tube-rafts and one rusty paddle-wheel steamer were tied up.
Gearshift's hooves are fidgety, as he looked out from the cart over the levitating surroundings far below, less taking it in and more giving himself visual noise for distraction. "Kinda anxious to work," he admitted, "...but being anxious won't get us there any faster. Should be a quick fixer upper, right Nutmeg?"
Nutmeg peered obliviously over the edge of the cart as Gearshift spoke, laying a hoof along her scaly shoulders, the fluffy red tip of her tail switching madly. With her branching horn, her thick red furry ruff, and her back covered in scales as golden yellow as her hooves, she was very much certainly something other than a pony. Her adjustable wrench was leaning on the cart beside her, leaving her free to stare wide-eyed. "Yeah it shouldn't be too— oh look, buildings!" she declared. "Wow that forest has a weird shape! I wonder why rivers are all wiggly? Is that a rope bridge? Is that a mill wheel?? Wow!"
Gearshift let out a gentle sigh at Nutmeg's... well... enthusiasm was the right way to put it. The kirin clearly needed to get out more! This should be a good experience for her.
Reef Skimmer brought the cart down slowly, aiming for the track connecting the village proper to the water mill, some way upstream. It seemed well maintained and currently clear of traffic, and less likely to cause a commotion than landing in the middle of the settlement. With just a slight bump - he'd had a fair amount of practice at this point - the little cart's wheels settled down onto the track and the hippogriff fell into a trot, continuing towards the village on foot. "Thought it best not to spook them, Captain." he said, looking back to regard Set Sail, who was still hovering a little way behind.
"Very good idea, Reef!" the brown pegasus said gratefully, reaching down and beating her wings to help Nutmeg and Gearshift vault over the side of the cart. "Anything we can do, to help you get ready?" she asked the pair. Although he didn't admit it, Reef was grateful for the sudden reduction in weight behind him. They hadn't flown far, but by Novo those tools were heavy.
"We probably shouldn't unpack until we see what we need to fix," Nutmeg said, from within the cart where she was standing on tip-toes to pull stuff out of it, "I'll just bring a tool saddle and my wrench."
Gearshift nodded in agreement, lifting a few things out of the cart and setting them on his back. "Yes, thank you! We have no idea what kind of a job this is. We didn't have anyone technically minded to talk to, so this'll be our own assessment."
The four made their way into the village: Nutmeg took the lead and dashing about, looking at the various bits of junked machinery sitting half-buried in the muck while the gill creatures stopped and stared. Here were rusted barrels that once held oil, implying refining, there was an incandescent lamp up on a building, implying electrical power. Gearshift trotted behind, trying to share her enthusiasm but stopping every few metres to return the stare of one of the strange fish creatures. "Really feeling out of my element here..." he mumbled, gazing at the fish creatures. "And what a shame it is for this place to fall apart like this..."
"Cheer up Gears," Nutmeg chirped, skipping along lightly beside him, "The more that's broke, the more there that we have to fix!" She gazed up and around at the fishy things watching them, waving a hoof at them in general and saying, "Hello!"
Gearshift chuckled at that. "Well, work is work, I suppose. It just gets me down when I see things fall to pieces." He didn't share Nutmeg's enthusiasm for conversing with the locals.
At the back of the group was the hippogriff, drawing the cart which clicked over the planks of the boardwalk, while Set Sail hovered overhead trying to keep everyone in sight. "Any sign of that Lightgrin character, Captain?" Reef called up to the pegasus.
"The who what now?" she called down to Reef, "I'm just looking for Brightfin right now!"
Soon enough the gillman in question made an appearance, charging into sight with his webbed feet making a loud flap-thump-flap-thump on the wood. "Oh wow you're back!" he said "...and ya'll gone brought more po-knees. A... uh... unicorn and a... no-corn?"
Gearshift lifted a hoof to his face to snicker. "My favourite kind of joke; thank you. No, you can call me an earth pony."
"Uh... ok." The fish boy stared at Nutmeg and Gearshift for a second, before latching onto Reef Skimmer, ignoring the little pegasus overhead. "Uh, hi there Mister Hippo-griff, I see you done brought..." he stood on tip-toes, trying to get a look into the cart "...lotsa tools? Oh, oh, you're gonna fix the turret, right?"
Gearshift nodded at that! "That's the plan. Can we take a look?"
Nutmeg blinked cluelessly a moment, then touched a two toed hoof to her own horn saying, "Oh, right!" returning to all fours with a laugh, "Yeah whatever. They say some creatures helped you with some kind of cannon, but it was broken? So yes that's what we're here for." Looking around, she asked eagerly, "So where is it?"
"Uh, yeah, so..." Brightfin stared at Nutmeg, then looked around at all the gillmen oggling the visitors, remarking on their strange appearance and asking each other what it meant. "...if y'all could just follow me over here, uh, I'll tell ya what's going on... soon's we get a little privacy, y'know what I mean?" He gestured with one arm and headed through the village, out onto a track leading into the woods.
Gearshift tilted his head. What about this cannon could need so much privacy? It didn't sound like he had a choice though, so he followed along, whispering to Nutmeg "This is safe, right?"
"Heck if I know," the kirin replied, frowned at the gillman. Looking to the hippogriff, she asked, "Reef, could you keep an eye on the cart? I don't want take a bunch of equipment into an ambush."
That drew the ire of Set Sail, who immediately landed between them and objected: "No. Reef goes with you. I'll watch the cart."
Gearshift nodded, "Sure, works for me," giving a polite nod to Reef Skimmer.
Brightfin looked shocked. "Uh... Captain Sail? It ain't nothin' like that! No gilly doing no ambushing 'round here 'less the drow turn up, and they most always come at night." He looked around; the crowd hadn't followed them to the edge of the village, save for a couple of fish children who trailed behind the cart, watching the strange creatures.
Beckoning the visitors in close, the young gillman continued "See it's like this. My gran, that's Smoothfin, she done made a deal with the dirt sharks to fix up our turret like a year ago. They been on the job ever since, supposedly, couple of 'em up there right now. But I ain't seeing no progress, sure at first they did clean it up, but it's lookin' just the same today as it was lookin' a season ago." he said conspiratorially.
"So either those sharks ain't got a clue how to fix it, or they're seeing how much we're gonna pay 'fore they finally get 'round to it. I did tell my gran we's being ripped off but she was just 'Brightfin, these things take time, so they do.' But I ain't buying it."
Gearshift frowned. "Sounds like you got scammed good... but we'll give you a fully informed opinion once we take a look at it. Sound good?"
Nutmeg's gaze hardened as she listened to the fish-creature's tale. "Oh I've run into creatures like that before," she growled, "The first thing they do is try to lock legitimate companies out. This just got a lot harder. If they even think we can fix it, they'll keep us from getting close. If I'd have known that I'd have brought Sprocket. She's super good at that whole sneaking around thingy."
"Uh, well, it's our turret, and I'm the son of the chief, so... they'd better let us in or... you saying sneak around? Yeah, that's it, let's just sneak up and mosey, surprise 'em like. And ya know, if it comes to it, there's just two of 'em and..." he looked at Reef Skimmer, then Nutmeg Inferno "...we got a griffon and a magic elemental! 'Cause unicorns all got Magic, right?"
"My dear fellow, we can't just go attacking creatures without good reason. Aside from breach of first contact protocol," Reef said, in a tone that suggested there was nothing worse than breach of protocol, "what would that do to the prospect of diplomatic relations with these 'dirt sharks', not to mention your 'gran'?"
Gearshift nodded in agreement. "As cathartic as it is to give liars a smack over the head, we can't just shoot first and ask questions - we need to be certain of what's going on here first."
Nutmeg face-hooved, groaning, "I gotta learn to stop thinking out loud." Walking up to the fish kid and poking him in the chest, she said, "If you aren't kidding about these sharks, you need to fool them, not sneak up on them. You..." She stomped away, a flicker of flame going up her hooves as she grumbled, "I didn't ask for any of that. I fix things, not... creatures!"
The kirin stopped and took a deep breath. Turning around and marching back, she said in a calmer tone, "We don't even know these shark things are rotten like that. I'm just jumping right to... well, you remember the Manehattan Machining Company, right Gearshift?"
Gearshift nodded: "Mmmm, yeah, true. Sometimes the job really IS that hard, and it can be hard for non technical folks to tell the difference. Hence why I wanna retain judgement until I've seen it with my own eyes."
"Uh, so, uh, what y'all wanna do?" Brightfin asked, staring at his chest where Nutmeg has poked him as if it might catch fire. "Turret's up in the old barn, on Wickerwish Spit, over the rope bridge. If the sharks are inside, they ain't seeing us comin', lest they're outside taking lunch... but that's be alright, 'cause then y'all could just sneak in the back!"
"All we need to do is get a decent assessment of the repairs needed," Nutmeg said thoughtfully, sinking to her fluffy haunches, "If the sharks are legit, that'll let us know. And if not, then we can make a plan to repair it, to present to the chieftess so she knows what they're doing to rip her off."
"If our destination is on the small outlying island, I would think it best I fly over." Reef Skimmer pointed out. "I doubt this cart will fit down a rope bridge."
"We're not going to... we can't just sneak in," Set Sail said with a frustrated snort, "That would be wrong!"
"But... it's our barn! And our turret!" Brightfin said, uncertainly. "Ain't it wrong that some sharks can take our coin, not that we got a lot to spare mind, and don't even fix our gun?" he finished, indignantly.
Gearshift grinned at the captain. "It's also wrong to filch out on repairs duly invested in you. If they're legit... they'll understand and laugh it off. If not... they might never let us to the turret if we ask." He shrugged. "I think the calculus makes sense, but what do I know?"
"Yes but...!" Set Sail fidgeted wordlessly on her hooves, trying to figure out how he was wrong. "If we get caught, then the chieftess and the land sharks will hate us!"
"Caught doing what?" Gearshift insisted. "We won't have broken or stolen or lied about anything. If they're good mannered folks they can laugh it off; just like I said. If they're real good mannered folks they'll talk tech and we'll solve it together!"
"Uh, don't worry 'bout gran, I'll just tell her it was all my idea..." Brightfin whispered, looking less and less sure of himself. "but yeah I don't know 'bout the sharks, the 'Chief Exec-you-tiff', well he came on all charming and gran thought he was the best thing since fileted fish, but I didn't like him, not one bit." The fish boy sighed. "I... don't wanna get you folks in more trouble, not when you already got a bunch of drow to fight."
"Okay, so suppose we're going to sneak in, when the sharks are out," Nutmeg said, "Gears and I will need some paper for schematics, and a lookout to say when they're coming back. You said they left for... lunch?"
Brightfin perked up at Nutmeg's enthusiasm. "I dunno exactly when, but... yeah, every time I saw them eatin' it was out on the hillside, usually they get a little fire goin'. Guess I could chat 'em up... say, if Captain Sails comes maybe they'd wanna chat to her for a bit? 'Cause they've never seen a po-knee before, ya know?"
"I don't want any part in this..." Set Sails groaned, going down on her belly to bury her head in her arms.
"Ooh, hey," Nutmeg said, perking up, "They have an airship too, don't they?"
"Uh... yeah, yeah they got at least two." Brightfin confirmed. "There's a real shiny one that Firesteel, uh, that's the 'chief exec-you-tiff officer', so he said, anyway yeah he came on the shiny one then there's a scruffy one, it comes to trade, and change out the mechanics they got over here every once in a while. Most times, it's us trading fish and vegetables for parts and repairs, we ain't so good at smithin' here."
Trotting over to Reef Skimmer, the red brown and gold kirin sized him up before saying, "What if one of us got spotted snooping around on their ship, right around their lunch break? They'd have to check to make sure nothing was stolen. Maybe a creature they're familiar with, like someone who looks like a griffon sort of?"
Shrugging, she added, "Alternatively we could set off a smoke bomb, make them think their ship's on fire," before elbowing Gearshift: "Heh, remember the Manehatten Machining Company?"
Reef frowned and clicked his beak. "Perhaps that would work, but I must confess I didn't see any sign of an airship on the flight in." Looking at Brightfin, he asked "Is their ship here now? Hidden, perhaps?"
"Oh there we go. Of course they just got dropped off instead of parking here." Nutmeg sighs, shaking her head bleakly and eliciting a snicker from Gearshift.
"Uh, no don't think so, it was here, uh... three weeks back?" Brightfin said uncertainly. "Comes 'bout every four weeks, shouldn't be long 'til we see it again. But..." he glanced at Nutmeg excitedly "...you got smoke bombs? Like in the Secret Ninja Commando Comics? That's so cool!"
Gearshift chuckled. "Well, smoke bombs aren't so..." he began, but trailed off knowing Nutmeg would be eager to explain.
"Smoke bombs are easy to make," she told the kid amiably, "They're basically just failed bombs that don't blow up and just burn in their case. Anyway, it's probably for the best. They might have a little more of a case against us if we're actively sabatoging their stuff. That only worked when I uh..." Nutmeg looked to her companions, in particular Set Sail, before saying quickly, "...didn't get caught... and on that note Tinkernut Enterprises had no involvement with the incident at the Manehattan Machining Company."
Reef stared at the kirin. "Sabotage? I thought we were here to fix the device, not sabotage it?" He looked over his shoulder at the cart. "I suppose you won't be wanting these then, if you're going to sneak about."
Gearshift shook his head. "No no no, the sabotage is wholly hypothetical! And yes, no tools for the time being, thank-you."
Nutmeg was shaking her head as well. "We came prepared for the wrong job, you know? Maybe we should go back and get Sprocket and stuff. And yeah I meant like they'd be mad if there were soot stains and lots could go wrong."
"You're not going to fix it?" Brightfin said sadly. "Alright, can't blame a gilly for trying can ya? Guess since you've got your tools here an' all, mayhap you could take a look at the Goldy's generator? Been out since the last drow attack. Oh and the steamer's not workin' right, if y'all are used to fixin' airships a normal ship shouldn't be much trouble, right?"
"Have some patience, guy!" Nutmeg told the much taller fish creature, "We just need to meet again a few days later, then we'll have a better idea what to do. Plus it's nice to have something to look forward to. You don't want to rush it when you got scam artists lurking about. Tell you what, if we can't get to the turret by next week, I'll have the whole crew over here setting up shop."
"Now y'all sound just like grandma." the gill boy said, kicking at the ground and sulking.
"Huh, wish my grandma had gotten into corporate espionage," Nutmeg murmured, staring into space with a thoughtful expression.
"There's a difference here," Set Sail told the boy, stepping up to him seriously, " Whatever we do, I know my crew'll do it right. You don't have to agree, but pay attention and see if we don't follow up on our promises. No offense to your grandmother, but... the difference is we haven't given up."
All this political nonsense was too much for Gearshift. Couldn't they just fix stuff AND not have to worry about predicting the possible inner minds of a third party? "Broken generator? That sounds like a walk in the park. May we see it?" he asked with a grin.
"Yes... just... don't let anyone know we were here," Nutmeg cautioned, "If the sharks are good guys, then it won't matter, but if not... I don't want to have to deal with paranoid scam artists.'
"Uh, yeah, yeah sure, uh, Goldripple's shop's just over there." Brightfin said, cheering up a bit. "Her generator runs all the street lights, 'least when it was working it did. Uh, I'm sure she'll keep her mouth shut, she's sick o' paying through the gills for them sharks to fix stuff, she'll be right pleased to find folks who'll give her a fair price, for sure."
Nutmeg gave Gearshift a cloven-hoof bump, "Awesome, looks like we didn't waste this trip after all!"
Gearshift clumsily bumped back. "Hah, yeah! Man, nothing like interpersonal affairs getting in the way of a perfectly normal job, right?"
"Indeed." Reef Skimmer broke in "...and perhaps while the engineers are looking at that, we could address the issue of this 'fin rot' condition? I took a look at that sample you gave me, and one may have an effective treatment, if we could consult your local doctor?"
"Treatment?" Brightfin asked, uncertain. "Uh, I can take you over to see Reedsalve, she's the only full-time healer 'round these parts, knows more than any other gilly 'bout fin rot and such, that's for sure."
"Capital. Lead on then, my good fellow." Reef said, carefully manoeuvring himself and the cart around to head back into the village.
"Hey! Reef!" Nutmeg protested, running after him. "You're taking our equipment with you!" she whined, "Let's at least keep this cart outta sight, okay?" She reared up onto the back, trying to stop the hippogriff wandering off with their tools.
"Uh, don't fret there, miss unicorn." Brightfin said. "Goldie's got a stock yard round the back, with a good strong fence, she's sure to let you tie up in there, once she hears you're gonna fix her generator!"
"Oh, uh, capital!" Nutmeg said, sheepishly releasing the vehicle.
With the cart parked and the engineers happily dismantling the old generator, Reef Skimmer was free to investigate the gill people's medical issue; Set Sail followed along, preferring to learn more about the natives than watch Nutmeg clean a commutator. Brightfin lead the mismatched pair away from the village and down a path into the swamp.
"...and Trade Wind's doing his best to hobble about the sickbay," the hippogriff doctor was saying, "but his hind legs have to stay in casts for oh, two more months I'd say. With that sprained wing, he's more or less bedridden..."
"Two months?" Set Sail exclaimed unhappily, fussily flicking her tail, "And there's no way he can take over as captain until then?"
"Perhaps now the ship is stabilised, one could ask Nutmeg to look into cobbling together a wheelchair," Reef suggested, "but he needs to take it easy, no harsh duties or long journeys."
"Ohh..." Set Sail pawed the floor in frustration, "Why couldn't I have been the one who broke my leg? I'll ask Nutmeg about the wheelchair, definitely. I guess until then I'll just have to keep trying to keep things together until we get a real captain again."
"Sails..." Reef began, before sighing. Perhaps now was not the time to have that conversation again. "One is certain you will hold things together quite splendidly." He winked and gaped his beak open in a smile, then frowned. "Oh... one more thing. That pegasus stallion, Clashing Hail - the one who lost his feathers? His wings are growing fingers! With skin webbed between, exactly like a bat!"
Seeing the captain's look of shock, he sympathised. "Wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself, I can tell you." He cocked his head, giving the pegasus a strange look. "Regrettably the medical literature on bat ponies is rather scant; I know of their existence, but... ponies don't just change subspecies, do they?"
"Clashing Gale," Set Sail corrected, "And that's... I mean I heard of spells that can change ponies a little for special occasions like Nightmare Night, but the crazy thing is his feathers. They were just... totally empty, like something sucked all the pegasussy...stuff out of them. I keep my bigger feathers in a box, y' know most of us do in case a pony needs a quill or something. They don't just crumble into dust, without some crazy lightning striking them, or... or something."
"Indeed? Yet Cloud Cutter, with otherwise very similar symptoms, experienced nothing of the sort. No physical degredation, at least..." Reef frowned again; he had no way of determining what 'pegasusy' stuff may or may not be present, but the mare could fly so surely... ? "In any case, Mr... Gale is still unconscious - I've been feeding the poor fellow fruit juice through a straw - but he's been tossing, turning and stretching, so I'm optimistic he may wake up soon."
The pegasus just stared forward, lost in thought as they headed down the final boardwalk to their destination. It was a building set a little way apart from the rest of the village, looking like two small stone cottages joined together and extended by a ramshackle collection of salvaged wood and corrugated iron. Dense forest surrounded and seemed on the brink of enveloping the scarred, worn structure.
The young gillman headed in through the open door and the group soon found themselves in a consulting room of sorts, lined with jars, bottles and strange charms and statuettes, a few of which gleamed with a dim glow. In the centre of the space was a low wooden table; decades of vigorous scrubbing had failed to prevent the wood taking on the stains of thousands of injured patients. Against one wall was a workbench, where a gill woman had been grinding away with a mortar and pestle.
As soon as she caught side of the new arrivals she dropped it, started at Reef and Set Sail in turn, then clapped her hands. "And what's this you've brought old Reedsalve today, Brightfin? A griffin, it is! And one of those po-knees, it must be! Oh such a treat, such a treat." She shuffled over, apparently fearless, and began peering closely at Reef's beak, then wings, then hooves. "Big as a southern griffon, but what's this? Hooves, these are!"
Set Sail kept back, staying close to the door... just in case. She shot a furtive glance at Brightfin, then watched the gill-woman doctor poking and prodding at Reef Skimmer before saying, "Pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm c...aaptain Set Sail and this is Reef Skimmer. He's actually a hippogriff, but I don't know if you have those in your lands."
Brightfin looked embarrassed. "Yeah, uh, Reedy look they just arrived and see, they're guests and they're from a big ship full of creatures that're gonna help us fight the..."
"Hippo-griff?" The old gillwoman's gaze settled on the brown pegasus. "Never heard of a hippo-griff, is that being the third breed besides northern and southern griffon, is it?" She advanced on Set Sail, eyes bright. "And aren't you a cute little thing, yes you are." Reedsalve said, looking like she might pinch the pony's cheek.
Set Sail unfortunately only managed to make herself look more adorable, fluffing out her wings in distress and shrinking back with big green eyes stammering, "Y-y-yes b-be that as it may..."
"Ahem" Reef cleared his throat loudly, casually half-spreading his wings in a way that just happened to place one between the gill woman and her specimen. "Junior Surgeon Reef Skimmer, officer in Queen Novo's Navy, hippogriff of Mount Aris, at your service." he said formally, his initial amusement at being on the receiving end of the examination for once evaporating when he saw Set Sail's discomfort. Making a mental note to ask about the native griffon subspecies later, he continued with "So one understands you've been having some trouble with this 'fin rot' condition."
"Oh yes, it's a terrible thing, so it is." Reedslave said, trying in vain to find a way around Reef's wing. After a few seconds she gave up and turned back to the hippogriff. "Resists every cure old Reedsalve knows, so it does. Now you'd think some undine paste would clean it right up, wouldn't you. Takes an age to make, but works like a charm on cuts and burns and bruises of every sort." Her webbed hand went to her head, touching the fin there and showing the same tears and holes as all the other fish creatures they'd seen. "Not so for the fin rot though, no not at all."
Set Sail peered around Reef's wing at the older biped's fins, her face fully of worry, saying, "Oh no, that's terrible! Have you ever seen anything like this, Reef? You learned medicine under the sea, right?"
Reef Skimmer looked back to the pegasus: "Not exactly like this no, but one did manage to acquire a specimen on our last visit, and let's just say I'm glad I brought a decent microscope on this trip because... ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself." Turning to the gillwoman healer, he explained "As the captain said, one is something of a 'healer' oneself, and I might be of some assistance in this matter." His ear tufts pricked up with curiosity, "Just so we're on the same page though, could you describe this 'undine paste' treatment?"
"You haven't heard of the paste?" Reedsalve sighed. "Not too surprising, that isn't, 'cause it takes nine separate herbs to make. Six of 'em only grow in the marsh, they do, and three of those only sprout for two months o' the year. Ain't no undines involved, that's just what they call it, they do." She snorted. "Guess on account of the magic, folks thought we healers must be boiling down spirits or something."
"Magic you say?" Reef frowned, before staring off into space. "If it promotes dermal regeneration in normal injuries, but fails for this condition... ah, I believe I have a theory as to why! Would you mind demonstrating, to establish a control before we try my proposal?"
Set Sail stepped back as the two started engaging in some fancy medical terminology that she only half understood, but the brown and blue pegasus smiled in satisfaction because she knew she could count on Reef to solve this aquatic conundrum.
"Control?" Reedsalve said, confused. "No controls round here, this ain't no steamship, it isn't." She grunted. "You want to see what happens when undine paste goes on a rotted fin? 'spose there ain't no harm giving it another try. Brightfin!" The young gillman jumped; he'd been fiddling with one of the glowing carvings. "Get up on that table there, Mister Griffon wants to see something."
Meanwhile, a soft filly's voice came from just behind Set Sail: "They say you're a po-knee but you're sort of like a deer with a bit of marsh rail aren't you?" The pegasus glanced behind her to see a little gill child staring at her with wide eyes, a worn-looking stuffed otter held tightly in one webbed hand.
Looking over her shoulder, Set Sail turned to the much less tall and imposing filly. "I'm not sure what a marsh rail is," she said amiably, "But deer have two toed hooves, so that's how you can tell the difference, see?" Holding up a hoof for the child to look at, Set Sail asked, "Do you know what a zebra is? They're probably our closest relatives. Or maybe you have changelings?"
The gill girl looked down shly. "Uh, no I don't know zee-bra, or, uh, change-thing, maybe it's a kind of goblin? 'cause it sounds like a kind of goblin." Her gaze travelled up to Set Sail's hoof and then to her mane. "I like your hoof. And you have pretty... stuff, on your head. I love blue and I love purple and I love it." She beamed.
"My mane you mean?" Set Sail replied, lifting that hoof to touch what she thought was a rather dishevelled blue and purple mess, "Well thank you!" Giving the girl a grateful smile, Set Sail asked, "What's your name? My name's Set Sail. Like a sailboat."
"Uh, I'm Lakeshine, and this is Sij..." the girl holds up her stuffed toy. "Sij-gill the otter, he's a good otter, aren't you Sij?" she said, nuzzling the toy's button nose. "What you saying Sij?" She gave Set Sail another shy look. "Uh... Sij wants to know, do you live in the cliffs with the griffons? Or do you fly up and visit them or do they fly down and visit you?"
"Oh, well I'm pleased to meet you too, Sij," Set Sail said politely, "Reef Skimmer left the cliffs where his people live, to live with us. On a different um... island. So you noticed my wings, did you?" she continued, briefly spreading a wing in demonstration, "They're what make me a pegasus pony. Other ponies live on the land like you, but pegasus ponies mostly just live in the clouds."
"Uh, sure, no problem Reedy, uh... this won't hurt will it?" Brightfin asked as he parked his butt on the central table.
Not bothering to answer the young gillman, Reedsalve dug around in a cupboard and retrieved a large jar, mostly full of glittering green slime. "Now watch close here." Grabbing one of the young gillman's head fins with one hand, she scooped out a little glob of slime with the other and rubbed it into the tattered membrane. The whole appendage glowed with a soft green light, which slowly faded away over the course of the next minute. "See if that were a cut or a gaze it'd clear right up, but with fin rot, nothing does work, not undine paste nor gobblepod saliva, not even chompy worm extract, if you can believe that!" the gillwoman healer said, frustration evident in her gargling voice.
"Rubbing in some spirits, that's the drinking kind not the ghostly kind, well it seems to help a bit but it ain't no cure, it isn't. Only thing I ever did see cure the rot is some secret remedy the ents used to sell us, but we ain't had one of their ships visit not for near on a decade now, no we haven't." She snorted again. "Never could get 'em to tell old Reedsalve the secret, not for lack o' trying... or maybe they did and it just didn't make no sense, the way those ents talk!" Her chuckle sounded like a stream tricking over rocks.
Restraining his curiosity about the 'ents' for now, Reef Skimmer explained his theory. "Ah, well as I said I acquired a sample, prepared some slides last night and it took a 400 lens to get a good look at the hyphae..." Seeing Reedsalve's blank look he explained. "The mycelium, that is. Fungus?"
"Fungus? Like mushrooms? Don't see no toadstools growing outta Brightfin there..." the gill woman muttered.
"Ah well, you see those are just the fruiting bodies, and not all fungi have them..." Reef was explaining "Long story short, the tissue is shot through with... roots, let's say, too small to see, and my guess is they're soaking up the magic from your salve. You're healing the fungus as much as you're healing the patient, so to speak, and the result is a stalemate."
Reedsalve stared at Reef Skimmer, then the fin in question, as if trying to make out the 'roots'. "Now I'd call you mad 'cept that there's a lick of sense in the notion that tiny roots are to blame, that being that if anyone can deal with unruly roots, it'd be the ents. But say that's so, what are we gonna do about it? Anything I've got poisonous to kill roots is gonna put a gilly in a bad way as well, so it will."
"Indeed!" Reef Skimmer said enthusiastically. "This is where I may be able to render assistance; I did try it in a petri dish and cell damage seemed to be minimal, while the mycelium was..." the hippogriff said as he dug around in one of his saddle bags. His claw emerged holding a sizable bottle of dark brown glass. "Aha! Here we are: eight percent hydrogen peroxide. Ten minutes topical application of this, then why don't you give your 'undyne paste' another shot?" Brightfin gave a little yowl and grimace as the griff applied the clear fluid to his fin; tiny bubbles fizzed as it sterilised the membrane.
In the corner, Lakeshine was staring at the brown pony's pinions. "Oh I love your feathers. Uh, pig-asus... es.. us... uh, they're, uh, pigasus means 'poknee with wings'? So a poknee that isn't a pigasus is just a talking deer but with big hooves'?" She looked at her toy again. "That makes sense, doesn't it Sij."
"You're pretty clever, Lakeshine!" Set Sail said, trying not to blush at all the complements, "Yes a pegasus means a pony with wings. Other ponies are like deer, except with only one toe to each hoof. It has to be big so that I can stand on it without it tipping over." She tipped over a single hoof in demonstration.
"Uh, ok." Lakeshine said, staring at her own relatively huge webbed feet. "So..." she began, before grimacing at Brightfin's yowl. She stared at the two healers fussing over him for a while, before turning back to her new friend, trying to think of something else to talk about. "Uh, so, um... do you and your griffon have a flying party, 'cause you both have wings? 'cause when me and Chillwater get together we sometimes have a swimming party." the girl asked, before adding by way of explanation "Chillwater saw you down by the river, she told me and that's how I know you're called a po-knee."
Set Sail's enthusiasm dimmed a little bit, as she recalled the flying party that she and Reef had after their last visit. "Sometimes, yes," she said, "I haven't met Chillwater, but I'm glad she remembers us. Does she like purple and blue, too?"
"Chillwater likes red." the little gillgirl replied firmly, nodding. She held up the stuffed otter to her ear, pretending to listen. "Sij says he's never saw a pony or a griffon before and not me either. Mummy said the griffons used to come here on the way to the temple but now they just go straight to the temple. 'Cause there were some griffons in the tagern when the bad goblins attacks and they put nets on the griffons and the griffons didn't like that and... now they don't come any more." The little gillgirl looked ready to cry at the prospect, before cheering up suddenly. "But you came! Are you going to the temple or just your griffon?"
"His name is Reef Skimmer, and he's a hippogriff, not a griffon," Set Sail explained, with a look over to the excited doctors. "You can tell because he has hooves on his back legs. Griffons have cat paws." With a purse of her lips she added, "We're new here, so we don't know where the temple is yet. We might visit it, but I like this place too. So many friendly creatures here." Giving Lakeshine a serious look, she told the child, "The bad goblins tried to scare us away too, but we're not going to let them. We're going to do everything we can to make sure you're safe and... that creatures can visit you again."
"Hippo-griff has hooves at the back. That makes sense doesn't it Sij" Lakeshine said, nuzzling her toy's nose again. "Sij is really scared of the goblins but I told him they can't get us in the bubble. I like the bubble but sometimes the goblins come when I'm really tired and then it's not fun to swim there. And sometimes... I forget Sij-gill and mummy said I couldn't go back and get him... and that's why he's so scared now." The gillgirl looked on the point of tears again.
Eventually Reef gave the all clear; the fin was washed clean and Reedsalve applied her paste again. This time the effect was more dramatic; as the green glow spread over the fin, the holes and tears in the membrane slowly began to close. The two healers watched intently as the fin healed before their eyes, although it lost most of its colour in the process.
"Remarkable!" Reef exclaimed, referring to the paste rather than his own treatment. "And there we are, some bleaching but don't worry, that will grow out. I'd recommend topical alcohol for at least a week to keep the head disinfected, but otherwise... well, it seems sometimes medical science has to give magic a helping hand." he finished smugly.
"Oh praise the Skylanders, it's cured, it's really cured, it is!" Reedsalve clapped her hands for joy, before giving the hippogriff a shrewd look. "So... how much will you be wanting for this per-ox-hide?"
"Well, erm..." Reef glanced at Set Sail for guidance, but the pony seemed to be enthralled by one of the native children, and likely not listening to the conversation. "One is happy to donate that bottle to a worthy cause, of course. That said... one does have quite a few patients back in the infirmary and the expedition is running low on medical supplies so... could I convince you to part with that jar of 'undine paste'? Then perhaps... I could talk to our engineer about making enough peroxide for your whole population."
Set Sail was oblivious of any skilled negotiating Reef might be undertaking. Her attention was focused on the fish girl, who she regarded with drooping ears. "May I see Sij for a moment?" the mare asked, holding out a crooked foreleg to place the toy in.
Lakeshine stared wide eyed at the pony for a long moment, then hugged her toy tightly, before extending him towards Set Sail, her arm trembling.
The pegasus took the otter in her hoof and sat on her haunches, lifting a wing to nibble at, until with a wince she pulled out one of the smaller feathers. Combing her other hoof through her hair to draw out several loose strands, she twisted them together into a colourful little makeshift twine, which she used to tie the brown feather to the side of the otter's head. "Pegasus feathers can't do much," Set Sail said, holding out the doll for the girl, "But they are known for being able to protect otters. If he has that, then I don't think the bad goblins will be able to find him."
Lakeshine snatched her toy back. "Wow, that's amazing! I love what you made and now Sij isn't afraid no more. Uh..." the fish girl akwardly stepped close to the pegasus, looking at the floor, then put her arms around Set Sail's neck and hugged. "Thank you Set Sail Boat, thank you."
"You'd let go of this for free, you would?" Reedsalve was saying sceptically. "No it's a fair trade, so you say, old Reedy can always make more paste but we ain't got no other cure for the rot, so..." She handed over the jar. "Keeps for 'bout a year, loses potency after the first few months though. And don't go using it if you've already basted on the gobblepod saliva, 'cause that'll make a real mess o' things, so it does."
"Indeed. Do not combine with 'gobble pod saliva', I'll make a note." Reef said dubiously. "Well, please accept my thanks! I'm sure this will be of great use to the Expedition. I'll be sure to drop by and see how the treatment is going, and let you know when we can make more peroxide."
"Oh, thanks to you, mister hippo-griffon, thanks due to you." Reedsalve said, staring intently at her newly acquired brown bottle of peroxide.
For her part, Set Sail stiffened at the hug, but managed not to pull away. "No problem, Lakeshine," she said once she was free, with a smile on her muzzle, "If you'll excuse me, I think my friend might be um..." she looked over to Reef Skimmer, "...finished with his thing, and I need to check on him. You take care, okay?"
"Oh... uh, so... bye bye miss pony Set Sailboat! See you soon!" Lakeshine waved.
"Erm, are you ok down there Captain? Shall we go check on Nutmeg?" Reef asked.
"Yup, I'm just fine," Set Sail said as she trotted up to Reef's side, "That sounds like a good idea. Better make sure she isn't setting fire to the uh... heh heh," Set Sail's attempt at humour sputtered to a halt, and she just meekly added, "Better see if she and Gearshift need anything from us."
Deep in the abandoned factory, surrounded by corroding machinery freshly traumatised by the ill-advised production run and efforts of the magical waste creatures, sat an exhausted purple pegasus. A few paces away stood a golem: a hollow steel shell in the form of a giant humanoid, animated by magical energy but currently standing motionless. Its steel hands held a crate filled with 23 bottles and one empty space.
The missing bottle lay empty on the floor, next to its discarded cap, the clear bubbly fluid inside just drained by Cloud Cutter. As she licked her lips and appreciated the zesty tang of citrus and lime, she didn't notice her body becoming more and more translucent. Within a minute the undead pegasus had vanished completely from mortal sight.
A little way outside the factory gates, Melonwater and Summer Scribe sat together in the broken down cart, which had finally splintered and crashed to a halt. The green earth stallion was shaking and breathing heavily, not eager to move any time soon. Just above, Azure Feather fluttered on butterfly wings.
Summer huddled close to Melonwater; she was coming down from the stress and excitement, herself and welcomed the closeness. In any case, comforting Melonwater seems the right thing to do. "Huff... That was a lot more tense than I expected! Not every day your archaeological findings create magical accidents in real time!"
"My archaeological findings don't create magical disasters..." he muttered, before shaking his head, trying to regain his composure. He looked up at Azure, then back at the gates. "Uh... where's Cloud Cutter? Is... is she ok?!"
Azure just shook her head, finally able to concentrate, after the renewed headache from firing off magic had receded to a dull ache. "Yeah, I've definitely been through calmer missions than this..." she muttered, before addressing the stallion's question. "Cloud Cutter? No idea where she went, though that flash should've cleared out the enemies... I'll go and look." Casting spells was a painful prospect, but flying? She welcomed the opportunity, as she flapped off to start a quick search - though a couple of minutes later it turned out to be unnecessary.
"I'm fine thank you very much," Cloud Cutter's voice said, right beside Melonwater. "That was a total disaster," she groaned, "At least we came out of it with something though. That soda didn't taste half bad, even if I don't get hungry anymore. I'm sure it's fine. Is everypony alright? Those golems took care of the last of those wormy things. You're welcome, by the way!" The cart moved a bit as if lifted by an invisible hoof, then dropped back down as Cloud Cutter's voice hisses to herself, "Atch... didn't think I even could get hurt anymore."
Melonwater leapt to his hooves and looked around wildly. "What? Where... Cloud Cutter? Is that you?" he yelped. Then he smiled with relief as he looked at Summer: "Oh right it's some sort of communication spell isn't it? You can hear her right?"
"Who else would it be?" Cloud Cutter asked in confusion, "I don't see any other weird purple ponies around here."
Wah! "A ghost!" Summer Scribe exclaimed! "...A ghost that sounds like Cloud Cutter?" She steadied herself in confusion, blinking, turning towards Cloud Cutter's voice and approaching... and bumping into Cloud Cutter! "Ack! Sorry, I didn't expect you to be tangible there!"
At Summer's inadvertent shoulder-barge the ghostly translucent image of the purple pegasus appeared for a few seconds, before fading into invisibility again. The unicorn gawked: "How'd you turn invisible? New spooky power, Cloud Cutter?"
"Tangible?! What are you...?" Summer briefly felt the chilling touch of Cloud's hoof pressed against her shoulder, before the pegasus shrieked "Aaah! My hoof!" A rush of wind and flapping wings, then she declared from somewhat higher up in the air: "Aaah, my everything! Why am I invisible?!"
Summer Scribe nuzzled at her shoulder for a moment; it really did feel like a brush with the void. Spooky! "Brrr! Wow, um... I don't know! Why ARE you invisible!" she yelled up to Cloud Cutter!
"I don't know! I can't do this! Can I do this?!" the panicking pegasus declared, flapping around erratically over the pair, her voice coming seeming to come out of thin air.
"Hang on! Just calm down! Being invisible isn't the worst thing in the world." Summer Scribe waved a hoof! "Slow down and try and recall everything you did recently!"
"Are you, uh, okay?" Melonwater added, staring up into the sky in what he hoped was the right direction. "We can't see if you're hurt or not." He shudders again. "It was like five kind of crazy in there. But it's all shut down now though, right, no more worms?" he asks.
By this time Azure Feather had completed her quick sweep of the main building and surrounding yards. "Well, bad news, everypony... haven't found Cloud Cutter, but what I did find... was a lot of cola bottles." she said, flying down to rejoin her squad. "And I mean a lot... could have drinks for the entire crew of the Harmony and then some, but finding Cloud Cutter is priority one..." Somepony truly had no idea...
Summer shook her head. "It's fine! Cloud Cutter's right here." She gestured with a hoof at the open sky! "She's just invisible right now, and we're trying to figure out why. You said you found cola?" What a relief: she'd hate for the fruits of their labours to have been lost!
"Okay, I... w-woah!" not realising the implications, Cloud Cutter didn't think to get out of the way, before Azure collided with her right in mid air to the sound of two coconuts, the pair going down in a tangle of wings and unfortunately popping butterfly wings. Cloud Cutter was briefly visible as she landed prone on her back, or maybe that was just her form displacing the dust kicked up by their landing. Summer winced; too late.
Azure found herself dazed and grounded, blinked in confusion... she'd definitely heard the all-too familiar pop of her wings disappearing, and her magical burnout meant that there was no recasting that one any time soon. Lesson learned: don't cast the spell on crazy ponies you've never teamed up with before, she thought. She slowly climbed back to her hooves and stood quietly, trying to regain her senses and understand what had happened to the pegasus.
Melonwater jumped out of the remains of the cart and trotted over to Azure, checking her over with a concerned look. "Oh no, Azure, not you too! I'm sorry, I didn't see... I should've warned you. You're not bleeding... does anything feel broken?"
Azure looked startled by the attention, before shaking her head. "It'll take a lot more than just a mid-air collision by mistake to cause an actual injury..."
"Sorry, sorry!" Cloud Cutter repeated, backing up until her butt thumped invisibly against the wrecked cart the others were inexplicably gathered around.
"Relax." Azure told her. "Nopony would expect that. It happens." She did a quick trot around the cart to reassure everypony that she wasn't seriously hurt.
"I didn't do anything, other than... than that thing I do." Cloud Cutter mused. "Maybe I did it too hard? Maybe it happens when I'm injured? The golems saw me just fine though, when they gave me a free sample of their stupid soda. Maybe I'm only visible to golems!"
Summer Scribe's first thought was also to check Azure, making sure she took the fall ok and assessing if she needed medical attention. Reassured that the unicorn was intact, she perked an ear, and ruminates on Cloud Cutter's words. "HmMMmm... You said you took a free sample of their 'stupid soda'?"
"I... yes, but it was... just... soda..." Cloud Cutter's barest outline became visible as the purple pegasus smacked her forehead with her own hoof, before she became invisible again. "Celestia, I'm an idiot."
With that Summer Scribe was galloping off, re-entering the factory and searching for intact bottles of cola. Each of the three intact vats has a pair of hoppers near it, filled with a small pile of glass bottles. The six hoppers each contained a different colour of mysterious carbonated beverage. Unfortunately the three century old labels are too decayed to read, so the unicorn touched her horn to them, closing her eyes and sending out a gentle pulse of detection.
Sure enough, she was able to feel magical energy of some kind in each of the bottles, slightly different for each colour. By the time she'd checked all of them, Cloud Cutter had begun to fade back into visibility. The whole time the remaining golems watched impassively, while Melonwater trotted nervously behind, unhappy to be back inside but unwilling to be left on his own.
Cloud Cutter had remained outside, for reasons that became progressively more obvious as she slowly began to return into view, just a transparent image of her normally visible self. She was favouring one hoof, with the foreleg kind of stuck at an odd angle. Her purple fur had been eaten away in patches around her torso as if consumed by some sort of neon blue acid. Though she didn't have any visible contusions, it was pretty safe to say that if her heart still beat normally, she probably would. The pegasus seemed remarkably unfazed by her condition.
Summer Scribe trotted back out, looking impressed! "Yep: this isn't just tasty cola, it's magicalcola. Different spellwork for each flavour, too!" She drummed her hooves in anticipation. "That means we'll have to experiment and try them all. What if one of them gives you flight or lasers? Think about how much of an edge we'd have!" Her excitement diminished somewhat as she caught sight of Cloud Cutter, wincing at her companion's ragged appearance. "...Reef Skimmer's taking a look at you as soon as we meet up." she resolved.
Azure was also inspecting her companion's condition, now that the pegasus was visible. She sighed and shook her head: these injures would likely put Cloud Cutter in the sickbay for some time. "That doesn't look too good; we need to get you back to the ship. With one exhausted and another injured... no more ventures into unknown territory, not today. We ought to bring back a few of these bottles, though. I'm... curious as to the effects myself. " she admitted.
"I think my shoulder's dislocated," Cloud Cutter said neutrally, "It doesn't hurt like it, but I think that's just me. Has anypony here set a dislocated shoulder before? I'm not sure Reef wants to... try to fix me at all. If I even can heal anymore."
Summer Scribe rubbed the back of her head. Much as she would have liked to wave her horn and fix Cloud Cutter's problems, magic like that was beyond her. "Anyway..." she started in to space, thinking back... "We were going to meet back at the magic bubble after this, right?" She gave the factory once last look; it seemed they were done here. "Should we set off?"
Cloud Cutter shrugged, then winced at the pain of the gesture. "I can fly," she said, "The doctor's going to be over there anyway. I should have known; those worms were tearing those golems apart..."
"Uh, that should be safe... right?" Melonwater asked nervously. "Isn't that where the fish creatures hide from the drow? But you said... no more exploration... maybe we should just wait back at the ship..."
Azure looked from the earth pony to the pegasus before saying "It's your call, Cloud Cutter... but even if the bubble is safe, the route down there is unknown territory." She nodded in agreement with Melonwater: "Staying with the ship is less risky. Though I'll like to load up some of that soda before we leave..."
"It's fine, I can wait there," Cloud Cutter said evenly, looking at her arm, "Maybe there's somepony back at base who can do something about this. Sorry I can't be of much further help."
"Hmm, yeah... we'll come with you, we can unload the bottles at the ship as well." Summer added. "It's important stuff to analyse, I agree, and no sense lugging it up and down the cliffs."
"Do you need me to—" Cloud Cutter moved to help, but then stopped and looked at her foreleg again. "...right, I'll be at the ship," she said, flat eared, "I'd walk with you, Melonwater, but... yeah." Then the pegasus made use of her functional limbs, to flap up into the sky above, then glide silently through the air in the direction of the commandeered drow copter.
Summer Scribe, Melonwater and the currently flightless Azure Feather all loaded up their saddlebags with as many of the mysterious bottles as they could carry, before trotting back down the causeway to the Second Chance, still parked at the abandoned air dock. There they left the young earth pony to stow their carbonated loot and keep the injured pegasus company. The two unicorn mares made their way on hoof to the southern path, which snaked its way down the cliffs towards the lower half of the island.
Elsewhere in the island chain, a mismatched quartet of creatures were back in the air again. Reef Skimmer the hippogriff pulled a cart holding Nutmeg Inferno the kirin, Gearshift the earth pony and a substantial pile of tools, while the pegasus Set Sail flapped along beside them. Despite the aborted attempt to repair the turret, they'd had a productive morning; Nutmeg had fixed a generator, a steamship engine and (despite no one asking her to) adjusted the tavern owner's still to produce even stronger moonshine. Reef had confirmed his cure for fin rot and acquired a jar of mysterious green healing goo, while Set Sail had overcome her fear of bipeds sufficiently to ferret out a little more information about the surrounding region.
Of course Gearshift had helped too! Though Nutmeg was a lot more... enthusiastic in suggesting additional improvements to make. 'Lady, that's how you get scope creep!' he thought.
"I'm telling you it's fine, probably even less likely to explode than before," Nutmeg said to Gearshift a little too casually, "They'll probably thank me for it when they turn out their next batch. You ponies get waay too uptight about alcohol."
Gearshift mumbled under his breath at that. Alcohol was how you made mistakes! Lose your inhibitions! But, whatever. Nutmeg had heard that conversation a dozen times by now: it wasn't worth his breath any more. "Well, I'm glad you got the explosion chance differential to be negative." he smirked.
"Oh, on the subject of ponies and alcohol, we are in accord." Reef said, looking over his shoulder at Nutmeg. "Though I can't say I appreciated the aftertaste, prefer something a little smoother myself. In any case, things went swimmingly on the medical front, I do believe we have an effective treatment for their 'fin rot'. And this herbal paste of theirs... well, I must say even if it is unknown magic, it does look like marvellous stuff, one is optimistic that it will accelerate Grenelda's recovery. Now if only we had a way to make more hydrogen peroxide..."
"I don't know how they make that stuff, to be honest," Nutmeg said thoughtfully, flumping against the windward side of the cart, closest to the hippogriff. "It's got to be some kind of alkaline thingy. Well, it's probably not something you can make in your kitchen, so whatever equipment it takes is going to be way beyond our ability to build out here."
Reef sighed. "Maybe these 'dirt sharks' know how, if they truly have some level of industrial infrastructure. Though even if they do, it sounds like it wouldn't come cheap."
"This place does have airships" Gearshift noted, "so it's just a matter of time before we discover their industrial base."
"Now there's something to look forward to," Nutmeg agreed heartily.
"All we have is one young gillman's word that these sharks are bad at all," Set Sail insisted, forelegs folded crossly, "He probably just doesn't know how hard their job is."
"Let's hope so..." Nutmeg agreed, though her expression was not optimistic.
The flight continued across the airy void in the centre of the island group, descending towards the lower end of the third island. There lay the enormous, shimmering, magical bubble, a little way from the shore of a lake where the river pooled and collected, after cascading down the numerous rapids and waterfalls in the central part of the island.
Reef Skimmer flew low over the lake, always eager to get a look at whatever aquatic life might be lurking beneath the waters, before reaching a boat dock built on the shore. While still worn and scarred it was solid and showed signs of recent use, though no vessels were present just then. Beyond the dock a short causeway ran between the ruins of small stone buildings, ending at a huge archway set into the wall of the bubble itself.
On the other side of the barrier the shifting, distorted forms of more buildings and elevated, aqueduct-like constructions could be seen. Reef easily landed the cart on the wide, cobbled road and trotted to a halt, a little way from the gateway. Close up the archway appeared as two curved pillars of ornately carved stone, inlaid with silvery metal that glowed with a soft blue light. The space between was blocked by an enormous circular metal disc, the size of the main gates at Canterlot, coloured blue and adorned with a huge white symbol resembling a water drop.
"Well that's... definitely a water droplet," Set Sail said, landing before the others in front of the disc and looking up at the gigantic and ostentatious thing.
"Huh, so this is what one looks like intact..." Nutmeg said, intrigued by the details and perching on the cart to gaze at the gate while Reef brought the rest of them in for a landing.
The hippogriff stared at the symbol as if entranced. Ignoring everything else, including the cart he was still hitched to, he trots slowly forward, reaching out with a claw towards the gate, eager to touch it... As the griff approached, jets of water started spraying out of the pillars, falling to each side of the entrance. He paid them no heed.
"Hmm, that symbol looks familiar..." Gearshift blinked as the water began to blast out. "Oh, it probably just means 'Water' in Cloudbreak-Islandese." Insensitive!
"You sure you want to get close to that thing, Reef?" Nutmeg asked a little nervously, "Looks like it's doing something."
The hippogriff didn't seem to hear her. A soft chiming sound could be heard as his claw approached the gate, while his pearl amulet started to shine with blue light. As soon as his talons touched the metal, it began to glow brighter and brighter, briefly turning brilliant white before fading away into nothingness.
Gearshift nodded in agreement. "It's folly to interact with an unknown device until it's fully described and understood... Reef? Oh." The stallion blinked again; what just happened exactly? "Well then. What kind of a place is this...?"
The barrier was gone, revealing that the road continued on into the interior. Beyond the gate everything was pristine and spotless, smooth grey flagstones flanked by rows of plants in elaborate carved marble pots. A variety of low stone buildings can be seen, looking like food stalls or rest areas, all completely deserted.
Reef gave a little squawk, then shook his head. "Erm, what just happened..." He looked back at the others "Oh, I... err... do apologise. I believe I sort of... lost my composure a little there. It just seemed like... the right thing to do." he finished sheepishly.
"Aaaand that's what they look like unintact. Great," Nutmeg grumbled, looking at the support struts with vague pouting interest, wondering if aligning the pillars on the broken gate at Blissful Pastures would do anything.
Reef trotted through the gateway, cart still in tow, and proceeds down the avenue of richly decorative buildings. Past the entrance area, the space opens out to reveal a wide array of pools, fountains, showers and waterfalls, all fringed with decorative plants and rest areas. Here was a bubbling hot tub, there was a lazy river with empty inner tubes endlessly circling.
Rising above it all were the snaking, colourful aqueducts on their tall support columns, something Gearshift and Set Sail easily recognised as water slides, though Reef Skimmer and Nutmeg had never had the pleasure of visiting an Equestrian water park. All of it was pristine, functional and apparently deserted.
Gearshift leapt down from the cart and followed behind; he hesitated on the threshold, but nothing was immediately falling down or blowing up. (What was up with that gate, though?) He peered up at the slides, "Hmm, a water-park, here? Guess some things are universal after all." He chuckled with amusement. "Well, I don't know; should we be taking a break right now? I imagine that's all a place like this is good for."
Nutmeg waited until they were inside then sprang out, wandering off on her own and looking up and around in puzzlement and wonder. "What are all those half-pipes up there for?" she asked uncertainly, "Doesn't seem a very efficient way to pipe water around. Looks like the water's just pouring out of that one?"
Gearshift took the opportunity to explain: "No, no, it's not like an aqueduct: it produces amusement." He gestured with a hoof, "See, the water propels you along the ride, and you experience fun."
Realization dawning, Nutmeg said, "Ohh, they're waterslides! Of course! They made artificial waterslides!" She runs up to one of the support structures, half climbing up it to gaze overhead, "These are a ton of fun. We should totally try it. But uh... why's this place enclosed in an impenetrable force field?"
Gearshift shrugged at that then grinned, "Beats me... But any ride you go on, I'm going on too."
Reef Skimmer unhitched himself from the cart and parked it under some palm trees. "Water... slides? Really? Hmm... it's all rather wonderful isn't it?" he said warmly. "Just feels so... invigorating in here. One supposes it must be the magic, but... one can hardly argue with the results. Perhaps the ancestors of the gillmen made all this, a sort of paradise for them? I'm sure not a few griffs would love to spend some time here too." he said, looking around happily with his beak hanging open. "What do you think Sails, like it?"
"I think it's lovely!" Set Sails declared, immediately flying up to look into the chutes full of rushing water, "I always wanted to go to one of these as a filly. Do you think we can ride any of them? I mean, would that be alright?"
Reef flew up to Set Sail and gestured at himself with a claw. "As the senior, erm, water-aligned magical creature on the scene, I hereby authorise unlimited free usage of this facility..." he said stuffily "...just as soon as I have performed an official safety test on the attractions!" he finished playfully. With that he flapped away up to the top of one of the slides and dove in, slooshing down the chute to splash out into one of the pools a minute later.
Nutmeg spent the next hour or so trying to figure out how they work of course, and then tried to find a way to get to the top. She was the first after Reef to try one of the slides, even though both he and Set Sail have cheating wings, because when she got up there, shortly followed by Gearshift, she found Set Sail still standing at the chutes, fraught with indecision.
The wise, experienced (with waterslides) kirin assured the pegasus mare that it was totally safe, then jumped down one of the slides to demonstrate. Kersplash! The kirin reached the bottom with a whoop, doggy paddling to the shore, shortly followed by a shrieking Set Sails and a slightly less shrieking Gearshift. So the hour passed, as Summer and Azure made their way to the bubble, a few ponies less and lot more harried than the revellers within.
The two ponies and one kirin were laughing and splashing each other in the shallows of the largest pool, when a large, predatory shape began to approach, silently swimming beneath the water. Gearshift's mouth opened wide as the sleek, grey creature came up behind the two oblivious mares.
He began to cry out in alarm, but instead of chowing down on the tasty mortals the huge fish creature surged forward and shot out of the water, drenching the three equines. In a flash Reef had turned back into a hippogriff and was chuckling merrily. "Oh, the look on your face!" he said to Gearshift. "So, anyone want to try it? Being a seapony I mean. You nearly had it last time, Nutmeg."
Gearshift gave a gasp of exasperation... and then giggled himself silly once he realised he'd been pranked. "Oh, good one! You know, it does seem like the perfect opportunity to try it: we're already messing about, may as well seize the moment!"
"Heck yeah!" Nutmeg declared, clumsily paddling over from the side, "You guys gotta try it! It's totally radical!"
Set Sail tilted her head in confusion, staying with a hoof on the edge of the pool, saying, "Try what? We're not hippogriffs. You're the only one with that magical ...pendant thing, Reef, in case you didn't notice."
By way of explanation, Reef put a claw on each of Nutmeg and Gearshift's flanks and activated the transformation. Another brief display of swirling white ribbons of magic, and the three had become seaponies; Nutmeg once again with the elongated tail and vertically aligned tail fin. Gearshift perked and looks over himself, his mertail slapping and flipping around as he admires it. "Hey, not bad! Need to study the physiology and locomotion of this... err, ahem, I mean, go on some rides."
"Wah!" Nutmeg yelped in surprise, splashing backwards and vanishing underwater, before sort of wiggling her way back to the surface, the long slinky creature taking in a breath and saying through dripping fluffyish fronds, "Oh right! Get ready if you start breathing water! It's kind of crazy weird."
"Breathing water? Oh, yeah, of course..." Gearshift said, before diving underwater with a 'sploosh'. A few seconds later he breached the surface with cheeks full of water and a mirthful chuckle. "What a way to relax! Can't believe I never tried this before."
"B-breathing water? You can... I mean of course you could, I mean... could I... maybe just a little, Reef?" Set Sail asked with big hopeful, plaintive eyes.
Meanwhile Nutmeg was swimming literal circles around Gearshift: she was just long enough to encircle him entirely. Gearshift smirked at Nutmeg's enthusiasm! "I won't let you get the upper hand on me so easily!" he said, pumping his tail to try and keep pace.
Reef shifted back to hippogriff form and swam smoothly over to Set Sail, not making a splash this time. Looking her in the eyes, he said "I understand most ponies get the hang of it quite quickly... and have no fear, I'll keep a close eye and if you run into any difficulties, I'll have you out again and changed back in a jiffy? Isn't that right Nutmeg?" he said, giving the sea-kirin a playful grin, before extending a claw to take Set Sail's hoof.
Set Sail did so with very little hesitation, but with a blush in her cheeks, as she gazed into his eyes and asked, "Would you kindly?"
The golden-white magic returned, wrapping around the hippogriff and pegasus then dissipating to reveal a large grey seapony and a much smaller brown one, both with a pair of big dorsal fins. The smaller had an adipose fin on her tail bearing her cutie mark of three hot air balloons. "Enchanting!" Reef exclaimed. "I mean, erm, that is to say, Captain... perhaps... you'd care to visit Seaquestria, if and when we make it back to Equestria?"
"Oh, oh my," Set Sail said, herself looking over: she was eerily similar to Reef now. "These are... scales! Fur gets waterlogged! Oh Reef, I never even realised— woah!" and then her moment of amazement was lost, as with a great stroke of her tail fin she lost her balance, flopping into the water entirely.
It was an exciting trek down the crumbling cliffside path, featuring several close calls that made Azure wonder if she'd really fall unconscious if she cast the butterfly wings spell again (and if that was preferable to regular falling). She stayed quiet, sorely missing the option to defy gravity. Though given the circumstances of the day, she thought, they were doing well to be alive and moving at all.
Finally, the two unicorn mares made it to the entrance to the bubble. There was no sign of their companions, but the way inside seemed open, with a clear gap in the force field between the huge ornate pillars, still spraying water out to each side. Azure eyed the huge water jets cautiously... they didn't seem to be lethal, but it was probably best to steer clear. What were they for? Why was the gate wide open? Were the fish-creatures inside?
Summer Scribe studied the entrance. "Through here? I presume this water spraying isn't some kind of security mechanism..." She levitated a rock through to make sure it didn't get vaporised... nope. Tried to detect magic... didn't seem to be any anti-organic countermeasures. Reassured, she headed straight in; Azure followed some way behind.
Summer trotted through the entrance area, taking note of the elaborate carvings, well-tended foliage, the numerous empty buildings that could've come from a high-end theme park, and the weirdly pristine quality of everything, as if the place was due to open tomorrow. Eventually they emerged into the main part of the park, a vista of swimming pools, tasteful marble decorations and spraying, rushing, plunging water of every kind. "What kind of a facility is this?" she wondered out loud. "It's almost like it's a...?"
Azure was more interested in possible inhabitants, staying alert for signs of danger... there, was that... no, it was just a statue. A huge, brass statue of two strange creatures: something like a cross between a troll and an octopus, with tentacles for arms and legs, facing off against an enormous ugly blob, like a giant slug with arms. The smaller creature bore a sword and a miniature cousin of Abernathy's shot-gun, while the larger creature threatened to consume it with its gaping maw.
"Oh wow!" Summer exclaimed. "I think that's... I'm sure I saw that one on the shrine, in the ruin this morning! Do you think he's a Skylander? Look at that big blob thing he's fighting. Sure hope we don't meet one of..." her voice trailed off as she caught sight of movement out in the main pool.
There was Gearshift, only his head visible, with something... else under the water next to him, something brown and long and bedecked with fins. As Azure was trying to make that out there was a whoop and a scream as a pair of seaponies shot out of one of the water slides, a big grey one that Summer recognised as Reef Skimmer's alternate form (from her brief glimpse on their last visit) and a smaller brown one, both splashing into the pool before laughing and swimming towards Gearshift.
Summed perked up as she saw the happy commotion! It looked like her a weird, fishy version of her friends, but they seemed to be... having fun? There was Reef Skimmer... oh, he must have used his magic pearl! Wait a sec! "This... really is a water park!" she gasped, giggling and racing over to greet the others!
A water park? Azure chuckled quietly to herself as she followed Summer again, shaking her head. This was something she didn't expect... a chance at relaxing right in the middle of a mission, of all things. But all this felt way too... welcoming, in a foreign land... and that statue of creatures locked in mortal combat had definitely put her on edge. She was too busy worrying if anything like that was still around to climb onto some water slides... not to mention that headache still filling her skull. How would she fight back if something actually did attack?
Summer Scribe cantered forward into the shallows of the pool, but before she could call out she felt something through her hooves: a deep rumbling vibration. Around her the numerous fountains grew taller and taller, reaching high into the sky before starting to splutter and die, their water supply suddenly choked off. Strangely the sound of rushing water only grew louder. The two unicorns shuddered with a sudden foreboding feeling, as if the other horseshoe was about to drop.
Then with a sudden pfft and spurt of water, a bright blue ropey shape spurted out of one of the fountains, arcing through the air before landing with a splat on the poolside. The wormlike creature, or should we say agglomeration of magical waste, was stunned for a few seconds before pulling itself together and beginning to slither towards the ponies. More of its fellows began to blast out of the other fountains.
"Are you kidding me?!" Summer Scribe yelled in exasperation. She had to warn her friends; they probably had no idea how dangerous these things were, though the look on Azure's face should help sell it! "We gotta run! These magical slime worms track us by noise and they want us for dinner!"
Deep in the pool, Reef Skimmer and Set Sail broke off their conversation to smile at the newcomers. "Summer! Azure! Glad you could make it!" Reef shouted back. "It's really quite delightful in... erm, sorry what? Magical slime?" Behind him a whole mass of the wriggling blue creatures shot out of the waterslide to spash in the pool, startling Set Sail; more of them kept flying out of the other slides as the horrified unicorns watched.
'These things again!' Azure thought... and this time there were no helpful golems, not to mention her lack of wings! "Listen to summer," she shouted, "We just fought a bunch of these and even with some assistance, we barely made it out!" The renewed stress wasn't doing her headache any favours either; getting out without injuries would be even harder this time...
"They're in the pool! Get out of the water now!" Summer Scribe shouted in exasperation, stomping her hooves into the shallows and kicking up splashes. "Ask questions once we're safe!"
"Whatever you do, don't touch them!" Azure added. "They wrecked the magical constructs, and they can wreck you too!"
Nutmeg had surfaced to look around in concern when the whole pool began to rumble, so at least she heard Summer's warning. "Wha—?!" she started to shout, before slapping her foreleg fins over her mouth, and looking wide-eyed over at the wiggly goo-worms. The things were huge!
Gearshift gawked at the creatures, then shouted "Nutmeg, we need to run!" He beat his fish tail in a panic, not making much progress.
Nutmeg frantically tried to shush him, but she couldn't stop him from flailing around and attracting a bunch of unwanted attention. Instead she beckoned him to follow and tried to silently slink her way to the edge of the pool; if she could heave herself out, Reef could always shift her back later. Unfortunately he either didn't pick up on it, or was too panicked to realize how much noise he was making; the worms already had a bead on him...
Set Sail had no idea what to do or how to get out of the water or anything. She just got this fish tail! All she could do was try and cling to Reef Skimmer, hyperventilating, her mind racing to try and figure out what to do.
One of the worms had nearly reached the struggling Set Sail; Reef thrashed his body and smacked it away with his tail. The thing sailing through the air in a high arc, until it splatted against a rock wall, stunned. The griff hooked one fin around Set Sail and tried to swim over to Nutmeg and Gearshift, intending to transform the four of them back to their normal forms in one shot. Unfortunately before he could reach the others, another of the worms wrapped itself around Set Sail's tail fin, yanking her out of his grip. Reef was forced to about face and go on the offensive, easily grabbing it in his serrated jaws... only to cry out as stinging pain filled his mouth.
With her magic depleted, Azure could only stare in horror as the worms closed in on Set Sail, then Gearshift. She'd seen the kind of damage the creatures could do... and now all she could do was stare, shake her head... and hope her crewmates could make it out in time.
Gearshift turned his head to see the mess of worm closing in... and Reef turning away, no doubt to protect the captain. He gritted his teeth and positioned himself between them and Nutmeg, hoping to protect the kirin from the onslaught. The unnatural worms piled on, completely hiding the transformed stallion under a mass of writhing blue bodies.
Nutmeg stiffened as her companion vanished below the surface, swearing under her breath, "Dammit, Gearshift, no...." Then she dove underwater, leaving her stronger expletives unheard as her red-finned, golden-backed form streaked away from the edge, directly towards her destruction. She couldn't just leave him to be consumed by these horrible things!
Reef Skimmer managed to swim away from the worms, watching helplessly as the things piled onto Gearshift and Set Sail. There was no way he could pull all the wriggling things off both of them before they consumed his friends, and no doubt Nutmeg would be next. They were going to die and it was clearly his fault; if only he hadn't been so cavalier about coming into this nexus of alien magic, if only he hadn't wanted to show off his own little party trick, then they'd still be ponies able to gallop clear of this nightmare, not morsels for Novo-knows-what the creatures were. Desperately he closed his eyes and tried to think of something, anything he could do to save them.
Nutmeg had made it to Gearshift and tried to free him from the knot of worms, screaming as her forelegs burned with pain, as if the things were covered in acid. Gritting her teeth she tried to pry it away from the stallion, despite the pain, but another grabbed her tail. She was gonna be damned if she let it end like this, but against these monstrosities, how would she have stood a chance even on four legs? Her body dragged the worm along with it, wrapping around Gearshift too, something in her utterly unwilling to let these bucking things win.
Then in a rush of sudden horrible wonderful sensation, inky black lightning exploded all around her, hitting the entire cluster of worms, and... Gearshift. Not knowing what happened in that terrible moment, not knowing what she did, but knowing what it felt like, Nutmeg took advantage of their freedom as the worms disintegrated, to drag his limp form through the water to the edge, heaving the slightly charred looking seapony Gearshift out, and climbing out after him, dragging her whole long, weird body and tail all the way out of the water, just in case. She sat there helplessly on the side of the pool holding Gearshift's head in her forelegs murmuring, "Oh no, no no no come on..."
At the other end of the pool, Set Sail was suffering pain like she'd never experienced before. Those lovely scales Reef gave her were being cruelly eaten away by the worms, which were worsening the damage by crushing her like a vice. She couldn't even scream anymore, tears in her eyes as she reached for Reef, trying not to pass out!
The hippogriff's eyes snapped open; they were glowing bright blue, along with his pearl amulet, shining so brightly as to light up the entire pool with sapphire radiance. Beyond rational thought now, acting on some foreign instinct that had implanted itself in his mind, Reef threw his fins out wide, releasing a shining sphere of energy from his body.
Steam hissed and boiled from the now white-hot fragment of pearl around his neck, as the insubstantial golden sphere rushed outward, quickly growing to a size that encompassed the entire pool and much of the water park. In its wake every remaining worm was blasted away from the ponies and held squirming in a magical grip, while fins and scales dissolved away, leaving the ponies (and kirin) in their natural form again.
For three seconds of unnatural silence everything hung like that, every object outlined in a golden aura and lit by the coruscating blue glow emanating from the unseen hippogriff, before the magical sphere began to contract, rushing inwards and collapsing as fast as it had appeared. The gooey worms were sucked in with it, each and every drop of slime shooting towards Reef, splashing into the water and disappearing into the blue glow.
Then the magic was gone and all the worms with them. As for the hippogriff... something was floating down there at the bottom of the pool, something large, squirming in panic and fear.
Summer Scribe gawked at the scene. It felt like she was frozen, unable to do anything to intervene: first Nutmeg unleashed a blast of electricity into all of the worms, and then Reef Skimmer just... obliterated them with that magical artifact of his. So far so good... but clearly something happened to the doctor after that. She tried to get a closer look and suss it out. "Everyone still with us...? Reef? Hello?" She squints at the bottom of the pool.
With immense relief, Set Sail breathed the air she was born to breathe, staring forward with a distant expression, too close to the phenomenon to have any idea what had happened. Her brown fur was quickly growing waterlogged, as she just paddled there, wings unconsciously spreading to help keep her afloat.
The incredible display of magic from Reef Skimmer had Azure quietly wondering in the end if every creature would be alright. The worms were destroyed. Everyone that had been caught was free. But as if echoing Summer's worries, she's at the edge of the pool as well, looking down... before looking to Summer. "Should we get down there to rescue him?"
Nutmeg wasn't even looking until this golden light just yanked her tail up short and ropey again and restored her frondlike fins to their proper glorious floof. Gearshift was still lying there though, now a pony with his head cupped in her hooves. "S-see?" she said quaveringly, "The doctor'll... fix you up good. I didn't know it would do that. C'mon Gearshift, wake up!"
The creature that managed to struggle up to the surface and flop down in the shallows had Reef Skimmer's head, even if it did have fins now in the place of ear tufts. It had the hippogriffs abdomen as well, and his hindquarters, even if the later were now partly scaly. Unfortunately those three pieces looked like they'd been sliced apart, and strung back together by four of the wriggling worm creatures. His lower legs, claws and tail were gone as well, replaced by bunches of blue tentacles that twitched and thrashed in an uncoordinated manner.
The pearl amulet he'd bourn proudly around his neck was gone, though the smaller pearls it had been strung with were still present, now attached to spines on his head. Reef's expression showed total confusion giving way to horror. "What happened? What am I? Oh Novo, it can't be, what in the cruel dark seas is all this?" he sobbed, staring around fearfully at his companions, knowing they couldn't help hating the monster he'd just become.
Staring at what emerges from the pool, Nutmeg hardly noticed Gearshift's head falling from her limp arms to clonk on the ground. "Or... maybe not," she said faintly.
Summer Scribe gawked in shock! "R...Reef! It looks like you merged with the slime worms!" She looked him over, grimacing at the pain and distress he was exhibiting. "Do you feel OK? Can you move around? See if you can take control of yourself!"
Azure wasn't immune to the shock, either. She'd seen a lot of things, but this was well beyond any magical mishap she'd experienced. It was hard not to feel his distress though: she searched for the correct words, something she could say that would help, but... she just slumped and shook her head, unable to think of anything useful that Summer hadn't already said.
Set Sail paddled up to walk in the shallows, where she cautiously approached the sobbing Reef, touching his... middle part with a hoof trying not to touch any of those blue tentacles that hurt so much when she last did. "You're a... you're a freak," she said frankly, "But you're okay aren't you? You uh... got all those worms under control." She stood up straighter next to Reef, looking around and declaring, "Now does somepony want to tell me what the hay those things were?"
The worm-like abominations were the product of a magical-industrial accident three centuries past, the toxic blue slime lying dormant in the ancient factory's vats until its ill-fated reactivation earlier that day. Now at last the threat had been laid to rest; calm returned to the strange water park, nestled in its dome of magic, still pristine and tidy despite the terror of moments ago. The only motion came from the pleasant babble of the fountains and the sloosh of water streaming from the slides.
Returning to a semblance of normality would not be so easy for the six creatures near the shallows of the central pool. The little unicorn mare, Summer Scribe, had the task of explaining how she had inadvertently released the worms, then how her group had fought to contain them, ending in their apparent defeat via the 'emergency flush'. However, the horrible creations were not so easily destroyed: the remaining 'animate magical waste' had merely been dumped into an underground stream, which ultimately fed into the labyrinthine pipework powering the water nexus.
“In retrospect,” Summer admitted with a nervous chuckle, “That’s probably why the original owners didn’t flush them out in the first place. Not one of my better decisions!”
A brown pegasus known by the name of Set Sail, her flanks now covered in burns from the touch of the worms, could only stammer with disbelief and rising anger, as she realised that the horrific surprise had not been merely dangerous wildlife. “You... set those things loose?!”
“All I did was turn on the factory, to see if it worked!” Summer Scribe protested, “There was no way to tell it was all full of... squirmy things!”
Further discussion was precluded by Nutmeg's desperate cry for help. The kirin lay out of the water, next to a stallion whose head still lay cradled in her lap. This earth pony Nutmeg held was a terrible sight, with the fur gone from fully half his body and huge patches of skin eaten away to expose muscles and tendons underneath, lying in a pool of red-tinted water as his life blood leaked out.
“I can’t stop the bleeding!” Nutmeg called out, ignoring her own contact burns, and missing scales for the sake of her gravely injured companion, “Please, I... don’t wanna kill any pony!”
That was enough to snap a most peculiar creature out of his shock and despair, if only for the moment. Reef Skimmer forced himself to move however he could, clumsily half-slithering, half-crawling over to Gearshift's side. With wriggling blue tentacles where the hippogriff’s dextrous claws had been, he had to talk Nutmeg through the process of retrieving his saddlebags, unpacking the jar of green paste, and applying it generously to Gearshift. Nutmeg's cloven hooves shook as she did her best to follow Reef's directions, too full of adrenalin to remember her magic.
The doctor's voice stayed remarkably calm as he told the kirin not to panic, it would be fine, dressing here, bandage around there, now the patient was stabilising: see, the dermis was quickly regenerating. Acting captain Set Sail could only watch, hooves in her mouth, as the stallion's life hung in the balance. Summer Scribe rushed in to assist with her levitation, while Azure Feather took the jar and silently applied the paste to the lesser but still painful lesions on Nutmeg and Set Sail. At last the burning pain faded away and the immediate crisis was over.
“Okay everypony, let’s just...” Set Sail pressed a weary hoof to her forehead, “Let’s just get back to the copter. We need to get out of here before something... else goes wrong.”
“That’s a... very good idea,” the guardsmare Azure said, the mysterious jar of healing paste held in her horn’s glow. “Reef, are you able to fly to the dock? Doesn’t look like you want to walk.”
This prompted the discovery that Reef Skimmer had lost the ability to fly; despite his seemingly intact wings and several vigorous attempts to take off, all he achieved was whipping up spray and brief leaps that ended in him splashing back down into the water. This was enough to break the mutated creature's fragile composure and reduce him to a tangled, writhing, sobbing, pile.
“It’s hopeless!” he sobbed, “I'll never fly again. Just leave me here! There's no sense in burdening yourselves with a hideous monster." The former hippogriff had gone back to staring in horror at the squirming tentacles emerging from the stumps of his forelegs. "How could I practice medicine now; even if I could control these... things... I'd just burn anygriff I touched!”
Set Sail knew she wasn’t a very good leader, but she didn’t know how to comfort the writhing mass of sorrow Reef Skimmer had become. And there was Summer Scribe just looking blithely at Reef as if she had no idea what her actions had wrought. Hovering above the group in less than a good mood, the pegasus explained in a very curt tone: “Everypony, please. Just wait here. Don’t move anypony who’s injured. I’m going to bring the ship in close. Then we’ll... figure out how to get everyone on board.” She gave a sharp look at Reef Skimmer, as if challenging him to contest the 'everyone', but he was too busy trying to hide from his own tentacles to pay attention.
“Captain, the ship can’t take the load!” Nutmeg said anxiously, “That copter was already struggling to hold seven of us, the cart and all our equipment. If Reef can’t fly, how are we going to...?”
“It'll be fine, we just need to take two trips!” Summer said, trying to reassure everyone. “Eh-heh, just so as long as those... gill-men don’t find us here, in their sanctuary... though it's not like we broke in, right?” she concluded, rubbing a nervous hoof behind her head.
The acting captain flew off without taking any more input, leaving Nutmeg still sticking close to Gearshift, doting over him worriedly, while Azure trotted to and fro, checking each nook and cranny to make sure no worms had survived. Reef Skimmer flopping messily into the water and began to moan about how trying to rescue him would only put the entire crew in dire peril and how it would be better if he lived in the bubble forever, while Summer Scribe tried desperately, and unsuccessfully, to think of a way to make things right again.
It was a short flight up to the high plateau at the other end of the island, and Set Sail was soon gliding down to land on the deck of the Second Chance, still parked on the cracked mossy, flagstones of the abandoned wharf. “Cloud Cutter, are you here?" she asked "I need you to pilot the ship somewhere.”
The empty-eyed purple pegasus crawled out from below deck, barely making it to her hooves, delicately keeping her weight off her messed-up leg. Seeing Set Sail’s look of horror and desperation, Cloud Cutter didn’t wait for the captain to respond before explaining. “I can’t stand on this leg,” she admitted, not wanting to look at the twisted thing. “It hurts,” she said, almost as if trying to convince herself of that, “I... there were worms. Monster at the convent. It was a factory not a convent. I had to get as many worms as I could, and they—I waited too long, and they... hurt me. I’m sorry.”
Set Sail ended up having to fly the former drow copter, following Cloud Cutter’s verbal instructions. Fortunately the purple pegasus’s basic knowledge of how to fly a ship now included not leaving the throttle fully open constantly. The aircraft buzzed over to the gleaming blue water domed mystery, and shakily, but without leaving too much of a mark, settled down right in front of the entrance.
The trip had given Set Sail plenty of time to think about the peculiar blue flesh that had attached itself to various pieces of Reef’s body, and what it might do to the wooden hull of their ship. She walked into the dome, announcing briefly “Cloud Cutter's hurt, she's in no state to pilot. I'll fly the copter: I need to take Reef Skimmer first, along with anypony who can fly, in case something... happens to the ship while we’re transporting him.”
This sent Reef Skimmer into another tirade, rolling around about how terrible this was, and how his miserable life wasn't worth risking the destruction of their only working aircraft, and so on. “Reef, please!” the captain said, flying over to the distressed... whatever he was, “I need you to calm down. We’ll get you back to the ship, and then... see what we can do, alright?”
Nutmeg still had tear streaks on her cheeks when Set Sail marched in, standing up from where she’d been sitting with the recently revived Gearshift, the poor stallion still slipping in and out of consciousness. “Are you going to be okay without anyone watching the engine?” Nutmeg asked critically, still not really willing to leave Gearshift’s side, but she has to try, “If it overheats again you could—”
“Do any engineers here know how to fly?” Set Sail cut back, startling Nutmeg to blushing silence. “I’ll be careful,” Set Sail assured the kirin, trying not to take her frustration out on innocent creatures, “Cloud Cutter already told me about the throttle. I got the ship here, didn’t I?”
Nutmeg frowned at that, but had to agree.
“Just leave me here!” Reef protested again, but Set Sail was having none of it.
“We’re not leaving you behind,” she said flatly, “Get on the copter, and don’t... do anything, and we’ll get you somewhere safer than this death trap.” A pause, before she added, “That’s, uh, an order.”
“And if I destroy the copter?” Reef Skimmer asked with unprecedented insubordination, though understandable given his situation.
“We’ll leave the cart here,” Set Sail assured him, “If something happens to the ship, I can bring a few pegasi back here to get everypony else to safety. Just... try not to be... acidy?”
“I can help fly the cart,” Azure said, coming up behind Set Sail.
Turning to blink at her, Set Sail blushed saying, “Oh yeah, you have that wing spell!”
“Yeah, 'that wing spell',” Azure said unamused, “I just need a rest, then I'll be able to cast it again.”
“I’ll remember that, thanks,” Set Sail said, then hurried over to Reef, still afraid to touch him, but telling the whatchamacalit, “Well? C’mon!”
After several attempts Reef managed to pull himself up onto the foredeck. Cloud Cutter never left the ship, but Melonwater was all too hasty to leap bodily off the side the moment he saw Reef’s gooey blue tentacles squirming up over the railing. Fortunately Reef didn’t see the earth pony's horrified face, though he certainly heard the panicked girly screams coming from somewhere off the bow.
As the rotors spun up, Nutmeg stood by the ship, mane tossing wildly in the downwash. “Wait," she called up to Set Sail, "we need to check out that factory before we leave, to make sure it’s safe!”
“Just don’t let Summer Scribe touch anything!” the captain shouted down to the kirin.
“Got it! No touchy!” Nutmeg called back, giving a two finger salute (the only kind she could make) as Set Sail pulled her head back and focused on steering the strange aircraft. Thanks to Cloud Cutter’s accurate and if vaguely spooky directions, the Second Chance wobbled only a little as it rose up into the air, before skittering off across the afternoon sky.
With Gearshift vaguely mobile, Nutmeg and Summer helped walk him out of the mysterious water park, before something silly happened like the door regenerating and trapping them inside. By this point Summer was big on the whole 'helping in any way at all remotely possible' thing. They left him in one of the small, abandoned buildings near the entrance, with Melonwater to watch over him. Then the three mares made the trek up the narrow cliff path, reaching the factory and once again making use of Summer’s shiny ancient ID card to convince its golem caretakers that the kirin was also a guest.
Of course Nutmeg Inferno was eager to see the factory, and Summer Scribe was happy to show her, both eager to forget the events of the water park if only for a moment. Azure stayed with Summer though, just in case. The blue and blue unicorn understood the need for somepony to be a wet blanket, contenting herself with watching the kirin’s journey of discovery.
Soon an amazed and overjoyed Nutmeg was dashing through the pipework, springing up stairs and dancing along the catwalks, inspecting every pump and valve, though she was careful not to activate anything. She was initially entranced by the golems, though they turned out to be something of a let-down; despite appearances they were powered by inscrutable alien magics rather than technology, only one of them having any mechanics at all and that only for secondary functions. The machine shop was a delight though; surely those drills and lathes would only need a quick overhaul and lube job to work again, and oh look at all these spare pipe fittings!
The other two tired of watching Nutmeg’s childlike glee after a half hour or so, and retreated out of the main factory entirely. “C’mon,” was all Azure said in explanation, as she led Summer over to the smaller buildings and shacks still standing all around the complex. Soon the two unicorns were turning the place upside down, methodically searching through the offices and back rooms for anything of use; coinage, interesting artifacts, intact paperwork that might shed light on what had happened here. Finally, something to do that Summer Scribe was trained in!
It was sunset by the time Set Sail arrived at the factory, flying straight in and demanding to know where Summer Scribe was 'right this instant'. The nearest gear golem informed her that guests did not have access to the employee roster. It also warned her that the control room was a restricted area to guests, for some reason. The pegasus just... folded her wings and backed up from the fiery thing, until she was outside of the main building, and noticed the other two still going over the rest of the complex with a fine toothed comb.
Gearshift and Melonwater were both back on the copter by the time Summer, Azure and Set Sail managed to pry Nutmeg out of the factory and the four of them headed back down the cliffs. They carried scraps and sheaves of delicate, ancient documents held firmly in Summer’s preservation spell, not to mention saddlebags holding a fair amount of native coinage. Azure and Nutmeg followed behind levitating several crates of the magical soda, and soon enough everything was loaded onto the Second Chance. The mood was light on the second trip back; everyone was concerned for Reef Skimmer of course, but Set Sail curtly informed them that the first trip had been 'fine' and there weren’t any huge holes melted in the ship, so it seemed like he was in no imminent danger.
The flight was uneventful: Melonwater and Gearshift sat quietly at the bow, watching the night sky, while Azure kept a hoof on the aft harpoon, and down at the engineer's station, Nutmeg and Summer chattered excitedly about the implications of discovering the factory. An hour or so later, Set Sail was guiding the whirring craft over Blissful Pastures, the larger island casting a moonlight shadow over the lower landmass. She was eager to see the comforting bulk of the EAS Harmony, the great airship still moored to the distant side of the upper island.
However as she brought the copter down for a landing in the meadow, Set Sail's relief turned to horror: standing on the deck of the Equestrian ship was a tall, humanoid shape. It was that lanky, two-legged troll - Abernathy - facing off against a small group of crewponies led by the expedition's two griffons. The creature was gesturing with one hand, while in the other he hefted his devastatingly effective 'shotgun'...
'What a day!' Summer Scribe thought. One incident after another: from the monster dog to the factory, then the water park. Poor Reef...! And Gearshift! And even Cloud Cutter... Plus Azure's magic burnout and Melonwater spooked out of his wits. And to think that she set this whole chain of events into action! I mean, you accepted a certain level of risk and consequences when you broke open an archaeological site... but when it happens to someone else, you couldn't help but feel responsible!
'Well, maybe it'll all turn out OK still.' she tried to reassure herself. It was inevitable they'd poke around in the factory, so they'd have to deal with it sooner or later, right? They would find a way to fix Reef... or failing that he could figure out how to use his new body. They had the magical soda to experiment with, and with Nutmeg's eager help she should be able to figure out what the factory was doing... So it's not like today was totally fruitleeee- wait why is Abby here why does he have his shotgun out
The little unicorn followed the captian's gaze and gawked with. "Why now? Why at all?" she cried out! "What's he doing? He's not going to hurt anypony, is he?"
In a panic, Set Sail left the copter without a word, flying straight for the troll before he opened fire on somepony! Nutmeg Inferno was forced to grab the yoke in one hoof and pul the throttle closed, shouting, "Go on, I got this! Stop him, before he hurts someone!" The aircraft cruised down towards the meadow, coming in fast but with less force than its first landing.
Azure Feather shook her head, just wanting the day to end. She knew she had to be ready at all times to fight, and there was Abernathy raising hell and... she was exhausted, with no wings and minimal magic. Racing off on hoof, she was silently cursing herself the entire way as she would be very late... just hoping she wouldn't be too late to rescue any creature in danger... but why did Abernathy seem so hostile suddenly?
Summer was also wishing for a pair of wings right now, as she galloped just behind Azure. "Couldn't wait one more day, huh?" she bantered, before sighing. From the bottom of the gangplank, she couldn't see what was going on with Abby, but it was the only way onto the ship.
"Thanks Gustus, but I couldn't have done it without your help." Abernathy was saying. "Now take care, all of you, I've gotta get back- woah! Hey little ponyzandas, what's got you spooked?" he cried out, ducking and covering his head with his arms as he saw a pegasus apparently flying straight at his head, while a unicorn charged up the gangplank, horn aglow.
"Captain, great to see... hey wait... oh yeah look it's not what you think!" Gustus shouted. Next to him Grenelda screeched with alarm, looking around to see if any enemies followed the ponies in, before realising they were talking about the troll.
Hanging onto his back, Set Sail grappled with Abernathy furiously, unable to get him in a headlock because her arm is too short, but hooking a hoof under his gun arm shouting, "Everypony get to cover! I can't hold him for long!" In the background, Nutmeg managed to pull the copter up into a landing flare; it coasted to a gentle halt.
Azure wasn't quite in a talking mood, there could have been creatures in danger, allies, and she had no idea exactly what was going on... that is, until they reached the ship... and the only sounds of battle was the captain wrestling with the troll. "...Did diplomacy win out or something?" she wondered out loud as she made her way up to the deck...
"Get it off, get it off!" shouted Abernathy, dropping his shotgun, which is fortunately not loaded, and twisting and turning ineffectively.
"Captain, hey, hey now, leave him alone! He's friendly!" Gustus said, grabbing at the pegasus's flailing hooves in his claws and trying to pry her off.
Summer Scribe was close behind Azure: "No weapon sounds... but shouting. They must be in a standoff!" She raced up the gangway and leapt onto the top deck, calling out "What do you want, Abby? There's no need to shoot anypony!"
It took both griffons to extract the captain; Abernathy sat there panting for a moment before Bluebell trotted over to him and asks "I'm sorry about that sir, are you ok?"
Set Sail stared at Abernathy in shocked realization for a second, before quickly turning away and attempting to hide behind her own wings, as her face turned beet red, the mare stammering, "I-I-I didn't uh i-it's uh b-b-been a..."
By this time Nutmeg Inferno had arrived, charging up the gangplank with her oversized wrench held in her green magic's aura, shouting, "Alright, who wants some??"
Sprocket's voice rang out from near the railing, where she'd been watching the copter land. "Hey Chief! Guess the Second Chance held together then! Where's Gearsh.... hey hey hey no you missed the action, Chief, no need to swing that thing around!"
Azure seemed calm, until... "Oh, sweet Luna... not the wrench! Nutmeg, we don't need to use that!" she cried out, and as brutal as that shotgun Abernathy was using looked, she knew the wrench could be even worse!
Abernathy's face brightened when he saw the cyan unicorn. "Oh, Summer, nice to see you again!" he said, still sitting on the deck. "You missed all the excitement. Or, well..." he looked at the pegasus, hiding behind Gustus, then at the giant wrench, floating in the air in front of his face "...almost all of it."
Summer Scribe blink-blinked, the tension draining out of her as she leaned back, looking flummoxed. "You're not here to fight us? Err, ohh, nice to see you too, by the way! Sorry, it's been one of those days." She bashfully rubbed behind her head with a hoof. "So, uhh, what is up? I feel out of the loop."
Realising they weren't being invaded, Nutmeg immediately floated the wrench behind her as if to hide it, blushing sheepishly and looking around at the others. "Eheheh... so you're uh... someone friendly." she said to the troll. "Great. Didn't know we had a giant... uh... you... around."
"I am so sorry, Mister Abernathy," Set Sail cut in, rubbing her hoof into her forehead. "I just saw you had that shot-gun staff and just... it's been a long day."
"This troll saved our sodding bacon, that's what's up!" Grenelda broke in. "The drow were here. A little while after the captain dropped Cloud and that monster off. Landed down at the dock, good thing Comet Tail was picking some gear up from the second island..." she gestured with a wing at one of the crew-pegasi "...or we might not have spotted 'em in time."
"Yeah, friendly, that's me..." Abernathy said, waving the kirin and pegasus off "...it's alright, you ponyzandas must be on edge, with the drow after you and all. Did you really have to steal their copter?"
Adrenalin rush over, Summer Scribe was sagging with exhaustion. "The drow came by again?" She fell into a heap on the deck. They couldn't be in two places at once... "Well, I can't thank you enough, Abby. Sorry for jumping to conclusions... So, umm, as you can see, the drow are a REAL problem for us, and we don't know how to deal with it yet. They won't listen to reason!"
She thought for a second. "Oh... this is about the copter?" Well, taking that wasn't her decision, not that the drow were likely to make a distinction. "I think we kinda had to, after they attacked... at least we've got a better way to get around now."
"If you think they gave us a choice, you're crazy!" Grenelda said, puffing up self consciously, "They came right at us! What were we supposed to do, let them put us on their dinner plate?"
Azure Feather sat on her rump, greatly relieved that there wasn't a fight brewing after all. She nodded to Abernathy, then tilted her head at Summer's assertion. "Seemed to be the best choice at the time. Justified, I think, by how the mission went today. Without that little ship, we never would have gotten everypony - everycreature - back home. I can't, uh, say things went perfectly over there, either, though we found some useful supplies..." She gave a quiet sigh, shaking her head. Reef's situation was preying on her mind, to say the least.
"What... did you say before, Grenela?" Set Sail asked uncertainly. "Who landed down at the dock?"
"Oh yeah, you should've seen it Captain." Gustus explained, clicking his beak in satisfaction. "There was a whole mess of those drow, not just the little buggers like the prisoners, they had a big one as well, size of a minotaur. Abernathy here faced them right down, standing proud all on his own, right in front of his bridge."
Summer beamed proudly as she imagined Abby courageously taking a stand in her head (the mental scene possibly a little embellished from reality). "Ooooh, wow, go Abby!"
"Oh it was no big deal, I couldn't let them cross without paying the toll could I?" Abernathy admitted sheepishly. "A thousand gold pieces each, special rate for angry drow."
"And then they were like 'stand aside, troll' and he was like 'it's just me and my three brothers in perfect sniping positions'," Grenelda enthused, "and that was when Gustus fired the crossbow bolt into the tree right next to the big one's head... great shot by the way Gusty..." the griffon stopped to take a breath, "...and Abernathy levelled his shot-gun and was like 'so what's it gonna be, scum' and that's when they backed down!"
"I'm pretty sure I didn't use the word 'scum'..." the troll muttered. Set Sail's mouth dropped open.
With the situation explained, Nutmeg calmed down and retreated back down the gangplank, heading to the copter to see about getting Gearshift aboard and in a nice comfy bed.
"And we've seen what that device can do... well fought, all of you." Azure congratulated them. "And thank you, Abernathy. Glad to see..." The wingless unicorn soon turned away, her fatigue made clear by a wide yawn. "Glad to see we have an ally like yourself. Apologies... few of us are in good shape after that mission..."
"Woo-hoo!" Summer Scribe cheered: at last some good news! "You guys are awesome, Abby, Grenny!" She trotted over to Abby. "Can we rely on you to lend out a hand should they attack again in the future?" Maybe that would help them all sleep a little more soundly, having a native who knew the terrain on their side. Her ear pricked at the sound of Azure's yawn: oh yeah, it was getting late. Without all the adrenalin to keep her going... she was about ready to fall over.
"Heh, yeah I guess I've picked a side now." Abernathy answered. "Look it's dark and I've gotta get back, but, uh... keep in touch, alright?"
"With a friend like you? Would never dream otherwise!" Summer Scribe managed a little bow, before eliding any further responsibility with "...Okay, I need to go fall over and sleep. Sleep and fall over." With that she excused herself.
"...aaaand that was pretty much it captain," Gustus concluded. "Comet Tail and Silver Frost snuck back round to the tech place while that was going on, hid all our stuff so the drow wouldn't know we were there... we watched those idiots stomp around the lower island for a bit before they took off in their copter. So how was your day?"
"..." was Set Sail's response to Gustus's question, as Nutmeg came up the gangplank hauling a very injured Gearshift, saying, "Hey now that the doctor's fused with those giant weirdo wiggle worms, who do I take Gearshift to? He almost got eaten alive by the things, then my weirdo reaction after Reef turned me into a fish really messed him up, so he needs a serious check-up. Oh and can someone go get all that cola we brought back?" Bluebell bustled over to help and the three disappeared below deck, leaving the captain to try and explain the situation to the crew.
Set Sail sat at the very front of the saloon, staring out at a peaceful sky through the full-height windows. The early morning sun shot rays of light through the drifting clouds and outlined the misty forms of distant floating islands. This strange place was undeniably beautiful and deceptively peaceful. All the better, she thought, to lull a pony into a false sense of security before springing some fresh horror on them.
The brown pegasus had led something of a sheltered life, growing up in Twilight's Equestria. True, she'd made cargo runs beyond the borders, out to Griffonstone, Mazein and Mount Aris. Yes, she'd dealt with her crew getting into bar fights, con-artists trying to make off with the cargo and once even a roc that had taken an unsettling interest in their ship.
None of it had prepared her for what she'd seen, what she'd had to do, out here in the Cloudbreaks; and it had only been three weeks since they left Vanhoover. It was a strange mix of excitement and dread, wondering would come next: how long would she have to keep playing captain, before they made it back to Equestria, if they ever did?
She shivered, looking around at the empty tables and the elaborate decor. As much as Set Sail believed in transparency and everypony having a say, sometimes it was best to... work things out, in private, before presenting them to the crew. The mess was out of the question, the chart room too cramped and she was still... uncomfortable with the captain's office, so the saloon it was.
Usually the further down into the ship she went, the more anxious she got; the saloon was right at the bottom, but the panoramic windows did a lot to relieve her anxiety. It was just forward of the cargo hold though, and... no, she couldn't bring herself to go in there. Not yet. At various points through the night there had been banging, shouting, sobbing, the crash of splintering wood and screeching so loud, it had reminded her of that roc. Not to mention that singing:
~Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame: All their attempts to bring thee down,~ ~Will but arouse thy rampant claws; But work their woe, and thy renown.~ ~Rule, Mount Aris! rule the waves: Hippogriffs never will be slaves.~
Azure Feather arrived next, the blue unicorn nodding silently to the pegasus before taking a seat and staring into space. No doubt the guardpony was thinking about battle tactics or combat spells or perhaps thinking up questions for her next prisoner interrogation, Set Sail thought gloomily. The glittering butterfly wings had returned to the unicorn's back; she'd probably cast the spell immediately after waking. The pegasus could certainly understand a pony wanting the reassuring feel of wings at her side, particularly this high in the sky.
Summer Scribe followed, with another of the researchers in tow; Blue Type, she was called, a lavender earth pony. The unicorn's horn was aglow, levitating in a stack of papers, and the two mares were chattering excitedly to each other, even as they drew up chairs and parked themselves at the table. Set Sail frowned, as much at their unwarranted cheerfulness and unreasonably well-rested condition as the unexpected addition. True, she hadn't explicitly said it was a private meeting, but...
Finally Nutmeg Inferno and Winter Hope arrived, seemingly bumping into each other just outside the room. The kirin was more subdued than Summer, probably still shaken by the ordeal she'd shared with her engineer friend. She still pranced lightly into the saloon, taking a seat across from Summer and listening to their chatter about interspecies relations and the economic basis for Cloudbreak trade agreements or some such. The stallion was the last to reach the table, dark bags under his eyes and a haunted expression betraying a night spent dealing with medical emergencies in the sick bay... and the cargo hold.
Set Sail looked harried herself, if not quite as traumatized as the poor stallion. "Everyone is... here, I suppose," Set Sail said neutrally, with a wary eye to Blue Type, "I'll just point out the elephant in the room. What happened to Reef is... magic beyond anything any of aboard could perform. I'll let Winter Hope tell you the details, but what he told me last night wasn't... pretty." She looked to Winter, adding with a sympathetic grimace at the stallion, "If you don't mind talking a little bit about what you... found."
Winter Hope started at the table for a few seconds, brows furrowed, collecting his thoughts. "Ok, sure. Perhaps I should start with the good news," he began. Turning to Nutmeg, he gave a weak smile. "Gearshift is doing fine. We applied the green paste Doctor Skimmer recovered... a second dose, from what I hear the first application saved his life... and the results really are miraculous."
"The skin is fully healed, if still a little tender. The pigmentation hasn't quite come back: he's got a striking cream dapple now that may stay with him for life, but he didn't seem upset. Quite liked the idea actually. I'm keeping him in the sick bay for the rest of the morning, just in case, but other than that he's back on his hooves."
"We used the last of the paste on Grenelda; it removed the pain and even cleared up the scarring on her pectoral. She said it's still a bit stiff, so I've told her to start with short flights and work her way up, but other than that... I think it's ok for her to resume her duties. That Gustus fellow couldn't thank me enough." Winter finished, wincing for some reason.
"Do you think there's any chance of procuring more of that paste?" the unicorn asked, giving Set Sail a hopeful look. "Celestia knows we could use it, particularly with our normal supplies running low."
Summer Scribe looked distraught to hear of Reef and Gearshift's condition - particularly the hippogriff - but relieved to hear that the green paste worked so miraculously. She wasn't sure what to expect, seeing it for the first time at the water park, but she was glad that the doctor's faith in it hadn't been misplaced. "I'm thankful to hear it," she said simply. "Yes, is that something we can get more of?" Her thoughts turned to his condition; perhaps they couldn't fix him... but he was still alive: thinking and mobile. Surely there was still hope? She just didn't know enough...
"It was given to us in good faith by the gillmen," Set Sail told Winter Hope, "Reef Skimmer performed a rather miraculous healing of a terrible affliction they suffer from, and they were more than happy to provide the healing paste in exchange. What they said about the ingredients made it sound... hard to produce though, so we'll have to be careful with what we can get, and not take any more... unnecessary risks. You don't happen to know how to make... Peroxide, do you?"
"Hydrogen peroxide, you mean?" Winter said, curious. "...I don't. I used to order it by the crate, back in the day... involves strong acids, I think, but I never paid attention to the details. Sorry Captain."
Shaking her head regretfully, Set Sail turned hopefully to Nutmeg, who just shrugged, saying, "Hey don't look at me. I only ever used the stuff too. I can probably build whatever is needed to make it though, if you know someone with a recipe. Especially with that factory out of fluffing nowhere."
Azure Feather remained quiet, digesting the facts. The best medic they had was now... unavailable, supplies were running low, the injured crew was recovering, but... it was clear they would have to carefully consider the risks entailed by further exploration. Chances of getting back to Equestria were... becoming slim. She frowned occasionally as she thought of their troubles - Reef's situation concerned her the most - but stayed silent, waiting for the status report to complete.
"Yeah, if Nutmeg isn't sure how to make it, we need to find someone who does." Summer stated the obvious. Assuming they didn't have books full of industrial chemistry still on the ship, but that was a bit of a stretch. "Given the existence of the factory in the Gillmen's islands, it's likely someone or something can help out if we poke and ask around enough."
"But Gears is really better?" Nutmeg asked Winter Hope, worry all over her face. "Can I see him? Is he okay? I still don't know what I did. Y-you didn't get any uh... medical... stuff that might let you know how he was injured, did you?"
"Oh well. I guess it was too much to hope for." the stallion admitted. "Uh... Gearshift, yes, it's amazing really. A very resilient specimen, even with the healing magic... Most ponies wouldn't be taking something like that so lightly, you know what I mean?" He smiled at the kirin. "Of course you can see him, just... take it easy, ok?"
"And... there's more good news." he added, with a genuine smile. "Clashing Gale finally woke up. He was a bit freaked out, as you'd expect; frankly we all were, after all he came on board as a blue pegasus, now he's a purple bat pony! Seems ok though... enough to be making small talk with Cloud Cutter when I left."
"A purple what?" Nutmeg asked in confusion, "You mean like a pony with bat wings or something, and one of those weird fleshy squished bat noses?"
"Bat ponies! You mean you haven't heard..." Summer Scribe began, before stopping herself. They were still quite rare, and not everypony followed the news. "Actually they're called thestrals: basically ponies with dragon-like wings; they haven't been around Equestria for a loooong time: not since Princess Luna got banished to the moon. "
"After their Reverent Idol returned, the thestrals started trickling back in from the Nightlands bit by bit. We know they used to be far greater in number though, there's this really famous dig that found an ancient place of worship..." Summer looked ready to settle in for a full-blown lecture.
"That's very good news, Winter!" Set Sail said in delight, cutting off the unicorn mid-sentence, "I'll have a talk with him right away, to see how he's doing, and maybe tell him a little of what's happened since then."
"Thank you, Set Sail, I'm sure he'd appreciate it." the stallion replied.
"Wow, so they're like me?" Nutmeg said thoughtfully to Summer, "I mean us? Kirin? I never even heard of them before."
Summer had been about to go into the specifics of why Princess Luna was their main figure of worship, but was reduced to opening and closing her mouth like a fish, stunned by the interruption. "...yes, like the kirin. Sort of. Anyway, I don't have any clue why Clashing Gale became a bat pony," she sheepishly admitted. She had one job, right?
The older unicorn glanced at Summer, shaking his head in amusement. Young unicorns did have a tendency to think they ought to know everything. Then his smile faded, and he sighed: "So... the not-so-good-news. Bluebell was able to relocate Cloud Cutter's shoulder. The spook- I mean, purple... pegasi seem to be unaffected by any of the painkillers we have, but fortunately my spell still works, so... she was able to sleep at least." Another sigh. "I wish I could tell you how long it will take for her to recover."
"Typically, a pony would have to stay off the leg for a month and avoid running or heavy labour for another two. Certain..." the stallion gulped and looked nervously at Azure; she was regarding him with her usual cool expressionless gaze "...magic-altered crewponies seem to recover much faster than usual. We can only hope that applies to Miss Cutter."
"Got any of that paste left to put on her shoulder?" Nutmeg asked curiously.
Summer Scribe shared Nutmeg's concerns: "Yes, it would be useful to know if it works that way too."
"We used the last of it on Grenelda," Winter said, uncertain, "but... the doctor said it might not be a good idea to try it on Cloud Cutter anyway. Something about conflicting elements, he wasn't entirely clear. Academic I suppose, until we can get more of that paste."
Conflicting elements! Summer Scribe put a pin in that. Like, if you were a spooky elemental, you needed a spooky healing solution...? She had no idea what that even involved.
Frowning, Nutmeg couldn't help but think that most of it was used up on Gearshift...
"And about... the doctor himself?" Set Sail gently prompted Winter.
"Ah, yes. The bad news." Winter Hope stared at the floor for a long while before continuing. "As you know, Doctor Skimmer has been... altered. Radically. To all appearances, it's as if his neck and extremities have been replaced by... foreign matter. What remains appears to be a mix of hippogriff and aquatic features; from his other form, I imagine. His torso and abdomen have somehow been separated and then connected by the stuff as well."
The unicorn shook his head, then continued: "I think it goes beyond that though; I tried twice to get a blood sample, and each time the syringe filled with the blue goo. Had to toss them overboard too, once the stuff began to dissolve the glass." He shuddered at the thought. "It's not even acid; some sort of magic that disintegrates any matter, though fortunately it seems some materials last much longer than others."
"My guess is, all the fluids in the doctor's body... what's left of it... have been replaced by this stuff. As to what it is... honestly I don't have a clue. I've got nine years as a nurse, three years in hospital administration, seven as a quartermaster... I'm not a scientist. I'd say ask Doctor Skimmer, or if we still had Doctor Pulse..." He shook his head. "Somehow, Doctor Skimmer is full of that stuff but it isn't dissolving him. Or anything else... most of the time. Extract a piece though, and it seems to revert to type."
"Physically, he's... stable, as far as I can tell. Couldn't find a pulse, but that doesn't seem to be causing Cloud Cutter any difficulty. Took food and water without trouble... somehow, given his oesophagus is gone. Limited mobility... oh, he mentioned he can't fly, at some length actually..." the unicorn grimaced.
"From what Reef said, I'd guess this alien matter is interfering with the wing magic flyers use to lighten themselves. Most likely it will preclude cloud walking as well. Oh and of course his amulet is gone, he found that very upsetting as well. At least the central pearl part, the other peals seem to be attached to his head now, but he wouldn't let me get close enough to investigate."
"Did... did the worms like tear him into pieces, and he healed...? I didn't even think about how he was in three pieces," Nutmeg said, wide-eyed in recollection.
Summer Scribe is still so astonished thinking about it. How could such a radical transformation happen like that? It felt like a practical joke played on them by the world, somehow! "...I'm glad he's still with us, all things considered." She looked apologetic. "He wouldn't let you get close? How is he feeling?" Though she hardly needed to ask.
"But he's okay otherwise, isn't he?" Set Sail asked Winter, anxiously leaning towards the stallion, "I haven't been able to get close to Reef either. He's been so..." she glanced towards the cargo hold leerily, "...upset since the incident."
Azure's head listened carefully as the other ponies spoke in turn, concern clear in her eyes. Cloud Cutter - one of their very few trained fighters - recovering, but possibly on the injured list for an extended period. Their only fully-trained medic was incapacitated... nopony could say when or even if he would be able to resume his duties. Things weren't looking good for the entire expedition, she thought glumly.
"How is he feeling..." Winter echoed Summer, wondering how to put this. "...about as badly as you'd expect. As you know, as soon as he got back he crawled into the hold and has refused to come out. At least he let me in..." Winter looked pained.
"At first, he seemed completely certain that Summer Scribe would find a way to 'cure' him. Then he started sobbing, and eventually... well frankly Captain he became violent. Began to thrash about, screech his head off, uh... hammer on the walls... smash crates to bits. Claimed that 'you unicorns' were responsible for his condition and 'you'd better fix it or else'. The... uh, the deck... started to melt where he was standing on it. I..."
The stallion's voice trailed off, and he looked at the captain guiltily. "Look to be honest, I high-tailed it out of there and it was two hours before I could even consider going back in. When I did, Reef was just curled on the floor, crying. Said he was sorry, and that it was hopeless, and we should just dump him off the side of the ship. To be fair to the good Doctor, Celestia knows what that stuff is doing to his brain." The unicorn was blinking tears out of his own eyes at this point. He gave Summer Scribe a beseeching stare. "Please, Miss Scribe, tell me you know how to fix him."
Azure bowed her head as she heard the full report on Reef Skimmer. The physical situation was bad enough, but to hear him in such a mental state... At least he was still alive, but the prospect of him treating patients much less going on missions seemed remote. Ugh. Looking at Winter Hope, it was clear morale was suffering with him as well. She then turned quietly to Summer Scribe, hoping for a constructive answer.
The little unicorn frowned. "I wish I had any idea on how to cure him. I barely even know what happened!" Her voice was raised, her tone exasperated. "...I've really got nothing this time, I'm sorry." she finished sadly. 'I mean, sure, technically I am responsible,' she thought, 'but who could have possibly accounted for this?'
"I'll try my best, but I don't even know where to start. Like, maybe we could poke at a sample of the magical goo stuff, but like..." she threw a hoof up in frustration. "This isn't my speciality and I don't think anyone else on board has relevant expertise either. All we can do is grope around blindly and pray we bump into a solution."
"Would you mind going into a little detail about how the problem occurred at all?" Set Sail asked with a steady look Summer Scribe, "I wasn't there, so I don't know exactly what happened to release those... things that did this to Reef."
"Sure." Summer thought back to the previous day's events. "So, the magical slime worms came from the factory; presumably some waste byproduct or magical mishap rather than an intentional creation, so I suspect there's no documentation on them. When we tried to restart the factory they came out of the pipes, and the 'containment protocol' flushed them down to the water park without our knowing."
"So that's where they attacked next - I remember seeing Reef activate his amulet, and it like..." she made an expansive gesture with a hoof, "made an expanding flash that engulfed all of the worms and dragged them inwards. So I guess he physically fused with them? Exactly what happened or why I don't know beyond that." Focused on the problem, the notion of apologising didn't occur to Summer.
"It was you, Azure, Cloud Cutter, and Melonwater at that factory," Set Sail recalled cooly, "You were going to investigate what they called a convent of witches. Cloud Cutter told me she was heavily injured when the creatures attacked her, but you used the control room to shut down the production line, so after that, the golems were able to eliminate the remaining ones. She said she couldn't use the control room herself, because you were the only one allowed to access it. Just like you were the only one allowed to restart the factory."
Summer Scribe nodded her head, "I found a card that the golems accepted as a worker pass, and I guest-ified everypony with me so they could pass. If any other pony wanted to use the control room, I would have let them..."
"...erm, actually..." The very soft voice emanated from Blue Type, who was studiously avoiding everyone's gaze "...I have to correct the Senior Researcher there. There does seem to be some pertinent documentation..." She glanced apologetically at Summer.
Set Sail looked at Blue Type uncertainly. Summer perked up, asking "Really? What did you find?"
"Um, so... obviously this is incredible find." the earth pony began. "There's so much to tease out of just this first batch of documents." the older mare said, her obvious enthusiasm dampened by the grim turn the meeting had taken. "It's like a window into their civilisation, as it was three centuries ago! Oh, I wish I could see the site... umm, once it's safe, of course."
She looked down, "I know Melonwater got off easy compared to... some of you, but even so, he's... oh, he's just, how do I put it, lost his taste for exploration, perhaps?" A dismissive shake of her head. "But never mind that! You need answers, and perhaps I can... oh where to begin..." The lavender mare glanced nervously at Set Sail "...Captain, please understand, I've only been able to translate a few documents so far. I tried... to guess what would be most pertinent."
Sighing, Set Sail's gaze softened at Blue Type's nervousness, saying, "That's what we came for, isn't it? To find out about who once lived here? I know we have some different... priorities now. But whatever you think would help, I could really use some good news right now."
Summer Scribe nodded along in agreement, sharing her researcher's enthusiasm, if still a little subdued. "Yes, yes! So what have you found out so far? We'll always have time to read more later." Also, huh, was Melonwater going to be OK...?
"Right, right!" The academic frowned, wondering if anything she'd found qualified as 'good news'. "So, this one..." Blue gestured to one of the papers with her hoof, covered in typewritten runes "...is an annual report summarising the state of the 'MagiBubble Cola Company'. It says that they'd been losing market share for years to 'Fizzland'... a competing factory, I think... and blames, uh, 'numerous endorsements, unfair media coverage and gratuitous product placement available from the competitor's Skylander connections'."
"Skylander: I'm pretty sure that refers to the legendary heroes we saw on the shrines!" Summer Scribe cut in. "I guess it makes sense they'd be in demand for celebrity endorsements!"
"Of course, Summer..." Blue Type said, annoyed at the interruption, "...now if I could finish, the next bit is about how the 'MagiBubble' company managed to recover their market share by releasing new, more 'exciting' products. The author seems very optimistic that their 'world class research and... design? development?' will 'maintain... speed? momentum?' and 'see off any further threats from those Fizzy Bottom... bozos?' They do seem concerned about 'profitability' though, with the cost of all the ingredients and the, erm, 'logistical advantage?' that their competitor enjoys, due to being in 'the core'... that must be a region of the Cloudbreaks."
"As you can imagine, the implications are enormous!" Blue enthused. "Corporations as ongoing enterprises comparable to what we have in Equestria, that must mean a complex legal code with some way to enforce contracts... Highly trained, specialised labour, that must imply a well-established educational system, maybe even universities! Oh I do hope all of this still exists." The earth mare looked around; no one other than Summmer seemed to share her enthusiasm. "...oh, right, I suppose that's not a priority right now."
"It's been three hundred years," Set Sail said frankly, "There's no telling what's here anymore. A lot more talking creatures than anypony could have imagined though. I don't see why they couldn't have universities. Assuming they didn't blow those up too."
"Oooooh, I knew it, but it's even better seeing hard proof of it! I can't wait to..." Summer looked around sheepishly. "Oh, right. Yeah, we can talk about this later. Right now, I guess we've gotta prioritise Reef's condition. So you haven't happened to translate anything related to THAT, yet...?"
"It's part of our mission here, so it's definitely an important find! The problem is... yeah. Things... could be a lot better right now." Azure Feather suddenly spoke, before quieting down again. She hoped this quiet academic would turn up something that would help.
Blue Type sighed. "The doctor... I know, priority research. This second document does seem to be relevant, it looks like an internal memo." she continued, gesturing at a handwritten note. "As you can see it's somewhat damaged, but it seems to be a series of complaints or warnings to the 'management', from one Foreman Fizzo. He goes into some detail about 'inadequate testing', 'understaffing', 'mindless... constructions? golems maybe? ...being no substitute for 'trained engineers', and how the new product range is a 'step too far' and 'flirting with disaster'."
"And this third one completes the picture." the earth mare said in a satisfied tone, pointing out a carefully written scroll bearing an elaborate official stamp. "It's some kind of incident report or maybe legal judgement, stating that the MagiBubble Cola Company bears full responsibility for creating 'The Gulper', as well as many smaller 'animate magical hazards'. It also says they bore full liability for the ensuing damages in the fight with the 'Skylanders' as well the cost of incarcerating the creature in 'Cloud Cracker Prison'."
"Look at this..." she unrolled the scroll, exposing a sketch of something resembling an enormous blue slug with arms facing off against a six-legged fish-creature bearing sword and pistol; almost exactly matching the pose of the statue they'd seen in the water nexus. "It finishes by saying that the company 'does not appear to have sufficient funds or skilled staff remaining to safely reopen', and that.... assets will be seized and the site quarantined."
"Oh, and on a happier note... you might find this useful Summer." Blue Type said, smiling and pushing a page filled with her own mouthwriting over to the unicorn. "It's a translation of some of their advertising, with a description of each kind of soda they were making." Her smile faded as she glanced back at the captain. "...and that's... all I have, for now."
Set Sail looked about ready to cry, saying unsteadily, "The only thing I can think to... help Reef is to find wherever that other factory is. Maybe they weren't... as much of a disaster as this one? It's been so long though..."
Summer Scribe squinted at the document: warnings of imminent danger, complaints from the overworked workers of hubris and folly... yeeeep, that does sound related. "Hmmm. 'The Gulper'? 'animate magical hazards?' So this is a disaster with legal recognition." She read on. "So wait, this factory made an entire magical villain - which the Skylanders had to fight and imprison - and the lingering dormant slime worms were just the side-effect of that?!" In that light, she was thankful it hadn't turned out worse. Buut... it did seem like they'd unknowingly breached a quarantine. Whoops... but how could they have possibly known in advance?
Summer scooped up the notes. "Thank you! I'll have to read all I can, especially about this 'Gulper'. Maybe figure out what products were made and how, see if there's any lines of inquiry there..." she nodded solemnly to Set Sail. "As long as we're not the only people out there who have experience with this, we're not out of hope. I refuse to believe that there aren't any corporations in the Cloudbreak Islands anymore! We'll just have to see it for ourselves!"
Set Sail didn't seem mollified by that, staring angrily at Summer as she growled, "And you don't even—!" That was as far as she could get before choking up; with a final anxious look at the other ponies, she whispered "I'm sorry!", then raced out of the room.
"Hoo boy..." Nutmeg murmured, watching the captain depart.
Summer Scribe blinked; before she could put together a response, the captain was out of earshot. She looked around anxiously: "What did Set Sail just apologise for...?"
"Flare up," Nutmeg said easily, "Ponies don't really get those, but uh... you know, if she was a kirin. A lot of stuff would be on fire by now."
Blue Type seemed lost. "Perhaps... do you think... she holds herself responsible for everything that happens, to the crew I mean? She is the captain, after all. Or, the 'acting captain', I think... ?" she finished, uncertain how that all worked.
"Morale issues." Azure stated plainly, shaking her head lightly, before nodding to Nutmeg. "This isn't easy for her, with her crew in such a bad way. It's a weight... she didn't really need right now."
"I could give her a sedative." Winter Hope mumbled, staring into space. "Or failing that a stiff drink." he said, eyes settling on the saloon's modest bar. "You know, to calm the nerves. Celestia knows I could use one right now."
"Mmmmm... yeah, I got it: she's stressed to all hell and back with everything going on. I know how it goes: you have to keep yourself together and keep at it, because if you fall apart things just get worse." Summer said, pondering Winter's suggestion. "Now that you mention it, I could use a drink too..."
Nutmeg wasn't one to complain about ponies being okay with getting a little drunk. Azure just shrugged: "Haven't had a drink since arriving in Vanhoover before coming onto the ship. Would definitely not mind a drink right now." She looked at the rest silently, wondering who would go for the cider first...
And so the four ponies and one kirin proceeded to drown their sorrows, pouring out drinks and telling each other it would be ok as they watched the sun crawl up into the sky. Even Blue Type joined in, although she stuck to the root beer. Winter Hope excused himself early, saying he had to check on the patients, but the speculation about what civilisation might still be out there got wilder and wilder, with only Azure's occasional interjections to drag them back to reality.
Set Sail found the great airship's sick bay to be relatively quiet, with the doctor self-banished to the hold and the part-time nurses attending to other duties. Three winged ponies sat in quiet conversation, all with blank eyes glowing white and coats turned similar shades of deep purple. Unlike the pegasus mares, the stallion's wings were formed of bones under skin webbing, covered in fine purple fur so dark as to be nearly black. In the opposite corner the second mate, Trade Wind, was dozing on a cot.
The acting captain eased into the sickbay, wincing at the sound of her own clopping hooves on the boards as she made for their direction. She didn't feel as confident, seeing that he already had... ponies to talk with him, who understood his situation so much better than she did.
Silver Frost lowered her head, in an emotiveless impression of a relieved sigh, attempting to calm her nerves. Ever since crash landing here and... dying? Unliving? the state of her new self had been a constant concern. However her team leader being completely out cold and... even more radically transformed than the rest of them? That was the real source of anxiety.
"It's nice to see you're finally up and about again. Do you... feel fine? I admit, I've felt uneasy since the crossing. Wouldn't wish this on anypony, but you got these... bat wings! Ain't never seen anything like it happen to a pegasus before."
Clashing Gale was still trying to understand his situation. When he'd taken the controls of the Storm Piercer, he'd been a healthy blue Pegasus with his whole life in front of him. Now... he had changed so much. Absorbing Silver Frost's words, he took a little while to respond: "Yeah, I know... I don't know what else to say about the wings. They're there, they feel... strange. The storm... I saw the barrier, the controls getting fried and.... that's all I remember. I've really been out that long, huh?"
"Yeah, it's been weeks." Silver Frost fretted, hooves a bit skittery. "Sounds like your memory is ok. That's good. Umm, do you need anything? Hungry, thirsty, uhh, any other comforts?" It was such a relief to see him back on his hooves... but something about talking to your now totally transformed superior was difficult to wrap her head around.
Cloud Cutter smiled in relief at Clashing's words. "We were so glad when the doctor said you were only unconscious, but you didn't wake up, until the magic started... changing you. They have a magic here that does that sort of thing. More powerful than anything I've ever seen before. You won't die or anything, at least we haven't. It's a... healing magic, in a... mixed up sort of way. Ponies have been joking that we're all a bunch of... zombie ponies. It's silly, I know."
Silver chuckled at Cloud's words, trying to inject some humour: "Well, if we're zombies, you're a vampire, huh?"
Hearing familiar voices was definitely a comfort for the new thestral, even if their owners were so drastically changed. Cloud Cutter's description of dangerous, unknown magic made him grimace, but Silver Frost's response only set him thinking.
"A vampire? Sounds like something out of a foal's story book. That being said... I am hungry. For what, I don't know, and that's..." He paused, but the frown on his face told the story: he had no idea what was really going on, and that was worrying to say the least.
Silver Frost perked up at the mention of hunger. Maybe Clashing Gale could still enjoy the comforts that she and Cloud Cutter could no longer appreciate? "Well... If you feel good enough to walk, we could head down to the mess hall and figure out what your cravings are?" Her tail was sweeping with a hint of interest.
For her part, Set Sail now had a more visceral reason to keep silent. They were in public. Nothing could possibly happen if he noticed her, but... she'd heard stories too. She tried to dismiss her worries as jumping to conclusions, but as the only pony here brimming with life, it left her feeling a little vulnerable. Her irises narrowed as one of the spooky ponies suggested they go to the mess hall.
They were bound to notice her now, so the pegasus stated clearly: "Clashing Gale. They said you were awake. I wanted to see if you were doing alright. I suppose your... friends are catching you up to speed with what's happened in the past few weeks." She stood resolutely, trying to convince herself that she wasn't preparing to become a vampire's first meal here.
Clashing Gale stared at this new pony. "Third Mate... Set Sail?" They'd had a chance to meet the deck crew in the training drills, but not really get to know them. "I... yes, my team is helping me learn what's happened since our... landing?" He paused... before hissing softly under his breath and shaking his head heavily.
It was at that point that a thin purple unicorn trotted briskly into the sickbay, skidding to a stop as she realised another pony... was standing around just inside the doorway. "Umm, excuse me Set Sail, if I could just get around... oh, Clashing! It's true, you pulled through." Mystic Rune nodded curtly to Cloud and Silver; she always felt a little self-conscious, first being the only unicorn on the Harmony's Storm Piercer team, and now the only unicorn in the even more exclusive club of strangely transformed ponies. "I'm so glad."
Silver Frost gave her comrade a little hoof-wave. "It's a small miracle, isn't it? Peculiar that he's turned out... different, but everything about this is so strange, anyway. He seems to feel right as rain; I look forward to him being back on crew."
"Right, he's... Clashing, you're a batpony! Why is he a batpony?" Rune looked around the sickbay for some sign of a medical professional who might answer this question, without success. "W-Where's the doctor? Or even the nurses? Did something happen..." The unicorn bit her lip reflexively... to little benefit as it had been numb since her transformation.
At the entrance of the purple unicorn, the newly christened vampony actually managed a smile. "Mystic Rune? You're okay? There's a relief..." His gaze quickly returned to Set Sail. All the stories about vampires... were they really true, he wondered? "Frost, as interesting as food sounds right now, I don't think it's-"
Set Sail had been staring, fishmouthing for a moment. Her brain had not prepared her for this sort of response. "Uh-th—well, to... catch you up on things," she broke in, blinking in surprise. "Trade Wind has some badly broken legs. The captain and Pearl were... oh no, they didn't tell you, what happened after the Storm Piercer failed in the heart of the storm?"
Silver Frost lowered her head. "...Yeah, they fell overboard. So Set Sail's taken leadership by seniority. We've been making do across every field, really: Summer Scribe managed to be the most senior research pony by sheer luck, somehow." A low chuckle. "Still, we're not dead yet, so we shouldn't complain too loudly."
"That's when we lost Raindrops." Mystic Rune said, ears drooping as she glanced nervously at Set Sail. "She was... blown away. In that terrible gale. There were flying boulders, hundreds of them, they... damaged the power feed. Rainy, s-she climbed through the hole to fix it but... she couldn't get back inside. She... s-she saved us all." The unicorn gulped. "The rest of us are ok..." she ducked her head. "...except my magic. And the other's weather sense. Oh, but you don't want to hear me moan."
Hearing the fate of Polar Sky and Pearl Gleam... it was clear that affected Clashing Gale, but he said nothing. Hearing that one of his team was lost as well, that got his attention and then some. "Raindrops?! We lost... the Captain, the First Mate, the Second Mate's badly injured, Rune's magic is... limited, Cloud Cutter's weather senses are off... Raindrops is gone..." The more he went, the worse he looked. "Who else did we lose..." He ended up replying, laying back on the bed as the troubled look on his face only deepened.
"It wasn't your fault," Set Sail told him, her voice filled with concern for the recently awoken stallion, "There was strange magic in that storm. Our ship hit some sort of a... a glowing wall in the air. The whole Storm Piercer lit up like it was hit by lightning. We lost a lot of ponies. I'm sorry; I wanted to ease you into it, but I guess the cat's out of the bag."
"There was nothing any of us could do." she said sadly. "You fell unconscious, and your crewmates... did too. The rest of us managed to make it through the storm, but the ship is still seriously damaged. But... we're safe for now. There's enough food, and we're moored in a relatively sheltered spot."
Silver Frost nodded in agreement with Set Sail. "Yeah, it was a plain miracle that we made it through alive at all; no one could have made contingencies for something like this. That strange magic in the heart of the storm wall totally disrupted the Piercer, and who could have known in advance?"
Clashing Gale nodded a bit as he remarked something the other purple ponies had realized weeks ago. "I can't even cry if I wanted to. The storm really did a number on all of us... but Silver, Captain... you two are right. We're still here... we're still... heh, alive, in a manner of speaking... we'll manage."
"Though, Captain? Those stories you heard of vampires... what if they're true. May I suggest..." He almost looked sick even suggesting this. "Gathering... a small number of... less essential creatures? I... urgh, I may need to... um..." There was no easy way to say it. There was no friendly way of saying it. "...Please tell me there's something here some creature won't miss if I have to take it down?" he asked hopefully.
Silver Frost was taken aback. Oh dear, it had been meant as a joke... "Well, we happened to crash on an island full of sheep, if that's, err, to your predilection...?" she sheepishly (heh) suggested. Clashing wasn't really going to drink blood, was he...?
"I'll ask Nutmeg what she does for her dietary needs," Cloud Cutter said in a practical tone, a little caught with Clashing Gale's... dark, thrillingly sleek appearance as she gazed his way, "The chief engineer that is. She and the griffons have been doing fine despite... taking creatures down to feed themselves. The rest of us haven't been feeling hungry at all. Those of us touched by the Undead force, that is. If you are as much of a stereotypical vampire as I am a stereotypical zombie, then I don't think you have much to worry about. I don't smell of rotting flesh, haven't a single craving for brains, and my head doesn't even fall off."
He looked at the faces of his crew. "Silver, um... that may be a good start, yes..." He admitted, looking away a little as he turned to Cloud Cutter. "You two are literally saving my flank here. I already owe you a stiff drink."
All this talk had woken Trade Wind, who propped himself up on his bed. "Seniority... so yeah, I admit, I'm in no shape to take command right now. Like she said, Set Sail over there seems to be holding it together. After the crash and all." he said dubiously, still not sure exactly who to blame for the abortive 'landing' attempt.
Silver smirked back. "Given the circumstances, we're lucky we just crashed. Things seem to be holding together well enough now. I suggest you keep resting; when you can walk on all fours, then you can discuss with Set Sail how to manage things again."
"Oh, Trade Wind you're up!" Set Sail declared, turning his way with a gladsome look on her face, "I-I'm doing my best, yeah. At least we haven't lost any more ponies since. And yes I spoke with Gustus about steering the ship, but with the helmspony...lost, it was just us deckhands who had to steer. Should I be more... stern about it? He got us safely to a stop, damaged the island more than the ship, so it's okay, right?"
"Gustus, huh? Yeah that figures." Trade Wind snorted. "You gotta be tough on those griffs, Sail, or they'll run wild." he told the third mate. "Just the nature of the beast."
Set Sail shook her head, saying to Trade, "Oh no, Gustus is one of our best griffons in fact. He might be a little brash, harsh tongued, and strange in his ways, but the one you really have to watch out for is Grenelda. I don't know what to do about her, honestly! She's a good fighter, and you can just tell her heart's genuinely in everything she does, but it's been a bit of a hassle at times. Her and the other ex-convicts are a... rough, scrappy bunch. Ponies and griffons alike."
"Yeah Grenelda, she's a tiger among the kitty cats for sure. You keep holda that tail whatever it takes, Sail." Trade told the acting Captain. Looking around, he added "Don't see that doctor any more? Guess he couldn't take the pressure after all."
At that Set Sail just... fell into a morose silence.
For the other pegasus stallion, Trade Wind had an approving nod. "Glad you're back with us Gale, even if you're a little... batty. Heh. Shame about Rainy... but... yeah. What's this about losing your weather working? You gonna have any trouble getting us outta this Tatarus-hole?"
Clashing Gale gave Trade a slow nod. "Look... I don't know all the details, not even half of them. What I do know is that the Harmony and her crew have been through a heck of a ride. One that isn't even close to ending. This 'undead' magic here... it feels like the tip of the iceberg. Like it's just one piece of the puzzle. What's happened to me and my team: it's crazy. Sounds like others have had their own share of madness."
"I can't do proper spellwork at all! All I have now is basic levitation!" Mystic Rune whined. "And when I do... whatever I pick up turns all slimy!" In a quieter voice she added "I'm trying to teach Summer Scribe what to do, but every time I do she derails into some theoretical discussion about fundamentals of mana flow..."
Silver Frost gave Trade Wind a little shrug. "Weather powers or not... and I do feel incomplete without them... I fear we're stuck here indefinitely. We're down a working airship-with-storm-piercer, so that goes without saying. Sure we'll need weather workers to get back, but right now we need a carpenters and then some. Steady Brace and Maurice are doing what they can, but..."
Clashing Gale simply quieted down, listening carefully as more pieces of the puzzle slowly fell into place. Yeah... this crew had quite the hand of cards dealt to them, it seemed.
Trade Wind gestured with a hoof at the purple ponies. "If that's the way it is, then you're gonna have to train the deckhands in wrangling that new-fangled weather machinery and yourselves in tending the rigging. 'Cause we're gonna need a solid team of pegasi on each to haul everypony outta this mess." he said firmly, as if a crash course on Storm Piercer operation was a weekend motivational seminar.
Trade Wind's remarkably considerate line of thought snapped Set Sail out of her thoughts on the doctor. Her ears went down as she admitted, "That's a big problem actually. The magic that hit the Storm Piercer made our only really super rock solid pegasi..." she looked uneasily at Cloud Cutter, saying, "I don't want to speak for you a-and it's not your fault either obviously, but we're just in a bit of a... bind here."
Cloud Cutter looked from Set Sail to Trade Wind, regarding the rather unfriendly stallion blankly. "All operators of the Storm Piercer have lost their weather sense," she said coldly, "Wind reading, cloud control, it's all just gone, in exchange for some... other things. I trained my whole life to get good enough to operate the Storm Piercer, so unless I can stop being morbidly purple, it might be quite a while before we can train any of the pegasi who stayed in their element."
"Huh. That so? Guess our only hope is a cure then." Trade Wind said grumpily. "Shame all the big-league science ponies - and our only real doctor - were on the Friendship. Who knows what in Tartarus befell those poor souls... yeah, Gale: lost sight of 'em in the storm, but from the look of it they were hit even worse. Guessing we still haven't heard a peep from their beacon, Sail?"
Set Sail shook her head sadly.
As the full implications sank in the vampire pony was sent reeling, laying back down on his cot. "We've lost the entire crew of the Friendship? Oh, lovely... do we have any good news? So far it's been brick after brick after brick..."
Cloud Cutter gave Clashing a thoughtful look, saying "Oh there's certainly good news. In the change I've gained some ...less than ideal but very powerful magic, and the others might develop similar abilities. Some of the other crew have been doing what the natives call alignment, which dramatically strengthens their abilities. You know that one mopey unicorn by the name of Azure? She's developed amazing new powers, based on wind!"
"The doctor is... still indisposed, but he saved a lot of lives and took control somehow of this... magical substance, which could enable him to do incredible things. We've found a friendly fish people, and they told us about friendly griffons, though there seem to be no native ponies in these lands. It's just all this good news isn't leading to anything that could enable us to... use the Storm Piercer again." she said sadly.
"Mmmm... I think that... As much as we all want to leave, it's so far from being an immediately achievable priority." Silver Frost mused. "So we need to focus on what we can do: stay alive and keep those 'drow' at bay." She looked resolute. "It's just... well, I don't know. I don't know what I should be doing any more. It feels like all I'm good at now is... being purple."
"The 'Drow'?" Clashing asked, picking up on the unfamiliar term. "What are those? Sound like a... bird race?"
The ponies proceeded to bring Clashing Gale (and to a lesser extent Trade Wind) up to speed on their recent adventures. Set Sail had to leave early, flying off to supervise repairs to the rigging, but the others continued until the meeting was suddenly cut short. From above came a screeching call: "Dragon!"
Down in the saloon, Summer, Blue Type and Nutmeg decided that perhaps it would be best to break for... brunch, it seemed. 'What an enjoyable way to pass the time!' Summer thought. Baseless speculation of civilizations past was one of her favourite hobbies, and Blue Type was so good at it.
She was feeling buzzed and delightfully warm, the weariness of the previous day washed away as she set off for the mess. The unicorn was glad of Blue Type's support, both the psychological and physical, as they staggered together through the corridors. A few hayfries did a little to improve the situation, but really she needed...
"Dragon!" came the shout from above. "It's a dragon! Looks like a griff out there as well. Find the captain, quickly!" It was the male griffon's voice, cutting through the pleasant haze Summer had been enjoying.
"Uh, I better hide," Nutmeg said; the kirin had been relatively modest in her alcohol consumption, so she was only a little buzzed. "The last dragon wanted to capture me or something. Gonna... lock up the engine room, yeah. Can you find- wait." She squinted at Summer, then turned to Azure, asking, "Can you go find the captain?"
Summer Scribe perked up! "Is it that dragon again? Can't she leave us alone for one day?" Technically she had, but... she looked around. "Shoot, where is Set Sail? Did anyone see where she went?" Despite Nutmeg's squinting she seemed quite eager to scramble around searching for the pegasus.
"Locate the captain? After she ran off?" Azure confirmed, nodding lightly. "Can do my best, but this may take a while." Azure had consumed a drink or two herself, but seemed steady on her hooves. "I'll check her quarters, seems the most logical place to start." Then again, she didn't trust herself to think logically right now...
Summer Scribe nodded, "OK, check her quarters, I'll see if she ran off anywhere else." She raced off in a random direction, not accomplishing anything productive, but perhaps it was for the best that she wouldn't be the one to encounter Set Sail.
Nutmeg wanted to support Summer, but she didn't want any of those weird lightning dragons going and zapping her entire engineering crew again. So she left the unicorn to stumble on her own and hastily bounded off to the engine room. Its sturdy iron door slowly creaked closed behind her.
It wasn't long before Azure found her way to the right cabin: she knocked on the door three times, in quick succession. "Captain? Report from the deck for you!" she called out, hoping to Celestia that she'd be in there... but there was no response. The winged unicorn hesitated for a moment, not wanting to disturb the captain if she was still... dealing with things, but 'dragon!' did sound like an emergency, so she pushed the door open a crack, and... nothing. The room was empty, or rather, quite cluttered but currently uninhabited.
With a shake of her head, she started to think about where the Captain could be. Wasn't in the saloon or her quarters... outside? Was she maybe already on the deck? Azure started a quick pace towards the deck, hoping Set Sail had heard the cry...
Summer Scribe, in her demi-methdological room-checking search pattern, heard and then saw Azure racing by, and moved to follow her up the ramp. "Was she not in her cabin?" she asked, "I can't find her anywhere below either..."
In fact Set Sail had already flown down from the crow's nest, landing on the deck and hissing quietly to everypony as she scampered around: "Get the fliers with buckets over to the stream, just in case. Prepare to fight, we don't know what's going on here! The dragon isn't moving yet, so make every second count! Comet, can you get a lasso ready?"
Azure gave the captain a quick nod as she trotted over to the rail, looking out towards the dragon. "Lovely... with what we've heard of these things, they're not the friendliest. At least... at least now I'm rested and can actually do my job. Not good with rope but can bring a fight if I have to!"
"Oh, she's already here! Everything we did up to this point was pointless!" Summer Scribe moaned. "Where's the dragon?" She looked around, trying to get a glimpse of it. Was it the same one they'd fought off before, the one that tried to kidnapping Nutmeg, or a new and mysterious one?
Several ponies... plus Grenelda the griffon... were already hanging over the rail, staring out into the meadow. Out there in the grassy expanse, perhaps a hundred metres from the ship, sat two unknown creatures. One was definitely a dragon, almost the storybook archetype of a dragon, save for its size.
Purple scales, golden horns and spinal plates, clawed feet, club-like tail and broad batlike wings... reminiscent of the dragon that had invaded the ship a few days ago, but definitely a different creature. Where that one had been lithe and lean, spikey and bristling with aggression, this one was larger and more filled out, masculine-looking and bearing a seemingly friendly expression.
Next to him sat what at first glance appeared to be a large, lanky griffon, resplendent in fiery red and yellow plumage that seemed to glow with inner light. On close inspection though, the details were definitely not like any Equestrian griffon; smooth plating along his belly, a crest of rigid plates and hind claws that were as avian as his foreclaws, with no trace of feline fur. The second creature stared impassively back at the Equestrians, his expression not as engaging as his draconic companion but at least not actively hostile.
Summer Scribe followed everypony's gaze, scrutinising the dragon and fiery gryphon down below. "New dragon, huh... Doesn't seem to be acting hostile or sneaky. Maybe this one can be reasoned with?" she mused. "And who's that friend with them? The fiery bird thing. What do you make of this, Azure?"
"Well... just between you and me, if they were hostile, they'd definitely try and at least scout, be evasive, hide, something... not this. Maybe they're just scouting us for a future invasion... or maybe they're just like us. Looking for allies, in which case, well, you're a pretty good diplomat yourself, Summer... maybe you and I could go have a talk with these two?" Azure asked, tilting her head. "What's your thoughts on the chances of friendly contact?"
Meanwhile Set Sail and the rest of the crew are creeping up behind the brave/foolish ponies gazing over the edge of the railing, holding various weapons and shields, improvised and otherwise.
Summer nodded her head. "I'm of the same mind as you: they're head and shoulders above Purple Dragon and the Drow, as far as I'm concerned. If they're willing to be reasonable, then so am I!" She put a shaky hoof forwards, before saying sheepishly, "Can you take us down?"
Azure nodded in agreement, flapping into the air before wrapping her legs around Summer and lifting the little unicorn up in a body carry. Fortunately she was fairly light, and the distance wasn't far. The two ponies flew down to land about fifteen metres from the unknown creatures: close enough to be seen, but far enough to avoid an ambush attack, she thought. She'd let Summer do the talking though!
"Hey there, uh, unicorns!" the purple dragon called out in a pleasant voice. "It's ok, don't be scared! We aren't going to hurt you. Quite the opposite, in fact!" His careful smile only hinted at the many sharp teeth underneath.
In a pleasant grassy meadow on the edge of a floating island, itself at the very fringe of the mysterious airborne archipelago, a historic meeting was taking place. A purple drake and a flame-feathered hybrid faced a pair of unicorn mares, the smaller, enthusiastic one keen to play the role of Equestrian ambassador to the Cloudbreaks, while the larger, butterfly-winged mare listened with cautious optimism. Behind the ponies, at the edge of the island, floated the scarred bulk of the EAS Harmony, the storied airship that had carried the Equestrians through the storm wall. Fully half the crew, including her acting captain, hung over the rail or hovered just over the deck, staring at the encounter and straining to hear the conversation.
"Hey there, uh, unicorns!" the purple dragon had begun, his tone casual and his expression friendly. "It's ok, don't be scared! We aren't going to hurt you. Quite the opposite, in fact!"
"Oh! Well, great!" Summer Scribe bowed respectfully. "We don't want to hurt you, either. Would you like to do introductions?" She didn't even have to do any negotimancy this time?!
'Holy crap. Finally some creatures that don't think they're sheep, goats, deer or whatever! These creatures got it right! About darn time.' Azure thought. "The opposite, you say?" Were they thinking of an alliance? This was almost too good to be true...
"Introductions?" The dragon cocked his head. "Oh right, you've been cut off from Skylands for a really long time, haven't you? Can't blame you for not hearing about us." He chuckled. "I'm Spyro! Legendary purple dragon, leader of the Skylanders, greatest hero of the realm, six-time vanquisher of Kaos et-cetera et-cetera. Pleased to meet you at last!" the dragon said cheerfully, still grinning. "And, my friend here is Sunburn, mythical phoenix-dragon-monster-roasting-teleporter-supreme! Isn't that right Sunburn?" he added, elbowing his companion.
"That's me." the griffon-like creature said casually. "Roasting monsters and toasting bad guys, satisfaction guaranteed." He winked at Azure Feather, still hovering just behind Summer.
The Skylanders... the legendary heroes depicted on the shrines they'd found, and spoken of in the documents Blue Type had translated. This was their leader?! Azure was most definitely impressed; she nodded encouragingly to Summer, before turning to Sunburn. "Roasting and toasting... sounds like a good time when you're on a battlefield."
She chuckled, hoping she could share a little warrior's camaraderie with the strange draco-griff. "Name's Azure Feather, this is Summer Scribe. You're half-right with 'We've been cut off from the Skylands for a while'... I'll let my friend explain the rest and introduce herself." So much for letting Summer do the talking; she just couldn't resist.
'Cut off?' Summer thought. 'Well, I guess that's one way to say: we never poked our heads into the death tornado before because it was a stupid idea, and maybe we should have listened'. "Yeah, we crash landed here pretty recently... it's been three weeks ago, I think?"
Then her eyes began to widen with realisation. "You're a Skylander? Wait wait, leader of the Skylanders?" Oh Celestia this was big. "Oh gosh! Umm, it's an honour, Spyro! And a warm welcome (ha-ha) to you too, Sunburn!" She bowed again, lower this time! "As for us - we are ponies, from Equestria - what we call the land beyond the Storm Barrier - here on a mission of exploration and scientific discovery. But it's, uhh, been side-tracked a bit by our crashed airship, drow attacks and other misadventures. Still keeping at it, but we're looking for all the help and friends we can get in this world!"
She flashed what she hoped was a winning smile. "And yes, I'm Summer Scribe... in effect, I'm the lead diplomat and archaeologist after some, uhh, loss of personnel on the way here. So! What did you come here to discuss?"
"Equestria, huh? Sure, I'd love to be friends, Summer Scribe! Cynder told me all about you guys, but she may have left out a few details..." Spyro smiled apologetically. "Cynder's very... dedicated, but she can be a bit, uh... intense? It sounded like might have, kinda... made a bad impression?" the dragon suggested, cocking his head.
Glancing back at the Harmony, Azure noticed roughly half the crew hanging on the deck rail, anxious to see how first contact with these formidable-looking dragons would go. Their opinion wasn't her primary concern right now. Here was the leader of the Skylanders, and right next to him was probably one of the biggest reasons sensible creatures did not mess with them. To the eye of a royal guard, Sunburn had an unmistakable air of a creature who'd seen a great deal of combat, and was ready for more at any moment.
That alone was impressive enough, but... he was a rather striking creature as well, with his lean form, intense eyes, a wingspan to rival a hippogriff and plumage that seemed to glow with inner light. But... Sypro was speaking of the other dragon, the one that invaded the ship. "I couldn't tell you myself," she said simply, "I was off on another mission at the time." No sense in saying more than that.
"Hmmm... made a bad impression is the half of it!" Summer agreed. Finally she knew the mean dragon's name: "Cynder straight up snuck aboard the ship and tried to kidnap Nutmeg with no explanation or negotiation. That's not how you should do things!" It turned out attempted kidnapping was a pretty easy thing to stand your ground on. "That's my grievance with her though, not with you, so... nothing to worry about."
The various creatures watching from the ship looked at each other nervously as this sore point came up. They were all hoping that Summer wouldn't screw this up badly enough that they'd end up defending against a double dragon attack after all.
They needn't have worried, as the purple dragon just chuckled. "Oh I'm not worried, Summer... do you mind if I call you Summer? Or do you prefer Miss Scribe?" He smiled again, before holding a claw to his chest, staring off into the distance and saying gravely "...I mean, as the group's leader, I'm responsible for everything the Skylanders do, and that means you should be mad at me for anything Cynder screwed up." Then he made eye contact and gave Summer a big toothy grin. "But I'm sure we can work things out! Misunderstandings happen, right?"
"That girl is all about the mission," Sunburn added smoothly, looking at Azure. "Spend long enough fighting bad guys, and you can kinda forget how to be friendly, you know what I'm saying?"
Summer Scribe perked at Spyro's response: "Mmmm, Summer works! Oh, uhh, I can try to be mad at you, I guess." She scrunched up her muzzle, but... totally failed! "Yeah, no harm, no foul, right? And it'll be a load off of my chest to not worry about Kirinnappings in the future."
Meanwhile Azure Feather looked stunned as Sunburn's words penetrated right to her core. How long had he been around, for her to be an open book to this strange avian? After looking lost in thought for several seconds, the winged unicorn finally replied: "Certainly one way to see it. Friendship's such a big thing back home, too." Princess Twilight herself was probably the biggest proof of that.
"Right, yeah don't worry, Cynder won't bother you again." the purple dragon said, shooting his companion an unreadable look. "So... drow attacks huh? They're not too tough individually, except for the goliaths and they're rare, but... they never come alone... and some of 'em are packing pretty serious magic as well. Caused a lot of trouble over the years, I can tell you."
"Sneaky little creeps." Sunburn nodded. "If you see one, you can bet two more are skulking about, waiting to ambush you."
Summer wasn't personally responsible, but... she couldn't help but take it as a point of pride: "We took one of their airships!" She was actually puffing out her chest at that.
Azure nodded. "Yup... I was leading that mission, actually. Nuisances, annoyances, and not just to us, either... and if you're saying they wield dangerous magic, we haven't been seeing the same calibre of drow. But I'll believe you without question there." Then looked to her companion and smiled. "We did take their ship as a prize. Might not have made it out if we hadn't." Then she was back to sizing up the Skylanders; Spyro tried to hide it, but she was sure he was well beyond veteran status too. Likely either of them could give her old Lieutenant the fight of his life, she thought.
"Heh, you sure did!" Spyro said, giving the copter parked nearby a long look and acting like he's just noticed it. "Nice paint job. Though if I were you, I'd be careful flying that thing around; a lot of people are gonna assume you're drow, no matter what colour it is."
"Those little ones are cannon fodder: one good hit and they drop out of the sky. Or just blow up." Sunburn said dismissively. "They save the magic, and their serious troops, for the big ships."
Summer Scribe pouted at that. "Great, so we're not even worth taking seriously yet." Or... maybe they just hadn't found them yet. That was simultaneously relieving and terrifying? More terrifying, given that they didn't seem to have any way to de-escalate the hostilities. "So, what do we do? How do we keep from being wiped out exactly?"
"So you're saying, it was the right call to run like crazy the moment we noticed that flying man-o-war coming after us." Azure concluded with a nod. "We don't have close to the firepower needed to deal with any of the larger threats. Not to mention we're not... in the best of states here, ourselves." Her smile faded as she looked back at the battered and scorched EAS Harmony. Her thoughts went to the medic's situation: ugh. Not something she was proud of, that one.
"Your ship took some hits, that's clear." Sunburn said. "Fought them off though. I bet that big weapon on the bow can do some damage."
"Hey now!" Spyro glared at Sunburn. "What my... friend, means to say, is that we totally take you seriously! And we'd totally like to help! It's just..." The purple dragon put a claw behind his neck, like a much larger, scalier version of Summer Scribes's signature gesture. "...we're kinda spread really thin out here, and I'm hoping we can make this more of a mutual assistance sort of thing."
Summer Scribe smirked: the familiar line coming back to roost. It was like looking in a mirror! "Well, sure: what kinds of things can we do for the Skylanders? Surely you've got everything covered already?"
"I wish!" Spyro replied with another chuckle.
"So we're both short of capable crew?" Azure remarked, nodding. "If we can get back on our hooves, we may be able to help, but what do you need?" she asked, curiosity rising. Morale would definitely soar if they could get some fighters like this on their side!
"So look... the Skylanders, we keep the peace, take down monsters, lock up super-villains... at least we used to." Spyro explained. "It all kinda... got away from us lately, 'cause there's just so much chaos out there... that's the C-kind not the K-kind, which is something at least, but... yeah, what was I saying?" he smiled cluelessly.
"The mission?" Sunburn grunted.
"...riiiight, so look, the top priority for the Skylanders has always been to defend the Core of Light." Spyro enthused, before deadpanning "Which... you've probably never heard of, right?"
"...Nope!" Summer Scribe had that forced smile signifying total, dwarfing ignorance on her face. "...What is it?"
"The Core of Light?" Azure echoed, even more curious now. "Sounds like a big deal, more than anything we've heard about in these islands so far. If your primary mission is to defend it, it's gotta be pretty important to say the least. Care to explain?" she said, looking eager for his answer.
"Sure thing! So the core, it's pure awesome, that's what it is! Or was, I suppose." The dragon sighed, looking down. "Yeah, so basically it's a giant, magical machine, designed by the ancients and combining alllll the power of alllll the elements inside. The core has the power to dispel the darkness, all across Skylands. That means keeping out, uh... extradimensional entites? Dark gods? Eldrich magics that threaten to destroy our very way of life?!"
"Shoots a nice big beam of glowing doom as well, if any giant creature of darkness gets too close." Sunburn winked at Azure again. "After we upgraded it to the original specs."
"So you need additional hooves, additional fighters to boost your numbers and help you better defend it against the bigger threats?" Azure ventured a guess, hopeful it'd be this easy... but then they were struggling against just the drow. Even if they could hold it off, what if something the Skylanders considered a serious threat followed them back to the Harmony's hiding place?
Spyro smiled at Azure's enthusiasm but shook his head. "No, no, I can't ask you to do that, and besides our best defence is keeping the core hidden. If the trolls or the mabu... or even the giants, or... well anyone really, found out where it is... let's just say everyone's looking for an advantage these days."
For her part, Summer Scribe simultaneously loved and was piqued by the concept something called 'pure awesome'. Hyperbolizing to the extreme! "Wait, the Skylands are under attack by extradimensional forces?" She gawked: maybe 'pure awesome' was a lowball, if anything. Sounded like they were in way way over their heads, if that's the kind of threat this place had to deal with. True, Equestria has its own god-tier problems, but... "So you built a giant laser to blow them up? Wow!" But also, geez!
Summer's concise summary elicited a brief laugh from Spyro. "Yeah... I guess we did! Three times actually, after Kaos broke the first two. But... look, we had a lot more resources back then. Dozens of Skylanders, including a whole crew of tech elementals." He sighed. "The Skylanders are a much smaller group these days, and we don't have any techies left. Which means... we've got no way to fix the Core of Light this time. So Skylands is wide open, and I'll bet that's behind all this chaos and conflict we're seeing everywhere."
Azure was blinking, considering the implications of Summer's words. "Wait... maybe it's a problem with the Core itself? That other dragon, Cynder, wanted to kidnap Nutmeg, our chief Engineer... and those ponies can make some pretty crazy devices... maybe all this is linked?" she suggested, looking from Summer back to the Skylanders.
"You got it." Sunburn nodded to Azure. "Top priority is to fix the core, guess Cynder thought she saw a way to do that, nothing else mattered."
Summer Scribe perked again, smiling at Azure's astute guess. "Well, I mean, this sounds like a really big deal! Should we get Nutmeg out here?" It would've been nice if Cynder had told us all that before, huh?
"Perhaps if we explained the situation... they might agree." Azure considered. "We tend to be a helpful kind, and the Core does sound interesting, but kidnapping attempts, well... obviously they'd make anypony wary. I suppose I'm not telling you anything you don't know already." She turned to Summer. "What's the plan: coax Nutmeg out here, or perhaps the faster option would be to invite these two onto the Harmony?"
Summer Scribe nod-nodded. "Yeah, sure! Wanna check out our airship, Spyro?" She waved a hoof, tying to co-opt the local parlance: "It's, uhh, not quite as presently 'awesome' as you might be hoping for, on account of it having crash landed. But long term we hope to fix that!"
"I'll go get the shuttle?" Sunburn asked, looking at Spyro and half-spreading his wings.
Azure blinked for a moment, as she silently repeated the words. "Get the shuttle... your ship?" She shared a glance with Summer; what in Luna's stars had they just gotten themselves into?
"Yeah, go for it." Spyro responded. He watched Sunburn leap into the air and flap off towards the forest, before turning back to Summer. "Sure Summer, I'd love to see your ship! And you can see ours! Might have a little present for... uh... so is 'Nutmeg' your tech elemental?"
Summer Scribe nodded again, "Nutmeg Inferno. She's pretty good with tech, but I don't think any of us knew she was a tech elemental." Though she had been having suspicions... "Regardless, she's the best kirin for the job: if any of us can help, it's her. Anyway, right this way; just up the gangway!"
"She's our Chief Engineer; can't confirm if she's a tech elemental, but if not she's the closest thing we have to one..." Azure said, before nodding to Summer. "You stay with the dragons, I'll go find Nutmeg." The winged unicorn was soon airborne, heading to the rear of the ship and the upper entrance to the engine room... hopefully the kirin would still be in there.
Spyro followed behind as Summer trotted up the gangplank. "And you've got... northern griffons, nice! Hey there griffs! And... not-unicorn... ponies?" The purple dragon waved a claw cheerfully; he was a head taller than the biggest crewmembers present.
"What makes a gryphon northern, exactly?" Summer idly asks, before correcting: "Earth ponies." Spyro didn't seem to hear Summer's question, entranced by the crowd of colourful, chattering ponies.
Set Sail had the crew gathered in a loose semicircle at the top of the gangplank, but not blocking the way. These were very definitely not baby dragons, Set Sail thought. She gulped and stepped forward, saying up to the friendly looking purple one, "Hello, uh, Spyro and... oh your friend isn't coming? Never mind... welcome to the EAS Harmony. If you don't attack or foalnap anypony, we're happy to have you here. Celestia knows we could use a few friends around this place."
"Hmm, yeah, where did Azure get to... Wait, isn't Nutmeg locked up in the engine room?" Summer mused. In all the excitement she'd forgotten! "Might be, ah, hard to reach her right now, eheh..."
"You know it's right over there," Set Sail said a bit mystified at Summer's reasoning, gesturing with a wing at the stern, "We should go tell them it's safe. You can just knock."
"Hey, thanks, definitely not here to attack anyone!" Spyro gave Set Sail another of his charismatic grins. "The... Harmony, huh? Impressive ship you have here." With that he looked away, staring intently at the indicated door.
Indeed Azure Feather had found the iron hatch to the engine room closed tight, no sign of anypony or kirin outside of the belly of that behemoth of an engine. She rapped a hoof on the metal, shouting "Nutmeg? Are you in there?"
The engines seemed to be active, with the hiss of steam, the whine of turbines and a weird continuous hum coming from somewhere behind the door. Over all that the unicorn heard Nutmeg's voice call out faintly, "What!? Are they gone yet?"
"They? If you mean the dragons, they're friendly and one of them would like to see you! We may have allies!" Azure replied in an excited voice. It took a lot for the ex-guard to lose her cool, but the prospect of teaming up with such potent allies was enough for her to be buzzing.
"Hold on, don't open the door!" Nutmeg called back, "I have to wind down the turbines!"
"You got it! I'll just wait here, whenever you're ready!" Azure replied. This could really be the break every creature needed, she thought. Perhaps even the Skylanders.
The humming noise progressively slowed, then quieted, before the great door creaked open just enough for the little red-ruffed kirin to poke her head out. Her eyes immediately went wide at the sight of the big purple dragon standing in the middle of the crowd of crewponies: "...hi?"
Azure nodded with a smile, before stepping aside to let Nutmeg take the stage. This was no longer her talk, but she'd be ready to answer any questions should the conversation return to tactical matters.
"Oh, thanks!" Summer had been saying, "Though I can't take any credit for it, obviously." The ship had a long history, after all! Nopony seemed to be paying attention though, so... she just stood by Spyro and watched Nutmeg emerge. "Hey, say hi to our new friend, Spyro!"
The kirin had disappeared back inside, but could be heard shouting, "C'mon gimme a hoof here!" Two other ponies joined her in pushing the big door fully open, whereupon the three of them spilled out onto the deck. In the middle, Nutmeg blushed beneath her dark fur, saying, "Yeah, uh, heh heh... the last one of you dragons kind of... zapped my whole crew with some kind of weird breath weapon, so I... guess it was kinda silly to think you'd do that too."
"Hi there Nutmeg!" Spyro gave his usual cheerful greeting. "Yeah, look... no, that's not silly at all. Kinda sensible in fact!" He sighed. "So I've come here to say... I'm soooo sorry about that whole 'kidnapping' thing. Like I was telling your friends, Cynder just gets carried away sometimes, like everything is do-or-die, my-way-or-the-highway, no-room-for-compromise... you know what I mean? Not the dragon you'd pick, if you knew it was gonna be a... first meeting, not a fight with some raiders." As he spoke a rushing, roaring noise came from somewhere towards the far end of the island, along with a faint whine, slowly growing louder.
"We haven't seen much but raiders, I'm afraid," Set Sail said regretfully, "It's been a long three weeks."
The roaring sound got Azure's full attention. "This must be... their ride." she mused to herself. She couldn't help but envision some grand airship making even that drow battlewagon look tame by comparison; she was soon flapping over to the railing, trying to get her first look at the approaching 'shuttle'. Summer Scribe trotted over as well; after a moment of instinctual worry, she realised what was happening and looked on with interest.
"Oh, that must be the shuttle." Spyro said casually, before adding: "No need for alarm, it's not like they're gonna do a strafing run!"
Soon enough, a gleaming red shape popped up over the rim of the island; perhaps a little smaller than the Second Chance, it has an egg-shaped central body flanked by short, rounded wings reminiscent of a manta ray's. Its hull was formed of smooth, glossy, dark red metal adorned with shining golden detailing. Three pods recessed into the wings and tail held the engines, which began to pivot upwards as the craft smoothly swooped down over the meadow and slowed to a hover.
The flying machine hung in the air for a moment with its bulbous front facing the Harmony, as if it was a strange metal creature sizing up a rival. Then it unfolded struts from its underside and settled to the ground, the sound of the engines and the intense wind they had produced slowly dying away. Sheep ran in every direction, bleating their objections to this latest noisy visitor.
Nutmeg Inferno wasn't the only one of the three, now five engineers crowding through the doorway out of the engine room, staring open-mouthed at that miracle of aeronautical science. Summer Scribe was gawking as well, her jaw hanging open. It looked so fancy, like it was a precision made piece of art! "Woooaaah, This is your ship?!"
Azure Feather's reaction was more restrained: she knew the Skylander's transport would be a piece of work. "Solid. The Princesses would love a look at this one." she stated, smiling and nodding towards the ship.
"Oh, that old thing, yeah it's good for these little scouting trips." Spyro said dismissively. "Got it as a free gift for completing an alien's survey questions, if you can believe that!" He grinned at Summer and cocked his head, as if daring her to take his word for it.
With a faint hiss, the entire upper front section of the red ship's hull rose up and slid backwards, revealing the crew cabin within. Two winged creatures sat within: at the rear was the firey feathered form of Sunburn, while the pilot was an unfamiliar blue-and-white creature. Both leapt out of the cockpit and glided down to the ground, heading to the rear of the craft where they extracted a sizable crate from an unseen compartment.
The two then headed for Spyro, giving the ponies a good look at the newcomer. To all appearances she seemed like a cross between an alicorn and a dragon; she had the long spiralled horn, elegant feathered wings, expressive furry ears and rear hooves of an alicorn, but the clawed forelegs, spiked tail, plated belly and sharp snout of a dragon. Her body seemed to be covered in equal amounts scales, feathers and fur, in various shades of light blue.
"How does it... but it's... that's just magic right? How... what..." Nutmeg doesn't seem to notice the unidracornapus as she and the other engineers continued to gaze at that ship's smooth crimson exterior, trying to divine what was within.
"Magic?" Spyro frowned. "No, it's all Tech. You know fusing elements together is pretty tough..."
Summer Scribe squinted at that... She had questions, but felt like she might be blundering into a trap, so she relented. "Huh. Neat!" Her attention shifted to Sunburn and their new feathery friend. Wow, fancy beyond fancy! "Hello!" she called out, "Might we get your name?"
The blue creature pranced lightly towards them, while Sunburn followed some way behind, lugging the crate. She stopped at the bottom of the gangplank, wings slightly spread, as if posing for the benefit of the various creatures assembled on the deck.
Set Sail stepped forward, well okay a few of her crewmates gave her a bit of a boost and she kind of stumbled forward. In any case she approached the beautiful princess of a dragon, saying, "...hi." Shaking her head, the pegasus adds, "Welcome to the uh... EAS Harmony a-and..." she blushed to silence then.
"Hi Spyro!" the blue creature said, in a breathy, high-pitched voice. "And greetings to you, winged unicorn!" she told Set Sail. Her smile is somewhere between Spyro's careful lip-curl and a griff's beak-gape. "No need to be shy! My name is Whirlwind." She gave a little chuckle. "We've got a little present here, to make up for Cynder being so mean to you!"
"Oh, Whirlwind!" Summer Scribe bowed low! "My name's Summer Scribe, and..." She perked, looking to Nutmeg. "A present? For her?"
Azure's attention quickly shifts from the ship itself to its new crew member. The feathered... dragon... alicorn... goodness, she had no idea whatsoever as to what she was, but Set Sail's stumble made Azure act as she quickly moved to the captain's side, before bowing to Whirlwind. She smiled a little at the mention of a present; might be something nice for Nutmeg...
"O-oh, how... nice?" Set Sail said, a little startled by yet another dragon's friendly demeanour. Cynder really must have been the exception, in these lands! "You don't have to make up for it. You two are some of the nicest creatures we've encountered, and that's thanks enough! But I'm sure we'd be grateful for anything you wanted us to have."
"You're too kind!" Whirlwind responded, with a gracious nod of her head. "Come on Sunburn, get a move on!" she called out.
The firey bird-dragon glared at her for a second before lugging the heavy crate up the gangplank. He looked around for a second, trying to work out who the lucky engineer is, before giving up and just saying to Azure "It's all yours. Let me unwrap it for you." With one nonchalant claw movement he popped the lid off the crate, revealing a mass of shining metal parts inside. To the untrained eye it looked like a random assortment of small pipes, gears, cables, lenses and oddly shaped bits of metal, all brand new.
If there's one pony in the entire crew that had no real idea how technology worked - especially Skylander technology? - Sunburn had found her on the first try. Azure blinked as she saw this... shining assortment of craftwork. Her reaction said it all: "This looks pretty darn special, and thank you! I... just have no idea what it might be..." The winged unicorn turned to Nutmeg, who would definitely know what this was... while she had absolutely no clue.
Summer Scribe was leaning in to get a closer look... but her look of interest gave way to confusion. "What is this? It's just stuff." she said, ignorantly.
The engineers, on the other hoof, were getting more excited by the second. "Is... that a dual isolating anemometer?!" Nutmeg declared, clattering up to peer into the box in shock, "How did you get these lenses so exact? These gears are... Gearshift!" she called over her shoulder, prompting the recently-healed stallion to stumble forward. "These are the perfect size for our elevator assembly!" she told him.
The dapped stallion reached in and pulled out what looks like a piece of duct, asking: "What metal is this? It's so light! Can this withstand high temperatures?"
"We can probably use this to patch up the firebox," Nutmeg declared, pulling out an assortment of metal sheets with her hooves.
Sprocket dived in then, saying, "And look at these threaded pipes! And... wow look how magnetic this little thingy is! Oh oh and a four-gimbal gyroscope! I can recalibrate the..." They all seemed pretty excited about this little present the dragons have given them.
"Sooooooo...." Spyro began, waiting for Nutmeg to pay attention. "...yeah, as I was saying, we've got the core of light and as you can see, we've got plenty of spare parts... but we don't have any tech elementals." He gave her a hopeful look. "Which means we don't have a clue how to fix it... and that leaves Skylands without its best and frankly only defence against the Darkness."
Summer Scribe gawked. Okay, Team Engineer sees the hidden value in this assortment of random parts. Fascinating! Shouldn't have even opened her mouth. She looks towards Nutmeg, to see what she'll make of the dragon's offer! Meanwhile Whirlwind had been prancing around the deck, basking in the attention from the crowd of creatures there, while Sunburn looked on, apparently unimpressed.
"Oh, it's a wonderful coincidence!" Set Sail said happily, as Spyro stared at the thoroughly distracted and rather unresponsive Nutmeg and co, "We've needed spare parts for the repair of our ship since coming here. Did you know? Your Cynder must have seen the state of our ship, when she was... here last, and this is just the bee's knees!"
Azure couldn't help but smile at the happy engineers. Give them shiny new metal parts and it was like Hearth Warming's Eve for these ponies. But then comes Spyro's critical question. The guard knew this: if Nutmeg accepted, this could be the break the entire crew of the Harmony needed. But there was still a bit of worry in her eyes as she trotted over to Sunburn. "Hey... I know this is a lot to ask, but your crew wouldn't have... a medic, would they? We've got one of our crew, our own medic, in... pretty bad shape. Wondered if you could maybe help him..."
"Medic?" Sunburn looked thoughtful. "Healers... the life elementals used to take care of it. None left now. Just the fighters, sorely missing our support. Although Whirlwind..." he looked at the blue dragon-alicorn, expression unreadable "...sorry. Don't think we can help you there."
Azure looked hopeful for a moment as Sunburn mentioned life elementals... but that hope quickly died as he mentioned they were gone. "Both squads in the same boat. Gotcha." she stated sadly. "Worth a shot. Thanks, Sunburn. And thank you for the parts. I, uh... can't pilot an airship to save my life, heh... this is at least somewhat my fault." she admitted, thinking back to that abortive landing attempt.
Summer Scribe had overheard and quietly made a face: oh geez, they're out of healers? That was seriously inconvenient for every... creature. She squinted at Whirlwind, and looked vaguely sad: 'Guess we're back to figuring the medical situation out ourselves!' she thought.
Meanwhile Spyro was still smiling at Set Sail. "Hey, all I know is that tech elementals just love a pile of spare parts," he said, "Of course that's just an appetiser. If your friend Nutmeg can fix the core of light, then she's welcome to any parts left over! We've got quite a collection you know; been picking up anything that looks useful for some time now, hoping to find a techie to put it all together."
"Sounds like you don't have many of you left at all," Nutmeg suddenly saod, having quietly left the create to walk over to the dragon, the other engineers in tow. "What happened to you all?" she asked in unusually heartfelt sympathy.
The purple dragon looks away, staring out into the sky. "Oh, it's a long story..." he said, in a sad, quiet voice. Several seconds passed, before he summarised: "Things just kinda went crazy, you know, after the cataclysm? Too many creatures fighting over too few resources, all scared, confused, leaderless..." Then the cheerful tone returned: "But I've gotta feeling that fixing the core will be the start of turning things around!"
"So you need someone to fix some sort of incredible machine?" Nutmeg asked thoughtfully, "We're in pretty dire straits here, but I'll vouch for any one of my crew. I'm sure we could spare enough time for a few of us to come take a look at it."
Summer Scribe frowned in sympathy at that! She was hoping that they hadn't signed up to a death sentence by crash-landing in a war-torn hellhole... but if Spyro's got confidence, she does too. Perking up, she nodded: "Yeah! So, are you taking just Nutmeg to see it, or is this an anyone-can-go event?"
"I'd love for you to see it Summer, but you gotta understand, if we lose that core, that's it." Spyro said gravely "Right now the only thing protecting it is a few Skylanders... and the fact no one knows where we're hiding it. So if Nutmeg wants to bring a friend or two to help her fix it, that's ok with me, but I can't reopen the sightseeing tour until it's fixed. And... we clean up a bit. Maybe repaint the atrium, you know how it is when you haven't had guests for a while..." he joked.
Summer Scribe giggled politely at that. "Okay! I totally understand it's super important. I probably shouldn't be running off just to gawk, anyway."
"That and I don't know how many unicorns we can squeeze into the shuttle." Sunburn interjected. "Tree-Rex and Swarm both crammed in, way back when, but I think his bees were nesting in his knot holes by the time they got out."
Azure remained quiet, but as Nutmeg volunteered a few of her crew, the butterfly-winged unicorn couldn't help but think that it's not her crew that Spyro's needed help from; it was Nutmeg herself that the dragons were so interested in...
"Well, I mean it doesn't have to be me," Nutmeg said in a nervous warble, lifting a foreleg shyly, "I bet Sprocket and Gearshift could do it twice as good as I could, if they work together."
"Oh, are they tech elementals too?" Spyro asked Nutmeg casually, examining his claw.
Blinking, Nutmeg Inferno asked, "What's a tech elemental?"
Summer Scribe pondered, trying to piece together what a tech elemental is, but... why not hear it from the source? So she just looked at Spyro, interested.
By this point Whirlwind had absorbed her fill of attention and was prancing back over to Spyro. "Why, elementals are creatures connected to the elements, silly!" she answered. "Just like I'm connected to the very air we breathe and the mysterious, unrelenting powers of the storm!" She held out a foreleg and tilted her head back, striking a dramatic pose. "Tech elementals tap into the collective unconscious of all engineers and the spirits of progress and innovation! How else would they make impossible gadgets on a whim?"
Summer Scribe shot Nutmeg a grin. "I gotta say, that does describe you to a T. Starting to make sense, isn't it?"
Backing up, the kirin stated in blushing anxiety, "Oh I... I don't think I'm... anything like that I just... I mean... I never made any i-impossible gadgets on a whim. I thought you just wanted to fix your machine, not... have some special legendary engineer of progress and innovation. Kirin aren't even... I mean... we're all good engineers, but..."
Azure nodded quietly. This entire thing with the dragon attack all makes sense now... and the smile's quickly starting to fade from Azure's face. Nutmeg's hesitation prompted her to speak up. "Nutmeg, I think those in charge named you Chief Engineer for a reason. The entire crew is solid from top to bottom, but you're the Chief. You're their leader. You're the best we have."
Summer Scribe smirked, adding "I've seen you do wild things from top to bottom. The makeshift bird catching trap, the model airplane, your wrench and railgun, your work on the pyramid. You have an uncanny knack for the stuff! It's beyond just being good, you're amazing!"
With sudden intensity, Spyro stared at Nutmeg and declared "Yeah... Cynder was right about that part. You are a tech elemental." Then he grinned and looks away. "But hey, no pressure, right?! I'm just asking you to take a look, do what you can. I mean yeah, the fate of all of Skylands is hanging in the balance, but..." he sighed "...who knows, it might just be broken beyond repair." He caught Nutmeg's eye again and smiled weakly "Only one way to tell, right? If you like a challenge, I mean."
Placing a hoof on Nutmeg's back, Sprocket said, "Don't sell yourself short, chief! I know I've had nothing but an incredible time working with you. Maybe you are one of those legendary engineers. They're just ponies too, after all." Her back pat turned a bit awkward, as she winced and added, "Err... in a matter of speaking."
"Maybe these creatures just don't know a widget from a gizmo," Gearshift postulated, with a friendly nuzzle on the other side of Nutmeg's bountiful ruff, "We could all be tech whosa-whats-its, and it's just normal for us. Plus you know I'm not gonna let you do it on your own. Let's just go with it for now. See what happens."
Sighing, Nutmeg acquiesced on both counts, saying, "Yeah, you're right." She lifted her branch-horned head and looked up at the big purple dragon, saying "Okay, if you think I'm some sort of special... tech whats-it, like... that windy thing that Azure can do, then me and Gearshift can both try to use our... super magical engineering powers to fix your stuff. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, right?"
"Yeah, I'm not asking for miracle! Well... actually I am asking for a miracle. But just a small one!" Spyro winked at Nutmeg. "Yeah, no, it's ok. Just do your best, that's all anyone can ask for. Anyone who isn't a jerk, I mean." He smiled again.
Summer Scribe gave a gentle nervous 'ahaha' at the polite request for a miracle. 'I guess that's Nutmeg's problem to figure out', she thought!
"Well, you wanna get our stuff?" Nutmeg asked Gearshift, "You were always better at thinking of what we might need to take along."
Saluting, he answered, "Right away, chief!" and trotted off in the direction of their tool cabinet, workbench and such in the engine room.
"Wow, that's great!" Spyro said, grinning broadly. "Pack whatever you need into the shuttle, if it gets too full we'll just fly behind."
Azure nodded softly, before trotting over to Nutmeg. "You be safe, alright? You and everyone else." The smile on her face was gone; it seemed to be back to the mission with her. Yet the blue unicorn mare paused, waiting for anything the Chief Engineer wanted to say.
Summer Scribe nodded in agreement with Azure, cheering and pumping a hoof! "Yeah! Good luck, Nutmeg!"
"Awesome!" Nutmeg declared in a rare burst of confidence, doing a little hop on the way to the dragon's ship, "Let's get fixing!"
"H-hold on a sec!" Set Sail declared.
Summer Scribe perked up, and turned to the captain. "What's up?"
Looking from Nutmeg to the dragons, the dark brown pegasus stated, "You can't just... leave us without our chief engineer without a... I—I mean the gift is appreciated, but how do we know she's going to be safe? I mean yes Gearshift is with her, but... what if you just disappear, and we never see you again!"
Azure took pause at Set Sail's intervention, looking to Spyro and waiting for his response from.
The dragon's leader stared at Set Sail with an unreadable expression for a second, before the easy smile returned. "Hey, no, I completely understand! Sure, I'd be nervous, if some strange dragon came in like she was about to kidnap someone, just a few days back!"
"Look... how about, one of us stays here with you? As a... guest! You can take whatever, uh, 'precautions' you feel are necessary, to make sure they stay until your friend is back. Not that you need to, 'cause we'll have her back before you know it, but you know... anything that makes you feel better is fine with me!" He gave Set Sail another of his cheerful grins.
Summer Scribe wasn't quite clear on the logistics of a friend swap. Buuuut... it would mean they had a Skylander on their side... which was to say a native dragon she could bombard with questions... so she looked enthusiastic! "What do you say, Set Sail? Seems like fair trade!"
Eyes widening in surprised realisation, Set Sail said, "Oh! Well. That would be fine! Not as a... a prisoner or anything. As a guest, yeah! And just you know... w-we really could use a little bit of help with our defence, and a creature who knows these lands well... I mean not that we'd impose or anything. S-so you're going to stay with us then?" She gazed hopefully up at the big nice friendly purple dragon.
Azure's smile seemed to return at Spyro's suggestion. "You ask me, that's not a bad idea. The Skylanders get what they want, and we may all need by the sounds of it, and the Harmony's crew get something we sorely need right now: somepony... somedragon who knows this place like the back of their hoof and can fight with us as well..."
"Hey, I'm flattered and if that's what it takes... then I'm game, buuuuut... that would leave my team in a tight spot without a leader, you know?" Spyro said sincerely to Set Sail. "Sure you wouldn't prefer Sunburn or Whirlwind to help instead? Whirly seems quite popular with your crew!" He gestured at the pair; the alicorn-like Whirlwind was surrounded by a group of eager pegasi, trying to explain what 'connected to the mysterious, unrelenting power of the storm' meant, while the griffony Sunburn had wandered off to the railing and appeared to be scanning the treeline for any possible threats.
Face falling, Set Sail blushed, stammering, "O-o-oh I didn't know you were the... I mean of course you would be heh... heh... uhm..." she looked frantically among her crew members for thoughts, Summer and Azure among them.
Summer Scribe chuckled at that! "Yeah, you have important business for sure, Spyro. I think we can take Whirlwind: what do you say, Azure?"
Azure's response was a smile and a shrug. Hey, some time talking with a true Skylander fighter - Sunburn - would be a welcome change, but Whirlwind seems more of the knowledgeable type, if she's to judge... if the Pegasi would stop acting like she's some superstar singer for a moment... sigh. "I'll go with the Captain's decision in the end."
"Yeah, I don't want the blue one," the gryphon Grenelda called out unappreciatively, "We already got a windy pony. Plus she looks super fruity." A pause before the hen was looking around at her horrified pony crewmates, asking, "...what!?"
Summer Scribe blink blinked! "Eeexcuse me?"
Even Azure turned around at Grenelda's sudden and unhelpful opinion... "Hey, hold on a second... not cool, you know?" She definitely looked uncomfortable at that remark: they couldn't afford to anger their new allies!
"I'm just saying she looks like a blueberry!" Grenelda protested, her tone indignant.
"What?!" shrieked Whirlwind, spreading her wings. "How dare you! Don't you know who I am?!" Mist began to coalesce out of the air over the deck as tiny sparks started to flicker around the draco-corn's pinions, while her horn lit up with a colourful, pulsating glow.
"Wait wait wait!" Summer Scribe said in exasperation, jumping between Whirlwind and Grenelda! "I think there's just a misunderstanding here! No one needs to blow anyone up today!"
For her part Grenelda tried to hide behind Summer Scribe, looking up at the angry dragonicorniuni and stammering, "Y-y-yeah! What she said!" Considering she was a lot larger than Summer, the tactic was not very effective.
Oh, for the love of Celestia... Azure's eyes went wide at Whirlwind's anger, and that spell looked like something she didn't want to get hit by, but seeing the gryphon cower... there was a very large part of her that just wanted to tell Summer to get out of the way... but she has to do her job, protect her crew. So instead she ran over to stand by Summer...
"Whirly, no!" Spyro began, but Sunburn was faster. In a flash of heat and light he disappeared, reappearing almost instantly in another burst of flame, right in front of Whirlwind. "Stand down!" he shouted, in his gravelly voice. "Remember why we're here! You wanna be like Cynder?!"
Whirlwind screeched and glared at him, then at the group of creatures surrounding Grenelda, before turning and taking wing, flying back to the Skylander's ship without another word.
Azure had been staring down the dracocorn, just about to warn her off before Sunburn interfered... and the dragon left in a huff. "...Damn it! Seriously, Grenelda, you have to know better and not insult a dragon... a Skylander!... especially one we're trying to have as an ally!!" she protested, her voice full of frustration.
A shaking Summer Scribe let out a sigh of relief. "That was close." she said sheepishly, giving a nod of thanks to Azure before suddenly notices there's a small fire flickering on her nose fur. Eep! She patted it out before anyone could notice, only slightly singed.
"And now we've angered a valuable ally and maybe even their entire squad. Damn it all." Azure didn't even return Summer's glance, instead glaring at Grenelda before heading to the railing.
"Heh, well, that could've gone better." Spyro walked over to the phoenix-dragon. "Thanks Sunburn. Looks like you've earned yourself a vacation in ponyville." Looking around, he noticed the smouldering deck "...assuming it doesn't burn down, uh... sorry do you guys need help with that?" Fortunately several crew members were already dumping buckets of water onto the deck, putting the fire out with a practiced and somewhat resigned ease.
After a few seconds of staring out towards the horizon, Azure turns to Spyro. "I apologise for Grenelda's remarks. We're still new to these lands, relatively, anyway, and not every creature here knows of the Skylanders' existence... before today, anyway. I just hope... Whirlwind isn't too angry with us after that one..." There's still some residual frustration with the griffoness, that much was as clear as the sun being warm.
"Great... he can... burst out of flames, anywhere..." Set Sail muttered to empty air, kind of standing stiffly in place after Sunburn teleported, "No more kirin fire, now just fire fire. Just great. No problem..."
Grenelda was busy talking with Gustus in low tones and pointedly avoiding looking in the direction of any of the dragons, acting as if nothing at all happened out of the ordinary. This was how gryphons apologised.
"Don't worry about it, Azure." Sunburn said. "Whirly can get a bit full of herself, 'specially after meeting her fans. She'll calm down. Myself, I prefer honesty to flattery."
"Then I hope you won't mind a Twilight Guard wanting to know some tricks of the trade for fighting here in the Skylands." Azure chuckled. "I know a star in battle when i see one."
"Happy to have you, Sunburn!" Summer Scribe bowed low, still feeling a little sheepish. "Just... Be careful what you set on fire! S'made of wood, you see."
Down in the meadow, Nutmeg Inferno hadn't paid much attention to posturing griffons and unidragons. She tutted over Gearshift's overly pessimistic decision to bring everything but the kitchen sink again, despite her vote of confidence earlier. Between the two of them, they loaded up with some heavy saddlebags, most of the weight on the heftier earth pony, full of hammers, screwdrivers, screws, gears, various and sundry.
As they climbed aboard, the fiery yet calm Sunburn stood stoically by while Nutmeg's crew, and most of the ship's crew stood around the dragon's ship, waving farewell as Nutmeg and Gearshift turned and waved back. At last the tools were packed into the cargo compartment and every other free space in the shuttle. With a sullen Whirlwind piloting and Spyro occupying one of the passenger seats, the kirin mare and pony stallion were left to huddle together in the sole remaining (albeit giant-sized) seat.
The canopy closed, sealing them in, but an immersive projection of the surrounding meadow flickered into life, almost as if it was transparent. The turbines spooled up and thrust the little ship into the air, Whirlwind again piloting it quickly and smoothly away from Blissful Pastures. As the craft continued to accelerate up into the transonic regime, a being possessed of supernatural hearing might just be able to make out two screams, one of joyous excitement and one of pure terror, over the roar of the afterburners kicking in.
With the dragons gone and the senior engineers with them, the ponies settled back into their routine; cooking, cleaning, gathering supplies from the island, repairing the ship and tending to those who still lay injured. By late afternoon the excited chatter had died down and relative calm descended on the Harmony.
Now that she had a moment’s peace, Set Sail spread her brown feathered wings and took off, cruising around the ship and surroundings, looking for a particular blue and white unicorn. Asking the crew for directions led the pegasus down into the ship, where part of the tween deck had been set up with a table, measuring instruments and some boxes. Blue Type was there, poring over the documents recovered from the soda factory. The lavender earth mare was trying to piece together the fragmented, faded texts to try and understand the quite frankly bizarre ingredients used in the factory's formulas.
At the other end of the table, Summer Scribe wore a magnifying monocle and was fiddling with some sort of a figurine: a stylised bubbling bottle, which seemed to be the company’s insignia. The green-kerchiefed pegasus trotted up to the two of them, her hoofsteps sharp on the sturdy flooring, giving a wary look to Blue Type before announcing, “Summer... we need to talk.”
"Huh?" Summer Scribe looked up. That wasn't a comforting tone of voice to hear from a superior; she'd learned that from a succession of senior researchers who hadn't approved of her solo field trips! Summer set her monocle down and trotted over, trying to exude confidence, even if it was the false kind. "Sure, what's up, Set Sail?"
“In private,” Set Sail specified curtly, “I know there’s not much privacy around here, but... the captain’s cabin is private, so can you meet me there?”
Summer's ears flattened. Okay, so this was really serious. She certainly didn't look pleased, but deferred to the captain's authority. "Alright, let's go."
If Set Sail noticed Summer’s reaction, she didn’t say anything, turning and walking off without another word. Summer shared an anxious look with Blue Type, before hurrying after the pegasus mare, up to the main deck where the captain’s cabin lay. Of course, the unicorn immediately started fretting about what this could be about, which continued the entire way to the cabin. Perhaps she was overthinking things, overlooking the obvious?
The cabin was one of the larger ones, compared to what the bulk of the crew called home. There was a painting of a parrot on the wall, next to a photo of the captain and his first mate posing together for the camera. A thin layer of dust had accumulated over everything: it was pretty obvious to an even moderately observant pony that nopony had been in this room in weeks. Set Sail just stood there as Summer walked in, looking off into space as if thinking about something. Then she turned to Summer, saying, “...close the door. You aren’t going to want the others to hear this.”
Summer Scribe had been looking around the disused quarters curiously. At the captain's remark she wiped her brow nervously, focusing her attention on the other mare. "Oh. I see." She shuffled the door shut behind her with a quick glow from her horn, settling into a corner. Already feeling the anxious heat of a terrible conversation about to happen, she asked innocently, "So... what are we talking about today?"
Sighing, Set Sail said, “Summer, you’re a really smart mare. Smarter than me. And you think this is about anything but the soda factory? Just what do you think happened back there?”
'Of course it is', Summer thought. "Mmmm... well, we have to explore and learn everything that we can about our surroundings, if we're to survive here. If we do nothing, we definitely won't: the drow on their own have handily proven that," she rationalised. "To Reef Skimmer and Gearshift, I extend my deepest regrets and apologise for their respective conditions."
“Do you really?” Set Sail asked, giving Summer a hurt look, “You think they can hear you from here? I'm not even looking for an apology. Why would turning on a factory that warned you out loud that it’s broken, how could that possibly help defend us from the drow? You were just playing around, weren't you?”
Summer Scribe stood her ground: "We have to try everything available to us! We know basically nothing about this place even though we've been working flat out, and we don't have forever!" Her voice rose until it was almost a shout.
"Look! Accidents happen, it's true. But we had to learn what the factory did sooner or later... if we didn't, we'd just ask ourselves why we overlooked it anyway! And no one could have known it would turn out this bad: that's the nature of tasking risks! Sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don't: if you never take a risk, that leaves you sitting at home twiddling your hooves. Then what would we do?"
“We wouldn’t turn the most wonderful evening into a nightmare!” Set Sail protested, wings unconsciously half-spreading. “We wouldn’t turn our friends into horrible monsters! You ruined his life, forever!”
Summer Scribe huffed! "I didn't do that! The magical slime monstrosities did that!" She put a hoof down. "You accept a certain level of risk doing field work: that's just the way it is! I don't like what happened to Reef any more than anyone else did, but we can't give up and huddle in our airship until the world swallows us whole!"
Glowering, Set Sail stepped forward, and Summer couldn’t back up far enough until the mare had grabbed the slim unicorn and slammed her up against the door, pinning her there and growling right in her face, “You are a monster.”
Summer's heart was racing. She didn't want to use her telekinesis to defend herself... that could turn out ugly for either or both of them... but she was feeling distinctly endangered, crushed against the door by the larger mare. Instead she just gritted her teeth and averted her gaze, saying plaintively, "I am not a monster! D-don't make me a scapegoat for this!"
“The slime monstrosities were just acting on their nature. Reef saved our lives! He isn’t the monster, you are!” Set Sail insisted, pulling back from Summer Scribe and leaving the unicorn to collapse to her hindquarters there against the door, “I don’t care about if we can’t beat the drow,” Set Sail huffed, pacing through this cabin that she should never have entered.
“And I don’t care about what happened to Reef. He’s at least trying to be a decent pony. He’s trying to get better, but you? No you’ll keep doing the same thing again and again, because you’re not sorry! You’re not sorry at all! You won’t even admit that you did anything wrong! Why shouldn’t we lock you up with those drow we captured, before you do something else without thinking about it, and then prance around declaring that your friends are acceptable casualties?!”
Summer Scribe took a much-needed breath as she slid down against the door, trying to make her thoughts coalesce into a coherent response. "Look. It should have been me, alright?" She tapped a hoof on the floor for emphasis. "I should be the slime monstrosity right now, not Reef, and I fully accept that. I'm the one who turned the valve, and I should be the one who bears the brunt of the consequences, and it's nothing short of unfair that Reef has to suffer in my place."
She picked herself up, trembling with the stress as she managed to look the captain in the eye. "But now what? What do you want from me? It already happened and it can't be undone. I've apologised. We're all going to make the most of our circumstances, whatever they are: why won't you let me do that too?"
“What I want!?” Set Sail’s voice caught just short of a shriek before she said a little less furiously “What I want is for you to ask for help! You think you’re so smart but you’re still a pony, and you still make mistakes. You don’t always know better, so stop acting like it! A little bit of caution and-and relying on your friends would have d-defended us from the drow way more than you did!”
Shivering, she added bitterly, “So you made a mistake, fine. We’ll deal with it! What we won’t deal with is if you try to act like you did nothing wrong. When you apologise for something, that means you won’t do it again! If you try to say it’s actually a good thing you did, then you’re not apologising. You’re just lying!”
Summer Scribe began to calm down, letting her breath even out as she lowers her gaze to the floor and sighed. Ok, maybe Set Sail did have a point there. The thing was, in practice, they did work together and try their best collectively to solve the problem - after she'd given the order to turn the factory on - and she couldn't have shut it down alone. But that's not what Set Sail wanted: Summer just wasn't finding the right words. What the other mare really wanted was some kind of assurance and plan for why something that tragic won't happen again. And that she could do.
"OK, I understand. I'm not doing solo work anymore." Summer admitted, her tail still between her legs. "I'm a part of a team, and it's the whole team's business, not just me making decisions and doing things on other people's behalf." She nodded her head. "If I'm doing something on my own; I choose what I do and I suffer the consequences for it. But if I'm taking a team into some place dangerous and unknown - not just an archaeological jig or pleasant chat with locals - then everyone deserves to be an equal peer with me, rather than having their outcomes dictated by me."
“I don’t know what I want anymore,” Set Sail said in frustration, sniffing and wiping at her eyes with a foreleg, casting her gaze down, “I just want everything to be better again. I just want to go... go home. But we can’t, so we just keep living. I can’t blame you if you just made a mistake. Just please don’t tell me about... how it’s a good thing. It doesn’t have to be a good thing. It’s okay to make mistakes! You don’t have to...” Set Sail paused, and lifted her eyes to give Summer a thoughtful once over, “...pretend that you didn’t.”
Summer Scribe nodded again. "Yeah; this isn't what I asked for, either. Things have gone wrong since day one, and we're all lost and confused and fending for ourselves." She'd thought that at most she'd be helping dust off alien artifacts; instead she'd been burdened with much of the responsibility of keeping the expedition together! But nopony could, or should, do that alone.
"So yeah, it's true. I made a mistake. I didn't mean to. Maybe I could've known, maybe I couldn't have. But it's unambiguous: I ordered the factory turned on, and ponies... people suffered for it." The unicorn lowered her head. "I think I had the idea that you wanted me to hyper-focus on how I could have prevented that; I apologise for that too. You really just want me to be mindful in the future. And every situation will be unique, so I need to be thinking of my friends and not just myself."
“Yeah, I suppose,” the mare said in a more subdued tone, glancing aside with ears only slightly back. “I’m not angry at you,” Set Sail said, blushing and adding, “I mean I was, but it’s nobody’s fault here. If you watch out for it in the future, and just... use your smarts, then... it’ll be okay. I dunno. I just wish I could do something for Reef. I don’t mind his uh, tentacle things, but when I was a seapony for a while, when he had to sacrifice himself to save me, those things they were... eating me alive. I’m kind of afraid to touch them again.”
Summer Scribe nodded at that too. "Mmm, me too... I hope we can cool down and figure this out." She thought out loud. "Hmmm, so like, he's not dead. He's not even paralysed, exactly. His body changed, and the downsides are obvious... but maybe he can learn to control it and live with it."
She fumbled for an analogy, "Like how when a pony becomes blind, they learn to navigate with echolocation and they see the world in a different way? Like that kind of thing." She shrugged, "Or maybe it's outright fixable. We still have plenty of avenues of research to investigate: places to explore, people to ask. I don't want to give up hope, and I don't want you to give up hope in me either."
Giving Summer a sad look, Set Sail said in a lost voice, "If you say so. Sometimes I wonder if I even know what hope is. I'll try but just... please..." her pleading look turned to uncertainty, and then embarrassment, blushing and looking away saying, "W-well you know what I want."
Summer Scribe's nod was almost a bow. "Of course: you're the captain, and you make the rules." Then she stood up straight, tilting her head as Set Sail averted her gaze. "Yes, you've made your wishes clear. But please, promise me you won't despair. We're strong together. We've solved worse problems before, and we'll do it again."
“I’ll... I’ll try,” Set Sail said, sagging tiredly. But looking up at Summer with a wan smile, she added, “We are strong together, and I do think we can learn to live in this world, if we get half a chance.”
Summer finally managed a smile. "Yeah, me too. But we'll have to work our hardest: together." A decisive nod. "Is that all?"
Nodding, Set Sail said, "Yeah, that's it. Sorry I... I didn't mean to go all schoolyard bully on you. Are we good for now?" She held out a foreleg.
"Not the first time I've gotten yelled at." She let her tail straighten out before tapping hooves to Set Sail. "All good!"
Smiling genuinely, Set Sail said "Okay then, back to uh, whatever you were doing with the artifacts. And have fun!"
Summer Scribe did indeed plan to get back to 'whatever she was doing'. Gotta come up with a breakthrough somehow! "Thanks! Have a good day yourself!" With that she bowed and trotted out, leaving the pegasus alone in the captain's cabin.
"Do you feel any pain now?"
"No."
"None at all?"
"Well... a little. But not enough."
The unicorn faced off against the strangest of the strange ponies that had been changed by the magic they ran into on their trip through the storm wall. Except for her empty eyes glowing white, and cutie mark of a trisected cloud, Cloud Cutter was purple all over. Reef Skimmer had informed the pegasus very clinically that she still had eyes, they just could not be seen. Right then their unblinking stare was making the white stallion known as Winter Hope feel quite uncomfortable.
The quartermaster drafted as a medic sighed, saying, "Alright, just go easy on it for a while. Besides that, and a nasty rash where the burns were, you seem to be pretty, um... healthy."
"And a broken rib," the pegasus added under her breath.
"What?" Winter asked, flicking his ear.
"Nothing, never mind," Cloud Cutter replied. "I'm fine."
Clashing Gale watched the exchange from his cot, smirking but holding his tongue. The newly turned vampony hadn't yet escaped from Winter's nervous observation.
As for Cloud Cutter, she wasn't doing so well, but still much better than the night before. Bluebell had pushed her dislocated shoulder cleanly pushed back into its socket. The wounds from the goo worms, which had burned like acid even if it was technically some kind of magic, had nearly healed. Her strikingly pale flesh was still exposed in patches, where her purple fur coat had yet to grow back.
The purple pegasus walked away from the medical office with a noticeable limp, trying to stay off her weak leg. She was observed by a certain blue-coated, plum-maned unicorn. Azure Feather had slipped into the sickbay a few minutes earlier, listening to the conversation and watching Cloud Cutter with a pensive stare. Though clearly still injured, her friend was in remarkably good shape considering her condition last night.
"Okay Azure, what can I help you with?" the part-time nurse asked the newcomer.
"Apologies, Winter Hope, but I'm fine... I came to check on how your newly-recovered patient was doing." Azure smiled. "Seems she's quite alright, mostly. So thank you for that, really appreciating you backing us up..." She looked at the door. "...But I really should check on her. Sorry I can't stay." And with that, she was trotting off to catch up with her ally...
Cloud Cutter didn't go far. Her destination was up on the top deck, where she approached the gleaming metallic cage that housed the control assembly for the Storm Piercer Device. She'd gone into this thing with a soft white coat of fur, a striped blue mane, and a lot more excitement than she came out: purple, effectively dead, but somehow not getting the memo that she wasn't supposed to get up and move around.
She caught sight of a flock of small birds from the nearby jungle, perched on the struts: as she neared the cage they all flew away in a sudden squawking fluster. Cloud Cutter watched them flap off towards the treeline, then looked down into the cage itself. Damn... empty. She didn't know where the other purpled ones were; maybe in the equipment bay below? She really needed somepony to talk to right now.
Thankfully, the pegasus didn't have to wait long. "Hey, Cloud Cutter... great to see you back on your hooves again." Azure Feather began. The smile on her muzzle and warm tone of her voice made it clear that she wasn't kidding, but concern leaked into her next words. "You feeling alright? It's been a little while and..." Trailing off, she couldn't help but sigh. "Lots has changed... and most of it not for the better. At least not as far as the Harmony's crew is concerned."
"I'm fine," Cloud Cutter said noncommittally, not looking away from where she lay a hoof on the control cage's gleaming silver filagree, "Reef Skimmer has been acting... strange since the magical catastrophe. Not like himself anymore."
"Not that I can blame him. You take away a hippogriff's ability to transform, remove their ability to fly, then you change them into... some strange tentacled creature... I can't blame him one bit." She sighed again, shaking her head. "I'm just a stupid guard, my relation with medics is usually 'Get me on the field, I'll protect you', not 'I'll help you get over having your hooves become worms'..." She grimaced. "Damn it. Saved all our hides, but..."
Cloud Cutter looked at Azure with something that might have been worry, though her empty eyes were unreadable. "I wasn't there when it all went down," she said, "Ponies have been talking, but I don't really know what happened back there. He was just cut into... three pieces by those things and... still alive somehow. That's all I know, really. What happened to his... What happened back there?"
Azure was quick to reply, though it was not a happy report. "What happened, as I saw it, was a bright flash, and Reef Skimmer took all of the worms, all of that... tangled magical waste product and just fused with it? And the next thing we knew, he became as you see him now. No flight, no transformation... it's as if his life was taken away. I think he became interested in the Water element of this place... or he caught it's interest maybe, and... well, the rest is history, I guess." Going over it again wasn't doing much good for her mental state.
"Nothing happened like that to you, did it?" Cloud Cutter asked Azure almost hopefully, "You've been using a lot of wind related magic lately. But nothing like what happened to him, and..." she looked away, "...us."
"Not... not yet at least." Azure confirmed, a hint of fear creeping into her voice. She was still far more full of worry and uncertainty than any trained guard should be, she thought. "But... it isn't all that bad for you, right? I mean... you've become quite the fighter; just what we need in this place." The unicorn smiled a bit at that... but she knew there were a lot of downsides as well... and that just got her to think. What if she was affected? What would she sacrifice for the sake of her 'Air' abilities?
"I'm not a fighter," Cloud Cutter said unhappily, unconsciously shrinking away from contact with Azure. "I'm just a weather pony. A really good weather pony, who can't even make a spring breeze anymore. The only thing I've become is... deadly to the touch." Closing her eyes, she said, "I'm sorry. Don't mean to burden you with my problems or anything." Then she opened her eyes and glared toward the cargo hold, "Unlike some creatures."
Azure just shook her head again. She was trying to focus on what she saw as the upside... unfortunately, it seemed it was far from positive to Cloud Cutter. Maybe, just maybe, she needed to stop considering things from only her own point of view. "Have you tried to understand what you can do with that magic?"
"How?" Cloud Cutter asked kicking the cage lightly behind her in frustration, "I don't know anything about using magic. The only thing I do is... pull it into me, and then release it. And that kills everything around me. That's why creatures and... ponies don't want to be around me. Even you feel it, I know you do? I... do want to experiment with it, but I can't just go killing innocent little animals to satisfy some morbid curiosity."
Azure gave a little chuckle at that, remembering a recent encounter. "Then it's a good thing this island has its own pests, isn't it? I know you weren't there on that first mission, but... you were certainly there when we exterminated that pit. The one thing this island's never short on: chompies. Plant things every creature hates and no one's going to shed a tear if we whack one or fifty. Come on, let's give you your crash course on your magic."
"Chompies." Cloud Cutter said blankly. "I–I never thought of using chompies. There's so many of them here!"
"C'mon!" Azure repeated, lifting up into the air on her magical butterfly wings. Cloud Cutter spread her own wings, and ascended after the unicorn, feeling sheepish that she hadn't thought of it first, but hopeful. Together, the two glided on over the river and through the woods, coming to a stop on the crossroads between the quarry and the abandoned village.
Searching from there was as simple as clearing away the underbrush, and seeing if anything within it tries to bite your ankles off. Somewhere north of the trail they found it. A bulbous pod attempting to hide there in the greenery, spitting Chompies out at anything that drew near.
"There it is," Cloud Cutter whispered, staring at the thing, "How should I do this? What should I try?"
Finally; back to simple targets one could dispatch with no issues. Azure stared at the pod, before looking to Cloud Cutter. "Well, for one, we know you can assault an area and just... destroy anything in it, but how about something smaller... a blade? Perhaps just focusing the magic into bullets you can fire at an enemy? Maybe you could also just focus on a single enemy and... assault it directly, instead of centring the effect on yourself..." She didn't have much experience with this Cloudbreak magic; perhaps Sunburn could have helped?
"Focus... on the... I can try, I suppose." Cloud Cutter looked at the pod, spreading her wings subconsciously as she concentrated. Her fur began to take on an unreal looking eerie glow of its own, like a badly exposed photograph, the air disturbed like a heat distortion except from that direction, Azure was feeling very cold. "S-stand back, just in case," Cloud Cutter said, squinting and holding out a hoof in that direction.
The strange effect seemed to flow away from her hoof as much as concentrate in it though, like the ancient depths of the sea left dim and unseen for eons. "Okay... bullet!" Cloud Cutter called out, and then with a purple flash, all the greenery around her and the vines overhead withered. "No wait, that didn't work," Cloud Cutter muttered, letting her hoof drop. "I think I felt... something about it going that way though? One more tr—" she seemed to notice she was standing in a small circle of withered, dead grass then, her ears going low.
"Trust me, magic won't work on the first try unless you're an absolute prodigy." Azure Feather said encouragingly. "Or Princess Twilight. Either way, keep at it! You've definitely got the basics, all you need is the right channelling method and you've got this!" Goodness, this almost sounded like her years back in Manehattan, her actual hometown. Already there was a spark of excitement: it felt like Cloud Cutter was almost there!
"Alright, if that's how it's supposed to work," Cloud Cutter said with confidence more characteristic of a young filly than a grown mare; understandable given the circumstances. "Okay I'm going to try it again." Her power once again grew, as she said excitemedly, "C'mon, bullet over there. Bullet over..." That was when Azure noticed Cloud Cutter's shadow... separating from her body, sliding across the surface of the ground as if with a will of its own, heading over to where her foreleg was pointing.
The unicorn couldn't help but stare silently at the display of magic. By Celestia... was she making her shadow into a weapon? She'd once heard a Night Guard or two say that the most damaging strikes were those one didn't see coming, but this... this was something completely different, something she'd not seen in person... yet she would only watch. Even guards could learn new tricks, after all, right?
Uninterrupted, Cloud Cutter focused on her target and... a purple flash burst from her as usual. Azure was about to relax and reassure the other mare that third time would be the charm, when she realised that there was no sign of the other mare, just some sort of purple smoke dissipating from the centre of where the flash had been.
What the— what happened?!" Cloud Cutter's voice called out; the purple pegasus found herself standing directly in front of the chompy pod. A chompy popped out of it, and immediately latched onto her face.
Azure Feather and seen a lot of magic through the years. Beams of energy, balls of flame, lightning bolts, ice storms, she'd seen it all... but nothing like this. The mage of the group just stood there, trying to piece this entire situation together. Her shadow was moving, and then the flash... some kind of teleport; wait a minute, was that smoke...?! "You were literally controlling your shadow, but then..." She tried to cast a quick wind blade to knock the Chompy off her ally, but Cloud Cutter had spread her wings in shock and was blocking the shot.
Well, if the surgical approach wouldn't work, perhaps Azure would have to take a few hits herself. Thankfully, Chompies were still the mindless glass cannons she remembered; a quick hoof strike sent it tumbling to the ground where a wind blade popped it into green goo. More chompies popped out, but they fell easily in turn to Azure's well-placed kicks and wind blades. Her greatest worry was simply not hurting Cloud Cutter by accident. Soon they were all destroyed, except for one lucky nuisance which had been shot further than the rest and managed to latch onto her side.
It seemed Cloud Cutter's greatest concern was friendly fire as well. She managed to zap the thing off her ally with a little purple flash, but the chill leeched into Azure too, leaving the butterfly-winded mare with a slight disorientation as though someone had struck her on the head.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Cloud Cutter declared, racing away from the chompy pod, shortly followed by the blue unicorn, until the two were at a safe distance. A couple of chompies managed to followed but they were easily squashed.
Azure looked rather surprised after the retreat, giving Cloud Cutter a long look. "The best Night Guards can usually strike without being seen, but... literally being able to control your shadow to strike... or teleport with perfect accuracy. Goodness, just when I thought I'd seen it all...!" She chuckled softly... "You faring okay?"
A laugh burst out of Cloud Cutter herself, as she said, "I walked right into my own demise, at the teeth of a chompy. My face hurts," Noticeably less worried than before, she looked at Azure and said, "I really do think I am faring okay. What was that about my shadow, though?"
"Your body's shadow was detached from your body. You were literally controlling it. Strike while in that state and your enemy will never see it coming. Goodness... I think only Princess Luna herself could pull that trick... if even she can." Azure looked genuinely impressed by the display.
Cloud Cutter actually blinked at that. "I was?" she asked in disbelief, "I was just trying to shoot the chompy pod, over there. So I uh, shot over there." Her ears did not rise at Azure's praise though, and instead the pegasus looked off grumbling, "Great. Another way to kill ponies faster. At least it's not killing everything around me." With a fixed smile Azure's way, Cloud Cutter said, "I think you're right. My abilities might be more than I imagined, even if they're all just... death."
Azure sighed and shook her head. There was a more positive way of seeing it, but again... Cloud Cutter wasn't a fighter. She didn't want to be. And as such, she remained silent at that, realizing that while some creatures have advantages in battle... not all are keen on using them.
"Well, I suppose death is something to be expected, with a pony like myself," Cloud Cutter said grimly, "I wonder if I can do it without trying to kill something though."
The pair retreated to the quarry for further experimentation, where the exposed rock pit made things much easier to see. Cloud Cutter concentrated on a distant spot, this time glancing downward to see her shadow rushing away from her, obvious in the sharp contrast cast by the unfiltered sunlight. "You're right! It—" she said before abruptly skipping about two metres in front of herself in a double poof of spooky purple smoke (maybe not quite as spooky out in the afternoon sun). "Woah," she said, disoriented.
Azure nodded as her initial hypothesis was proven correct. "Teleportation. Similar to that purple dragon, except... I didn't see her shadow move. If you can control your shadow enough to strike with it directly... very useful. Worth practicing." She stated, while keeping in mind the notion of her ally not wanting to fight. There was no sense in pushing too hard. "I'm not sure even the princess of the night could do that."
"Shadow Strike sounds better than my idea," Cloud Cutter remarked, looking herself over and finding herself in less than ideal, but not adversely affected form, "Spectral teleportation. Come on let's see how far away I can do it!"
The two danced around the quarry for some time, with Cloud Cutter grudgingly agreeing to follow up her teleport move with a simple wing blade attack, for 'self-defence' of course. No other strange new abilities manifested during that time but it was a lot of fun. Finally Cloud Cutter said laughingly, "Okay okay, I don't have to do this all day. So strange how natural it feels. I never dreamed I'd be casting real magic one day. It must be silly to see me excited about such a thing for you. I bet you cast magic like this all the time."
Azure Feather chuckled weakly... but soon shook her head. "Nothing so impressive, at least until I got here. Definitely not teleportation. There's a reason I'm so low-ranking in the Lavender Blades - they're a new division of the guard, they'll take anypony who's willing to fight to protect the Princess." She paused, shaking her head.
"Too much time buried in books; that's how I learned all I know about magic. That and sticking to my dream. Lot of good that did me, look at me now, foreign land, can't understand the slightest bit about the magic they have here, and... I'm just the stupid guard anyway. Only here because I'm basically cannon fodder to the Blades." Azure practically spat out the last part in frustration.
"Why would being good at magic make you high-ranking in the guard?" Cloud Cutter asked cluelessly. Perhaps not so cluelessly when she added, "Oh, I suppose it could be an advantage in combat. But I thought unicorns learned magic for other reasons. Did the guard require you to read those books or something?"
"I read them because I wanted to learn. Back when I was young and stupid. Back when I thought all you needed was books and a few good friends. The truth is, unless you're Princess Twilight? No, friendship isn't all that it's cracked up to be."
Cloud Cutter toed the rocky ground demurely, saying cautiously, "Sounds like you went through a lot. Nothing bad ever happened to me while I was young. Top of my class in weather management. That's why I was picked to operate the Storm Piercer. It's sad that we can't all be so lucky."
Azure seemed about to reply, but instead bit her lip and shook her head. Finally she smiled weakly and said "Yeah. Didn't have half that amount of luck. Congrats, though. Takes a lot of talent to be top of the class."
"Not much use now," Cloud Cutter shrugged, "My luck ran out a little later in life, I guess. As in a couple of weeks back. I'm just mourning that you didn't get a chance to learn more before things went bottom up. You helped me so much, I thought you might've learned a few things, before the guard you know... helped you become the pony you are today."
"Oh, I learned quite a few things, not just basic combat magic, weapons, tactics..." Azure started. "Mainly what I said earlier about friendship." Another long pause, before she looked back to Cloud Cutter. "I had a whole group of friends, you know. Good ones, or so I thought. Tried helping them as much as I could, but it didn't help. Lost 'em all... then joined the guard. At least there's some pride in saying that your job is to defend the Princess of Friendship, you know?"
"It is something to be proud of, that's for sure," Cloud Cutter said with a sad smile, "I can sort of relate though. Clouds are what I'm good with, and they don't make the best of friends. I suppose your friends just... didn't like you enough? Like they moved on to go do other things, and be friends with other ponies?"
"...I don't know. I really couldn't tell you. I suppose it's entirely possible, you know? Who wants to be friends with a bookworm that wants to fly, but can only manage... this?" Her conjured wings spread slightly as if to emphasize, as she seemed rather low on morale. "That's... just what's happened."
"Well... I wouldn't mind being friends with a pony like that," Cloud Cutter said, looking shyly the other way. A far cry from the avatar of death she was at her most deadly, "It's a little late, I know."
"I... do apologise, though." Azure admitted, turning a bit to the side. "I got a bit too... excited, when it came to your abilities... didn't really think of how the pony wielded them felt about the matter." She tapping the ground with a front hoof. "No... it's not too late." she concluded, allowing a tiny bit of warmth back into her voice.
Holding out a forehoof before the other pony, Cloud Cutter said hopefully, "May as well do one more test, to see if I'm safe to touch without doing the thing."
"Sounds like a darn plan if ever there was one." Azure nodded, stepping forward to shake hooves with the Undead-elemental-pony without hesitation. Surely she'd learned how to control the energy drain, even if it she was still working on the shadow strike. Surely her ally would be safe now, right?
The other mare's arm felt neither cool nor warm to Azure, but what was warm was how Cloud Cutter's smile grew as she realised that this final test worked after all. Perhaps things might turn out okay somehow, when somepony like this was ready to stand with her. Whether chasing death, or chasing life.
MAGIBUBBLE (r) MANA-ENRICHED LIFESTYLE BEVERAGE RANGE
Fire Cherry Red : By concentrating, can cause part of body to light on fire, harmless to user.
Candle-sized flame on a hoof tip : lasts for 20 minutes cumulative use
Torch-sized flame on a lower leg : lasts for 3 minutes cumulative use
The Nirik Experience (tm) : lasts for 30 seconds cumulative use
May also burp flames. Effect wears off after half an hour regardless.
Minty Fresh White : By concentrating, can cause water the user is touching to freeze.
With some practice this is controllable to create ice cubes, snow balls, even ice sculptures.
Total amount of water that can be frozen is two to ten litres depending on ambient temperature.
This can freeze living flesh (causing frostbite) but it takes prolonged firm contact.
User resists cold although not completely. Effect wears off after half an hour regardless.
Magibubble Classic Cola : User's weight is reduced to about 2% of normal. Inertia is not affected.
Tendency to burp huge bubbles. Effect wears off after about 15 minutes.
Super Bounce Orange : Kinetic energy is conserved with 95% efficiency on all physical contact with user,
i.e. the user's body and all surfaces in contact with it behave like super bouncy rubber.
Also imparts a moderate resistance to bruising and concussion, usually sufficient to
avoid any injuries. Effect wears off after 10 to 20 minutes depending on amount of contact.
Grape Stompin' Purple : User grows to twice their normal size and eight times their normal strength & weight.
Clothing is usually affected although this isn't entirely reliable, especially if spiked.
Effect wears off after about ten minutes; gradually shrink back down to normal size.
Crystal Citrus Clear : User slowly fades from sight until they're invisible.
User becomes instantly visible if they engage in hard physical contact or close proximity to other magic, before fading out again over a few seconds.
Effect slowly wears off after about five minutes; user becomes translucent then progressively more solid.
Note: effects sometimes stack when multiple bottles are drunk in quick succession but this is not reliable.
MAGIBUBBLE (r) EXTREME MANA INFUSION (tm) BEVERAGE RANGE
for release this summer, sampling now!
Playful Blueberry Blue : By touching water (or similar fluid) and concentrating, a portion of the water is animated into a cat-sized creature of the user's design.
These 'cola familiars' are playful, will loosely obey mental commands from the user, and last about 10 minutes before splashing back into water.
Total amount of fluid that can be animated about ten to twenty litres.
Tea Garden Green : By touching a plant and concentrating, user can make it grow and/or reshape.
With practice some plants can be temporarily animated, causing them to 'dance', sway etc.
Effect lasts about twenty minutes.
WARNING WARNING CROSS-CONTAMINATION HAS RESULTED IN DANGEROUS ANIMATE MAGICAL WASTE - R&D are working on the problem, in the mean time follow approved containment procedures as necessary.
The morning gathering - the circle of ponies and friends on the deck of the Harmony - was starting to become a well-practiced ritual. Set Sail stood alongside Gustus, Grenelda, Azure and the researcher Summer Scribe. Reef Skimmer was... not present this time due to extenuating circumstances. Also attending were curious deckhands, their quartermaster and now interim 'doctor' Winter Hope, Cloud Cutter and her purple companion Silver Frost.
At the rear of the group, looking around nervously, stood the current interim chief of engineering: a cream-furred unicorn mare by the name of Sprocket. Finally there was the big flame-feathered phoenix-dragon; the crew gave their strange visitor a wide berth, but still included him in the circle. The avian Skylander stood quietly and confidently, regarding the group with perhaps idle curiosity, watching to see what the social dynamic of the colourful little equines would be.
"We're running into a few hurdles, I know," Set Sail, the third-mate-now-captain said, "Reef Skimmer is... doing his best to deal with that magical catastrophe at the water temple - it affected him the worst. But he's alive, we're all alive, and we all still have each other. We can't rest on our laurels and wait for the drow to discover us though, so we're still going to need... explorers, who might have to risk running into more dangerous situations."
"There are two things we might investigate that could help get us into better shape. There are creatures called land sharks; I know, the name doesn't fill me with confidence, but they are known for their skilled machinery, so they might be able to help us. They're also known for... really high costs. We could try visiting them, or we could try to approach the griffons of this land."
"According to the gillmen, the griffons have some sort of a temple dedicated to the Air element, that we could freely visit... though it may only be reachable by those of us who can fly. So... any other things we should consider doing, while we wait for Nutmeg and Gearshift to return with the Skylanders?"
Summer Scribe kept side-eying Sunburn. She couldn't help but think: didn't this open up a ton of possibilities? They could go wherever they wanted with little fear of a nasty combat outcome - or leave him at home and have a surefire (ha) defence against Drow raids. "I think the main point of contention should be whether we take Sunburn with us on our expeditions or leave him at home on defence. The benefits of both are self-evident: which one do we want more?"
"What, are you going to pack him up in a suitcase?" Set Sail asked the unicorn in amused disbelief. Her amusement lessened as Summer just stared back at her cluelessly.
Azure trotted over to stand by Sunburn's side - if they were going to be a unit, going into battle, then they should stand together... and heck, there was something about him... The winged unicorn shook her head before speaking out: "I don't have any other suggestions, but..." she sighed "...what do I know, I'm just the stupid guard. As for Sunburn... I think it would be better to ask him, don't you? Both where he wants to be placed and where we could go. I'm positive he knows this place far better than any of us." She turned to the dragon, eager to hear his thoughts.
At Azure's words, Set Sail gave a relieved smile, saying, "Yes, Sunburn is welcome to come with us on our expeditions, or to stay her and help defend our base, and he'd be very appreciated either way, but it's his decision what he does. We need to decide what we're going to do." She finally met the creature's gaze; his sharp beak and fierce eyes reminded her of Reef. "Sunburn, given that you know much more than us about this world, I'm curious what you think we should do next."
The phoenix-dragon cocked his head, staring at the ponies for a while before answering "Our code was always protect the good guys, then blow up the bad guys. Always did enjoy that last part more, but can't skip the vegetables and go to straight to the dessert, as Master Eon would've put it." His beak hung half-open to admit a dry chuckle, while his gaze ranged over the ponies and settled on the brown pegasus, who seems to he the leader. "You're seriously asking me?"
Now it was Set Sail's turn to blink cluelessly, saying, "Um... you don't have to answer if you don't want. But yes, we ponies are very new to this world, and we could really use the advice of an experienced dragon like yourself."
Summer Scribe nodded in agreement. "That's quite true; maybe if we bring you up to speed with our current goals and troubles, you can offer your expertise on them?"
Azure couldn't help but chuckle at the dragon's comparison of vegetables and dessert to defence and offense. "To be fair, Sunburn... you're like the all-star to a squad that's needed one. Or at least, that's how I feel about you being here. But Summer's got a point..."
The feathery dragon seemed surprised, but unconcerned about being the centre of attention. Fixing Summer with a stare, he said: "Huh. So... a drow base is a tough nut to crack, 'specially when they've have time to dig in." Turning to Azure, he shrugged his wings. "Appreciate the vote of confidence, but you'll want as much intel, as many allies as you can get for that assault." He looked away and sighed.
Summer Scribe looked nervous at the prospect. "I don't know if we want to go as far as attacking a drow base, especially if it's as hard as you say it is. We really just need them to not mess with us! An allegiance with someone they fear would do the trick, say."
Sunburn frowned; a showdown between the ponies and the dark elves seemed inevitable. Maybe they weren't ready to hear that? "Either way, it'll be a hard sell. Seems like trolls already hit the place a while back, bailed once the threat to their interests was eliminated. Got bigger things to worry about than cleaning up some fringe pirates."
"Dirt Sharks, they're mercenaries: takes a lot of gold to get their loyalty and it only lasts 'til your money runs out. Griffons, solid fighters," a curt nod to Grenelda, "but they mostly care about keeping their nests safe, staying outta the real conflicts best they can. Even Spyro couldn't convince 'em otherwise."
Azure shook her head a little at that. "So far, we've have a hard time finding native currency. So an alliance with the sharks seems... unlikely at best, impossible at worst. Griffons... good to hear they can fight, but..."
"When we fought 'em, the drow wouldn't stop going on about how they love capturing griffons," Grenelda interrupted, "I bet the griffon's'd kick their asses given half a chance."
"Agreed." Azure nodded to the griffon hen. "But if the Skylander leader can't convince them, how can we?"
Grenelda just shrugged at that. Set Sail ended up answering for her, saying, "We can at least visit their temple. The gillmen were saying that the griffons who came this way went to a temple, before the drow ensured they wouldn't come this way. If we could reach it, we might be able to learn more. We're not the Skylanders, but... maybe they're not looking for Skylanders? We might have something to contribute, at least."
"These drow are a pirate clan, right?" Sunburn said, cocking his head. "Scavengers. Won't be looking for shock troops, not for themselves. Must be either selling the griffons on, or maybe running an arena? Still good coin in that, even these days. If they've got prisoners, you could sell it as a rescue. Prove they're holding chicks, no griffon would refuse." He snorted, making two tiny plumes of fire shoot out of the holes at the top of his beak. "Sharks... maybe they'd go for plunder. Factor in the money they're losing from raids? ...dunno. Whirlwind could tell you if there was profit in it for them."
Summer Scribe made a face at the thought of the drow trafficking in griffons and forcing creatures to fight in arenas. How barbaric! "I see where you're going with that: it'd be more than just defence at that point, it'd be about revenge!" She thumped a hoof on the floor for emphasis. "That seems like a strong angle to go for... but I suppose we'd need hard proof, and a rapport with the griffons." She nodded to Set Sail: "Maybe we should visit that temple you mentioned?"
"Alright, the temple then," Set Sail agrees, "Now, I don't know much about it. But we have a location, and the um... brochure says that anypony... any creature may visit it. So it's not limited to flyers or anything, but I assume an Air temple is going to involve a lot of cloud-based architecture. So anyone who comes with, and... yes I plan on going there, to see about opening relations with the griffons. But anypony who plans on coming with me should keep that in mind, if they aren't a flyer."
Azure had quieted down, lacking a strong opinion on where they should head next. In her eyes, she was only there to keep the crew safe: she'd go wherever they went. That said... if this temple was linked to the same 'Air' force that had seeped into her magic, well... Thoughts of what had happened to Reef Skimmer occupied her mind, and any creature that looked at her closely would sense her unease about the whole situation.
Apparently that did not include Summer Scribe; oblivious to the other unicorn's concerns, she nodded to Set Sail. "Sounds like our best shot; I'd love to come along, unless..." she scraped a hoof on the deck nervously "...you want me somewhere else." The captain might still be upset about the cola factory incident.
"Hey Captain" Sprocket spoke up. "You planning on flying the copter? Imagine you are, 'cause going by that map, it'd take all day on wing. Second Chance should make it, but..." The unicorn held up her hoof and tipped it back and forth. "...you know the crystals were completely drained after that second trip to the fishy guy's island? Worse case, you might have to set down somewhere, top her up with a little campfire."
"That's fine, thanks Sprocket," Set Sail said unflinchingly, "We can make sure to bring some real fuel along to do it with." Set Sail then turned to face the male griffon among the deckhands, saying "I don't suppose you could come with, Gustus? It might help if the griffons see we have something in common."
Gustus gave an enthusiastic nod. "Exactly what I was thinking. And if you think I'll make a decent representative of Equestria, then I'm honoured to accept!" He flourished his wings and gaves a bow, looking excited at the prospect of new places and new griffs.
"Sounds good, Gustus. Glad to have you on this squad..." Azure stated, discomfort tinging her voice as she shook her head a little. Would the Lieutenant feel like this? No. She would stick to her duty, no matter what. It was time for her to do the same... no matter how dangerous the place might be for her.
"Hey what about me?" Grenelda said irritably, "I'm not just gonna-"
Set Sail looked her way, saying cooly: "This is a diplomatic expedition. You can stay here and defend the home base, and you won't have to say anything that might not come out right, and get griffons angrier than you wanted."
Folding her scaly forelegs, Grenelda said, "Just because... fine. Whatever. But if anything happens to Gustus, it's all on you."
Set Sail's ears went down at that, but she said, "T-thank you."
Gustus placed a foreclaw on Grenelda's shoulder, saying kindly: "I'm sure the ponies will feel safer with you guarding the base, defending against any drow attacks that come by. I'll see you again soon."
With the griffoness mollified, Set Sail turned to Azure Feather. A moment of silence, then in a neutral tone: "...do you want to pass on going to the Air temple, Azure?"
The unicorn's butterfly wings fluttered involuntarily, but she shook her head. "There's no place for fear, not when we're backed into a corner like this. Hay, if Reef hadn't been there at the Water Temple, how many creatures would have made it back from that mission?" A long pause; the all knew the answer full well. "And now what if the same happens at the Air Temple?" Less of a pause, as she knew that answer too. "I'm going."
"Alright, but take care of yourself," Set Sail said to Azure, with a look of worry that might go beyond just the Air temple. "Don't feel obliged to open any seals or do anything," she advised uncertainly, "Even if it feels like a good idea."
Summer Scribe's expression was anxious and a little frustrated; she muttered "do we really think something bad is going to happen at EVERY temple?" She had to admit though: the Cloudbreak Islands have been pretty consistently dangerous... and she'd feel safer with Azure in the team.
Smiling at the little unicorn, Set Sail said, "Yes, exactly! If something bad happened at EVERY temple, then those creatures wouldn't be flocking to visit them, or using them for protection. I want to think that... it was those worms that did this to Reef, not the water park. So whatever this Air magic might want with Azure, no reason to think that it'd be anything like what happened to Reef Skimmer."
Summer still looked a little nervous, but nodded. "Yeah; like, if it's in active use, that cuts down on the odds of it being a death trap substantially, I'd hope?"
"Uh, I can just... watch the engine, right?" Sprocket says nervously. Before Set Sail can object she says "Captain, it's gotta be me, you're pushing her to the limit, what if something breaks loose! If we lose you... a-all of you on the copter, I-I mean" she stammered "...we're done for! I'll just.. stay with the copter." she finished quietly, in the dark about exactly what had happened on the last trip and wondering if that was for the best.
At Sprocket's worry, Set Sail gave her a surprised look saying, "Sure, no problem? For all I know it'll be another amusement park. Might even have a gift shop. If there's anything dangerous, just keep yourself safe, and watch over the engine, and I'm happy."
"You really think it has a gift shop?" Sprocket said cluelessly. "That's be great!" Looking away, she muttered "Two weeks to go and I have no idea what I'm gonna get for Gearshift."
'Huh', Summer thought 'a gift shop actually would be pretty useful, ironically enough, from an archaeological perspective...'
"I'm not taking anything for granted anymore." Azure said. "Thank Celestia we at least found one group of allies. But beyond that..." She shook her head. "We'll see, but I'm not getting my hopes up." Summer, Set Sail and Gustus would be coming with her, and she looked to each in turn... but who else?
Sunburn had been watching Azure since she mentioned her Air affinity; he gave Reef Skimmer a run for his money in intense stares. "You think I can help with the mission? Then I'm there." he stated.
"Then I'll see you there. Thank you!" Set Sail told him gratefully. Looking around at the crowd, she said, "Everyone coming to the Air temple, meet at the copter in an hour. The rest of you, meeting's over I guess. Thanks and take care!"
Cloud Cutter had been listening silently the whole time. As the crew dispersed, Set Sail hurried over to the purple pegasus, telling her urgently: "Wait! There was something I needed to ask you..."
It didn't take long to load up the repurposed drow copter. Sprocket inserted the thermal crystals, which had been soaking up heat from the Harmony's fire boxes all night, and declared the engine good to go. Food and emergency fuel dropped into the cargo pit, Set Sail took the controls and the four other passengers arranged themselves around the little ship.
Sunburn immediately went to inspect the weapons, before scoffing at the non-magical, completely ordinary harpoon launchers. If it came to an air battle, they'd be fighting on wing, he concluded. With all in readiness, the intermeshing rotors spun up and little ship lifted off, buzzing out of the meadow while the crew left behind waved hooves in farewell. Each was quietly hoping or praying that this trip would turn out better than the last one.
The flight took hours, travelling in a great arc to keep well clear of the shattered islets ringing the drow base. The acting captain guided the Second Chance southwest, west, then northwest, passing near the glittering, serpentine form of the sky river. All seemed well there, and even Sprocket ducked out of the engine room to watch the beautiful, verdant island chain slip past. They continued north, heading straight towards what at first glance appeared to be a cloud formation, holding steady despite the gusting breeze. As they approached grey shadows appeared, buried inside; it was clear this was a field of enormous floating boulders, shrouded in fog.
Set Sail was forced to slow the craft, threading it through the three-dimensional aerial maze, as Gustus with his keen eagle eyes perched on the bow, shouting back directions. The air temperature dropped noticeably as droplets began to condense on the copter's deck and hull, not to mention the fur and feathers of the passengers. Nothing could be seen but grey mist and the masses of rock drifting in and out of sight as the copter proceeded. Set Sail was beginning to seriously worry about getting lost when at last, the mist cleared to reveal the centre of the formation.
The temple was an enormous assemblage of columns, pediments, spindly towers and flying bridges, rising for tier after tier, supported and anchored by numerous masses of raw rock built into and under the structure. Like a web of white marble architecture, forming halls and courtyards through which wind and wisps of cloud could flow. On close inspection it was clear the structure had seen better days; even from this distance, the cracks snaking up the exteriors, moss-covered roofs and occasional toppled column betrayed the lack of anyone to maintain it. Nonetheless, it was an impressive sight, sitting within its ring of clouds like a minature, much less violent version of the storm wall ringing the realm beyond.
"Oh right. Ground floats here..." Set Sail murmured, staring captivated at the approaching temple as she gently guided the craft on a slow approach.
Azure remained silent as they approached the air temple. She was convinced the success or failure of this mission depended entirely on her... and the results of the last mission offered her absolutely no reassurance this one would go better. The saving graces? Sunburn's presence, and her friends were here. At least, most of them... Cloud Cutter and Reef Skimmer still on the injured list. At least they would stick together this time. The temple was clearly disused, making her thing back to Summer's words. Was it just a death trap?
Summer Scribe's reaction couldn't be more different: her overall wonder quickly gave way to fascination with all the architectural details. "Amazing! It looks a little like a cross between Canterlot Castle and Cloudsdale Forum, yet there's a sense of ethereal wonder about it..." She twirled her quill for a moment as she composed her notes, "Though it looks like it's another relic of the past. Interesting!"
"Used to be a lot of this in Skylands." Sunburn reminisced. "In times of peace, you can afford philosophy. Like wrapping climate or combustion or whatever in a pretty box of koans and metaphors. These days... not many creatures got the time for it, or see the use in it." His manner was dismissive, but there was an undertone of regret and loss.
"Are the griffons not coming here anymore?" Set Sail asked, worried, while looking for a safe place to perch the copter somewhere on the building. Perhaps one of those balconies would be big enough? "This place looks deserted!"
Summer frowned. "It's a shame to hear about what's happened to this place! I only wish that your lands can see as much peace and prosperity as ours in the future," she consoled Sunburn.
"Funny how much battle and war change outlooks, isn't it? Damned drow..." Azure muttered, shaking her head.
"Heh." Sunburn seemed amused by Azure's view of the world. "If only it was just drow, or even trolls or cyclopses... like it was in the beginning. Those guys were pushovers compared to..." The dracogriff clicked his beak, apparently not wanting to scare the ponies with tales of whatever he was genuinely afraid of.
"Oh wow, uh... that looks like marble, but it can't be, the tension on that bridge there alone... huh." Sprocket said, her voice trailing off as she fell to staring at one grand and improbable piece of architecture after another. "So, where do you think the gift shop- hey, is that... another ship?" The unicorn pointed a hoof at the lower reaches of the structure. Sure enough, a red, cigar-shaped balloon could be spotted drifting along some way from one of the plazas, with a gondola slung beneath.
"Oh, is that another ship... it is!" Summer called out; it looked like they might have company after all. "If it's not too much trouble... can we check it out?" she asked.
"Exercise caution, whatever happens. We don't know any creature here, and as always, we have no idea if they'll be hostile to us, even if we do have Sunburn here." Azure cautioned. Sure, it was certainly getting old to hear her repeat what was nearly the same thing every time, but it was worth repeating: you only had to let your guard down once for disaster to strike.
"Their hull was troll crafted. No markings... could be civilians, could be raiders, could be spies." Sunburn said, to nopony in particular.
"There are spies here??" Set Sail whispered anxiously. "Hah, nice one. ...you're serious?" Another inscrutable stare; it was a times like this the brown pegasus wished she could read griffon expressions better.
"Let's land this first," she said, thinking of the unicorn engineer, "I don't want to have to carry Sprocket back, and we don't want anyone mixing us up for the drow. Though I doubt the drow would paint their vessel with pink hearts and yellow flowers. We can investigate that other ship on wing."
The copter coasted around the temple, her pilot looking with trepidation at a dark yawning portal at the base of the largest dome... must be the main entrance. At last, Set Sail's eyes settled on a nice out-of-the-way balcony off to one side, that looked sturdy enough. Slowly easing the throttle, she brought the drow copter to a quiet rest on the pale, weathered flagstones. Once down, Sprocket ducked into the engine bay, busying herself with closing valves and preserving the energy in the crystals.
Azure's eyes were on the dark portal at the entrance to the temple... oh, if there was anything more unsettling about this entire mission, she just found it. Only thing worse was the prospect of spies... Sunburn hadn't said who or what they were spying for, but it couldn't be anything good. The ex-guard began bracing herself for combat...
Meanwhile Summer Scribe was amusing herself with the thought of shameless drow springing ambushes out of pink and yellow heart-decorated airships. I mean, if it works, it works, right? Hopefully their pride would rule it out though. "W-wait... Spies?" Summer Scribe looks nervous as well at the thought. Why can't things be easy?
Set Sail tried to figure out how to convince Sunburn that yes she's serious, saying, "I just don't see what there is to spy on. No offense."
"Every faction is looking for any advantage they can get. Intel, artefacts, supplies, conscripts." Sunburn explained, as if to foals. "The open fighting comes in bursts, sure, but the conflict never stops, not really. It's just... less obvious."
That did seem to satisfy the pegasus, as she smiled, saying "That does make more sense, thank you. We don't know much about this land. I suppose we'll learn more about what factions there are, and then maybe spying will make sense."
Gustus clicked his beak, looking mildly unsettled. "So, there are definitely griffons here, right? I'm going to feel a bit sheepish if I came out here just to admire the architecture, but it's fine; if you didn't know, I mean..."
Gustus's words caught on the captain's ear; she turned to him saying "Yes, at this point anything goes. Just keep your eyes and ears out with the rest of us. We'll know better what we're going to do once we get inside this place. I think... approaching the strange ship might not be a good idea. Abernathy is nice and all, but to hear him go on about his brothers... well, I don't want to take chances at this point. First sign of danger, we're back on the copter and into the fog."
From Azure, a weary sigh. "Listen, everyone. We have our choice of danger here. I don't know about you, but 'Approaching unknown ship' sounds just a bit safer than 'entering black portal leading to old, unused, ruined temple'. Even if it is my element. And if they are enemies... better to know that sooner than later. So... pick one." she stated.
Summer Scribe started to sweat. Did she really have to make both options sound so terrible? But... she guessed it was 'better safe than sorry' from now on. "It's going to be quick, right? Get close, try and figure out if it's friend or foe, and then commit or retreat?"
"I just don't want to make trouble where we don't have to," Set Sail said furtively, "If we don't bother them, they can get about their business, and we'll both be on our way."
Sunburn watches the ponies debate impassively. When they seemed to come to an impasse, he nodded to Azure. "Unwise to leave enemies in your line of retreat. Particularly if you're attached to this copter."
"Attached to this...?" Set Sail replied, looking up at the creature, then off into space thoughtfully. Then realisation dawned in her eyes, and she facehooved, saying "They might steal the copter."
Azure Feather turned to Sunburn; when you don't know what to do, and the actually experienced fighters speak up? You listen to them. "Ship first, then. Sunburn knows this place and its people more than anyone, and really? I believe it if he says we might lose the copter if we don't take care of this loose end first. But... who knows. They may be allies." she concluded, flapping up into the air and heading over to the edge of the balcony, looking down to try and catch a glimpse of the other ship.
"Huh... yeah, I think Sunburn's the authority, here: if that's his concern then I totally believe him," Summer said. She remembered when her job was nice and simple - just her and some nice relics! Now it seemed like military tactics all the time.
The phoenix dragon cocked his head at the ponies (and griffon), as if to say 'why did this require so much talking?', then took wing, hovering in open air some way past Azure and waiting to see who would join him.
"Oh, you want to go check it out?" Set Sail asked, as Sunburn seemed to do just that. "Sure, if you wouldn't mind. But don't think you need to be a hero for us. If they're dangerous, then we'll all just leave, and come back at another time. I suppose you and Azure could do some... reconnaissance, while the rest of us see what's inside this place?"
Gustus waves a claw. "I suppose if we're checking it out, I should come too? Just in case it is a griffon airship and we need to defuse hostilities. Seems smart to me!"
Dropping away from the balcony, the three flying scouts swooped down through the outer parts of the air temple. They wove through crumbling columns and glided over reflecting pools now choked with weeds, spiralling around to approach the area where the airship had appeared. Sunburn took the lead, confidently streaking through the elegant ruins, with Gustus following behind with somewhat more effort and Azure fluttering at the rear. After a couple of minutes of cautious descent, eyes peeled for any sign of landed enemies, the unknown vessel came into view.
It was a modest sized, classically designed airship, with a steel-framed wooden gondola perhaps twice the size of the Second Chance hanging from netting below a long red balloon. A few tiny shapes flapped erratically around the ship; birds perhaps, while on the deck green humanoids could be seen moving about. 'Drow' - the thought immediately popped into Azure's head, but these creatures were a head taller... wait, their heads... could they even be called that? Each possessed a single giant eyeball held within a gaping, distended mouth, twitching and staring.
As the ship slowly cruised along, some way off from the ruins, a purple spear of light lanced out from the vessel's side, crackling with energy as it raked a section of the temple's rocky foundations. Azure's eye was immediately drawn to the impact site, where she caught a glimpse of a green-feathered shape ducking back behind a column. It seemed the shot missed... but there were a lot more of the tiny flapping shapes down there, swarming and swooping out of sight into the ruins, as if making attack runs on something concealed within. In the shadow of the massive structure above, their bodies seemed to glow with tiny, purple lights.
"Unidentified creatures... two types. Large green ones and smaller purple flyers." Azure stated grimly, after having her first look at these... creatures. If they can even be called as such. "And more on the ship... one-eyed bipeds. There's... something wrong. Very wrong." She concluded... tensing up. Oh, she damn well knew this mission relied on her. Things... were already looking bad and they weren't even inside...
Gustus cowered at the sight and sound of the flashing brilliant beam. "Oh! Oh no! Uhh, it's not too late for me to scramble back, is it?" he panted.
"Kaosians!" Sunburn hissed. "Reformers at that. Trust me, you do not want to get hit by that purple beam." Ignoring Gustus, he gestured with a claw to Azure. "I'll take the ship, you check out their target. Probably trying to convert civilians; can you handle the bats?"
"Bats?" Azure replied. "Can try! Gustus, you with me?" she asked the griffon, hoping to have at least some backup while keeping these blasted bats at bay. It must be twenty against one, or more... this wasn't looking good and she could use an ally. What were these 'chaos' things anyway? Creations of Discord? Who knew...
Gustus looked nervous, but nodded, ready to follow the unicorn's instructions. "Alright, I've got your back... uh, lead the way?"
"Good." Sunburn said. "Don't get into their firing arc until they're busy with me! Understood?" At Azure's nod the dracogriff flew off, arcing around towards the far side of the airship, opposite the abandoned temple. At least one lookout was still posted because as soon as he got into clear skies a cry went up, the eyeball-faced crew swarming around, readying crossbows and other less-identifiable devices.
"That didn't take long..." Azure muttered, keeping an eye on the stabbing beam as fluttered toward the 'bats', the butterfly-winged unicorn looking less and less sure as she prepared to engage. "Don't try to be a hero, Gustus, if there are too many, we always have the option to retreat!" True, she had her new Air magic... but would it be enough?
Gustus's nerves only got worse as he glided down behind Azure, reassured only by the presence of two much more experienced fighters. "Of course! Don't need to tell me twice, heheh..."
The creatures were each the size of a fox, and there must have been two dozen of them whirling about, screeching and diving at unseen targets. Up close it was clear that their dark bodies were covered in glowing purple crystals, and each screech consisted of not just sound but a wave of purple magic. Intent on their prey, they pay little attention to Azure... Gustus was another story. A bat pulling up from an attack saw him dead ahead and streaked straight toward him, screeching its furry little head off.
Gustus gulped as he locked eyes with the furious crystal-infested bat, adjusting his trajectory to cower behind Azure! "A little assistance, please?"
That purple magic... Azure hoped it wasn't on a par with what Cloud Cutter wielded, but it certainly looked dangerous. "Damn it, twenty to one was close enough..." Quickly she gathered magic to her horn and took a shot at the creature. The air blade nailed the unsuspecting bat in the face, causing it to spin wildly out of control and flutter to the ground. Several pieces of purple crystal cracked off, but plenty more remained, and the thing was definitely still alive. Its mewling cries draw several more bats, swirling out of the tunnels and crevices to converge on Azure.
Azure nodded as that bat went down... still, they looked pretty durable. She looked to Gustus: "You're gonna have to cover me. If we have to fight these one by one, they'll swarm us... and it feels like they're a lot more dangerous than the propeller birds were... can you do that?"
Gustus gulped. "Very well, I'll fight with you to the best of my capacity!" Claws stretched out and wings flared, he prepared for the worst. In the distance he caught a glimpse of Sunburn, a red and yellow shape heading straight for the enemy ship before disappearing in a flash of flame, just before green bolts of magic had a chance to drill into him.
The lime-green-feathered, yellow-beaked head poked out from behind the support column again, quickly spotting the newcomers and letting out a squawk of alarm. It looked more like a hippogriff than a griffon, what with the size, the bright colouration and the ear tufts, though it lacked the characteristic crest.
"I don't need long!" Azure cried, charging up her magic for a more powerful spell. As she saw the bats aiming for her, she hovered back, keeping as much distance as she could. Thank goodness she's had practice in magical aerial combat before! Continuing to channel energy into her horn, she hoped to keep the creatures at wing's length, preferring to trust her Air magic over a chaotic melee - if she could get it ready before they reached her!
After watching the three mismatched flyers take off, Summer Scribe waved a hoof to the two remaining ponies. "Okay, while that's going on, shall we start investigating the temple? I'd like to know if there's anyone inside or not!"
"Let's do it quickly," Set Sail said uneasily, "I have so many bad feelings about this. Sprocket, would you like to stay with the copter? Abandon it and head inside if anypony starts coming after it of course. But it looks like it's safe at the moment."
"A-Abandon it?" Sprocket looked hurt, as if being asked to abandon her foal. "S-Shouldn't I try to take off? Come back for you later? Nutmeg let me have a turn when she was testing her..." Under her breath she added "...a very short turn..."
"If you think you can steer it, then yes! It's probably safer out there than inside this place," Set Sail said anxiously, "But I'm not leaving Summer alone in there. Just remember that you're more important than the copter. It would be terrible if somepony stole it, but if they do, just find the rest of us, and we can get you out okay."
"'Course Captain, I hear you. I guess, worst comes to it, we can find another one." The unicorn sighed. "Would probably take too long to get the pressure up anyway. Don't worry 'bout me, just... uh, good luck!"
Summer waved to the engineer-pony "Thanks Sprocket, and stay safe yourself! Ok, shall we, Set Sail?"
The two ponies trotted across the plaza and into the vast opening, big enough for an adult dragon. Enormous bronze-clad doors stood to each side, split and splintered, as if this entrance had once been forced open by a battering ram. Inside though, there were no signs of violence, nor was the long atrium oppressively dark; it had just seemed that way from the contrast between the bright noon sunlight outside and the dim blue glow inside, the soft light cast by bands of the swirling runes running along the walls.
Between the pillars sat marble statues of assorted creatures; many griffons, but also dragons, humanoid birds and stranger beasts. Aside from numerous smaller, dusty side doors, all firmly shut, the hallway ended in a grand flight of stairs leading up to a familiar structure; two huge, curved metal pillars, inset with glowing blue crystals and carvings. The great disc of blue-enamelled metal blocking the portal bore a giant version of a symbol they'd seen repeated countless times in the temple's ornamentation; a simple white clockwise spiral.
Summer looked around, in awe of the majesty of the ancient place. Her eye was drawn to the symbol on the gate: "That looks like the Cloudbreak Islands elemental symbol for Wind," she noted. "It represents the kind of magic Azure seems to be favouring nowadays." Her notebook floated in her magic and she stopped pereodically to scribble down notes. "So, what's this room for? Is it ritualistic or does it serve some magical purpose? I wonder..."
Taking flight in the ample volume of the atrium, Set Sail was awestruck by the glimmering beauty of the place, but not too awestruck. She looked over her shoulder then made a beeline for the portal at the far end, calling out "We should take a look at this first-" The pegasus abruptly bit her tongue, as from her elevated vantage point, she'd spotted something else; two green, bipedal shapes, slumped against the far wall on each side of the gateway.
As with their fellows on the airship, they stood a head taller than drow, and that head was composed of an eyeball held in a distended mouth. One of them held a spear in a loose grip, while the other's axe lay on the floor nearby. The creatures were concealed from the floor below by the sweep of the staircase, putting them in an ideal position to ambush visitors; if they'd been able to stay awake. From the snoring and grunting it seemed as if both creatures had been asleep, but at the sound of the ponies' voices they were starting to regain consciousness.
In a sudden flurry of flapping feathers, Set Sail changed course and flew back to Summer Scribe, barely landing before holding a hoof to the unicorn's face saying, "Ssh!"
Summer was startled, but nodded in understanding as the other mare covered her face. You had to think on your hooves in her line of work, after all! Carefully, the two crept forward until they could see... a pair of guards? Not exactly wind-temple themed, so presumably occupiers. She crouched low, keeping an eye on them while pondering her plan of attack: hmm, perhaps there was some loose debris she could use...
"I don't think those creatures are supposed to be here, do you?" Set Sail whispered tightly to Summer, as the two crouched there behind one of the giant statues lining the hall. "They said this was a griffon temple!"
Summer levitated a chunk of rock that had fallen from a decorative stone block. "Uh-huh... I say we make 'em scram!" she hissed. "You down?"
"...that axe is the biggest danger for me," Set Sail replied to Summer quietly, spreading her wings, "I'll see if I can grab it, and then you lay into them."
Summer Scribe gave a nod of understanding, waiting tensely and watching the pegasus go to work.
Set Sail saw Summer's floating stones ready to go and wasted no time in her approach. She landed hard, skidding to a stop before biting down on the axe handle. The one-eyed creatures were startled to full awareness by the screech of the axe's blade on the stone floor, as she lifted it up then took off vertically in a rush of wind. The bewildered cyclopses flailed around wildly, blinking and shouting in alarm. Intent on their search for the disappearing axe thief, they didn't even notice the rocks floating in front of the nearest statue.
Summer Scribe gave a playful wink before hurtling the assorted rubble towards the unfriendly creatures, aiming for, well, the whites of the eyes. The sharp slivers of rock connected, sending the cyclopean guards screaming and scrabbling, demanding to know who was attacking them.
Meanwhile Set Sail flapped around over their heads - fortunately like most non-flyers, they never thought to look up. As soon as the creatures turned tail and ran, she flew down to Summer, bouncing for joy on her hooves with the axe still held in her mouth. "I gof it! I gof it!" she crowed.
Summer Scribe grinned: "I got them good, too!" It seems under the credible assault of pelting rocks and debris with no way to counterattack, they took the smart option and fled! "Good work, Set Sail. Good spot, more importantly!"
Turning fully around, Set Sail asked "Where've they go??" Her eyes scanned the dark recesses of the atrium, looking for the cyclops guards, her ears standing hard at attention.
Summer Scribe grinned. "Don't sweat it! We spooked 'em good; look, over there!"
Sure enough, one of the atrium's side doors was thrown open, then slammed shut again as the howling cyclopses dashed off to inform their ship about the surprise attack from the invisible rock-shooting axe thieves. The pair's echoing footsteps slowly died away as they headed for the other end of the complex.
"They didn't want more rock in their eyes, so they bailed out!" Summer said wickedly. She still had a pile of assorted debris standing by; there was more where that had come from! "So... shall we continue looking around? Now that the place is cyclops-free."
Set Sail stiffened, looking at Summer in horror, squealing, "What?!" The axe clanged onto the floor. "You were supposed to knock them unconscious!" Summer said in a fretful fluster, "We can't go down there now! They're going to come back with a dozen more!"
Summer Scribe makes an anxious face. "Oh, shoot, you're right. I screwed up then." Maybe she needed better aim? Heavier rocks? Well, whatever, it's too late now. "I'm sorry. What do we do then? Do we need to regroup with Azure somehow?"
Set Sail looked over to the stairs, the gateway and its seal with trepidation. In the silence after the combat, a whole lot of nothing stomping their way could be heard. "Let's go down anyway," Set Sail says, "If we wait for Azure, she might break that seal like Reef did. You should take a look at it while you have a chance. I can carry you off in a pinch, and..."
Craning her head down, Set Sail picked up the battleaxe again, holding the handle in her mouth and saying warily, "I'll cowwer you." She stood watching the door where the guards had escaped for any movement or activity.
Summer Scribe nodded her head, "OK, sounds like a plan. We need to be quick then!" She trotted up to the seal, taking a closer look at it. The symbol was familiar, of course, but best check it over for any magical properties or other features...
Careful probing from her horn confirmed that the whole structure was strongly magical, and that the central disc had a strange, slightly unreal quality to it. Racking her brain, Summer recalled this was associated with magically summoned or heavily transmuted objects. Anything further was going to take a serious analysis with specialist tools and spells, preferably by appropriately trained ponies working in a Canterlot lab.
In the undercroft, Azure Feather was facing down a swarm of bats, conveniently lining themselves up in front of her as she backwinged to keep her distance. Perfect... she smiled. "Alright, Gustus, clear out!" the unicorn cried out, finally ready to put all that magic to good use: a tornado, aiming to collect her pursuers and the entire group in one fell swoop. Sure, it'd take a lot out of her, she might not be able to repeat the performance, but maybe... just maybe that would be enough to down the lot...
Gustus proved to be a good listener and dove right out of the way, feathers ruffled by the air already swirling around Azure. Landing hard, he gawked at the unfolding spell: surely something this strong would just annihilate anything in its path!
The spinning vortex of air sprang into being from the tip of Azure's horn, almost instantly expanding forwards into a raging, horizontal tornado. While not quite on the level of her initial, uncontrolled bursts of elemental magic, it proved more than sufficient to fill the undercroft with gale force wind and fling every flapping furry body into the nearest hard surface. Shards of glowing purple crystal sprayed everywhere in the wake of the impacts.
Many of the bats fond themselves free of the malign substance and undergo an immediate recovery as the winds die away, their fur changing from purple back to cream and brown. The confused creatures struggled back into the air, making 'meep-meep' calls as they try to discern where they were, and how they got there. Unfortunately roughly half of the swarm was still infected, a few shards still clinging to each and filling them with a desire to rejoin the fight.
"That... that was a lot... maybe too much..." Azure mutters, hissing a bit as stars flitted across her vision. She managed to stay airborne... though her horn felt hot, on the verge of pain.
Gustus decided that the time had come to be brave, and cover Azure while her horn can cool off! "I see, it's the crystals! I'll keep them off of you, Azure!" He flapped forward with a screech, a claw raised as he went for the nearest still-infected bat before it regained it senses, slashing and swiping at those crystals!
Azure nodded; the griffon had figured it out. "Take down the crystals and you'll save them instead of destroying them!" Unfortunately, with little magic left and still the temple to explore... Azure's soon following Gustus' lead, but she's not so effective with hooves...
Then the lurking creature finally emerged from behind cover, confirming that it was indeed a griffon, albeit a strange-looking one. While most of its body was green, its wings faded to bright yellow at their tips while splashes of red were present on its ear tufts and hindquarters. Aside from being as tall as a hippogriff (yet with the more solid build of a griffon), all four of its feet seemed to be a kind of half-bird, half-lion mix, rather than the distinct fore claws and rear paws that Gustus sported.
The native griffon takes one look at Gustus and then set to work, pouncing on another bat and pulling the crystals off it. Meanwhile in the distance, green beams of energy and great gouts of flame could be seen shooting out of the cyclopean airship, along with the sound of explosions and increasingly desperate screams.
Azure, already pleasantly surprised at the success of her spell, found her morale further boosted by this new ally joining the fight... and only more so as she sees the enemy ship faring increasingly poorly under Sunburn's assault. One Skylander versus a whole cyclops ship... she hoped they'd be able to stay on their good side...
Gustus smiled at the sight of the new griffon coming to help. "Oh, good show!" he chirped out with a beaky gape, while dodging swooping bats and continuing to smash whatever purple crystals he could get his claws on.
"That was amazing!" the green griffon said. "You're already aligned, huh?" Looking over her shoulder, she called out "Indigo! You can come out... and give me a claw with these!"
"All thanks to Azure over there! She was a part of the royal guard for a reason, you know!" Gustus chuckled, pausing in his pest control to give the new griffon a polite little bow of greeting.
Azure looked around... almost all the bats were clear of crystal now. She landed, folding butterfly wings before chuckling weakly at the praise. "Oh, come on, Gustus, I dealt the initial blow, it was all you two from there! Seriously, well fought, those weren't great odds." She seemed almost embarrassed at the praise, before looking to their new ally. "Nice meeting you, though I wish it didn't have to be in battle! Name's Azure Feather, this is Gustus." she stated, bowing her head.
The green griffon was staring at Azure. "I don't believe it... a talking, flying lama! Aligned with Air? How... what..." she squawked.
Behind her another giant griffon padded out from a hiding spot inside the foundations, this one deep purple. "Emerald! Over there!" He gestured with a claw at a still-evilised bat about to leap at the green griffon's face.
Azure was about ready to facehoof as she realized what this griffon just called her... before responding to Indigo's cry and quickly spotting the threat, aiming one last air blade at the swopping bat. It went down for the count, purple crystals flaking off as it fell.
With time to catching her breath at least, Azure objected "I'm a bloody unicorn...!" Stress and frustration were showing through: you can only take so many creatures mistaking your species before showing your annoyance! She guessed... it was a good thing she wasn't the designated diplomat.
Gustus checked the bat has depowered, then held up his claws in worry! "No, no, it's OK! They don't know yet. No need to take it out on them, Azure! Err, anyways, yes. Azure's a unicorn, I'm a griffon - and it's a pleasure to find friends in this terrifying place!" His paws felt sweaty; they really needed to not screw this up. "Although we seem to not be the same kind of griffon, so much? That's curious."
The other two griffons blinked in shock. "Of course you're a uni-corn. Emerald was just... joking, weren't you." Indigo said, looking at the female. She glared at him, then dipped her head, giving Azure a brief apologetic nod before turning to Gustus.
"Well obviously you're a griffon." the female told him. "First northerner we've seen in, oh, a decade at least? I'm Emerald Downpour, my mate's Indigo Burst, and it seems like we both owe you our freedom."
"Yes indeed, if you're responsible for that as well." Indigo clarified, gesturing with a claw at the cyclops ship which was now totally engulfed in flames. As they watched the balloon went up in a massive ball of flame, leaving the burning remnants of the hull unsupported. They seemed to hang almost comically in the air for a second, before gravity overcame inertia and the wreckage plummeted out of sight. Of Sunburn there was no sign.
Azure chuckled weakly, shaking her head. "It's alright, I can understand, not... every creature's seen a unicorn before. I forgot that we're a rare sight in this place, and I must apologise." She then quietly turned to Gustus before shrugging. "Come on, Gustus, you know I wouldn't have taken it out on them, I'd rather take out my frustrations on the enemy! I'm not the Lieutenant..." She then turned back to Emerald. "So yes, as I was saying... we're not from around here. We actually don't come from these islands at all."
Gustus nodded his head. "As for that ship that was shooting at you; you can thank Sunburn, who's joined our team! Uh... temporarily. Quite the show he's made for us, isn't it?" he chortled, beak clicking.
Azure bowed to the strange griffons again before staring out, taking in the beautiful sight of the enemy ship falling out of the sky. "...And he was alone in taking down an entire ship and their crew. Damn impressive." she chuckled, before turning back to the brightly coloured cat-birds.
"We travelled here to take a look at... your temple?" she stated, gesturing upwards. "We saw that ship acting suspicious and then when we saw the bats attacking Emerald here... it was time to fight back."
In the echoing, dusty atrium of the abandoned air temple, a little blue unicorn stood at the base of the great metal seal, twitching her horn in different directions and concentrating on the signals she received. "Yep, this isn't just decorative, it's magical." Summer Scribe confirmed. "Hmm, definitely going to do something impressive when Azure reaches it, you can count on that..."
"The last one just broke," her companion Set Sail said simply, leaning on the axe she'd recently acquired and staring up at the mysterious structure. "Looks like it needs to if we're gonna get in there. These are probably to keep out creatures that don't qualify. You'd think it could just move aside though," the puzzled pegasus said.
Summer shrugged. "It's strongly enchanted, maybe even summoned; likely it will open only given the right input, while resisting physical force. Thus I suspect Azure will be able to open it like a breeze."
With no way to get through the elemental gate for now, Summer busied herself with a more detailed search of the hallway. Her scanning spell flared out; bands of glowing blue runes flashed in response. She could feel many diffuse echoes through her horn, but there was nothing of particular interest except... there! A lone, but solid 'ping' with a wholly unfamiliar feel, coming from behind one of the statues lining the huge hallway.
On closer inspection it appeared to be a wingless, upright bird, holding a pair of daggers as she leapt upward, beak open in a grin. It reminded the unicorn of something she'd glimpsed a few years back... harpies, birds with a second set of claws instead of wings, living far to the south of Equestria. She'd read that a group of them played a significant role in the Storm King's defeat (though not too significant, she thought, as nopony had included them on a stained-glass window in Canterlot Castle).
Summer gestured to Set Sail. "Hmm, found something over here... checking it out." She kept her distance as she trotted around the statue, in case the 'something' turned out to be another hostile... The other mare took wing and hovered above, ears flicking and eyes peeled for any approaching threats.... or Sprocket fleeing an encounter with the cyclopses.
Instead, tucked behind the statue's feet Summer found a flattened blue stone, like a dinner plate. The surface was polished smooth, showing swirls of lighter blue where layers of stone intersected the surface. One face was featureless while the other had a mysterious, five-part rune cut deep into it, exposing a crystalline material inside that gave off a strong purple glow. The light gently flickered and pulsed as if the stone was alive in some way.
"Heeeey, check it out, Set Sail!" she gently levitated the artifact into the air, a curious smile on her face as she sets it down. "It's seriously magical; no doubt about it. We gotta take this with us!"
"What? Oh hold on, sorry!" Set Sail declared, swooping down to land next to Summer. "Just looking for places to get some height... a little nervous." she said sheepishly. "No sign of those one-eyed creatures though." She considered the blue stone with raised eyebrows, saying, "Well it's pretty! Is that rune one of the elemental uh... shapes?"
Summer shrugged. "I've never seen it before, but it's glowing hot - gotta mean something." She lifted it up in the air and nodded. "So, if we're at a dead end here... wanna head back to the ship? Check on Sprocket, wait for Azure?..." A flash of realisation, then a disturbing grin: "Oh! I bet Sunburn can read this. Geez, I haven't had any free time; I should kidnap him sometime and make him confirm or deny all my theories."
"Let's take a... rain check on outright foal-napping him," Set Sail replied cautiously, "We should head back to the ship though. Azure and the others are probably waiting for us outside."
The two headed outside and up the stairs to the ornate stone balcony. Resting quietly there was the purloined drow copter, which had carried them all this way from the Harmony. Set Sail alighted atop it calling out, "Sprocket? Are you here?"
The spry unicorn mare popped her head out of the engine room, looking up at Set Sail: "Oh, you're back! Nothing bad happened. You weren't gone too long actually. Did you find something?"
"Have you seen any strange one-eyed beasts?" Set Sail asked, worry on her face. "They're bipedal, carrying weapons like..." Her left hoof was still curled around the big axe. "...this one. We... think they might be hostile."
"Haven't seen anything, captain," Sprocket replied, her pupils narrowing at the heavy bladed weapon, "Should we take off? That sounds d-dangerous."
"Not without Azure, Gustus and Sunburn," Set Sail replied, looking out over the railing, as if she could see around the side of the ruin to where they'd gone. "I guess they're not back yet. Well, let's just wait; maybe they found something. When Azure gets back we have a... barrier that she can probably do something about. Assuming it's not a terrible idea to break into this place. The last time didn't go so well."
Summer Scribe hopped onboard and set her artifact down in a corner, her head tilting as she listened to the conversation. "Azure and crew still aren't back yet? Are they OK? In danger?" She tensed: "Should we go help?"
"Too risky," Set Sail said, "I could go, but you two would have to take the copter. We really don't want to lose this thing. If they're not back soon, maybe I can... take a look. But you stay here."
Sprocket heaved a sigh of relief - they weren't abandoning the copter, and she didn't have to pilot it into battle.
Summer Scribe nodded, but still fretted a bit. "Ok, hopefully they're not long, then." 'Besides, anything that can overpower Azure and Sunburn would trash the rest of us' she thought glumly. So it wasn't like there was much help to provide...
With the twin threats of artillery-bearing cyclops airship and swarm of unfriendly, magical bats gone, two more feathered and furred shapes crept out from the temple undercroft. While the first two native griffons were the size of a hippogriff, these two were only the size of Gustus and Grenelda. The larger one had feathers in various shades of golden yellow, accented by lime green highlights; to Gustus she was clearly a hen, while the smaller was light blue and white with striking orange accents, obviously a juvenile male.
Azure was quick to turn her head towards the newcomers, looking to the two groups in turn and asking "More of your people, Emerald?"
"It's ok kids, pretty sure these ones are friendly." Ingido said. "And she's a uni-corn. Not a lama."
"These are our chicks, Amber Thermal and Cerulean Mist!", Emerald proudly informed Gustus.
"Mom! I'm not a chick!" Amber griped, looking away and shyly checking out Gustus with the corner of her eye.
Gustus head-bobbed, waving a foreclaw in greeting to the two new griffons! "Well, hello there! Quite fine children you have there too." Something he needs to work on himself... maybe talk to Grenelda later! "Is everything OK now, then?" He side-eyed Azure seeking confirmation and support.
Azure couldn't help but lower her head at the species confirmation. Maybe she shouldn't have snapped... oh well. Her smile was quick to return as the introduction isn't just other members of their species - no, it was their family. "Nice to meet you both, Cerulean, Amber." She bowed to both before continuing, "Name's Azure Feather..."
The youngest griffon bounded around, staring up at the retreating bats. "You got 'em good dad!" he exclaimed, before Azure caught his attention. "Wow! Did you blow up that airship? Are you magic? Are all uneycornes magic? Is that horn sharp? It doesn't look too sharp but maybe if you got a run up?"
Azure's smile brightened a little as she was interrupted by the young griffon. "Wish I could take credit, but no, that was another of our allies, he did quite the number on them." The barrage of questions made her sweat a little. "We can all wield magic, yes. The horn... isn't that sharp, but... uh, no, no sharpening needed, it's okay, really!" Wow, what a question...
"You must be on your own pilgrimage, to come all the way here?" Emerald asked Gustus. "I've heard it's a long, dangerous flight from your eyries in the north, even worse than it is for us."
Gustus nodded, "Well, yes, we're from quite far away..." He paused, embarrassed as he realised the mistaken species identification. "Oh, no, we're not from the north. We're not from around here at all, actually - me, Azure and the rest of us are from beyond the storm barrier. Long story. But it's a pleasure to meet you and your kind all the more for it!"
"Yeah, I... I nearly got us all... if we'd been hit by that beam, mum..." Amber said shakily, looking at the ground.
Azure caught the golden griffon's eye. "Hey. Don't worry about it. Everyone's safe, unharmed. Sure it was a close call; just learn from it and it's a step in the right direction. I've done some things I regret in life too. Dwelling on it is fine, but the faster you move forward, the better." A soldier's encouragement, it seemed.
"Oookay..." Amber said, giving the unicorn an uncertain look. "...I know I have to be brave, if I'm really an elemental, but I don't want other griffs getting hurt, just because... just so I can..." she trailed off.
"Come on, Amber. You're worth it. You know that." Indigo said, sidling over to his daughter and hugging her with a wing.
"Oh hey Mister Gusty did something happen to your ears?" Cerulean called over, his curiosity now on Gustus. "Did a cyclops cut them off? Was it a cool fight? You must've won, right?" The four native griffons all had tufts of feathers behind their ears similar to a hippogriff, whereas like most of the griffons of Equus, Gustus's head was smooth.
"Misty!" shouted his mother angrily. "If I have to say it for the hundredth time, you keep going around insulting strange griffs, you're going to get your pinions pulled out..."
Gustus blinked, trying to look at the shape of his own head, with little success - before his eyes darted over to the native griffons and he realised his folly. "Oh, I see! No, our feathers are just different. My ears are fine, not to worry!" He chuckled with amusement as Misty was reprimanded.
"Oh, ok." Cerulean says, disappointed and reprimanded. "Buuuut... you've still been in some cool fights... right? right?"
Azure Feather looked to the other youngster... but couldn't quite figure out what to say, so gestured upward instead. "Is there... anything dangerous in the temple?" she ventured. She had to know if there was more trouble waiting inside...
Indigo sighed. "Wish I could say no, but... place gets more dangerous every year. Looked like just the one ship. Just gotta hope those eyeballs didn't breach the seal."
"Why do they... these 'eyeballs' want to attack the temple so bad in the first place?" Gustus asked, with a tilt of his head. "What's the draw?"
Azure tapped a hoof gently to her spiralled horn... and shook her head. "Going to have to hope I can handle it... that fight was a fair challenge. So behind that seal is the real danger of the place?" The anxiety about her personal connection to this 'Air element' was back.
"Oh no!" Emerald said. "The temple itself isn't dangerous. But when we tried to enter... the cyclopses were there, doing something to the seal. That's when they started chasing us. We've been playing hide and seek in these ruins for the last three days!"
"Is entering a good idea, if they were tampering to the seal?" Azure asked, the worry clear in her eyes as she looked to Gustus. Thoughts of Reef Skimmer's fate clouded her mind again...
"We're not leaving now. Not after surviving that." Indigo said, his eyes hard. "If I know eyeballs, they were just trying to break in, loot the place. We'll keep an eye out for booby traps but... if the seal's still intact, we'll be fine. ...Probably."
"Dad, can we... can we just get on with it? Before more of them come?" Amber asked, looking imploringly at her father.
"They could shelter on our ship?" Azure suggested. "What do you think, Gustus? Return to the Second Chance and discuss with the others before we decide our next move? Or head straight into the temple?"
Gustus's feathers drooped. All this talk about the seal! What, was it going to usher in the apocalypse when broken? He hoped not...
"You came on a ship?" Cerulean asked, reprimand already forgotten. "Is it a big ship or a little one? How many guns does it have? Can it go really fast, or just kinda fast?"
"Let's go back to the ship." Azure finally decided, annoyed by the lack of response from Gustus. "You're welcome to follow - I wouldn't leave allies alone and in trouble. You can all fly, yes?" Griffons that couldn't fly? Really, Azure?
"Yeah, just a few bites and broken feathers, painful but nothing too serious..." Indigo said, interpreting Azure's question as an inquiry about the adult griffons' injuries. "You ok to fly kids? Not too tired?"
"We can make it, Dad!" came Cerulean's immediate reply.
"Now stay close, both of you!" Emerald said firmly as she flapped into the air. Within seconds the whole griffon family was hovering and waiting to follow.
"Not sure how our medical supplies are..." Azure sighed. "Come on. Please forgive the darn copter... it's not the ship we came to these islands with but one we... uh... kinda borrowed. Permanently. Not a friendly encounter either." With that she was leading them back up to their ride.
After several minutes of strenuous flapping, with the tired griffons panting and struggling to gain altitude, the flyers climbed above the main entrance level and spotted the Second Chance still nestled on its balcony.
"So it is... a little ship..." Cerulean puffed "...must be... fast... with those... huge propellors."
On the deck of the copter, two unicorns and one pegasus were treated to the sight of their compatriots leading four strange, colourful griffons, two of them the size of hippogriffs, in a glide down to the ship. Sunburn was nowhere to be seen.
"Ooh, wow! These must be Cloudbreak native griffons." Summer Scribe waved a hoof in excitement. "Hello! Glad you're all ok! ...Where's Sunburn?"
Set Sail had been sitting on her belly next to the ship; seeing the returning ponies, she took a running leap off the balcony and eagerly ascending to meet them. Err... pony, and creatures. Unaware of the dramatic fight in the undercroft or the destroyed airship, she accepted the strange, brightly coloured griffons with minimal suspicion.
"Long story short," Azure began as she landed near Summer, "that ship was crewed by... Kaosians, I think Sunburn called them. We spotted this family of griffons under attack by a swarm of magical bats, so while we dealt with them... Sunburn took care of the enemy airship. Destroyed it. Alone. ...He'll be fine. Someone like that doesn't lose to idiots like them."
"Kaosians..." Summer tapped a hoof on the deck, "The eyeball critters, right?" She nodded. "That's great, but when will he be back? I need him for... translation purposes. Oh and before I forget," the little unicorn flashed a smile at the colourful griffons, "Good work on the rescue mission-"
"Those uneycornes have lost their wings!" Cerulean blurted out. "And that one... hey miss grifficorn was your mummy a griffon? Or maybe your daaaahhh-"
He didn't get any further as Emerald grabbed the scruff of his neck with a talon. "Quiet!" she hissed, eyeing up the ponies.
Summer looked startled as Cerulean spoke. "Err, well, see, unicorns don't have wings. Azure's are the result of a persistent magical spell, they're not a part of her body..."
"I can't believe this," Set Sail said fretfully, hovering around Azure fussily. "That ship was more pirates? Different from the drow? Are you okay? They didn't hurt any of you did they?"
"Not pirates, no..." Indigo spoke up "...though yeah, if those eyeballs saw a nice juicy cargo ship, they wouldn't turn down the conscripts or a little plunder... but they were Reformers. Here on a mission, must be."
"Minor injuries to our Gryphon allies - otherwise all fine." Azure reported. "Sunburn missing - I know he'll be back, but not when." The winged unicorn frowned. "The temple's our immediate worry: the seal especially. Is it intact? Untampered? We need to get in. I..." Right then Azure's body language was all too clear. "I'm worried. After what happened to Reef, part of me doesn't want to go... but if I don't go, this place could end up in worse trouble."
Set Sail flitted over to Gustus, but neither he nor Azure seemed to have much more than mussed up feathers. "I guess it wasn't... too bad," she concluded, settling down between them.
Gustus bobbed his head to the captain. "It was... scary. Really scary." He patted down his feathers. "But with Azure and Sunburn around, well, heh... we were on the winning side! I can't be more thankful for that."
Set Sail smiled, then blushed, looking over to the newcomers and saying, "Oh I'm sorry! My name is Set Sail c-captain of the EAS Harmony. Pleased to met you and your... family?" she said uncertainly, looked from the big griffons to the small ones.
"That's my mate Indigo Burst." the female griffon informed Set Sail. "I'm Emerald Downpour and these are our chicks Amber Thermal and Cerulean Mist. We're... very grateful for your help, fighting off those vile Kaosians..."
"Still not a chick, mom." Amber muttered.
"Oh, the seal's fine!" Summer reassured Azure. "It's magical, it's got the wind element symbol on it, still intact. It prooobably won't go anywhere unless you touch it." Which didn't seem like the end of the world - more like the gateway opening will be exciting and scientifically profound. "Hey, between you and me, Azure - do you really think that the purpose of that gate is to transform people into horrific monstrosities? Like, who would make something like that?"
Azure considered Summer's words, looking more nervous and uncertain than ever. "I can't tell you, Summer. This place wasn't designed... this magic wasn't designed for Equestrians. I don't know what will happen if I go in there, and yeah, I know I'm the stupid guard? But... I have this weird feeling..." She stared at the dark entrance and sighed. "Look, if the Captain says to go, I'm not going to say no. I can't say no to helping these gryphons, either. Maybe we should just do it."
Summer Scribe nodded her head low. "It should be your choice, Azure. I'll happily accept the risks for myself, but I won't foist it on you." As much as she wanted to know the temple's secrets... she couldn't put Azure in danger. Not after what had happened to Reef.
"We're here on an exploration mission," Set Sail told the griffons, "We've been stranded in these lands, and we're trying to learn what we can about them. We were told this Air temple was home to griffons such as yourself. I-it seemed to be abandoned, so I'm glad Azure and Gustus managed to find you."
"And you call this little thing the Eee Ay Es Harm-o-me?" Cerulean began, but he didn't get any further before Emerald clamped his beak shut with her free claw.
Set Sail looked at the griffon chick, saying with a bright laugh, "Oh no! I'm captain of the ship we came to these lands on. A-acting captain. This copter, we've named the Second Chance. Unfortunately our own ship is... too damaged from the storm to fly right now. So we had to... borrow one from the drow, to get around on."
"Drow?" Indigo said. "Drow... yeah I've heard of 'em. Supposed to be elves turned evil. Like trolls but sneaky and twice as vicious. You 'borrowed' one? Heh." He tilted his head, beak slightly open.
Set Sail's smile grew nervous, but she didn't deny it. "They do seem to be... rather vicious," she said conservatively. "If we can repair our ship, we'll be on our way um, without getting captured or... eaten."
"We're here for Amber." Emerald explained. "It's her first pilgrimage. The elders said she has a real shot at opening the temple! She might even... so, nogriff has even done it on their first try, but... first time for everything right?" the bright green hen said.
"No pressure sis!" Cerulean whispered through his clenched beak.
Set Sail turned to Amber curiously, saying, "Oh the Gillmen mentioned something about a pilgrimage. Is that what you are you here for? Opening the temple? Do you mean that seal inside?"
Summer Scribe nodded; maybe some cultural knowledge would ground them in reality. "Yes... what exactly is opening the temple supposed to do?" she asked Emerald.
"This is the temple of the four winds, the strongest nexus of Air known to griffkind!" the green griffon stated, a little reverently. "Only those worthy to take the trials can open the seal. Creatures who can pass the challenge of every wind receive the blessing of Air, to follow in the clawprints of Sonic Boom, Whirlwind and the other Champions of the Storm!" she recited.
"And we could sure use one of those right now..." Indigo said, glancing at Amber uncertainly as if apologetic for placing such high expectations on her.
"That doesn't involve... fusing your body with any sort of... destructive wormlike creatures does it?" Set Sail asked, suddenly very uneasily.
"W-What? Wormlike... what? No, nothing like that!" Emerald said, taken aback.
That sounded pretty positive, Summer Scribe thought. "Hmm... doesn't sound so bad, Azure?" She was holding back a giggle at Set Sail's concerns, because the reference was really tragic, but the implication that every time we'd get to some place of elemental power, suddenly slime worms attack, tickled her nonetheless.
"Challenge of the Four Winds..." Azure repeated, nodding. Finally some confidence. Some structure. Some... safety? "Captain? If Amber's venturing into the temple, Emerald, Indigo... I want to go as well. Only with the griffons' blessing, of course." She looked to the natives for a moment before looking to Set Sail again. "The final decision is yours, Captain."
"Looking Azure's way, she added, "Yes, Azure was thinking this temple might have some... answers for her. We've been having a very... interesting experience with the magic of your lands since coming here. Could she accompany you, perhaps?"
"You're all welcome inside." Indigo added. "Not that we own this temple or anything, but... if you're here for knowledge, not to plunder or raid the place, then... if there are any more Reformers, a flock's harder to capture than a clutch, right?"
Summer Scribe glanced nervously at the glowing artifact, now tucked into her saddlebag. Maybe just a little raiding would be ok...? But no more, she promised herself! "I'd like to come watch, if I may?" she asks the assembled griffons-and-ponies. "It's your challenge, but I wouldn't want to miss it!" She noticed the captain looking a little uncertain after Indigo talks about plunder and raid, and leaned over to nudge her gently, whispering "Let me have this one, alright?"
Set Sail frowned fretfully, but held her tongue. Summer let out a sigh of relief, glad she can count on the pegasus in her time of need (or greed?).
"The temple is for any creature friendly to air," Emerald explained, looking down at the little unicorn, "but the challenges are for the champions alone. Only those with the favour of air may face them, and they face them alone"
Gustus clicked his beak. "I suppose I'm not exactly 'champion' material myself either, but... If I could see the temple for myself and cheer Amber on, that would be delightful."
"Then that settles it. Everyone okay with going into the temple?" Azure asked, looking around...
Sprocket popped her head out of the engine compartment, saying, "You want me to stay and watch the copter, or can I come inside? Also where's that dragon friend who came along?"
Set Sail's eyes widened, giving Azure and Gustus a worried look, but Gustus just clicked his beak: "Sunburn? He can handle himself. He's a proper Skylander, is what I hear!"
"He'll be fine, Captain! Someone like him doesn't lose to idiots like them! There just no way!" Azure replied with a confident smile.
"Alright if you say so," Set Sail said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. Turning to Sprocket, she confirmed: "Of course you can come! There's nopony around now to make off with our copter, since Azure and Gustus, and Sunburn took care of it. We can just... leave him a note for when he returns. It's not far to the gateway."
The four ponies and five griffons made their way back down to the cavernous entrance, proceeding into the atrium. Emerald pointed out several of the statues as they passed, intoning the names of the historic champions of air. Soon enough the group came to the base of the stairway leading up to the gate, the smooth blue disc impressed with its spiral rune barring further progress. The golden griffon Amber took a cautious step ahead, before looking at Azure then Gustus. "Is it ok... shall I go... first-I-mean, or do you..."
"You're from here." Azure stated. "We're still strangers. But keep in mind, before we go in: there's a darn reason you were chosen to come here, of all your people. They have faith in you, they believe you can do this. Remember that in there, alright?" she concluded, before looking at the gate. Amber was chosen; she was more like fated. Two roads to one destination. "Come on. Let's go."
Gustus saluted Amber - "Do your best!" - while Summer Scribe pumped a hoof for Azure: "I know you can do it! You're unstoppable!"
"Ummm... okay... if you're sure..." Amber nervously stepped up to the elemental gate, wings making furtive little flaps, looking back to Emerald and Indigo for reassurance. Her parents made encouraging little trills and churrs; reassured, the young golden griffoness clicked her beak and held out a claw, hoping no one could see it tremble. At the instant her outstretched talon touches the blue metal a brilliant white glow begins to spread from the point of contact.
The entire disc shone brilliant white for a second, lighting up the shadowy atrium and making the onlookers blink and avert their eyes. Then it faded away into nothingness, revealing a giant-sized corridor that continued for a short distance beyond, before opening out into an enormous chamber. Set Sail had seen it before, back at Witchway Marsh, but it was a novel sight for Summer, Gustus and Azure.
"That's it honey! You're the one, just like Ebony... and the other elders said!" Indigo cheered.
"That was the same sort of thing as that water park... that water temple!" Set Sail declared excitedly, "Did you see that Summer? It was just like when Reef..." Her excitement faded as memories of that ill-fated visit came back, but her heart did warm at the cheer and hope in the voices of their new friends.
"Huh, really? So that was the Water Temple and this is the Wind Temple, then." Summer tapped a hoof in contemplation. "Does that mean Reef is Water aligned? That 's worth remembering..." She scribbles down a note to follow up later.
"Nice one sis!" Cerulean crowed. "But next time you'll be watching, when I unlock the Temple of Boom!" he trilled.
Azure had to shield her eyes for a moment, but steadied herself with a deep breath, trying to avoid thinking of Reef Skimmer. Instead she looked to Amber: "We're in. Let's get this done." With that she lead the way inside, though her companions could tell she was still rather nervous about this whole affair. It wasn't hard to guess why. Set Sail followed behind: this time, she had an axe slung over her back. Just in case.
Without doubt, this was the central chamber of the temple. A vast circular space that must be at least thirty metres across, capped by a domed ceiling partially hidden by the streamers of mist that swirl and stream about the chamber. Compared to the atrium the space was well-lit by giant, irregular spears of crystal that projected from the roof like glittering diamond stalactites, channelling light from outside and spraying it back out in a thousand sparkling shafts of refracted sunlight, overpowering the dim blue glow of the carved runes.
The walls were finely carved in tiers of fluted columns and ornate friezes, barely touched by the passage of time. Far above the visitor's heads, at the base of the dome, a forest of irregular, open-ended stone pipes protruded from the circular wall. Most were in the process of disgorging or sucking in streamers of mist, providing a path for the magic-driven zephyrs to constantly circulate through the temple's countless rooms.
The floor of the rotunda was dominated by the central pillar, an irregular swirl of stone like a tornado captured and frozen in marble; perhaps an altar scaled for giants. Other than that the floor was empty, save for a dozen or so cubical stone blocks scattered around the perimeter. As for exits, aside from the hallway to the elemental gate there were four substantial double doors, equally spaced at ninety-degree intervals around the perimeter.
Each door was finely made of solid wood and brass furniture, set in a carved portal with triangular pediment above... and with thresholds set at an inconvenient three metre height above the chamber floor. Set Sail in particular found it very reminiscent of arenas and meeting halls she'd seen in Cloudsdale; pegasi were known to omit the odd staircase when most everypony who visited could fly; except that instead of packed cloud, everything here was made of white stone.
Summer Scribe trotted in, gazing around. "Ooooh, cool! Airy, beautiful and tingling with magic." She let the breeze ruffle her mane around, eyeing the blocks curiously. What was with the cubes all over this place, anyway? She inspected the doors, looking a bit put-off by their raised thresholds. 'I guess everyone's just expected to fly...' she thought 'Well to be fair, we did step through an 'air elemental only' door to get in here.'
From a distance, the doors appeared identical aside from the patterning of their surrounding carvings, but a quick trot around the chamber confirmed they were distinct in temperature and odour. One emitted a definite chill and a muted smell of pine needles; anypony standing below found their breath steaming in the cold draft, and... is that a faint tang of blood? The second was much more inviting, pleasantly cool and smelling of flowers and grass. The air under the third door was temperate, but the pony's noses scrunched at the scent of mud, sweat and dung. The final exit shimmered behind the warm, muggy air leaking out under the door, smelling faintly of ozone and smoke.
Cerulean loped around, fatigue apparently forgotten. "So which one first sis? This one... no too cold! Brrr! This one's warm... but smoky, puh!"
Set Sail immediately tried to fly up to check out the pegasus-accessible doors. About a foot off the ground, an unexpected course correction sent her tumbling forward, flapping in a panic until she landed flat on her back with a clang. Standing up with difficulty, she looks in puzzlement at the axe she brought with her, saying, "I didn't think it was that heavy!" She lay it on the floor and returned to her companions, attempting to take off again and immediately going tumbling again with another surprised squawk.
Emerald squawked in sympathy with the pegasus. "Ack... You can't in fly here, ah, I should've said. Threw me into a panic, when I was a chick myself."
"Gotta prove yourself worthy of the air first, or something like that." Indigo explained, beak clicking: clearly he didn't think much of the rule.
"No flying... I guess the mist, or the cubes are the thing to get us started here... any initial notes, Amber?" Azure asked, still studying the area...
Amber was staring around in awe; she shot Azure a bewildered look. "It's my first time... amazing isn't it... can you feel it? The wind is alive here..." she said vaguely.
"W-what? No flying??" Set Sail stammered, standing up and fluttering, then flapping to no avail. "T-t-this is impossible!" she stammers, landing with a clop on all fours, looking back at her own wings in horror.
Summer Scribe winces a bit at the crash landings. "That's a pretty cruel joke. So you have to solve some kind of puzzle first?" she guessed, looking over to the pair of would-be puzzle solvers.
Azure was studying the stone cubes... a little under a metre square, maybe they were the path to the doors? Some strange puzzle? Some were sitting individually, while others were stacked into piles of two or even three high. They seemed substantial, but were they even real? She quickly trotted up to one, poking its surface with a hoof... soon discovering that despite being enormously heavy, it was still able to slide, with effort, over the smooth stone floor.
She thought back to Cerulean's words... each door had a scent? What did that tell them? Checking the piles of blocks again... maybe... they have to follow the scents from block pile to bigger block pile... she tried to identify a path, but they were spaced far apart...
Summer Scribe was tempted to backseat... but the main obstacle was that she didn't know the goal state of the puzzle yet, and... it'd be awkward if she started messing with it herself. Gotta watch and deduce!
Set Sail wasn't paying much attention to moving blocks; instead she glared upward at the mists overhead. "What is with the air here?" she called out in frustration. "Air goes up! How can it not be going...!" She tried to fly again, just flapping there in a fluster, before falling back again and exclaiming "I don't get it!"
"We haven't proven ourselves worthy." Emerald intoned, before looking sympathetically at Set Sail. "If it's getting to you dear, you could always have a quick flap about the entrance hall?"
"Alright, no sense wasting time." Indigo said, wandering over to one of the taller sets of blocks. "Who's going first, and through which door?"
"I know I'm not worthy," Set Sail said, sitting up and looking at Emerald incredulously, "But look at the wind here!" she gestured with a hoof at nothing, "It's blowing around but not? They can't just make the air..." the brown pegasus stood, spreading her wings but didn't try flying again, looking off distantly and declaring, "I don't know how they... do it. The wind is not moving, even though you can see it moving! Right up there! Am I the only one feeling this??"
"Get me to that one with blood. I want that out of the way first." Azure stated, mind still trying to figure this out.
Wait, the one with blood? Summer Scribe trotted closer and sniff-sniffed, then scrunched her nose. There's a scent mechanic to this puzzle?! That's.... so novel!
Indigo shot Summer an odd look, before saying "Sure thing." Looking over to his mate, he asks "Give me a claw would you darling?"
"I'm not an elemental myself, dear," Emerald told the pegasus, "but that's the essence of Air at work. If you have any affinity, it must feel... well, I suppose it depends if you've been in a nexus before? Oh..." she saw her mate straining against the block "...can you unicorns get the smaller ones in place?" With that she padded over to assist.
Summer Scribe made a grumpy face as the 'solution' to the 'puzzle' dawns on her. "Wait, that's the solution? Just piling them up in front of the door you want?" Maybe the lack of any other visible goal state in the room should have given it away, but she rubbed her face with a hoof anyway, flummoxed. "How pedestrian." Well, if she could help speed things along, she'll happily start shoving blocks! So heavy, though... this was earthy pony work! She moaned in exasperation as the puzzle devolved into nothing more than manual labour!
Set Sail calmed quickly after a moment standing there, wings still and feeling the weird air of this place. Magic she couldn't even comprehend that governed the fundamental nature of everything she normally could fly in. She would have been familiar with the sensation perhaps, in the lair of a sphynx, but those creatures haven't been seen in Equestria for hundreds of years.
At last, she folded her wings with a shiver of disgust saying, "This place is just... wrong." Strutting past Emerald, she shook her head, saying, "I'm not leaving just because I can't f-fly. Maybe I can help over..." She looked at Summer leaning on that stone block, trying to push it very earnestly and exasperatedly, and... the skinny little unicorn wasn't getting far. "Okay, yes. Lemme get in there," she said, sidling beside the other mare and giving it a huge shove.
It didn't take long for their combined efforts to build a staircase up to Azure's desired door.. "Wish we had Melonwater here! He'd love all the rocks and crystals. But..." she looks up at the exit. "here goes nothing." With that the winged unicorn clambered up to the doorway, took one last look around the grand hall, then went into the challenge chamber without another word.
No sooner had the butterfly-winged unicorn entered than the heavy doors swing shut behind with a conclusive thud. Summer Scribe saluted her companion: "Good luck, Azure!"
Watching Azure climb, Set Sail asked, "What do you s—" and then winced as her unicorn friend was lost forever, and it was all her fault. "S-s-she'll be... fine..." she said tremulously.
"Yeah, the winds be with her and so on." Indigo panted, after watching the unicorn disappear. "So... Amber, have you picked a door?" The smaller golden griffon gulped and gestured with a wing at the next portal clockwise, the cool one that smelled faintly of flowers and grass.
The doors slamming shut behind her sealed her fate, Azure Feather thought, looking back as her wings tightened. Surely the challenge would start soon; she had to be prepared. Facing ahead, she saw yet another long, dark corridor with finely carved stone walls, leading to a brightly lit exit at the far end. She nodded quietly and trotted forward, muttering "First test. Let's go."
Sure enough the hall lead to another enormous, empty room, this one rectangular and open to the elements. Three sides consisted of nothing more than rows of columns, between which could be seen the brightly lit temple exterior and cloud banks beyond. A pleasant breeze blew through the permeable walls and ruffled Azure's fur, though a faint shimmer in the air suggested they might not be as passable as they look. Everything was still for a little while, before clouds began to condense out of nowhere, filling in the gaps between the columns and billowing out across the ceiling and floor, shifting and solidifying and taking on colour and form, until the room was entirely hidden behind packed cloud covered in illusion.
The winged unicorn found herself in a dark forest, pine trees surrounding her on three sides. The air was close to freezing, and the sun was nowhere to be seen; instead moonlight glimmered on frosted bark and cast deep shadows in the undergrowth. Ahead was a large clearing, or circular depression; in fact from the shape of the rim and the blasted remains of trees inside it seemed to be a giant crater, scooped out of the earth by a falling star. A combination of ruts, ridges and fallen tree trunks rendered the interior of the crater a maze, barely visible under the carpet of freezing fog that had collected in the hollow.
From her vantage point on the rim, Azure caught constant, fleeting glimpses of movement within the fog. Some are of colourful equine shapes, darting and dashing in fear and panic, others black and stalking, possessed of far too many legs. Screams of pain and whinneys of terror echoed upwards to her twitching ears from the hunting ground below.
With a start, Azure realised she wasn't alone on the overlook. To the right, an enormous raptor towers over her, sharp talons digging into the hard ground, keen eyes and beak pointed at the scene below. With relief she recognised the equine hindquarters and pink-plumed tail of the hippogriff. Glancing to the left, she saw a familiar purple form, almost lost in the shadows save for her glowing white eyes. The pegasus was watching her, waiting to see what the unicorn would do.
Azure Feather's eyes went wide as she saw the two very familiar allies at her sides. "Reef, Cloud Cutter, good to see you. I see the situation down there's pretty grim, do either of you two have anything to report? Make it quick, we don't have time to lose." She knows how reluctant Cloud Cutter was to fight. Reef, on the other hoof, might be a doctor - but she'd seen first-hoof that the hippogriff was a solid fighter if called upon.
"Good to see you too, Azure," Reef Skimmer said sadly, "I wish it weren't in such circumstances." He glared into the fog, steely eyed, saying, "The situation has gone from bad to worse. You have a thousand targets, hundreds of ponies to save, and you don't even know where you are. Can you reach them all in time? Or will you be lost in fog while they fall one by one, because you settle for the easy answer? I don't want to have to patch up all these ponies, Azure. I'll be burying them more than as saving them, if you act rashly. Make your decision carefully. Maybe you can see what I cannot."
Cloud Cutter rose when called with a sense of duty, looking at Azure with a stern nod. "To be frank, it'll be a miracle if you can pull this off. The fog is oppressively thick, and you'd be a fool to try and fight in it." She hung her head, "Yet it is your duty to save the day. What will you do? This might be a job too big for laser blasts and bravery."
"The fog is thick, but you're a pegasus: the wind is your element and we ponies, when it's time to fight, we fight together." Azure stated. "First things first! Cloud Cutter, your weather magic, my wind magic - we team up, clear the fog, clear these obstructions so we can see what we're dealing with! The faster, the better, the ponies down below will see what they're doing - and they're not just prey, they can fight with us if we save them! Reef, stand by for further instructions once the fog is cleared! Good to go, Cloud Cutter?"
Azure's plan was clear, but the purple pegasus was shaking her head sadly. "Argh, right, you lost your weather ability... damn it. I'm on my own... stand by, both of you!!"
Cloud Cutter's face had the hint of a glimmer of hope on it. "Proceed, Azure: once the fog is cleared away, so too will your future be clear." She hung her head, as if remorseful she couldn't be of more help.
Azure flapped into the air and focused magic through her horn, channelling it into blasts of wind that blow holes in the fog, one after the other, revealing patches of the crater bottom. Maybe seeing a clear path will get the ponies all in one spot, or... rolling back the mists revealed spiders the size of dogs, chasing unerringly after the earth ponies that galloped heedlessly through the maze.
One mare tripped and fell, and the spider chasing her... huh, did Azure see that right? The spider actually paused, clicking its poisonous fangs, before the pony scrambles back to its feet and the chase resumes... The unicorn's train of thought was derailed by a keening screech going up from the entire crater, hundreds of spiders suddenly alert to their new foe. A horde of the creatures turned about and started crawling directly toward Azure, climbing on tree trunks and hoping to get within jumping distance of their hovering foe, while the others... the screams of terror begin to turn into screams of pain, then the thuds of falling bodies...
Cloud Cutter looked thoughtful for a moment, flexing her own wings as though remembering her old training and knowledge. "...Azure. If you are to truly command the winds, then you can't manipulate weather like a unicorn. You must do it like a pegasus. You must feel it through your wings if you are to master the Air." The scene down below was nothing short of terrifying - even on her blank face, a wince could be made out.
Slamming down on a spider that was about to reach Azure, Reef Skimmer's weight of presence is suddenly there, tearing into the monster, asking in a fury, "What are these things? No hoard ever moved so in unison! How do they all know where we are? Why are they all attacking as one? I don't have time to analyse their anatomy. We must stop them all, now!"
The numbers... Reef just warned Azure about exactly this outcome and her mental state wasn't looking great at all. Yet she's reminded of exactly what she did not two hours earlier. All she's got to do is channel the magic through her horn and... Cloud Cutter's words sliced right through that battle plan and after a momentary retreat, Azure began trying to use her wings to cause the cyclones, not just her unicorn horn as she did against the bats - all the while wondering... is this the Skylands' ways of Air magic? Or just the pegasus way? Were they the same? Was this... what she should have been doing all along?
Azure had never thought of her fragile, spell-summoned wings as anything other than visual manifestations of a levitation spell, the sensations from them mere psychological comfort food, poor substitutes for real pegasus wings. But... what if? What if they could conduct, like a horn? Awkwardly, she tried to push her will through the unfamiliar channels, work the wind spell through the framework of the flight spell already present, only to discover they didn't just conduct, they amplified.
Howling blasts of wind hammered down, blowing the bowl of the crater clean of mist and blasting back a couple of spiders that were in the process of leaping up at her hovering form. Her elation at this new ability was muted by the scene of horror revealed below; a boiling mass of arachnids, tumbling and clinging and trying to get back to their feet... and bodies. Many brightly coloured pony bodies. As she watched the last few ponies still on their feet were surrounded by spiders, leaping at the equines with poisonous fangs bared.
Cloud Cutter seemed elated to see Azure begin to truly harness the element of Air! Her expression turned to horror when she saw the horde of spiders opposing them. She hopped down with wing blades ready to help in the fight, but doesn't like her odds. "There's too many of them! How can we defeat them?" she ruminated. "And why did they not go in for the kill until you approached them? It seems... unusual."
"There's something here that's leading them... it's not right, they're stupid beasts..." Azure spat... she needed a bird's eye view, to try and make sense of this, but... "Cloud Cutter, if... if you can... try and help them." The confidence had drained from her voice - as if the speech she had given Amber has completely left her mind. After all... when you've got pony lives in the balance, a failure of this magnitude...
Abandoning the hopeless fight, Azure Feather flapped higher, out of reach of any plausible spider leap. Steeling herself against the horror of seeing innocent ponies swarmed by spiders, she scanned the scene, and... there! A cluster of eyes, glinting in the trees... a bloated eight-legged form, bigger than a pony, hanging from a branch in the woods, on the far side of the crater. No doubt the thing had an excellent view of the whole clearing, and at she met the thing's gaze, the last thing Azure felt was pure malevolence, a foul and malign intelligence before...
A flash, and a reflexive blink. What... ? She was standing on the overlook again, with Reef Skimmer and Cloud Cutter at her sides. The mist had returned and the spiders and they prey also: everything was exactly as it was when she first came in.
Reef Skimmer looked out over the mist, at the screaming ponies, at the terrible claws moving unseen all the way from this ridge to the other where a distant tree of a distant wood hangs over the edge. "You know what to do," he said darkly, a calm giant of a hippogriff stallion next to her, "Destroy her."
Cloud Cutter gave a reflexive shudder as everything snapped back to the initial state. She kept her memories, it seemed, and her revulsion. "Did you see that... thing?" she asked Azure. "It was like it was the overlord of these spiders... Our true enemy."
With the unexpected snap-back... there was a shudder through Azure's body as if she's about to be violently ill... but her focus is forced back by her allies' words. "I saw it. The Spider Queen. She must die before anything else. And I'll do it myself. You two be ready for the chaos that's going to ensue!" she cried out, flying directly for the queen, wings buzzing and ready to unleash blades of wind and cyclones at the beast. With creatures like these... you cut off the head and the beast died completely... she would soon find out if that held true here.
Focused on its children in the pit, the arachnid queen didn't focus on the blur of flapping motion heading straight for her until it was too late. Magic leapt from Azure's horn, forming into a concussive blast that knocked the creature clear out of the tree. It fell in a pile of thrashing legs, bloated black abdomen cracking open on the ground before the shattered pieces of wood speared down and impaled it. The gurgling, immobilised creature managed to raise its head one last time, staring hate at its vanquisher before one clean wind blade from the unicorn decapitated the beast.
Cloud Cutter raised a hoof to the air in celebration! "That did it, Azure! Now: clear the fog away and let's see if we can't seize victory!"
"May the might of her majesty's finest fall on these creatures!" Reef Skimmer agreed.
"Time to finish this!" Azure called out, but it wasn't a scream of mirth: the fight wasn't over and there was no time to celebrate when ponies were in danger. Her wings were the catalyst of a sweeping wave of wind to clear out the fog: the last line of defence for the spiders. Not only does she have herself - not only does she have Reef and Cloud Cutter - but the ponies below, ponykind is not one to be hunted and not fight back - as soon as we can see the enemy, as soon as we overcome our fear, we fight back with numbers - and that was exactly what she was hoping to see...
Azure was used to blasting energy in focused bolts or beams; the energy involved here is no less - perhaps even greater - but it's spread out, diffused into a huge volume of air that springs into motion, clearing the mist from the entire crater in one sustained gust. In her first true weather working, Azure revealed a scene of countless spider bodies twitching and thrashing, confused and directionless, while colourful ponies stared around with fear and wonder. A few took the opportunity to stomp their assailants underhoof, before as one they made a beeline for the edge of the crater, looking for any escape from the horror within.
Cloud Cutter swooped down, satisfied at the scene! "Much better! It's all thanks to you, our... Champion." She nodded up to Azure, before helping direct ponies out of the battlefield, wing blades out and slashing through spiders that got in the way. Reef Skimmer plunged in as well, cutting down foes and saving ponies like some sort of feathery pony-rescuing-spider-smashing dynamo.
...Maybe she was asking too much. Maybe her Lieutenant's words that steered her wrong - but the fact remained that ponies were getting away from the fight, escaping with their lives, and that was the ultimate goal. Azure flew down, seeking out any trapped ponies, picking off any spiders that got too close with magic blasts. She wouldn't let any ponies die this time.
By the time the spiders had recovered enough to give serious resistance, every last pony has scrambled clear. Azure methodically flew back and forth over the hollow, firing blade after blade, staying out of reach of the horrid creatures while blasting them to smashed chitin and yellow goo. With a little help from her allies, eventually every single one had been exterminated. It was only then that the unicorn let herself rest, hovering for a moment above the battlefield... and realising that the entire crater was ringed with pony faces, all looking up at her. A thump, then another, then a cheer went up with a thunder of hooves as they applauded their champion.
Now that Cloud Cutter and Azure had a moment together, the pegasus asked "Do you understand now? There is great power in your wings...the power of the wind resonates in you, if you answer its calling." She nodded. "The wind will demand from you calm and level headed assessment - you must be as cool and flexible as the breeze to win wars against hopeless odds."
Covered in green ichor, the hippogriff approached. "Thank Novo you were here." he said, beak hanging open in appreciation. "You may have think you hesitated too long, but instead you took the time to learn what you needed to do to succeed, and then, your bravery and swift action was more than commendable." He gave a sharp salute with one wing, touching his pinions to his forehead, saying "It was a pleasure working with you, Azure Feather."
Azure, however, knew her task wasn't over. One challenge down... but three still remained, to gain the wind's approval. She could only hope Amber was finding it easier going. "Looking forward to working with you again soon, Reef. We all miss you." Azure stated calmly, before turning to the pegasus. "I'll see you back at the Harmony, Cloud Cutter! Well fought out there!"
And with that the colours and textures drained away, leaving only lumps of clouds that soon dispersed into nothing. Sunlight streamed back in; the room looked as it had when Azure first entered, rows of columns showing ruins and cloudy sky outside.
"...I'm done here. One down..." Azure muttered, before turning her back on the empty room and trotting back toward where her allies... her friends... were waiting.
Deep in the enormous, abandoned temple of Air, three ponies and four griffons were waiting for their respective champions to emerge. The young male griffon, Cerulean Mist, bounded off to retrieve something from his family's packs; it turned out to be a game of sorts, involving flat stones placed on a folding wooden board. The griff asked if anypony knew how to play 'Skystones'; none did, but Summer Scribe fond the concept (or, to be honest, the faint magic radiating from the pieces) to be intriguing and accepts.
It seemed each player drew a clawful of creatures pieces and then took turns to place them on the board. As soon as a stone was placed, the enchantment inside sprang to life. On the second turn a tiny, translucent image of a troll wielding a blunderbuss appeared, and fought Summer's robed biped in a miniature display of magic blasts and black powder artillery. The mysterious mage apparently lost, fading away into nothing, but cuts and bandages appeared on the griffon's illusionary troll.
Eventually the young female griffon, Amber Thermal, emerged from her door. Now unhindered by the temple's magics, she flapped happily over to the group and landed next to her parents, who give her a quick nuzzle and preen. "It was tricky, but fun!" she explained. "Northern and southern griffons were fighting over the eyries, but I helped them work it out! What's next?"
It would be a few more minutes before Azure Feather emerged from her own door, finding the makeshift staircase gone but her wings happily working again. "One down... time to have a look at another door..." She fluttered down to the chamber floor, looking around for Amber. Worryingly, Set Sail seemed to be missing, along with the unicorn engineer Sprocket.
Summer Scribe had found the magical board game quite impressive, but at the sight of Amber and Azure making it out, she trotted over to welcome them back. "Hey, Amber, Azure! Did it go weeelll oh cool, you can fly in here now!" She immediately loses her train of thought, observing and perking. "Does that mean you succeeded? The Wind is yours and so on?"
Azure frowned at Summer, shaking her head and saying "One... one is, anyway... I'm not done. We still need to finish the other three to finish the trials... before looking around. "Which one now..."
Summer was happy to offer advice. "Well, you both beat your own respective trials - why not swap places?" She gestured at the two doors with a hoof. "You could even share advice so you know what to expect going in."
Azure nodded at the sensible suggestion. "I'm not going to make it too easy, Amber, but the blood door? Keep your eyes open. The answer isn't so easy to see at first." Probably best not to give the whole solution, Azure thought: Amber was supposed to be the Gryphons' Chosen! It seemed like the trials were meant to teach as well as test, and in any case, if she gave the griffoness the exact solution the temple might react by creating a completely different challenge.
"B-blood door?!" Amber said nervously. "Whose blood? You look ok... did it hurt? My door was... it was nice actually! Just about calming the winds through the pass until more of the peak was habitable, then, uh, helping the griffs see sense..."
"Calm the winds... heh, more pegasus magic. Gotcha. Fine, I'll give you one more hint: the answer isn't necessarily on the field. I'll let you figure it out from there. See you at the halfway point! You got this, Amber." She smiled at the nervous youngster, then shot her father Indigo a little smirk. "Which door did she start in?"
The big male griffon pointed to the door clockwise around the chamber from the one Azure had first tried. "That's the one, up there."
"Thank you, Indigo; much appreciated. Good luck, Amber!" she called out, before taking to the air again and heading for the second challenge. With that the two champions were pushing through their respective doors, disappearing into the corridors beyond.
The hallway was practically identical to the first; different carvings, perhaps, but Azure Feather didn't stop to examine them in detail. The room at the end was similar in construction, built on the side of the temple with a perimeter of columns showing clouds and sky beyond. The only major difference was the shape; circular instead of rectangular, with a coffered ceiling and a floor divided into shallow concentric tiers instead of flat. It made little difference, because once again clouds formed out of nowhere, taking form and texture as the magic of the temple created the challenge for the would-be champion.
Azure had a notion of what to expect from Amber, but likely her challenge wouldn't be griffons - ponies perhaps, unless it had to be native creatures? Her butterfly wings were unfurled, ready to do channel more energy, although likely that kind of magic wouldn't suffice this time; she'd have to weave spells with her words as well. Then there was the question of which allies she'd be working with this time...
The blue unicorn found herself high in the sky, standing on a small island hoof-deep in puffy white snow. Laid out before her was a miniature archipelago of islands, like a microcosm of the realm they found themselves in. Perhaps forty little house-sized islets ringed two larger landmasses, dotted in the snow-covered forms of trees and complete with frozen ponds and streams.
Rope bridges radiated out from one landmass, where several tunnel entrances could be seen, along with smoking chimneys poking up from the ground, presumably from rooms hidden away beneath the surface. Piles of spoil, tailings and junk sitting around the tunnel entrances left no doubt that some measure of industry was underway here.
The other landmass was clearly host to an agricultural enterprise, with several cottages and a pair of large barns ringed by small fields, painstakingly cleared of snow. Instead of bridges, tiny platforms supported by balloons sat tethered to stumps, waiting to carry a creature or two across the yawning gaps between the islands.
The scene was populated by two kinds of creatures. Standing warily around the tunnel entrances and creeping across the bridges were thin bipeds with smooth green skin and pointed ears; most likely more of Abernathy's people. Bustling about the farming village were a different species of bipeds, brown furred and rounded, vaguely like tail-less raccoons.
A minute or two of observation was enough to confirm that the two parties were at odds. Over there was a troll sneaking into a vegetable path, making off with a handful of carrots before a group of the furry creatures chased him off with rakes and hoes. Meanwhile one of his compatriots was digging through a scrap pile, picking out nails until a troll chased him off with a pick axe. Other creatures were engaged in shouting matches across the open sky between the islands... but there were no griffons in sight, or any mountain peaks for that matter.
Immediately, Azure glanced to each side to see... yes, it seemed that once again the temple had recreated two of her friends, as allies or at least guides. To her right, the unicorn Summer Scribe, smiling pleasantly and watching the brown creatures closely. To her left, the larger frame of the brown pegasus Set Sail, looking unsettled and frowning at the angry bipeds behaving so disharmoniously.
"Well, this place isn't close to being full of friendship, now is it..." Azure remarks, frowning a little. "You've got each of them stealing from each other without regard for anything the other one might want to keep, or even need to survive." She turned to address the other mares. "Set Sail." A little bow to the pegasus, then another to the unicorn: "Summer Scribe." "Do either of you have information I may be lacking here? The tribes' leaders, perhaps? Or anything I should know: diplomats, valuables, currency, trade, even?"
"Oh boy, looks like you have a challenge to do!" Summer Scribe declared excitedly, "and I'm gonna tell you to do things and stuff and woww, look how high up we are! Look at all those little creatures running around down there. Are they fighting? I think they're fighting. I wonder what they're fighting about? Is this real snow up here? I mean duh it's not real snow but do they have real snow here? What do you think, Azure?"
Set Sail nodded, then returned the bow. "Azure." She looked out over the little archipelago, floating in the air below them. "It's obvious that the creatures here suffer from contention over their resources: the trolls must be starving, and the raccoons little better. Why else would they try to grow crops in the middle of winter, or steal each other's scraps? Clear as day to me that they're at their wit's end!"
"Wait, they're both hungry?" Azure asked, looking surprised. "If one needed food while the other had an abundance, that'd be one thing, but... hmm. Maybe it's something even more basic than that: I just spotted one stealing something as basic as nails. Maybe to build something to help with their crops. It is winter, after all. Terrible weather to try and grow crops. Or... maybe they don't even have seasons here? Is it just snowy all the time?" Azure mused. Goodness, she did appreciate a challenge where pony lives didn't hang in the balance and she had time to consider her decisions.
Set Sail nodded her head. "...either way, it's your job as an Elemental of the Air to fix this mess. That's an order, by the way! Right now they don't have the resources to sustain themselves, and we can hardly let these poor creatures starve to death!"
Still staring down, Summer suggested, "Maybe we should ask them? How am I gonna get down there though? I don't think I could make the jump, and I'm just a unicorn. Do I just... stand up here cheering you on the whole time? Oh, I know!" Lighting up her horn brightly, Summer Scribe quickly cast the butterfly wings spell on herself, and with her new gossamer appendages fluttering, she declared "Race you to the bottom!" With that she soared off the overlook and flew down to where the skinny green and fuzzy brown beings were arguing.
Thinking back to Amber's experience, Azure told her illusionary captain "I'm getting ideas here, Set Sail. Let's see how things go, hmm?" Seconds later she was playfully 'racing' the fantasy of Summer Scribe down to the bottom. Doubtless talking to members of both species was the way to make progress: get each side of the story. Though... given the tense situation, she needed to stay on her guard. Sudden entrances from a strange species would doubtless get their attention, and the reaction wasn't guaranteed to be positive.
"Counting on you!" Set Sail nodded curtly, as she spread her own wings and followed the other two ponies down, fretting about what kind of first impression they'd make.
The ponies flew towards the centre of the tiny island group, coming into earshot of the creatures shouting back and forth there. "Filthy trolls! Always knew you were evil to the core!"
"Evil? You Mabu are hoarding all the decent soil! You won't even give us a handful of seeds to get started!"
"Yeah like you can't even spare a few nails? They're in the trash pile!"
"That's not trash, it's.... hey! What are those... flying antelopes?!"
"No idea, wow they... hey this better not be another of your tricks!"
"No tricks! This time, I mean! They do look tasty though don't they?"
Set Sail exchanged a glance with Azure, her tail lashing for a moment, but saying nothing.
Sighing, Azure dived right in: "Look, I know you're all begging for food, but I know there's a better way for this... the weather's awful for growing crops, I understand that. But I see one of your tribes have nails, metalworking, is that correct?" she asked, completely skipping the customary introduction. Probably best not waste time explaining about ponies and where they came from, not yet at least: sometimes desperate creatures just didn't care who you were, only what you could do for them - or do to them.
"It talks!"
"Talking antelope?"
"Yeah, we're the civilised species here. Those Mabu-"
"They're monsters. We could work the mine just fine, if they weren't-"
"Don't listen to her! Mabu propaganda has-"
"Lies!"
The shouting and insults went downhill from there.
"We're not tasty!" Summer protested, tearing herself away from a close examination of the troll's junk piles and swooping gracefully up beside Azure, "We'd hardly make a single meal for you! I wonder why they're all so hungry, anyway? You'd think only half would be hungry, and the other half would be... nail hungry! But instead both are hungry? What's up with that?"
"It's this awful weather." Azure explained. "Is there a nearby island you use during... better seasons to harvest crops than this one?" she asked the furry creatures. "If not... snow stops you planting crops, but..." With a flick of her wings, she sent a little bit of air magic to clear the snow from a small part of the island, blowing it away into the sky. "if I clear a few islands, and maybe both tribes can work together to harvest, then later you could build greenhouses to deal with seasons like this..."
"Orrr you could only clear stuff for anyone who works together, and dump a bunch of snow on the crops of the ones who don't!" Summer suggested brightly.
"Did you see that-"
"I knew it was a trick-"
"Magic antelope assassins, I knew it-"
"SHUT UP!"
"Yeah, shut- uh." The female Mabu manages to shock the crowd into silence for a moment. "First, do you see any ships around here? How are we going to get to other islands? Second, we don't have ships because THOSE TROLLS REFUSE TO-"
"Hey! If we weren't starving, maybe we could look into it!" a troll stallion called back. To Azure, he said "Look, little antelope, don't want to be unfriendly here but we can shovel snow on our own. Doesn't do much good when the ground's still frozen solid-"
"Like you'd know how to grow a single cabbage even if you-"
"Oh we're going to build a ship alright, just so we can drop a rock right on your-"
The chaotic shouting quickly returned.
Set Sail facehooved and groaned. "...Azure. Can you show the Troll and Mabu what you can do? I don't think they appreciate your full capabilities without a display."
"So it has to be on this island... and the ground is frozen solid, we need to find a solution to that too. But..." the unicorn smiled at the captain's suggestion. "You know, that's a darn good point... maybe I should be a little more forceful." Taking aim at a small snow-covered islet in the middle of the group, she fluttered her wings and pushed out magic energy, whipping up a little cyclone to well and truly wipe the snow away.
Azure Feather found it surprisingly easy to create the miniature tornado - no straining and sensation of heat in her horn as she'd had to bear when blasting the crystal bats earlier. The raging wind proceeded to strip the little island of snow, grass, leaves and a fair amount of topsoil. The assembled creatures stared in awe until the wind died down, before finding common cause at last.
"I knew it! Magic chaos lamas!"
"They're gonna destroy everything!"
"Erkle, get the crossbow! No the working one!"
"We've got nets! If we tie rocks to them-"
"Go for the wings! That must be her weak spot!"
"No, no, you gotta hit antelopes on the nose-"
Trolls and Mabu alike began to run around frantically , searching for some way to fight back against ponygenic climate apocalypse. A couple begin hurling pebbles in Azure and Summer's general direction.
"Woah, woah, woah! Hang on! Azure's going to fi-" Set Sail leapt forward to protest, but was soon beaned by a rock to the face, tumbling dizzily before toppling to the ground.
"Just try it!" Summer Scribe shouted back with a rough smile, levitating a storm of rocks around her, looking for targets to retaliate against.
Azure just nodded: alright, it seemed these foolish creatures wouldn't listen to reason... time to put an end to this, before anypony gets seriously hurt. Part of her couldn't care less about these creatures, especially after what they did to the Captain, but... She pushed magic through her wings again, conjuring up a defensive wall of wind between the ponies and the two warring tribes, then called to the other unicorn. "Summer? Could you get the captain safety please? I think this needs a little... fine-tuning. Maybe I do need to be a diplomat... and maybe... just maybe I need to start thinking like a certain crazy cerulean Pegasus from back home!"
"Aww, but I wanted to bean some heads," Summer said, pouting. However she followed orders: her horn flashed with bright energy, teleporting both her and Set Sail far away, back to the tiny island above where they'd begun the scenario.
Set Sail brushes herself off and got up, clucking and telling her rescuer "You know Summer, that spell would have been really useful in a few recent encounters..."
Summer just shrugged, remarking "It's Azure's magic that's gotta make the difference here. I just hope she knows what she's doing."
Set Sail smirked back. "It's her job to know. so she'd better."
Meanwhile the native creatures stared fearfully at the escalating magic powers of the flying equines. Clearly these harbingers of destruction are a force to be reckoned with. The trolls ran into their tunnels and disappeared underground while the Mabu crowded into their barns, slamming and bolting the doors behind them.
"...All right... now to think like a pegasus." Azure Feather told herself. Foregoing further negotiation, she'd rather act, flapping higher and higher until she reached the base of the overcast clouds. It all made sense now: the southern wind - the herald of summer - that's what she needed to bring to this little land. Drive the northern winds out and change the season: simple enough. Soon she was trying just that: a large-scale breeze strong enough to send the cloud cover packing, revealing the Sun to warm the soil. Then she would follow up with a series of warm gusts to gently melt and push away the snow, to prepare the whole region for the planting and harvesting of crops.
Set Sail was experienced enough with weather manipulation to understand what Azure was doing... and it put a broad smile on her face. "Yes, that's the way! You have to channel the sense of the winds through your pinions - be in touch with the weather around you, guide the movement of air and water vapour, like a conductor and her orchestra..."
Azure worked tirelessly to clear the overcast skies, bringing bright sunlight down to touch every part of the islands, while the warm wind rolled in and caresses the trees, the grass, the soil. It seemed time, or at least specific heat capacity, works a little differently here, as in mere minutes the ponies watched the snow and ice melt away, streaming in rivulets that dripped off the edges of the islands, leaving warm, damp, soft soil behind. "The sky is your stage - the winds your instruments - the lands your audience." she murmured "I never gave a thought to it until-"
"Azure! You're doing it! Wooo!" Summer shouted. The sight was so enthralling that she completely missed the troll crawl out of a concealed tunnel, take aim and shoot a crossbow bolt straight at her heart. Fortunately the distance was long and the sights poorly aligned, so the deadly projectile merely whistled past her ear, popping her wings and making her tumble down to a squelchy landing in the newly formed mud. "How rude!" she exclaimed. With a wave of her horn, she conjured an impenetrable shield bubble to protect her and Set Sail from any more bolts.
Set Sail jolted with concern at the near-miss, then rolled her eyes at the sight of another incredibly useful spell Summer had never displayed knowledge of before. The task at hand was to keep encouraging Azure; her call of "You're doing great, Azure! Keep going!" was only slightly muffled by the magic bubble.
Time to finish the job, Azure though, looking around to ensures everything was in order... Summer couldn't last forever - the seasons, like everything else, would keep rolling - but perhaps this had been an unnaturally long winter, and all she needed to do was restore the natural order? As for the weather working, it truly was just as Set Sail described it - the winds like instruments in her orchestra. Sure, sometimes you got a crazy pegasus who just like to bust through all the annoying clouds, but sometimes it was best to work with nature rather than against it.
A few creatures were warily beginning to poke their heads out of windows and doorways, staring at their altered surroundings in confusion. After smoothing the winds down to a nice orderly breeze, Azure slowly returned to the ground, warily watching the two native tribes. "...Now can I explain who we are?" she asked.
The mabu and trolls whispered to each other but stayed quiet, unwilling to provoke the air elemental.
"S-Sure, whatever..."
"Yeah, I mean if it's a choice between speeches and tornadoes..."
"We're a tribe from outside the storm barrier." Azure said plainly, trying to keep calm. "Our mission here is reconnaissance: explore new lands, learn about their inhabitants. And we are learning... a lot from you, your lands, your tribes. I apologise for the rash displays. I mis-stepped when thinking that was the best plan of action here. I am not the diplomat of my kind, but I'm... learning." This was difficult for her, but... it seemed to be working?
Silence. Stares (the leaves swirling around the winged unicorn did add a certain presence). Then a troll spoke up: "So... no more tornadoes?"
Meanwhile the Mabu leader had temporarily forgotten the conflict and was testing the soil: "This is amazing! Ready to plant... we can grow ten times as much, easily."
"No more tornadoes. No more eternal winter." Azure said firmly. "No more conflict?" she suggested, a tinge of hope in her voice.
"What? You think we can just... those monsters are still occupying the mine!"
"Hey, if you could just blow them off the island, we'd be fine? We could pay you in lettuce; antelopes love lettuce, right?"
"Try it and we'll blow you all to smithereens! Who's got all the dynamite? Yeah, that's right, us trolls! And now that-" The shouting began to resume.
Azure sighed and shook her head. When she spoke next the tentative hope was gone, replaced by a more commanding tone. "Ever thought about working together for a change? Trade? In goods if not in currency? There is good land for crops now, resources for all. The only thing preventing you from living a good life here is yourselves."
"But how can we trust-" both leaders said simultaneously, before stopping and staring at each other.
Set Sail had abandoned the magic bubble, gliding down to lend moral support. "You were only fighting because you were scrambling for food and resources. If you have everything you need to sustain yourselves, then why ruin everything by wasting your efforts fighting each other?"
"Tell them they can trust each other because they want to!" came Summer's faint calls from above; after the crossbow incident she was a little less willing to get close to the trolls.
"Look what just happened - you were willing to team up to fight us off, if nothing else. Two heads are better than one - two tribes working together can achieve wonders. The trolls clearly have tools and parts, going to waste even - perhaps the start of cooperation can be as simple as a new greenhouse. A new silo. You can agree a fair share of the food, instead of stealing."
"I guess... we could give it a try?" the troll leader said.
"Yeah... a trial run... but if you try anything-" his mabu counterpart began.
"We'll work it out. Like the flying magic chaos weather antelope said... we have to. Shake on it?"
The male troll extended a green hand, and reluctantly the female mabu took it... before shaking firmly. "Deal."
"Good. It seems you're on the way to overcoming your differences and... I apologise for the rash display." Azure concluded. "Farewell."
Set Sail bowed to Azure, a smile on her face. "Good job, Azure. I knew I could count on you. And now..." she spread her pinions with a look of satisfaction on her face. "My wings will be your wings."
Teleporting next to the pegasus with a flash and a pop, Summer Scribe chimed in: "I sure did my best to be all confusing, but I guess you made it anyways!" She seemed perfectly happy with the outcome, adding "Great job! You earned this."
Azure just stared at the captain; for the first time since the two met, there was a stunned look in her eyes as she quietly repeated "My wings are your wings...? What... what do you mean?"
The pegasus opened her mouth as if to reply, but she was already losing colour and substance. Before Set Sail could utter another word she'd dissolved into drifting cloud, soon to be followed by the rest of the scene. Once again Azure found herself alone in the enormous circular space, staring at drifting clouds and blue skies through the gaps between the marble columns.
The strange force that initially kept everyone grounded showed no sign of returning, so Azure simply flew down the hall and out into the central chamber, coming to a hover a few metres above the floor. The scene hadn't changed much: the brown and white griffon Gustus sitting near the two much larger native griffons, while their male child played another round of the magical board game with the real Summer Scribe. There was still no sign of Set Sail or Sprocket.
"And I'm fairly sure from a reliable source that a beetroot tincture in apple juice will do the trick," Gustus told his fellow griffs confidently, "Now who here's winning at this magic-powered board game? I confess the rules do yet escape me.
"This is pretty fun," Summer thought out loud, her tail flicking as she focused on the pieces. "It's like the game plays itself, but you're still building an army, learning to predict how all the different pieces will interact, so it's really engaging!"
Azure Feather's lips curled into a quiet smile as she surveyed the room. Things seemed to be going fine, not much changed since the last time she was here... but Amber was notably absent, and her eyes were drawn to the door to the trial chamber she'd entered first... still shut. "I wonder if Amber's okay... two down with two to go here, but..." Azure said, landing near the others. She seemed torn: the griffons had been allies since they first met, and it seemed friends were a rare find out here. Azure gave Emerald a sympathetic look; she must be even more worried. "Really hope she's okay..."
"It has been a while..." the green griffon said nervously. "Indy, do you think we should go in after her?"
"Never heard of a griff getting hurt in the temple. On the journey, sure, but not in the trials." her mate replied comfortingly, before adding under his breath "Excepting a few cuts and bruises, like."
Cerulean didn't seem to be concerned. "Yeah Skystones is the best, isn't it!" the young griffon said, nodding enthusiastically to Summer. "And you're pretty good for a beginner!" He leans in and whispers "Guess what I found when we visited the vulpids last year? A vehicle stone! 'course no one will let me play with it, 'cause that's unfair I guess, but... oh hey miss uneycorn? Did you win?"
"A vehicle stone?" Summer Scribe mused! "What did it look like?" She looked down, taking in the layout of toppled and triumphant stones. "I think I did win!" she enthused, misinterpreting the griffon's question.
Azure gave a slow nod to the gamer griffon, her smile returning. "Yeah. Two down." she acknowledged, before turning back to Emerald and Indigo. "That first one... it wasn't an easy trial. Particularly if Amber's not well-versed in battle... I'm not going to jump ahead, though. Want to stay and make sure she's alright, first. No distractions."
Summer blinked, suddenly realising Azure's had returned; she gave her compatriot a triumphant hoof-wave! "Nice going! Two down indeed." She beamed, saying giddily: "So far so good... I can't wait to see what happens next!"
"Good for you!" Cerulean chirped to Azure. "Yeah Amber must be.... hey! You're not a winner yet, Miss Scribe! I still got a..." the griffon gave a little trill by way of build-up "...Chompy Bot Nine Thousand! That's a robot, you see," he added, sagely. "Or maybe a golem. I dunno, seem the same to me, but it kicks ass!"
Summer Scribe made an 'oh no' face and groaned. "Who would make a golem based off of a chompy?" That was then moment when the revelation came that the Cloudbreak Islands must be full of sadists. She looked despondent!
They'd been waiting a little while, watching the game, when Sprocket returned through the main entrance. The cream-furred unicorn looked a little worried as she trotted briskly back into the room. Heading up to Summer and Azure, the junior engineer said with a uneasy grimace, "Set Sail's doing okay. She said she's going to stay outside and watch the copter."
Summer Scribe didn't think much of that cover story, wondering why Sprocket was making that face while telling it, but... no point arguing. "...Alright! I hope she's doing fine."
Azure just grimaced. "The temple's environment doesn't sit too well with her, I guess. I know what it's like when you want to fly but can't. Hopefully she's fine, yeah." she nodded to Summer.
"She wasn't trying to fly anymore, but something in here was just really bothering her," Sprocket said with a shrug, "It must be some sort of pegasus thing. She said she was fine. Just seemed kind of creeped out. I guess we can join her out there when we're done here."
"Well, can't be all that bad if she hasn't thrown up, right?" Summer Scribe reasoned. "Just bad vibes or a brush the wrong way or whatever. Yeah, we can reassure her later."
It would be another twenty minutes before the golden griffon finally emerged from her challenge, flapping erratically through the portal before diving straight down to her parents. "Oh mum, dad... it was awful!" she wailed, emphasising her plight with little squawks and chitters of distress. "I couldn't save them. The rats... I couldn't stop them... they ate all the chicks! I tried to blow them back but, oh..." She buried her beaked face in her father's flank.
"There there," Emerald reassured her, stroking her back, "it wasn't real. None of it was real."
"What the heck is behind those doors, some kind of waking nightmare?" Gustus asked, looking with worry at the troubled family. "And what does all this have to do with 'making things blow around' sorta magic?"
"A griff's gotta prove themselves, to get the blessings." Indigo said. "Guess the spirits of Air don't feel like making it easy on their elementals."
Summer perked up as Amber returned... but at her clear distress, her head drooped. It sounded like she wouldn't be making champion this time, huh?
Even Azure's soon to Amber's side... clearly seeing the griffon's distress. And as much as she wanted to find the words to reassure her... she couldn't, as evidenced by her three attempts to speak that got as far as opening her mouth as if to say something, then just closing it again. The third and last attempt ending with her looking to the ground. Damn. Gustus though, she could answer.
"Look... I don't know the whole story, and I'd rather not get into it just now. I'll tell you what I can once this is done..." Azure turned to Indigo and Emerald, giving a sympathetic glance to Amber; a look that clearly showed her concern for the would-be champion and her parents. She just wanted them all to be okay... but she had to continue. Alone. It was time to head to that foul-smelling door. Flying up, she gave one last look back... before heading in. Time for the third challenge.
"Oh but it's not like that Indy." Emerald admonished, looking nervously up at the ceiling as if said spirits might disapprove of her mate's opinion. "It's how they teach us. Why I bet Amber can do things now that she... oh, um... good luck then!" she called after Azure, but the doors were already closing.
"Good luck, Azure!" Summer Scribe echoed hopefully. Surely Azure was made of tough enough stuff that she could close this out... right?
Far away, back at the jungle island where the ponies had first landed, the great airship was still moored next to the pretty sheep-filled meadow. One creature was in no mood or condition to appreciate the idyllic scene outside, instead confining himself to the darkest, loneliest place he could find. The lowest deck of the EAS Harmony was mostly occupied by the cavernous cargo hold, dark and empty, with only a few small portholes letting in light.
Once packed with supplies, most of the crates had either been tossed overboard to reduce weight in the desperate crossing of the storm wall, or unpacked and relocated to the rest of the ship or the camp in the adjacent meadow. The last few had met a more violent end, smashed to splinters, leaving bent cans and shattered jars scattered across the floor. Even the structure of the ship itself bore a few fresh scars: pitting in the beams and ruts melted into the deck as if by strong acid.
The cause of the destruction lay curled in the corner furthest from the door, resembling a huge pile of grey feathers from which a dozen twitching, electric-blue tentacles protruded. One would have to get close to see the beaked face, still adorned with pink crest but with fins in the place of ear tufts. The eyes had lost their usual ferocity as the former hippogriff Reef Skimmer stared at the wall, as he had done for the last four hours.
Rage - at Summer Scribe, at whoever had build the condemned factory, at magic in general - had given way to depression, as he tried to find a reason to continue living. How could he be of use to anygriff now: hideous, unable to fly, unable to walk, unable to even touch things without risk of melting them. Even if he could return to Mount Aris, he'd be a freak, a laughing-stock, discharged from the navy and a sideshow attraction at best. Why not just end it now? He knew the ponies would be upset, but they couldn't afford a liability like him, not when they were fighting for survival in this awful place.
The darkness ended, though it was not a welcoming light. The shadows veered away from a shimmering purple light playing along the broken crates and the scarred beams. Casting the light was a strange pegasus with empty eyes, hesitating at the sight of it all down here, but proceeding carefully and evenly on four quiet and delicate hooves. She did not know the forces that coursed through her at this moment, only that they could snuff out the life of anything around her.
Stepping between the ruined cans and jars of wasted provisions she cautiously approached what Reef Skimmer had become. He did not lash out at her, or even turn around as she approached, so finally, the glowing purple pegasus known as Cloud Cutter stood at a hopefully safe distance and called out seriously, "Reef Skimmer."
The head lifted up... supported not by a feathery neck, but by another cluster of tentacles. The disturbing sight put Cloud Cutter in mind of a griffon that had been decapitated and the reanimated by some forbidden magic; the comparison to her own condition made the barest trace of a smile flash across her lips. "Cloud... Cut?" The voice was monotone, even morose. "You look... different. Walking. That's something." He tried to draw the twitching tentacles under his wings, to hide them from the pegasus, before giving up and staring at the wall. "Wasn't expecting visitors... come to stare at the freak?" he said, bitterness creeping into his tone.
"If I wanted to do that, I could look in a mirror," Cloud Cutter said with an unsympathetic toss of her mane. "I don't like you, Reef Skimmer," she told him, walking up to the former hippogriff, "And I am pretty sure you don't like me. But my captain, and my friend Set Sail asked me to deliver you a message. She asked me because I'm the only pony who can deliver it."
"You have the capability to hurt anypony who comes near you, but so have I. This energy within me saps the life from anything it touches, once I release it. I'm sure that feeling is familiar to you now, with those acid worms a part of you, but clearly you can control it as well as I can, otherwise you would have fallen through the bottom of the ship by now. So here we are, a couple of freaks, each with the power to destroy the other, but each of us harmless to the touch, until we decide to send someone to a hasty grave."
Reef rose unsteadily to his... well not feet, but the tentacles were standing in for them well enough that he towered to twice the height of the pegasus, spread wings spanning half-way across the hold. "To think I begged the Captain to keep you around. That you could control it, that you weren't an asset not a threat, when she thought you were going to kill everycreature. I shouldn't expect gratitude... from a pony." he spat. "You hated me the whole time, eh? Ponies must get a lot of practice, at hiding their grudges behind a pleasant face." He clicked his beak.
"So be it. You at least are useful... if you can truly control that magic, which..." He'd dismissed the purple glow as just more pony magic, but this time there was an unfamiliar, thoroughly unpleasant feeling. A chill radiated from the pegasus, a touch of the oblivion that stood against all life, all hope... yet somehow, somewhere, it felt as if a crowd of beings were laughing. "...which I'm not sure is even true, any more." He glared at the avatar of death. "The power to destroy each other, you say? One is in no shape for a duel... but if you speak truth, perhaps that would be best. For her sake- I mean..." he shook his head "for the sake of the others."
"A duel?" she said unhappily, taking a step back as Reef heaved himself to a towering height, "I'm not here to fight you! I'm not here to fight anyone. So you hate me too, then? Think I can't control it? It—wants to be released, and I won't let it, because I am useful, and I'm not going to kill any creatures today if I can help it. You think I hate you? Just because you were rude and self-centred, always going on about how hard it is for you to treat us? I could listen to that all day without blinking, but now you're being utterly insufferable."
With an uncharacteristic lash of her tail, she declared defiantly, "Nopony cares how much of a freak you are. Nopony wants you to die. They just want you to stop being such a spoiled... petulant foal who mopes around down here, having tantrums that scare everypony so much, that they need me to tell you come back to them. I'm just here to deliver a message, not here to end your life, as you seem quite capable of doing that yourself."
"Then go and do something useful." Reef shouted angrily. "Since you're such a valuable member of the crew. You think I don't know what you went through? That you were so special, compared to the hundreds of creatures I've had to watch suffering and die? But oh of course, ponies automatically understand exactly what other creatures, lesser creatures are going through." He glared down at the pegasus. "You are the ignorant little filly in this room, and you can take your 'message' and shove it!"
The griff was snorting, panting, tentacles twitching uncontrollably... he managed to look away, before slowly drawing his wings in and saying coldly "That was... uncalled for. One just... can't think straight, right now. Everything feels wrong." He sighed, looking at the pegasus and tilting his head. "Consider your duty discharged. It seems misery finds no comfort in company, nor do victims of alien magics share common understanding." The creature turned away, showing his back to Cloud Cutter... and even more tentacles, thick ones bearing fishy fins that had replaced his feathery tail.
"I'll leave after I've delivered my message," Cloud Cutter said stubbornly to the creatures ropey tailed rear end, since he clearly had important walls to stare at. When he didn't turn around, she said in a softer voice, "And I'm sorry, if everything feels wrong." Before he could respond, she added curtly, "Set Sail wanted me to tell you that she misses you very much, and she hopes that you will get better soon. And she didn't tell me this, but I know she meant your behaviour, not your physical form. Because she... feels that way about me, too."
Reef looked over his shoulder at the pegasus, his expression unreadable (at least to CC). A long pause, and then "Good. You're a pony, a pegasus even. Were it not for your eyes, none would be the wiser. You can fly, you can protect her... touch her." He sighed again, and his beak hung open the barest crack. "At least now, she won't have to choose. I wish you... whatever happiness you can find together. Regardless of your opinion of me, would you do be the favour of..." his voice cracked. "...taking care of her. Goodbye, Cloud Cut." Were those tears? In the strange purple light it was hard to tell, before his head turned away to stare at the wall again.
Cloud Cutter fish-mouthed at the strange creature in shock, before crouching there, declaring up at him angrily, "Why don't you ask somepony to do that who isn't the walking dead? I haven't been able to get off in weeks!" A silent, speechless pause then, after which her purple glow abruptly faded from the room. When Reef Skimmer turned around to look again, it was as if she had never been there at all.
Beyond the third door was another long hallway lit by the dim light of flickering blue light. As expected, it ended in another huge empty space, lined by columns framing views of the sky outside. Azure Feather waited patiently as the mist formed and congealed into cloud, becoming solid and vivid as the illusion took hold.
Her initial impression was of a jagged wound torn into the landscape, filled with the trappings of industry and creatures tasked with digging out the fruits of the earth. Ridges and gullies of broken orange rock, rising for tier after tier along a concave cliff face forced into retreat by sustained labour, criss-crossed by rickety ramps, bridges, stairways and catwalks.
The air rang with the crack of picks against rock and the rumble of carts trundling along rusty rails, carrying away spoil. The mine was cut out of barren land, dotted with a few twisted little trees and hardy shrubs; though rainfall was still sufficient to turn much of the choking dust into clinging mud, sticking to the hooves and coats of the miners.
The butterfly-winged unicorn's breath caught as she got a good look at the mine's inhabitants. Hundreds of brightly coloured equines laboured under the watchful gaze of pointy-eared bipeds, using their magic to swing picks and levitate rocks, trudging in and out of the tunnel entrances dotted around the cliff face. A moment's study confirmed that this wasn't a voluntary arrangement; the drow stalked the catwalks and lounged in guard towers, crossbows and spears at the ready.
Every last unicorn bore a heavy collar, shown to be no ordinary yoke when one unfortunate cream stallion displeased one of the guards. The creature raised a pronged device and pointed it at the pony, causing the victim's collar to crackle with energy. The poor stallion screamed with pain, falling to his knees, his field winking out and scattering rocks all around.
The weather made the place look even less inviting: early morning light diffused through a thick layer of cloud broken by only a few scattered rays of sunlight. Traces of mist clung to the mine, mixing with the smoke rising from dozens of crude torches and the chimney of a steam engine, which clanked and hissed as it pumped water from the lower tunnels. A row of squalid, broken-down stabled near the bottom no doubt served as shelter for the ponies - when their overseers permitted them sleep. A small fort on an adjoining cliff probably acted as the local base of the drow.
Azure's own position seemed to be a stream bed, currently dry, creating a small shrub-filled depression that allowed her to survey the site without risk of immediate detection. She managed to tear her gaze away from the sad scene of enslaved unicorns to see... yes, once again two allies had joined her in facing the trial.
To the left, the brown-furred, gold-scaled form of the kirin engineer, Nutmeg Inferno, staring in disgust at the mine. To the right, a lanky green form was crouching in the gulley, shot-gun in hand, glowering at the hated enemy. The troll Abernathy, no doubt ready to take down some dark elf scum, Azure thought warmly.
Azure blinked, trying to make sense of this... a mining operation? It didn't seem so bad, until she saw the collars, then got a good look at the guards... oh no. Not... not this. Not again. She'd seen something very like this before, and although this time there were no familiar faces, frustration grew in her heart and determination filled her mind. At least her allies were impressive.
The master inventor, Nutmeg Inferno, ready to assemble futuristic weaponry at a moment's notice. The first ally they'd found in Skylands, somepony who'd resisted the drow for years: Abernathy the troll. She'd seen the effectiveness of that weapon he bore, blasting away the giant chompy-spawner.
Mentally making note of their combat abilities, she addressed them grimly. "Good to see both of you... it's been too long. Situation report. Anything to note beyond... the obvious?" Frustration showed again. Enslaving ponies on an industrial scale: how dare they?
"Holy Troll!" Abernathy swore, dropping to one knee. He was not happy about being the tallest among them right now. "No time for a situation report. A hundred or more drow, and we don't have long before they spot us!"
Nutmeg looked almost as angry as Azure. "Here's your situation report: the drow don't take any chances when it comes to slave-driving." She gestured to the towers that have a great view of the mine and surrounding territory, then to the drow guards carrying crossbows and electric shock devices.
"Not a chance that we'll be able to stage a rebellion with those collars working, and the moment we try anything brave we'll get pelted with bolts. We're pretty much holed up here if we want to stay unpunctured. It's sickening, but on some level, impressive."
At Abernathy's remark Azure sank to her belly, hoping they could retain the element of surprise. As for Nutmeg's report... the unicorn nodded and whispered back. "As expected. A stealth strike is our only hope. Though... I may have an idea." A slight smile. "Tell me if those collars have a power source... and if so, if that power source is out in the open. The weather may be in our favour if both conditions are true." Think like a pegasus, right?
"Oooh, I like the way you think." Nutmeg chortled. "Okay, let me think for a moment." She paced back and forth, muttering - that was what brilliant engineers did when they were trying to make genius happen, right? Occasionally she stopped to peek out of the hollow, watching the drow use their devices on the collared ponies.
"So, bad news: looks like there's no centralized system to strike." The kirin pointed at one of the drow as they raised their device and shocked a unicorn who'd taken an unauthorised break. "Those 'guns' somehow induce an electromagnetic current in the collar they're pointing at. Likely fiddling with one or the other could make it useless, but I'd need a closer look... and I don't think you'll get any quick fix for the whole mine."
"They'll see me before I get close enough to get a shot off," Abernathy complained, glaring over the lip of the depression they were hiding in. "We're hidden by the mist and shadows here, but as soon as we're in the light of those torches, their sentries will pick us off like chompies."
"Damn. I was thinking, make a lightning bolt, overload those devices, trigger a pony stampede... but if they don't run off a generator..." Azure snorted in frustration. "No sense charging in without a plan, it'd be a slaughter. I'm learning how to control the weather with these wings but... I can't distract all the guards at once, at least not without hurting ponies or making myself a target."
"Drow are cheap trash, just like everything they make," Abernathy said in disgust. "Those collars are just twisted up wires, so that they can electrocute any slave they point their toy gun at. There's nothing powered about them; not like a top quality Troll collar." He shook his head dismissively. "There must be plenty of ways we could sneak in there. Just have to figure out which one and we can end this madness."
Azure racked her brains, considering the spectrum of weather conditions she might create. Thunderstorm? Lightning was unpredictable and the ponies were wearing metal collars; likely they'd get hit instead of the drow. High winds? Tornadoes? Still too much risk of hurting the enslaved unicorns. Although...
"What about a hailstorm... ever had a hoofball-sized ice rock hit you on the back of the head?" She grimaced. "But... I'm not sure I have that kind of control... even if the ponies take shelter, we'd be pinned down as much as the drow..." Her frustration continued to rise. "There's gotta be something I'm missing, some tactic I haven't thought of yet... maybe simple fog would be enough?" she ventured.
Nutmeg mused over the possibilities Azure had presented, her own mind rolling along. An air elemental could create any meteorological phenomenon, right? "Yes, that sounds like the safest plan: we just need some cover to negate their crossbows, keep them guessing. A nice thick fog fits the bill: no side effects, just awful visibility. Then we just keep moving and don't let them corner us."
Azure nodded. "Yes... keep it simple. Fog is our best chance: it's already misty and cloudy, so it shouldn't be too hard to create a proper fog bank, thick enough that the Drow won't see us coming. Need more of a plan than that though: I can't just buck dozens of armed drow, and we're only a squad of three," she admitted.
Nutmeg just grinned, suggesting "Not just a squad of three if we start freeing ponies. Once they have a full-blown breakout on their hooves, they have more to worry about than lil' old us."
Azure smirked at the kirin's plan. "See, that's why I love being in a squad. Three heads are better than one... roll in the fog, then Abernathy and I draw the guards away while you disable the collars. Let's get started." With a nod of approval, the unicorn slowly spread her gossamer wings, pushing magic outward through them. Much as she wanted to take off and hover closer to the clouds, she couldn't risk drawing attention to their position. Reaching out, she could feel a decent amount of moisture already in the air; it wouldn't take much more to hit the dew point...
Azure closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to affect the huge volume of air over the mine. It was a strain, but slowly she managed to pull down vapor from above while also chilling the air just a couple of degrees, enough that the few traces of mist hanging in the ravines grew and merged, forming a blanket of fog covering the whole area.
The scattered torchlight bloomed into eerie glows, while drow and unicorns alike looked nervously around at the sudden change in the air. Visibility steadily dropped until it was twenty metres at best, but the guards seemed wary, alert to the possibility of a canny unicorn taking the opportunity to make a break for it.
"They're not dumb, they might even suspect this isn't natural... let's move fast and be ready to retreat, this won't last forever!" She looked to both of her allies, nervously asking "Weapons ready?" This was it...
Nutmeg levitated her oversize wrench out of its sheath with a dramatic fwoosh, the tip sparking and crackling as she gave it an intimidating swing. "Yep, ready!" she grinned. "What do you say, boss? Should I help distract the drow, or get straight to freeing the unicorns? If you want a distraction, that steam engine looks mighty explodable..."
"That's solid cover, but now I can't see the targets," Abernathy grumbled. "Think we can make this work though. I can't sneak worth a darn, but you two can. Just let me know when you want me to make some noise, and I'll keep them guessing. They don't know how many of us there are." The troll flourished his shotgun, which had inexplicably changed from double-barrelled to pump-action, and gave it a one-handed jerk, chambering a round with a dramatic ka-chunk.
"Nutmeg, that's absolutely brilliant, blowing the steam engine combined with Abernathy kicking up ruckus is going to be more than enough craziness for us to free enough unicorns, get them to free more, and so on until we have that stampede! No time to waste: let's go!" With that the three would-be liberators surged out of the stream bed, Azure leading the charge. Nutmeg just needed to take that steam engine out, then the real fun can begin.
The kirin picked her route carefully, trying to remember the terrain between them and the engine. "Tricky business but I can do it, boss. Be ready to make good use of the opportunity!" With that she peeled away from the others, cantering lightly over broken stone on her cloven hooves. Nutmeg disappeared into the fog and skirted the edge of the mine, keeping clear of the guard towers. A few confused unicorns were left murmuring to each other in her wake, but no time for that yet - she had to stay focused, the drow weren't fools and might sense out something was afoot.
She made it to the steam engine and studied it quickly, then used her wrench to force the air intakes fully open and the release valves shut. It wasn't long before the boiler began to creak and distort, building a dangerous head of steam that had no way to escape. Alas there was no way to keep that quiet, and the nearest guards had already started to converge on her position.
"Hey!" - "No collar... escaped unicorn!" - "Don't touch that!"
The roar of Abernathy's shotgun spun them in their tracks as he emerged from the fog, kicking a dead drow aside and taking aim at another. More ear-splitting reports followed as they fell before him like flies. "Get freeing unicorns!" the troll called out, dodging left just as a crossbow bolt hissed through the air and nearly impaled him. "They can't see me in this fog, but they can sure hear me! Can't keep an assault like this up for long!"
The overstressed boiler cracked and groaned as the pressure continued to build. Two drow had made it to the controls, but it was too late...
"What's going on-" - "It messed with the valve! We've gotta-" - "Run! It's too la-"
With a dramatic boom and hissing roar of escaping steam, the boiler bursts open, spraying scalding superheated water and cast iron shrapnel in all directions. Several guards and, sadly, several unicorns are caught in the explosion, with injuries ranging from burns and cuts through to instant evisceration.
Screams and fearful whinnies mixed with alarmed shouts all over the mine, as several groups of unicorns begun to stampede randomly. Guards started using their shock devices, causing more screams as unicorns tumbled and fell, twitching in pain. All the while the blasts of Abernathy's shotgun reverberated off the cliff face, adding to the confusion.
"Sabotage!" - "Attack, we're under attack!" "Sounds like a-"
Nutmeg's ears flattened at the sheer volume of the explosion, but she stopped to grin at the results. The power of technology, exemplified! With a quick hoof-wave to the troll, she dashed off towards the nearest tunnel entrance, looking for a unicorn with a shock collar. Hopefully she could figure out some simple modification that would render it ineffective - ideally one that the unicorns themselves could learn from and duplicate. Sure, with her tools she could just cut or wrench it off, but there were too many prisoners for one kirin!
The shotgun boomed again, then a distant bell began to clang, as drow in the fort raised the alarm.
Azure was already bucking the nearest drow... but then blinked as she realised that making too much of a ruckus may have worked against them. In any case, now the alarm had been sounded... time was running out! They'd lost a few unicorns already, but sometimes losses couldn't be helped in battle... as much as Azure hated to hear her Lieutenant say that. Ignoring the drow, she took to the air, seeking out the nearest group of unicorns.
"Who are you?" - "What's going-" - "Are you hear to rescue-" - "She can fly! Is she a princess..."
Azure ignored the babble, concentrating on one lime green mare; in particular, the rough wooden collar around her neck. It looked like it was screwed together; from the fur rubbed away around her neck it probably hasn't been taken off since she was imprisoned. Loops of copper wire were wound around the collar, connecting to a pair of foil pads at the nape of the neck that administered the shock.
The thing was crude but heavy, resistant to an average unicorn's hooves or telekinetic pull; careful application of a wind blade could probably saw through it, but it would be a delicate operation; a little too much power and she'd decapitate the wearer. Frantically, she thought it through. Maybe just cutting the wires would disable it?
Just as Nutmeg reached the mine tunnel, a grey stallion ran out and bumped into her. "Run! Run while you c- hey, what happened to your horn? you... no collar! Are we- is this an escape?" No time for small talk; the kirin instead focused on his collar. Yep, simple loop aerial, buildt up a voltage and applied it to those prongs... anything conductive should short out the circuit, render it harmless. Something like... that rusty nail down there. She telekinetically grabbed it and jammed it into the collar. Disarmed, easy-peasy!
Nutmeg grinned at the stallion. "Boy do I have a job for you." She indicates the impromptu nail surgery she just did. "Any pony who stabs something conductive into their collar's wires will short it out - make it harmless." She looked positively giddy at the next part: "Then we'll be kicking some drow ass."
Azure's solution was equally effective, if rather harder to duplicate; a low-power casting of the familiar wind blade, a sudden burst of energy leaping from her horn to the collar, a flinching mare wondering what this crazy butterfly-corn was doing to her, and a thoroughly disabled collar.
From Abernathy's position came another shotgun blast, followed by a cry of pain as he failed to spot a drow archer in time; a crossbow bolt cut across his side before he could dodge. Grimacing in pain, he tried to put the ruined boiler between himself and those damned sentry towers, his back pressed against the twisted steel shell while enraged drow hunted through the fog for any target to fire at, with little regard for their own kin.
A lone guard had found Nutmeg and her new friend. "Hey! What are you- it's the saboteur!" He raises his shock pistol, a scrappy looking assemblage of copper, glass and wood parts connected to a backpack by a frayed rubber cable, and clicked the trigger. Sparks danced around the device's prongs, but absolutely nothing happens to the unicorn. The drow stared in shock, before shouting "The weird one is breaking the collars! Over here, get some archers over here!"
"OK, get to work, unicorn!" A grin was plastered on the kirin's face as she brought her wrench to ready position. "Sorry!" came her battle cry, as she sprang forward, electrically-charged tool swinging down. Foe despatched, she called out into the fog: "Azure! Anyone can disarm a collar themselves by stabbing a nail through it. Let's get these unicorns free before the drow can stop us!"
The stunned stallion watches the dragon-unicorn goddess of war charge forward and strike down one of the hated slavemasters, before turning tail and galloping off to free his fellow ponies. Unfortunately between Nutmeg's jubilant shouts and the dying screams of the slaver, a dozen more drow warriors were able to converge on her position, some loosing crossbow bolts that cracked into the rocks next to her while the larger specimens advance with spears.
Weird one? Yeah, being called a goat, deer, llama and more, hearing a kirin described as a 'weird unicorn' was amusingly tame. Azure nodded and told the mare she'd just freed: "Find nails - rusty, clean, doesn't matter - stab them through your friends' collars - let's get our kin free and fight back against these slavers!" With that she was back to fighting drow, losing at wind blade at the nearest slaver's neck - she'd be taking no prisoners in this battle.
In a sudden moment of self-awareness, the phantom of Nutmeg managed to regret the total lack of inhibition that Azure had imagined her with. She flinched as another crossbow bolt smacked into the rock just behind her, eyes darting wildly as she leapt for cover behind an upturned mine cart. "Alright, if I'm going down..." A guttural yell escaped the fluffy mare's throat as she arched her body, blazing in pink fire from head to toe. The kirin was gone... instead it was a nirik that leapt out, ready to go on a rampage. "...you're all going down with me! And you're going down... in flames!"
The guards shrank back from the demonic avenger come to punish their enslavement of its worshippers, the jet-black equine shrouded in eldritch fire descending on their ranks with supernatural fury. One, two, then three drow were screaming their last as the thing's fangs tore into them, its unnatural flames spreading to consume their body and soul alike. A huge drow tried to bring an axe down on the kirin, only to be run through by an enormous wrench that hurtled out of nowhere to embed itself in the goliath's chest.
Alas, one nirik could only do so much. A lucky bolt caught her in the stomach, throwing her to the ground. Nutmeg's flames flickered and died as reinforcements closed in, thrown spears arcing through the air towards her prone form. "Huuurk!" she cried out dramatically as her fire is extinguished along with her life. Her impaled body collapsed to the ground, a leg twitching before she lay still. How tragically heroic! And heroically tragic!
On the other side of the destroyed boiler, Abernathy looked like he was about to meet a similar fate, putting down two drow before an empty magazine left him vulnerable. A particularly cunning specimen managed to creep around behind and was about to leap with dagger outstretched, when Azure's wind blade cleanly decapitated it, the dark elf's head rolling to a stop at the troll's feet.
"Thanks!" Abernathy said, kicking the head up to knock out the other drow who was sneaking up on his left. Then he ran galumping back into the fog, unaware of the terrible fate of his other four-legged companion. One ally saved... but Azure had heard Nutmeg's last stand. Losses were a part of battle, but when it's a close friend... Azure still hadn't quite figured out how to deal with that. She moved slower now, distracted and distraught but determined to finish this.
And so the battle went on, Azure flying up to snipe the drow with wind blades, crossbow bolts whizzing ineffectively past her darting, fluttering form. The two rescuers had to buy time for the unicorns to free themselves; the odd flash and crack in the fog marked a particularly defiant pony taking care of one of the oppressors. Alas, the mist began to thin before she could mop up the last stragglers, and Abernathy paid the price, taking a dagger in the back from a drow that leapt on him as he passed under a catwalk. The jubilant grin of his assassin turned to horror as she saw the knapsack bulging with spare ammo and explosive charges... and the extremely short fuse he'd just lit. "My brothers, I'm coming!" he shouted, before detonating himself, seventeen evil drow, and a few curious unicorns but who was counting?
After that it was just mopping up. The last few drow decided discretion was the better part of valour and retreated to their castle, leaving the unicorns to escape. The slaves were freed, but at great cost: Nutmeg was gone, Abernathy blown to pieces and dozens of unicorns lay dead, hit by stray shots, speared by guards or caught in the explosions
Azure just shook her head at the scene... no. No, she couldn't accept this. Even if technically this was a victory, in her heart, it wasn't even close. Yes, the slavers were defeated. But Nutmeg's motionless form, Abernathy's defiant suicide, the sight of so many dead ponies... "Don't you dare call this a victory." she said coldly to no one in particular. "The Winds may accept this as a victory, but I can't. Do the Winds want a hollow champion? One that only learns half of a lesson?"
A small group of unicorns had gathered around her, their colourful fur muted by clinging mud and bloodstains. They stared at the strange pony; it fell to the boldest among them to ask "Not a victory? What do you mean, Princess? I know we lost some... but... Princess, what are we going to do n-" He didn't get any further before everything faded to blinding white.
In a literal flash, Azure found herself back in the gully, staring at the mine, with a miraculously restored Nutmeg and Abernathy to each side. She stumbled at the sudden transition, sighing as she shook herself out. That ending had hit her hard.
"Holy Troll!" the reincarnated troll swore, dropping to one knee. "No time for a situation report. A hundred or more drow... huh. Yeah, taking them on head on isn't going to end well."
As for Nutmeg, she looked a little... concerned? Baffled, more accurately. She didn't have the words to describe the foggy memory of her dying breath, or the glimpse of her own fleeting un-reality. All she could do was turn to Azure and wait for instructions. "What's the plan, boss? These drow are... Ok, ok, I'll let you think."
"They'll see me before I get close enough to get a shot off," Abernathy complained, glaring over the lip of the depression they were hiding in. "We're hidden by the mist and shadows here, but as soon as we're in the light of those torches, their sentries will pick us off like chompies. My shotgun is the loudest, flashiest thing out here, so even waiting until nightfall won't help much."
"That boiler needs to be the last thing that goes: we can't endanger ponies... no matter how big a target it is." Azure said flatly. Frustrated, she once again ran through the list of weather effects she might bring to bear. At last she smiled. "Ready for a storm? Those torches won't last under heavy rain. Add some hail and not one guard will want to stay outside."
"Once the coast is clear... gather as many nails as you can, we can destroy those blasted collars by driving a single nail into each. We free the unicorns first, get into position. Then once the battle begins, I'll take care of that damned alarm bell, and any slaver who dares to show their face to me. Again, nail through wires equals destroyed collar and freed pony. Got it?"
"Nails? So we can... short them out, clever! I should have come up with that." Nutmeg said happily. "Ooh, a hailstorm. The drow are going to hate you so much, Azure. You got this!"
Once again, Azure Feather's wings glimmered with magic; the clouds began to churn, the few rays of sunlight disappearing as the storm started brewing.
"So what, I'm supposed to fight with rusty nails now?" Abernathy said, shoulders sinking, "Why'd I bring this along then?" He tossed his shotgun to the ground in disgust.
"Oh, keep the gun, Abernathy. Have patience... once we're ready, you'll have plenty of targets." Azure grinned. Confident in her abilities now, she angled her wings for maximum effect and pushes out waves of invisible energy. The magic radiates up into the clouds, increasing surface tension, turning mist into spray into drops that begin to rain down. "The drow are going to hate me? That's... just fine. Because I hate them too. Slaver scum, the lot of them." Staring up at the sky, she repeated: "No mercy."
Nutmeg cocked a grin. "Never said you were in the wrong about that. Make 'em pay, Azure."
"Right, I was just testing you," Abernathy said, trying not to show his troll blush as he stopped troll pouting and picked up his gun again, "Totally fine firing this gun. Blowing them all to bits."
The temperature dropped, forcing more and more water out of the air and chilling what had already condensed until it turned to sleet, pelting down on the mine. Add a little wind and there... it drove straight into the faces of the guards, soaking their weapons and chilling their silly furless fingers. Torches spluttered and died as drow and ponies alike bolted for shelter, the former in their elevated shacks, the latter huddling in cave mouths and whatever dry spots they could find.
Nutmeg shivered: "Brrrr. This is some really convincing weather-pony stuff." A long exhale, then "Ok, what do we do now?"
Water dripped from Abernathy's nose as he looks up to the clouds, saying "That was quite a feat. I suppose things will just get wetter from here."
"And look at that... everypony huddling up in a few spots." Azure crowed. "That'll only making things easier, we can free whole groups at a time." Her gaze went to the guard shacks, then at the distant fort with its bell. "I need to destroy them, too... but first things first. We have to free those ponies. You know what to do. I'll take out the alarm bell, then come back and help with the guards. Sound good?"
"We'll have to be quiet... and this thing is just a fancy club if I can't make noise," Abernathy said, swinging the shotgun to demonstrate. "Just be careful Azure. If we attract too much attention too quickly, it's gonna be game over for us."
"Easy!" Nutmeg gave an enthusiastic salute, then dashed off through the rain and wind to carefully skid and clamber her way down to the tunnels, the clattering of her hooves lost in the storm. She quickly located a bunch of nails and set to disarming the unicorns' collars, telling them to spread the word as quickly as possible. They babbled excitedly, wondering who this strange equine was, but she just flashed a friendly smile and told the ponies there would be time for answers once they were free of their oppressors.
The stunned unicorns were eager to accept any hope of escape, even if it did come from a strange-looking scaled deer. Abernathy had a harder time of it, the ponies cowering in fear before the advance of an even taller green gun-wielding biped, but after he'd shown a few how to short out their collars they nodded silently and dashed off to spread the word. The plan was distributed along with the hack; neutralise the shock collars, stay away from the boiler, get the sick and wounded out of sight, strongest unicorns make ready to attack the drow with everything they have, as soon as the princess gives the signal.
Azure headed for the fort, a ramshackle structure of stone and bound logs squatting on the top of the cliff forming the far side of the mine. After a difficult flight through sleet-filled skies, she found the great bell sitting on the roof, flanked by a pair of ballistae. The weapons were unattended, their operators huddling inside the building; only one unlucky sentry was left outside, peering at the mine through the water dripping from her hood, spear cast aside as she shoved her hands into her tunic for warmth.
One miserable little drow to take out, then they could get the party started... Azure hovered in place and aimed carefully: a quick wind blade to the neck would deal with this, then on to the wooden frame supporting the alarm bell. The concentrated magic whistled through the air, not quite decapitating the enemy this time but easily severing her spine. The ill-fated lookout crumpled without a sound, then with a dull thud and clank the bronze bell joined her on the battlements. Check and check: Azure smiled, hovering a little higher to watch the chaos about to unfold below.
Abernathy was locked and loaded, ready to start firing if something goes wrong, but so far so good; most of the guards huddled in their shacks, and the rest were more concerned with keeping the sleet out of their eyes than any trolls that might be sneaking around. Moving carefully between cover this time, Nutmeg made it to the steam engine undetected. She brought her wrench to bear, once again priming the boiler to explode!
With steam valves fused shut and the air supply to the firebox fully open, the pressure built steadily; the nearby drow were too busy trying to relight torches and keep their hands warm than to watch the gauges. Nutmeg and a few of the braver unicorns had plenty of time to find a good vantage spot, giving them a great view when the pressure vessel finally burst. The blast of steam and shrapnel completely destroyed the shack where the more technical-minded drow had been sheltering, raining down splintered wood and mangled green limbs in equal measure.
Abernathy had been waiting directly under a guard tower. As soon as he felt the ground shudder, he casually fired up into the rickety shack at the top, before the drow inside could even react to the boiler explosion. The blast of buckshot blew out the floor: bleeding bodies tumbled down through the disintegrating planks, landing in a bloody, broken pile before the rest of the tower creaked, shuddered and collapsed on top of them. Abernathy didn't even look back; he was already reloading and moving on to the next one.
The other guards make it only slightly further, boiling out of huts and guard posts with spears raised only to run into a hail of magic and levitated projectiles, seemingly coming from all directions. Desperately they waved their shock devices around, firing wildly and trying to make out the faint horn-glows of their tormenters through the driving rain, but the hateful devices did absolutely nothing. Soon drow are falling left and right, unable to retaliate in any meaningful way.
"Give 'em hell, ponies!" Nutmeg yelled, thrusting her wrench in the air! On her own, she was overpowered by the drow - but with a whole stampede of unicorns, galloping through the mine and running amok; that spelled sheer overwhelming victory by numbers. The kirin lead by example, rushing out of the mine tunnel where she'd been sheltering. Any drow who get close to her would get an electrified wrench to the face; she smirked with rebellious glee at the sight of slaver reinforcements quaking before a horde of angry, shouting, freshly freed unicorns.
She glanced up at the fort; the champion was still hovering there, and behind her... siege engines moving, crew loading spears, tracking... "Azure, look out! Ballistae aiming for you!"
Azure Feather's reaction was immediate. Easiest way to avoid a hit? Don't be there. Her wings folded in for a moment, dropping her to a deck, then began to glow as she looked to the clouds... no, tempting as it was, calling down lightning was too dangerous with so many ponies running around. She'd have to take care of this the hard way. She channelled energy to her horn again, aiming for the ballista itself. It was hard to be precise while dodging, but she'd just keep firing until she took out the crew... or at least keep them suppressed until she could get in close.
A flurry of wind blades streaked down, one slicing through the rope connecting the shuttle to its arms. The weapon had been tensioned and ready to fire; the cut rope lashes back and smacked one of the gunners in the chest, knocking him flat on his back. The remaining guards abandoned the wrecked device and even the second, intact siege engine, judging their enemy too close and too mobile for any chance of a hit. Instead they scrambled for spears and crossbows in a last ditch attempt to stop the avenging angel that had wrought ruin on their mining operation.
Slavers... worthless pieces of donkey dung. The drow fought for their lives, but it was futile. Trying to stare up into the stinging sleet, freezing fingers slipping on soaked weapons, they had no chance of striking down the unicorn before a swift application of focused Air ended their miserable lives. Ruthlessly, Azure pressed her attack, picking off the yelling, disorganised guards with a relentless hail of wind blades. The last pair tried to retreat back into the fortress, but she cut them down in their tracks. After what she'd seen here... she wasn't leaving a single one standing.
With threats above and below defeated, Azure reached out with her weather sense again, calming the storm. The rain spluttering to a stop as the air warmed; indeed with so much moisture drained away, the clouds soon cleared, bathing the mine in sunlight for the first time. The scene was one of ruin and carnage... for the oppressors. Every single unicorn was there to cheer their princess as she descended, with the troll and the kirin at the head of the crowd. "AZURE... FEATHER! AZURE... FEATHER! AZURE... FEATHER!" they chanted, stomping their hooves and crying with delight as the object of their adoration drifted down to land by her allies.
Nutmeg stomped her hooves in a raucous cheer as well! "Azure! Feather!" she couldn't help but shout along, before happily throwing herself against Azure for a hug. "That was awesome! You did something none of us could have on our own. You saved everypony!"
Azure smiled as the kirin went in for the hug, but shook her head modestly at the unicorn's cheer. "Not without your help. I don't deserve all the credit. But... thank you. I... I still have much to learn, though." They'd won, but... with so much killing, even if they were slavers... and the sight of her allies losing their lives still haunted her. There was no warm feeling of accomplishment this time, just tired relief.
Looking a little mussed, but none worse for wear, Abernathy approached the triumphant winged unicorn, shotgun now slung over his shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up too much. This was your doing. You made good use of your skills and your allies, and took the right actions to win the day. And all because you followed the #1 rule of sneaking missions, which is-" Before he could finish, the whole scene dissolved to pure white.
Azure Feather re-emerged into the central chamber, where little had changed since her last visit. Summer Scribe was still messing with the magical board game and arguing with the young male griffon, while Amber was enjoying a comforting wing-hug from her father. Gustus and Emerald were comparing Equestrian vs Cloudbreak griffon culture, at least until they broke off to stare up at the winged unicorn, anxious to hear of her progress.
Summer huffed after her third consecutive loss to the unstoppable Mecha-Chompy. "How is this fair!?" she complained. "I have to find a piece that's better than yours to be able to keep up? It's just too strong! I mean, it's realistic but..." She looked up as she hears Azure's hooves touch down. "Azure! How'd trial three go?" Holding off on the congratulations until she gets the all clear...
Sprocket was helping Summer disassemble - no, examine! - the board game. "Maybe if you try maximizing the—oh!" she looks up to see the purple haired, blue unicorn descending on her butterfly wings. Her ears went down at Azure's obvious weariness, but she didn't know what to say, and didn't know the mare very well to be perfectly fair.
"That's... that's three..." Azure sighed, nodding to Summer before turning to stare at the last door. "...Hardest trial yet. I can't rest now. I have to finish this up. We'll talk later." The unicorn looked tired, physical and emotional fatigue setting in... what the heck was waiting for her in that last challenge room? Still, she couldn't stop now, she had to push through... her wings buzzed again as she headed for the final door.
Concern was written all over Summer's face; she wanted to offer a hug and a round of encouragement, but it looked like Azure didn't want to slow down: "Good luck!" she called out.
"Hey... hey! Are you ok?" came an avian voice... Indigo, one of the native griffon. "Don't you want to-" It was too late, the pony had already flown straight into the final door without stopping to rest.
"You can do it!" Sprocket offered, trying to sound supportive as the pony flew to that final door. It might've been more useful if she'd said it loud enough to be heard. Some part of her was glad that Azure was doing all of this for them. If that unstoppable pony tackled this fourth challenge, then they'd soon be returning to the copter, and from there back to the Harmony, where all their friends were waiting. Sprocket hoped Nutmeg and Gearshift would be back by the time they returned.
A final hallway, one last column-lined chamber, this one built in the form of an amphitheatre. Semi-circular tiers stepped down to a broad, flat stage backed by ornate columns, light streaming in from the blue sky beyond. Azure flew resolutely down to land in the centre of the stage, ready for the final challenge. Unnatural clouds rolled in for the last time, forming a convincing pocket reality for the champion's ultimate test.
Azure found herself transported to the edge of a cliff, looking out on a hellish vista. A once pastoral landscape lay in ruins, fields churned up and stone cottages crushed beneath the treads of an enormous mechanical monstrosity. It resembled nothing less than a castle rendered mobile, stone walls and towers riding on a mesh of girders below which many giant steel treads crawl forwards. Steam and smoke rose from the entire contraption, while every so often one of the cannons lining the walls went off, a gout of flame and smoke followed by the whistle of the shot then another tree or building exploding into ruin.
On top of the towers, trebuchets released their payloads of greek fire to set alight anything remaining intact, while ballistae stood ready to run through any fliers that might challenge the mobile fortress. Cracks and scars along the walls and chassis bpre witness to the local's attempts to resist the invader, but the many broken bodies and smashed war machines that littered the landscape make it clear how futile that effort had been.
Between the setting sun, the scattered fires, columns of smoke and the pendulous clouds gathering overhead, the entire landscape took on a hellish, burnt orange cast. The air was warm, humid and gusty, pregnant with a storm that had yet to be take form. From this distance, Azure could just make out the creatures patrolling the battlements and operating the machinery of the fortress; green bipeds, possessing a single grossly overgrown eyeball where a face should be. As for the blasted wasteland around the construction, a few brown creatures were still alive and moving, mostly huddled behind damaged walls and darting from one piece of cover to the next, trying to hide from the invaders.
Glancing to each side, Azure was relieved to find that as before, she would have allies for this final challenge. To her right, a powerful draconic shape with sharp-beaked face and a covering of flame-like feathers: Sunburn, the Skylander, somehow following her to this ravaged place. To the left, an enormous eagle was joined to the hindquarters of a lion, her stare fierce and her tufted tail lashing behind her: Grenelda the griffoness. The two battle-hungry avian hybrids stared at Azure, ready for her direction.
"This is it," Sunburn said, the bird-like dragon veritably glowing in the auburn light, "We take out this mobile fortress and the campaign is over. Everyone back home is counting on us to do some serious damage to this thing. Are you ready to hit it with everything you've got?"
Grenelda nodded: "If you hold anything back, you're just going to become another casualty. So, what can you do about this, Azure?" Her beak gaped open to admitt a bloodthirsty cackle! The griffon hen was so ready for this.
This... this vast machine. A massive, rolling castle, with nothing less than Kaosians patrolling it. Things only Sunburn had fought. Azure Feather looked... intimidated to say the least. Thankfully, Sunburn was right there with her, but she couldn't take heart in Grenelda's words. This outright warfare on a scale far beyond any of the former challenges: three creatures against a whole army.
"I... I've not fought anything like this... Sunburn, you've fought these, I remember what you told me when we saw that ship, but... how do we take this... this castle down? Especially when it's manned by these creatures?" She looked to Grenelda: sure the griffon was enthusiastic, but they needed more than that: they needed a plan. "What... what do you think? Got any ideas?"
Grenelda simply crowed, "Fuck 'em up, is what I think. You've got the storm at your command - so show 'em one." The hen impatient, eager to see a real show of destruction!
"You think there's something special to being a Skylander," Sunburn said, shaking his head in bemusement, "I'm not one for finesse. I go in hard and burn it to dust. That's how I blew up that cyclops blimp; any true elemental with a decent amount of battle experience could do the same. This thing is just a bit tougher - and less mobile. You may not have the secrets of Fire at your disposal, but I think you can make do. The sky is at your command, and it has a fire of its own, if you know were to look."
Azure looked up, understanding now that the clouds were also her allies in this battle. She would gather them over the towering structure - simple wind blades wouldn't do it this time. No: lightning would rain down. Gales to blow away defenders. Tornadoes to tear apart the towers. Vortexes, as she used against the bats but on a larger scale... but she needed to start by releasing the energy up there... only then could she truly unleash the fury of the storm.
Grenelda watching the encroaching and darkening clouds with gleeful interest. This would be good.
Pushing the magic out through her wings felt almost natural now... almost. Azure felt the muggy air, boiling with energy, with... potential. Triggering condensation... easy. Rain began to pour down, dampening the fires around the rolling fortress, sizzling on the hot metal of its smokestacks. Lightning... what was lightning? Not wind, not fire... charge, it was electrical charge. The clouds had it in abundance, pushing the droplets apart, a crackling tension between the top and bottom layers, waiting for something... now how to trigger the strike?
Sunburn didn't wait, leaping forward into a long dive as the storm gathered above them. Trailing fire in his wake, he was a being of fury and flame. Explosions rang out when he hit, but the fortress was so huge they looked like a mere annoyance. A gout of flame belched out from a gunport as he continues to employ his flames from within, fighting through a tower and out the other side. Beams of evil lanced past him as he returned to the sky and circled around. The smouldering ruins he left in his wake were quickly doused by Kaosians spraying foamy fire retardant. Perhaps they'd grown wise to his tricks. Perhaps he has more, but this iron-and-stone fortress seemed tailored to resist his destructive flame.
High above, Azure Feather wondered about lightning. Sure, she'd read about pegasi weather workings, but their talents seemed to work by feel more than book knowledge. The charge was there, ready to go, but how to set it in motion? Was she overthinking this? Just pick a target, concentrate on the clouds, try and to use her new magic to will the electricity down to the enticing iron of the oversized crawler...
The unicorn concentrated, but this was nothing like a horn blast, or a simple levitation. The scale here was kilometres across, how could she... maybe she could... and in a flash of realisation... yes, it really was that simple. Just grab some charge and pull it down like taffy, stretching out into a thin streamer of-
BANG and there was the lightning as the energy bridged the final gap and released in a white hot streak of millions of amps of flowing charge. Azure felt the flow for the first time, the heat and intensity of it... and it felt good. The blazing bolt smote the fortifications atop the mobile castle, blasting out a whole section of wall as the metal inside flash-vaporised. The ease of directing such energy was a thrill like nothing she'd experienced before.
Hovering near the overlook, Grenelda squirmed in place, beak agape at she watched the cacophony of destruction pour from the heavens. "Oh, yes. That was amazing. More! More!" she egged Azure on!
Azure's eyes lit up as she not only created a lightning bolt... but annihilated part of the structure! "Oh... I'm not sure pegasi can do this back home!" Sunburn was keeping them busy down there... alright, it was time to bring the true storm. Charges were everywhere, and it was just a measure of pulling them down onto the fortress! Almost like theater curtains. after her final song.
Sunburn had been rampaging across the roof, sending flaming bodies flying everywhere he went. He paused in bending rods of an energy projector inside out, to look up at what was happening in the sky. At the sight of the tower exploding, he kicked out urgently, feathery wings beating hard as he flew free of the fortress, hovering there and just... gazing up in awe. This was a power he hadn't seen in a very long time, a harmony with the storm that had been unmatched since the calamity that decimated their people and set their temple on the path to ruin. This was more than a trial. It was a miracle.
Bolt after bolt seared down, smashing into the giant war machine, shattering stone superstructure and causing electricity to arc around the lower chassis. Within the structure, cyclopses were shocked by suddenly electrified floors and walls. Circuits blew out and linkages melted. They had to act fast to save their stronghold. Every intact weapon swivelled upwards, seeking out their tormentor, while more cyclopses poured onto the deck, heedless of the whipping rain and lightning that continued to rain down onto the upper towers. Shafts of steel and beams of magic lanced out, filling the sky around the whirling, doging Azure Feather.
Woah! Azure might be brave enough to stand in front of such an onslaught, but Grenelda quickly returned to the overlook, taking cover behind a nearby outcropping. "Might wanna deal with those weapons before they shred you!"
"Don't you worry, I've got this!" Flying erratically, Sunburn and Grenelda may have noticed the wind picking up as Azure's wings glowed brightly. With the storm at her full command, hail, rain, lightning... not enough. It was time for a full-blown tornado. As much of one as she could muster: once she was in the eye of the whirlwind, no weapon would be able to reach her. She would bring this monument to evil down in ruins... but how to strike the finishing blow? She tried to grab the air, force it to spin, but at this enormous scale she could produce little more than a stiff breeze. There had to be a way...
In an explosion of flame, Sunburn materialised near Azure, rain hissed and steaming as it cascading off his form. He faced the fortress, releasing a blazing stream of fire from his beak. The enemy's steel bolts melted and broke up under his blistering assault as he shouted, "I'll cover you, Azure! Blow that thing to kingdom come!
The unicorn thought back to all those books on pegasi she'd read: they made tornadoes all the time, to bring water up from the ground or when pressed to drive off aerial foes. Back then she could only dream of having the wings to do it herself, but she'd studies the techniques.... convection. It was all about convection cells, pressure differentials, using the energy already present in the air... Now it was swirling, a sudden focused downdraft... Azure's flanks were foaming with the effort of forcing the storm to her design, but there, the funnel was fully formed now and there would be no stopping it...
The tornado roared into life, its swirling base balanced directly on the deck of the giant war machine. 200 kph winds proceeded to sweep the hulk clean of creatures, weapons and structure of every kind, blasting stone and twisted metal out in every direction, scattering the upper parts of the machine around the surrounding landscape. Only the scarred foundation remained, an enormous steel box holding the engines and fuel, gargantuan tracks clanking and creaking under the sheer force of the wind.
Grenelda peeked out from behind the rocks and beheld the majesty of the storm unleashed at its full potential. Her beak hung open in wonder: so beautiful. Taking wing again to fly up to her ally, she chirred: "Say, Azure... those engines, boilers, coal bunkers... looks explosive to me." The griffon's voice dripped seductive, violent eagerness.
Azure's eyes were wide open as she tried to catch her breath, drunk on the possibilities of her new abilities. Already her success had outstripped her wildest hopes, and now all she needed was to finish it... thanks to the tornado the tank was a sitting duck. "Oh, you want to see this ruin truly turned to scrap... hah. You got it!" Sitting in the eye of her very own storm, the winged unicorn resumed her assault, massaging the remaining charge and pulling down lightning with even more force than before.
With the defences shattered and ripped away, Sunburn closed his wings and streaked down to the foundations of the thing. Circling around it, the air fed his fire on an immense scale, the magical flame flaring up like never before in the blindingly powerful draft. Fire spread up into the tornado, filling the cyclone with flame until it was a roaring, howling firespout baking the chassis of the doomed war machine.
So many blinding bolts hammered down on the clanking engine that the clouds above lit up with continuous sheet lightning, as the depleted charge was forced to replenish from outlying cloud banks. Cast iron cracked and split asunder, letting in the superheated firestorm that blasted through every internal space, burning up everything within. With the controls destroyed and overheated drivetrains seized and melting, the crawler shuddered to a halt, popping and cracking as steam and smoke poured from the wreckage.
Finally the overstressed, overheated boilers reached their limit, bursting in a rapid chain of powerful steam explosions, adding even more chaos to the churning column of fire, wind, rain and lightning that was rending the once proud mobile fortress into molten scrap and charred wreckage. A final deafening, blinding cacophony of light and heat, and at last the storm was spent. The fliers looked on as the tornado slowly dissipated, the lightning petered out and the air gradually slowed until the gale had been reduced to a warm breeze. Of the unstoppable war machine, there were only a few twisted girders and red-hot links of track remaining, sitting at the bottom of a newly blasted crater.
Grenelda whistled, beak gaping. "Now that was awesome, Azure. How you feelin'?' She peered down at the ruin below, cocking her head with interest... and mirth! "Damn, there's hardly anything intact in that wreckage. It's like an act of Celestia hit it!"
Azure gave a tired nod, adrenalin draining out of her form. She drifted down to land; the storm was spent, and so was she. At last, the fight was over, and the trials complete. She was victorious, but still nervous at the thought of what would come next. Images of the doctor's painful transformation returned unbidden to her mind; was that really what the Elements did to creatures? It didn't inspire confidence... but still, Grenelda's crowing did warm her heart.
"You... you weren't kidding... that truly felt like I was channelling energies only Princess Twilight could handle... I've never felt anything like it. How am I feeling?" She slumped to the ground. "Coming down from the high, and now just... worried? I don't know what's next. I've seen what happened to the doctor. You'll forgive me if I'm not the most confident."
A flash of flame appeared from nowhere and Sunburn burst out from it, looking down at the smoking rubble. "That was... that was incredible," he said quietly, "This was a trial of endurance and you succeeded in nine minutes and twenty seven seconds. The last one to pass took nearly a day to complete this. They take longer every time." With a much more modest and deferential look than the real Sunburn would ever have, the phantom turned to Azure and said, "Is it true? Have the Skylanders really returned?"
Azure stared at the feathered dragon, trying to understand the implications of what she'd just heard. "The Skylanders... but you're one of them, you're..." He was the battle master, the one she looked up to... but there wasn't any denying what just happened. She did in nine minutes what others took hours, days to do. The unicorn looked lost for words for a moment... until a shrill and playful from Grenelda's pulled her back to reality.
"What comes next? What do you think?" The griffoness looked genuinely satisfied. "You think you're going to turn into some writhing abomination? No? You're the Champion of Air. You've already made the power yours. Now you just need to... collect your prize."
"My prize?! But you... you saw what happened to the doctor. He's still not fully recovered from it all and I don't blame him. I haven't seen any other experiences of this, and I'm about to go through the same process! I don't know what to expect!" It was clear that despite truly proving herself an elemental champion... there were still a lot of questions she had no answer to.
Two sets of avian eyes gave her sympathetic looks, but before they could offer any further explanation Azure Feather found herself talking to wisps of cloud, the scene dissolving in the midst of her plea. The winged unicorn was alone again, standing in the empty marble amphitheatre, looking out through the columns at sunlit ruins beyond. With an exhausted sigh, she turned away and walked slowly back towards the entrance. That last challenge had consumed her final reserves of strength, and she could only hope to find answers not enemies in the central chamber.
In the cavernous central chamber of the Temple of the Four Winds, a mismatched band of creatures had been waiting nearly two hours for their respective champions to be tested in the trials. The native griffon, Amber Thermal, had sadly only completed one challenge, failing the second then rejoining her family. Her parents, Indigo Burst and Emerald Downpour, had struck up a conversation with the smaller Equestrian griffon Gustus, while the young male Cerulean Mist had been playing Summer Scribe at a game he called 'Skystones'.
The unicorn had quickly learned the game, a simulation of combat using magical stones that projected tiny images of fighting creatures, and with a little help from her fellow unicorn Sprocket, she'd finally brought down the feared Chompy Bot 9000 and won a round. "Hey! Two critical hits in a row! You just got lucky!" Cerulean complained.
Summer chuckled smugly: "I played to my outs! If my only option is getting lucky, then that's what I'll do!" That said, the prospects for getting the win-rate into the double digits weren't promising; it might be time for a break? She held out a hoof to shake with Cerulean, "Good match! Fun game, once you wrap your head around what it wants you to think about." With that she turned away and trotted over to Indigo and Emerald.
Time to break the ice! "So, something I'd like to ask about! Have the Drow been much of a problem for you, lately?"
Sprocket's ears perked up at that, having only caught a glimpse of the creatures herself. She looked up from her attempts to min-max the 'Skystones' game for Summer, hopeful but not with great expectations, given what she'd heard about how the fish creatures just sat there and tried to endure the raids. Gustus watched closely as well, curious to hear what the native griffs had to say about this. He'd fought that one arsonist on the ship, then faced down a whole group at the bridge. According to his mate Grenelda, they had a whole island base and an enormous flying warship; he knew that a further confrontation was almost inevitable.
"Drow?" the green griffon asked, looking startled. "We haven't seen those little beasts in Windsheer Cliffs since... not in my lifetime, I think. Which is just as well as the trolls and their kin cause us no end of trouble without drow helping them out."
"Drow are just elves that are honest about what they want." Indigo added, with a look of disgust. "Sure those wood elves are all smiles and light, 'til they trick your chicks into signing up for 'the cause' so they can steal 'em away."
Summer Scribe pondered this response: well, they had appropriate feelings about Drow, though without the pressing threat the Gillmen had to live with. Still, they might have a shot here. "I ask because they've been harassing us ever since we got to the Cloudbreak Islands - they captured our scouts, attacked us on airships and tried to raid our base. They're nothing short of outright hostile, and frankly, I don't know if we'll be able to handle it if they keep escalating."
The unicorn lowered her head... put like that, the situation was pretty concerning, wasn't it? "So, I was wondering if you'd have any interest in helping fight against a common foe - can your people can spare some fighters? Even if not, I'd be thrilled to know we have kinship."
A silent nod from Gustus; Sunburn had made quite an impression on him, when he made that point about the drow they'd had beaten being the weaker ones. They'd yet to really face a tough drow, and the griffon could feel that was coming.
"Oh, that's a shame." Emerald said. "You unicorns... ponies... seem nice." She sighed. "Alliances are a nice idea and all but they don't seem to work out these days, not like they did in the stories. Hard enough to get griffs to go help another flock, much less another species."
Summer Scribe nodded, her eyes sad: honestly, she wasn't expecting this to be a game changer. Testing the waters more than anything else, getting a sense for how bloodthirsty these strange griffons were. "Understandable! We'll figure it out some way or another."
"Haven't you lost any of your peeps to the drow sky traps?" Sprocket asked the nice griffon with a puzzled look on her creamy-furred face, "That was how they almost got us, when our fliers got too close. So I heard anyway."
Indigo's ear tufts perked up. "Traps? What traps? Say... where is this drow base anyway? You said your main ship is nearby?"
Summer perked up at Sprocket's interjection; the engineer made a good point. She levitated Melonwater's map onto the floor and unfurled it for Indigo, pointing out the EAS Harmony docked at Blissful Pastures, the shattered islands holding the drow base's location, the gillfolk's sky river and finally their current location, the Temple of the Four Winds.
"Oh, you are right out on the fringe." Emerald said, peering at the map.
Summer nodded, "Yeah, we just made it through the storm wall and pretty much crashed there. Didn't have much of a choice!"
Sprocket's irises narrowed, and she said in concern, "Oh no, you shouldn't go anywhere near their base. They have these traps that pull fliers in from a distance, using some sort of attractive magic conducted down giant chains. Their whole base is surrounded by 'em!"
"Yeah, we had a team try to fly through that area... it's trouble. We had injuries to deal with after that one." Gustus chipped in, wincing at the thought of Grenelda's injured wing.
At Sprocket's description, Emerald let out a little squawk: "That's awful! What do they do with them? Are they like the Reformers, fouling their captives with Darkness, making into them twisted reflections of themselves?"
Blinking, Sprocket said uneasily, "I uh... I just asked about the traps really. You'd have to ask Azure when she gets out. She was on that expedition, and talked to those things. I hear she even blew one of the chains all to pieces with her magic!"
Gustus nodded to Sprocket. "Yeah, I've heard the story from Grenelda, but she likes to focus on the fighting, not so much on what was said. Best to ask Azure herself... whenever she gets out, anyway." He looked towards the door; it had been long enough that he was starting to get worried...
Summer could answer this; she'd heard Reef Skimmer's report on the prisoner interrogation. "The one we captured told us - they make the trapped creatures fight in their arena! Terrible bloody stuff!" Griffons were more aggressive than ponies, but surely they'd consider turning their kin into enslaved gladiators to be barbaric?
"Just the other side of Witchway Marsh... where the gillfolk live." Indigo said thoughtfully, still taking in the map. "It used to be a stop on the pilgrimage, but the elders made it taboo after many griffs went missing there. Always assumed the gillies turned unfriendly, but..."
Summer looked shocked. "Oh no - they were probably being taken captive by the Drow, then. That's awful!" She was starting to put two and two together... maybe they had more common cause than previously thought?
The two adult griffons exchanged a knowing glance. "Do you think they might still be..." Emerald began.
Indigo frowned, "Long shot after all these years, but if they're catching any fliers..."
"Any of the other flocks might have lost somegriff! We can ask... tell the elders at least..." Emerald replied.
Indigo took a step towards Gustus, giving him an intense look. "Do you swear on your ancestor's honour, that what these ponies say is true?
Gustus shrank back under the giant griffon's intense stare. "Look, Indigo, all I can say, is that it matches what I heard from Grenelda." He didn't mention the dramatic re-enactment of her ripping apart a pair of drow with her claws. "But... you should really ask Azure."
"Grenelda... is another of your flock?" Emerald asked curiously.
Gustus chuckled slightly, looking a bit to the side before replying. "You could say that, yeah... mate, more like." He concluded. "Hence why I'm inclined to believe her story." Oh, maybe this would help: "The prisoners we captured, they were interrogated by a griff as well: Reef Skimmer. He's very thorough. If he says they have an arena, I believe him." No need to mention that the doctor was a hippogriff just now.
"A story..." Amber said nervously. "Look dad, you know Ebony Hail better than me. She's not going to send a fury off on to fight a whole nation of elves, on the word of a strange griff. Particularly a, um, northerner... um, not that there's anything wrong with... sorry!" She backed away from Gustus, putting Emerald between herself and the 'strange griff'.
Summer Scribe listened sympathetically, and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, no one wants to go to war on somepony's hearsay." She sighed. "It sounds risky, but... we might have to get hard proof that the drow are enslaving griffons. That'd be enough of an attention grabber, right?"
"You really need our help that badly?" Emerald said, giving Summer Scribe one of those unreadable bird-of-prey looks.
The little unicorn blinked. "Well... Yeah! We only just got here and our lives are in peril if the Drow decide they want to wipe us out. We can't just sit around and do nothing!"
"To be fair, Emerald... they haven't brought out the really heavy troops on us yet. If we do, it's a valid question whether we'll have any chance at all." Gustus mentioned. "I mean, we're not bad fighters? But we're explorers, not soldiers."
"Just don't investigate too closely, because um... flier traps and..." Sprocket fells to silence, looking nervously in the vague direction the copter would be right now, up on that balcony back there. Her sensitive ears picked up the sound of wingbeats... large, powerful wingbeats... from the atrium, followed by the click of claws on stone. She immediately turned to face the entrance, lighting up her horn with amber magic. She didn't say anything because Summer would be the one yelling about it most likely. Just... needed to be prepared. The creamy mare didn't like how they were basically trapped in the inner sanctum, with no other visible exits.
Indeed Summer Scribe's ears swivelled to track the noise, the rest of her turning to look a moment later. Who was coming?
A fire-feathered quadrupedal shape emerged into the temple's rotunda; close to a griffon in appearance, but with the rigid crest and plated belly of a dragon. Sunburn walked over to the group, staring at his surroundings as if more interested in possible threats than the spectacular architecture. "Are you secure here? Any casualties? I don't see Azure Feather or... your captain, Set Sail." he asked, in a low voice not far from a growl.
"Azure's doing the trials, right now. I believe this is the last one, in fact!" Summer Scribe informed him, with a hint of pride. "If we're lucky, we'll have a Champion of Wind on our side, soon! ... As for Set Sail, she's back at the ship. She didn't like hanging around here - something about the air."
"I'll admit she seems pretty weary?" Gustus mentioned. "Flew right from the third trial to the final trial... either very focused, in a poor mood, maybe both. Can't tell with ponies sometimes."
"You're... you're Sunburn!" Cerulean Mist exploded. "The Skylander! Teal's got a Skystone of you!" he shouted, flapping up into the air to get a better look at the newcomer. "You're really real?! Really a real phoenix-dragon born in a volcano, I mean!?"
"Hey kid, yeah Sunburn's the name, don't wear it out." the avian dragon admitted. "Still a few Skylanders around, not enough to do much good." he said with regret. Meanwhile Gustus was smiling at the young griff's reaction.
Sprocket heaved a sigh of relief at such a friendly face coming through the door, delighting her horn and turning to look up pensively at that final fourth door, wondering when Azure would emerge.
Turning to Summer, the Skylander said distantly "The trials... I remember, places like this, they could... unlock potential. Help a creature align more closely." He stared upward, as if trying to make sense of the wisps of mist twisting and flowing there. "Never got on with spirits myself. Wouldn't say no to a tactical advantage though."
Summer Scribe nodded back. Curious, she asked "Did you have to do any trials yourself? Or did you just always have your Fire powers? What's your story?"
Sunburn cocked his head, staring at Summer for a few seconds, as if reminiscing. "Nah... nothing like that. Yeah, when I finally made it to Dragon Peak I took the Path... the Fire Path, obviously. The others insisted. Didn't do anything of course, meant for whelps not adults." Another pause. "I was fully aligned from the day I hatched; took a long time though, a lot of fights, to understand what that meant."
"An actual Skylander..." Emerald murmured, "...and you're fighting for these unicorns?"
"Just helping out. While their techie helps us out." Sunburn explained.
"You've been a great help so far!" Sprocket said with an appreciative smile, "You're so fast and fiery! Did you really take down a whole ship all by yourself?"
"Yeah." Sunburn said, glancing at Sprocket before looking away. "Thanks, but it was no big deal. Just a gang of cyclops Reformers. Not even a real warship. Took a couple of hits, nothing serious, just had to... rest up for a bit."
"Don't be so modest," Sprocket said jokingly to the phoenix dragon, "You're helping just by being here. You even know what these temples are all about! I didn't even know they helped align you with an element. That means Azure's gonna be able to cast even bigger Air spells after this!"
Summer Scribe addressed Emerald again: "Hmmm, so... the Gillmen might know more about any possible griffon kidnappings - they still have to contend with regular kidnappings of their own folk, and they live in fear of the Drow. Might be worth an ask?"
The green griffoness looked at her mate. "We could check in on the way back? Just look, maybe talk, not stay."
"If we keep our guard up... I suppose. Worst Ebony can do is yell about it." Indigo admitted.
"Um, yeah and you don't even have to tell her unless they know something about the missing griffs, right?" Amber suggested, tearing her eyes away from Sunburn, who she seemed rather taken with.
Gustus's gaze had gone back to the door to the last trial chamber. Azure had been there for a while, and with this being her fourth and final trial... he was just hoping she could get it done by this point. So damn close now...
Summer Scribe noticed the griff staring. "Yeah Gustus, I know... she didn't even rest when she was passing from Trial 3 to 4, but... That's how she gets when she's focusing on her work. Azure's a bit of a worrier and she likes to immerse herself in her duties to put it out of her mind. So doesn't mean anything bad on its own... look, I'm hopeful."
Suddenly, with a loud crack followed by a long creak, the oversized doors to the western chamber swung open, revealing a blue, butterfly-winged unicorn, trotting forward on tired hooves. Reaching the elevated threshold, Azure Feather flapped into the air, drifting into the rotunda. High above, more and more streamers of mist poured into the chamber from the open pipes, swirling around the perimeter of the space, orbiting lower and lower as if drawn down by some force.
"Oh, Azure! Azure!" Summer Scribe perked right up, animated and excited as she trotted over. "How was it? Did you get it done?" One last yes before she could let herself be overwhelmed with joy and relief! Though it seemed like something had started happening already, with the mist gushing in...!
Sprocket blinked at the streaming mist, lighting up her horn again, but what was going on here? "Looks like you won?" she said, backing up uncertainly, "You didn't break the whole temple, did you?"
A faint smile graced Azure's face as she landed among her friends, her eyes drawn to the central plinth. It was clear that things weren't all sunshine and rainbows to her. "...Yeah. Four down. The trials are done, all that's left is to..." Her voice trailed off, still looking at the altar. "The temple's fine. This is just... the temple's way of pointing its..." She coughed, shaking her head a little before continuing. "...its 'Champion' to the podium to receive its blessing... I guess." Her words were strained; her form trembled with stress, the memory of the doctor's transformation all too clear at that moment.
"Blessing?" Sprocket looked at Sunburn questioningly, albeit within earshot of the native griffons, "Do you know what that is? It's not going to fuse her with all the griffons or anything is it?"
Summer Scribe looked puzzled at the idea! She imagined it'd give you some fancy new wings, maybe a beak, but... her feeling was that the only reason the Water Temple Incident involved so much fusing is because the worms had sent it off the rails. "I dunno about that... I think we're going to see Azure get the blessing of the Wind element, done right."
"What's this 'fusing' you keep talking about?" Emerald asked curiously. "It doesn't make sense. The blessings of Air are the command of the weather, focusing wind to serve as a shield or a spear... gifts of that nature. Amber her could summon quite a breeze already..."
"Mum!" the griffoness in question retorted. "...yeah, I can do a little with Air. Maybe more now! I can't wait to try... b-but I'm sure I'm not as good as you, Azure."
Wings... that would be nice, wouldn't it? Azure could only hope, and at Summer's mention of a beak... hey, it was an extra weapon, right? That'd be a start. Maybe the Water Temple did go wrong. Just maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Every creature seemed so confident this would go well! Maybe she should just go and receive her gifts. After all, she did the trials, this is just the next step, right? At Amber's response, though, she looked to the young griffoness: "...You're still learning. You'll get to this level pretty quickly... you just have to know that well... not everything is sunshine and rainbows. Things get ugly sometimes."
"Like I said, the spirits help creatures align... when they feel like it." Sunburn frowned, thinking back. "Sometimes they look a little different afterwards... fusing, huh. Only heard of that happening once, undead eyeball guy and some magic armour joined together. Don't think spirits were even involved with that though."
"Oh yeah, so maybe those evil worms were like a magic armour, and Reef's all magic armoured up now!" Sprocket continued to speculate wildly, gazing curiously up at the windy altar. "His magic uhh worm armour was uh, pulling his pieces back together, or something when he came back— it was freaking nuts!" She didn't seem to notice any effect she might be having on Azure's anxiety level.
Summer Scribe stuffed a hoof in Sprocket's mouth like 'shhh'. "Speculate later: let's watch what Azure gets first!" She settled in for the show, giddy and excited!
Sunburn ignored the other unicorns; his eyes never left Azure. "If you beat all their silly games on your first try... then you've gotta be a good fighter Azure. The spirits test their... supplicants... in lots of different ways. Strength. Cunning. Resolve. You must've impressed them." he said, giving her an admiring look. "Spirits can be... tricky, but they're trying to help."
"They weren't all on the first try, Sunburn," Azure admitted. "Two were - the other two needed a second chance." She grunted. "I wasn't happy with one finish. Demanded a replay to get it right." Sprocket's words just got her to shake her head before looking to the plinth again: her mind was made up. "Enough... goodness, I can't run now. This is happening, whether or not I'm ready for it. I didn't go through these trials for nothing." With that her butterfly wings unfurled and she was flapping up into the exact centre of the great hall.
As Azure Feather approached the altar, glowing lines formed on the stone floor of the rotunda, spreading and linking to create inscrutable, arcane patterns. A breeze formed out of nowhere, tossing the pony's manes and ruffling the griffons' feathers. Azure was drawn in by the air currents, hovering over the altar even though her magical wings are now still, her purple mane streaming out behind her. The unicorn's eyes were closed as she strained to listen for something only she could hear.
Summer Scribe looked all around at the glowing lights, the rushing air, the tantalizing attraction - yep, this is classic ancient magical temple chic. "It's starting!" She tapped her hooves giddily, unable to look away! Sprocket meanwhile had started a recording spell, just in case they need to look over this in detail later.
Azure knew it was too late to turn back now. She had no desire to fly away: for better or worse, this was the next step for her. All that was left was to go with the currents... and part of her dared hoped it would all turn out alright in the end.
The streamers of mist descended further, orbiting closer and closer until they were swirling around Azure herself. With the mystical patterns complete, the spiral symbol of Air itself atop the altar glowed brighter and brighter, bathing the unicorn in a blue-white radiance. Her butterfly wings popped and disappeared into glimmering dust that immediately blew away in the wind, yet Azure remained floating, the air itself holding her up. Light seemed to pool at her shoulders, creeping out into the form of coverts, then pinions, real flesh and feathers appearing and solidifying in the wake of the magic. The sight of the wings being woven into existence was so dramatic that none of the onlookers spotted the hairline cracks spreading over the unicorn's horn.
Finally the wings were complete, sparkling in the shifting light, twitching as the pony truly felt them for the first time. For a single second, Summer Scribe and Sprocket see a new princess floating above them, before Azure's horn shattered, cracking apart into sparking fragments that slowly drifted apart, before losing cohesion and blowing away in the wind. Lost in the rapture of a dream achieved, Azure didn't even feel it; there was no blood, no stump, just a little patch of darker fur to mark where a horn had once been. Slowly the mists withdrew to the ceiling, the sigils faded away and Azure lowered to her hooves. A pegasus now stood on the altar, opening her eyes to meet the shocked stares of her companions.
Summer Scribe stared in awe. She was witnessing a magical transformation the likes of which seen rarely in Equestrian history: magical wings brimming and coalescing into full physicality! "Woaah, Azure!! You're an alico..." C-crack, shatter! ..."Pegasus?!?" Well, I guess it was too good to be true, right? She quirked her head with curiosity... could one not receive without giving? Why was that the trade-off? Still, she allowed herself to look hopeful. Maybe being a Champion of Air would more than make up for it! "Your new wings look beautiful...Try them!" she urged Azure with a hoof!
Sprocket just stared, too stunned to utter a word.
As Azure's eyes opened, the first word that registered clearly in her mind was Summer's: 'pegasus'. Pegasus? What do you mean 'pegasus', she's always had a- Then it hit her, as she tried to bring forth the most basic magic spark. Where was her horn. Where was her magic... what... what?! Through it all... she stayed stock still on that podium, eyes closed again, mind trying to comprehend... What. Just. Happened?!!
Oh. That's not a good reaction, Summer Scribe thought: Azure clearly had as little idea this was coming as the rest of us did. Summer tried to be reassuring, though she couldn't hide her concern. "Azure! Open your eyes: look at your new wings. This is what the temple gave you! They have to be special, right?"
Sunburn looked curiously at the transformed equine, unsure what to make of this. Summer and Azure seemed to be busy, so he asked Sprocket: "Huh. She's... the other kind of pony now. Is that normal for you guys?"
Sprocket's mouth dropped open, but she had no answer for him. It fell to Gustus to explain: "Sometimes they turn into alicorns, but those have wings and horns. And... it's only happened like twice in the last century, and they have to be super-friendly or super-sexy or something like that."
Thinking back to her trials, one thing stood out in Azure's mind: Set Sail's words at the end of the second challenge. 'My wings are your wings,' she'd said. Pegasus wings: they were hers now. Her life-long dream realised, finally she could fly like her childhood idols! Now... if only that achievement wasn't wrapped inside what might turn out to be a nightmare.
Still standing on the altar, Azure lifted a forehoof, reaching up to her forehead, and trying, hoping, praying to Celestia her horn would still be there! That it was just numb, or intangible, some kind of trick! But Summer's words rang true in her mind: pegasus. No horn. Her magic... had left her, she realised.
Azure's mouth opened as if to say something, but it just hung open for several seconds before closing again. Her eyes darted to the ground, picking a spot within jumping distance. The new pegasus would just take that leap without much of a thought. After all, she was a soldier, she was tough, right? After landing fairly heavily, there was just one thing left to do now, and that was to trot out of the temple...
"Azure?" Summer Scribe called out with concern, a frown creasing her face. "You're not going to try your wings...?" Clearly Azure has been really shaken by her loss... maybe she needs a moment to regroup?
Sprocket was so glad she started up that recording spell. Reviving from her awesome-induced catatonia, she watched Azure quietly trot out of the inner sanctum, then cautiously followed after, not wanting to miss documenting anything about... whatever the hay just happened.
Amber sidled over to Gustus and whispered "Is she gonna be ok?" Gustus just looked at Amber, then at Azure trotting out into the atrium. "...She'll live, if that's what you're worried about." He'd seen the soldier staying quiet most of the time, that part didn't surprise him. But... he knew unicorn, watched them use their magic to handle nearly every aspect of everyday life. Whether she'd be okay with that aspect ripped away from her...
"Um, o-ok, but..." Amber trails off, uncertain what this means. Meanwhile Sunburn glanced up at the mists still circling near the ceiling, frowned, then followed silently after the ponies.
"Come on. Let's get out of here." Indigo says firmly. With that, the griffons also made their way to the atrium, leaving the spirits alone in their temple. As they leave a bright glow and ringing sound came from the entrance. Sprocket looked back to see the barrier Amber had removed ealier re-materialise, blocking the way back into the temple with the familiar blue disc. The unicorn engineer could only give the rematerializing seal a dazed stare. She was gonna have one heck of a story to tell, once she managed to comprehend the sight of a unicorn becoming a not unicorn.
Summer Scribe trotted quickly, catching up with Azure. She wanted to help, but if Azure preferred to be alone, she couldn't impose on that. She looked over her shoulder as the seal faded back into existence. "I guess that's it for the temple, huh?" she said: it was hard to believe that it's was over kist like that, with Azure in such low spirits! Wasn't this meant to be a triumphant result?
Azure Feather kept quiet all the way down the hall, all the way across the plaza and up the steps to the balcony, until she arrived at the parked Second Chance. She just stood there, not heading on board yet: instead she just stared out into the sky, her expression telling the story. Her mouth hung slightly open as she tried to figure out just... what her next move would be. Her entire life had just been shattered like her horn: now what?!
Some way behind, Gustus, couldn't help but sigh as he walked with the other griffons. "It's as if someone took away your wings, and replaced them with a magical staff on your forehead, Amber. Azure's just suffered the reverse. I hope she'll be okay. I really do. I just can't say that with certainty."
"Yeah. I guess that'd be... weird. But if I was really into Magic, like so much that I'd gone all the way to the Enchanted Library and read all the living books... I guess that would be what I wanted?" Azure replied, still uncertain. She unfolded a wing, looked at it, then shivered.
The Second Chance. That's what they named their purloined mode of transport, that had brought them all this way. The blue haired Set Sail spread her brown fletched wings and placed a forehoof on the belly of the beast. It could fly far, without the pegasus flying it becoming exhausted in any way. It didn't even need to be a pegasus anymore. Could she have flown this far on her own? Flying up to land on deck, she checked the controls, but they were as smooth as ever since Nutmeg's crew had re-engineered the mechanisms within. The pegasus squeezed out of the pilot's cabin to pace on the little foredeck, as she had been doing fitfully since coming out here.
She felt the movement in the air before she saw it, peering around the ship to see ponies and other creatures emerging from that terrible temple: Sprocket, Gustus, Summer... even Sunburn, they were all there, with Azure Feather in the lead.
"Azure, you're okay!" the brown pegasus declared in relief, flapping down to the ground to approach the pony who was just standing there now, her back to Set Sail. "You're-" Azure turned to face her, and Set Sail stopped cold, just short of hugging Azure. Taking a step back, she looked sideways at the purple and blue mare, saying "Oh. You're a... pegasus."
Azure turned to face her commander... only to have her blood run a little cold at her last words. "Yes, Captain," she finally spoke, though it sounded like she had to force the words out. A pause, then she managed two more: "Excuse me." With that she turned away, staring at her hooves.
"I—I mean that's great!" Set Sail added uneasily, staring at Azure's posterior, "I can't think of a better thing to happen to you! That temple really uh... d-did a good job." Her praise might be easier to accept if she hadn't been backing up while saying it. She was so oblivious that she practically trampled the newly arrived Gustus, running into him ass first. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she said over her shoulder to Gustus, "I'm..." She gave Azure a tortured look, then said "I'm just gonna g-go stand over there." The pegasus hastily trotted to a random spot on the other side of the balcony, putting the copter between herself and... Azure.
Sprocket wasn't having it: she charged over to the captain, shouting "What the hay is wrong with you?! You should be happy for her!"
"I am!" Set Sail protested in frustration, "It's just... I just... have a really bad feeling about that place, and I'm happy that she got out and... that it... did something to her, but it's not bad! I'm sure it's—"
"Just the air is wrong, right?" Sprocket replies, "You keep saying that, but I don't get it. Is there something wrong with Azure?"
Sunburn looked from one pony to another, bemused by their strange behaviour. Quietly he asked Gustus "Are we done here?"
"No!" Set Sail protested, "No just— I don't know, I just—" and just like that, Set Sail took off into the sky, fading quickly into the ever-present fog surrounding this place.
Summer Scribe let out an exasperated sigh, seeing Set Sail essentially abdicate from her duties. What is wrong with her? Is becoming a pegasus all that bad? Sure, at the loss of your horn, but if those wings are anything worthy of the title 'Champion of Air', then why wouldn't Azure try them out...? She rubbed at her face with a hoof. Well, whatever. If Azure's not in the mood and Set Sail's not going to help, she may as well catch up on other affairs in the mean time.
The little unicorn trotted over to the native griffons, with diplomatic affairs in mind. "So, anyway - if you're not in a hurry, you might like to come back to Blissful Pastures with us. You can check out our airship and meet the rest of us ponies... and we have a captive drow you could talk to." She has a playful grin on her face. "It might be your chance to hear straight from the source what they've done with your mysteriously disappearing friends."
"Blissful Pas... oh, that island out on the fringe." Indigo said. "That's one heck of a detour, and right past that 'isle of misery' your friend was so scared of."
"Thank you, Miss Summer" Emerald added "but we've got to get the chicks back to the Cliffs. It's been hard enough on them anyway."
"Still not a chick, mom." Amber muttered.
Seeing Summer's sad face, Indigo added "Hey, maybe I could round up a few griffs one we're back. Get a Fury together, do a little recon. The elder's won't ignore the chance of freeing enslaved griffs, will they?" he asked his mate.
"They won't want to leave the Cliffs vulnerable..." Emerald said uncertainly "...though maybe if the gillmen confirm the unicorn's story...".
Summer Scribe looking down thoughtfully for a moment, but finally smiling and nodding. Sounds like it might not be a lost cause after all: "Hmm, okay, I understand! I'm sure once you griffons have hard proof that there's something nefarious ahoof, you'll want to take matters into your own claws!" She made a quick note: hopefully the gillmen know enough about the drow, and the griffons that disappeared on their island, to speak authoritatively on that.
"Give me a week... if things are as you say, and Emerald can knock some sense into the elders... I'll meet you at this 'Blissful Pastures' with a fury at my side. Then we'll see about these 'drow'." Indigo smirked.
"Yeah! Get 'em dad!" Cerulean enthused.
"Thank you! Look forward to it: I won't ask any more!" What else...? As Summer's notebook slipped back into her saddlebag, it bumped into something like a blue dinner plate. "Oh! The artifact!" She excused herself and went looking for Sunburn; he should be able to recognize stuff like this no problem!
The colourful griffons seemed surprised by her sudden departure, but soon went back to discussing the situation amongst themselves. Summer Scribe found the fiery draco-bird Sunburn standing alone on the edge of the wide stone balcony, staring into the swirling clouds surrounding the floating temple as if waiting for more enemies to emerge from them.
"Hey, Sunburn!" Summer waved a hoof, clicking her bag open and pulling the plate-shaped artifact out, setting it on the floor with the glowing rune facing up. "Do you know what this is? Me and Set Sail found it in the temple."
The Skylander's head snapped around to give the mare one of those unreadable avian stares, before tilting his head and answering "It's a wish stone. You've never seen a wish stone? I guess they're pretty rare these days; haven't seen one in the wild for... a long time."
Summer Scribe tilted her head in turn, "I don't think we have those in Equestria." It sure sounded too good to be true, but... "So, what exactly is a wish stone?"
Sunburn frowned, then stares into space for several seconds, before his eyes refocused on Summer: "I remember asking Ninjini about them, once. She said that they were like a chocolate chip cookie, 'cept the dough was runestone and the chips were imaginite." He shrugged his wings.
Summer Scribe furrowed her brow, looking impatient: that meant nothing to her! "No, no - what do they do? Do you make wishes on them? Do they come true? Are they good luck to carry around? Should I be excited?"
"Yeah you make wishes: right before you toss 'em in the well. If you've got the knack, the thing you wished for pops right back out. If not, the stone just comes back to you. Whirly used to love those things." He sighed. "Don't get too excited; I've only seen 'em make small stuff, like a clawful of gold or a fancy hat."
Huuuh. Summer Scribe propped the wishstone up on its rim and spun it like an oversized coin on the deck, thinking. "Small stuff? Maybe a beaker of hydrogen peroxide..." she joked to herself. "Can it make magical things, or only mundane things? You've got me tempted to push my luck. Who knows, I might have the 'knack', right? I can certainly knack lots of things!" she chuckles lightly.
"A beaker of H2O2? Why would you want that?" Sunburn asked, surprised. Then, after a second, "Oh... to bleach your fur. Huh. So, yeah... I guess it can make magic: those fancy hats can sure help a creature run a little faster, or turn aside a blow. But not a lot of magic, you know? There's only so much in the stone."
Summer Scribe smirked: "No no, it's... an ingredient in curing Gillman fin rot. I don't know the details - I'm not a doctor or a chemist." She pondered: it can make minor magical items? "Interesting... I remember seeing a well in that abandoned village on Blissful Pastures." She thought on it for a moment the grinned, quite amused by the prospect. "I think everyone who came out on this expedition should take turns wishing: first one to succeed wins. It's only fair we all get a shot, right? I can round people up for it once we've settled in."
"Sure, knock yourself out." Sunburn said, without much enthusiasm. "I don't make wishes, any more."
Summer Scribe mused on that. "I think we could all use a bit of wishing these days, honestly. It's scary, not knowing if the Drow will wake up one day and decide to raze us to the ground... and with what happened to Reef Skimmer." She lowered her head. Should she include Azure? Azure was going to be fine, right? She's just shocked, is all!
"If the drow come for you ponies... they'll be going down in flames. You have my word on that." Sunburn said, with renewed purpose in his voice.
Summer Scribe put the wish stone away, before trotting over to embrace Sunburn in a gentle hug. "...Thanks. You have no idea how nice a little certainty is, right now." Her smile was innocent and sincere this time.
The Skylander stood stiffly, before awkwardly putting a wing around Summer. His feathers were, as you'd expect, very warm. "You're welcome."
The celebratory air was still tainted with unease, as the native griffons looked on with worry at the others talking with each other in frantic tones. The ponies were trying to figure out what was wrong with the captain, and how they were going to be able to find her in this fog. Set Sail didn't take too long though before she found them, sailing back in through the fog, alighting in front of the new pegasus who was so tortured by her own conflicting emotions. "Azure, I'm... sorry," Set Sail said carefully, "Just when you were feeling really good about yourself, I went and ruined everything. I just panicked... I should never have... done that to you."
Azure hadn't moved an inch since Set Sail had first seen her; her confusion and concern had only diminished the slightest bit. At the approach of the Captain, though, Azure managed to look the other pegasus in the eye again, showing Set Sail a mixture of emotions, with very little of it resembling happiness. "Why... apologise, Captain?" she asked, sounding sincere. "You... you did nothing wrong. You ruined nothing, and... panicked? What... can I help somehow?"
"Something so wonderful happened to you, and all I could think was that that place did something to you," Set Sail said, lowering her head in shame, "I thought it might... might do something horrible to you. I didn't think you'd come out at all. I thought you'd come out... wrong. I don't know what I was thinking. Here I am acting like a... a beautiful pegasus is some kind of monster. We all know how much you wanted... y-you have real wings now. Real wings! Can you feel them?"
Azure gave a rough chuckle as Set Sail voiced her concern; her response probably wouldn't be what the captain expected. "...You thought I was going to become a monster? Captain, I've been imagining that for the last three hours - I was scared the entire time..." A long pause as she stared into the distance again. "The entire time..." she echoed, before looking the captain in the eye again. "So... don't apologise for that... we saw what the first temple did to the doctor, it's an entirely warranted reaction and one I admit I shared! I..." Oh, Celestia...
"Well you're not," Set Sail said in firm relief, "You're okay! You... showed that temple who's boss. We'll figure this out, however we do. It's not so bad being a pegasus, is it? I mean, we have good things too." She straightened, looking off into the sky for a moment, saying, "The air here is... still, so maybe it's not the best place to show you. But I'm sure you can do a lot of tricks that some stuffy old unicorn wouldn't be able to do. Let's just... let's just go home, and figure things out from there, okay?"
Azure saw it in Set Sail's eyes: she really wanted to sell that being a pegasus wasn't so bad. And maybe it wasn't. But the newest Pegasus looked... very unsure of herself to say the least and the mention of 'stuffy old unicorns' may not have helped. At the mention of home, though, Azure nodded firmly. "The Harmony... yes, that would be best," she concluded. "Anything else, Captain?"
Set Sail subtly stiffened at that, but she said evenly, "No, nothing else. Let's just get the hay out of here. This place still gives me the creeps."
They all gathered on the little ship, with Gustus giving the family of native griffons a final bow before they took off. "We've got to get back to the main ship... but I hope you can follow through on that visit. Talk to you again then; Grenelda would love to see some new griffs, I'm sure of it!"
The compact crimson aircraft shot through the sky, taking a high arc up over the floating archipelago. The kirin and earth pony were treated to an enthralling glimpse of hundreds of islands spread out below them, extending off to the horizon, before the projected display clicked off and they were left staring at the metal roof of the cabin.
"Sorry." Spyro said apologetically, "it's for your own protection. Ya know I'll be glad when we get everything up and running again, we can drop all this cloak and dagger nonsense." The purple dragon cocked his head and smiled. "Though I think Cynder gets a kick out of it. Buzz sure did, back in the day." Ahead of him the blue alidracocorn sat quietly in the pilot's seat, guiding the shuttle through a series of lazy turns.
"You do what you gotta do, I guess!" the red-ruffed kirin said, slinging her arm around Gearshift, "Hopefully we can help with whatever's keeping you down. That Core of Light thing sounds amazing. What does it do, exactly? Something about defeating evil?"
Gearshift himself remained grudgingly compliant, rolling his eyes at Nutmeg's usual enthusiasm. Nutmeg knew he'd keep her safe no matter what, though.
"Yeah! Sorta. Like you still need heroes to go out and kick evil's butt, but the core of light prevented the really huge, twisted, god-like-being-from another-dimension stuff from seeping into Skylands. Good thing too, because the couple of times that did actually happen, Skylands took a real beating. It took like an army of Skylanders and a mess of super-high-tech vehicles to defeat the darkness, and..." The dragon's voice caught, and he finished in a sad tone "...Hate to say it but all of that is gone now. Just a clawful of us left, still fighting the good fight."
"Oh, so it's like the Tree of Harmony!" Gearshift exclaimed in realization, "We have something like that too, back in Equestria!"
"Yeah, I... don't know a lot about the details," Nutmeg said unsurely, "I was only a little baby kirin at the time. But supposedly ponies like my friend here prevented this really huge, twisted, god-like-being-from-another-land from consuming all our magic, using a similar machine. Not sure why they called it a tree. Because it... had organic components, I guess?"
"Huh, I guess that makes sense!" Spyro said thoughtfully. "Powerful as it was, The Darkness loved a good monologue as much as the next villain, it was going on about conquering other worlds the whole time. I thought it was just trying to make Kaos feel better about wiping out his homeland, but who knows, maybe it tried to conquer your realm as well! I guess we have more in common than we thought." he finished with a wink.
"Now I'm excited," Nutmeg said, sitting up in the chair to look forward as they zoomed along, "I wasn't sure if I could do anything, even if I was a Tech Elemental, but if it's like that, then maybe I already have access to the technology to repair the Core of Light!"
"Yeah, I can't wait," Gearshift agreed supportively, "I hope it looks nearly as amazing as ours did."
"Oh, it used to be beautiful, before the Sky Eater." Whirlwind piped up. "So elegant and whimsical, especially for something so powerful." she said, sighing. "Magret and... Krankcase... did their best, but the replacement was much more technology and less magical."
"Hey, don't go knocking Mags & Kranky, they did a great job!" Spyro shot back. "You can't expect two techies to match The Ancients, and besides, they managed to make it work without needing the elemental sources! Don't think even the ancients could've pulled that off."
"Those two were Tech Elementals?" Nutmeg asked hopefully, "If they already engineered it to work before, maybe they left some schematics on how we could fix it."
The engineer's questions only got more technical from there. Spyro answered as best as he could, but could provide little detail on the mechanics of the device; every attempt to do so seemed to derail into a story about how the Skylanders snuck into a troll factory that one time to steal a bottle of 'extra special goo' or how close they came to dropping the steam train into a lava lake on the way to the 'eternal fire source'. Each legendary parts-acquisition escapade was more implausible than the last until even Nutmeg began to seriously wonder if he was embellishing the truth.
Finally Whirlwind spoke up: "Nearly there, beginning my approach." She reactivated the exterior display, revealing a sprawling ruin spread over and between a cluster of small islands. Perhaps it had once been something like a storybook castle, with the pointed towers, glass domes, flying buttresses and floating bridges tying everything together. The grounds around the building were dotted with statues, fountains and strange pieces of machinery.
Those past glories must have been a long time ago though, because now the domes were reduced to skeletons, the towers crumbling and much of the grounds overrun with weeds. The shuttle headed for one of the more intact courtyards, with stone paving cracked and weathered but free of rubble. "This place must have looked amazing in its time," Nutmeg said solemnly, looking around at all the crumbling destruction.
"Yeah, I'm not a stone mason, but I can see why you don't want the bad guys to find this place," Gearshift pointed out sympathetically, "If the wrong people found out about it, there'd be no way to stop them..."
"Oh yeah, the Academy was awesome!" Spyro enthused. "A lot of good memories. But hey, maybe once the core is fixed we'll be able to rebuild it. Just gotta find enough creatures who care about turning things around, not just grabbing what they can for themselves, ya know?" The shuttle slowed to a hover, extended its landing struts and settled to the ground with a barely perceptible bump. "Smooth as ever, Whirly." he grinned at the pilot.
The dracopegacorn smiled sweetly back. "Thanks, Sypro. Look, she must have been waiting for us." The roof of the cabin retracted just in time to see a curious winged creature shoot out through a hole in the nearest tower and swoop around towards them. Draconic in overall form, it had smooth white scales, blue belly plates and oversized claws that seemed to be made of translucent purple crystal.
Instead of horns, several more of the crystals extended from the back of her head like a stylised glass mane. Most curious were her wings, which were formed of rows of long, chunky crystals set into scaly coverts. Nutmeg had no idea how that arrangement could provide lift, but the creature seemed to have no problem flying as well as the other dragons.
"Spyro, you did it! Oh and not one but two techs, magnificent!" the newcomer said in a voice that almost audibly sparkled. "Smaller than I expected... but so cute!" she added, hovering next to the shuttle and peering at the two equines still huddled in one of the rear seats.
Nutmeg and Gearshift looked at the new dragon, who was definitely also significantly bigger than both of them, for they were little equines. "Pleased to meet you heh heh," Nutmeg said nervously, stepping in for her quieter friend, "We're here to give it a shot, at least! So where is this miracle machine, anyway?"
"Yeah, I'm really curious about what Nutmeg can— I mean what we can do about it," Gearshift remarked self-consciously.
"Of course, of course, right this way!" the crystal dragon said, before flying off towards an enormous, ornate entrance at the base of the tower.
"Flashwing!" Sypro shouted after her "...no wings?" The other dragon paused to look back, nodded and then zoomed off in a different direction. "Heh, good old Flashy... don't worry, she's just super-excited to have guests. Doesn't get to show off her art much these days."
Sure enough, the white dragoness was soon back with a old step-ladder that had been recently repainted in rainbow colours. "Oh I do apologise, there you are!" she said, pushing it up against the hull of the shuttle. Whirlwind just shook her head and chuckled, flapping out of the cockpit and heading down to fuss with a refuelling pipe.
Flashwing's sing-song voice was definitely reminiscent of somepony... Gearshift fancied she sounded strangely similar to Princess Twilight: perhaps a younger, less regal version.
"No problem. We can use step-ladders just fine," Nutmeg said confidently, the similarity not really registering with her, but she had only seen the Princess a few times. Most of her exposure was through books, posters, and happy, prosperous ponies. The less happy ones made reference to the princess sometimes, but not in polite company. The two climbed down the ladder, until they stood on the ancient Skylanders HQ.
Gearshift kicked away a stone underhoof from the crumbling ruin surrounding them. "Hope it's not too broken," he said, worrying as usual.
"No idea, really." Spyro said sadly, flapping down to walk alongside the ponies. "I mean it looks right, we found new parts and put them in 'til it looked just the way it used to, but no dice. I mean no amazing wave of uplifting light! Yeah I'm pretty sure the fuzzy dice were just decoration." It seemed he couldn't be sad for more than two sentences before compulsively cracking a joke to lighten the mood. And so the three of them followed behind as the crystal dragon flapped through the castle, down halls once lined by stained glass windows and now the wind just whistled mournfully through the frames, past crumbling statues of fantastic creatures and dusty, enigmatic machines, all brass pipes and panels full of oversized unlabelled buttons.
They headed gradually down into the foundations of the structure, proceeding into a vaulted stone tunnel that ended in a great circular door. It was reminiscent of the elemental gates they'd seen at Blissful Pastures and Witchway Marsh, but the central disc was featureless save for radial grooves, and the blocky stone surround featured the symbols of all ten elements, glowing softly in their signature colours. Spyro closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate for a moment, before the light flared and the door split apart, its segments retracting out of sight to reveal a vast, dark chamber beyond.
The two guests walked in nervously, Nutmeg noting that the gate she just saw was something far beyond a mechanical lock, or anything she'd ever seen before. She wondered how many could open that door, if it required an affinity with all ten elements to do so. They were quiet mostly, somewhat in awe of the place they were entering, so much less crumbly than the rest of the island.
The space was a cylindrical shaft, perhaps thirty metres across, sunk deep into the earth. A narrow beam of sunlight shone directly down from an oculus in the roof, striking an array of sharp crystals far below, at the very bottom. The glassy crystals scattered the beam into hundreds of tiny spots of light spread all around the walls of the shaft. The doorway lead out onto a balcony of sorts, perhaps half way down the shaft.
On the far side was a curved panel bearing and array of levers, switches and gauges, and a familiar purple form. The spooky, knife-tailed dragoness stood motionless, her wings tightly folded, making a show of glaring at the ground but watching them come in out of the corner of her eye. "Cynder!" Spyro said, shock creeping into his voice. "...didn't think you'd be, uh, participating."
Nutmeg started to bound forward in wonder at the strange array of materials and parts, but she stopped cold at the sight of Cynder. Nutmeg didn't know much about that dragon, other than that she was really mean, and she'd once used a strange lightning breath to attack them, trying to capture Nutmeg and carry her here by force, when all they had to do was ask. Nutmeg was super grateful that Spyro was so nice about it, but he did say that Cynder would... be here.
Cynder glanced at Nutmeg, then at Spyro, "So... It seems honey really does catch more flies than vinegar." she said, reluctantly. "But if you think I'm going to trust-"
"Cynder!" Flashwing broke in. The crystal dragoness ran into the chamber and stood between the equines and Cynder. "Why are you still being so mean?! Spyro fixed your mistake, and now you're going to ruin it again!" she accused. Cynder tensed and hissed, crouching and lashing her tail as the pair faced off. Cynder's mouth opened, ready to unleash lightning, while Flashwing's tail was arched over her back, sharp crystal tip pointed at Cynder and no doubt ready to unleash some devastating magic of her own.
"C'mon Cynder! Flashwing! Please, can we not do this?!" Spyro pleaded. Both female dragons turned to stare at him. "Like I already said, I don't blame you for what happened. It's been so long without hope, any true hope, of course we're all on edge. But... look, this is our chance, our one real chance for things to get better, at long last! So... can you please just... believe in me. Believe in them. Just for a little while." Spyro was walking slowly towards Cynder during his plea, wings folded and tail tucked back.
Nutmeg didn't know what to do. Dragons sure could be scary sometimes though. She and Gearshift just stood there quiet as lamb, hoping the dragons would get done, and maybe let her do her thing.
Cynder's maw closed and she looked away, trembling with tension, blade-tail still lashing behind her. Spyro reached out with a claw and put it gently on her neck. "Cynder, it's ok. You can let this one go."
The dark purple dragoness grabbed his claw with her own as if to pull it away, then seemed to reconsider. They stood there clasping paws for a few seconds, eyes locked, before at last the lashing stopped and Cynder relented. "You just won't give up on anyone, will you? Noble to the end, that's my Spyro."
"There's only one dragon I'll never give up on, and that's you, Cynder." he replied, smiling warmly, his eyes still staring into hers.
Embarrassed, Cynder took a step back and looked away, before finally addressing the visitors. Flashwing stepped aside, allowing her to speak freely. "Fine, I admitt, it was... a mistake. A stupid mistake. I should've asked first, I just didn't think... I didn't think there was anyone left out there, who would help us without being forced to." Glaring at the ground again, she muttered "You understand that, right?"
"You did what you had to do," Nutmeg said sympathetically, "You didn't know we were peaceful. Yeah you should have asked first, but your heart was in the right place. You were just trying to help your friends. We've all done something silly for a friend, right?"
"It's obvious that this is very important," Gearshift added solemnly, "And you've worked so hard to protect it. We can take a little roughing up if you were trying to do the right thing. Ponies are a lot tougher than we look, and kirin even more so. We'll fix your machine, and... thanks for your apology."
"Right. Apology, sure, whatever." Cynder said dismissively, turning away to face the controls. "So now that we're all friends, let's get on with it." Her claw touched a control, and with a series of beeps and flickering lights the mechanism sprang into life. Various whirrs, clicks and a deep rising humm filled the air, then the base of the pit lit up as electricity (or something that looked like it) began to arc around the forest of glassy crystals.
Finally, with a dramatic 'shooomm', a pillar of blinding light burst out of the array and shot upwards through the shaft, spearing out through the oculus in the roof. The equines had to avert their gaze to avoid temporary blindness, blinking and waiting for their eyes to adjust. When they did, the rest of the chamber fell into sharp relief; walls formed of densely packed hexagonal columns, broken by eight large stubby tubes. The open-ended tubes projected from the walls pointing directly at the central beam, and were arranged in four opposing pairs set at different heights.
"I love this part!" Flashwing enthused, staring into the shifting waves of luminance and dancing sparkles within the central beam as if transfixed. "Such radiance, so beautiful..."
"Yeah, so..." He glanced at the crystal dragon and chuckled. "...what was I saying. Oh right: that bit works fine, we just had to, uh, clear out the broken crystals and put some new traptanium in there." Spyro said. "The next few steps, not so much."
With Cynder distracted, Nutmeg whispered teasingly to Gearshift, "I think she likes you." He full on blushed at that, but both of them were captivated by the strange and beautiful display. When the light revealed the room in all its glory, Nutmeg was quite in agreement with Flashwing.
"Next few steps?" Nutmeg asked curiously, looking away from the beautiful pillar of light to the purple dragon, "Don't let it explode or anything just to show us. But what happens when you try the next few steps?"
By way of answer, Spyro took a couple of steps over to the controls and pressed another button. More mechanical noises from below and the tubes sprang into life. From one, dribbles and sputters of flame overwhelmed by a lot more smoke, spewing out and filling the shaft with haze. From a second, a roaring jet of brackish-looking water that crashed into the central beam and disappeared in a continuous spitting hiss. From a third, a rain of small gems and pebbles that barely made it out of the tube before falling in a rocky shower to clatter and shatter on the floor far below. From the fourth, nothing but a faint electrical humm. On the console, four prominent lights blinked on, first yellow, then red.
"The Elements of Substance." Cynder said, cryptically. "All showing 'non-functional'. Broken."
"But not too badly, right?" Spyro said hopefully to Nutmeg. "They're doing something. Mostly."
"Are they just... I mean of course they aren't, or you'd have fixed that," Nutmeg said, shyly approaching Cynder's console. "I can't make all those elements just appear," she puzzled, looking at the four red lights, "But they're already in place, so...can I take a look at what this console is connected to? It might be some sort of sensor malfunction."
Gearshift approached too, asking, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Still looking for now," Nutmeg said, an ear briefly turning his way, "It definitely looks like we've got our work cut out for us."
"Of course!" Spyro said brightly. "This is where the magic happens, but like Whirlwind said, the guts are all tech now. Follow me!" he beckoned, heading towards a much smaller door set to one side of the main entrance tunnel.
"I'll go get the guest quarters ready!" Flashwing said, finally snapping out of her trance. "Oh, you'll love them. You will be staying the night? OF course you will!" she answered her own question without waiting for a response, and dashed off back up the entrance tunnel to the academy above.
The side door led to a smaller shaft ringed by a spiral staircase, heading up and down from the entrance level. The dragon led the equines further down to a dusty sub-basement, lit by flickering old lights and chock full of old machinery. There were machine tools, tables with parts and subassemblies laid out of them and many many cabinets and lockers full of more parts and tools. Some work areas were clean showed signs of recent use but most of the space was covered in cobwebs and stains, untouched for who knew how long.
"Make yourself at home!" Spyro said, with an expansive sweep of a wing. "Go ahead and use any of this if you like, Whirly should be down with your stuff from the shuttle soon. We've got more parts upstairs, whole mess of them in the main basement. First though... see this tunnel? It kinda spirals around the main shaft, lets you get to the machinery for each element. First one's fire, right this way!"
Nutmeg's eyes got really big at all the fantastic and familiar equipment. They might really be able to make this work! She and Gearshift rushed from station to station, looking at all the half-completed parts still lying there after all these years. "Okay!" she said a lot more eagerly, hopping up to the dragon while Gearshift trotted along behind. "Let's see what this fire machine can do."
The curving, upward sloping tunnel opened out into a moderate-sized chamber filled with roaring flame, rushing liquid, whining pumps and the odd crack and creak of pressurised pipes. The far end was dominated by two massive tanks, which fed through a chaotic tangle of plumbing to terminate in a huge metal bell, hard up against the solid metal wall. Inspection ports covered in thick, soot-stained glass afforded a glimpse of the far side of the wall, where spluttering yet intense flames shot out of the bell and down the tube, no doubt exiting in the main shaft they'd seen earlier.
Nutmeg lifted a hoof to shield herself from the intense heat as she walked up to the roaring flames, but of course she was in no danger since she was protected. She looked at the flame geysering out, and at the liquid flowing in, and said, "I wonder what the pressure is on these pipes." Several hours were spent clambering up the pipes, or standing on Gearshift for a height assist, adjusting her giant wrench to the pipe sizes to work on them. The pressure gauges were busted, but there were pretty easy replacement parts, once she managed to turn off the flow of fuel long enough to install a fix in there.
Finally standing free of the pipes and looking up at it all, she concluded, "The flame could be a lot bigger if there were more air intake. I think the pipes feeding air into this thing aren't running at a high enough pressure. Where's the oxidizer pump in this thing?
One rusty oxidizer pump replaced later, Nutmeg engaged it sending a rush of air into the fire, the flame growing pure and white hot, burning more like a blowtorch than a campfire. The heated flame shot through the big pipes, and as the gang hurried outside, Cynder was looking with disbelief at the panel before her, where one of the red lights had finally turned green.
Spyro was overjoyed. "Nice! That's more progress in one afternoon than we made in a year! Great work Nutmeg... and Gearshift too!"
"Yeah." Cynder said flatly. She gestured with a claw at a silver platter sitting next to the control panel. "Flashwing left you some..." she seemed ready to gag "...'lunch'. Artisanal grasses, whatever those are, with a selection of dressings."
"Well, let's eat! I'm starved!" Nutmeg said eagerly. The two approached the platter Flashwing had luxuriously decorated, and Nutmeg was shocked to see he'd even prepared her favourite! Cynder probably had to look the other way for how ruthlessly the two equines stood there placidly chewing innocent grass into mush. Flashwing got all the compliments for knowing just what the tastiest grasses they can eat are. Soon the kirin was raring to go saying with a wiggle of her whiplike tail, "Do you think we can wow them by doing two in one day?"
"Do I?" Gearshift said, "The next one isn't even on fire. Just let me at it!"
"Love the attitude!" Spyro smiled back, ignoring Cynder's eye-roll. Soon they were heading back down to the sub-basement, then up the opposite spiral tunnel to the machinery space powering the water jet. At first glance it shared a lot with its opposite: an enormous tangle of plumbing linking numerous tanks, eventually leading into the final turbine that fed the pressure nozzle. The tanks were adorned with stirrers, heaters, coolers, magnets, sieves and other less-discernible devices, all joined by a web of cables that snaked back to a cabinet on one wall.
"Yeah, so... this is all piped in from the main reservoir." Spyro said. "A while back we drained it out and pulled the junk out of it, buuuut..." The dragon shrugged his wings. "Didn't seem to help much, the water's still full of crud."
Nutmeg and Gearshift puzzled over the plumbing, pulling open the stirrers, heaters, coolers, magnets, sieves, and just about everything to try and see where the gunk was getting in. At last, now splattered with water, Nutmeg declared, "I think there's supposed to be gunk in this machine. It's supposed to be filtering it out though, and the filters are just activating when the pumps deactivate, and the valves are opening when they need to be closed to stop backwash. If I didn't miss my guess..." as if having the same idea at once, she and Gearshift started following the wires from all the partially deconstructed devices, to where they all converged on that cabinet over there.
A quick application of bolt cutters revealed the interior; a tangle of electronic components mounted on a slab of bakelite, dusty and smelling of leaking tubes and burned insulation. With a few tugs the whole control module unplugs from its housing.
"I think I saw a spare water chip on one of the workbenches back there," Gearshift said, looking at the disgustingly decrepit water filter control module with as much unease as Nutmeg, as she holds the thing 6 feet away, in her wrench's plier mode, then carefully carries it over to dump it in a wastebin. He returned triumphantly from the workbench, water chip on rump, and they went about putting all the pumps and such back together.
After replacing the wiring in the control box damaged by the old shorted control chip, they slid in the new one, and flipped off the switch keeping it in maintenance mode. The pumps started to piston in smooth synchronisation, one after the other. The machine gave a light, pleasant hum, as cool clean water emerges, then rushes out, flooding through the pipe, heading straight for the Core.
A quick trot back to the control balcony, where Cynder was staring in disbelief at a second green light. Down in the shaft, the jet of white-hot flame and jet of sparkling clean water were emerging from their respective, opposing pipes, meeting at the same point in the central beam and disappearing in a swirl of magic. Above the reaction site, the beam swelled with flares of red and blue light visible amidst the white. "Awesome. You're on fire!" Spyro said. "Well not literally, heh, but... you know what I mean." He shook his head. "You wanna take a break or shall we check out that earth pipe?"
Nutmeg and Gearshift were both wet and weary, but Nutmeg nodded, saying, "We can at least take a look."
Another trek down stairs and through tunnels, and the crew were at the appropriate chamber. Here were racks and racks holding containers of dirt, where chunks of stone seemed to be literally grown as if they were plants. A miniature, automated rock farm, as if such a thing existed in the first place. An assortment of scrapers, sorters, conveyer belts, grinders and polishers prepared the final chunks, which were dropped from chutes onto a complex array of copper bars, resting on an intricate bed of cables. The stones wobbled into the air, hovering a few centimetres above the metalwork, then sluggishly picked up speed, finally disappearing into the pipe at a leisurely pace.
"Oh, lithoculture," Gearshift mused, walking forward into the area, "My grandmother grew up on a rock farm."
"Huh, I guess you could grow rocks if you... um... planted them right," Nutmeg tentatively agreed, heading in less confidently than the stallion for once. She perked up upon spotting the wobbling rocks on bars, stepping quickly over there and saying, "Oh! I made one of these before! It used to be a lightning gun, but then I had to solder in a magnetizer and some electromagnetic rails because that dragon breathed lightning and I um... had..." Nutmeg spared a respectful glance for the big purple male dragon who was right there in the room, diplomatically concluding, "It was a really neat invention, which I was going to use to ...accelerate rocks, for earth related things!"
"Earth-related things...?" Spyro said, confused. "I guess you could plink chompies with em? Not as cool as a lightning gun though, now that's a proper techie gadget!" he smiled. "Like, you're at the All-Skylands Inventioneer Convention, and they're all 'so name all 8 million things you invented to date...' and you're all 'no need! see, lightning gun! pzaaap!' and then they nod and sagely say 'yes, this cute little dragony deer-corn is indeed a true tech elemental...'" the dragon's voice trailed off as he realised the pair were staring at him. He ducked his head and chuckled nervously "Sorry, got carried away for a moment there. So... does that mean you can fix it?"
"I can make it plink rocks a whole lot more," Nutmeg said cheerfully, "And that seems to be the ticket with these. Just need some specialized equipment, and um..." She yawned then, a half-conscious reaction that just sort of needed to happen from time to time. She wasn't sure why.
"Maybe we should sleep on it," Gearshift said, also sleepy, "We don't have to get it all done today."
"Right, right... sorry, guess I was just so excited to be making progress, that, uh... yeah." Spyro said, embarrassed but grateful. "So, you wanna check out those guest quarters?"
"That'd be nice," Nutmeg said agreeably, heading along behind with Gearshift as Spyro led the way.
They trekked back out of the Core, pausing only for Spyro to close the massive stone door, the points of its segments coming together until the disc was whole again. They proceeded through the dusty corridors and ruined halls of the academy above, until they reached a section that had been cleared and repaired to some semblance of its original condition. A cheery fire burned in a hearth, and Whirlwind looked up from her book and waved a wing at them as they proceeded up into an intact tower. Finally they reached the room itself, where Flashwing was putting the final touches on a beautiful arrangement of ornate (and probably priceless) furniture, colourful (and probably edible) flower arrangements and tasteful drapery.
Tiny crystals hung from the ceiling on threads, catching the lamplight and giving the impression of a glittering starry sky. "I hope it meets your standards." the crystal dragoness said breathlessly. "I wasn't sure what else would suit you, but we have oats, grain, potato soup seasoned with all those the herbs Cali always loved, erm..." she gestured with a claw at a table where plates lay waiting under engraved silver covers. "Is it enough? I could try to make bean enchiladas, if you insist..."
"Oh it's all perfect, and I can eat that stuff just fine!" Nutmeg said as Gearshift gazed overhead, murmuring, "Wow...."
They soon sat together by the warm hearth on the luxurious furniture with full bellies and no hunger pangs, very grateful for these dragons and their hospitality. "I'm glad you called on us," Nutmeg said to Flashwing and Spyro, "You're all so cool, and I couldn't be happier with something great like this to do."
"Me either," Gearshift said, "I think nice ponies, I mean dragons like you really are the heroes that could save your world. The sooner we get your machine fixed, the better."
Flashwing was over the moon; finally guests that appreciated her efforts to ensure refined and civilised conditions. "Breakfast will be even better!" she beamed, before padding off, crystal claws clicking on the stone. "Oh wow, I haven't seen here that happy in... years." Spyro said, watching her go. Turning back to the equines, he thanked them profusely for their work so far. "You're too kind! Wish we could have you here indefinitely, the techies were the real unsung heroes behind the Skylanders, back in the day! Buuutt... I guess your ship needs you, and I'd never deprive them of competent engineers! So... sleep tight, and hopefully we can get that Core working tomorrow!" The charismatic purple dragon winked at Nutmeg one last time before gently closing the door, leaving the equines alone in the tower room.
Nutmeg hadn't had a chance to sleep there cuddled up with Gearshift on the bed in a very long time. It was a good chance to catch up. As their eyes drifted closed, and they drifted to sleep, the two were ready to make the next day even better than before.
The Equestrians woke with dawn, or rather Gearshift woke and proceeded to nudge Nutmeg awake. They spent tne minutes soaking in the impressive views and discussing the previous day's efforts before a rap on the door announced the arrival of breakfast. Flashwing had returned with porridge, freshly baked bread and a selection of fruit, taking care not to mix any of the decorative glitter into the food.
Refreshed and ready to go, the pony and kirin descended to find Spyro and Whirlwind waiting for them in the halls below. Once again they proceeded down through the basement into the enormous device they had come to repair: the Core of Light. It was an underground complex of mechanisms, each dedicated to an Element, surrounding a central shaft that housed the carrier beam.
With her tools at hoof, and a fresh new start of a brand-new day, Nutmeg was ready and raring to go. She and Gearshift travelled down the stairwell, past the thrumming, fwooshing elemental machinery that they had already repaired the day before. "The food here is really amazing," Gearshift said with a full belly and no worries that he, and especially Nutmeg, would succeed. "Yeah, I couldn't believe they had porridge. My favourite!" Nutmeg agreed. And with light chatter about their work and their experiences so far, they descended with the two dragons.
The two spent their day well, starting with the malfunctioning accelerator that was idly tossing pebbles into the shaft. A few replacement cables, some time retuning the sequencers and it was shooting a stream of high-velocity crystal straight into the central beam. Next would be the Air source; the two equines called out to each other as the mechanisms blew them around, trying to navigate the expansive complex. Finally as they both dumped an armful of dirty air filters the winds smoothed out in the ducts, growing in strength until a rushing tornado of air blasted down the final pipe to feed the Core.
The Undead source was full of nasty things that wouldn't stay dead, but Nutmeg's giant wrench took care of anything that attacked as they sealed off the otherworldly rifts, and sent and an eerie purple glow began flowing down the bones leading to the Core. The problem was immediately apparent in the Life room, with thorny vines constricting the withering plant growth struggling to survive in bone dry soil. Fixing the shunt from the mechanical Water source, as Gearshift cut back the thorns and weeds, the tropical life revived in moments, filling the room with fragrant flowers and verdant leafy greenery, until the only vines left were the green, leafy ones growing toward the core, with soft pulses of Life itself flowing down their stems.
Weary, a little thornier for their efforts, the two still worked into the evening. The Magic source seemed utterly inscrutable, a puzzle whose rules and laws made as little sense as magic does. They aligned the beams refracting through the pinkish crystals, getting themselves turned into literal sheep at one point when a glowing mandala on the ground had a few scuff marks in it. But with the mandala fixed, and their true forms restored, Nutmeg and Gearshift walked sleepily out of the magic room, even as the final crystal hummed with power in transmitting its energy down the ethereal channels to the Core.
Spyro was delighted with their progress. This time dinner would be down in the main hall; the friendly purple dragon regaled them with tales of his adventures while they ate, and even Cynder was drawn into to add a few corrections and extra details. Eventually the equines couldn't keep their eyes open any longer, and retreated to the guest room for a second night. Everycreature was in high spirits as the third day dawned, with seven sources of elemental energy feeding into the central Light beam; only the Tech chamber remained inoperable.
"Finally, a machine that makes sense!" Nutmeg declared, "This'll be a snap!" The door to the Tech chamber sparked and stuck halfway open, the two creatures peering into a cavernous, quiet ruin. Ancient robots lay quiescent and still, frozen in the process of whatever they were doing when everything failed. The only source of light in the room besides the lights they carried, beaming them around as the two ventured into the dusty mechanical tomb, were a very few, scattered, rare warning lights blinking a mournful red glow.
"A snap, huh," Gearshift remarked with a raised eyebrow at Nutmeg.
"Oh shut up," she huffed, "Get your tools. We have a lot of work to do."
Time went on, as Nutmeg discovered the machine's inner workings, sometimes literally when she found an access panel to crawl under. Like that strange transmitter that Nutmeg repaired back on the second island, she found herself having great luck in piecing together the mysterious parts. "I don't know how you make sense of any of this," Gearshift said, following her lead in rewiring the circuit board he was at, "This is far beyond our primitive Equestrian technology."
"It's amazing, I know!" Nutmeg replied eagerly, "It's all coming clear to me now, everything working together, I can see all these... cool things that this machine can do, if we just plug this in here, and switch this with that, and..." She quickly became lost in her work again.
One by one, the red lights turned green, as they meticulously revived the broken electronics. The robots revived, they went about their duties like a steam locomotive went down its train tracks. Panels lit up and glowed, and statuses went from flashing yellow to green. At last Nutmeg and Gearshift struggled to connect two halves of a huge plug together. Electricity danced from the prongs, as Nutmeg said, "Okay... here we go!" Contact, the circuit made, the whine of a turbine spinning up, the whole chamber shuddering as pure Tech in the form of lightning went blasting down the thick wires headed to the Core, suffusing the miraculous device with the final Element.
As the two emerged from the chamber, they looked up in awe, as the Core of Light shimmered, then from its apex erupted a beacon of pure light, shining endlessly upward to the top of the sky.
"Awesome!" said Spyro, grinning widely. "Great work guys! You got it... huh... ya know, I'm sure it looked different before... but hey, let's go check the main controls!" They descended through the spiralling tunnels, emerging onto the balcony where they'd first entered. Whirlwind and Cynder were already there, backlit by the scintillating column of light swirling up through the shaft. The blue unidragosus was prancing around and fiddling with controls, while the spikey purple dragon was scowling at the status display. The lowest indicator and two rows of four above it were all green, while a final indicator at the top was still stubbornly red.
"Not to be ungrateful, but something's still broken." Cynder explained. "That's the symbol for Dark... don't ask me what that's doing in the Core of Light." she clarified, pointing a claw at the indicator.
"What?!" Nutmeg squawked, zipping over to stare at the status display, "There wasn't any Dark chamber! Don't tell me your light machine runs on Darkness too??"
"No, not... as such. I think it's got to be the deflector!" Whirlwind said, excited to be so close to getting the device online. "See, right now we're just shooting a beam straight up into the sky. Not a lot of use unless The Darkness materialises directly above us!" She giggled. "You see, the core's supposed to radiate in every direction... or even be steered to act as a weapon against manifested Darkness!"
"Huh... so something else to fix, right at the top?" Spyro suggested. The two dragonesses nodded. He sighed, "Sorry Nutmeg, Gearshift, hope you don't mind lending us your expertise one last time? No more tunnels, so I guess we'd better take a look from the outside."
Nutmeg hesitated, but nodded. Grimly she and Gearshift followed Spyro outside, Nutmeg's ears tilting down, for she feared the curse of her people, a strange, dark fire within her that she never wanted to release. Would this machine draw it out of her? How would she deal with the Dark energies within without succumbing to her own darkness within?
Spyro lead the equines back up through the basement of the semi-ruined Skylander academy, with Cynder bringing up the rear while Whirlwind remained below, watching the readouts. Upon reaching ground level they took a new turn, emerging onto what looked like a low, grassy hill. Directly ahead the coruscating beam of light shot out of the summit and pierced the clouds above, emerging from a substantial circular structure formed of silvery metal, partly recessed into the ground.
Carefully the trio approached, working their way around until Gearshift spotted a control panel sporting a prominent lever. With Spyro unable to provide guidance as to its function, Nutmeg deployed her telekinesis to pull it down while the three of them kept their distance. With a loud clack it fell into place, triggering the entire structure to unfold into an array of metal leaves, opening like a blossoming flower to expose a ring of inscrutable machinery within. Purple crystals, copper coils and wires, and a snaking mass of glass tubes and chambers encircled the hole through which the beam was escaping the Core below.
"It's... strangely beautiful," Nutmeg said faintly, "So far so good, right? You wanna... check it out, Gearshift?"
"I'll take a look," he said, while the nervous little kirin waited behind. The earth pony named Gearshift went stepping gingerly among the coils and wires, searching for anything which might be dangerous. It all seemed cold and quiescent at first glance, without any beams or clouds of darkness lurking about at all.
At an unspoken look from Gearshift, Nutmeg stepped forward, strutting among the strange machinery, like nothing she'd ever seen before. "What does it even... do?" she asked softly.
Gearshift just shrugged.
The two searched through the machine, connecting loose wires, moving parts around, exchanging tubes, but without much luck. Nutmeg looked up at the pure beam of light shooting into the sky, wondering if this was where she would fail. This shadow of a machine in such divine radiance. "Any ideas?" Gearshift asked as they sat among the dead machine's entrails.
Looking over it carefully, Nutmeg said in disbelief, "I don't think I can fix this! This might be all we can do. Unless..."
Nutmeg ventured carefully over to a glass tube wreathed in metallic circuitry, touching it with a hoof, saying, "I recognize this! It's a miniature particle accelerator!"
"A what?" Gearshift called over.
"I don't know!" she called back, "But it is. Can't you see it?" Hefting the cylinder on top of the wrench along her back, she brought it over to another part saying, "It needs to go into this centrifuge here. I don't know why it was laying all the way over there."
They installed it, and Nutmeg looked elsewhere saying, "Look! It's an antimatter beam splitter!"
"What—" Gearshift started to ask, but Nutmeg barked out,
"I don't know! But it splits... not matter things? And it needs to go over here! This machine is totally trashed. Come on, let's get to work!"
Nutmeg's zeal for repair only increased as things started glowing and lighting up on the machine. One would think a machine of darkness wouldn't be very bright, but all the glass tubes began glowing in strange colours, like the opposite of a rainbow. "Pull that lever!" Nutmeg shouted.
"Got it, boss!" Gearshift replied.
They pulled levers, and put the pieces back together again, and at last with a clunk, the machine began to hum to life. Nutmeg felt the call within her, the call of darkness and shouted, "Get back! I don't know what it's gonna do!" They scrambled out of the apparatus, as the unearthly hues began coruscating in a ring all around it, like ephemeral flames. As they grew, the Darkness appeared in the middle of it all. It abruptly closed into a sphere capturing the beam of light, which immediately started to pour into the sphere instead of shooting upwards. No matter what angle you looked, the centre of the sphere was black as pitch, only the edges coruscating with those strange colours.
Then the dragons, the earth pony and the kirin began falling into it. The dragons picked up and flew in surprise as upward became inward toward the sphere. The wind began to howl, as everything nearby was being drawn into it. Gearshift and Nutmeg had to leap forward to cling to the edges of the metal petals of the apparatus, to keep from plummeting into it.
"Holy blazing firestorm, this is incredible!" Nutmeg called out as they hung on for their lives.
"I don't think you're appreciating the gravity of the situation!" Gearshift shouted back in exasperation.
"Don't worry, Gearshift!" Nutmeg assured him, looking back, or, down at the sphere, "Look!"
A tiny sparkle of white began growing in the centre of the sphere. Its immense pull stilled, and with a shocking impulse, they were all thrown forward as a sphere of pure, white light expanded from the sphere in all directions.
Spyro and Cynder dropped to the ground, staring upwards in awe, before the former rushed over to check on Nutmeg. "Hey, hey, are you ok there? Nothing broken?" Seeing the kirin scramble to her feet, he relaxed a little "Wow, that was intense! It looks just like it used to, all those years ago... I think you've done it! You two are awesome." The purple dragon gathered up Nutmeg into a quick hug, before awkwardly backing off, looking away in embarrassment. "So, yeah, guess we're both in the 'saviour of Skylands' club now. Wanna... uh... go down and check... with Whirly I mean, that it's all running ok?"
Meanwhile Cynder had grabbed the toppled Gearshift and with a few quick flaps set him on his hooves before landing again. "Yeah, that was... pretty amazing. I mean, for a tiny horse and all." she allowed.
"You bet!" Nutmeg declared excitedly, running down together with Spyro as Gearshift hung back a moment, gave Cynder a thoughtful look and simply said, "Glad we could be of service." He went trotting off too, after the sounds of excitement below and within, as Cynder shook her head in amazement, before flying smooth and silently after.
All of the indicators were indeed green, and Whirlwind was quick to inform them that all the gauges were showing normal operation. The Core of Light had at long last been restored, and Skylands was once again protected against the extradimensional incursions that had ravaged it in the past. "You know you're welcome to stay as long as you like!" Spyro said hopefully. "There's so much that still needs fixing around here... ugh, what am I saying, I can't ask for more. You just pulled off the most amazing repair job ever, and your friends are still stuck out there on a broken airship. They must be missing you already."
"You'll find a way, I'm sure," Nutmeg assured him, "Who knows? We might end up working together again some day! But for now I need to get these parts back to my little ponies so that we can finally get about repairing that engine, and aren't as much of a sitting duck as we are now."
"How many parts can we have?" Gearshift asked hopefully.
"As many as you can carry!" Spyro replied very generously.
So they loaded up with all sorts of valuable supplies, things that could never have been found at the bottom of some mere dirt shark's pocketbook. With heightened optimism and a new friendship made, the triumphant engineers made ready to return home.
The sun was dipping towards the horizon by the time the shuttle was fully loaded. Much as he wanted to see the ponies again, Spyro had to stay behind, to make room for both the pile of spare parts and the many tools that the equines had brought with them. With Whirlwind at the controls and Nutmeg & Gearshift sitting behind, the golden aircraft lifted off, wheeled around and smoothly accelerated away, heading for the distant Blissful Pastures where the EAS Harmony lay waiting. The two wondered if the rest of their company would believe them when they described everything they'd encountered here.
The mood was sombre on the long flight back from the Temple of the Four Winds, as Set Sail guided the Second Chance in a long southerly arc, staying well away from the drow base. The sun was setting by the time the commandeered copter approached the cliff-edge meadow that served as their temporary home. This time there were no ominous shotgun-bearing bipeds or freshly burn marks on the EAS Harmony's hull.
There was still some excitement to be had though: as the tired ponies trotted up the gangplank onto the larger airship, they were treated to the sight of a griffon hen blowing flame out of her beak. Behind her a blue pegasus mare was forming a tiny ice sculpture of Princess Twilight out of a bucket of water, while an enormous straw-coloured pegasus was taking very careful steps around the deck, looking rather worried by her sudden doubling in size. Clearly Grenelda, Bluebell and Static Signal, at the very least, had been sampling the magical cola.
Set Sail was livid, flying from creature to creature, demanding to know what happened and then informing everypony in no certain terms that they could not and would not replace them, so the magical sodas were to be used only for emergencies. The pegasus was rather frustrated that she couldn't leave the ship for a day without some other calamity befalling them, but even as she gave most disapproving angry stomps at the crew's behaviour, she couldn't help but feel glad to have seen some familiarity. It had been a long ride home with nopony she could talk to about that accursed temple, and yet even here in the far reaches of this strange land, ponies were making it their home.
Grenelda began insisting that this was a stupid plan, because how could they be expected to use them in an emergency without having some practice first, but a hard look from Gustus got her to shut up. She slunk off to compare fire breath with Sunburn, squawking in appreciation as the Skylander blew a much larger jet of flame into the air.
The unicorn engineer-pony Sprocket wasn't livid so much as astonished, running up and exchanging some amazed words with her giant friend. Then the straw-coloured Static Signal let Sprocket climb up her wing and cling to the fur of her back; the two went thundering off excitedly toward the cover of the jungle across from the meadow.
Azure was just relieved, even happy, to return to the Harmony . The day had been one of the most physically and emotionally taxing in her life, and Azure was more than ready for it to end. While the strange displays were... well, striking, the newest pegasus didn't say a word, instead just closing her eyes for a moment, shaking her head and heading down to her cabin in the lower levels.
The elation and excitement of a day out exploring the Wind Temple and Azure's experience with the trial should have been a high; Summer Scribe could have rode on all the way to dusk, but Azure's despondent reaction to the transformation has numbed her response and left her feeling reflective. Maybe the unicorn-turned-pegasus would be more open to new experiences tomorrow...?
Well, Summer couldn't force anything, but maybe she could use the incentive of the wish-stone to get her crewmate to come out of her shell a little and get back outside. For now though, as Set Sail yelled out her annoyance at the surreptitious soda users, she couldn't help but chuckle into a hoof. While it was true that they had a limited supply of the soda, it's wasn't that scarce, and it was useful to experiment a little and know exactly what it's capable of for when we actually need to use it, right? So Summer Scribe fell into scientist mode, digging out her notebook and trotting around to ask each soda user about the exact effects they experienced.
Exciting as the possibilities of MagiCola were, soon enough the effects wore off, and with the captain's veto on any further consumption that was it for the night. Everypony turned in for some much-needed rest, not to re-emerge until well after dawn. Summer Scribe had caught Set Sail eating breakfast in the mess; after a some wild speculation on the nature of the air temple, she proceeded to relate what Sunburn had told her about her find in the atrium.
Summer, while gulping down a mouthful of hay and oats, levitated the wish stone out and placed it on the table, glowing rune upward. "So, I figure everyone who went out on the expedition - minus Sunburn, he already abstained - can take turns wishing for something and we'll see who's wish wins! It sounds like a fun time, and whatever we get out of it will make someone happy. There an old well in the abandoned mabu village, just twenty minutes' trot from here, convenient huh?"
The peaceful scene of ponies munching on breakfast was slightly disturbed by the sound of breaking dishes, followed by a series of unintelligible grumbles. Summer looked over to see Azure Feather standing over a broken bowl, shaking her head. It was amazing how useful telekinesis proved to be when you didn't have it anymore. Azure had found that out the hard way; ashamed, she slipped into a seat some distance away from Set Sail and Summer Scribe.
Between the excitement of the soda experiments and Azure's rapid retreat to her cabin, hardly anypony had caught a glimpse of her the previous evening. As such the sudden appearance of the expedition's newest pegasus was drawing a few embarrassed stares and generating a fair number of whispers as ponies ignored their breakfast for a moment and asked each other how this was possible. A prank involving the magical plant poison joke seemed to be the most plausible theory.
Set Sail made a mental note that this was one more thing she'd have to explain at the next crew meeting, or the rumours would just get wilder and wilder. Nopony seemed to think anything was wrong with Azure, at least. She seemed just like a normal pegasus, no different from any of the rest of them. Set Sail had thought the other ponies would be more amazed, considering it was sort of like becoming a princess. Maybe with more of an explanation, they’d think differently. Princesses... Set Sail pulled out another mouthful of hay, staring off pensively as she chewed what hay was not idly sticking out of her mouth.
"Wishes, huh," Set Sail asked Summer vague interest, "I wonder what happens if you just wish for something good. Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out, Summer. If there’s one thing you really understand, it’s magical artifacts like that." The brown pegasus mare had her green kerchief on again, tying back her blue hair. She visibly winced at the sight of Azure breaking the bowl. A good leader would probably help her out, and go over there, and give her advice, and stuff.
"Mmm, I think you need to be more specific than that." Summer mused. "Sunburn said that how well you make the wish matters, so it probably has to really resonate rather than being half-hearted or rules lawyering, you know...?"
"Here," Cloud Cutter said as Azure tried to clean up the spilled oatmeal and broken pottery, silently sneaking up on her and unintentionally startling Azure half to death. On the purple pony’s outstretched wing was another bowl of steaming oatmeal. “You should use the wooden bowls, Azure,” Cloud Cutter added in an admonishing tone, “Until you get the hang of winging it.”
Azure Feathers' soldier instincts had prepared her for a lot of things. A sneaky undead-element Pegasus, not so much. Not to mention her magic senses were just gone... urgh, things just keep getting better, right? Still, Cloud Cutter received something that had been pretty rare since Azure's transformation: a small smile. "I owe you a bowl in the future, then... thank you." A curt bow of her head; wooden bowls... it almost felt like she was a filly again, for Celestia's sake.
Cloud Cutter didn't scold; she just quietly backed off and returned with a bag to scrape most of the oats and shards into. Her eyes went to Set Sail, but... the purple pony was still leery of approaching the captain. So she just disposed of the mess and returned to Azure's side, in case she needed anything else.
Summer Scribe had flattened her ears at the sound of crashing and shattering, not sure if lighting her horn to help would be kind or make Azure feel even worse... but there was Cloud Cutter, surely providing more assistance than she could. Yet... she remained eager to reach out to Azure, so she turned the wish stone around so the new pegasus could get a good look. "You wanna try making wishes with us later, Azure? Maybe you can get something you really want out of it." She forced a cheerful smile onto her face despite Azure's defeated look. "Worth a shot, right?"
Azure raised her head at Summer's call, trotting over to gaze at the glowing stone. "...You'll forgive me if I'm wary about another strange artefact... or the magic of this land in general, after everything that's happened. If you're going to mess with it, I should be there, but no promises for an actual wish."
Summer Scribe's ears flattened. It wasn't going to be nearly as fun if she ended up just sitting in front of a well trying to get a wish to work while everypony else watched. Oh well; there was still time for Azure to change her mind if she came along, so... "Sure, no problem! Will be happy to just have you around." An enthusiastic little nod. "And - sometime today you should test what your new wings can do. See if they're up to Champion of Wind snuff, right?" She leaned forward, smiling and hoping Azure would too.
Azure extended a wing and stared at her feathers. Summer had a point: she'd gone through the trials, become a Champion of Wind. That... that had to mean something, right? True flight, weather manipulation, sure that sounded great but without her horn... everything was like being a filly again; Cloud Cutter cleaning up her mess was absolute proof of that. She'd have to learn a lot just to live as a pegasus, let alone truly fill her role as the guardian of the expedition, or to retake her place in the Lavender Blades.
"What kind of... oh hey, good to see you Summer!" Melonwater said in a somewhat muffled tone, before stopping to swallow the rest of the oats. "And Azure Feather... wow, uh, you're a pegasus now. That's... uh, quite a change?" He shook his head, unable to think of anything else to say, so he simply turned back to Summer Scribe. "What kind of stone is that made of? Huh... can I have a closer look?"
The younger pony's arrival broke Azure out of her reverie; she couldn't help but give a rough chuckle as she sat down. "Good to see you too, Melonwater." Quite a change indeed...
"Good to be back!" Summer racked her memory. "I think Sunburn said it was made of... Imaginarium? Whatever that is." She didn't know much about rock, so she was curious for Melonwater's take, and delicately slid the find over to him.
Cloud Cutter’s ears perked with interest at Summer’s statement about something that can grant wishes. But before she could ask, Melonwater kind of didn’t notice stepping in front of her. The young geologist really was the one most qualified to pass judgement on stones, so she just settled back and listened quietly.
"Oh wow..." the earth pony tapped the softly glowing blue stone with his hoof, frowned, then very cautiously licked it. "Eesh!" he jumped back as if he'd gotten a static shock. "Sunburn... that fire griffon guy? M-Maybe... we could go ask him... together..."
"Hmm..." Summer considered. Melonwater wanted to push for more information? She had to admit, it did make sense to exploit their temporary draconic conduit of vital regional information to the fullest. "Sure! After breakfast?"
"Yeah! Right, breakfast..." the stallion agreed, scooting back to his bowl of warm oats.
Cloud Cutter left the scholars to their studies, looking over to Set Sail, who was over there eating by herself. As good a time as any, it seemed. The purple pegasus walked up to the hay munching pony, saying, “Hello, captain. I... gave Reef Skimmer your message.”
“Oh? What’d he say?” Set Sail asked around a mouthful of hay, looking up at Cloud Cutter standing beside her where Set Sail sat there on her belly at the short table.
“He said... that he wasn’t going to get in the way of our happiness, and he’s glad you chose me over him, because it’s better that your true love be a pegasus, than a monster like him,” Cloud Cutter reported, thin-lipped.
Set Sail blushed heavily at that, chewing her forgotten hay looking at Cloud Cutter like a moonstruck calf, until the purple pegasus said, “I don’t think he understood the message. Or my... situation. Thinking of himself as usual.”
“I’m r-really sorry to make you do that,” Set Sail said, “It’s been really... hard to approach him lately. I just hope he stops being all dangerous, and hurting himself, and comes to talk to somepony, e-even if not me.”
“He wasn’t as er... violent as he was earlier,” Cloud Cutter said. “I can’t say that hasn’t changed by now, but he might be safe to approach. He’ll probably just sit down there sulking until you... go rescue him from himself.”
Sighing, Set Sail replied glumly, “Thank you anyway for doing that. I guess he doesn’t trust me enough, if I don’t go down and talk to him myself. I just hope he doesn’t...”
“He didn’t to me,” Cloud Cutter said, “And I don’t think it was just because I was dangerous. I know how much those worms hurt. I don’t know how he could expect you to just approach him like that. As if it was your fault for being afraid of something like that happening again.”
“He saved me from them,” Set Sail said, shaking her head in dismay, “He turned them into something good. Something that could be good, if he’d just realize what a... hero he is. I just have to, just... risk it. He wouldn’t hurt me again. N-not after saving me.”
Cloud Cutter wished she had some way to reassure her of that.
Summer Scribe couldn't help but listen in on the conversation, flicking her tail. She didn't know if Reef Skimmer wanted to see her yet - or honestly, ever - but... the news of the hippogriff starting to calming down and talk to ponies again did draw out a little smile. It was hope, right? It's never too late. ...Also, Set Sail's blush was cute, regardless of the circumstances. That was sweet to see.
"You know... you two would be pretty cute together..." Wait, had she said that out loud? Hopefully the two pegasi hadn't heard her.
Cloud Cutter certainly pretended not to hear, if she did, which she didn't!
Azure had heard as well, and the reminder about the doctor's situation only added to the thoughts churning in her brain. For all the frustrations she was having with her new form... it could have been worse. Much worse. Reef's situation was proof of that. Another thing to think about... As for the possibility of romance between the doctor and the captain... better to let sleeeping dogs lies. She simply murmured "So the doctor's still down there..."
Summer's relentless enthusiasm for new, untested and possibly dangerous magic couldn't be denied for long. Once all stomachs had been filled, an impromptu expedition party spilled out onto the upper deck. There they found a pair of griffons munching on... something, possibly rabbits, although nopony wanted to get too close to confirm. Naturally the griffs wanted to know what all the fuss was about, and the party snowballed further as they insisted on joining.
Rain had come in the night, leaving the meadow shimmering in the morning sun and full of the smell of wet grass. The Equestrians were in high spirits during the leisurely trot to the abandoned village, the destination of the pony's first foray onto the island, though pushing through the wet vegetation choking the overgrown path did leave them with damp fur. Summer took the opportunity to show Set Sail and Sprocket the Skylander shrine - look, there was Spyro, and that one must be Sunburn - while the others cleared the bushes growing over and around the abandoned well.
At last they were ready for the experiment to begin. Summer Scribe trotted up to the well, floated the wish stone out in front of her and contemplated its mysterious rune. "Alriiight, here goes nothing." She wasn't sure if you were meant to wish for a specific item, or if you should make a qualitative wish and let the stone decide what form it takes. Only way to find out the rules was to run some tests, right?
The little unicorn took a breath and composed herself, clopping her hooves together once before saying, "I wish for horseshoes that let me soar into the skies above." With that she tossed the stone in a practiced arc! She figured that with Azure unable to cast the wings spell and Reef in no condition to pull the cart, their travel options were down to just the captured copter; always best to have a backup plan. If the wish didn't resolve, she could think of plenty of other things to try...
The gleaming blue stone with its mysterious glowing purple rune arced into the shaft and disappeared beneath the lip. Then a deep, hollow, booming sound came from the well, as if there was a great drum hidden inside. The wish stone arced back out again, bouncing up as if it had struck an invisible trampoline; Summer caught it in her magic before it could hit the dirt.
"Try again?" Set Sail suggested amiably.
"Looks like it's working at least," Sprocket said with a somewhat confused frown.
Summer Scribe set the wish stone down and trotted back to the others. "Hmm... yep, seems to be working! We just need to figure out a wish that rings true." She looked around at the gathered audience. "Who wants a go next? Fair's fair, right?"
Azure Feather had watched Summer's initial wish result in little but a parlour trick; she'd taken a step back as the little mare caught the stone. "I'll pass on this... I've seen enough unpredictable magic for now." she stated. The pegasus rolled the dice yesterday, and it had come out... decently. She didn't feel like risking a worse outcome just then.
Sensing Azure's turmoil, Summer tries to cheer her up. "I won't make you make a wish, but Sunburn said it'll only turn into simple objects, so I don't see how it could backfire. Assuming you don't wish for something explosive or caustic, of course..." she mused, imagining the slapstick potential.
"Propellors don't count as a little thing," Sprocket said warily, "I could try for some uh... something to help with the ship?"
Summer Scribe nodded her head. "Sure! Make the wish however you think it should be made." She didn't want to influence Sprocket unduly: they needed as many different perspectives as they could get, after all! She stepped aside and gave her fellow unicorn encouraging nod.
Sprocket hesitated, before taking the stone in her magic. "Maybe uh... maybe some really nice metal cutters? I shouldn't do this. I don't know anything good to wish for."
The engineer repeated Summer's gesture, giving a little flick of her horn as she magically tossing the stone into the opening. This time it appeared to be blown back out by a sudden blast of air from the depths of the well. Before Sprocket could levitate it again, Melonwater had dashed in and caught it in his mouth. "Ooww! Stiill kinduh teengly." he said through clenched teeth. "A brilliant-cut flawless red beryl!" he declared hopefully, before tossing the stone back in with a shake of his head. This time the sound was more of a chime than a boom, but alas the result was the same; it bounced out again.
Summer Scribe tilted her head left and right, listening to the different sounds. Were those meant to be the colder/warmer feedback? It certainly sounded like Melonwater had been the closest yet. "Hey, hey, no need to rush: we can take turns like civilised ponies." She trotted up to the Wish Stone, gazing into its unfeeling runic glow. "Okay, who's next? Anyone?"
"Let me have a shot at it," Gustus said, stepping forward and holding out a claw, "Show a pony how it's done."
Summer happily floated the wish stone over to the griffon's talons and stepped aside. "Ok.. you're up, Gustus! Good luck!" His mate Grenelda stood close by, watching with an impatient stare.
Gustus peered at the stone in his claw, before gripping it like a die and shaking it saying, "A diamond tail ring!" With that he let the stone fly down the well. Alas, the griffon received only another chime for his efforts, and the stone had soon popped back out again. It seemed this wishing business was harder than it sounded.
Gustus let the stone lie, grumbling something like "...find one myself..." as he retreated.
Grenelda clicked her beak as she approached. "You all aren't wishing for what really matters. Let me show you how it's done." She grasped the wish stone firmly, flicking her wrist to give it an impressive spin as it curved frisbee-like into the wishing well, while shouting "I wish for wing blades so mercilessly sharp they'll slay my foes with prejudice!"
This time the stone slid to a stop in mid-air, hovering in the centre of the well and spinning lazily as the onlookers held their breath. Its glow seemed to brighten then... with a ping it shot back out again. Grenedla could swear the cursed thing was taunting them at this point... and did so quite colourfully, after deftly catching the returning stone.
"I uh... you sure you don't want to go, Azure?" Set Sail asked, looking nervously at the stone nestled in Grenelda's claw.
"I'm sure, Captain." Azure replied, taking another step back. "All this thing seems to be doing is bouncing back to us, anyway."
Summer Scribe grinned over to Azure. "It's doing... something. And Sunburn seemed pretty sure it could work! Unless this one is defective... hmm." She lifted the wish stone up in her telekinetic grip. "No, I think we're definitely getting warmer with each wish. The more definitive and heartfelt it is, the closer to being fulfilled it gets. So I just need to be true to what I desire most."
The unicorn turned back to the well and prepared for a second throw. "I wish for a lens, through which the mysteries of Skylands may be clarified; to bring insight on a land and culture unknown to us." As she tossed the stone, she imagined how much easier things would go if they just knew the local language and customs, instead of bumbling about like tourists! This time the stone seemed to skitter about on an invisible surface, bouncing and tumbling with little 'pings' before finally popping back out of the well.
"I'm really starting to wonder if this stone even does what it says it does," Set Sail said in frustration, glaring down at it. "It's more like a stone of humiliating the unworthy!"
"Closest yet, I think..." Azure commented, taking a step forward, as if having an idea, but then just as quickly taking a step back as she shook her head. Seconds later, she'd repeat the process again. She clearly doesn't have faith in this thing... or perhaps herself. "Captain, why don't you actually give it a try? Surely there's something you want?"
Summer Scribe nodded her head to Set Sail! "Yeah! Maybe you've got the special something we're all missing out on. Give it a shot!"
"Right well... I mean I don't know what to wish for either. Just something to help all this... mess," Set Sail said, picking up the stone on her wing. "If nopony else can think up a good wish, I can give it a shot." Regarding the well with a sceptical eye, Set Sail declared, "Okay then let's just go with—"
"Could I—"
Set Sail turned, to see somepony else standing in the shadow of the trees.
Cloud Cutter stepped forward, asking, hesitantly, "I know it's impossible, and it won't work, but could I... wish for something?"
Summer Scribe nodded her head, happy to see the purple pegasus engaging in something. "Of course!" What would the strange mare wish for, given how passive she'd been since her transformation? 'This should be interesting!', Summer thought.
Set Sail slid the stone from her wing to that of the purple pegasus. Cloud Cutter then headed up to the well, looking down it with a nervous expression on her face. She said, "I wish that... I could have something to... change my Elemental Alignment, even just for a little bit. I just want to feel the... the winds again." Then she let the stone fall into the shaft.
As the stone disappeared into the well, a deep resonant tone filled the air, sombre and mournful like a great gong struck to the mark the passing of a beloved elder. The stone rose back into view, swirling around and around, spiralling closer to the centre of the opening until it reached the centre, hanging there in the air. Alas... no miracle was forthcoming. The sound died away and with an almost apologetic pop, the stone bounced out again, falling onto the mossy ground.
Summer Scribe frowned, but nods in understanding. "... Good wish, and the wish stone seems to agree. My guess... what you wanted isn't within its power to grant, unfortunately." She bowed her head low. "Don't lose hope, Cloud Cutter: we have so much left to see and learn. There might be a way yet."
"It was a silly idea anyway," Cloud Cutter said neutrally, turning and walking away from the well, "I'm fine with... this. Better than being dead dead, right?" She tried to smile back at the others, in a perfunctory attempt at humour. Her smile didn't reach her eyes though.
Set Sail sighed, and picked up the stone. "I really don't know what to wish for. Something to help the weather scientists, or... Reef Skimmer. They're the ones most hurt by this place. I wish I could find something that would help us with Reef. He's the one who's one bad night away from... doing something awful to himself." She looked down the well, then closed her eyes and said, "Uh... I wish for... something to help with Reef Skimmer? I- I don't have to wish for myself, right?" Then she dropped the stone in, immediately turning away and blushing. "Sorry that was terrible wasn't it. Someone else should go..."
First, a sound like a garden hung with a thousand tiny silver bells, through which a group of giggling foals run, leaving all the bells chiming in their wake. Then, a golden glow growing deep within the well. Something shot out in a shower of glimmering sparks, something heavy that thumped to the ground right behind Set Sail. The pegasus jumped and turned back to see... a book. A sizeable tome in fact, bound in leather, with a simple blue symbol on its cover that she recognises from the entrance seal of the water nexus. The wish stone was gone.
Summer recognised the sentiment in the captain's words, and bowed her head solemnly. Without a blueprint of how to carry out the wish, it's sure to be another fail... ? She gawked in surprise as the wish stone reacted brighter and stronger than ever before. Was Set Sail's heartfelt desire really powerful enough that the wish stone couldn't help but reciprocate? It was a beautiful scene to behold as the leather-bound tome emerged from a conflux of energy.
Azure bowed her head a little the stone finally came through on its promise. As for the resulting item... "Well... if this can help the doctor, then by all means... I think... I think it'll help all of us, in the long run." she states, before staring back towards the Harmony. "That's one more thing learned..."
Set Sail eyeing the book warily, taking a step back. "I am NOT touching that," she said, her voice numb.
"But... wow! You did it! You made a wish!" Summer Scribe cheered. "What was the trick? Were you visualising deep down inside that..." She blinked as the other mare's reaction sank in. "Oh, come on! It's fine! You made the wish, it's what you wanted - no more, no less, right?" She trotted over, eager to examine the results: if Set Sail was too reluctant to believe in herself, she'll just have to open it herself!
Azure was more concerned with the captain's mood. Stepping up, she suggested "Would you rather I take the book to the doctor, Captain? I haven't seen him since his own transformation, and that's several days now... besides, we're two creatures that find ourselves in... at least similar situations..." Surely they were both champions of their elements... Reef's transformation just went... wrong, somehow.
"You go ahead. I don't trust that thing." Set Sail said. "There wasn't any— any reason that should have worked!" she stammered, still blushing and staring at the book, wings half spread. "This has got to be a trap, or- or something!"
Unable to contain her curiosity, Summer had already levitated the book and begun paging through it. Amazingly, it was written in Ponish, not the native runes. Each chapter seemed to start with a striking image of a heroic creature, most of them clearly aquatic in nature. Dragons with fins instead of wings, fishy bipeds similar to the gill-folk, elves wielding weapons of ice and creatures that seemed to be descended from crustaceans... Summer skimmed a few words here and there... the book seemed to be describing their origins, accomplishments, abilities and perhaps personal philosophy.
"You can wish for books, but not blades?" Grenelda squawked indignantly. "Figures! The thing must've been made by some nerdy mages... no offence." she smirked at the enraptured Summer.
"Some books can be very valuable, you know." Gustus said knowingly. "Collectors pay thousands of bits for first editions."
"Uh, you did great Captain!" Melonwater stomped his hooves in applause, before realising nopony else was and stopping, looking sheepish. "I knew I should've wished for a book on the local geology... or I guess, a book on Earth, since that's one of the magical Elements here."
Set Sail watched a whole lot of absolutely nothing awful happen to Summer Scribe and just... deflated, sagging wearily. "I'm going back to the ship," she said flatly, "If anyone finds another wish stone, you can wish for whatever hecking thing you want. If anypony needs me I'll be in my bunk." She spread her wings and soared off then, heading back out through the forest canopy, travelling up the leafy tunnel Azure had blasted the previous week.
"Huh, interesting. It's like the Big Book of Water Elemental Folks." Summer tilted her head - it looked like a fun and possibly uplifting read, but... "I don't know if this the 'fix Reef Skimmer' book I expected. But... Maybe it'll be what he needs to see? That's what we can hope for, anyway. Set Sail, you should..." She floated the book over as though to pass it back, but then blinked: it seemed Set Sail had already given up and gone! Summer Scribe was left sheepishly holding onto it, for once lost for words.
Deep within the stranded airship, Azure Feather trotted down the ramp to the cargo deck. In her teeth - it still felt silly to carry everything in her mouth like a foal - was the heavy, leather-bound book that Set Sail had wished into existence. Though Summer Scribe had begged for another hour with it, Azure insisted that it was meant for the doctor; Summer would surely have plenty of time to read it afterwards. Assuming he didn't dissolve it - Azure was still a little concerned about whether he could control his grafted flesh, and she'd seen first-hand what those worms did to Cloud Cutter and Gearshift.
Soon she was standing there at the heavy, oversized doors to the cargo hold, considering how to open the conversation. What could you say when one of you had fought through the challenges of an alien temple for the prize of becoming the first unicorn in history to become a pegasus, while the other was a bird-horse from under the sea that had been forcibly hybridised with 'animate magical waste'?
After five minutes of playing out various scenarios in her head, she finally deciding that hey... this was getting her nowhere. She often tried to plan out important conversations as if they were tactical engagements, but one word that wasn't in the plan and everything was out the window. Shaking her head, she pushed the door open a bit, speaking up before she took away the hippogriff's privacy. "Doctor? This is Azure, I have something that you may find interesting. May I enter?"
Little had changed since Cloud Cutter's visit the previous day; Reef Skimmer was again sprawled in a depressed heap, a pile of grey feathers from which ropey blue tentacles emerged in all directions, the tips occasionally twitching. He had managed to tidy away some of the evidence of his fits of rage, pushing the broken glass and splintered wood of the destroyed food crates into a pile in one darkened corner. The bird-like head, now adorned with new fins and spines, raised unsteadily to stare at the entrance. "Azure... Feather? I can hardly bar ponies from access to their own ship. One can... only hope, that you purpose here is not also to trade threats and insults."
Hearing the doctor's words made Azure close her eyes for a moment, rather painfully. Reef Skimmer was the Harmony's head medic! How could any creature treat him that badly when he held the crew's life in his talons? How could she even think of doing the same when he had a talon in her recovery in her first mission here? "No, Doctor. I wouldn't think of either insulting or threatening you. You helped me heal from my injuries, you saved all of our lives in the Water Temple. That will not go forgotten," she stated. Then she slipped inside, giving the doctor his first look at her and confirming that he was not the only changed creature in the cargo hold.
Confusion flashed across the former hippogriff's face as he got a decent look at the visitor. "Azure? Your wings look... hmm, have you perfected a new spell?" He cocked his head, the gesture even stranger when a group of tentacles were standing in for a neck. "No, it can't be... your horn is gone! What's going on?" he said, sounding shocked and concerned.
Azure's own head dropped like a stone as Reef Skimmer quickly realised what had happened to her. Setting the book down on the ground, she tried to explain: "Our next mission was to meet with the griffons of the Cloudbreak Islands. We travelled to the Temple of the Four Winds with Sunburn - one of the Skylanders - as our ally. Outside we found a band of Kaosians, as he called them - Sunburn took down their entire airship while we saved a family of griffons from giant bats infected by dark magic." A slight smile as the pegasus remembered the griffons' happy faces.
"With the Kaosians gone we were free to investigate the Temple of Air. You were one of the first to figure out that I was an Air Elemental, doctor - I only felt it was right that I undertake the temple's trials, along with Amber, a young griffon who hoped to become a champion. Alas she failed halfway through, but I... I succeeded, becoming a Champion of Wind, and the spirits rewarded me by bestowing true Pegasus wings... but with a drawback, as you've noticed..." She paused, closing her eyes... a long exhale, then a slow shake of her head. "My unicorn heritage - horn, magic, telekinesis... all gone."
"Gone?" Reef was clearly shocked. "But that's impos- I mean, one can't deny the evidence of one's eyes, but it's... unprecedented! You say... you chose to engage with this 'temple'? With the griffons running it? Did they tell you about this 'drawback'?" he said indignantly, anger creeping into his voice as he imagined the native griffons playing a cruel trick on their equine supplicant.
It was clear that the new pegasus was still trying to come to terms with her situation, but hearing Reef starting to get angry at the griffons... that wasn't an option. Especially with his new abilities... Azure shook her head. "Doctor, please, calm yourself. Yes, I chose to undertake the trials. I am an Air Elemental here in the Skylands, you cannot say otherwise and it would be folly to deny it! The temple is a holy place for the griffons, they revere the Air Elemental spirits as much as we ponies worship Celestia, or you hippogriffs worship Queen Novo."
"I've seen the power of Skylands magic. Have you ever seen one creature, alone, take down an entire airship of battle-tested creatures? Sunburn did it, on his own. And I've not only seen the power of Air Magic; I've felt it, I've experienced it. I've used it!" Her wings shone with energy for a moment as if to prove the point. "Hurricane force winds. Storms with force only a full company of Pegasi could hope to achieve. Tornadoes. Some day, when I learn how to truly harness its power? That's going to be me."
Azure Feather paused, sighing. "No, they didn't tell me about this drawback. It was something no one, nor we, nor they, saw coming. But I'm not upset at them. I couldn't be. I chose to undertake the trials." A final weary sigh; her little speech had been trying to convince herself that being a pegasus was a good thing, as much as trying to convince the doctor that she was okay, period.
"Spirits, you say?" Reef Skimmer sighed and sagged visibly. He'd suppressed a chuckle at the idea hippogriffs treated their Queen as a goddess... now was not the time. "If you consider it a fair price to pay, for the power of a whole flock of pegasi... then I suppose congratulations are in order. I confess... those new wings do look good on you." He managed a tiny crack of a beak-gape, before frowning. "It can't be easy though; unicorns seem to use levitation constantly, even reflexively... to say nothing of learning to fly all over again. I... trust your fellow ponies are doing what they can to assist?"
Another metaphorical brick to Azure's head as Reef mentioned telekinesis and her sudden lack of it. "That's the hardest part of this, admittedly. Magic was such an integral part of my life, using my wings to actually carry things will need work. A lot of practice. Flying... hopefully not so much: after all, I studied every textbook on pegasus flight like you wouldn't believe. It's just a question of putting it into practice now."
The mare managed a weak smile before continuing. "The ponies... they're trying to do what they can, showing me the ropes of life as a pegasus and trying to soften the impact of a unicorn losing their magic." Remembering her mission, she gently set the book on the floor and pushed it towards him with a hoof.
Reef again tried to arrange his tentacles behind him so that Azure didn't have to look at them, though he couldn't do anything about his neck. "I regret... I'm of little use to anygriff now. Not that I knew anything of weather magic, but perhaps I could have provided flying lessons at least." he said morosely, before the movement drew his eye. "Reading material? I suppose it will help pass the time."
Azure just shook her head with a slight smile. "Don't worry, Doctor. My fellow ponies are helping me; you have your own challenges to overcome." Though as his attention shifted to the book, it seemed an explanation was needed. "This... was actually the result of something called a Wish Stone. We spent some time trying to figure out how to make it work, but one crew member finally did, after requesting something that could aid you." The pegasus stared into those fierce eagle eyes as she concluded: "This book - 'Legends of the Endless Waves' - is the result. I can only hope the wish comes true."
"Aid... me?" Reef Skimmer rose unsteadily to a standing position, tentacles splayed out beneath him, and ambled clumsily over to stare at the tome. "Does it describe a cure? A procedure to reverse my condition?!" The excitement in the doctor's voice was giddy, almost manic; Azure had never heard him so emotional before.
Azure Feather had been concerned about the doctor the whole time he was hiding away down there; to hear him so excited brought a smile to her face. She backed off, giving him space. "I don't know what it contains. All I know is that a crew member wished for something to aid you: this book was the result. I decided to be the one to bring it to you, since, well... we haven't spoken to each other since the Water Temple, and I wanted to make you aware of the changes that happened to me, as well."
The tentacles that had replaced the doctor's forelegs snaked towards the book, before he thought better of it and reached down with his head instead, taking the volume carefully in his beak. A tiny smile creased Azure's lips as she watched the awkward, gangly creature mirroring her own sudden need to manipulate by mouth. Having set it down where a shaft of light from one of the hold's few portholes made it readable, he turned back to Azure. "Thank you, Azure! This is... well, it's hope, at least! One only wishes one could do something to thank you. A wish, you say! Remarkable." He shook his head. "Who... who activated the artefact? Summer Scribe, I imagine..." he said, his expression suddenly changing to annoyance.
Azure was relieved to see the doctor open the book: mission accomplished. Maybe this would be enough to bring back their medic. Her smile faded at the mention of Summer Scribe; no doubt there was some animosity there, she fretted. "I know, I was evasive about who made the wish, but... I see no reason to hide it from you. Doctor Skimmer, the one who made the wish to aid you... was the Captain herself. Set Sail."
"The captain?! But... I thought she..." the griff stammered. The big avian head jerked away, unwilling to meet Azure's gaze. Finally, taking care to keep his voice level, he said softly "One can only commend Captain Sail for her dedication to the welfare of the crew. Do convey my heartfelt thanks, of course."
Azure wasn't sure what to make of that reaction, so she just nodded softly. Her task complete, all she could do was wait and see if that book would live up to its promise. "I'll be sure to do that next time I see her. Is... there anything else I can do for you, Doctor?" she asked hesitantly. The last thing she wanted to do was annoy the medic...
"Alas I can think of nothing, but we can only hope this tome will show a way forward." the griff said, catching Azure's eye again. "One does appreciate the sentiment; few seem keen to visit me right now, though one can hardly blame them." He sighed. "You on the other hand... as you say, you are already a champion and a hero. I'm sure you'll have this pegasus business figured out in no time." Reef smiled weakly before fixating on the book again: his one hope for a way out of his nightmare. "Take care, Azure Feather."
Azure simply bowed her head at the praise, though she winced at the mention of 'hero'. In her mind, she was no hero: she'd yet to do anything of note, dismissing the encounters with the drow and the magical bats as merely doing her job. "Shall I close the door on my way out then, Doctor? In any case... take care of yourself. I'll look forward to seeing you again soon," she stated. The pegasus trotted back over to the door, lingering in hope of confirmation before she truly left him alone.
The strange creature just nodded, his attention now focused completely on the book.
The blue pegasus didn't say another word, just exiting the cargo hold and quietly closing the door behind her. At least the doctor had the book. Now she could concentrate on preparations for the real challenge; a week from now, their allies would gather, and they would finally confront the despicable slavers on their home turf.
After leaving the book in Reef Skimmer's care, Azure Feather retreated to her quarters for some quiet contemplation, giving herself a little time to take stock of the situation. With every creature wanting a word, either sympathetic or encouraging, this was her first change to just reflect. Her unicorn magic was gone. Sure her new wings held their own magic, but however interesting and powerful it was, it couldn't replace what she'd lost.
Pacing a lap around her small quarters, Azure realised she had to move forward: stop dwelling on what she'd lost, learn to apply what she'd gained. She was sure it would be no walk in the park. The pegasus's wings shimmered as she channelled a speck of magic through them. With a firm nod she was soon heading outside, intent to practicing with her new form. She'd studied every book she could get her hooves on, but how useful would that be, now the impossible had happened and she was sporting actual Pegasus wings?
Azure Feather nodded to passing deck crew as she headed for the gangplank, making her way through the camp the ponies had thrown together next to the airship. There was Blaze Trails, still limping as she laid fresh kindling in the fire pit, and over there was Sprocket, fiddling with one of the rotors on the captured drow copter. Smiling at her companion's industriousness despite the dire circumstances they were all facing, Azure headed on into the meadow, soon reaching the stream with its weathered stone bridge.
That should be enough distance to avoid harming anypony should things go wrong, she thought; as long as she didn't unleash one of those maximum-power blasts directly at the ship. Spreading her wings, Azure concentrated on doing... something. Anything really. She focused her will, and... nothing happened. The total absence of feeling where her horn used to be gnawed at her; how could she even tell what was happening, with her ability to sense magic gone?
If there was one thing that truly confirmed her old magic was gone, there it was. Thank goodness no creature was there to see her. The ex-Unicorn slumped, shaking her head. The trials of the wind temple had made it clear that her wings held new magic, but outside of its walls, with no spirits to help... tapping into it was non-trivial. Azure sighed; losing telekinesis meant changing the habits of a lifetime, but at least... at least she knew how to fly. Right? ...right? Doubt was a growing sapling in her mind; not being able to write (due to being fifteen years out of practice at mouthwriting) was bad enough, but what if she couldn't even get airborne? She'd be more or less useless.
Azure paced angrily through the grass, trying to figure out a path through the puzzle. As she let her gaze wander, lost in thought, a flicker of movement caught her eye: an orange speck that stood out against the blue sky. It steadily grew larger, resolving into a winged shape that dipped into a glide, heading straight for her. Her visitor was Sunburn, the bird-like native dragon; he flared into a landing a short way from the pegasus, looking at her curiously. "Taking a walk?"
Of all the creatures that could have come to see her, here was the one she least expected - but certainly not an unwelcome sight. "...A walk, yeah, you could say that. Just... trying to get my head straight," Azure admitted. "Not easy when you pretty much have to rethink every aspect of your life." she lamented, before adding a quick "I'm glad to see you, though."
Sunburn cocked his head, giving the pony one of those inscrutable avian stares that all griffs seemed to favour. "You mean being crowned 'champion of air'? I guess it sounds impressive, but it's not all that. Maybe back in the day, but now... just some spirits putting on airs." He winked. "Not that just any creature could do it. You had the power before the temple, right? Just feeling it a lot stronger now, I'd think."
Azure managed a faint nod. "Absolutely, Sunburn... I can feel a powerful energy in my new wings, and if I can repeat even half of what I did in the last trial... that would be awesome in combat. But please understand... Equestrian unicorns use our magic, our telekinesis for... pretty much all of our every-day tasks. Field-writing, manipulating spoons, turning pages, even opening doors when your hooves are busy. All that is gone. My whole life changed in a matter of seconds, Sunburn. It's going to take a while to get past that."
"Huh." Sunburn was silent for a moment. "I don't know much about unicorn magic. No one has seen your people for... a very long time. You can all use levitation? Huh. Whirlwind never had that ability. Can you shoot prismatic beams from your horns?"
"Not so much levitation as it is telekinesis, Sunburn. Think holding and wielding objects with your magic. Some guards use it for their weapons, too. As for prismatic beams, well... the short answer is if they're really good at magic, they might. I know one pony who's particularly good at them, though she ascended from unicorn to alicorn form."
The Skylander shot her a quizzical look, so she elaborated: "Alicorns... combining all the best aspects of unicorns and pegasi, and magnifying both exponentially. She's also the current leader of Equestria, as well as the commander of the military force I belong to." A long explanation, and probably not very meaningful to Sunburn, but...
The feathery dragon turned away and took a few paces through the meadow. "Interesting... Some abilities can come from different elements: different style, same effect. Telekinesis, that's pretty much Magic-exclusive. So... makes sense you'd lose it, when you aligned fully to Air." He stopped pacing and gave her a sympathetic look. "Thought you were just looking for griffons, going to that temple. Didn't realise you were gonna take the trials." He let out a long breath. "Should've warned you. My bad."
"Magic..." Azure repeated, as she pushed forward, as Sunburn explained exactly what happened to her. "...Now it makes sense. I'm a full-fledged Air elemental now, whatever I had before be damned." She nodded. "Only a Magic-elemental has access to telekinesis?" She then asked, tilting her head. There was a sense of curiosity in her words. She wasn't too well-versed in the Skylands' elements.
"Pretty much." Sunburn said, shrugging. "I guess mind magic can do it, or whatever it was that Kaos used to throw around, but that can simulate any element." His beak opened a crack in a hint of a smile. "That stuff's the purview of ancients, demigods and beings from... outside. Regular mortal creatures, not so much." He frowned. "So losing your horn was just a side effect. Whirly was born connected to air, so she never developed any incompatible abilities."
"It's like the temple taught me, my wings are how I do magic now, instead of channelling through my horn... quite the switch-up," Azure admitted with a chuckle. "Still, maybe if I keep trying, I'll learn to do more. Maybe what I did in the temple wasn't the whole of it." She wandered a little deeper into the meadow. "I'm definitely not looking into Mind magic though, that sounds... a bit too alien, to be honest."
Sunburn followed along, closing the gap between himself and the pegasus. "The connection between a Skylander... or any aligned creature... and their Element is... fundamental. Goes deep into their psyche, into each cell in their body." he explained. "Focusing it to do some damage, that's where things vary. Different anatomy means different effects, different techniques. Do you understand?"
Azure stared at the dragon, tapping a hoof on the ground as she absorbing his explanation. "So what Whirlwind does is pretty much unique to her. Same goes for me and my own powers... I'm gonna have to get creative... am I getting it right?" Her mind drifted, visualising the pegasus she's seen the most in battle, her Lieutenant...
"Yeah... look, elementals aren't built on assembly lines. Each has their own story," Sunburn said, "but a wing's a wing. A horn's a horn. Elements define what you can do. The device defines how you do it. Here, watch..." He took a few steps away from Azure. "So most dragons can charge their breath with elemental energy. Usually fire or ice." Sunburn raised his beak to the sky and let out a long gout of flame. Azure felt a wave of heat on her face; he held the bright roaring jet for a few seconds before letting it die.
"Young dragons learn the same lessons, whatever their element." He cocked his head, staring into space for a second. "The basics at least. Kinda like... vomiting. Actually, seems like that happened a lot in the first week of hatchling training." He shook his head dismissively. "Never mind. So... what most dragons can't do, is this." Azure watched closely as Sunburn pulled his wing in tight, then began to spread them... and vanished in a flash of fire. Almost instantaneously he reappeared: a burst of flame concealing the moment of arrival, but it was clear he continued his wing gesture through the teleport, finishing with them spread wide.
"I can't teleport with my beak, or blow fire from my wings. Whirlwind can't shoot lasers from her feathers or breathe out clouds." he explained. "Abilities come from elements plus anatomy." The dragon looked her in the eye. "Horns... never had one of those, but Whirly always said it took concentration. Visualisation. Wings... wings take motion. Quick, smooth and precise, if you can. My teleporting, Whirly's lightning clouds, even Flashy's crystals... same principle." Sunburn tilted his head again, wondering if the pony could apply the advice.
Watching a Skylander in battle was already something pretty special. Watching a fire-elemental teleport?! That stunned Azure for a moment; she blinked several times, as if trying to compute what had happened. She listened as Sunburn explained how elemental abilities functioned, then slowly nodded, as things started to make sense. Not only would her casting channel point be affected, her method of casting would be too. "So instead of a mental focus... for casting from a horn, I mean... now I'll need specific wing movements instead?" she asked, looking to her new appendages. "Sounds like a big jump in power came with a lot more complexity. Could have sworn it felt easier in the temple."
"Yeah." Sunburn stepped out of the circle of burnt, smouldering grass where he'd arrived. "You'll get it. Takes practice, but wing powers rock. Don't need much concentration, don't obscure your vision, potential for fine control. Main drawback is nets, grappling, tight spaces: all bad news." He clicked his beak, perhaps thinking back to times he'd run into these problems. "Keep your distance, if you can." He caught Azure's eye again; "That's all I can tell you. Better find yourself an air elemental - a real one, not some stuck-up spirits," he snorted, "if you need more help."
Azure nodded softly: everything Sunburn had said was making a lot of sense to her. Clearly anything that restricted your wings movements was bad news; very bad news for this new form. Things the Lieutenant might have told her, but she wasn't a pegasus back then. "There's plenty of other pegasi back on the Harmony, many of them weather-workers. Not elementals as you would understand it though - maybe I need to talk with the resident mistress of Wind. That would be Whirlwind I'd think - but you Skylanders are a busy lot. I won't push for a training session."
Sunburn stopped pacing, standing and staring into the sky for a moment, before looking sideways at Azure. "Yeah. Look, she's really... preoccupied, these days. Focused on her mission. She still likes to soak up attention from fans, but taking time out to actually train someone..." He sighed. "It's funny, you're kinda like her, you know? Air aligned, obviously but... thoughtful. Goal-oriented. Pretty blue feathers." He smiled.
"It's just... Whirly used to be a lot of fun, back in the day." The dragon looked distant again. "Hell, so was I, I suppose. Somewhere along the line we lost that. Lost a lot of things, these last two centuries." He snorted, tiny flames escaping the holes at the top of his beak. "Hey. Didn't wanna bore you with a sob story. Just... don't forget to laugh once in a while, ya know? Seems like you've got good friends; keep 'em close."
Azure took a step back as she realised she'd hit a sensitive subject, only to draw close again as the dragon spoke of friends. "Friends... I used to have good friends. Tried to keep them close, but... it didn't work out. That's why I became a soldier in the first place, instead of a bookworm. As for new friends, well..." The pegasus paused, her pink-rimmed eyes taking on a distant look for a few seconds, before she shook her head clear. "Sorry... but yeah. Wanted to mention... you really won't have to look far for friendship when it comes to us ponies sometimes, you know? It's... kinda part of our culture."
"Yeah, I got that from watching you guys, the last few days." Sunburn agreed. "Reminds me of the Skylanders, back in the day. We had a good thing going, 'til the sky shattered around us." A sad smile. "Enjoy it while you can, and good luck, Azure Feather. I'll leave you to your practice." He unfolded his wings, ready to depart.
"Sunburn... there's always time for new friends. That's why I've learned here, since I joined the Harmony's crew." The mare gave a little bow before looking to the fire elemental. "Even when things look bleak. Thanks for the talk, Sunburn. I'll be out here... perhaps another hour, if anypony asks." She nodded, spreading her own wings slowly. "See you in a little while."
A curt nod in return and the dragon was taking off, flapping up into the sky to resume his patrol, circling high over Blissful Pastures.
Azure Feather watched him fly off, muttering under her breath: "...Friendship isn't just for ponies, either, Sunburn..." She soon turned away and began to experiment wing movements, pushing small amounts of energy through her feathers and noting the effects... it was clear mastery would take a lot of trial and error.
It was late afternoon when the crimson-and-gold aircraft returned, approaching with incredible speed before slowing and drifting down to the meadow, settling opposite the Second Chance in a dying roar of jets. A commotion went up from the ponies on deck or working around the balloon; initially alarmed, the crew were soon reassured as the top of the craft slid back. There were the two engineers, Nutmeg Inferno and Gearshift, nestled in the crew cabin and surrounded by a bounty of spare parts. Once again the blue-white, dragon-alicorn hybrid was piloting, but there was no sign of the friendly purple dragon this time; to be fair, there was no room for him either, with the sheer quantity of supplies they'd brough back.
Commotion was one thing, but the whine of those super-advanced engines - that was entirely another. Before the new ship had even landed, Azure Feather was out of her quarters and heading for the upper deck. Hopefully it would just be their two engineers returning. With the doctor improving and the first round of training complete, she was keen for another mission, but first... it would be good to have the crew all together again. She emerged onto the deck and sure enough, the Skylanders' craft was right there; Azure bowed her head as the pilot was revealed.
"We bring gifts!" came a certain kirin's shout, from somewhere amid the piles of gadgets and geegaws.
"More importantly, you're back safely!" Azure called back, recognising the voice: the chief engineer herself. "In good health, by the sounds of things?" Hopefully in good spirits too, she thought.
Summer Scribe galloped out onto the deck; she'd put down her book and headed up as soon as the shuttle had landed. Keen to welcome her crewmates back, she shouted "Hey! Nutmeg! How'd your business with Spyro's Core of Light go?"
"It went great! Better than great, we fixed it! Its light is spreading to all the magic of the Skylands!" Nutmeg declared loudly, "Hey um, could someone help dig us out of this stuff? It kind of shifted during the flight and it's really heavy okay?!"
Summer giggled, trotting down the gangplank and over to the shuttle. "Sounds cool!" She began carefully telekinesising stuff off of Nutmeg and Gearshift.
The sound of large wings beating, then claws hitting the deck as Sunburn flew down from the crow's nest to land next to Azure. "Mission complete," he said, "and that's my ride. Supposed to head straight back." The dracophoenix gave the pegasus a meaningful look, cocking his head. "You know... this was an interesting assignment. Hope we can work together again someday, Azure Feather."
Azure regarded the Skylander warmly, a slight smile on her face. "Don't I know the life, Sunburn... one mission down, it's back to base and you wait for the next one, huh..." A little sigh. "You're a heck of a fighter, Sunburn. Was a pleasure working with you, and I can just hope we're on the same squad again... once, you know, if, even, I can get used to this. Not the easiest thing." The blue pegasus bowed her head. "Safe travels, alright? You be well along with Whirlwind and Spyro."
Summer was already heading back with her first load of levitating machine parts. She saw Sunburn saying his goodbyes, watching with a bittersweet expression. "We're going to miss you and your protection, Sunburn. Keep doing your best out there!" There went her best opportunity to pick a Skylanders' brain on Cloudbreak Islands lore... everything had been so busy she'd hardly had a chance! Well, there'll be plenty of opportunity in the future if they stayed friends, but... "Do you happen to know if fixing the Core means anything for us? I'm not 100% clear on what the light does."
Sunburn gave the unicorn an odd look. "It kept out evil gods from other dimensions. Most of the time. Huh, so it's fixed, that's great. See you around, Summer Scribe." He spread his wings to take off.
Summer Scribe blinks, recoiling a bit. Was she supposed to know that? And what does 'most' of the time mean?! Oh boy. As if Drow weren't bad enough on their own, we better not have to solve any Evil God problems just to peacefully exist too...
"There are these crazy dimensional rifts that just open in the middle of space and monsters come out of them! But not anymore!" Nutmeg shouted over. The brown-furred, red-ruffed, golden-scaled kirin had emerged from the overloaded shuttle and was in the process of piling machine parts onto Gearshift's back, to be carried to the ship. The purple-and-orange earth pony stood stoically, staring at the Harmony as he waited for her to finish.
Before the feathered dragon could take flight, Azure Feather managed to speak up. "Oh! Sunburn... speaking of next mission and being on the same squad... there's still that pirate base full of bastard slaver drow. We're going to have to introduce ourselves to them, someday soon. Any chance you could lend a hoof? Or a claw, even." Was that a blush?
The Skylander paused before his leap, giving Azure another cryptic bird look. "You want my help, destroying a nest of drow?" he asked, apparently surprised by the request. Then he smirked: "Gotta admit, I always appreciate a chance to torch those twisted little buggers."
By this point Sprocket had made it out of the engine room and down the gangway, with Static Signal close behind. "Chief! You're back, and... oh Celestia what is that? Is it a... that can't be a turbo-encabulator can it? And look at this, it's a double, no triple-rotor interocitor..." She added her magic to the effort of unloading the shuttle, while Whirlwind watched from the pilot's seat with a bemused smile.
"Hey, you like to fight them, and we could sure as heck use someone with your level of firepower to pull it off. Besides... Wind and Fire together could make for some... interesting little combinations, if we're looking on the bigger scale of things..." It was clear the gears were turning in Azure Feather's head. "...I'm gonna have to talk with the Captain later. I'm getting ideas."
Summer Scribe looked between Azure and Sunburn. "That's the spirit, Azure!" She trots over to place a hoof on Azure's shoulder, smiling to her. "We've got plenty more to take care of... so I really want to see what you can do now! And if Sunburn can come along for the ride?" She grinned. "This is going to be awesome."
"Wind and Fire..." Sunburn sighed, looking over to Whirlwind, out in the meadow "...she used to love that." A long pause, then "Let me see if I can raise the boss on the comm. Air pirates are bad news for everyone, maybe he'll authorise it." With that he took off and glided down towards the shuttle.
The fiery Skylander landed in the cockpit and began a heated conversation with Whirlwind; the ponies on the deck of the airship couldn't make out what was being said, but it was clear there was some disagreement. The two of them fiddled with the controls and then stared at something in the ship for a few minutes, while the unloading of parts proceeded below them.
Then Sunburn launched into the air again, covering the distance back to the Harmony in a few powerful wingbeats. "Here's how it is... Spyro really needs me back right now. Got some things going on. I think he got the point though. Give me a week, I'll convince him to let me come back. Think you can leave a tempting target that long Azure?" he beak-gaped at the pegasus.
"I need that week anyway: I need to learn how to fight like a pegasus. I can't just be a rookie, I'd hold you back!" Azure exclaimed. "So a week suits me just fine. Going to be busy, though... the team here needs me, plus, I need to find time to practice, and Captain?" She turned to Set Sail, who'd finally emerged from the belly of the ship and was hurrying over to join them. "We need to talk about a little something I'd like to borrow from the ship's supplies... think we could benefit."
"Swell." Sunburn cocked his head again. "No promises, but... yeah, looking forward to burning that pirate base with you Azure. Hold the fort here, I'll bring Spyro around." With that he spread his wings to take-off again...
"Sunburn! Wait!" Set Sail called out, trotting hastily up to the phoenix dragon. The brown pegasus looked a lot better than she had after that wishing well thing. In retrospect it probably hadn't been a great idea to do that right after returning from that temple which had spooked her so badly, but an afternoon's rest seemed to have done her a world of good.
"Thank you on behalf of all of us here," Set Sail said to the strange stallion, with a clumsy curtsey. "You really helped us out back at that temple there. And you've been a really good sport for all of this. I'm sorry if it seemed like I doubted you, but here you've brought Nutmeg and Gearshift back safe and sound! And I'm sure they'll love all those useful mechanical things they brought with them."
"I don't think there's anything we could ever do for you, and your Skylanders, but I just want you to know that I'm happy to consider you a good friend. It's rare to meet a friendly face in these lands, and you've really helped us find a bit of hope again." She winced, concluding with "I realise I'm supposed to be the... captain and all. But I think the crew would agree. I just didn't want you to leave without knowing we think you... truly are the hero they say you are."
The phoenix-dragon, ancient by Equestrian standards even if he was likely just a young adult as dragons measured time, fixed the pegasus with another of those intense avian stares. "I... do what I can. Nothing more, nothing less. But... thanks. Been a long, long while since I met anyone as friendly as you ponies."
With that he was gone, gliding back down to the shuttle to be swallowed inside as the canopy closed up. Now that the last of the cargo was unloaded, the whine of the turbines returned and the craft lifted off into the sky. In no time at all it was a dwindling crimson dot, before it disappeared entirely into the clouds.
"Hey, we should put these supplies in a tent!" the excited kirin declared in the meantime, "In case you pegasuses need it to rain. Let's do that!"
Azure's gaze stayed locked onto the craft until it faded away entirely, and even then for several seconds afterwards, staring at the exact spot where it had vanished. "One week. I'll be ready." She turned to Set Sail. "I apologise in advance if I seem a little distant in the coming days... I don't want to keep the Skylanders waiting, and more importantly, I need to be ready for this. It's going to be the most difficult fight we've had since we've been here - my own difficult fight since... I fought the pony running the East Barrens slavers. And that wasn't fun, I promise you. I want— no, I need to be ready."
Set Sail turned, then jumped as she saw how close Azure was. "I— uh— yeah I'm sure you'll do great," she said, ducking her head and blushing self-consciously, "If you fought slavers before... just more of the same, right? And I'm sure anypony in the crew wouldn't mind t-training you. Do you know anypony who might be good at teaching you, um, pegasus... stuff?"
Summer Scribe blinked, making a hoof gesture between Set Sail and Azure a few times, but said nothing more.
"I can name two, Captain. I'm pretty sure Cloud Cutter could teach me a lot, but the other would be... you, Captain. You may not be a fighter, but... life isn't all about fighting, is it? Let's face it, my telekinesis is -gone-, I have to learn life as a Pegasus now. I'm not used to this..." She didn't take her eyes off of the Captain, either...
Biting her lip, Set Sail looked at the newly-transformed pegasus uneasily, finally saying "Yeah I could... show you some... stuff maybe. Just I'm k-kind of busy running everything around the ship you know I mean you saw what happened the last time I wasn't here to watch these knuckleheads, right? Ha ha. And you know Cloud Cutter is actually more of a... non-fighting weather expert. I mean I could never figure out how to operate something like the Storm Piercer. I'm just a balloon p-pony. I keep the ship in the air. There are two others here who are at least as good at it as me, I'm sure. But uhm, Cloud Cutter also knows how to use wing blades, so maybe she could help you with combat... too?"
Azure just threw up a hoof lightly and shrugged. "Captain, I can barely hold onto a bowl of oats. Ask Cloud Cutter, she caught me dropping one this morning. I may not need help with fighting much if at all - I'll need time to perfect my new techniques and that's all - but I need help with actual life as a Pegasus. We unicorns use telekinesis for everything from writing to eating to... everything! What can a unicorn do when her telekinesis is gone?"
"You... use telekinesis to eat?" Set Sail asked, taking a teensy step back from the now fellow pegasus, "There's not much of a how really. You just... do what you need to do. Practice with carrying stuff on your wings and you should get better at... that. Being a pegasus is more about feeling it out, than the how or why of it. Just... you know, stop and try to feel out what would solve the problem. Like navigating a storm, you..."
She took another subconscious step back, "I mean just ask anypony they can tell you I-I need to go check on the soda in the cargo hold and make sure it's all accounted for it's really boring haha, sorry I really gotta go, um..." Backing up even further, she tried to make it look like she wasn't hastily walking away.
Azure just nodded softly as Set Sail excused herself, replying a little too quickly: "Understandable, a Captain has duties. Perhaps I'll catch up with you... a little later." Lots to think about, after all..
Conversation was light at the crack of dawn, the crisp cool morning cut by the first rays of the sun beaming over the horizon. Set Sail, ersatz captain of the EAS Harmony, was pacing back and forth on deck, thinking of what to do, of what to say to him. Her warm brown feathers gleamed in those first few rays as she made her decision. The green kerchief was tied tightly about her head as the mare marched resolutely down into the early dawn darkness of the decks below.
Cautiously approaching, she found the door to the hold slightly ajar, so with a quiet creak Set Sail trotted inside. The first thing she noticed was the warped and gouged floor, then the contents of the crates lying in shattered splinters. Steeling herself, the brown mare carefully made her way through the room, until she found him. There, against the far wall in the epicentre of it all, the pegasus beheld the fearsome beast who had wreaked all this havoc.
The creature lay sprawled out over the pitted oak deck at the back of the hold, seeming even larger now that he was sliced, stretched and roped back together. The head of an enormous eagle, adorned with a crest of pink feathers and peal-tipped spines, feathery ear-tufts gone and replaced with fishy fins. An avian torso covered in smooth grey down, from which enormous wings spread out over the deck. They looked like they hadn't been preened in a while. Equine hindquarters, flanks blank, blending at the rear into the stub of a fish tail. The three pieces were joined by bundles of bright blue ropey structures, while outright tentacles with bulbous tips sprouted from his limbs and radiated in every direction.
Reef Skimmer seemed to be sleeping; the eyes were closed, the chest rising and falling softly; apparently he still had a windpipe, or perhaps several now. The tentacles twitched and wriggled slightly, and occasionally the head shifted. Looking closer the pegasus could see the mysterious book she'd somehow summoned the previous morning - he was almost curled around it, as if to protect it. It was open, showing a drawing of a slug-like creature surrounded by Ponish print. With a slight chill, Set Sail recognised it as the monster Blue Type had spoke of, the one that had been created by the original accident at the factory and had to be incarcerated by the local law enforcement.
Set Sail had to hold back a laugh at how this strange creature was curled so protectively around that book like it was his teddy bear. He seemed so peaceful like this, it was hard to imagine he'd caused all that damage to the hold. Her cheer faded as she saw what the book was open to, murmuring seriously to herself, "So it did help him, after all..." Then she reached forward and cautiously, gently nudged with a hoof what she could figure was the creature's shoulder, whispering slightly less quietly, "Reef, wake up."
Reef Skimmer had been dreaming of a purple pegasus wreathed in cold fire, her hollow laughter echoing off the walls as she trotted through the sickbay. The lives of his patients were snuffed out one by one in her wake, gasping their last as their life force was stolen by the horror. The deed done, the mare stalked the corridors, where she found a little unicorn sharpening her knives.
"It was a fun experiment but now I'm bored of it." the second mare said in her sing-song voice. "You can have him now; he's hiding in the hold." The unicorn grinned, saying "Well, I'm off to find a new playmate!" before skipping off towards the mess.
The eldritch pegasus nodded grimly before plodding down into the bowels of the ship. She was here, in the room with him. She was going to- Reef's eyes snapped open and he lurched up, tentacles flailing around like whips. Wings flared out and feathers stuck up as he screeched at the evil pegasus, who had no doubt come to... wait, what was going on? Was this a dream? That looked like... the Captain.
With a blue mane, brown fur, and actual pupils rimmed in green irises much like the captain of the EAS Harmony, the evil pegasus skittered back at Reef's sudden awakening, her ears going flat against the sides of her head at his ear-splitting screech. Her ears quickly raised when he wasn't attacking but rather just staring at her. "Well that was uncalled-for!" she told the big creature in outrage, "Do you always wake up like this?"
"You're not... you don't feel like her..." He shook his head, trying to wake up properly. "Is this a dream, or... Sails, is that you?"
"You were... having a nightmare, I think," Set Sail replied, pensive and unsure as Reef's flailing motions settled down to a baseline wiggling. "Cloud Cutter was telling me you had calmed down a bit. Did she give you my message? I've meant to talk with you myself, but I had to go to the temple and... well things like that."
"Cloud Cutter..." Reef echoed, with a haunted look. It took only a few seconds of staring at Set Sail before the burning embarrassment arrived. "Yes, erm, do apologise but... could you just... give me a minute here. Things are just not right, I mean, one's feathers are... look if one could just, err, freshen up, so to speak." Reef spluttered as he tried to shoo the pegasus back out into the corridor, advancing forward and making little flapping gestures with his wings. Some part of him protested that this was a terribly improper thing to do to a superior, but the pain of her seeing him like this overwhelmed it.
The pegasus mare did back up at that, looking surprised as she said, "Oh, oh of course, I suppose? I need to talk with you though, so I'm sorry if I woke you up and— right." Successfully ushered out into the corridor, Set Sail called out from behind the door, "Do you need a brush, or anything?"
"No no thank you but... no need." Reef called out. In all honesty he did look like he could use a good brush, but it seemed other things were on his mind. After a good five minutes of grunting and the occasional hippogriff swear word, finally he called out morosely. "Oh, who am I kidding. You might as well come in, Captain. If you're still out there." Set Sail pushed the heavy door open to reveal a slightly changed creature. It seemed he'd managed to squeeze his neck and waist down until they were solid bands of blue goo, returning his main body roughly its original shape, but he hadn't been able to do anything about his tentacles. "So, erm, Captain..." He refused to meet her gaze, staring at the floor, "...what can I do for you?"
She peeked through the doorway, then trotted forward saying curiously, "Oh you can... pull yourself back together again? I guess it feels better than being all in... three pieces like that? None of us really have much idea what's going on with you. They say it's got something to do with the Water element, but..." Close enough to speak face to face, the mare concluded unsurely of the glum looking creature, "It doesn't... hurt to keep all those worms inside you, does it?"
"No... not physically, no." Reef said. "Disquieting, disconcerting..." he glanced briefly at her before looking down again "...disgusting, but not... painful. One was rather hoping for a cure, but..." He sighed. "...well, the exercises in the book seem to have granted me some small measure of control, at least." His beak opened just a crack. "I do appreciate the effort, Captain, but I fear that wish may have been better spent on other priorities."
"Well let me tell you about the other priorities!" Set Sail said blithely with a squaring of her shoulders, "This land is so topsy turvy that the griffons were some of the nicest griffons I've met, but their temple was just wrong in every possible way. And you know a group called the Skylanders found where we're hiding? They didn't attack though and it turns out they just needed our help."
"Nutmeg had some special ability to fix this incredible machine of theirs, well her and Gearshift— I'll let her tell you the details. So yes there were some other priorities, and really I don't have to be down here or anything. I just wanted to know how you were doing. You've been holed up in here so long, we're all getting really worried about you! A-and that's not really why I came down here, but I wanted you to know that we've all had our thoughts on you, and I've been worried about you and... stuff."
Reef Skimmer met Set Sail's eyes at last, cocking his head. "Winter mentioned the dragons. I wish I'd seen them, they sounded... interesting. Nutmeg got another opportunity to work her magic eh? Good for her." Another faint smile. "As for the temple... Azure was here yesterday, you know. Spoke of the spirits, the griffons, your... wish," he glanced at the book "...and of course, her transformation. Perhaps she is an example of how things are supposed to work, around here? Certainly seems much happier with her condition than myself, or... the 'undead' ponies." He sighed. "Though even with a normal pony body... losing her horn must be a blow."
"D-did the book help at all?" Set Sail asked hopefully, rearing up to lay a concerned hoof on Reef's knee, "I know those... worms were terrible and messed everything up. You'd probably be some sort of super... sea pony if they hadn't gotten in the way. Azure is..." Set Sail retracted her hoof, "...fine. The temple did... something to her, and yes I know it turned her into a pegasus that's what it did."
Sighing without satisfaction, Set Sail looked up at Reef pleadingly and said, "So maybe your temple... would've done something to you too, and the worms saved you from—well I wouldn't say saved, but... you sure saved the rest of us, t-taming those things. I can... touch you, right? Even where you're all... blue? Cloud Cutter said she could touch you without getting burned. T-that's true, right?"
"Touch me?" Reef said, looking shocked. "Why on Equus would you want to, erm, I mean... I suppose it is safe, in that I only seem to dissolve things when in, err, negative emotional states... hmm, you know that does sound similar to Nutmeg's fire in some respects..." He shook his head, how hard must it be for her to overcome her revulsion to want to comfort him like that. He should spare her the trouble, he thought: "Temple! You mentioned a temple... oh." A dry chuckle escaped his beak. "Here, take a look."
He reached out with a tentacle to flip the pages of the book, to a section near the end. At first glance it seemed to be a listing of places, with a few paragraphs and sometimes a sketch under each heading. "It seems there is a 'temple of water', or some such: The Shrine of the Seven Seas." The heading had a full page underneath, and a sketch of an enormous, mostly-submerged structure of stone arches and glass tubes. "Or was at least. Alas no map, so it won't be easy to find. But the place we visited..." He flipped forward a few pages, then indicated another heading, with a much smaller description.
"'Wash Buckler Splash Park! Formerly MagiCola Family Fundrome'. Here... 'The ill-fated company rebuilt and massively expanded the old Scaleshine Springs Spa in an attempt to compete with the wildly popular Fizzland. Despite being a hit with locals it was too far from the core to...'" he skipped to the last paragraph "...rebranded and under new management after the Gulper incident. Few visitors these days but still a pleasant day out for anycreature that appreciates water slides or a relaxing dip in the pool." He snorted. "Compared to Azure, I'm just a bad joke."
Set Sail headed up close and stared at the book as if unable to believe what she's reading, in plain Ponish. "It really was a water park," she said faintly. "I-it..." she had to hold back a laugh.
"Quite." Reef said flatly. "As for this 'Gulper'... well, the book covers heroes and villains that were 'aligned' with the 'element of Water'. The Gulper... he was one of the latter. It seems one of the workers at Summer's cola factory was caught up in some sort of industrial accident." Reef flipped the book back to its previous position; he'd folded back a page corner to mark it. "Changed from a brown-furred biped into... that slug-like creature. Went on a crime spree, vandalism and theft mostly. Fell in with a group of would-be tyrants, and was eventually incarcerated in some sort of magic-powered prison."
The hippogriff (or at least ex-hippogriff) sighed. "There's no mention of any attempt to cure him. One can only speculate whether he was a rogue from the start, or the change eroded his morals, or..." he sighed again "...perhaps he just felt rejected by society and they were the only companions who would tolerate him."
"Yikes, I dunno why he would do that," Set Sail said, wide-eyed as she followed along beside him. "Good thing none of that applies to you. We need to make sure that factory is totally shut down to make sure nothing like that ever happens again."
"It was safely shut down for three hundred years or some such," Reef said morosely, staring into space again. "I suppose we just need to make sure Summer Scribe doesn't happen again." He blinked. "Not that I wish harm upon her..." he was over that phase, he hoped "...but, well you catch my drift I think."
"I definitely catch your drift," Set Sail said, looking up at the stallion with a grim smile, "It was an accident but... she wasn't being very careful about it either, from what I hear." Her face grew curious as she realised she was sitting right next to him now, just the one sitting by the other on each of their haunches. Her leg shook a little when she tried, but she still pressed a cautious forehoof against the blue band around Reef's flank, joining his midsection to his hindquarters.
At first touch the blue substance felt like warm jelly, yielding under her hoof, but as she applied more force it quickly hardened into something like solid rubber, except that it squeezed around her hoof as if feeling it back. Reef was stunned for a moment before pulling away. Set Sail's hoof was left dry; despite the shine it wasn't slimy.
"C-Captain! So, erm, what were you saying earlier, err... Crowd Cutter! Yes, she visited me! A couple of days ago. Said we could destroy each other, but she didn't feel like it right then! And that, erm, you had feelings for her, but there was a, uh, medical issue that prevented her from reciprocating as she might like... oh, erm, apologies, perhaps that should be covered under doctor-patient confidentiality." The eagle eyes were wide as they stared at he pegasus. "...She wasn't clear whether you'd discussed it?"
Set Sail fishmouthed, flummoxed in the silence, her blush growing until she stammered out, "I-I-I like stallions!!" Her blush deepened, as it occurred to her she was speaking to one, and the mare desperately tried to save her dignity, saying in confusion, "I don't have feelings for Cloud Cutter! Why would she tell you that? All I asked her to say is that we— that I missed you, okay? And I hoped you'd get better, so I could visit you . And you did! So here we are, and everything's great a-a-and why did she tell you I had the hots for her?!"
Reef blinked several times, not sure how to take this. "Truly? How... strange. I confess, it all seemed to make sense at the time, what with the equine sex ratio and such... hmm."
"I'll definitely have a talk with her—w-wait, sex ratio? You're not suggesting..." Set Sail was not ceasing in her blushing.
"That is to say," Reef said, missing the Captain's blush as he thought back to his conversation with the spooky pegasus, "She was a little coy on the romantic aspect, but quite clear on the, erm, anatomical issue."
"Anatomical issue?" Set Sail echoed faintly, feeling like she missed something back there.
"As you know, I find ponies a touch enigmatic at times," or most of the time, Reef Skimmer thought as he told the flustered pegasus mare, "but she made her dislike of me quite plain. From well before the transformation, she said. I suppose I... sort of fitted that into the narrative of scorning a romantic rival."
"Yeah well... I don't have any... f-feelings for mares," Set Sail gulped uneasily, because there was that one time at flight camp. "I like stallions," she said evenly.
"Stallions you say?" Reef replied, cocking his head. His hope died as his eyes went to the floor again, "Pegasus stallions, I imagine."
"Pegasus stallions," Set Sail agreed warily, "Unicorn stallions, o-other stallions, any stallions, I just... wouldn't know what to do with a mare. Anything I can do with a mare I can do by myself. M-maybe you don't understand but I like stallions because they're... different from me, so... they can do things I... can't?" her voice trailed off to a blushing squeak.
"Indeed?" Reef said, almost hopeful. "Well perhaps..." he reached out with a claw, intending to place it on Set Sail's shoulder, but it wasn't a claw, it was a clump of blue tentacles seemed to only loosely follow his direction... with a frustrated squawk he whipped the appendage away. "...perhaps we could discuss that another time! Erm. So. Cloud Cutter... perhaps you should talk it over, straighten things out. I doubt she wants to speak to me again." He sighed, turning away.
"Although I don't quite understand her animosity, I admit... she was my patient, and... I failed her. I failed them all. No idea where to start with a treatment, except... well. There is one slight possibility." Enthusiasm crept back into his voice as he shared his idea with the Captain. "Look at this," he said, picking up the book and flipping back to the final section. "It lists, oh, sixty or so 'water nexuses', of assorted size and importance."
"But look... this one is marked with the symbols for Water and Life. And this one, Water and Fire, even though one would expect those elements to be in opposition to one other. And this one... 'Kestrel Baths'... combines Water and Air." He looked back to Set Sail, expression enigmatic as ever but voice eager. "The book calls them 'nexuses of concordance'. One... has no idea what that means, in truth, but it suggests the possibility... if we could find a nexus that combines Undead and Air..." He ducked his head. "A long shot I know, but that's all I can think of to help her. Help them."
"Let me see that," Set Sail said, zipping up and looking down at the book. She read that final section too together with Reef, and asked him excitedly about a ton of things that he had no idea about either. Giddy with her success and the relief that Reef was okay after all, she assured him she'd be back to visit again, though he didn't ask her to do that, and that she would welcome him up on deck whenever he felt comfortable enough to do so.
Then after thanking him, and giving him a wing-hug she said he was long overdue for, Set Sail pulled free and hurried away. She needed to go talk with Cloud Cutter about whatever had been bothering her during Reef's conversation - whatever it was that the troubled pegasus hadn't seen fit to tell her captain. Reef waved as she went, though one good look at his strange wiggling tentaclaws thoroughly dissuaded him from following her out into the early morning sun.
The meadow was shrouded in mist, the light diffuse and grey. A creature would have to get quite close to spot the brown pegasus, her blue mane tied back as usual with a green kerchief, just standing there with her axe. No, not that one: a fire axe that had been hanging on a wall in the ship. It wouldn't do to use her newly acquired battle axe for this mundane task.
The tree Blaze Trails had felled looked strange, but was as woody as any in Equestria, and if they were going to stick around for a while then they needed to get some firewood drying. Thus Set Sail was out at the edge of the meadow on her own, but she'd been made sure to inform the crew so they could find her in an emergency. As she sunk the utilitarian axe into the wood, splitting a log into halves, then quarters, she really hoped that there wouldn't be any emergencies today.
For Clashing Gale the last few days had been even harder. Sure, he was glad to have woken up from that coma; after the harrowing magic overload in the heart of the storm, he'd been lucky to survive. But... his feathers were gone, his wings turned to strange skeletal appendages, covered in skin that tickled with alien sensation. His blue and green colours gone, replaced with the same purple as the rest of his team.
By all accounts they were stranded in a strange and hostile land, and now a squad would have to risk the attentions of an island full of shark creatures. He'd heard Summer Scribe would be among them and... Clashing couldn't let the cute little unicorn go alone. He needed to be on that team, and there was one pony who could make that happen. A few questions to the deckhands, and he'd known where to go... but to find their captain out chopping wood? Hmm.
"Captain, could I have a word with you?" Clashing asked, approaching slowly so as not to startle her.
Set Sail sank the axe into the wood and left it there, her sides still heaving from the exertion as she returned to all fours. "Whew that's..." she said to herself a bit breathlessly, turning to look Clashing's way with a smile. "Sure, what can I do for you?" Her smile turned into a wince as she added, "It's not an emergency is it?"
The new batpony sighed at the sight of the captain, tiring herself out on firewood. A pegasus was hardly ideal for such a task, and though he granted that it was noble of her to pitch in with the crew, wouldn't an earth pony have been better suited for such? Shaking his head, he concentrated on the task at hoof. "What is this that I'm hearing about the next scouting party?" he asked, with a curious tilt of his head.
"Not sure," Set Sail replied, looking at the stallion with concern, "You heard something about them? Summer's not making trouble, is she?" She didn't seem exhausted - after all she was rather large and solidly built for a pegasus mare. It was definitely a workout though, and doubtless an earth pony would have been more effective. As such her motivations remained a mystery to Clashing, though it didn't look like she would mind him asking. "She always says whatever comes to her mind, so don't take it too seriously. Or is it something else?"
"When there's a team about ready to head out into the unknown, Captain, that tends to set the crew talking." Clashing explained. "No, Summer's not making trouble; you don't have to worry about that. I'm more concerned about them getting into trouble... and if they do, who's going to get them out of it." he admitted. "Do you have a list of ponies that are going?"
"Well sure, they'll have Grenelda to back them up," Set Sail said, feeling like she was making another rookie mistake here, "...and Nutmeg is bringing along Static Signal, so they can both fly Summer Scribe and Nutmeg out if things go seriously bad. I'd like it if Cloud Cutter could come along, but she's... busy with something important. Everypon— I mean the gillmen said the dirt sharks drive a hard bargain, but they aren't especially hostile, despite the name 'shark'." She gave the handsome fellow a puzzled look, who despite his transformation was well, very easy on the eyes.
"Grenelda's going... but not the designated guard pony?" Clashing Gale seemed even more concerned at that. "And you wanted Cloud Cutter to go, but..." Just as he'd suspected... clearly it was time for a suggestion. "Let me go with them. If you need one of the Storm Piercer crew to go, and our sole guard pony is unavailable... I need to be out there with them." The thought of Summer Scribe out there, defended only by a griffon deckhand? No. That wouldn't do.
"Oh no," Set Sail tried to shut him down, "You just woke up from a coma. And—and changed. Azure's not going because she's not used to her new wings yet, and neither are you. It's dangerous out there, and you need to learn more about this place before even thinking of going anywhere. I don't want to lose you just as you came back from um... near death. Cloud Cutter is a good fighter, with some... abilities, so that's why I wanted her to go, not because she was a good weatherpony. You need some time to... understand your new abilities before you can go."
Clashing's wings stiffened at the dismissal. "So you think it's a good idea to send three mares into potentially hostile territory, with a sole bodyguard?" he protested. "Only two flyers, so if they do have to bail out they'll be defenceless? Yes, I just woke up from a coma, but I'm willing to go if it means our crew has an extra guard, somepony who can actually fight! Either that or delay the mission, we can't just... send them like that, right?" The batpony looked worried, emoting in a way that Set Sail hadn't seen from Cloud Cutter or the other 'spooky' ponies.
Looking at him wide-eyed, the brown feathered mare said "Oh, I didn't know you could... fight? I thought you were just a scientist. I—I mean not that a scientist is just a scientist. I mean you look really um... good... at fighting, but have you ever been in a battle? It's um..." She wasn't one to be flustered the moment a colt spread his wings at her but this guy...
"Sorry if we seem like we're rushing things. It's just we're gonna be in big trouble the moment the drow find out where we are! We need allies against them before that happens, if we want to survive." She straightened her ears a little, adding, "And they do have a guard: her name is Grenelda. She's a good fighter. And... so is Summer Scribe actually. Not sure about Nutmeg and Static. Nutmeg's a really quick thinker though, so I trust her in a pinch."
Clashing Gale shrugged. "I do have some basic self-defence training. Nothing particularly amazing, but I know how to handle myself if trouble arises, and uh..." He looked away for a second: she had him there. "Never... really seen an actual fight, no. But... I know the basics. Better than nothing, right?" The batpony covered it with a grin, but in truth his confidence had taken a hit there. "I just... look, we've... already lost so many ponies, I've been out since the landing, it's about time I do something, and if I can start here, that's better than... sitting on my tail and doing nothing for weeks, right?" Despite the captain's reassurance, he still seemed worried.
"I understand if you're frustrated," Set Sail said with a frown, "But you won't be sitting on your tail for weeks. There's plenty to do around here, and stuff for you to learn. I'll consider you for the next expedition, but this one is already taken care of. It wouldn't be responsible of me to send you out with no weather magic and no other current abilities. We are under a lot of pressure, but if we move too hastily, without taking proper care, then we might lose everything!"
The bat-pony had seemed ready to concede defeat, but that last sentence woke him up, offering some hope of changing the captain's mind. "And you think you're not moving hastily by deploying a squad with only one of three guards actually available and ready?" he pressed. A hint of desperation crept into his voice: "I mean, I get it, I'm not the best, I'm not even fully ready, but for Celestia's sake, when there's safety of our main crew on the line, whether I'm ready or not, I'm willing to fight!" Part of him wanted to tell her that he needed to go for Summer Scribe's sake, but likely admitting such feelings would scupper his chances.
"Oh, well, heh heh," Set Sail said with a blush, a warm, confident feeling rising in her as she told him, "You are a very handsome and competent guard. It's so wonderful that you're ready to fight. I wish you could go because you really are a... light of hope. When your feathers started to crumble we all despaired, but with your new... strong, powerful wings, you... you... ...sorry what was I saying?" She smiled at him, hopeful of his answer, kind of fuzzy-headed for some reason. It probably wasn't important. With her tail bobbing up, she really felt like doing something with him. She wondered if he liked her. How to get him to like her. How to get him what he wanted.
Clashing Gale blinked. A sudden change of heart? He couldn't quite explain it: Set Sail was the captain, she'd held firm to her position until... now, apparently? "You... um... we were talking about the mission? How I wanted to go and... you seem okay with it?" Suddenly, inexplicably, but still... it seemed settled. Even the mare's tail was behaving strangely... what the heck had happened to her? Nevertheless, he seemed to have what he wanted. "I won't let the crew down, and I won't let you down either." He nodded. "Thank you, Captain."
"Oh yes, the mission," Set Sail said distantly, "Yes I am okay with it. I don't know what I was thinking before. Of course you won't let the crew down. You're Clashing Gale! I should be ...thanking you, really." The pegasus mare giggled shyly at that amusing thought, blushing and looking sideways at him in adoration. "Be there in the morning and we'll... we'll do things your way. The right way."
Clashing Gale nodded softly and smiled as she confirmed that he'd be on of the mission. "Understood, Captain, I'll be there first thing in the morning. Thank you again, and um... Captain? Feel better, okay? You seem... a bit under the weather." he commented. The stallion looked around, making sure everything was okay before setting off back to the ship. He needed to prepare for the mission ahead... though he couldn't help but wonder, what had gotten into the captain.
"Oh, no I feel wonderful!" Set Sail said very genuinely with a warm smile, leaving her logs and axe lying there behind her and wandering along after him as he headed off.
A new day dawned and with it a new adventure for the rebuilt and rechristened copter Second Chance. With the chocolate-brown kirin Nutmeg Inferno at the helm, the aircraft whirred north from Blissful Pastures. It was heading for the arid island Melonwater had spotted through his scope: the one the gillfolk had called 'Triskelion Mine', supposedly home of a sizable colony of dirt sharks.
Beside her in the cockpit was the excitable Summer Scribe; the unicorn spent the whole flight speculating about what the enigmatic creatures would be like and how they might negotiate for new propellors. Out on the foredeck the grey-feathered, gold-furred griffoness Grenelda kept a claw on the harpoon launcher, while the bat-winged Clashing Gale stood alongside, scanning the sky for threats. Finally in the cramped engine space below, the pegasus engineer Static Signal was watching the dials.
"This is so awesome!" Nutmeg declared, beside herself with excitement, "This thing is so fast we're gonna be at the island in no time! Just look at it just zooming up! If we cut the engines to idle we'll probably glide right to the island just like a glove! Is this place like a desert? Why is the climate so different between islands? It's all sparkly in the sun! I didn't know it would be sparkly!"
Summer Scribe grinned and kept herself steady, feeling the little airship soar and shudder around them. "Yeah! Now this is a hell of a way to fly. You do great work, Nutmeg! And I guess we have something to thank our drow 'friends' for, hahah." She looked out over the surrounding sky, taking in the island they were approaching. "Yeah, the water cycle strikes again, huh? I don't know much about the weather and climate patterns around here - why would rain fall elsewhere but not here? I'd need a flock of pegasi to sus it out, and it's not exactly a priority task."
So! A new species to make contact with... and if she was grokking it right, the most industrious they'd met so far. They were here to negotiate for new propellers, and with luck the sharks would be amenable to the deal! Just a matter of figuring out what they wanted in return. "Something about the way the fish folk talked about them, it makes me think they're sharp and savvy... I dunno if just being friendly and cute will cut it. You think maybe your services could work as payment, Nutmeg?"
Grenelda had a twitchy trigger claw and a firm grip on the harpoon launcher. When you're making first contact, it never hurt to carry a big stick, after all! Plus if any drow came by, she'd be the first to give them a welcoming package. Heheh! They'd regret screwing with her and her crew. "Anythin', Clashing Gale? If you're lucky you'll have fresh prey to feed on, heheh." It seemed the vampire jokes had begun in earnest!
"Well, for starters there's no lack of striking scenery..." he began, nodding as he quietly scanned the horizon. The griffon's remark did draw a light chuckle. "You joke about that, Grenelda, but in all honesty... I wouldn't mind at all if I had to fight right now. I guess this is just par for the course now." He shrugged, returning to his vigil.
"If my services can't work for payment, then I'll eat my hat!" Nutmeg crowed, "It'll be hard work, but this is the first time we've had a hope of getting back our mobility! We're just here to scope out the situation though. Learn what kind of place this is and how things work around here. So no deal making until we know exactly what we're dealing with. Bunch of innocent tourists, that's what we are!"
Summer Scribe seemed a bit flustered. "Ahaha! Yeah, I want to go a step beyond just being blundering tourists. I want to feel like I'm standing on the same stage as the people we're, well, going to be reliant on for defence and repairs. And if you can be our star export, then we have a shot!"
Nutmeg smiled back, then added somewhat uncertainly, "You know, I don't actually have a hat."
A polite giggle from Summer, at the kirin's two-part joke. "I think that means you have to go to having negative one hats. I'll explore the philosophical ramifications at home later."
"Huh. Guess I should slow down before we really do crash into the island," Nutmeg remarked thoughtfully.
As the Second Chance flew closer the source of the name became clear; their target was composed of three major islands, spiralling around and over each other like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. The terrain was all reddish cliffs, sweeping natural stone arches, precarious rock pillars and orange sand flats. Signs of habitation were everywhere: clusters of corrugated steel shacks and warehouses, complete with tall smoking chimneys and storage tanks for unknown chemicals. Mine entrances dotted the cliffs, with piles of tailings and abandoned carts outside.
Towers and blockhouses of the native sandstone guarded the other buildings, many with substantial-looking weapons emplaced on the roof or cannon barrels poking out of gunports. Finally and most dramatically, a double set of gleaming rails swept around, over and through the landscape, soaring over voids on elaborate trestle bridges and through cliffs in cuttings blasted from the rock. From this vantage point it wasn't clear where the rails went from or to, nor were there any trains visible.
"Woah, it looks even cooler up close..." Summer Scribe said, pressing her muzzle to the glass, "And these sharks look like they have life figured out. Imagine all the stuff we could trade for with a friendly relationship! Propellers first, of course. Hmmm! They're well defended, too... but given they have drow for neighbours, I don't blame them. Doesn't necessarily mean they're xenophobic if it's just common sense. And how did they make those... train tracks?"
"Tempered steel, no doubt," Nutmeg replied, "Just the thing we need to make propellers out of ."
"Mmhmm, good observation..." Summer mused "....if they built all this, they definitely have the industrial capability."
"That'd be a start." Clashing Gale remarked. "But we'll see what they think of us first. I mean, the place looks interesting, and this group's obviously well-defended against threats... but will they see us as one?" The batpony fell silent, studying the fortifications.
Grenelda was still manning the ballistae; the griffoness warily eyed the elaborate defences. "Shit: what if they shoot first? Hopefully a coat of prissy pink paint is enough of a hint that we're not drow scumbags." She narrowed her gaze... know way of knowing, without reading their shark brains! Suddenly her harpoon launcher seemed like a toy, staring down a thicket of cannons - the hen's feathers unconsciously flared up.
It was right then that the siren started: a modified steam whistle, howling up three octaves before starting again in a repeating cycle. Some creature down there had spotted their approach. Tiny bipedal shapes, low and heavy-set, began to stream out of the industrial buildings and pile into the fortifications.
Terror flashed across Summer Scribe's face and her throat tightened as if she was drowning. "...I guess they're not taking any chances. Eep!" She looked over to Nutmeg, her expression pleading, "Pleeease don't fly us straight into those guns!"
"I'm not! I'm not!" Nutmeg Inferno said frantically, staring down at the suddenly very dangerous island before them, "What should I do though?"
"I dunno, back off!" Summer panicked. "We can, I dunno, send Grenelda in to beg for mercy or something." Even as she brought it up, she realised how bad an idea this was, but... "Every other option seems even worse!"
"We just have to tell them we're peaceful and not Drow," Nutmeg asserted confidently, "They'll let us approach then. Does anybody see any sort of a landing area? That's where our fliers should go to ask." She eased off on the throttle and slewed the copter around to the right, coasting gently around the island rather than toward it.
Summer Scribe figured they'd be dead by now, or at least dodging cannonballs, if the sharks were truly hostile. Breathing a sight of relief, she said "Ok, so far not shot at. Hopefully it stays that way..." The little unicorn slumped as her adrenalin drained away: the negotiations were meant to be the scary part, not the landing!
Grenelda was equally tense as she clung onto her ballistae for dear life. "Damnit! We need to use a girlier pink next time! I'm putting in a complaint!"
"How can you get pinker than hot pink?" Nutmeg asked in confusion, "Maybe if we added some bows and lace."
The griffon rolled her eyes at that. "If it keeps us from being turned to swiss cheese, sure, I'll accept bows and lace. Now shut your trap and fly!" she griped.
The copter pulled upwards and away from the island, keeping a respectful distance between the ponies and the defences below. As they circled around the east side, a further settlement came into view, built on a series of cliffside terraces. Two airships floated there, intermediate in size between the Second Chance and the Harmony. The craft were of similar design, with a pointed, plated balloon and sleek hull below - one seemed older, patched and worn with no visible weapons, while the other was newer and sported a cluster of prominent cannon barrels. Unfortunately it was the later craft that had just started its engines, coughing smoke as the propellors began to spin up.
Summer Scribe eyed the airships warily... of dirt shark make, presumably? So they clearly had decent propellers, but... "Okay, I dunno if we should get close to those either... Do we send a flyer to say hello now?"
Clashing Gale had stayed quiet as the alarm went up and the others panicked. Seeing the two airships down there, he just shook his head as the prospects for a quick escape evaporated. Poking his head into the little cockpit, he said "Well, so much for finding a landing zone and diving down there to talk... lovely." Considering Summer's suggestion for a moment, he nodded: "If that's the way you think we should go, I'll try and glide over."
Summer Scribe regarded the batpony nervously. "It's not how I pictured it, but right now I think it's our best shot! Good luck?"
"Well I think you should talk to them," Nutmeg said, looking at the distant ship revving up its engines, "Those barges are slow as beans though, I can tell just from looking at them. Problem is if we outrun them now, they'll be even harder to approach in the future. How good are you at dodging cannon balls? You two think you can risk it?"
"It's not like we really have any choice, really. It's this now or we likely don't come back for... too long. So it's a risk we have to take." Clashing Gale noted, until he spotted... what on Equus was that?
As the copter continued to round the island, something else came into view, on the far side of a rocky projection. Something with a thousand steel parts that glinted brightly in the sun, that spread itself over both rail tracks and required a pair of steam engines to draw it. Something hulking and segmented, snaking its way around the island, masts and gun barrels poking out of its back like spines. If it was the land ship the gillfolk spoke of, it certainly deserved the name; the thing was the size of a half-dozen Harmonies joined end to end. On an oversized flatbed at the very back of the monstrous train, lay an aircraft of an entirely different kind; sleek and sharp with no balloon at all, driven only by a multitude of propellers, trimmed with gold and encrusted with gems.
"Gosh..." Summer Scribe turned her head to watch the chuffing and chugging and gleaming steel behemoth pull itself across the rails. "Amazing... It's bigger than anything back home! And it's carrying an airship too... Nutmeg, take a look! Whatcha think?"
"It's so big, I never thought it'd be that big," the kirin said, looking at the enormous train with wide eyes, "Just look at it. That's unreal! The gold gleams in the sun. I never thought... I mean wow. How much work have they put into that thing?"
"...Okay, we're not landing with that thing within a hundred metres of us." Clashing said. He emerged onto the foredeck and spread his strange new wings, mentally prepared himself for a likely treacherous flight. "Ready, Grenelda?"
"Good luck, you two!" Nutmeg Inferno called out to their intrepid emissaries. "If they start shooting and you can't get back, scramble for the nearest empty island to hide on. We'll pick you up in the cover of night!"
Summer Scribe waved a hoof as well: "Sorry this didn't go as planned - good luck! Do your best!" With that she went right back to squeeing about the Cool Train with Nutmeg. "Oh man, right?? I know it's total daydreaming, but imagine driving THAT right up to Drow Headquarters and unloading a full volley of cannons. Ehehehee..." The combination of stress and manic enthusiasm was too much; the mare's eyes rolled up and she collapsed.
"W-what's going on? Is something wrong?" Static Signal asked, popping her head out of the lower deck as Nutmeg jumped forward in alarm and caught the fainting unicorn in her arms, "Why's everypony flying—" As Nutmeg gently cradled Summer's unconscious body in her tender embrace, the red ruffed kirin looked over to meet Static's gaze with wide green eyes. "This isn't what it looks like!" she said nervously.
Clashing Gale just sighed, seeing poor delicate Summer faint like that... presumably due to stress. "Well... no more time to waste, this is just going to get worse..." With a few flaps he was off, heading straight towards the shark airship. He still didn't feel entirely comfortable with these new leathery wings, but he'd practiced enough to be confident with a simple flight like this.
Grenelda snorted. "Guess I gotta go convince some land-sharks to not blow us to hell. Well, can do." She cocked a beaky 'grin' and beat her wings, soon soaring alongside Clashing Gale. "Here's the plan: we won't be any nicer and friendlier than they are. We need to show that we won't put up with any shit. Got it?"
Clashing Gale turned his head to regard the griffoness, his companion on this high-risk mission. "Hey, diplomacy never was my forte. If you think the tough attitude and the like are going to give better results, then by all means..." Just so long as it didn't result in them getting shot at...
The griffon and the batpony glided down towards the air dock, where the armed airship had cast off but not yet given chase, just hovering there a little way off the pier. The pair approached the bow, staying out of the main firing arcs though as they got closer they saw creatures tracking them with crossbows and miniature cannons. The squat, powerful dirt sharks looked quite intimidating, with their rough, plated skin and enormous toothed maws, but they held their fire. Finally the pair alighted on the deck, landing in the middle of a rough circle of open space that the sharks had vacated.
Strange fish eyes stared at the newcomers. One of the creatures stepped forward: "You got a drow ship, but you ain't drow." he stated flatly. "So what'ya doing out here?"
Grenelda clicked her beak: looked like they'd got some tough customers! She was impressed for sure: more like dealing with other griffs, a relief after being around ponies for so long. "We got a Drow ship because we stole it from their sorry, grimy hands." she bragged playfully, finishing with a cackle. "'Then we came out here to do business. We're not going to lay a claw on you if you don't lay one on us either. Yeah? All good? You folks love to trade 'n all that, I just know you can't resist!"
To pony eyes the crowd of sharks seemed quite similar, scaled in shades of bluish or purplish grey with lighter underbellies, though they did have varying patterns of yellow spots. The shark who'd spoken stood out mainly due to his blue and white peaked hat trimmed in honestly excessive amounts of gold thread and clusters of gems. "Looking to fence your hoard, griffon? We ain't known for dealing in stolen goods, not that a broken-down, worn-out little elf runabout's worth an honest dollar in the first place." he told Grenelda.
Clashing Gale just shook his head. "Who said anything about trading our ship in? It's still functional, at least. Least you could do is hear us out, right? We're here for business, and you of all creatures should know not to judge a book by its cover, right?" He smiled a bit, trying to project confidence in his words.
Grenelda clicked her beak again. "Yeah, the ship's not for sale - cuz we got something better." Her beak gaped open, echoing Clashing's grin. "A real life Tech Elemental, that can solve all your problems - if we just get a couple of parts for the trouble."
"That's yer pitch? Hah!" The shark leader slapped his side, provoking several of the others to laugh. "'Cause I was thinking you were hiding some tidy little plunder in that thing, what with your crew hovering around all shy over there. But you just looking for an honest day's wage, yah say?"
Another of the sharks stepped forward, stating in a nasal voice "All new technicians gotta start at the lowest pay grade, whatever their experience. Union rules, no exceptions! Uh..." He looked at Clashing Gale "...and they gotta have hands. Or claws at least."
Grenelda squinted at Clashing Gale. What was with the sudden anti-hoof speciesism going on here? This'd never happen back at home! Geez. "Tch, fine. We can go along with it... but I'm thinkin' you'll change your tune real quick once Nutmeg solves all your problems for ya!" She fluffed her feathers, looking smug. "More to the point, we just need you to promise not to blow us or the Second Chance sky high, so we can get the rest of our party in. You game or is there gonna be a problem?"
"Lowest pay grade and hands or claws needed, hmm?" the batpony repeated, seemingly thinking things over. "What, you have a problem with hooves?" he queried, trying to get a feel for what the sharks were thinking. Lowest pay was better than no pay, but it didn't sound like that would cover the price of one propeller much less four...
"Look, Mister... uh, what sort of beastie are you exactly?"
Another voice called out, sounding like a mare gargling a mouth full of mixed gravel, "A spooky one looks like! Keep yer distance, sharks."
The leader waved the other sharks off. "So yer saying, you know all about Tech, but of all things you picked a ramshackle little drow copter to make off with. And now you wanna sign on for some work? Suppose yer gonna claim to be escaped slaves next."
Clashing Gale looked to Grenelda, shrugging a little as if to say 'Are they always like this?' Turning back to the shark captain, he vented his frustrations "Look, I won't claim to know the fully story - I wasn't there when my crew captured the copter. All I can say? You work with what you got available. If it's this damn thing, well it's this damn thing." He stared back at the hovering, buzzing copter, with its patched hull and hasty pink paint job... He had to admit, the sharks kind of had a point: despite Nutmeg's efforts it still looked pretty ramshackle.
Grenelda shrugged back, as if to say 'I know, right', before giving her own two bits worth. "Look, WE ain't the ones who know about tech. We're just the ones who can fly close enough without worrying about getting pelted with cannonballs right now. I keep sayin', if you wanna talk tech, we just need you to say we have free passage. Y'game or say you're not."
The bipedal shark in the gaudy hat exchanged a glance with the fellow who'd seemed so concerned with union rules, before flashing the widest and by far the toothiest grin the Equestrians had ever seen. "Yeah, why don't you just bring her in over there and we'll talk things over friendly like, get you set up with a deal like you wanted." He gestured at an area of flat ground near the base of the cliffs the airship had been docked at. "You got a solid promise from Captain Bellcrank that we ain't gonna charge you for parking."
"First four hours only! Then standard rates!" the second shark clarified in a shrill voice.
"Then we'll see what we can do with the time we've got, huh? Fine. Let's get back to the ship, then?" Clashing waved a hoof to Grenelda. He seemed reluctant to trust these creatures, but once Summer and Nutmeg got talking... they'd be okay. Right?
"Great, excellent." Grenelda tossed her head. Mission accomplished, just like that! A dramatic leap and flap of her wings and she was off, bringing the news back to the Second Chance alongside Clashing Gale. The way the hen figured, none of that arguing over jobs or whatever was her business. Nutmeg could just wow them with some gadget or other and get what she wanted. Easy peasy, as long as those sharks kept their claws off the triggers.
Back on the EAS Harmony a pegasus awoke in her bunk, surprised as always at the shift of feathers and the tug on her strange limbs as she rolled from her side onto her belly. She heard muffled hooves, ponies moving around on the deck overhead, but in her room she was alone. She still hadn’t cleaned up the top bunk, a part of her clinging on to the irrational hope that her bunkmate Cinnamon Swift might somehow emerged from that storm intact. Azure Feather had barely known the other mare, but her conspicuous absence was something most of the crew felt in some way, a grim reminder of the price they paid to reach this place.
Azure managed her breakfast as well as she ever had since the transformation, mostly just grazing out in the lush grass of the meadow. It wasn’t hay and bean casserole, but it was better than dropping plates. Bland fare feasted upon in a quiet broken only by gentle baahs from sheep around her.
Watching the Second Chance leave for the distant island was a bittersweet melancholy. It was unbearably frustrating to think that her friends might get in trouble out there, and she wouldn't be there to help. Sure, it left Azure free to train, to get good enough to accompany them next time, but she just didn’t know where to start. Her magical exercises only caused her to feel a curious absence in the smooth white diamond of fur on her forehead. At least physical exercises were possible.
The guardsmare's whole body felt different than before in inscrutable ways besides just the wings, but she could still practice her kicks, turns, gallops and stretching. Well, except for one part of her, which she wasn’t sure how to stretch. Her gorgeous if a little unkempt-looking feathery wings were a lot harder to figure out than simply letting the spell do the flying for her. She danced on that meadow, the open sky above her, trying to figure how to spread her wings, much less get them to behave as well as her butterfly wings from before.
Azure paused then, as she spotting a purple pony trotting up to her. The other mare moved with that eerie smoothness that now governed all of Cloud Cutter’s motions. “Azure!” the sleek purple pegasus called out, her face as expressionless as usual as she came to a halt nearby. “They said you were going to be training today,” Cloud Cutter said cautiously, as if it weren’t blatantly obvious that was exactly what Azure was doing.
"I don't have a choice." Azure Feather replied, staring into the sky as if she could see the Second Chance, forty kilometres away. "I already hate the fact that we have a group of mercenaries likely threatening our scout team, and I'm not there to make sure things go right. I'm not even injured, for Celestia's sake. Just... ineffective. I've spent so many years researching pegasus flight, every little detail, but... actually having the wings, well... it's not as easy as the books made it look." she muttered, frustration written all over her face.
"As much as I hate to admit it, I wasn't... the best student," Cloud Cutter told Azure with a self-conscious hoof lift, "I've studied everything there is to know about weather and air currents, but being a pegasus really is more of an art than a science. My team and I were selected because we were smart, and also because we put our passion into what we did. Being able to feel things out is crucial if you want to succeed. Like the philosopher Air Scholar once said, 'Unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies: to think, to be, to do.' You're in the second category now. Like, for instance... spread your wings for a sec."
Azure awkwardly unfurled her pinions; there were a lot more joints to worry about than with the butterfly wings, and actual muscles not just planes of magic. Still, they were spread... did Cloud Cutter want her to do something with them? The guardsmare shut her eyes for a few seconds, concentrating on her wings until the feathers shimmering slightly with Air energy. "Learned a few more tricks in the temple... but I'm still trying to perfect them." She still didn't quite understand what the other mare was getting at, feeling instead of thinking. Didn't you need both?
Cloud Cutter watched with worry as Azure struggled her wings open, saying, "That glimmer does seem... odd. Harmless enough though... Something left over from your training as a unicorn? You really seem to be struggling there."
"It takes some practice..." Azure Feather admitted, before tilting her head at her friend's comment about the shimmer. "Heh, I guess I should at least show you. Sunburn and I talked a little about how magic works here... without a horn, it seems an Air Elemental's magic comes from their wings... like a pegasus manipulating weather, perhaps?" By way of demonstration, the glow on her feathers brightened. Then with a slight flick of her wing Azure fired off a wind blade, cutting up a swath of grass nearby.
Cloud Cutter watched the other's wing, more than the air blade. Then she strode up and sat beside the pegasus on her haunches, curling her cool hooves around Azure's right wing, gently but firmly pushing on the fleshy-jointed limb from which Azure's feathers radiated. "Do you feel that?" she said, "That's your wing." Once again, captain of the obvious.
Instead of replying with frustration, Azure kept her cool; there must be meaning to this, Cloud Cutter was the experienced pegasus, she was still new to the whole thing. "Um... yeah?" she stated simply, trying to focus on the sensations. "Magical wings and these... they're not the same at all. Maybe... maybe if I could get my magic back... this insight may help me improve the Skyborn spell, but now..." she trailed off with a sigh. "Now's not the time for that." Azure concluded. "Alright, Cloud Cutter...?" she said, ready to absorb her advice.
"It's very important that you feel your wings," Cloud Cutter said simply, "These are not tools, or spells. They're wings. They're you. I'm going to move it around, so just pay attention to what that feels like. This is a wing." She proceeded to push at the joint, closing Azure's wing into a half fold, then gently extended it again, proceeding in slow movements, rotating it at each joint as much as it could easily turn, not even doing anything with the strange feeling feathers.
Azure kept her eyes closed, trying to focus on feeling her wings. "Sunburn also mentioned spell-casting with these is all about the movements, more than the thought pattern... There's potential for far more than just wind blades, I know it... I just need to figure things out. Not that it'll be easy..." She fell quiet again, trying to focus.
"Mmm," Cloud Cutter said neutrally, still manipulating Azure's wing, "Pegasi use their whole body to 'cast spells', so to speak. I say your wings are not tools because you are the tool, the... enactor of your intent." She paid a visit to both sides of the pegasus, moving her wings for her and saying, "Your wings empower you to... be the spell, I suppose. But you want a basic grasp of how to use your wings before you should jump to creating storms and spells. Now, I want you to try and resist me moving your wing. Not a lot. Just when I fold it like this, I want you to push back, gently stop me from folding it." She spread Azure's wing, waited a moment then tried folding it again.
"So it's not enough to simply use one's wings to cast the spell... you have to be the storm's heart, nothing less..." Azure stated, trying to wrap her mind around the concept. She would need to train physically as well, and not just with her wings. Cloud Cutter was right though: start with the basics. Listening carefully to her friend's directions, at first, she would struggle, still subconsciously treating the appendage like a butterfly wing. She'd spent years studying this anatomy though, and she quickly worked out how to stop her wing from folding. Things she should have learned years ago, really; she kicked herself mentally, no wonder she'd never managed to make the Skyborn spell more realistic...
"That's about right," Cloud Cutter said agreeably, "Don't worry about what you have to do, just worry about... what this wing feels like. Try pulling to resist your wing from opening, just to feel it. Good, now the other wing." After ensuring Azure was familiar with pulling as well as pushing, Cloud Cutter said once again, "Okay now resist it closing..." but this time just before the purple pegasus fully folded Azure's wing, she released it entirely, letting it spring back swiftly and slide to full extension.
"Simple, see?" Cloud Cutter asked the new pegasus with an empty-eyed smile. Similarly, when Azure resisted her closing the wing, the purple mare unexpectedly released it when still fully extended, and it rebounded sliding up into a neat little package at Azure's side. At last, with both Azure's wings loosely folded like that, Cloud Cutter backed away, standing up before Azure and telling her, "Okay. Now spread your wings."
With a little more experience and a full appreciation of the range of motion of actual wings, spreading and flapping them was significantly easier. These exercises felt like... physical therapy, rehabilitation... they were just what Azure needed. "This is still rather basic stuff, but I needed this... so thank you, Cloud Cutter. Much appreciated..." she trailed off, still tilting and stretching her pinions "Didn't even realised what I was missing." she finished.
"It's a start," Cloud Cutter said, not blushing exactly, but looking aside with a bashful tilt of her forehoof. "I don't suppose... I could give you some more tips sometime?" she asked hopefully, meeting Azure's eyes again, well sort of. "It's just so beautiful what happened to you," she admitted fondly, "I know we haven't known each other long, but it seemed like you wanted so badly to experience... what you are now."
"I might not be able to feel it anymore, but it would just kill me if you couldn't either. I've been a pegasus for a long time, and I'd like to pass that on, if I could. So I've been meaning to ask. You've done so much to help me be this... creature I've become. I don't suppose I might try and return the favour?"
A warm smile crossed Azure's muzzle at the thought of more training with Cloud Cutter... but it faded as the other spoke of her transformation, her mind filling with memories of what she'd lost. The purple mare was right, she definitely wanted something like this, but to lose her horn was still a heavy blow she had yet to recover from. "I'd appreciate any tips you could give me, honestly. Already, with just one lesson, you've hit on three things I've had wrong all along. In every attempt to make the Skyborn spell more realistic. So thank you for that, and again... I'd really appreciate more lessons."
"Oh, well... thank you. I'm just glad to have the chance to help out," the other pegasus said coolly, caught a little off guard by the outpouring of gratitude. "I wouldn't think I'd be of much help with unicorn spells. But I'll do my best to make getting used to those wings a little easier, and used to yourself, I suppose. Keep um, practicing folding and spreading them. I know it seems silly but it really is an introductory exercise, in flight training. The smoother you can move your wings, the smoother you can fly, and control the world around you. Thank you for... letting me be a part of this a little bit, really."
"Basic exercise? I'll definitely keep this in mind... as I mentioned, I'm a week away from a major operation. I want to be as ready as I possibly can for that." Azure stated, tapping the ground with a hoof. She was a little curious why Cloud Cutter seemed so keen to help, but... it was good to have a friend. "I'd be a fool to decline help from a master weather-worker, especially after you poked holes in my years of research in your first hour. But I'm so thankful for the offer... even if I'm no longer what I was, I still have a job to do. We still need a guardsmare here, and thanks to you, I can be that guard and not just some liability. So it... really means a lot. Thank you."
"Just give me a sec to work together a lesson plan, I'm already thinking of like a million things to tell you," Cloud Cutter replied pleasantly, if not eagerly, "I'm not a qualified instructor but I had a lot of qualified instructors in my time on this earth. So just hold tight. I know it's dire; the drow, or something even more grave might soon come to haunt us. If there was any better pony, I'd be fetching them, but I hope I'll be good enough. You really are a natural at being a pegasus. The rest of us born pegasi all had to learn those lessons too, once."
Azure Feather nodded softly at the mention of a lesson plan, listening carefully at the rest of Cloud Cutter's words and blushing a bit at the praise. "Don't worry about it too much, but thank you... I guess the research is starting to pay off, even if a lot of it proved.... flawed. Sure, every pegasus had to learn these lessons, but really... let's hope it doesn't get worse than the Drow, right? They're already bad enough..."
"Right, no need to be morbid," Cloud Cutter admitted sheepishly.
"Not saying it couldn't happen. Just saying it's not worth thinking about right this moment." Azure concluded. "Listen, I'll keep practicing the wing movements, I'll get back to you... maybe at dawn tomorrow? That should give you some time to build that lesson plan, right? Although... maybe I should try to keep my energy up... goodness knows I haven't slept that much since the transformation." She trailed off again. "I should get back to it, though. I'll catch up with you tomorrow!" She was soon off, still practicing her wing movements.
Cloud Cutter smiled as Azure dove into her newfound knowledge of such simple things. Then she turned and hurried off. There were diagrams that needed drawing, and props to improvise. By hook or by crook, she was going to make sure Azure learned how to truly fly.
The cluster of islands known as Triskelion Mine was a twisted mass of rock and dunes floating serenely in the sky, twined around each other and stretching for many kilometres. A colony of dirt sharks called it home, cutting tunnels into the rock and dotting the surface with their towers and factories. On the east side were the air docks, where two winged creatures had just paid a visit to one of the shark's ships. The mismatched pair consisted of a griffon hen and a batpony stallion, with permission to land secured, they now made their way back to the circling copter.
By the time the flyers made it back to the Second Chance, the dirt sharks had somehow communicated to their fellows to stand their weapons down. Cannon muzzles were drawn back from their gunports and ballistae pointed away, though their crews still stood ready, watching the little aircraft for signs of trouble. The enormous armoured train had puffed and squealed to a stop, the long, hulking bulk of the thing sitting on the twin tracks not far from the designated landing area.
Clashing Gale looked over to his griffon teammate, his tone appreciative: "Hey, you sure got a way to negotiate with those sharks. Not bad, Grenelda... not bad." The purple batpony chuckled softly, certain things would have been much tougher without her support. Griffons seemed to command some respect in these parts, while ponies were unknown.
Grenelda flew up to perch on the side of the pink-painted drow copter, forcing its kirin pilot to adjust the controls to keep the ship level. "Yo! You're cleared to land." The hen clicked her beak proudly, in a gesture another griff would recognise as a cocky smirk. "I think they're gonna want you to do some hard labour, Nutmeg, but I'm sure you can convince 'em of your talents, then negotiate a better deal. You game?"
The kirin was still at the controls, flanked by the engineer Static Signal and the recently revived Summer Scribe. She frowned as Grenelda rocked the aircraft, annoyance turning to alarm as the hen's words sunk in. "Hard labour?" Nutmeg exclaimed, her face falling, "They wouldn't even let us land without agreeing to a labour contract?"
"Ugh, really? That's a pain." Summer Scribe rubbed a hoof against her forehead. "We can't work day in and day out - we have things to do and places to be!"
"We do?" Static Signal asked in confusion, "I thought this was the only place we had left to be at."
Summer Scribe replied with one of her expansive hoof gestures, "I mean, like, more generally? We can't do this forever, is what I'm getting at. We're here to explore!"
"Technically we're here to operate the ship's engine," Nutmeg said a little crossly, leaning back subtly to place herself between Summer and Static. Her tone slowly changed to confused worry as she said, "...and nothing else. We definitely shouldn't go sign ten-year labour contracts with sharks we barely know anything about, but you distinguished scholar ponies are the ones who are here to explore. Not that I'm turning down a chance to explore. But if we have to sit here working all day so you get to explore... that's sort of our job, isn't it?"
"Don't say that, Nutmeg!" Static Signal told the kirin, worried about being side-lined. "It was a bogus contract in the first place. We'll explore this place no matter what contract those two made us sign."
"I guess," Nutmeg said, looking at the straw-coloured pegasus uncertainly, "But technically we're not here to um... I mean, never mind it's just a little weird being all adventurey and stuff."
Summer Scribe just sighed. "Hmm... yeah I think it'd be a huge loss if Nutmeg ended up toiling away day in and day out for someone we don't know. Like, we have to be getting enough out of it for the venture to be worth it?" She reminded the kirin: "We're only doing this because we need propellers, right? What's the point if we don't get them?"
"We're only doing this to find out what it takes to get propellers, so we can decide what to do later," Nutmeg reasoned, placing her hooves back on the controls. "So where do I land this thing, without getting in trouble?" she queried, looking vaguely through the windscreen at Clashing and Grenelda, now settled on the foredeck.
The bat pony had been listening to the talk of losing their engineers to the sharks and didn't seem too enthusiastic about the prospect. "Did this crew really get themselves into that much trouble while I was out?" he wondered out loud, looking at each mare in turn. "The more I hear about this, the less I like it. Maybe we really should have discussed this before securing the landing spot, but..." he trailed off, falling quiet again.
"Landing, yes. What landing spot did you secure?" Nutmeg asked, gazing down at the island. She seemed distracted as she informed him, "You were in a coma, so maybe you don't know: we lost the lead ship and like a quarter of our crew in the storm, all pretty much dead, and the ones who were left had a crippled, leaking ship, and a single grassy meadow for gathered resources, which we were trespassing on it turns out. It's objectively a miracle that we're still holding together."
"Think they're trying to point us to that spot over there..." Clashing Gale started, pointing over at the flat sandy area below the cliff-side air dock. "My team filled me in on the situation yes, though not in such bleak terms. One thing I'm not quite clear on though... how did we end up making enemies? We captured this ship from some bipeds, right? The shark creature called it a 'drow copter'. So... how much do these drow hate us now?" He asked bluntly.
"Ask Grenelda, she was the one who brought it back," Nutmeg said, engaging the throttle to push them forward on the blind hope that the sharks wouldn't shoot them down this time, "I just refurbished it. They attacked us, and now they hate us for not losing, that's all I know."
"So they hate us. Gotcha. Hmm..." Clashing Gale concluded with a nod. He considered asking the griffon hen about it, but she was back at the bow, one claw on the harpoon launcher as she stared intently down at the approaching landscape. Best not disturb her. Their situation seemed even worse than he'd thought: he wished now he'd asked around more before coming out here, though if anything they needed him on the front lines more than ever. After all as the leader of the storm piercer team, he had to take some responsibility for getting them all into this situation in the first place.
"Are you really sure you're okay with indefinite indentured servitude, Nutmeg?" Summer tilted her head, looking a bit exasperated towards Nutmeg as they made their approach. "We're ponies! We can do more than just work to the bone! We've got way more to offer than just another labourer or two. Shouldn't we lead with our best hoof forward?"
"Hey take it easy. I didn't say I'd be okay with indefinite servitude without getting paid!" the distracted kirin replied, "Just that if they want work, they can get it. We're only here to look today though, so don't worry I won't be abandoning you or anything."
Under Nutmeg's guidance, the Second Chance made a slow approach towards the barren landing area. It seemed to be a deserted dust-bowl, flat and featureless save for a few bits of rusty, wind-swept junk and a scattering of low shrubs. As they prepared to touch down the calm was broken: stocky figures burst out of the ground, the dirt sharks emerging in sprays of reddish sand before staring up warily at the settling copter. With a final whoosh of dust it was on the ground, the rotors slowly winding down as Nutmeg cut the throttle.
The sudden emergence of the sharks caught Summer off guard: she jumped back a little in surprise. There had been no sign of them from the air... though given the name, she really should have seen it coming. "Alright, that's the welcoming party. Shall we say hello?"
Nutmeg was already moving: she called out "We're not drow! We just ended up with their ship!" as she hopped off the deck, eager to get her hooves on solid (albeit floating) ground.
"Stating the obvious there, miss... uh... no, I ain't even gonna guess." came a dusty male voice from one of the dirt sharks. "We got our instructions, old Bellcrank said you wanna make a deal, so you got yourself an escort up to the Cee-Eee-Oh's office." He stared for a moment. "Come on out, all of you. My mates'll keep your ship nice and safe right here."
"Just don't want to have to repair it on account of a misunderstanding," Nutmeg said to the scaly guy, "Still kind of not sure how things work here." She winced at the notion of escort, but it wasn't unexpected given how hostile these sharks were on approach. She was looking forward to the journey more than the destination though, because the journey might be her only opportunity to scope out this place and try and figure out what they really needed.
The destination... she wasn't so comfortable about. They didn't have a deal to make; they didn't have any bargaining chips outside of some crazy notion that she was a Tech Elemental. Sure, the whole business with the Skylanders suggested that maybe it wasn't a totally crazy idea, but there was also a strong possibility that these sharks already had their own Tech Elementals. How else had they build that super-impressive train?
Summer Scribe tilted her head, considering the situation. They were being escorted and she guessed that was that - it shoouuuld be safe? The unicorn hopped down from the ship and gave the lead shark a polite nod. "Pleasure to meet you all! We're looking forward to talking with Bellcrank." She could only assume a Cee-Eee-Oh was the tribe leader equivalent amongst these people?
At a nod from the first shark, two more had clambered up onto the ship and were looking warily at Grenelda. He did a double-take at the spooky batpony, "What kinda mutant are you anyways?" then turning to regard Summer with a bemused expression. "Uh... yeah so your griffon and her friend already talked to Bellcrank. Watched them flap right over to the Leverage, I did, lucky he ain't in the mood to shoot you down. We ain't going up there, he said Firesteel already steamed over here so would wanna see what all the fuss was about." At the unicorn's blank look he clarified. "Firesteel is the Chief Execushark of Triskellion Mineral Tech, yeah?"
Lost in her thoughts, Nutmeg blinked in surprise at she saw the curious shark peering at Clashing and Summer. As a rare brown-furred red-ruffed branch-horned sometimes-on-fire golden-scaled two-toed omnivorous kirin, Nutmeg Inferno was usually the exotic species, though she supposed batponies were fairly rare as well.
"...Yeah, alright..." was the only response from the Clashing Gale. His initial confidence seemed to be draining away as the reality sank in: aside from being called a 'mutant', with the copter grounded, they were at the mercy of these sharks. Triskellion Mineral Tech? What was this, some kind of massive company? He followed along quietly, glancing over his shoulder at the Second Chance before sighing and bringing up the rear of the group. This could easily go very badly for them... but what choice did they have?
Static Signal was the last out, the pegasus emerging from the engine compartment and leaping off to land beside the others. The sandy-coloured pegasus mare looking nervously at the new creatures around them. "I wasn't hiding under there," she huffed to Summer, Nutmeg and the others with a blush, arguing her case before the entirely wrong creatures, "I was just waiting to uh, watch the copter, you know, all... responsibly and stuff!"
"Well, you can come too," Nutmeg said uneasily, "This place is bound to be full of awesome stuff. But uh..." she eyed the sharks eyeing her and sighed, saying, "I'm sure it'll be fine. Just be careful, okay?"
Static nodded, giving her boss a knowing look before filing along with the others. Wings tightly folded were obvious to any onlookers, but she certainly didn't advertise them as she stuck close to Nutmeg protectively.
Summer Scribe tilted her head again. "...Err? We're all ponies... I'm a unicorn, Static is a pegasus, Clashing Gale is a batpony, Nutmeg Inferno... well ok she's not a pony but kirin are our cousins really. We're one of the most populous species on Equus?" She looked too confused to be offended, really. Her horn sparked a bit as she waved it in the air, picking up a rock nearby. "Our horns let us do magic. Well, a type of magic: where we come from we're all a bit magical in our own special ways. ... Uhh, does that answer your question?"
Grenelda eyed the surrounding dirt sharks with at least as much concern as Clashing. She couldn't help but feel like they were just giving up their ship and marching into slavery; how badly did they need those damn propellors, anyway? But she kept her beak shut, guessing the others wouldn't listen if she started raving. Ponies were so damn keen to make friends, they just... The hen clicked her beak again in frustration.
"Ponies..." the lead shark said. "Don't ring no bells, but if you're the kinda fancy prancy creatures that like hanging around in elfy forests, then I guess you come from way round the other side of the rim." He gestured with an arm for them to follow, heading across the flats towards the distant, looming bulk of the armoured train. "Magic huh." he said dismissively. "Like potions and curses and books o' spells? Folk don't hold with that stuff round here, can't depend on it like gears and gunpowder."
Summer Scribe narrowed her eyes at 'fancy and prancy' - really? - but there was no point protesting. Instead she just trotted along and continued to work on her sales pitch. "Mm-hhmmm! Not only do we know magic, we've practically made it into a science! We make spellbooks and enchantments and we pass it down from generation to generation at academies. In that sense it's just as figured out as your tech!" the unicorn said, perhaps bragging a little.
"There's still merit to all this, though. Technology is capable in its own way, and yours looks particularly impressive." Clashing Gale remarked, trotting faster to catch up with the unicorn. Maybe they needed to emphasise their strengths, but there was no sense in putting down their host's way of life... and wasn't the Storm Piercer a mix of magic and tech, anyway? He wanted to help with the negotiations, but... he just couldn't stop thinking of scenarios where this all ended in disaster.
Following close behind, Nutmeg looked thoughtfully up at her own horn and then forward at the shark leading them. Thinking fast, she remarked casually to Summer, "If you're gonna tell these people all about how to uh, use you, then there's no need to exaggerate. You were just telling me the other day how much you respected technology and wished magic was half as dependable. Right after the magic failed, and we had to get through that storm on technology alone, remember?"
Summer Scribe seemed crestfallen as Nutmeg took the wind out of her braggard sails. "...Yeah, true. I mean, it was a bit of a once-in-a-lifetime event, but the tech did work and the magic didn't... kinda. I mean, I sort of restarted it but yeah... we still don't grok how the magic works here compared to back at home..." Now it was Summer's turn to lose her confidence; the little unicorn fell silent as they plodded behind their hopefully-not-captors.
It took the Equestrians and their dirt shark escorts about ten minutes to cross the flats and climb up the short slope leading up to the railway tracks. There they found a pair of enormous locomotives sitting side-by-side on the parallel tracks. Each was easily twice the size of the largest earth pony creations, billowing black smoke and white steam as they idled. The armoured steel cowlings might have given the machines an almost streamlined appearance if it hadn't been for the profusion of brass trim, oversized lamps and decorative fins.
A small crowd of sharks had disembarked, standing around and staring at the newcomers. Some bore the tool belts and soot marks of engineers, others bore long sticks disturbingly similar to Abernathy's shotgun, equipped with a sharp blade to serve as a pike if necessary. Their guide waved the other sharks off, leading them past the tenders towards the first car, a steel box the size of a typical pony house. The side hatch was open, with a folding stair to provide easy boarding.
Summer gawked at the engines as they approached. "Goodness, they look even bigger up close..." she murmured. There was something beautiful, sleek, breath-taking about the machines - as if the sharks were not just interested in functional devices, but had gone all out in building the most impressive vehicles they could. She warily eyed all the armed sharks just standing around... but why would they turn hostile in the ponies now?
Keenly aware of her own tool saddle bearing its elegant pony-made instruments, Nutmeg gawked at everything like a tourist. Static's tool apron was much less visible, but she was just as enthralled. Both took note of the electric lamps, the billowing black smoke turning the air acrid, the steel rivets holding the boxcar together... all the little engineering details. The kirin hesitated at the steps, looking up into the dark interior and remarking "Guess we're going on a train ride then," to her pegasus friend. The two didn't pause long, hurrying up into the train car.
Clashing Gale also gave the train a long and appreciative look. A far cry from Equestrian locomotives, the bulk and exposed mechanisms projected power, durability, opulence even. Quite different from the earth pony constructions they had back home, but it had a certain charm. Keeping a close eye on the shark's strange weapons, the batpony stayed close to Summer Scribe, boarding the train without so much as a word. Behind him Grenelda continued to look grumpy and twitchy as she tagged along.
More of the shark-creatures were waiting for the Equestrians inside the train, looking much fancier than the first group with their embroidered jackets and gleaming pistol belts. "That's far enough Flint," one said, "I'll take 'em up to the boss." The first shark glared at his superior for a moment, before sighing and stomping back out again. The Equestrians followed along through corridors and gangways, the decorations and furniture getting steadily more elaborate as they moved down the length of the train.
Heading up a flight of stairs to the upper deck, they emerged into a spacious room dominated by a long table of polished wood, brightly lit by sunlight streaming in through the heavy steel window blinds. Three sharks lounged in overstuffed leather chairs, bolted to the floor via brass swivels; one gestured to the numerous empty chairs, indicating the ponies should sit.
Summer Scribe took in everything with keen and clear interest as she was ushered along. The latent threat of their situation was almost nullified by the sheer amount of coolness she was seeing here. The unicorn perked up as she was finally shown a chair to sit on. ...Well, she'd do her best. Clearly not designed for quadrupeds, but it was big enough for her to fit completely into so... she awkwardly hopped up and plopped her hindquarters onto the cushioned interior.
Steady improvement in equipment and furnishings? Check. Better trained and armed guards? Check. Nicer decor? Oh yeah. Clashing Gale nodded weakly as he followed along: he'd seen places like this, wherever the ponies-in-charge let their greed get out of control. Workers were treated like dung, given sawdust floors and rusty tools, while the top tier got gold trim and daisy sandwiches. Well maybe the latter was just for ponies, but still. Three sharks that seemed to be the high-ups in this company... this was it. The batpony sat next to Summer Scribe, ready to back her up or try and cover if she said something wrong. Or try at least; he was still no diplomat.
Nutmeg also took a chair, wrapping her ropey tail around her haunches as she sat looking with concern at the quiet sharklike being, presumably the boss of this place. Static just curled up to sit on the floor beside her chair. Neither seemed particularly amazed by anything they'd seen inside the train: a lot of glitz and glamor covering over some battered, ugly, plainly functional machines. The kirin wondered how often this train even moved.
She looked like she wanted somepony else to say something, glancing at each of her companions in turn, but finally the chocolate mare said nervously, "So... this is a bigger deal than I thought it would be. Sorry for causing all this trouble. I can't think of any other reason we might be seeing someone like you on arriving here, so, I suppose you... want to know what we are?"
The shark who appeared to be the leader was relatively short and slim compared to the guards, with elongated greenish spots on his grey-blue hide. Assorted jewelled trinkets and an oversized platinum watch hung from his torso. "Someone like me?" he droned in a nasal voice. "Do you know who you're speaking to? From your blank look I surmise you do not. Pitchblende, Comptroller of Triskelion Mining Technology Corporation; we're the market leader in minerals and engineering services across the eastern rim, if you don't know that either. I trust you have a proposition worthy of my time." He sniffed. "And yes, you would do well to begin by explaining what you are and where you came from."
Sweat beaded on Summer Scribe's brow: clearly they're weren't dealing with some backwater village this time! Her introduction lacked her usual unflinching confidence: "We're ponies - and one griffon - from Equestria." The unicorn pointed to her companions in turn, confirming everyone's species. "We came here recently from beyond the storm wall and, uh, crash landed. We're looking to barter with your people for spare parts we can't make on our own. Some of us might look familiar, but trust me, we're not from the Cloudbreak Islands."
'So far, no missteps,' Clashing Gale thought, keeping quiet and concentrating on the task at hand.
"Crashed, you say? And now you need help to repair that..." the nerdy shark sniffed again "...aircraft of yours? I hope you-"
Before he could continue a set of wooden doors opposite to the main entrance literally burst open, admitting a new shark to the meeting. He was almost the opposite of the Comptroller, all bulging muscles and confident swagger. "Hellloooo and welcome, to the Exec-u-tive MegaTrain Hammerhead!" His face split open in a massive gaping grin of razor-sharp teeth. "What a crazy bunch you are!"
Sunlight glinted off the dozen or so clinking gold chains and medallions that were draped around his chest. "'Course that's nothing we aren't used to 'round here, our unique value proposition brings in creatures from far and wide, isn't that right Pitch!" He clapped the slimmer shark on the back with enough force to pop off a couple of his trinkets.
"Quite," said Pitchblende, wincing. "May I present our Chief Executive Officer, Firesteel." He gave the CEO a weak but admiring smile.
The larger shark hurled his bulk into a particularly elaborate chair at the head of the table. "Stole a drow copter, right? Realised the thing was ready to fall apart, came running here hoping we'd fix it for you?" He leaned forward, staring at Grenelda as if daring her to challenge him, before flashing that predatory grin again. "Hoping we'd ignore the fat bounty on your heads?" he asked the little unicorn.
Summer Scribe gaped. Holy cow! ... Or shark! Firesteel was just brimming with swagger and confidence, a larger than life force that filled the room! She couldn't help but feel a little timid as the creature focused his attention on her. "B...B-bounty?! Don't tell the drow put a bounty on us?" Summer was starting to panic, and it showed on her face. She should have seen this coming... but were the dirt sharks willing to cash it in? They could be in really serious trouble here...
Summer's remark drew a deep laugh from the shark leader. "Playing innocent, huh? Don't tell me you thought the drow, of all creatures would just let things slide?"
Grenelda, for her part, returned the gaze with a piercing stare of her own, glaring daggers but saying nothing. 'Damn does this suck,' she thought. The griffon wanted to let loose and rake faces but she knew how that would end, so the hen kept her anger bottled up for now.
Clashing Gale's composure was broken. Sure, Pitchblende looked like a leader... but Firesteel reeked of one. Things had taken a distinctly hostile turn: a bounty. Of course, these stupid mercenaries would do anything for a little coin. He hadn't been there for the attack, so he didn't even have knowledge of the drow that might help convince them otherwise. All the batpony could do was glower in silence, waiting for Firesteel's next move.
"The Shadow Hand tribe hardly have enough operable aircraft to write off the loss so easily." Pitchblende sniffed. "Not to mention the total loss of a warband demanding violent revenge. Anything less would be an unacceptable, going by their long-standing PR policy."
Summer Scribe smirked at that, and tried to regain some ground. "Sure, but you're not just going to co-operate with them over some bounty, right? They're totally nasty, and they'd, uhh..." She needed to co-opt the language and reasoning she was hearing. "...eat into your profits by scaring, impoverishing and in a lot of cases enslaving your target market, right?" She gestured with a hoof at herself, as if to indicate 'hey, we're in your target market too, I swear!'
Nutmeg smiled despite herself, rearing up on the chair to this fun new guy and saying, "Look, we need some good quality four-bladed steel propellors about mmm... three times the length of the copter's. Six would be ideal, though propellor three is mostly functional so we could do with five. We also could use steam piping, I can specify the length of cut. We have some damaged vents on our firebox, so hinges, iron flaps, you know..."
She went on for a while, before blinking in confusion at the harsh reactions of everyone else, saying, "What? It's just a bounty. Those pirates probably have bounties on everyone who fights them off, and good luck getting the drow to pay on their debts. They're disorganised and uncivilised and... completely untrustworthy!"
A worried look crossed the kirin's face then; as she met Firesteel's eyes she said: "I k-know you don't have a reason to t-trust us either, but we must be more valuable than the bounty the drow put out on us, otherwise they wouldn't pay it! We're here to help you and see if we can make it worth your while to help us fix our ship. That's better than just selling us for some one-time payment, right? Or are you guys slavers too?"
"Love your chutzpah, ponies!" Firesteel rumbled, ignoring the kirin's question. "But your hand looks pretty weak from where I'm sitting. Sure your average drow couldn't stick to a contract if their life depended on it, but we got ways and means of dealing with 'em, ain't we Pitch."
His companion nodded. "Their cultural compulsion to double-cross is quite predictable." Pitchblende said dryly. "With proper precautions, the risk/reward ratio of dealing with the drow can be made quite favourable."
Clashing Gale was still trying to put the pieces of this puzzle together. Nutmeg seemed to know a lot about the drow, and she hadn't even been on the squad that was attacked; clearly he'd missed a great deal during that two-week coma. Regardless, this was the crux of it: would the sharks go for the easy money, or gamble on a longer-term advantage? For a band of mercenaries, they at least seemed to enjoy deals and bargains. If they could just convince the sharks they'd be better mercenaries with the pony's help...
"Yeah. So you wanna make a pitch about new markets, better business partners... go right ahead!" Firesteel told the Equestrians. "Tell me what you got that's more valuable than keeping the drow off our backs for a quarter."
Nutmeg's ears flattened at her complete failure to warn everypony that this might happen, as well as the despairing looks on all her friend's faces. At Firesteel's prompt though, her ears went back up as she gave him a cool look, saying in an even tone, "Well, we're not here to make a sales pitch, but if you really insist, it's pretty obvious what ponies can do for you, because you guys don't have any magic. All that smoke will give any creature black lung without a soot scrubber spell, or a magical fuel booster to keep it burning cleanly on less oxygen."
"You don't have any levitation charms on your equipment, which looks like it was forged with a hammer rather than sculpted molten in a horn field, or melded in-hoof. You rivet things together instead of joining them. No space warping of any sort. All that beautiful design, but your machines can't benefit from the Magic Element at all. Well, ponies have magic. A lot of it. And they are very good at it."
"We keep the magic to a bare minimum, and you know why?" Firesteel shot back angrily, pointing a thick scaly finger at Nutmeg. "'Cause our tech's gotta work, all day every day, and keep working when you don't got a spell punk around, or when some cyclops is trying to hex your into next week." He relaxed back into his chair. "We ain't no pansy elves coughing at a little smoke. Maybe in Fantasm Forest you gotta deal with that ecomentalist crap, but this side of Skylands we got coal in our bellies and gasoline in our veins, you know what I'm saying?"
Pitchblende waited for the rant to finish before explaining "I think what the CEO is saying is that in our experience, the marginal benefits of magical enhancement don't stack up against the vendor lock-in and escalating service charges."
"Yeah." Firesteel said grumpily. "'Course we could solve that by bringing it in house. As long as they were permanent staff," he said, leaning forward and leering at Nutmeg.
"Oh sorry, I didn't know you could consume coal and gasoline directly," Nutmeg said in shock, blushing and looking away, "I guess you aren't losing anyone to that, then. My village had to deal with smoke inhalation a lot. We kirin should be able to breathe the stuff but... our bodies just aren't built that way."
Summer Scribe pulled a face: they absolutely couldn't sign over one of their important team members permanently! They need everypony to get out of this! She thought for a moment: it really seemed like the land sharks were resigned to dealing with the drow - if their weapons and tech was enough to trash the pirates, they'd do it in a blink of an eye, right? A scary thought given how much artillery they'd seen coming in.
Anyway, perhaps a military alliance wasn't the right track, but ponies could do more than just make the trains run on time. With the right motivation and some time to research, unicorns could invent a spell for nearly anything! So perhaps she just needed to open the door to intrigue and curiosity and see what slipped through?
Before anyone could correct Nutmeg's overly literal interpretation, Summer cleared her throat. "It's not just about what we can do to make trains run better, Firesteel: us ponies are masters of a wide variety of magic!" Thinking that a little demonstration would enhance her sales pitch, she opened her satchel and floating a coin out, letting it spin in mid air.
"We have unicorns, with telekinesis and spellcraft - we have pegasi, masers of controlling the wind and weather, even one who's been crowned a Champion of the Wind: maybe you'd benefit from changing the climate up here or there? We have undead elementals, a water elemental, even a tech elemental..." a gesture to Nutmeg "...and that's just the start! We've also teamed up with Spyro and Sunburn: we're practically Skylander approved! Any of that spark your interest?"
"Skylanders?" A short guttural laugh from Firesteel. "Like I'm gonna fall for that one. Haven't been no Skylanders since my grandpa's time! If you're just gonna waste my time..."
Meanwhile Pitchblende was staring at the floating coin. "...that's a Magic trick, all right. A full roster of Elementals, you say?" He stared at Clashing Gale, as if seeing the batpony for the first time. "Is that one of the Undead?"
"...huh" Firesteel followed his gaze. "Yeah, looks pretty spooky to me." He cocked his head at Summer Scribe, then grinned. "Oh yeah, I get it now, 'Skylander approved'. So a few of you elementals got together and now you're branding yourselves as Skylanders, The Next Generation?" His chuckle was like gravel in a cement mixer. "Smart move. Plenty of creatures ready to buy into that line."
"...and I suppose she's the Air elemental." Pitchblende nodded at the griffon hen, before narrowing his eyes at Summer. "So were you under contract to attack the drow? Rescue slaves? Or was that merely, hmm, pro-bono vigilantism?" He steepled his rough hands, staring at Summer Scribe. "And what exactly are you offering us?"
Grenelda's eyes shifted back and forth uncertainly... but she had to admitting she wanted the respect, maybe fame that would come with being an Air Elemental. Or at least pretending! So she just flicked a wing nonchalantly and neither confirmed nor denied the allegation.
Clashing Gale continued to hold his tongue, even as the shark's attention was focused him. As much as he wanted to say that yes, he was one of the Undead, that would only lead to more questions. Admitting that he didn't know exactly what he was or what abilities he might possess - that surely wouldn't go down well.
"Eh-heh, well, our flier team was just scouting the area, when the drow used their magical traps on them. Then they flew over and started the hostilities - we just made them pay for it. Besides, we really needed another airship," she admitted sheepishly.
"Anyway, that's beside the point, unless you're thinking of paying us to go after the drow. We're pretty much offering, well.. our services, as magical beings! You don't have to make any agreements yet - we just think you'd like to see what we're capable of! Opportunity like this doesn't come every day - you'd be a fool to turn a blind eye to tomorrow's innovations!" Summer pushed her grin to the maximum, which made her look rather like a used cart salespony.
Static Signal had stayed quiet, curled up at the base of Nutmeg's chair, but now she raised her head to speak. "You can't seriously think that slavery is ever a good investment." she told Pitchblende. "Before you enslave somepony, they might be willing to help you for very little in return. After you enslave somepony, they will kill you at the first opportunity, and be heroes for doing it. And it only takes one bad day, before you're the one in chains!"
The nerdy shark gave the pegasus an almost pained look. "You... really believe that, do you? Have you ever been to the core? Do you even know what the drow do with their captives?"
Firesteel seemed oblivious to any ethical debate, instead staring thoughtfully at Summer. Before Static could respond he sprang to his feet. "Pitch... a minute." the alpha shark said, gesturing at the door. "Let's have some refreshments, for our guests!" he told the rest of the sharks crowding around the boardroom, before striding into his office. Pitchblende frowned and hurried after him, closing the richly carved doors with a click. A long moment of silence, then a shark at the back piped up: "So... would you creatures like coffee, or perhaps rock wafers?"
Summer Scribe let out a sigh of relief. "I think that might have worked...!" Then blinked as she processed the offer. Rock wafers? Like real rock? She opted for the more palatable choice: "Coffee sounds good." The unicorn rubbed behind her head with a hoof, still nervous. "What do you think, Nutmeg? I feel like we're only going to go free if we make a convincing enough sales pitch... and we didn't exactly come prepared!"
There was no such sigh of relief from Clashing Gale: he was still blaming himself for this mess, or at least half of it. With a weak chuckle he reminded Summer. "They can still hear us, you know. Still... you're right. Should find out how good a salespony you are soon enough."
"Is slavery really that bad?" Nutmeg Inferno asked uneasily, "I've heard about it, but it's just where you make someone work for you without paying them. You'd really... kill someone for enslaving you, Static?"
"No, because they starve you so that you're too weak to fight back," Static replied, curling up again, "They clip your wings so you can't fly. You'll never be able to hurt anyone who enslaves you," she mumbled darkly, "They make sure of it."
"That— that does sound pretty bad," Nutmeg admitted, paling, "I don't know what we're going to do. We aren't even supposed to negotiate. It's just... really hard not to! We shouldn't have brought the copter - I didn't think it'd be a big deal. Since when do org- ...creatures starve other creatures, just for the sake of pirates who were mad at losing? Are the drow really that powerful?"
Another sigh from Summer, deeper this time. "Yeah, I wish this was just as easy as 'hi, we want stuff' and we'd figure out what the stuff is worth. But it really feels like we're fighting for our freedom here." She rubbed at her brow again. "It would be so, so convenient if we could take the drow down a peg... Everyone's deathly afraid of them, but I bet if we all stood up together - us, the gillmen, the griffins, the landsharks - they'd get wiped from the face of the Cloudbreak Islands. But how do we make them all see that?"
Grenelda snerked and clicked her beak. "Either we stoke their anger... get them really furious about what the drow are doing... or reveal a weakness . Maybe give the pirates a wound that bleeds so hard everyone can smell it." She bobbed her head enthusiastically, thinking of all the weapons the sharks had flashed: get their claws on a few of those, and then they'd be cooking.
That last comment drew a variety of looks from from the remaining sharks: wary, angry, even appreciative. The Equestrians fell silent as coffee was poured out and exceptionally tough biscuits were offered. From the far wall sounds of an increasingly heated argument could be heard, though with all the background noise on the train even pony ears couldn't make out the words. Finally the doors swung open again and the shark CEO strode back in. "So here's an idea. Why don't you uh... ponies... join us for a little field trip? Take a look at one of our mining operations. See if you can make it run a bit smoother." He flashed that enormous toothy grin again.
"Substantial, erm, untapped potential in that field, if we could reduce, erm, wear and tear..." Pitchblende said, looking harried. "I would think that if you, erm... consultants, could deliver a solution to our excessive attrition rate, the specified aircraft parts could well be in scope for your renumeration."
Summer Scribe looked over to Nutmeg Inferno, her face now covered in sweat from the tension. "...Whew. Looks like we have a chance then." She nodded and smiled at the senior sharks. "We'd be happy to give the place a look! I'm sure an outside perspective - and a healthy application of magic - will give you the results you crave. ... Err, to clarify, is it attrition of parts or people?"
"Glad to hear it! Can't wait to hear your game plan! Was getting stuffy in here anyway." Firesteel said, waving his arms around and completely ignoring Summer's question. Pointing at one of the sharks who'd escorted them in, he said "Our guests are gonna wait in the VIP Lounge while we get the ships ready. Then they'll be taking a little trip on my yacht. Clear?"
"Yes sir! Quite clear sir." came the immediate reply. A final grin from the burly shark and then he was disappearing back into his office; Pitchblende wrung his hands nervously then ran after him, closing the doors once more.
"Either way it sounds a lot better than getting sold to the drow," Nutmeg mumbled, hopping over Static Signal to nose at her worriedly. The pegasus stood up, managed to unflatten her ears, then the two stood there with varying degrees of enthusiasm: a pleased if pretty clueless kirin, and an engineer unwilling to leave her boss behind even in dire peril.
"Can you imagine if we could stop the attrition of people?" Nutmeg asked the other mare with a little elbow nudge. Static didn't respond, but her stony expression dropped as she blushed, not objecting to Nutmeg's suggestion. "You coming Clashing?" the kirin asked, looking hopefully back at the recently transmogrified bat pony. With a wince she added, "I know, it really sucks to just be dropped into this out of nowhere, huh?"
The Equestrians were left to follow the dirt shark guards down the stairs and through more corridors, finally coming to the 'VIP lounge', which was indeed a rather plush bar resembling a gaudier version of the Harmony's saloon. The swaggering security sharks assured them that it would take less than an hour to get ready, and offered them drinks to pass the time.
As they were lead deeper into the train, Summer Scribe let out a long breath, hoping this would turn out to be the start of things turning around. She was certainly impressed by the VIP lounge: opulent and luxurious to the extreme! She accepted a soda and began to sip, looking to see if her companions have any thoughts on that high-stakes meeting or their predicament.
Clashing Gale looked a little surprised at Firesteel's sudden invitation, but stayed quiet until it was clear they were actually going to a lounge, not a cell. Finally dropping his poker face, he climbed onto one of the seats and sighed. Static Signal's obvious fear of becoming a slave had only deepened the guilt he was feeling about letting them walk straight into this situation. Maybe that was no longer on the cards, but... "Am I the only one who thinks this is still a really bad idea?"
Summer Scribe mmms and responds to Clashing Gale. "Mmm maybe this approach wasn't the best idea, in retrospect... but we need propellers, and how else could we have gone about it? Right now we're just trying to navigate our way out of this mess without being worked to the bone or sold off to the drow, and I think we're doing ok so far."
"I just don't know," Static Signal said, shaking her head, "If they were going to enslave us, why are they being so nice to us?"
"Maybe they're not, and... they just have a really awesome place," Nutmeg offered, leaning on the bar with a foreleg, "That they just wanna share because they're awesome."
"There's got to be a catch to this, yeah..." Static said, looking at Clashing with a sympathetic worry, "Sure would be nice if these sharks were just a little... harsh at bargaining, but still just wanting to be nice and..." she spared a glance at Nutmeg, "...awesome."
"Can an awesome shark prepare you a drink?" the guard asked the kirin from behind the bar.
"Oh, uh, just, you know," Nutmeg said nervously, "You got any... ale?"
Alas the fancy lounge hidden inside the dirt shark's armoured train had no ale as such. Only slightly disappointed, Nutmeg Inferno instead sampled the shark's extremely bubbly lager, while Summer Scribe risked one of the complicated and improbably named cocktails. The group began to relax and speculate as to what the sharks were mining, who their customers were, exactly what their relationship with the drow was... until Clashing Gale pointed out their escorts listening intently.
After an hour or so the 'Vice President of Internal Security' returned, to lead them through the length of the enormous train until they emerged onto the flatbed at the back. There they were treated to a close look at the sleek, sharp-nosed aircraft they'd seen earlier: the Executive Air Yacht Exocosus, as Firesteel proudly informed them. The ship was a riot of counter-rotating propellors and protruding chromed engine parts, her blue hull adorned in gold trim and flame decals. It might have been a total showboat if not for the menacing pair of cannon slung beneath the nose.
"Well, certainly if we wanted airship parts we know who to come to!" Summer Scribe mused out loud as she trotted up the stairs onto the extravagant shark ship. Its chrome and swishing magnificence definitely stood to impress, though the flame decals and cannons gave it a bit of a patchwork 'throw everything awesome into a pit and mix it up and see what happens' aesthetic.
Soon the visitors were escorted up onto the deck, the radial engines roared into life and the craft was lifting into the sky. They headed north, on a bearing almost directly opposite Blissful Pastures and the EAS Harmony. Following some way behind was one of the shark's more conventional airships. It wasn't the heavily armed one that had made ready to repel the Second Chance, but rather a beaten-up barge of a ship with a heavily patched balloon and a few rusty cannon on deck.
Summer happily imagined how things would be going if they weren't strapped for resources and had access to this! Maybe with slightly more taste, but still. Her lofty expectations were brought back down to earth when she got a good look at the more conventional airship. A reminder that only the important creatures got something as impressive as the Exocosus - and that wasn't them, at least not yet.
Many kilometres to the west, a floating island presented rolling moors covered in bracken and broken by weathered granite cliffs, while to the north east a huge expanse of golden desert shimmered in a heat haze, the glints of a river barely visible near the centre. The dirt shark pilot steered a course between them, continuing north towards their destination.
Peering through the raked glass windshield of the air yacht, the ponies could see a landmass bigger than any they'd seen in the Cloudbreaks so far. It was shaped like a cross, with four arms radiating from a central core. Two were roughly on a level, forming a long river valley that stretched from rocky wasteland at one end through forests and marshes to grassy plains at the other end. The desolate end boasted an enormous crater, as if an entire mountain had been blasted away, while the opposite arm bore a more enticing sight; a cluster of regular stone forms suggesting a large town. Smaller islands floated nearby, the largest also crowned by structures of some kind.
Of the island's other two arms, one rose high into the air and widened out into a flat, sandy plateau. Save for an oasis in one corner, it was barren of vegetation but dotted with hundreds of sizable stone pillars, apparently natural formations - yet Summer's eye was drawn to the centre, where an enormous pyramid of smooth white stone rose from the sands.
The final arm plunged low beneath the rest of the island and was covered in thick jungle; so thick in fact that when the peninsula ended in a scattering of jagged islets, both the vegetation and the river delta feeding it just continued into the sky, floating in space. The tips of several structures poked up through the canopy, suggesting another complex hidden below.
"Yeah, so that's Fellis." Firesteel said with a twinkle in his eye. "Guessing from the look on your faces that this'll be your first visit."
"It's so big..." Nutmeg said in awe, her little yellow hooves pressed up to the glass as she stared outside.
"It sure is big for an island!" the sandy pegasus Static Signal agreed, staring at the excavation, "Did you sharks seriously mine out an entire mountain? I don't think there's any magic that can pull another one of those out of a hat."
"That ain't what we're here for." Firesteel said, frowning as he followed Static's gaze to the crater. "Good scrap down there, but not worth getting your scales singed." he told the pegasus, before turning to Summer Scribe.
The little unicorn was gaping in appreciation at the landmass filling the window: "Wow, it's huge!" she squeed. "Looks really built up, too. Check out the city there, and... wait, is that an honest-to-Somnambula pyramid? Oooo..." And as everypony knew, Pyramid meant Treasure. And culture, to boot! "What's with all those uhh... rock formations? ...scattered around it?" Her mind was brimming with possibilities. The rest of the island got a brief scan, but now her full attention was focused on the local maxima of intrigue.
"Yeah, so you can see those pillars?" he pointed at the upper part of the island. "Veins of pure uberite, exposed and ripe for the taking. The one thing elves and trolls'll both sell their own mothers for. Sometimes a few shards of traptanium too. Now that's worth our time." The CEO's grin was wide and predatory. "So you like pyramids, huh?" The shark leaned down to the pony and whispered. "You might like this one a lot less when you see it close up."
Summer Scribe gawked. "Uberite? Traptanium? ..." She paused, sheepish. "I don't know what their properties are but they sound super cool. But wait a sec, if they're just standing there why haven't you strip mined them all?" The pyramid must have some hidden nasty feature, she thought; likely it wouldn't be long before they saw it in action...
"Some sort of a force field?" Nutmeg Inferno mused, looking longingly at the metallic glints, "Or the pyramid has protectors who also happen to be protecting the uberite? Definitely wouldn't expect to see something like that going unused..."
"At least we don't have to conjure up a mountain," Static Signal grumbled, rearing up beside the kirin to look out the window.
Clashing Gale took it all in with a cool gaze: while everypony else seemed excited and then some, the batpony wasn't impressed. Sure, it was a giant floating island, full of strange wonders no doubt - but after everything that had happened since he'd woken up, he felt like he was at his limit for novelty and weirdness, and pouring on even more just felt numb. It all seemed like a distraction from the key question: what did these shark creatures want? Firesteel might have temporarily charmed Summer and Nutmeg, but it wasn't like these creatures were trustworthy.
"So we're here to gather some... Uberite and Traptanium? That's going to be more of a challenge than they're letting us know." the purple batpony remarked, his manner aloof and disengaged.
Firesteel didn't notice; he'd strode over to the helm and was squinting at the terrain. "Set her down in the usual place." he told the pilot.
"Yes sir!" the much smaller shark replied smartly. "Can't see any natives lurking about, sir. Uh... guess we won't be using the guns then?" she said, sounding vaguely disappointed.
"Yeah." the CEO replied. "On the bright side, I won't have to listen to Pitch yammer on about how much the ammo costs."
The next moment he was spreading his arms expansively and winking at the ponies (and griffoness), saying "So you lucky representatives of Skylanders, Next Generation, Inc - not only do you get a free trip on an executive sky yacht, I'm offering you a free tour on my executive monster truck as well! See the sights, check out that big ol' pyramid that's got you wondering. Who's game?"
"You're trucking monsters around?" Static Signal declared, surprise and worry creeping back into her eyes. The pegasus turned to stare at the CEO: "Are they caged up somewhere? Planning on releasing them here or... something?"
Summer Scribe grimaced at the implication of using live ammo to clear out natives, but complaining didn't seem productive just then. Instead she happily accepted the offer: "Oooh, yeah! I wanna see what this pyramid 'biz is about." Inquiring unicorns wanted to know!
Grenelda scrunched up her face, conflicted between her desire to see what the ship's weapons could do and the shark's willingness to shoot up random creatures. She shrugged: "Think I'll pass." Rebelling in her small way.
Firesteel gave a low rumbling laugh below clapping the pegasus on the back, making her stagger and almost lose her balance. "I like you, tiny horse!" he declared, before snorting at the griffon. "Suit yourself."
"I will definitely accept that offer," Nutmeg said confidently, striding up to the leader of the bipedal sharks. "Really curious to take a closer look at that metal ore... and this 'monster truck'?"
Clashing mirrored Grenelda's shrug. "Go ahead, guys. Think I'll stick with the crew back here." he muttered. "Not clear what we're supposed to be doing here."
As usual Firesteel ignored the batpony, instead beaming at the kirin, saying enthusiastically "Oh yeah, Megalodon's got twin blown V8s fore and aft driving separate transaxles, high-lift shocks and-"
"Uh, sir, are you sure you want to do this personally? You know Pitchblende will..." the crewshark's voice trailed off as Firesteel glared at him, biceps rippling and knuckles cracking as if he was about to punch the poor fellow's lights out. "...be totally fine with it, I'm sure!" the flunky squeaked.
"Yeah." the CEO said. "I'm gonna show you... and our guests... how it's done. Right this way." he directed, gesturing for everyone to follow him down a short corridor and flight of stairs to the air yacht's cargo hold.
The sizable space was stuffed full of the most ostentatious wheeled vehicle the Equestrians had ever seen; knobbly rubber wheels twice the size of a pony, curvy metal bodywork covered in yet more flame decals, unnecessary fins and spotlights and chromed exhausts sticking out in all directions. The cabin was so high off the ground that a ladder was needed to access it, presenting no difficulty for the pegasus but some issues for the unicorn.
Nutmeg gazed up silently at the magnificent vehicle, while Static took a more hooves-on approach, trotting up to it and poking at one of the tires. Her nose twitching, she says "This is a rubber tire! It's huge!"
"It's amazing!" Nutmeg agreed, heading over and scooting right up the ladder with her opposable hooves. "Wow, look at all the controls! And polished chrome!"
Summer was keyed up, excitement and anticipation building as she followed along behind Firesteel. She did a double-take at the sheer opulence of their ride - though she should really expect that now from the 'Executive' landsharks - then came face to face with her biggest foe yet... a ladder? A ridiculous one, completely vertical with round polished rungs that offered no purchase for a hoof. She squinted at it, blinking. "How is someone supposed to climb this thing...?" She fumbled at it with her hooves, puzzled to finding no grip forthcoming.
Static Signal looked up to Nutmeg, then looked over to the CEO, feeling like she was missing something important here, asking, "Is that why you have the monsters? You'd need a huge beast to pull this thing!"
"Heh, she's a beauty ain't she." Firesteel soaked up the admiration from the engineers, before frowning at Static Signal. "Yeah now you're just stretching. Get some new material. Oh, and uh..." he looked down at Summer "...someone give that one a lift." With that the executive shark hauled himself up into the cabin and dropped into the driver's seat with a squeak of rough scales on leather. Another crewmember grabbed the unicorn's barrel, hauling her up and dropping her next to the driver before taking position in the rear.
Back in the bridge, Grenelda and Clashing looked on as the pilot brought the flashy aircraft down for a landing. She headed for in a hilly area just beyond the sandy plain bearing the rock columns and looming pyramid, settling into a narrow canyon. The rear ramp dropped down, ready for the truck to drive out; Firesteel pressed a button and the twin engines roared into life, before settling to a loud burble.
Static skipped the ladder of course, settling down in the back seat, albeit also peering curiously at the complex looking controls for some sort of machine. As the roaring rumble started, she said in utter confusion, "It's a... rock tumbler? What the hay is going on here?"
"Woah! Hey, I nearly figured that out on my own," Summer Scribe half-complained. She was thinking of trying a wallrun. maybe using the steps as leverage before a burly shark just went and wrapped his arms around her barrel! But... maybe this wasn't meant to be a puzzle and she was overthinking things again. The unicorn distracted herself by investigating the truck's cabins, taking in all the mysterious gauges and controls, before getting excited all over again at she felt the quiver of the roaring engine through her hooves. "Ooooh! I think it's self-powered? I don't know the specifics!" Summer admitted sheepishly.
"There's something shaking in it!" Static called out in response, "Like it's tumbling a bunch of rocks around in there!"
"Some kind of engine? Rock tumbler!?" Firesteel snorted. "Show some respect! You're listening to twenty-one litres of supercharged, sixty-four-valve internal combustion! And what a glorious sound it is!" With a loud clunk he yanked the gear shift into reverse and pumped the accelerator, causing the monster truck to surge out of the hold and vault off the end of the ramp, landing heavily in the pebble-strewn canyon below. Oversize shocks absorbed the impact, while the hovering air yacht bobbed upwards as the weight was removed.
Static Signal gave a mighty squeak as the monstrous beast lurched backwards, sending her falling forward off the back seat in a flurry of uncoordinated feathers. Nutmeg made sure to bite her tail when the pegasus of course took off as the truck dropped out from under her, then Static flopped back in the seat as the vehicle just gunned along like a land-bound rocket.
Summer Scribe didn't grok the jargon, but she picked up enough from the tone of voice and context to guess that would be really impressive to an engineer. "Oooh, neat!" she said politely... before letting out a tiny scream as the truck made even more monstrous noises, living up to its name as they suddenly accelerated backwards into a brief moment of freefall. Summer braced her hooves against the dash as the ground rushed towards them - thud!
Firesteel amused himself (and incidentally, his passengers) doing donuts and powerslides in the canyon, while the Exocosus pulled away and the beaten-up cargo airship came down to unload its own vehicles. Two more trucks joined the group, looking much more industrial with their exoskeletal frames of thick steel tubing, rusting bodies of sharp-edged sheet metal, and enormous toothed scoops out front instead of the elaborate chromed grill of the Megalodon. Black smoke spewed from their exhausts as they followed their CEO towards the ravine's exit.
Summer was thoroughly spooked, but as it became clear that Firesteel was having a grand old time and nopony was hurt, her terror turned to giggles of mirth as the pilot just showed off. "Damn, can this thing move!" she yelled over the engine noise, laughing with glee! Seeing the other airship coming in, she peered at the other trucks emerging from its hold.
'Now those ones mean business!' the unicorn thought, 'Mining business, that is!' They looked solid enough to just bowl the pillars over and extract what they wanted from the remains. In the back seat Static's eyes were wide as dinner plates as she hung onto the back seat for dear life. The monster truck roared along at the head of the forming convoy, powering north out of the canyon.
Watching the trucks race along from the relative safety of the air yacht's bridge, Clashing Gale just sighed lightly. "Hope they know what they're doing..." he muttered, looking ahead to the ominous white pyramid. He wanted to say more to Grenelda, but with so many sharks within earshot, it wouldn't do to go blurting out his suspicions.
It seemed like there was a road here, once, from the scattered patches of cobblestones where the wind had scoured away the sand. The three trucks sped north towards the pyramid, their oversize tyres kicking up plumes of dust that mixed with the smoke from their exhausts to completely obscure rearward vision. Now they were heading across the plan and through the rock pillars: each towering above their truck and showing clear striations of sparkling turquoise through their brown rock.
Firesteel made no move towards them, instead heading straight for the pyramid. "Any second now..." he said cryptically. Summer stared out of the windscreen, scoping out the monument. Aside from the smooth limestone of the pyramid itself, there were two large forms standing out the front... statues, hard to make out from two kilometres away but possibly... centaurs? A flicker of light drew her eye, right at the apex of the structure, something glowing purple, brighter and brighter as if-
Suddenly the truck swerved hard to the left, drifting out of the way as a dazzling beam of purple light stabbed out from the pyramid. Energy burned into the sand where the truck would have been, melting it into glass which immediately shattered as a wave of concussive forces blasted out a new ditch.
"Still got it!" Firesteel laughed with glee. "What I wouldn't give to mount that pretty little laser on my yacht..." He sighed as he steered the truck through the pillars, straightening out as he found a clear run. "Good thing the gunners are dumb as rocks: they ain't catching the Megalodon."
Summer's mouth gaped open as dare-devil driving defeated the death ray! Her brief pang of terror dissolved in the adrenalin-rush thrill of a properly executed manoeuvre, even second hand like this. "Woaaah! You didn't tell me the pyramid shot lasers!" She gawked in glee! "This is awesome!"
"This is the most awesome thing ever!!" Static Signal squealed over the noise of the engine in abject excitement, "You hooked a train engine up to a cart! It can pull itself! Why have we never done anything like that?! We're going faster than a gallop, even! Does it feed itself its own coal?? Those rubber tires just go over everything! We're flipping unstoppable!!" She didn't even seem to notice the deadly lasers being fired their way.
"Holy cow, I think you're right!" Nutmeg said to Static in comparable excitement, "There are probably pistons inside that we never even saw. There's more out there to burn than just coal! But who the heck is shooting lasers at us??"
"What lasers??" Static asked cluelessly, "Maybe it burns oil? Oh oh no maybe it burns alcohol! That would burn super hot if you could afford it!"
"Apology accepted!" shouted Firesteel, taking aim at a rock pillar and guiding the truck like a missile straight towards it. "Now see, our standard trucks run on coal slurry, plenty of that going to waste, but of course only premium gasoline is good enough for an executive monster truck..." The big shark's eyes weren't even on the impending crash; he was staring into the distance, watching the tell-tale glow reappear at the top of the pyramid.
Watching from high above, Grenelda had a different take on things: on seeing the laser shoot out and get a near miss on the lead truck, her feathers puffed out in shock and alarm. "Shit! Those sharks are sending us into a death trap. Are they stupid or do they just have no fear?" She looks increasingly frustrated at her lack of control over affairs.
"How about a little of Option A, and a little of Option B? Damn it, these guys are crazy..." Clashing Gale looked none too happy about the whole escapade: half of his squad almost got annihilated, to sightsee on a high-risk mining mission? "They better come back safe."
"Heh look, uh, miss griffon, mister bat... goat? Our boys know what they're doing." the air yacht's pilot informed the pair of spectators. "We only lose, like, a truck every other trip. And even when they get unlucky, the crew usually make it out ok..." She stared down at the drama below, carefully keeping the ship well away from the island's edge as it flew in a wide circle around the plateau.
Bat... goat? Clashing muttered something unintelligible, then fell silent again. He hadn't been on the previous outings, so wasn't used to the local's complete unfamiliarity with ponies.
Grenelda just rolled her eyes. "Ugh! The only reason why I'm not fully flippin' out is I figure Firesteel's bright enough to not go on a suicide mission, and the ponies are with him at least."
The pyramid finished charging up and fired again. This time the last-minute swerve served to avoid both the ravening energy beam and the pillar of rock; in lieu of a spectacular crash, the former bored into the latter, shattering it into a pile of collapsing rubble. "Nice one boss!" the shark in the back seat grovelled.
"Cheaper than blasting charges!" Firesteel crowed. "Best thing you can do to an enemy is to make them work for you for free!" His rumbling laugh was back as he watched the two scoop-equipped trucks heading for the rubble. "Now all we gotta do is draw fire while my boys clean up!"
Summer Scribe squeed in delight as she saw the pillar of the impossibly strong (presumably?) Uberite blasted apart by the laser. "Woah! Haha, that's great! You're using the pyramid against itself! I gotta figure out what it's shooting and how it's aiming when I get a chance..." She was standing up in her seat, bouncing a bit on her hooves as she took in all the action.
"I don't even know what gasoline is, and I don't care!" Static cheered, "Anything that could make an engine run like this is amazing!" Laughing with glee, she leaped off the truck. Her wings instantly caught the battering wind howling over them, sending her shooting up at a sharp angle into the sky.
"Hey!" the shark CEO shouted after his departing passenger. He glared at Summer, even as he continued to work the wheel back and forth. "Didn't she see the laser? Yeah we're the big juicy target, but if she gets close-" Before he could finish the thought, there was a jangle, a series of cracks and finally a loud thump from below, as something unseen entangled one of the front tires and ripped it apart. The truck lurched to the right, fishtailing wildly out of control and losing speed... but not fast enough to prevent it from running headlong into the base of a rock pillar, coming to an abrupt stop with a squeal of protesting metal.
Summer Scribe also concerned to see Static Signal leap out of the truck. "Hey, careful! You don't know what that laser's going to do-" Her shout was cut off by the bang of the tire being torn apart. It didn't seem like a hit by that laser or Firesteel running into something - more like a mechanical malfunction.
She managed a panicked "Yeeep!" as their ride came to an abrupt, slamming halt against the pillar. The momentum threw her forward, giving her a hefty smack against the dashboard. She shook herself out and forced herself to stand. "Mmmnf... Firesteel, did we crash? Is the Megalodon stuck?" The unicorn frantically assessed the situation: they were out of laser's line of sight, which is good, but the other two trucks were sitting ducks without them to draw fire.
Firesteel's head had hit the steering wheel and blood was leaking from a gash in his temple. He managed to clamber clumsily out of the cockpit, staring furiously at the crumpled, steaming hood of his vehicle. "My truck!" he lamented. "Those gutting kitties playing dirty tricks, I bet!" A variety of colourful swear words followed. "The gall of it! Sneaking all the way out here just to sabotage us! I'll level their sodding village for this!" he shouted angrily.
Nutmeg leapt over the side of the Megalodon, landing hard as she assessed the damage. "The axle looks intact, but the front suspension is knocked loose. I'll bet anything that it's jumped a rod. Tire's completely shredded, by some kind of spiked chain... must have gotten tangled up in the driveshaft."
Firesteel dropped to the sand next to the kirin. "Yeah. Looks kinda busted to me." he said morosely. "Smart trick, laying that chain out, just under the sand where a shark won't see it in time." Frustrated, he pounded a heavy fist on the truck, further denting the bodywork.
Fortunately, the rock pillar was between the monster truck and the pyramid, hiding it from the ravening energy of the crystal at its peak. Unfortunately, that left the two mining trucks wide open. One had already managed to fill its scoop and was heading back to the canyon, but the other was on a straight run towards the precious rubble. The purple energy lanced out again, scoring a hit on the front of the vehicle that burst both rear tyres and made it flip end over end. The smoking wreckage skidded to a halt, the dirt shark crew lying battered and unconscious in their seats.
Summer was still staring at the sky: her first priority was to find Static Signal. She spotted the pegasus heading their way, only to be almost blinded by the brilliant flash of the laser: she stared in horror as it smashed one of the other trucks! It looked like the crew could still be rescued, but she didn't like her odds of dragging one of the bulky bipeds through open desert right now. She turned to Firesteel, asking "What's the plan now?" Summer could only hope that he'd dealt with this before.
Seconds later Static Signal dove down from the sky, back-winging to a halt in the air by the disabled truck. "Oh no, what happened?!" she called out. "You have to run, that laser is going to hit you now!"
Firesteel didn't seem to share Static's concern: "Yeah, so... we've had plenty of experience dodging that laser. Hide behind a rock, burrow under the sand, you're safe, but the second you stick your head out..." He was staring into the distance now, watching the smoke billow from the wrecked mining truck. "Come on guys, get out, get out now..." the big shark said under his breath.
"So the Megalodon is safe?" Nutmeg asked, from where she was fishing around in the wheel house trying to get at where that chain was tangled. "Give me a few minutes, I think I can fix this!"
"I-I'll be right back," Static said nervously, then flapped up a pony length so she could swoop forward. She shot straight towards the fallen sharks from the damaged truck. They might only have seconds left to live!
On the bridge of the air yacht, Grenelda gawked at the disaster unfolding below. "Shit - really?! These landsharks don't know what the fuck they're doing." She winced as the flashy truck blew a tire and crashed into a pillar - didn't look like it would be going anywhere after that. "Alright, if you sharks can't do this properly on your own, I'm gonna figure something out myself!"
With that the griffon ran outside, spread her wings and leapt off of the side of the airship. As she nosed over into a power dive she saw a second laser blast score a solid hit on one of the mining trucks - now she'd be keeping an eagle eye on the pyramid, just in case it decided to track her next...
All of Clashing Gale's fears were being realised. "You're not keeping me away from this." he growled before following Grenelda's lead. That damned pyramid - one wrong move and the whole crew could end up vaporised. What possessed those sharks, thinking this was a good idea?
Summer Scribe's expression drooped a bit as Firesteel and Nutmeg assess the damage - sabotage?! Here? Why?? She watched Static fly across the desert with concern... but perked up as she saw their team mates diving to the rescue. "Grenelda! Clashing!" She glanced at Firesteel. "I hate to say it, but... they could probably draw the fire, if necessary?"
Grenelda's fixation on the pyramid was well chosen, as sure enough, the cap began to glow a mesmerising purple as it charged up. "Shit - look alive, Clashing!" she barks out as she pulled her wings in. The griffon threw herself into a steep bank, barrelling to the side just as the pyramid prepared to fire, juking and jinking away as the beam blasted right past her! The energy rushing past her body ruffled her feathers and made all her fur stand on end. It felt dangerously hot, but the beam lasted only a few seconds, then she was in the clear. The hen crowed in relief and triumph, imagining the awe on the faces of the onlookers below.
"That's your griffon up there?!" Firesteel said. "Hell, looks like she's already on it. Oh yeah, doing a bang-up job!"
Following close behind the hen, Clashing Gale also dodged and sideslipped away from the beam, although it seemed to be focused on the larger target, making it easier for him to stay clear. He should've been terrified of imminent death, exultant at surviving... something, but he just felt numb. Grimly, the batpony pushed on towards their stranded crewmates.
Summer Scribe grinned! "That's our Grenelda! We'd be sitting ducks against the drow without her," she humble-bragged. Turning to Nutmeg, she asked. "Any chance you can get us mobile again? Don't know what we're gonna do about this tyre.."
The other shark had managed to clamber out of the executive monster truck, limping and wincing in pain from his cracked kneecap. "There's a spare on the back..." he said, looking dubiously at the suspension "...but that won't do us any good if the steering is out."
"Yeah, if only I had a torque wrench and a prybar, and a hammer, oh wait," Nutmeg replied. She nosed into the tool harness still on her side and pulled out said tools, as well as some bolt cutters, which she took in mouth leaving the others sitting there by the twisted wheel. Squeezing back under the truck, she gripped the other handle in a hoof and squeezed until the rusted chain gave way, shattering one of the links with a crack. The mare pulling the loose ends out with her and hoofing it to the shark, saying "See if you can get the tire off. You brought a lug wrench, I hope."
"Uh, yeah, alright, lemme..." The worker shark fished a breaker bar out of the rear of the truck and began forcing the dozen wheel nuts off, one by one.
Looking over at Summer, Nutmeg blushed and added, "Uh, yes this is a simple fix. Any shark could do it too I'm sure, but I can't..." she nodded in the direction of the wrecked tuck "...carry those guys over there, so I don't know what else to do."
Static Signal had nearly reached the wrecked mining vehicle: the two sharks in the open-frame cab were sprawled motionless over the controls, either out cold... or dead. The pegasus fluttered fussily around the pilots of the fallen vehicle for a few moments, then with an anxious look at the pyramid, she leaned against one, pressing a big fluffy ear right up to his chest. A heartbeat! She heaved the bulky biped up from sprawling on the console, then stood on the dash itself and wrapped her forelegs under his arms.
Static grunted and strained, barely able to get him upright. She opened her wings and immediately things got more manageable, as the same magic that let pegasi pull air carriages worked to make this creature light enough to carry. Still he might as well have been a sack of rocks as she flapped into the air, bobbing there for a moment as she looked nervously at the distant pyramid. With relief she recognised the griffon hen flying cover for her, and began the arduous flight back to the others, the much larger shark man hanging comically in her forelegs.
A beaky scowl formed on Grenelda's face as watched Static's rescue and realised she'd typecast herself into the bait role. "Shit, the moment I stop getting that thing's attention it'll just fire at someone less competent. Guess it's up to me," the hen grumbled to herself - well, at least it'll be good flying practice!
Seeing Static Signal brave the pyramid's wrath to rescue one of the sharks, Clashing Gale shook his head. He guessed it was up to him to rescue the other. Why were they risking their necks for these sharks again? At least Summer and Nutmeg were safe. Continuing to keep an eye on the glowing crystal responsible for the energy beams, he began a series of evasive manoeuvres, heading for the wreck but cautious in case whoever was aiming that laser decided to switch targets.
He had a harder time with his rescue than Static, finding his bat wings somewhat less effective at negating the unconscious shark's bulk. Clashing made up for it with brute strength and a complete lack of pain, despite carrying enough weight that his legs should be aching. One of the 'perks' of being 'undead', he thought, as he flew slowly after Static.
Next to the Megalodon, Firesteel seemed to stop and consider for a moment whether to lower himself to manual labour. Finally with a grunt and a few preparatory flexes, he grabbed the enormous tyre off the tailgate and set it down on the sand next to the shredded one. Looking around to see who was impressed, he spotted the incoming pegasus, doing a double-take at her oversized cargo. "Woah, you little horses are stronger than you look!"
Summer Scribe had been ready to levitate the spare tyre; she wasn't sure if she could manage it, but... damn! Firesteel was a hunk alright. She was grateful for the help, but she looked around sheepishly: a kirin and a shark who knew how the hell this thing worked, Static and Clashing pulling off a rescue, Grenelda running interference - she wanted to help, but they seemed to have it covered. Though perhaps... she rushed over as Static Signal came in for a landing, ready to check out the dirt shark she'd rescued.
The pegasus gently lowered her passenger to the sand. She immediately looked back to the upturned vehicle, terrified that the next beam would turn the other shark and his autocart into glass... but breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the dragon-winged Clashing Gale not far behind, bringing the other casualty. She hovered over to Firesteel, informing him "Yeah, we pegasi can lift... pretty much anything." Static's ears went down as she added. "I-I'm sorry though, your mining cart is just too heavy for me to lift by myself! We're just gonna have to let it get destroyed."
"Yeah, well like Pitch said, it's an expensive business." Firesteel said dismissively. "Huh, that's Ferrite. Is he alive?"
Summer's hoof had gone to the injured shark's neck, checking for a pulse again. It was hard to feel anything through the shark's extremely thick skin, but 'Ferrite' was still breathing, though his breaths were ragged. Bruises were beginning to swell up all over his body and one arm was bending in a way it definitely wasn't supposed to bend, the bones clearly fractured.
In the sky above Grenelda brought herself around in another tight bank, letting the pyramid get a good look at her. Once it charged up, she dove sharply and rolled into a steep bank, turning ninety degrees in less than a second. The laser lanced out again, sizzling as it ionised the surrounding air. The beam passed even closer this time; the hen winced as her tail felt a little singed, but she was still in the air. Though... looking down, it seemed like everygriff had made it to safety. Time to stop playing the mouse... the griffon glided down for a quick landing in the shadow of the pillar, full of pride at her fancy flying saving the day.
"That's what I meant by ponies being magic," Nutmeg remarked to Firesteel, "Even the pegasi can do some crazy stuff."
"I-i-it's not that... um..." Static said, blushing and turning away at Nutmeg's praise.
Clashing brought the second shark in, his toes dragging in the sand as the batpony struggled to stay aloft. The creature crumpled to the ground as Clashing released him, eyelids flickered open. He groaned and tried to say something, but only managed to cough up some blood. The red fluid clashed with his purple coat pony rather brutally, Clashing thought. "Oof... Think someone's going to need more advanced help here!"
With no moving targets in view, the murderous energy beam switched to cleaning up the secondary threat. The torrent of purple energy lanced out once more, striking the wrecked mining truck again. This time the shot pierced the fuel tank, hiding the machine under a billowing black cloud for a second before the pulverised coal ignited in an impressive fuel-air explosion. The conflagration scattered parts in a wide radius and left only a burning hulk.
"Third time in the last month." Firesteel said sullenly, watching his equipment go up in flames. "Still, even one load of this ore's worth more than an old mining truck - to the right buyer. Yeah, if we can drive Megalodon back out... we should still bank a profit on the trip." he added, the confidence and cheer returning to his voice. Now that it was clear they were still alive, the fate of his workers didn't seem to be a major concern.
Summer Scribe winced at the explosion and made a mental note: the pyramid didn't just hate people, it hates vehicles just as much. "Geez, this stuff is that good?" She jumped to the obvious conclusion: "Imagine if we could make the pyramid a non threat... how much Uberite we'd be able to make away with!" The little mare seemed positively giddy at the thought, already plotting her next adventure. "Can't be too hard, right? I juuuust need to get a look at it... Hmm, well, might be a little hard. But I'm sure it's nothing I can't figure out!" she said as she finished putting the splint on Ferrite's leg, winding the bandage around and around.
Firesteel stared down at the unicorn mare. "If you consultants can get rid of that beam, you'll be compensated handsomely, of course. I'm sure Pitchblende would be happy to negotiate terms." His predatory grin was back.
"Why are these pillars here in the first place?" Nutmeg asked, walking up and touching a two-toed hoof to the giant edifice that shadowed them from the pyramid's gaze, "Do they grow this way? It's a really inconvenient place to put a pyramid armed with a giant matter accelerator of death."
The shark CEO threw up his arms. "Who knows? My guess, the cats built that thing centuries back to defend their mining rights, then after the cataclysm - hah - they all went savage and had no use for the stuff any more."
Clashing didn't look too impressed with Firesteel showing complete indifference to the plight of his employees. "So you're going to leave two employees that clearly have internal injuries out in the desert...? Just like that?" he blurted out. Probably would have been better to keep his mouth shut, but he was already dead. Didn't mean someone else had to be.
Firesteel looked at Nutmeg, gesturing at the truck. "So... can you fix her? 'Cause if not I'll burrow outta here and come back with some mechanics." Finally acknowledging Clashing's presence with a glare, he added "Yeah and a medic, that goes without saying, sure."
Grenelda had concerns of her own: "And you think maybe you should have told us that this wasn't going to be safe? Summer, Nutmeg and Static could easily have been vaporised, if I hadn't been around to draw that thing's fire!" she grumbled at Firesteel.
"You get this straight, griffon; this was sabotage!" the shark said angrily, the gold chains around his neck glinting in the sun as he pointing a stubby finger at Grenelda and stared her down. "Everything was under control 'til that cast iron kitty litter screwed up the operation. Who knew those primitive screwheads were crazy enough to risk getting vaporised just to mess us up."
"Nopony's leaving anybody, Clashing," Static Signal chided him, "We saved them, so we can take them with us. Mister Shark here can't just dodge the beams in the air, so there wasn't anything he could do then. I don't know what we're going to do about a medic though... we need to hurry."
Nutmeg called out, "I think I've got the suspension bolted back together!" from where she was entirely inside the wheel house of the giant tire. "I just want to make sure it won't fall apart until we can get some real repairs done!" The other shark from the monster truck rolled the new tire into position, ready to bolt it onto the hub.
Clashing Gale just sighed. "Good enough for me. Let's hurry up and get these guys out of here. This one's not looking too good, no telling how long he'll stay with us." As for Grenelda's outburst... while it wasn't the most tactful behaviour, she really did have a point.
Summer Scribe was still pondering the deadly pyramid. Ancient cat defense system, you say? She wondered if the locals had any oral stories or maybe even books or cultural artifacts that could give clues as to how it worked... something to follow up on later. For now she just nodded to Firesteel: "I'll see what I can figure out!" Uh-oh, Grenelda's was really fuming over there: the griffon had turned away, looking like she really wanted to lash out but couldn't.
Summer trotted over and tried to console the hen. "I really appreciate that you dove down and kept the beam off of us! You helped save those two sharks over there. They're gonna remember that!" she gestured at the injured creatures with a hoof.
Grenelda spat. "If they've got that little self-preservation and care for each other's well-being, I don't know that taking a mission from them is a good idea. You really think messing with this pyramid is going to lead to anything but fried pony, huh? Remember we came here for propellers, and now we're signing up for death-defying missions! I mean I love a good fight as much as the next griffon, but we're talking vaporisation."
With the suspension fixed the new wheel was soon fitted and the nine assorted creatures squeezed into the enormous, ostentatious truck. The damaged front engine had lost most of its oil and coolant, coughing and spluttering as it tried to rev, but fortunately the rear one was still running smoothly. There were a few close calls on the way out: Nutmeg winced every time they swerved to avoid the beam, wondering if the tie rod would give way and doom them all to a fiery death... but her repairs held up and the Megalodon made it back to the canyon, where the Exocosus was already waiting to pick them up.
Summer Scribe was grateful for this thing having two engines - and a bit on edge whenever they swerved to dodge a laser, given their battered condition. Firesteel seemed to know what he was doing though, so it was a safe ride back to the Exocosus. As soon as they were on board the unicorn hurried up to the deck, eager to get a good look at the pyramid from above. "Hmm. I wonder if you can just break it with a strong attack. Or if there's some way to get inside the pyramid on hoof and mess with it..." she mumbled, notebook out and pencil levitating, sketching what she saw and thought.
From there it was a quiet flight back to Triskelion Mine, with Grenelda glowering in the corner while Nutmeg Inferno and Static Signal stayed down in the hold, keen to inspect the monster truck's drivetrain. Clashing Gale seemed as thoughtful as Summer, replaying the day's events in his mind. Should he have spoken up earlier? Or did Grenelda already antagonise the sharks unnecessarily? They was no way to deny it, they'd risked the lives of his crew, without warning or compensation. He would carefully weigh his next move, but at least for now, the crew was safe. No creature had perished, and that was the most important thing.
The sleek, sharp, fin-and-propeller-bedecked dirt shark airship slowed as it approached Triskelion Mine, a cluster of rocky, arid floating islands that spiralled through and around each other. The enormous armoured train had only moved a kilometre or so since their earlier visit, pulling into the centre of the largest cluster of buildings. The pilot guided the ship down to its resting place - a flatbed car at the back of the train - and the ponies disembarked into the 'VIP lounge' they'd occupied earlier.
"...and in the spirit of establishing a mutually profitable relationship, all refreshments will be fully comped!" Firesteel said magnanimously, as if this was a huge deal. "So don't forget to swing by the buffet car on the way out!"
Summer Scribe was... well, relieved that things went about as well as they could have after that shocking act of sabotage. Look for the silver lining, right? Surely their relationships with the land sharks would improve, now they'd stepped up and helped in their time of need. Though she got the impression that Firesteel would've have treated losing his executive monster truck as a bigger loss than those pilots. Hmm!
Regardless, this was going to open doors for them, so she showed her gratitude with a curtsey and a cheerful smile. "Our pleasure: helping's what we do! Thank you." 'And thank you for showing us that intriguing pyramid too,' she thought silently to herself! 'Imagine the reward for successfully disarming that thing... oooh!'
First bullied into working for these fools, then their lives hanging in the balance. Having to risk their hides to save these creatures, and now 'Hey, free drinks!' Really? That was their best offer? Ugh. Clashing Gale was less than impressed, but let only a fraction of that show on his face, as he nodded in agreement. Good thing Summer Scribe was taking care of the diplomacy - he'd have made his true feelings known by now, probably wrecked any chance of an alliance.
"Just glad we all managed to get out intact," Nutmeg added shyly, looking Firesteel's way, "It would have been awful if we couldn't save the Megalodon."
Nodding enthusiastically, the dusty pegasus Static Signal said, "It's a beautiful machine! I've never seen anything like it. A rubber wheeled trackless train car!"
That drew a guffaw from the burly shark CEO that jangled his numerous gold chains. "Back on form, little horse!" he commended, before nodding to Nutmeg "Not like we were gonna abandon her out there. Would've sent a crew out there ASAP. You filled in for them great though, considering your digit-challenged status and all."
"Digit challenged?" Nutmeg replied in puzzlement, lifting a hoof to look at it, "But I have two!"
Firesteel's hearty chuckle at that only left her more puzzled. "Guess that makes you lot suited to be a Skylanders franchise," he said, "The brand was always 'crazy-looking rag-tag-band, that somehow get the job done'. Seems like minority representation was a bigger deal back then." For some reason the shark leader shuddered, before waving dismissively and heading for the exit.
Nutmeg continued to stare at her hoof as he left, murmuring, "Well, I guess I am the only kirin, that's kind of crazy looking."
Static looked curious at his final words, but closed her mouth at his wave, and respectfully let the shark depart, leaving them free to explore the wonders of dirt shark cuisine. She didn't doubt Nutmeg would find something edible, at least.
A cheeky grin slipped onto Summer's face as she listened to Nutmeg and Static's free and open gushing. It's wasn't her area of expertise, but she knew a good nerd-out when she saw one, and she was definitely on board. She pranced after Firesteel, saying with a wink, "So, just to be on the same page... let's say we do figure out how to disarm your laser problem. You can become Uberite rich beyond your wildest dreams!"
"In return, we only ask for a small favour: some airship parts, and a reconsideration of how badly you really want the drow to stick around when could squash them together...?" The unicorn tried to look simultaneously diplomatic and hopeful, ending up mostly the latter.
The burly bipedal shark gave the little pony a canny look for a moment, before flashing his very toothy grin. "Glad to hear you put a high value on goodwill! Don't think Pitch would agree, heh." His voice dropped lower, "Look, dodging a laser is one thing, but... convince me you can do some real damage, then we'll talk about things that might need wrecked. Got it?"
Well, that was a simple and clear request! Summer Scribe grinned and nodded, replying simply "Can do!" How hard could it be?
"Great! Looking forward to it." With a final wink the CEO was gone, heading off into the train.
Summer turned back to her companions, a smile still on her face, though her expression became serious as she registered Clashing Gale's clear frustration. She waved a hoof and tried to address his concerns: "Hey, don't look so down! We just made a big impression on Firesteel. He's really opening up to us! You think just anyone can rock up and get free drinks? You have to look at it in context! Plus, I'm really curious to try more land-shark cocktails..." she giggled.
Clashing Gale could only glower quietly at Summer's irrationally cheerful attitude. Free drinks, something to look at in context? The supposed big payoff was just talk: all he saw was some creature trying to get by with the smallest possible benefit to get out with minimal losses. Maybe she was buying it, but he sure as heck wasn't. The batpony sighed; at least they were all together, and free to leave. Hopefully there would be no more surprises on the way back to the Harmony.
"So the boss said, whatever you want from the buffet, then I'm supposed to escort you back to your copter," one of the guard sharks said to the room in general. He was giving Clashing Gale an odd look, and made a strange gesture with his hands before adding "The boys moved it to one of the cliff caves for, uh, safekeeping."
"Cool, cool!" Summer Scribe nods. "Well, let me try out a beverage then I'll be on my way..."
After a thorough sampling of the buffet, and in Grenelda's case an excited and lengthy game of 'guess the mystery meat', the equestrians were reunited with the Second Chance. As promised the commandeered drow copter was sitting undamaged and out of sight in a cavern near the air docks. The flight back was uneventful, if somewhat noisy: Summer had insisted on sampling as many cocktails as she could, claiming that an open bar tab was a terrible thing to waste.
By late afternoon the little ship was settling back at the meadow, where Cloud Cutter and Azure Feather could be seen engaged in another training exercise. Happily reunited with their crewmates, they were faced with their final and toughest challenge: explaining the day's events to the Captain.
“No, no I’m fine. I just need to take a break. I take lots of breaks!” a certain red-ruffed kirin said, standing at the open door into the engine room of the EAS Harmony. “It’ll be fine. I just need a minute to think,” she told the unseen pony within. Traipsing out on deck under a sky covered in patterns of scattered fluffy wisps of cloud, nopony followed her out of the engine room so... success?
Nutmeg Inferno looked around, seeing that nopony else was headed her way, to ask her something or another. Her head sank as she said to herself, “They make it look so much easier in the manual.” Her spirits were not too dampened though, as she straightened up and gave a relieved sigh, happy at the chance for some solitude. The mare went poking around the deck, looking curiously at some unused rigging, then up overhead at the balloon. The clouds seemed to be turning... pink?
“Huh,” she said, striding along and following the clouds beyond the balloon and down toward the horizon, until the kirin reared up onto the ship’s railing, and realised, “Oh, it’s a sunset!”
She stared, captivated, as the sun peeked below the clouds just at the horizon, and the sky caught fire. Pinks and oranges played along the base of the cloud layer, tinting their fringes with the ruddy evening light. She couldn’t put it to words how it was so different from what she’d known before, actually being here, a little kirin on a big ship, enveloped in those reddened, dying rays.
Nutmeg watched until the light faded, and the stars began to come out. If anypony wanted her for something, they knew not to disturb a creature so lost in her thoughts. When Nutmeg turned around, there was nopony left on deck. The blue shadows of night were everywhere, and the sun was long gone. “Oh boy,” she despaired, ears going down, “I don’t usually stay out this long. I bet everypony’s gonna be worried about me now.”
Although the open deck of the airship was silent and empty, sound and motion were present in the grassy meadow beyond. Pony-sized creatures, white and extremely fluffy, were trotting about and bleating their objections to something. The source of their annoyance was a much larger and rather curious creature, composed of an avian head, winged torso and scaly abdomen joined by ropes of blue jelly-like substance, the whole supported by numerous tentacles extending from where knees and elbows had been.
Reef Skimmer the hippogriff, Nutmeg realised, looking as he had on that crazy evening after the accident at the water nexus. According to Sprocket, he'd been hiding in the cargo hold the whole time she was away, seen by nopony. At least he seemed to be mobile now, and willing to emerge from the ship if only under cover of darkness. He was definitely doing something out there to agitate the sheep, but in the low light it was hard to tell from so far away.
Nutmeg recalled well the incident where he'd transformed so terribly. She had no idea why he'd been so reclusive, other than that he seemed to think he was uglier now. It made socializing with him very convenient, but she was really curious what he might be doing out at this hour. Heading across the deck, down the gangplank, and through the quiet camp on the island's grassy meadow, Nutmeg peered, wide-eyed at the strange creature's activities.
She probably shouldn't approach him, but... as the curious kirin watched, realization dawned in her big, dilated eyes, as Reef Skimmer seemed to be hosing down sheep with a spray of water from one of the tentacles his forelegs terminated at. There definitely weren't many sheep left in hosing distance, now that they'd begun to wise up to the blasts accidentally awakening them in a most sodden fashion.
Reef Skimmer's ear tufts twitched as the kirin approached, but the sound of galloping, bleating sheep gave her cover, and he didn't glance in her direction until she was a mere wing-length away. The avian eyes went wide as he registered the spectator. "Nutmeg!" Reef shouted, leaping into the air and spreading his wings wide as if to take flight, before clumsily turning to face her, wiggling tentacles almost tying themselves in knots. "Erm, wonderful to see you... how long have you been... that is to say, erm, just give me a minute here..."
The hybrid creature's eyes closed and his form tensed, as he concentrated on trying to make himself more presentable. Painfully slowly, the quartet of tentacles standing in for his neck fused together, as did the ones standing in for legs and the thicker ones surrounding the void in the middle of his body. Nutmeg watched for a good minute as the blue goo coalesced and his proportions shrank to something close to his original form. True, he still had bands of blue goo around his neck and torso, his back legs ended in a child's play-doh approximation of hooves and his forelegs were still just splayed tentacles in the rough shape of eagle talons, but he was at least recognisable as a hippogriff.
Reef's eyes opened, embarrassed at both the obvious imperfections of his form and the time it had taken to get even that close. Ducking his head, he said "So, I trust... you are well?" Finally making eye contact, he continued "Winter Hope mentioned you'd met some of the native dragons? Went on a trip of some sort? I confess I didn't quite... catch the specifics, but..." He trailed off, staring back at the wide-eyed kirin.
"O-of course I'm well!" Nutmeg said, looking with amazement at Reef's transmorphation. "Yes there were some dragons, who were actually The Skylanders. We totally fixed their machine, so now they can defend against extradimensional incursions. Did you know you're not as um... separated as you were a minute ago?"
She stepped forward to look at the former hippogriff's bodily alterations, having a hard time making out specifics in the low light, but recalling clearly what he looked like before.
"Extradimensional incursions? ...good grief." Reef replied, stunned. "And I thought a bunch of murderous little bipeds were the worst of our problems. Still... you repaired another alien device, this one involving other dimensions? Truly Nutmeg, you are a remarkable talent... or tapping into the 'elements' of this place, like Azure. Likely both!" His beak gaped open a little in an avian smile. "Friend to legendary heroic dragons now eh? No need to court silly old griffs any more!" He ducked his head again. "Though truly, I may have been a little... unprepared, just now, but I do appreciate your company."
"Yeah, they said I'm a Tech Elemental, and it's really been helping me figure stuff out," Nutmeg replies happily, "They say it's like tapping into the collective unconscious of all the great inventors passed. It's not as glamorous as being a Water Elemental like you, but it helped me fix their machine, and I'm sure I could fix others. So you've been practicing your Water moves? It's hard to see in this light. I guess you're doing it at night because you don't want ponies to know about your secret techniques? I totally promise I won't tell."
Reef sighed, his cheer evaporating. "The sum total of my 'techniques' amounts to imitating a garden hose or making myself look marginally less monstrous. The captain, she... ah, perhaps you were there? She just 'wished' a book into existence, in hope of helping me! Yet even with that miracle..." He hung his head, continuing sadly. "Like a fool I imagined a cure, a way to reverse the transformation, but... no. Merely the tales of past heroes of this land... and past villains."
"Indeed, it described the fate of the previous being transformed by that cursed factory; reduced to an amorphous monstrosity, turning to a life of crime and conquest, repeatedly incarcerated in a magical prison. No hint of any way, any effort to turn this 'Gulper' back into the 'Mabu' he'd once been." The not-quite-hippogriff looked on the point of tears. "I'm not a... hero, champion, 'elemental', whatever you call it. Not like Azure, yourself or even..." he snorted "...Cloud Cut. As the book described it; I'm just 'animate magical waste' now."
“Nah, don't give up hope yet,” Nutmeg assured him confidently, “Cloud Cracker Prison was only for the worst of villains, not because of what they were, but because of who they were: total jerks, who got too much power. All records of dialog with The Gulper are just him bragging about eating more stuff. He didn't want to turn back, but that doesn't mean he couldn't have done something."
Holding up her hoof and peering at its mysteries, Nutmeg said, "I don't have techniques either, just formulas and charts. But it is nice to be what I am without having to concentrate on it." Sitting on her haunches and looking up at Reef in puzzlement, Nutmeg added, "So... I still don't get why you're practicing out here in the dark. The Water Element isn't affected by light levels, but it's hard to target sheep if you can't see them."
Reef gave Nutmeg a confused look, before comprehension dawned. "How do you... oh of course, the dragons were 'Skylanders'. Likely with personal experience of this 'Cloud Cracker' business, if their lifespans are anything like the dragons we know. One imagines they were proud to tell you of their heroics." He sighed. "Practicing... well, I confess to some... frustration, when it turned out 'Legends of the Endless Waves' was all history and philosophy and no actionable medical advice." He didn't mention that said frustration had resulted in some fresh holes melted in the deck of the hold.
“Oh yeah of—of course I asked them about you. They’re hundreds of years old, so they had access to information we don’t,” Nutmeg replied, blushing at her omission of that, “They didn’t have any way to cure you of course. But I learned a lot about the um, incident.”
"Indeed?" Reef Skimmer looked thoughtful. "Well, in any case... one could hardly let that the Captain's miracle go to waste! So, I attempted some of the exercises suggested and... you understand, most ponies find griffs unsettling enough as it is?" Nutmeg tried to imagine why a herbivore facing a bird of prey that towered over them would be unsettling. "Best they not see me in this state." He clicked his beak. "So, as you can see... I suppose it's better than nothing. I'm still a ground-bound cripple, but... a somewhat less frightening one, at least as long as I can hold the form. As for the 'water techniques'... I suppose I could be of some use should the ship catch fire again." Reef finished wryly.
At his mention about unsettling griffs, Nutmeg protested, “But you’re not a hippogriff anymore. You’re ‘animate magical waste.’ If ponies were afraid of you before, they’d be less afraid now. Well, except the ones who encountered the magical waste. But Set Sail told me that you aren’t dangerous to touch like those things were. So if I'm not afraid, then to other ponies you're just a... hippogriff connected by gooey blue tendrils."
Reef stared at the kirin for a moment, then cocked his head. "Nutmeg, I grant that you've spent a great deal more time with ponies than I have, but... I fear you're underestimating the difference in mindset. You kirin are omnivores, predators even, with a supernatural defence mechanism that no doubt gives you substantial leeway in confronting other predators. Ponies, on the other hand... well in all honestly they seem rather skittish. Even the Captain, it seems. She was scared enough of Cloud Cut - her paramour, apparently! - despite the physical changes being limited to glowing eyes and a change in coat colour." He sighed.
“The Skylanders said that the Undead Element is unsettling to any living creature,” Nutmeg told Reef seriously, “So even if Cloud Cutter looks safe, she doesn’t feel safe. You’ve felt it, haven’t you?”
"Yes." Reef stated flatly. "I wasn't close enough at the ruins, or with her at the factory, but... she came to visit me, you know, in the hold. Shrouded in violet energy, promising the touch of the void." He shuddered. "My impression was she was ready to fight to the death... or to destruction at least... but seemed to think better of it. In any case, it certainly felt... wrong.
Nutmeg nodded at his description of Cloud Cutter: “I sure have seen her feeling unsettling before, myself. You just have to ignore it since she’s harmless when she wants to be."
"When she wants to be..." Reef echoed. "Hmm. Honestly since my transformation, everything feels strange. Inside and out. The grass, the sheep... one can sense the life force out here, or something of that manner." He gave Nutmeg a curious look; he could feel something from the kirin, something different from the surroundings or anypony he'd met since the accident, but... well, he had no idea what a tech elemental or a creature that could transform into a firey version of itself was supposed to feel like.
At his curious look, Nutmeg took a step back shyly, saying, “Oh, I... didn't know that. They didn’t say The Gulper could sense life forces. S-so you can sense my life force, huh?”
"In all honesty I can only guess as to where these new sensations might be coming from." Reef said, looking at the ground again. "I believe it has something to do with these..." He gestured at his head with a wiggly claw-substitute, indicating the blue pearls attached to spines that floated near his crest like antennae. "The only component of my amulet that survived. I'm no expert on such things, but I do know the smaller pearls are there to reduce the recharge time for the shard of the Great Pearl - the part that does the actual transformation... or did until it was destroyed." he said sadly. "As such they must absorb magic from the environment, and I suppose that is something I can feel now."
He cocked his head at Nutmeg. "It seems 'tech' is rather more straightforward. Formulae and charts you say? Just popping into your mind unbidden?"
“I wouldn’t say straightforward,” Nutmeg said, looking down and toeing the ground, “Tech Elementals just... are really good with technology. They can do things with machines that should never work, but do. Repair the irreparable, build the unbuildable. It’s the Gear that Turns Itself, as the saying goes.”
She looked up at him with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes then, saying, “Good thing I’m well on my way to aligning, right? We might not even need propellors if I can retrofit the ship with turbines, and... well, that means we need turbines but... you know. So I'm not quite there yet.”
"Ah, my dear Nutmeg... you do seem to making the best of this 'elemental' business, out of all of us!" The griff's beak cracked open in an attempt at an encouraging smile. "Azure seems happy with her new abilities, and those wings are rather fetching... I assume you saw, she's a pegasus now? Hard for a unicorn to lose her horn though, no matter what the compensation. And of course Cloud Cutter: apparently immortality is insufficient recompense for being unable to push clouds around."
Reef snorted. "In any case... I suppose getting the old Harmony going again is my only hope for getting off this island now. I doubt the Captain wants to devote the Second Chance's entire payload capacity to lugging my sorry rump around, not when I have so little to offer at the destination." The ear tufts were gone, but the little fishy fins in their place drooped just as well.
Rolling her eyes irritably, Nutmeg said, “First off: Cloud Cutter isn’t immortal. You remember how badly those worms beat her up, right? Secondly, the Undead Element can actually change your alignment, to itself of course. There are many records of how hard it is on creatures who get their alignment changed to Undead. And thirdly, Air is a lot more than just pushing clouds around. Cloud Cutter can still fly, but it’s not the same. Heck, you could probably fly too, with your level of Water alignment, but it’s not the same as being Air aligned.”
"Those dragons really gave you the whole lecture, eh? I admit, I may have been a little harsh on... wait, what was that? What has the 'Water' element got to do with flight?" Reef spread one wing and looked at his pinions; they were several times the size of a pegasus's, but still thoroughly unable to support the weight of a horse-sized creature without magical assistance. "Normally when one is ready to take off, one simply feels... lighter. An instinctive magic, reducing the mass of the creature and typically anything they're holding or hitched to... common to all large Equestrian flyers."
"It can't be merely a matter of 'elements'? As you say, Cloud Cutter hasn't lost her flight, merely her weather-working." He looked at Nutmeg, surprised that she'd even memorised all this non-technical detail. "As I told Winter, it must be a consequence of replacement of one's normal body mass with this 'magical waste'." he flicked a blue tentacle, looking at it in disgust.
“Well... yeah things get lighter when you add Air to them, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use water-based propulsion,” Nutmeg said in confusion, “Why don’t you use that?”
"Water-based... propulsion?" Reef echoed, confused. "Are you implying it is possible to merely swim through the air?"
"No, you use your Element," Nutmeg said emphatically, "Like how Cloud Cutter flies around all silently like a spectre. You just need to... you know, use Water to... propulse yourself?"
Reef took a step back, trying to make sense of this. "In the manner of... a squid, perhaps? Wait, are you seriously suggesting... I could create a jet of water with, oh... call it four hundred kilos of thrust?" He stared at a tentacle. "That is to say, the process does seem to generate recoil, and I suppose I have only been using one appendage at once..." The transformed griff looked dubious about the prospect.
Nutmeg smiled eagerly at that, rearing up to lean on Reef Skimmer's side, saying in delight, "You don't know about water-based propulsion, do you? Yes! Like a squid, or a geyser. If you propel enough water downward, you'll always fly upward in the recoil. The faster you propel it, the more recoil. Oh, you gotta try it. I'm sure you can! You know Bernoulli's Equation, right?"
"I know of it..." Reef said vaguely, still staring at his tentacles. "Worth a shot, I suppose. Better stand back." He spread his wings wide and let his body revert to its disconnected, tentacle-festooned default; he'd had no luck trying to produce a stream of water while also squeezing himself into a different form. He waited for Nutmeg to spring back a few steps, then concentrated on releasing the water... from all sixteen tentacle tips at once.
The ground underneath the griff immediately dissolved into mud, which churned and splashed as the jets of water cut into it. The loose circle of sheep that had formed around the pair (in all honesty, mostly around Nutmeg) immediately scattered in every direction, bleating their objections to this new affront to piece and quiet.
Reef frowned and clenched his beak with the effort as he abandoned prudent experimentation and pushed as hard as he could. Slowly he began to lift off, suspended on jets of clear water, before all of a sudden he was moving upwards and sideways rather quickly, tumbling and flailing with wings and tentacles alike as he lurched through the air. Reef screeched and released the thrust, only to plummet as his desperately flapping wings failed to carry him, blasting more water out just before he hit the ground. The griff landed hard and lost his balance, collapsing pile of grey feathers and wiggling blue tentacles.
"Sorry! I tried to catch you but I can't see very well in the dark!" Nutmeg called out, aghast, bounding over to him, "Are you okay, Reef?"
"Fine!" Reef called out. "Not that one didn't feel it but... hmm, no apparent injuries, other than a few bent feathers." He struggled to a standing position and exhaled sharply. "Invigorating! Though my, erm, tentacles are tingling a bit. Nutmeg, old girl, I do believe we're onto something! Just a moment..." The second attempt went better, in the sense that the griff stayed up for over a minute before crashing back to earth. The third attempt could reasonably be called controlled flight, right up to the point where it intersected with the tree. By the seventh launch, Reef was able to make several circuits around the meadow.
He didn't stray far from the ground, but he did pick up a great deal of speed on the straights, going faster than Nutmeg had ever seen him fly before his transformation. "Capital idea, Nutmeg!" he said happily, as he landed in a spray of water and mud just in front of the kirin. "Alas, I doubt I will ever be able to keep this up long enough for island hopping... but any flight is certainly a huge improvement on being landbound!" he enthused, before it occured to him how a kirin might take that. "I-if you're used to flying, I mean, not to imply that non-flyers are in any way, erm... no offence intended."
Nutmeg now dripping in mud from head to toe in the cold night air, said grumpily, “Well good, but I’m starting to wonder if it was a great idea to do this in the dead of night, where you wouldn’t be able to see the ground before you ran right into it.”
"Ah, I confess the moonlight seems quite adequate, it's more that I feel like a chick with fireworks tied to my claws. One's instinct is to use one's wings of course, but they just aren't catching enough air, not unless I go full throttle forwards. You see the dilemma, either I exhaust myself thrusting up to stay airborne, or backwards to go fast enough that... oh." Reef realised he was talking to a mud sculpture of a kirin. "I don't suppose I could offer you a, erm... warm shower?"
Nutmeg thought a moment in puzzlement, before declaring in wide-eyed muddy astonishment, "We have warm showers??"
"Well, erm, not as such, but this water does appear to manifest at body temperature..." Reef said, embarrassed expression returning as he realised he was threatening Nutmeg with a tentacle. "One will certainly understand if you decline! Though it could hardly go worse than that first time, ha!" He chuckled, remembering that first meeting with Nutmeg that had ended with a disinfectant hose-down in the surgery room.
"Oh! Um... yes, I would appreciate a good cleaning off," Nutmeg said hopefully, standing before Reef with little hesitation, "I didn't realize your water jets were warm."
Reef Skimmer proceeded to gently power-wash the kirin, circling around her to get a clean shot at all the mud. Soon she was thoroughly cleaned and standing in a puddle of lukewarm water. "Alas, if you require a blow-dry you'll have to wake up Azure Feather." he grinned.
Nutmeg shook off powerfully, cascading water everywhere, looking damp, but not soaked at least. "No, it's fine," she said, with a friendly nuzzle to the former hippogriff's chest, "Your water felt super good, and I dry off quickly anyway. They didn't have blow-driers in my village, just warm showers, so it kind of stuck with me over the years."
Reef looked shocked that any creature was willing to nuzzle him, looking the way he did. "You are quite welcome!" He was still reluctant to touch anygriff with his tentacles, so settled for giving the kirin an awkward wing-hug, before looking around at the meadow. The numerous fresh ruts and craters, full of water glimmering in the moonlight, made it look like a target range for an artillery regiment, or perhaps a horn-laser duel between alicorns. Sheep huddled around the edges, staring back at the pair sullenly. "I should probably avoid trying that trick indoors."
"Yeah, um..." Nutmeg too surveyed the damage, her ears slowly going down, "I think we might be in a little trouble..."
"Ah, well, one hopes Abernathy will understand... I take full responsibility, of course." Reef said, frowning.
"I think we could clean it up?" Nutmeg said uneasily, dipping a hoof into the trough of water from one of his strong blasts, "We wouldn't be able to get the grass back though. The ponies and sheep both need this grass for food!"
"Oh, I wouldn't worry," Reef said airily, "it looks bad but in terms of surface area... it could only have lost a few percent. Besides, grass grows at a ridiculous rate... that's what grasslands are really: areas where grazers prevent any plant that lacks supreme regenerative powers from taking hold."
"Y-yeah I... I guess it's no big deal," Nutmeg said, blushing nervously, "Just don't want to get in trouble or anything. Is there somewhere less... grassy and close to the camp that you could practice in?"
Reef frowned again. "No doubt. The lake would be best, one could probably manage a short hop from the quarry..."
"Yeah, let's do that," Nutmeg replied, glancing nervously over her shoulder at the moored airship, floating quietly there in the moonlight.
Reef didn't seem to pay attention: he'd unfolded his wing again and was staring at it. "You know... I'd assumed that since feathers are just keratin, they wouldn't be affected by the foreign material, but... I'd swear that my pinions are a bit longer now, and shrink when I try to be a hippogriff. What do you think?" As Nutmeg watched, he squeezed his tentacles together and shrunk slightly, taking on the proportions (if not the details) of a normal hippogriff.
"Well that sure seems to be the case," she replied thoughtfully, "So I guess you can change your size a little. I wonder what else about yourself you can change..."
"Perhaps if I can make them smaller, I could make them larger?" Reef said hopefully. "Then they'd catch more air, reducing the thrust requirement? Hmm.." He closed his eyes, concentrating again. For several seconds, nothing happened. Then the creature in front of Nutmeg began to transform again, the gooey material in the middle swelling and binding together while his forelegs shrank away to nothing.
Reef's eyes snapped open and a surprised squawk escaped his beak, turning into a long screech as his whole form contorted and expanded. Feathers marched backwards replacing scales and fur, blue scaly feet replaced hooves, and soon enough Nutmeg found herself facing an enormous eagle, nearly the size of the Second Chance All sign of the tentacles were gone, save for the blue colouration of the scales on the roc's feet.
Staring at him like a deer in headlights, Nutmeg said faintly, "...yep, that'll do it."
It was still undeniably Reef Skimmer - the bright pink crest and tail bars were a giveaway, and he still had those little pearls on his head - though his voice sounded somewhat different, like an impression of himself rendered by a double-bass parrot. "Amazing! I may actually be... perhaps not a roc exactly, but a smaller cousin... hmm." He walked awkwardly over to the edge of the island, unused to the bipedal gait. "Wish me luck!" the enormous beak gape-grinned back at the kirin, before the sail-sized wings spread out and he launched himself into the dark void beyond.
"Good luck not dying!" Nutmeg shouted, charging after the beast but stopping short of any risk of even seeing over the edge.
The sound of massive wingbeats interspersed with high-pressure jets of water could be heard from below, until the newly transformed roc shot back into view. His claws had reverted back into clusters of tentacles as he alternated between flapping, thrusting and combinations of the two, climbing higher and higher over the meadow until the spray fell like bursts of warm rain on the creatures below. After a few close calls he seemed to get the hang of it; despite his joy at being back in the air Reef Skimmer had to restrain himself from attempting anything too ambitious until he'd had more practice.
After fifteen minutes or so he swooped down to find Nutmeg still watching from below; he flared for a landing, stalled early and ended up using another blast of water to avoid crashing, causing Nutmeg to flinch again. "Sorry! Sorry. Won't happen next time... I say, that was just the ticket. Worked like a charm!" The kirin assumed the extremely loud cooing sound was the bird equivalent of laughter. "It seems hippogriff airways is back in action, with no cart stowage concerns this time!" Indeed, his back could easily fit three ponies. "Care for a test flight?" he said playfully, eager to share the sensation of being airborne again with the friend who'd told him how to accomplish it.
"On your back?" Nutmeg asked with concern, taking a step backwards, "What if I fall off?"
"I'll catch you!" Reef Skimmer grinned. "In all seriousness, I might be able to just, erm, perhaps if you try... sort of pushing your feet into my back?" he asked, caution about being touched apparently forgotten after a good flap around the neighbourhood. "It feels like I should be able to just, erm, suck them in, to to speak?" He just hoped he wouldn't dissolve them by accident.
"Oh, well if that's the case then sure!" the kirin called back, her face brightening as she climbing up onto the creature's back without hesitation.
It did seem that confidence went a long way when it came to elemental abilities, as the procedure went more or less as planned. Nutmeg didn't seem at all perturbed by lying down on the grey roc's broad feathery back and having all four feet sucked into the creature's flesh, to be held in a tight conformal grip. "Hmm, that feels... hard to describe exactly, hmm, does everything seem ok back there?" the roc asked, looking back over his shoulder and hoping that he wouldn't accidentally dissolve his friend's hooves.
"Seems secure!" she called forward struggling experimentally, "I can't move even a single inch!"
"Excellent. Hold tight then!" With that the hippo-roc charged towards the edge of the island again, eagle head stretched out in front and giant wings spread wide.
Nutmeg Inferno didn't have to hold on tight because she was stuck fast, her four legs held within this peculiar substance that her friend had become. It seemed like this was a great idea with absolutely no drawbacks and nothing that could go wrong, right up until the overexcited mutant hippogriff flung himself and his helpless passenger over the edge, plummeting into the abyss with his enormous pinions coursing through the night air and every inch of Nutmeg's body began screaming at her that they were in freefall and going to die. Reef Skimmer got his first hint of this when her excited screaming didn't cease after he levelled out into a smooth glide. It was only after several long seconds of utter panic that the struggling kirin managed to calm down from screaming to merely hyperventilating.
"Having fun back there Nutmeg? Lovely night for a flap about isn't it." Reef said jovially, in his deeper, extra-squawky roc voice. His wings thrummed as they began to gain altitude again, though the island was still a black shape blotting out the stars far above them. "Marvellous, like this one can fly to a quite reasonable degree without using the squid-propulsion! One wonders if the amulets could be convinced to permit normal hippogriffs the experience..."
"What...what...what... you just... I couldn't..." Nutmeg replied from way back on his back, still completely out of sorts from what just happened. Too moved for words, it seemed, not that he'd have picked up on her look of wide-eyed terror, even if he could see her pony-like face.
Reef tried to think what this meant. She'd seemed fine on the previous flight, travelling in the cart. Perhaps the engineer found vehicles inherently reassuring, even if they were just a few bits of wood nailed together? Or maybe it was just the dark? "In all honesty you do appear a little discombobulated. Not thinking of, erm, catching fire, I trust? Perhaps I'd best just... bring us back to the ship."
"Y-Yes p-please could we... go back to the ship?" the little red, brown and gold kirin in his back managed to ask, now in a state of only shaking fear, "I don't know why I'm so... you just dropped a-and my heart—is that my heart?! I'm just a little..." she looked in panic at the sailing birdlike being below her, squeaking, "A little frazzled! Must be just t-the weather? I-it's no big deal I do this all the t-time, right? It just caught me off... off guard a little. N-nothing to worry about! This really is f-fun, really!"
"Oh well that's all right then." Reef said, reassured by this. "Almost indulgent isn't it, just dropping off the cliff and letting gravity get you up to speed? You know for bats that's the only way they can get into the air? Though fortunately Slashing Gale doesn't seem to be so constrained." He made a loop under the island, peering up at the spiky rocks and crevices wondering if any creatures were roosting within. If so it was too dark to see; they flew back out into the open and spiralled upwards.
A minute or two later and they were rising above the edge of the island. Reef stopped beating his wings for a moment and fell into a quiet glide over the meadow. "Oh... oh by the Maker..." Nutmeg panted, her heart still racing even after relative calm had returned. She wasn't used to this much excitement. She shouldn't have wanted to, but all she wanted right now was to feel solid ground under her hooves. "I... I think I'm... okay. Just get us to land and we can c-call it a day. Night..."
It was then that her ear twitched, picking up the faint but familiar sound of intermeshing rotors. She immediately glanced over to the meadow, but no... the Second Chance was still there, dark and silent. The sound came from another source, somewhere to the north. Oh no. She shouldn't, but if she didn't... "Reef, can you hear that?" she asked shakily, still tightly embedded up to her belly in the giant bird thing's back.
"Hear what?" he replied distractedly, wondering if he could land without resorting to squid-propulsion and damaging the meadow further.
"Helicopter rotors, multiple," Nutmeg reported, turning her head to follow her ears until she was facing the sound, "Approaching fast, at 10 o'clock, heading 5.24 radians. It's not the Second Chance. I think the drow are... are coming this way."
"Drow?" Reef's voice was like a muffled screech. "Can't say I hear anything, but your ears are doubtless more sensitive... 10 o'clock you say?" And some radians apparently... it was a little amusing how Nutmeg resorted to engineer-speak when excited. "Hmm... hold tight." Strangely the transformed hippogriff turned south, away from the sound. What was he doing... oh. Reef relaxed his feet, letting them turn back into bundles of tentacles. Distasteful as the whole business was, it did allow him to push in some strange metaphysical sense, summoning blasts of pressurised water that thrust them forward, quickly attaining speeds rivalling the Second Chance at full tilt.
They climbed rapidly, tilting back so much that Nutmeg would have slipped off had she not been held fast in his body. The ascent continued for a thousand metres or so before levelling off, presenting them with a roc's-eye view of the whole island. "If they are here, one can only hope they have a ground-dweller's propensity for ignoring the sky..." Reef's head jerked back and forth as he scanned the sky.
"Ah! There, approaching the lake!" he cawed back to the kirin. "Hmm, only one, thank Novo for small mercies." Nutmeg strained to follow his gaze; perhaps there was a flicker of motion, but she couldn't quite resolve it... until it crossed the water, silhouetted against the glints of moonlight on the water below. An aircraft similar to their own commandeered copter, heading in their general direction but at a much lower altitude.
Reef Skimmer's beak slipped open a little at the kirin's apparent notion that they, as predators (or at least omnivores), had to protect their peaceful herbivorous pony friends. He was well aware the ponies were better fighters than they looked, and surely Nutmeg was as well, though perhaps it was easy to forget that in the heat of the moment. Certainly plenty of would-be conquerors of Equestria had, only to lose to friendship lasers or even well-placed bucks. He shook his head, focusing on the matter at hand.
"One appreciates the sentiment, but steady on there. If the enemy spots our ship, either they'll land and prepare to infiltrate... or they'll head straight back to base for reinforcements. In the former case... one hopes there will be time to muster a defence. In the latter..." He clicked his beak. "...it's down to us. If we take the time to muster our allies, likely that ship will escape into the night, and the Harmony will be facing the full might of the drow come morning."
The two waited in anxiety and dour resignation respectively, circling above as the drow craft slowed and descended, settling into a rocky depression west of the lake. "They're... landing in the quarry?" Reef Skimmer stated, puzzled, "That must be... three kilometres away from the Harmony? One wonders... are they already aware of our presence and intend a stealth assault? Are they really so bold as to assume a clawful of drow can overwhelm the whole ship?"
"Less wondering, more pony warning!" Nutmeg urged, "They landed, so we can't do anything about it anymore! Let's go warn the otherrrRRRS—!"
On the contrary, Reef thought it was the perfect time to swoop down and disable the enemy ship, but... that would leave them with enemies hiding on the island and likely more soon to come. In any case, the kirin was right; they couldn't hold off any longer. He wheeled away from the infiltrators and kicked in the water jets;
Nutmeg once again had no choice but to sit tight as they descended towards the ship... and the meadow. Nutmeg tried to avoid it but she was soon screaming again, her voice quickly lost in the wind. Just a primal, visceral response to this kind of speed that could not be denied. It was too overwhelming to even feel fear, as she tried to reconcile what she remembered of going fast together with the experience on this beast. The trees flashed past as they dipped low to skim over the jungle; every change in direction yielding another surprised shriek.
Then they were past the treeline and over the meadow. A meadow full of sheep experiencing a terror like they'd never felt before, as an impossibly large bird of prey that could surely snap them up in a single bite materialised out of the darkness, plummeting towards them at frightening speed. The forest was too far... no doubt the winged menace would gobble them up before they got half way to the treeline. Instead the bleating stampede headed for the one place that seemed to offer some cover: the weird wooden island with its tethered cloud, just across that fallen log.
"Blast those brainless ungulates!" Reef shouted as he swooped down for a landing next to the gangplank, before realising who we was carrying. "Erm, that is to say.... no offence intended." Chaos was unfolding below as the herd of sheep milled about the deck in a bleating mass and cries of alarm went up from the crew. "Well... I suppose the crew needed to wake up anyway." he added philosophically, watching ponies tumble out onto the deck, ready to repel the wolly invaders pouring into their sanctuary.
The giant eagle head turned to regard Nutmeg as he flattened his body to the ground and released her hooves from the gooey confines of his back. "Now make sure you brief the Captain first, one drow copter spotted, landed in the quarry, unknown number disembarked, unclear if they've spotted the ship already or mean to complete their aborted search. I'm heading back up to keep an eye on them... oh and do let Sails know about my, erm, transformation. The last thing we want is Cloud Cutter flapping out here and deciding we have to fight to the death again."
Wide-eyed, Nutmeg nodded very quickly, a little too quickly, her hooves finally sinking into solid ground. Then she went scampering across the deck of the EAS Harmony, bouncing off bleating sheep left and right until she bounded down into the ship's underbelly.
Set Sail slept peacefully in her bunk, along with her cabin-mate Comet Tail snoozing away, the gentle rocking of the ship in the slight wind nothing more than a welcome lullaby. There had been a few loud whooshing noises outside, but they didn't disturb the sleeping pair. The sound of several tonnes of high pressure water blasting the meadow to ruin was enough to wake a few ponies, but they figured it was just that doctor, sneaking out to test his newfound powers, like he thought nopony noticed him.
Things went quiet for a while, then finally came a clattering of hooves on the top deck, which startled the crew awake, most of them at least. Comet Tail opened an eye at the noise, but when she heard a mare shout, "The deck is covered in sheep!" she just rolled her eyes and tried to get back to sleep.
Her effort was in vain; the sounds of ponies galloping about and shouting only increased, and she made out the phrases "under attack", "another copter" and "drow invading". Her blood chilled at the last one; just one of the creatures had nearly murdered the griffoness and burned down the ship.
The wiry pegasus mare threw herself out of the top bunk and landed hard, wings spread. The captain was still sleeping peacefully, dreaming of happy clouds and loving hugs - Comet was loathe to wake her, but if the drow were really here... "Captain! Captain, we're under attack!" she shouted, rocked the other mare violently with a hoof. Set Sail squirmed around and grabbed her hoof, rolling over and curling up with it, smacking her lips and drifting off again. With her hoof trapped by the captain's body, Comet Tail declared seethingly, "Set Sail you languid bint wake up!"
"Whususah?" Set Sail mumbled, and began to lightly snore. Briefly gritting her teeth, Comet Tail leaned forward and stuck her tongue in Set Sail's ear. "Blgah!" Set Sail squawked, flailing her arms and wings wide and knocking Comet Tail right off her. "Comet... what time is—?"
"Drow!" Comet Tail shot at her, "About to attack, sounds like. Maybe with suicide sheep!" she suggested, her half-awake imagination running wild. "Or... something... Look you need to get up top and... do your captain thing!"
"Oh—oh no!" Set Sail declared in alarm, waking up like a splash of cold water. She frantically pulled her axe off where she'd hung in on the wall, slinging it over her back. "Defend the balloon!" she shouted, charging with Comet Tail out into the corridor... and straight into Nutmeg, who'd almost made it to her cabin. The kirin was body-checked by the burly pegasus and dropped to her haunches, struggling to avoid toppling over.
Nutmeg slid messily back as she rebounded off of Set Sail, looking with terror at the brown pegasus captain, stating, "D-drow! Reef Skimmer saw a copter land by the... the quarry! He knows the details I was just riding—just talk with him about it. He's the giant bird outside. I-I need to check on... something."
"Nutmeg??" Set Sail declared in confusion, as the kirin just scarpered off right then. "Oh Celestia," the captain groaned, "Couldn't they wait for it to be daytime?"
"Maybe they wanted to catch us in our sleep!" Comet Tail declared furtively, "You need to see the doctor or—whatever he is now."
"He's Reef Skimmer," Set Sail told Comet, "Get every flier around the balloon in case they try to take a shot at us. I'll be right back." She then charged down the hall, up the ramps to top deck. It was chaos with deckhands running into scared sheep running into deckhands, as Set Sail struggled forward shouting, "Fliers, to the balloon, everypony else you have to be quiet! What if they hear us??"
Despite her instructions, there would be no sleeping through the ensuing commotion. A few cabins over, the griffon Grenelda jolted to alertness - after the word 'drow' comes up it doesn't take much to get her attention. "Damnit! I'll REALLY teach them a lesson this time." She threw herself out of her makeshift nest of bedding like a comet, landing on all fours and skulking out in double time.
Behind her Gustus was little more sluggish to respond, slowly blinking himself to some manner of wakefulness. "Goodness, again? Grenelda, wait! You can't just leave me alone and run off if there's drow about!" He shook out his feathers, more to clear his bleary head than any need to look presentable, then racing off after Grenelda. The two griffs made their way above-deck in two different kinds of flustered hurry.
Being undead did have its advantages. Clashing Gale wasn't so much sleeping as he was resting, and the panicked shouts from outside drew him out of his reverie. "Well they didn't waste any time... neither will I." His first action would be to wake up the actual guard: he was soon pounding a hoof against Azure Feather's door, calling out: "Hey, Azure! We got a drow problem!"
Years of night exercises and surprise drills left Azure Feather more prepared than most for such rude awakenings; in fact the pegasus was already well awake and opened the door within seconds. "On it... guess they didn't want to wait until we destroyed their base after all..." she muttered to Clashing as the two made for the top deck.
Seeing her crew fall to a frightened silence, some in compromising positions with the unruly sheep filling the deck, a slight smile grew in the corner of Set Sail's mouth. "Donnor, Washout, see if the rigging crew can help herd these sheep off our ship," she told a unicorn stallion and an earth pony mare respectively. "Everypony else, just keep an eye out. We don't want lanterns lit, but they've got a big meadow to cross if they're going to come at us. I need to speak with Reef. He's a... giant bird?"
At the captain's question Nutmeg gestured with a hoof into the sky. Straining her eyes, the pegasus could just about make out an avian form circling far out over the jungle, silhouetted against the moonlit clouds. Scale was difficult to judge from this distance, but the shape was very reminiscent of that roc she'd encountered, years ago above the Griffonglass mountains.
Azure stared up at the raptor silhouette: "...Wait, is that...?" She smiled. "Did our dear friend learn from that book..."
Grenelda cocked a beaky grin, wings fluffing. "Beats me, out of my area of expertise. Figure it's some cool water elemental stuff. Y'think Reef can kick any ass like that? Maybe squirt dissolving acid over everyone and have 'em melt to bits?" She chortles. Oh, to dream of it!
Behind her Gustus was muttering to his mate: "...the Doc's a bird, now? Goodness, I think I missed something..." but Grenelda was already over it: she'd heard 'drow' and 'nearby' and was very ready to spring into action. She tapped the tiercel with her beak: "We have orders - let's go." With urgency they lifted off to guard the balloon.
Meanwhile Set Sail was far into the sky, soaring over the meadow to reach the giant bird high above. She slowed her frantic flapping, coming to coast beside him, immediately declaring to Reef Skimmer tensely: "What are you doing[/b up here? Why are you a giant eagle? Don't you think the drow might spot you up here??"
Reef Skimmer had been staring intently down at the jungle. With a very deep squawk his head snapped around to regard the pegasus. "Captain! Ah, you see Nutmeg had a quite splendid suggestion that..." His voice was different, reminding Set Sail of the bipedal flightless birds she'd traded with to the south, though deeper. The transformed hippogriff shook his head; "but... no time for that now. Look, down there! By the chompy pit..."
The pegasus could make out flickers of movement around the destroyed chompy pods, though they blended with the shadows so well that it was hard to even tell how many creatures there were. "Been waiting for the blighters to show themselves," Reef explained. "Heading for the bridge, it seems... curious." He cocked his head. "Why would they go there? If they wanted to reach the lower island, they could've just landed there in the first place...."
"Oh no," Set Sail declared in horror, "Abernathy!" The captain dove out of the sky, not even waiting for Reef's response. Swooping up to the balloon crew, Set Sail shouted, “Everypony listen! I know what’s going on!!” As everyone turned to her, she explained: “Those drow are going after Abernathy! They still don’t know we’re here. He just had a tussle with them the other day, and now they’re coming to get payback! I need our fastest flier to go warn him!”
“I dunno where he is though!” the pegasus known as Comet Tail protested, unapologetically.
“He’s... by the... bridge that...” Set Sail said anxiously, looking around at Summer Scribe, Blue Type, the distant Reef Skimmer, the engineer ponies, and the only ones who could get there fast enough to warn him, who had been to the bridge, were Grenelda, who was still recovering from that wing injury, and...
The two griffons were sitting together in the crow's nest. Grenelda looked to Gustus with sudden sternness: he shied back a bit, then composed himself. "Ahem. Yeah, I know where his house is - I'll send him a warning." With that, the griffon leapt off the edge, diving low to try and blend in with the canopy and not stand out. He'd have to stay alert: if there were any Drow skulking about below, it's imperative he get to Abby without alerting them!
"Thank you Gustus," Set Sail said with a relieved smile, then shouted out urgently as he left, "Do NOT fight them! They can't know we're here! Just warn Abernathy!"
"Wouldn't dream of it!" Gustus called back. Him against a whole Drow assassination force? He didn't have Grenelda's guts, let's put it that way! The griffoness just snorted, sitting back and feeling vaguely like a dog on a leash.
The griffon sped over the treetops, pumping his wings hard as he headed for the far side of the island. Last time it had been a pegasus who'd spotted the drow copter; they'd all rushed to the troll's bridge, with Azure Feather guiding them to the dwelling of their native ally. She wasn't here now so he had to make his own way, wheeling down around the edge of the island to land in the darkened jungle below.
Dim shafts of moonlight filtered through the canopy, making everything look alien and unfamiliar, but... there it was, the cottage with its freshly rebuilt roof. No signs of disturbance or sounds of conflict - the griffon breathed a sigh of relief. Still, the dense canopy had shielded the drow from his view on the way over, so who knew how close they were. They might be inside already, or watching from the undergrowth - he had to remain on guard.
The griffon padded quietly up to the door, quickly nudging it open and slipping inside, his head jerking back and forth as he scanned for threats. "Abby? Abby - There's drow coming to kill you. You need to get ready," came the harsh avian whisper.
First came a groan, then a sliding thump, as a lanky troll came padding out to the living room of his little cottage. The tall green biped was clad in striped pyjamas and a pair of fuzzy slippers, and showed a surprising lack of panic. "Again? Are you serious?" he asked, tone aggravated. "They were just here a few days ago! What the heck has got them stirred up so much?" Leaving the oil lamps untouched, he grabbed his shotgun, before looking to the griffon fellow and saying: "Did you catch a look at them? Do you know how many there are?"
Gustus's feathers drooped as he sighed. ...Not because of Abby's jammies, those were fine! It was just... they always seemed to meet the troll under the worst circumstances. "Sadly, I think they're here to kill you, first and foremost; if their goal was wiping the Harmony off of the island, they'd bring more than just a handful of assassins to bear." He clicked his beak.
"I hate to say it, but if they still don't know we're here, well... for our longevity, I'd like for them to remain oblivious a bit longer. Not to worry, though: Reef Skimmer is up there, and he's gone through a bit of a metamorphosis." The griff chuckled politely. "With luck, you'll both be able to scare them off and we can live another day. Do you need me to spot for you?"
With a sad smile at Gustus, Abernathy said, "You Equestrians are so hard core. But that's why they keep coming back, because you keep chasing them off."
"Hmmm... I admit, I don't like the idea of being at war with the Drow - but griffs don't just roll over and show our bellies when challenged! Buuut... if you have an idea for how to deal with the situation, I'm all ears, Abby..." Metaphorically at least - griffs didn't have visible ears, at least not in Equestria.
"How about we do things my way this time? C'mon." The troll kicked off his slippers, pushed open the door and headed out into the night. With shotgun in hand he made a beeline for the dense trees to the east. Gustus followed closely behind, skulking through the bushes and looking nervously around for any sign of the drow.
Clashing Gale had followed Gustus up into the night sky, though the griffon had quickly pulled away. As a pegasus, Clashing had been a great flyer, but as a newly minted batpony he was still getting used to new wings. Nothing like the difficulties Azure Feather was facing, to be sure. While Gustus dove for the trees, intent on alerting their troll ally, Clashing continued to gain altitude, searching for the drow from above. He'd yet to encounter the creatures, but he understood the gravity of the situation: getting caught would mean bad things for everyone involved.
The stallion found the giant grey eagle circling high over the island's edge, keeping watch on the small clearing where the forest path reached the hollow log of the toll bridge. "Ah... Clashing Hail!" the creature said, in a deeper voice than he'd had as a hippogriff doctor. "Back in the air, good show old bean. I trust you're aware of our uninvited guests. Any orders from the Captain?"
Clashing's smile was lost in the darkness, but his tone was friendly. "Reef Skimmer... heard about what happened to you... good to have you back," he called out. "Captain's orders are not to fight - avoid aggression if possible. Maybe that's why you've got me and not our actual guard..." He pulled closer, to fly parallel to the hippogriff-turned-roc. "Best if we fly cover for now, I think. Things haven't got dicey... yet." Clashing fell silent, peering down though the moonlit canopy to spot... yes, there were creatures moving down there. Good thing his condition seemed to bestow superior night vision.
"Not to fight? One certainly prefers to avoid a confrontation, but..." Reef jerked his head down at the shadowy bipedal figures, now darting swiftly across the little clearing at the top of the bridge. One was much larger than the others, while another was concealed in robes and cradling a glimmer of light in its palm. "That path leads to the troll's house! Are you saying... he's been evacuated already?"
"Gustus is on that as we speak. For now, though, we should-" His voice died at the sight of the giant biped and its spiked armour. "Hmm... I hope they got out, because these creatures don't look like they've come to play cards..." He wasn't sure what he could do if it did turn to a fight; flying through jungle in the dark was a recipe for disaster, night vision or not, and he had no means of attacking from a distance. Maybe his best use would be carrying Azure up here, he thought glumly.
Mere minutes after the troll and griffon had snuck out, the raiding party reached the cottage. Carefully, they prepared themselves for the assault; several drow crouched in the bushes, crossbows trained, while the minotaur-sized one eyed the door, bladed gauntlets held ready. The spellcaster whispered an incantation, summoning a ball of light that grew between her hands. With all in readiness, she released it to streak into the cottage, smashing a window and bursting inside with a brilliant flash and thunderclap. That was the cue for the goliath to open his eyes and charge forward, smashing the door off its hinges as he stormed into the empty dwelling.
The flash was easily visible through the hole Azure's magic surge had punched in the canopy above the cottage. "What was that?!" Reef squawked "Didn't sound like gunpowder... magic? Do you think they have magic?" he asked Clashing, clearly concerned. "Are we sure Abernathy isn't down there? He wouldn't stand a chance against that many."
"It seems like everyone and everything has magic around here." Clashing Gale griped. "I don't think he's in there, though. I heard about that portable cannon of his - and how good he is at using it. We'd have heard it going off, and Gustus on the attack as well, not just this... one-sided beatdown." He frowned.
Meanwhile Abernathy was leading Gustus down tiny trails, ducking and even crawling under dense underbrush to get past it. At last, they reached a thicket, whose thorny branches lifted aside when Abernathy yanked on them. There was a depression underneath the thicket, with what looked like a small lawn chair laid out underneath it. "Home away from home, heh," he said, kicking back and looking up at the thorns above. "You get pretty good at hiding with those pirates flying around," Abernathy said solemnly, "If they find us here, I just shoot 'em in the face, and go find another one of my spots. You don't have to beat them, just make it more trouble than it's worth for them to beat you."
Gustus startled at the report of the fireball exploding, then winced at the sounds of breaking-and-entering, muffled by the intervening jungle. "And you're fine with these brutes just tearing up your home?" he said angrily, before letting out a weary sigh. "...I suppose it does beat some alternatives. If only we could do it so easily as you! But the Harmony is our home, and we'd hardly last long without it." The griffon seemed crestfallen at just letting the drow get away with it... but at least there wouldn't be losing anyone tonight.
"I'll just have to rebuild anything they break," Abernathy replied with a sigh of his own, "It is pretty terrible, but usually they only come once a year or so. It's not like I have anything valuable. You guys have a much better reason to protect your home. This place here's my home as much as that cottage is. I'm not the only one who wishes those pirates would just fall off the face of the earth into the everstorm, but what can one guy do against an armada?"
Gustus let out a sigh of relief. "I am glad they're too lazy to sweep the island looking for you. Seems we've averted the worst of the danger for now." The griffon practically melted as the adrenalin left his system, mumbling "What can one do against an armada, indeed..." What could griffs or ponies for that matter do against a whole fortress of the creatures? They needed serious allies, with weapons and troops and intel - and they needed them to find them fast.
In the night sky above, the two flyers could only circle silently as the angry drow ransacked their friend's cottage. Finding little in the way of loot, the raiders had to content themselves with smashing everything in reach, then slinking back outside. As a final insult, the spellcaster flung a fireball back through the front door that set the building's roof alight.
Once it was clear the malevolent bipeds were heading back down the path, Reef Skimmer carefully maneuvered down through the hole in the canopy and sprayed water on the smouldering structure until the flames were smothered, albeit at the cost of drenching anything that wasn't already smashed or burnt.
Meanwhile Clashing Gale shadowed the drow from above, watching as they crossed the cleared area around the chompy pit and headed back to the quarry. Finally the copter lifted off and flew away into the night, apparently unaware that Blissful Pastures hosted any creatures other than trolls and sheep. Clashing followed at a discreet distance until he was sure the dark elves weren't doubling back, then banked around to return to the smouldering cottage. He soon located Reef Skimmer and not long after Gustus and Abernathy reappeared, the latter staring sadly at his ruined dwelling.
The troll boggled at the elephant-sized eagle for a few seconds, then shrugged. "Oh, thanks for putting the fire out at least. I suppose I need a new roof. Again."
"Oh, it was the least I could do." Reef nodded. "Wish I could've driven the blighters off, but the captain's orders..." He exchanged a glance with Clashing. "We'd better get back, poor Sails will be beside herself no doubt."
The stallion nodded and spread his wings. Batpony, griffon and roc were soon rising up above the trees, leaving Abernathy to pick through the wreckage. A few minutes later they were gliding down towards the meadow, where a whole flock of pegasi were at work, gathering clouds and assembling them into a larger mass above the ship. "Got to say... that form looks pretty good on you," Clashing told the transformed hippogriff. "Great to see you out of the hold, at least."
Reef Skimmer didn't seem reassured; in fact the reminder of his current state made him duck his head with embarrassment. "Oh erm... yes, well, one really should try to be more presentable..." He peeled off from the others to a landing well away from the ship, where he began trying to squeeze himself back down into hippogriff (or at least, hippogriff-like) form, without much success.
Clashing continued down to the ship until a clump of packed cloud struck him in the chest. A pegasus crewpony swooped down, scooping up the remains of the cloud in her arms and telling him amiably "'ere you go, just like that! C'mon then." As he looked on the airship was released from its moorings and nudged gently downwards by several pegasi and the two griffons, while others formed the gathered cloud-stuff into a shroud over the ship.
It wasn't much, but soon all that could be seen of the EAS Harmony was a mysterious cloud bank hugging the barest edge of the island, just a pile of darkness at night. An enemy ship would have to fly all the way around to the east side, where there was nothing but the gulf of air separating them from the storm wall, before they could see the ship's hull, nestled against the cliffside and hidden below the cloud-covered balloon.
The crew slept fitfully that night, and it was well into morning before anypony was up enough to do anything about it. Once the scout ponies had verified there were no drow about, the winged crew began the tedious process of lifting the ship. Slowly it rose up until the gangplank could once more be extended out to the island meadow. Blaze Trails immediately trotted out and started trying to flatten out the deep gouges in the topsoil, still muddy from the night before. A plain meal was had, that everypony wished was less plain, and then the crew gathered amid the tents in the meadow for another all-hands meeting.
"Okay, a lot to unpack here," Set Sail announced, from her place in the circle, "First off thanks for coming, Reef Skimmer. It's a real relief to see you with us again. Reef saved our tails last night, with the drow and all, but until we can get his house fixed, the tall green troll fella named Abernathy is going to be staying with us. Sorry about your house, Abernathy."
The troll stood to a height of at least two ponies; holding his hands up, he said definitively, "Not complaining. At all."
"One did what one could." Reef said, fiddling with his tentacle-feet and not meeting anypony's gaze. He'd managed to make his neck look normal, but there was still a broad band of blue goo around his barrel, fins instead of ear tufts, and his legs and tail were loose gooey approximations at best. "Nutmeg deserves the credit really," he gestured with a broad grey wing at the kirin, "she picked up the sound of that enemy copter and it was her suggestion that got me back in the air in the first place." His beak cracked open in an appreciative smile.
Nutmeg blushed at that, taking an unconscious step back from where she was already standing at the very back of the circled crowd.
Summer Scribe gave a cheerful nod to the hippogriff. "Glad to have you back, Reef!" It truly was a relief that he'd managed to figure out the changes to his body; realised that becoming a strange water creature isn't the end. With luck it would be a new beginning - just as it had been for Azure. Between Set Sail wishing for the book, and Nutmeg suggesting techniques, they'd came together as a team to... hmm. It suddenly struck the unicorn that all the time the hippogriff had been down in the cargo hold, she never so much as popped by and said 'hi'.
"So uh, the meeting with the dirt sharks could've gone better," Set Sail continued, glancing aside, "Apparently as part of their culture they force you to negotiate with them the moment you meet them. So our plan to not negotiate didn't... go as planned." She lifted her head to look to the handsome batpony stallion, saying, "Clashing Gale was overseeing the expedition, so you want to tell us what did happen, Clash? And about that island they showed you?"
Clashing Gale stepped up as he was addressed by the Captain. "Out of respect to every creature on the expedition, I'll try to keep this as unbiased as possible," he began. It was no secret that of all of them, he was the most wary of the shark's intentions. "Initial contact went... well, not great, to be fair. Let's just say it was either 'You land here' or 'We shoot you down'. Understandably, we took the former option." He paused before continuing. "We then met... what was it, Pitchbend, and then the actual leader of... Triskellion Nine, I think?" He looked to Summer Scribe for confirmation.
The unicorn was still lost in thought. Why hadn't she visited Reef? Was she... afraid of something? Or just dogged by a guilty conscience? It had turned out fine in the end - but she couldn't help but feel a pit in her stomach when thinking about Set Sail's reprimand... Summer blinked. Clashing Gale was looking at her. Oh... she could totally have given the expedition report! Well, whatever; the truck ride was cool and Set Sail didn't get to have it. So there.
Summer was just staring into space, so Clashing pressed on. "His name was Firesteel, and we were, um... convinced? ...to work for him in one of his mining operations, which I'm sure Summer Scribe would be happy to describe in depth. As for myself and Grenelda - our part was to rescue two trapped miners from what was likely certain death." He paused once more, sighing a little as he recalled the incident. "We stayed on the fancy airship until then." He backed up, hoping their designated diplomat would describe the rest of it.
Summer Scribe nodded, taking over from there. "Yep, exactly. It was hairy at first - these dirt sharks think of everything transactionally, so they were sizing us up to see if we'd be worth our weight in slave labour." She stuck out her tongue at the notion. "But we managed to convince Firesteel of our merits by boasting of our magical talents, and later on rescuing two of their employees from the botched mining operation."
"We got to ride a giant-wheeled trackless train called a monster truck, with internal pistons and chrome plating!" somepony exclaimed in excitement from the crowd.
"You get all the luck!" Sprocket told Static Signal, nudging her playfully. "All I got to see were these weird drafty ruins. Not a single gear in sight!"
"I know, right?" the dusty pegasus replied indulgently, "I should've been the one going to the windy temple, but y'know, wings as needed. You'll get plenty of chances later I bet."
Summer Scribe grinned and waved a hoof to Static. "Whoop! You bet! Most exciting mine I've ever been to. Ahem! So anyway, the short of it is, we need to travel back to them, do them a favour, and then we'll be able to get a big favour from them in turn. I'm certain a powerhouse like them could crush the drow if a close ally asked for it... Plus, once things have settled down, we REALLY need to filch some cocktail making secrets from them. I've never had anything blow my taste buds like their 'Aqua Blast'!" she added, trying to inject a little levity into the meeting.
Grenelda just rolled her eyes and huffed off to the side. That 'fun and whacky mining operation' almost got her vaporised! Well, whatever. Her flying saved the whole lot of them.
"Slave labour?" Reef asked, ear-fins flaring in concern. "Do they keep slaves as well then? If so how can we countenance an arrangement beyond the most necessary and minimal trades?"
Azure Feather looked a little irritated. "So like the Drow, except driven by money. And we want these creatures on our side?" she asked, looking around the gathered creatures. "I get it, strength in numbers, but... ugh." The pegasus shook her head.
Her words triggered a small commotion: squeezing between ponies to the front, the kirin known as Nutmeg Inferno protested fussily: "Technically they only spoke of everything transactionally! Their actions were a lot more... genuine..." She didn't seem to feel like continuing, looking down furtively.
"Nutmeg's right," Static confirmed, "They were totally into their work, and every time they let us off it was always for friendship. I think they were bluffing about the whole slavery thing. They're fighting for their lives just to get supplies, literally!"
Summer Scribe nodded in agreement. "Hmmm, it's true: if they wanted to kidnap us and force us to work, they had every opportunity to, and I didn't see any slaves while I was there. As far as I can tell, it was all dirt sharks voluntarily working for dirt sharks." She waved her hoof in a circle. "So as long as the drow definitely want to kill us and the dirt sharks show interest in co-operation, the best course of action is pretty obvious: we make friends and get their technology working for us, drive the drow off our backs so we can breathe." What a glorious that day that will be, she thought.
"Bluffing huh? Strange place we're in, if decent creatures are pretending to be slavers, 'stead of the other way round." Gustus said, looking thoughtful. "So what's this favour the sharks are after?"
"Oh, it's nothing, really: it's my specialty! Just a laser shooting pyramid that we have to disarm." Summer said dismissively. "I figure there'll be a back entrance for sure, or we can find a blind spot and blow it up. Classic stuff.. we take it down, they'll be in a world of debt towards us just like that!" She reared back to tap her forehooves together for effect. Bam!
"A... monument? That emits destructive beams?" Reef Skimmer said, trying to understand. "On the shark's island? I can see how that would cause them some trouble. Has it been there since they moved in?"
Clashing Gale and Azure Feather shared a glance, as if to say, 'Is she serious?' The guardsmare was soon muttering to herself about losing the whole squad to deadly laser beams. Clashing Gale just said neutrally: "I don't know how long it's been there, all I can really tell you is that if it can bring down a vehicle like they had - it can bring down any creature here."
"The laser thing on a different island altogether!" Static Signal explained. "We flew there in this super-cool airship with eight propellers and fins and cannons and no balloon at all!"
"Yep! It's ancient technology." Summer Scribe confirmed, thinking about that second island's natives. "Ancient cat technology, probably? Guarding the Uberite pillars and their mineral value, possibly? So you see the problem the dirt sharks have." An amused grin was plastered on her muzzle.
"Cat technology?" Blue Type perked up. "Do you mean Abyssinians, Summer? We've found griffons and dragons, oh how many Equestrian cultures are here, do you think?"
"I don't want to earn us a new enemy," Set Sail said with concern, "Especially not one that can shoot lasers at us. If those pillars are important to these ancient cats, we should at least find out why."
"Hmm... all we know is there's an extant population of sapient cats on the same island. Not sure how close they are to Abyssinians, but... I'm definitely in favour of testing your theory of Equestrian-Cloudbreak Islands cultural symmetry. Perhaps you'd like to swing by and ask questions? They might even have a lead on how the laser works, if they're willing to talk..." She tapped a hoof on the ground, mumbling indistinctly about possible approaches.
"But weren't they the ones that set the trap and broke our truck..." Static muttered, unable to imagine any good coming from creatures so spiteful that they'd try to wreck such a magnificent vehicle.
"That sounds wonderful!" Blue Type replied, with a pleased smile to Summer Scribe, "Admittedly my forte is linguistics, but it is a very good opportunity to advance the field of ponypology. Won't it be dangerous there though?"
"Good point: if they know we're co-operating with the dirt sharks, then they'll hate us just as much." Summer admitted. "So! We'll have to..." a dramatic flourish of a hoof "...not tell them! And probably never visit them again once the jig is up." she finished sheepishly.
"It definitely does sound dangerous," Set Sail spoke up, "If they're sabotaging vehicles to fight over mining rights. We don't want a repeat of the last expedition, so anypony who goes there will have to be very careful not to get caught until we're sure we can do so without being threatened with..." she shuddered, "...slavery."
"One would... certainly appreciate the opportunity to observe a new sapient species." Reef Skimmer said, still disappointed that he'd missed native griffons and new kinds of dragon. "And offer my services to the crew, Captain." he added, glancing at Set Sail. "I believe I've begun to get a grip on my... new abilities, so to speak."
"Oh if you would, that would be wonderful!" Set Sail replied in pleasant surprise, "Whatever you've become is very powerful, and I'm sure you could protect us from danger. Your aid will make a huge difference, whether you go on expeditions or not. I'm just glad you're feeling better about yourself, or at least coping with it."
Azure couldn't help but smile at Reef's words. "Certainly it will be good to have you with us again, Doctor. That's for certain." She, for one, had missed having the hippogriff around. For once they were adding creatures to the roster instead of losing them.
"If you can get a sample of this 'uberite', that'd... that'd be great." Melonwater piped up. "Those columns sure sound like a fascinating formation, but... lasers, underground sharks, angry cats... yeah, maybe if all that settles down..." he said unhappily.
"Oh dear, I... I'm really not much of an... an explorer, really," Blue Type said, shrinking back at the prospect of cats that shoot lasers, "I-is it alright if I wait to advance the field of ponypology until you all have explored the island, to make sure it's safe?"
Summer Scribe chuckled. "Yeah, that's probably for the best!" A polite nod to Blue Type: "Hope to see you come soon, too!" Another nod to Reef, "and I'm looking forward to seeing you in the field again."
"I think it'd be best if I went with this squad as well." Azure Feather said, quietly but firmly. "It would be good wing training and preparation for the true mission ahead," she stated. Her confidence faded as she thought of her difficulties taking to the air; the pegasus looked around nervously, adding: "That is... if no one objects, of course." No one did.
"Can I go?" somepony piped up. A dark-green furred earth mare with tan hair held under a dark, broad brimmed hat, she explained, "I was supposed to be leadin' you sciency folks through the wilds anyway, don't you know. But my leg's all better now and—"
"Now Blaze, we discussed this," Winter Hope chided, "That was a serious sprain, almost a break, and you're supposed to avoid galloping or heavy labor for at least another week."
"Winter, you know I said I'm a quick healer," she insisted stubbornly, "I've been gallopin' like a beast pony and I ain't hurting, not one bit! But I think I would be hurtin' if I didn't get ta see this mystical land of forests and pyramids firsthoof. C'mon, I know everything there is to know about campin' far from home, and this place sounds like it's the furthest we've gone yet! Also the biggest, I hear."
"I must insist on an examination first, Graze Trails." Reef said stuffily. "If there's no inflammation, then... one will adjust your brace, and that should suffice. As long as you avoid unnecessary bucking." He snorted: earth ponies seemed to love unnecessary bucking.
"Blaze," Blaze said, rolling her eyes. Summer Scribe just blinked. You'd try to deny a pony their unnecessary bucking?
Grenelda clicked her beak, giving them all a stern eagle stare. "I guess if we're all going to screw around with that pyramid some more, I better come along and make sure you don't get into any hot water." She hadn't curried any personal favour with the dirt sharks, really - she'd love to go tell them to their faces to screw off, but by this point it was clear that would be swimming against the tide. She still felt a duty to do what she could, and of the whole crew, she did have the most experience with dodging lasers.
"Oh oh if there are three flyers... does that mean I can go?" Sprocket said, glancing excitedly between Azure, Reef and Grenelda. "I just have to see this monster trackless train thing!"
"The trackless train is back on the shark's island now," Static Signal said sadly to Sprocket, "Nothing on that other island but forests and mysterious pillars."
"Oh... but... but there's this energy beam projector right?" the unicorn replied. "Gotta be something cool powering that... unless... it might be all magic I guess? But... somepony who knows their way around an engine should go, in case there's any trouble with the copter."
"Indeed. Plus there's the matter of who will actually fly the thing." Reef said dryly.
"Oh, it's quite simple really." Nutmeg explained. "Synchrocopters aren't as dynamically unstable as other rotorcraft, and the compounding - the side propellers - avoid some of the usual coupling modes. I'm sure..." the kirin looked around nervously, as if suddenly realising she'd drawn everyone's attention again "...I could teach Sprocket... in an afternoon?"
"We do need somepony to take care of the engine," Set Sail told the pair. "This is the furthest we've ever gone, and the copter won't be able to make it in a single trip. But I think Nutmeg should go. In an emergency she can start a fire, and recharge the engines that way."
"Hey, I could start a fire!" Sprocket protested fussily, "I could start lots of fires!"
"She has a point," Nutmeg said with a wince, "Sprocket is very good at setting fires. I need to uh... retrofit the EAS Harmony with some sort of defensive weaponry anyway. I'm sure I could make something out of the... stuff the Skylanders left with us."
It was probably a trick of the light that reflected a flickering fire behind Sprocket's deep violet eyes as she smiled hopefully.
"To be fair," Azure started, "some real defensive weaponry for the ship sounds great. We do need a certain level of basic protection, especially with the drow on the offensive..." she admitted, before falling silent once more.
"Oh I have many designs for ideas!" Nutmeg replied hopefully, "Just wait and see. They won't want to mess with us a second time!"
"And maybe we can get some cannons from the sharks as well!" Static enthused, smiling at her boss. "I got a look at their cannonballs... and get this, they're pointy and they go in the back! That must be so much faster than the way the griffons do it!"
"Once more unto the breech then, eh Grenelda?" Reef Skimmer said jovially. "Just like old times... a fortnight back, that is to say."
The hen sized Reef up. His gooey bits looked goofy but if he could really turn into a roc... "Say, new look and all. I need to figure out what you're all about now." Her beak was agape in an avian grin. "This should be a good opportunity. If you don't mind some prodding questions? I gotta know what my allies can do and last night's drow bash was a dud, sadly."
"Certainly one will do one's best to enlighten you." Reef said, hanging his head again. He didn't feel in a fit state to talk to an attractive female griff just then, but she had a point. "What with the squid-propulsion and the roc transformation and the dissolving tentacles. Would be utterly fascinating... if it was happening to some other griff." he said, shuddering.
"Okay, we're all set then," Set Sail said with a smile, "That island might be our greatest opportunity to form an alliance yet, assuming we can resolve the... differences between the sharks and the Abyssinians."
Summer Scribe nodded enthusiastically. "Roger that! Not only is it our best chance, but the best allies in terms of bang-for-our-buck we could ask for. I'm as hopeful as it gets!" Out loud at least: privately, she thought 'Because what chance do we have if this falls through?'
"Now... onto the issue of somepony who's been digging huge divots in the meadow." Set Sail said, her smile fading.
"Indeed!" Reef said, his voice completely serious. "We must find that pony and make them pay for their crimes against innocent turf."
Set Sail desperately tried to maintain her composure despite the snickering coming from a pair of griffon beaks.
The rest of the day was a chance for the crew to take a break, reflect on recent events, and prepare for tomorrow's expedition - or for those not going to Fellis, the looming showdown with the dark elves. Reef Skimmer escaped the crew meeting with only a mild reprimand and a promise to practice flying somewhere other than the meadow. Enjoyable as that would be, for now he concentrated on the frustrating business of trying to shape his altered body into something resembling its original form.
After hours of effort and a few accidental roc transformations, he finally managed to get his claws to look like, well, claws. His initial elation at the achievement dissipated when he found it impossible to make his talons sharp or rigid, resembling lumps of hardened rubber more than anything else. Worse, it seemed any kind of distraction was enough to make them revert to the wriggling blue tentacles.
Frustrated and angry once more, the hippogriff's thoughts turned to the instigator of his misery: the reckless unicorn mage. After her advice with the captain he'd foolishly believed they were starting to become friends, but clearly that was a misunderstanding as she'd made no attempt to visit him since the incident - just a cursory glance and 'glad to have you back' when they were both called to meet with the Captain. Well. Perhaps it was time to address that.
Squeezing himself back into the most normal aspect he could, the mutated griff stalked through the ship, heading for a certain space in the tween deck. There he found a long table piled with notes, artefacts and analytical instruments, with more on the surrounding shelves and crates. Of his quarry though, there was no sign, only the earth pony assistant researcher.
"Ah, Blue Gripe, there you are." Reef began, in an overbearing tone. "Do tell me where Senior Distinguished Unicorn Summer Scribe has got to."
Blue Type stared at the enormous, slightly gooey eagle-horse, blinking like a deer caught in headlights. "Ah, yes, I'm Blue Type, erm... the senior researcher... I think Summer's... in our cabin?" she answered nervously.
"Indeed. At ease, researcher." Reef barked before spinning about smartly and marching off down the corridor, leaving a stunned Blue Type staring after him.
The cabin Summer Scribe shared with Blue Type was covered in the products of her rampant, unstoppable fountain of speculation. The little unicorn had managed to 'borrow' a map of Fellis from the dirt sharks, and had lost no time in outlining areas of interest.
The pyramid to the north was the objective of course, but another on the southern arm was a source of speculation: it might be cat-made, from the same era, possibly holding knowledge of how the laser works, so it was circled. Also a pair of villages - the cats, presumably? Who knows what knowledge they might have passed down orally or in writing? Perhaps the ponies just needed to not have the stench of land-shark, and they could figure out avenues towards co-operation, given their existing interests in the area...
And then there was the white pyramid itself. The obelisk. With its glowing crystal cap promising instant death like a malevolent eye keeping close watch on the surrounding mineral riches. She in the process of scrawling out some ballistic diagrams: eyeballing the layout of pillars and imagining ways one might sneak up on the structure, should they need to enter or plant some kind of demolition charge.
Maybe a vertical drop from above, leaning left and right to dodge lasers as they shoot by? A misdirected shot into the air that got its attention, so somepony else can fly in closer? But what to use - would it fire at sheep? Burrow and approach.. but wouldn't a land-shark have tried that? Find a path through the pillars that hid them from the laser... but once they get close, then what? She was holding the map up to her face, furrowing her brow and narrowing her eyes.
There had to be a super-easy approach she was missing. Think Summer, think! Her thoughts were interrupted by a slightly muffled rap on the door, followed by the precise, clipped tone of the ship's doctor: "Summer Scribe! Are you in there?"
Oh! A jolt of shock, papers thrown about as her horn involuntarily released them; Summer quickly shook herself out. She wasn't expecting a visitor - and from the voice, it sounded like Reef Skimmer... 'Err, hope he's not mad about the whole, you know... ok, just act natural' she thought.
"Coming!" Summer called out, trotting forward and tele-tugging the door open to let him in. You know, for how much of a struggle it was when he was first transformed, it looked like he was doing a remarkably good job of taking back control over his body, huh? There was an appreciative smile on her face at that.
Reef Skimmer paced into the room, ignoring her smile, instead glancing about at the scattered papers and dense hornwriting. "So. Already on to your next discovery, I see. Is one to believe that you are still in command of unknown artefacts and expeditions to retrieve and/or activate same?" he said accusingly, staring fiercely at the unicorn.
Summer had been mentally preparing herself to gush - to decompress all the thoughts swirling around her head, as Reef's preamble falsely presumes an air of interest. After a moment of disorientation as reality failed to match her expectations, she realised what he was here for. Risks of field work were one thing, but Reef didn't consent to the risks he undertook. A brief wave of defensiveness rolled over the unicorn's face: her features hardening, her legs stiffening as she contemplated her next move - but the moment passed and she forced herself to be apologetic, thinking it's what he's after.
"Look, Reef... You know and I know that I'd never have messed with the magical factory's workings if knew it'd lead to your..." looking him up and down, "...changes. I'm really, truly, sorry. No one should have to suffer a fate like you." She bowed her head low... then pulled herself back up, trying to look a bit more resolute, trying to not tremble in front of a predator twice her size.
"I've already had the talk with Set Sail," Summer continued, "and she made it abundantly clear that the safety of our team is of highest priority. I agree with that! If she thinks I should be benched, so be it. But right now, we don't have time to wait - the Drow are breathing down our neck, and we don't know when they'll decide they're fed up with us and blow is to smithereens. I need to figure this out, one way or another. And I'll take all of the risk if that's what it takes."
"You think this is about who bears the consequences?" Reef snarled. "Everygriff on this ship is a volunteer! Just as when one enlists in the Queen's Navy; all are told and accept the risks! That does not grant license to take unnecessary risks, or place one's crewmates in pointless danger!" He snorted derisively.
"Nutmeg told me all about the factory. She said you found documents explaining the whole situation, that very evening! Had you merely waited a day for your assistant to translate them, we would not have risked contaminating a whole island chain with voracious unnatural worms!" As if to emphasis the point, Reef's eagle claws had reverted into splayed blue tentacles, which were beginning to sink into the deck planks. "Perhaps Blue Type should be in charge of archaeological expeditions from here on!"
Summer Scribe felt a bulge of guilt travelling down her throat. The unicorn visibly shied away as she swallowed, fur standing on end. After all, Reef Skimmer was totally right: she took an action that she could have, with proper planning and precautions, avoided. This was meant to be her job. This was meant to be her job! If she's to take that fact seriously, and not dissolve in the acid of ego death... she had only one option available to her. "... I understand, and I accept full responsibility for my misstep."
Summer reassembled herself, visibly trembling, and gave a shallow little nod. "I... did not appreciate that such an archaeological undertaking could be so catastrophically dangerous. I assumed - wrongly - any consequences would be local, and it would fully be in my power to protect myself and them. I know better now. If I do anything less than take the Cloudbreak Islands with the full seriousness it deserves, then I don't deserve my position."
A weak turn of her head, and a nod to the papers surrounding her. "...And I plan to do just that from now on. I don't want to make an assault on the White Pyramid until I've thought out every other possibility - every contingency." Deep breath. In and out. "... I don't want anyone to be hurt again." Summer closed her eyes and lowered her head. "Err, since you mention Blue Type... How do I put this? She doesn't have the taste for adrenaline I do. She's happy where she is, doing the lab work, and I hope she can stay happy."
"I see." Reef Skimmer said curtly. He stepped back, leaving a visible imprint of giant anisodactyl feet, where he'd dissolved away a layer of wood. The hippogriff turned away, showing Summer his half-feathered, half-tentacle tail for a minute as he peered around the room. "You do appear to be taking this latest endeavour more seriously." he said flatly. "I can't say I'm qualified to judge pony sincerity." Turning back to the unicorn, it was if he was looking straight through her. "After all, not long ago I convinced myself a unicorn was my friend. Clearly one is prone to mistakes in that domain."
Summer Scribe finally looked down and saw the clawprints etched into the wooden floor. Well, looked like this conversation would be leaving a trophy behind, huh? Not exactly what she'd expected, but she had to deal with it. The immediate danger seemed to have passed, so she took a quick breather and assessed the situation: Reef wasn't exactly happy, but he'd dropped back from actively aggressive to... passive aggressive. Still though... another good point, and it had been causing a guilty pit in her as well. The kind where you felt like you'd dug yourself a hole too deep to get out of... and now it was time to confess her feelings.
She lowered her head once more, saying "...I was too afraid to come talk to you. I thought you'd hate my guts. I mean, I am solely responsible for what happened to you. You'd be right to not want to talk to me ever again." Another gulp. "I... So, umm... I'm sorry. I wasn't brave enough to come say hi. I'm a coward. If you still hate me, that's fine. I guess I deserve that one."
The big grey bird-creature cocked his head, thinking this over. "I must admit, I did hate you, Summer. Cursed your name and your line, for hours on end. Other times... I was convinced you would be my salvation, any minute now and you would sweep through the door to set things right with a wave of your horn." He looked away, frowning. "It was a... bizarre experience. Not just the physicality of it, the stuff affects one's mind as well. Darkness took me and for a while I strayed away through thought and time..." He shuddered, then stared at his tentacle-feet. "Not that the matter is resolved by any means, but... well. A measure of control, a modicum of... hope, has returned."
Reef sighed. "I suppose I can't blame you. Scared the hell out of Winter, though I must say he did his duty regardless, poor fellow. Even the Captain wouldn't visit, sent that Tartarus-touched purple pegasus in her steed - and she came primed for a duel to the death, before she thought better of it." He clicked his beak, then regarded Summer coolly. "So. That is where things stand." A pause. "How do you feel now?"
Summer Scribe was still staring at the floor, as she took inventory. Well... she felt awful, but she hadn't cried, shouted, fled or had an unreconcilable existential crisis. Neither had Reef, it seemed. So far, so good. The unicorn was cleary still anxious: her movements twitchy, throat congested, hooffalls antsy. Hearing about Reef Skimmer's time in the cargo hold certainly hadn't made her feel good about her actions, but it framed things almost like a fever dream: a horrible nightmare from which no no good can arise. As selfish as it was to think... it was nice, in a way, that Set Sail reacted the same way she did. If Summer was a monster, at least she was in good company.
"...Fine. Better for having talked it through, I think." she responded at last. "I... Do you still want to talk to me, then?" she asked sheepishly, as though broaching the topic might be taboo, after all she's said and done. "If you want to be friends, I want to be friends, too." Leaning forward and making eye contact took all the courage she had just then. "I don't want to see you as a monster. I want to be by your side as you learn everything about how your body works now... only if you'll let me, of course," she demurred. "I don't know. I'm like... so relieved that you made it through, but every time I think about it, it stings; like I don't know if I deserve forgiveness for this after I abandoned you."
"In this place... we all need to stand together. Animosity is a luxury we can ill-afford..." Reef said distantly. "Friends... I confess, one does miss one's old crew. Here, among ponies, I'm only on friendly terms with Sails, Nutmeg and... perhaps yourself. And none of those relationships are exactly... smooth. Oh Azure and Grenelda are happy enough to converse, but Azure is so aloof, and Grenelda, well..." He gave Summer an unreadable look. "...griffons pair-bond even stronger than we do, you understand?"
"Aha, yeah... Grenelda and Gustus care about the team and the mission as much as any of us, but they're socially a group of two." Summer released a little chuckle, trying to slowly ease the tension and relax her wearied, fried nerves. "I like Azure too, but she hasn't learned how to... well, talk, yet." It was true enough - as much as they didn't have the luxury of time, they didn't have the luxury of hatred, either. Not until the day comes when we find our way home again...
Reef stared for a moment, then cocked his head again. "If I may ask, is your position any better? You do seem like an... atypical pony, and your fellows are rather less keen on dangerous adventures." Reef didn't seem inclined to talk about his transformation just then.
"Hmm, yeah, I get what you mean. I kind of clash with other ponies... even internally. It's like, weird that I'm high octane but only about weird, specific interests, right? Haha. Like..." She sat down and looked sadly at her scattered notes. "...There comes a time in most conversations where I dunno what to talk about. A lot of ponies just pretend to listen and smile politely, you know? And then I realise I've been rambling at a wall for minutes and they don't really care. That's if they don't make it clear and blow me off right away. Not everyone's down to learn about the lost technology of the Tiger Clan when they have their own things they really want to worry about, after all. Err, oops, rambling again aren't I..." Now she was really sweating: calming an angry griff was one thing, but talking about herself...
Reef considered this for a moment. "Hmm. Your choice of bunk-mate was fortuitous at least; Glue Type seems happy to converse about lost clans and such for hours, even if she lacks your passion for high-risk away missions." His gaze fell to the floor, beak firm but eyes sad. "Don't have one myself... not that I wanted any special treatment, of course! Just that, well, the hippogriff frame is a touch large for the standard bunks, and... one imagines not many ponies want to wake up next to a giant eagle." He stared into space again. "Possibly one, but... oh, that was hardly practical even before I became a monster, one can't imagine she would be interested now."
"Blue Type," she quickly corrects, "And I'm happy to have her as a colleague indeed!" Summer Scribe tilted her head... Oh? If she's hearing right, Reef was in need of advice again. Pony advice. "...Set Sail, right? Hey, look..." The little unicorn rubbed behind her head with a hoof. "If you're willing to give me a second chance, why not Set Sail too? I mean, she even wished for the book that... I mean, it wasn't a magic book or anything, but it gave you the inspiration you needed, right? I'd bet you anything she thinks about you more than you can imagine."
"Ah yes Set Sail, she did indeed use up her wish to my benefit, but..." Reef sighed. "Firstly, she's the captain. Chain of command and all that; even if we're beyond the reach of the regulations out here, one would hardly want to add further stress to her already fraught command decisions. Secondly... well, I suppose pony stallions are thin on the ground, and pegasi are close enough to hippogriffs, that one might have elicited a degree of interest, but..." He raised a foot, or rather the group of blue tentacles standing in for a foot, and wiggled it. "...one can't imagine that's still true under these circumstances."
Summer Scribe lets out a gentle chuckle... which she had to hold back before it turned into a giddy and silly giggle. "Oh, Reef, no, no - Just because you've changed on the outside? You know how this always goes, right? When it's about real love, it doesn't matter what your physical appearances are, or if the species are totally different - whatever! It's all about how your hearts, entwined, yearn with desire for each other! What YOU need..."
Summer's horn lit up as she dragged a well-worn novel out from under her bed, where it lay in waiting - her guilty pleasure, The Outcast Prince, a (trashy, she'd be the first to admit!) teen mare romance novel about a strapping and burly stud of an alicorn, tossed out of his very own kingdom due to his forbidden love with - gasp! - a lowly commoner mare!
"...Is an instructional manual." She held it up with pride for Reef to see. "If you can say the right words - really show that you can seduce Set Sail - she won't be able to do anything but fall for you!" She winked. "All the signs were there, right? You just need to show her your true feelings - that's it! You can giggle be her Outcast Prince too."
Reef Skimmer reached out with his tentacles and grabbed the worn book, floating in front of him in Summer's cyan magic. He stared at the striking illustration of a well-muscled, slightly scruffy winged unicorn on its cover. The unicorn's platitude about appearances was surely just politeness, or perhaps trying to minimise the unpleasantness of his condition... but, if he could turn completely into an eagle now, perhaps he could turn completely into an equine? Hopefully not a giant one, and then there was the horn, the ideal pony apparently had to have wings and muscles and a horn... this would take some practice, at the very least. "Truly, this is what pony mares like?" he asked.
Of course Summer had no idea of the miscommunication that had just taken place - after all, that beak was just as tricky for her to read as ever. So she just nodded enthusiastically: "Oh, they do! We, I mean uh, they love the idea of a hunky stallion sweeping them off their feet and whispering sweet love letters into their ear. But don't forget, it's just as important to be loving as it is to be lovely! You need to show Set Sail that you care about her if you want her to be yours!" She gave the self-satisfied nod of somepony who is dispensing nothing but solid advice.
"I suppose if the Princesses are the female ideal, then it follows... hmm, can't say I've heard of any alicorn stallions though?" Reef frowned; he knew the diarchy of the alicorn sisters had reigned for over a millennium, perhaps they'd preferred that any knowledge of their predecessors die out.
"Ah, well, yeah, I think the book just made that up..." Summer admitted. "To be honest, I studied it for a while and there really are none. Dunno why! So, the book's a liiittle unrealistic," she chuckled, blushing. "But it's still suuuch a page turner!"
"No matter... one is most grateful for the assistance, Summer Scribe!" His beak hung open in a grin. "Bluebell informed me that the time of gift-giving, where ponies attempt to lure each other back to their nests, is just next week!" He sidled over and nudged Summer playfully with his shoulder. "Trust you little horses to make a full-blown festival of it, with songs and everything!"
Summer smirked at the griff's playful prodding and teasing. "Well, of course we would! Err, I mean, I should probably think about who I'm going to, umm... M-maybe Blue Type...?" Just like that the unicorn was a bashful blushing pile. She always found this day tricky for some reason!
"Off their feet, you say? Hmmm." Reef made a mental note. "Indeed one must find a truly worthy token of affection, given that without Sails' efforts I'd likely still be moping in the cargo hold. I suppose a nice door knocker or even an ornate armchair won't do... not that there's a branch of Quills and Sofas in the neighbourhood..." he mused, apparently completely serious. "Blue Type, you say?" Reef exclaimed, train of thought finally catching up with Summer's last sentence. "To be your special, erm, some-pony? Ha, well, erm, one wishes you the best of luck, old filly!"
"Err-hem, I mean, some kind of special, yes..." she blushed. Latching onto her roommate was a lot less mentally taxing than trying to figure out who else she could try to go out with! Not the worst idea all things considered. "B-but, thanks! And good luck with Set Sail, yourself!" Summer smiled. "Don't forget the basics: flowers, candy and romantic affection never go wrong!" The unicorn gave a satisfied nod, waving to Reef as he departed, door closing behind him.
Suddenly left with her own thoughts, Summer looks down at her notes and... oh, the giant claw mark burned into the floor. "Who do I talk to to get this fixed again...?"
For a soldier, the downtime between missions would be the best of times, or the worst of times - depending on which soldier you asked. Azure Feather firmly believed this particular break was the absolute worst. All the time she'd spent researching the Skyborn spell, getting comfortable with the butterfly wings it produced and then suddenly: unicorn horn shattered, alien feathery appendages attached to her sides. Oh certainly she'd dreamed of real wings since she was a foal, but never losing her horn, and the reality of learning to fly all over again was... frustrating, to say the least. Perhaps if she could take it slowly, but the drow were hunting for them and she needed to be in the air for the inevitable confrontation.
Cloud Cutter's encouragement was the driving force behind this latest attempt, but all the book smarts in the world didn't seem to help when her wings just wouldn't do what she wanted. The new pegasus was making progress, even getting airborne, but it was unsteady at best. She'd retreated to the edge of the forest, hoping to avoid the other ponies seeing her practice. Azure didn't need to embarrass herself any more than she had to and besides - it would only demoralise them, seeing their guard in this condition.
Yet though Azure Feather kept a cautious eye on the ship, alert to anypony who might make the trek across the meadow and catch sight of her, she was still not used to thinking like a pegasus. As such she just about leapt out of her skin when from total silence a familiar voice suddenly intoned, "Azure." It had come the one place that Azure had forgotten to look: up. The strange purple pegasus, Cloud Cutter was flying, or... perhaps floating there just above Azure, her wings moving more out of habit than necessity. "...Hello." the empty-eyed mare called down to her, with a stiff little wave.
Azure sighed and grumbled quietly to herself. Even with her best efforts, there was no hiding from everypony... least of all Cloud Cutter. Her wings dipped low as she looked up to the real pegasus and nodded. "Hey. Sorry... was just trying to practice, and uh... not doing too well," she admitted, shaking her head. The mare's voice was laden with her frustration and near despair.
"Oh no you were doing great," Cloud Cutter said. Thinking for a moment, she continued: "It's just what you were doing wasn't quite right. Not your fault. Sorry if I... haven't been around to show you better. But I think I know what you need to do." She landed, looking above herself thoughtfully as her purple feathers folded by her sides.
"It's... it's alright. Damn it, you'd think I'd know better." Azure muttered miserably, before trying to take off once again. There definitely was something wrong - her concentration or her technique, possibly both - and the attempt barely got off the ground. Azure dropped back to her hooves with a sad shake of her head.
Tilting her head a moment, Cloud Cutter strode forward at the flustered flapping pegasus saying, "Nonsense. You were doing what every pegasus foal does when they try to figure it out. I'd have to be an idiot to think you'd know better. Anyway, I have an idea for what your next step should be, but... it requires a cloud. Do you mind if I... ask one of our crewmates to help us out?" She gazed off into the distance, swimming in the psuedo-frustration of not even being able to feel actual frustration, even with something like that.
It had seemed so easy, when you'd spent years studying every little detail, but true flight really wasn't as easy as pegasi made it look. That much was now clear. A cloud though... Azure hadn't even considered that she could now cloudwalk without the aid of a spell. Cloud Cutter must have a plan. "Go right ahead. I mean... I've got to get back in the air, somehow. A grounded Pegasus is about as useful as a parasprite." She shrugged. "Or a broken sword. You get the drift, I'm sure."
"You of all ponies should know that broken swords can still kill," Cloud Cutter replied calmly. An uncomfortable pause, then without another word she just leapt in the air, circling higher and higher until she turned westwards, making a beeline for the airship.
Azure shrugged lightly. "You tell me if a broken sword's better than an intact one." she said quietly to herself as she watched Cloud Cutter fly off. She continued to practice while her mentor was gone, but her next attempt at flight... wasn't any better, skidding through the air into an unintended side-slip, and landing hard with another grunt of frustration.
When Cloud Cutter returned she was accompanied by a pegasus stallion Azure hadn't yet met: a blue-furred fellow with a striking red mane and tail. An average build, but quite agile from what she'd seen of him up on the rigging. In front of him was a puffy white shape: a small cloud. Azure's trained eye told her it had been loosely packed to make it easier to handle. The stallion called out as the pair descended: "Hey there! Azure, right?"
Oh goodness. That speedster of a pegasus. Maybe not on the level of the Wonderbolts, but certainly no slouch, Azure thought. Either get it right this time, or embarrass yourself in a big way, she thought as she looked skyward and called back: "Correct. And you are...? Apologies, I should have studied the crew roster a little harder."
"Well don't apologize, I don't even know all our names yet," he said agreeably. "You're famous so everypony knows of you of course! Cee-cee says I might be able to help with your flight training?"
"Yes," Cloud Cutter said, with a longing look towards the stallion, "Just... hop onto the cloud, Azure. We need a little bit of height for this exercise."
"Famous? Me? Bah, wouldn't go that far. Just a member of the Lavender Blades, that's all." Azure admitted, as she wasn't giving much credit to the whole 'Champion of the Winds' deal yet. She might have the wings and title, but hadn't used them to accomplish anything, she thought. At 'Cee-cee's' invitation to hop onto the cloud, Azure wasted little time: "I hear you and..." As she stepped on, she almost stumbled. "One thing the Skyborn spell didn't allow... and goodness, I've got to get used to this..."
"What're the Lavender Blades?" the stallion asked, "I'm Crimson Sky by the way." He picked up the cloud, Azure and all, and beat his wings, rising smoothly up while Cloud Cutter rose along with him. "Everypony's talking about how you were a unicorn, and then got turned into a pegasus," he said as they rose, "Like a princess! Well not like a princess, but close like. Sorry, did I ask about the Lavender Blades? Was that when you were a royal guard?"
"Good to meet you Crimson Sky." Azure said warmly, still trying to get used to the feeling of clouds under her hooves as she was carried up. Hearing her newfound fame from what had happened at the temple... it was nice at first, now it was like poking a raw wound. "Yeah... becoming a pegasus was quite a thing, I'll admit," was all she'd say on the subject. Finally, somepony had asked about the Lavender Blades, and that she was more than happy to discuss. "Less 'were a royal guard' and more 'still am'. I'm just the newest recruit, the lowest on the ladder, so they sent me to guard the expedition's support ship. Or... actually I volunteered for it... but yes, the Lavender Blades are a wing of the Royal Guard, just as the Solar and Night Guard are."
"Oh, I don't know how they're organised, but wings makes sense," Crimson said as they rose higher, "Nice of you to come help us then, though the way things were going we probably shoulda brought every one of the Lavender Blades along. Do they do anything different than the other wings?"
Azure's explanation was practiced, as this was a common question (at least, in Canterlot). "The Lavender Blades were established shortly after Princess Twilight's coronation, and have the duty of protecting the Princess herself, as well as be her blade in the more... dire circumstances. The Princess does not enjoy using us as such, however, as one can imagine with her time as the Princess of Friendship. But one cannot just guard, and wait. Sometimes action is required. As for more troops - I understand there was a full squad on the Friendship." She shook her head. "I hope they made it."
"Yeah, uh me too." Crimson said sadly. A short pause, then: "We haven't had a shakeup in quite a while," he said thoughtfully, "Princess Twilight's a regular Princess Celestia. No offense to either I mean, but I wonder if all that trouble around when Luna returned was because the princesses were retiring. Not saying they broke Tirek loose or anything, but maybe things were just coming loose without y'know, only one princess, to keep things stable. Guess you were glad to see some action out here."
Azure chuckled roughly, as Crimson Sky spoke of action. "I wasn't even thinking of becoming a guard, back when the terrible trio were around. I was the furthest thing, actually: I had my magic studies, and my own friends, and... goodness, you wouldn't believe the things I saw with them. Unfortunately, and as much as the Princess will say otherwise, not all friendships are eternal. A few years after the coronation, those friendships had grown distant - too distant, even." She sighed wistfully, thinking of days past and gone.
"The little unicorn that tried to learn everything she could about flight had to find another calling - and that calling opened up as the Lavender Blades were forming. Heck of a life change, but one I'm happy I made, because... let's face it. Friendship? It's powerful... but it's not everything." Azure seemed... a little tense as she finished her explanation, looking over the side of the cloud for a moment to the side to try and figure out where they were headed.
Crimson Sky didn't seem to have much to say about that, looking off thoughtfully at the horizon as they rise ever higher into the sky. Cloud Cutter managed to pull up the slack, staying close by Azure's cloud. As she flapped silently upward, she said: "We all die alone, in the end, though saying goodbye isn't always a bad thing. I think those friendships just weren't... right for you, anymore. But friendship isn't the only thing you lost. The Lavender Blades didn't... teach you about flight at all, did they?"
That drew another sigh from Azure. She joined Crimson in staring into the distance for a second before, shaking her head dismissively and returning to the subject at hoof. "Why would they teach me about flight? I'm a... well, I used to be a unicorn, we don't fly. Not with wings at least. The Princess understood; my Lieutenant, a pegasus herself, found it funny, but neither stopped my research. But neither really helped me, either," she admitted.
"Changing your calling isn't easy to do though," Crimson Sky pointed out, "I wanted to do some schooling when I was a colt. There never was the money for it though. Working on an airship pays the bills at least, and I'm pretty good at it. We can't all be Daring Do after all. But it's hard when you have to... y'know, give it up."
Cloud Cutter looked at Crimson thoughtfully, or blankly, it was hard to tell. At last, she said, "I think this is high enough," and Crimson Sky stopped pushing the cloud upward, flapping away from it. They had gone so high, that even the two huge islands below looked tiny: far too high to even make out the airship moored to one of them. Just two green blobs, somewhere down below. The semi-packed cloud she stood on shivered and tried to twist in the breeze, still restrained by Crimson's magic.
If she'd still been a unicorn, this wouldn't have made a dent in Azure Feather's composure. Can't save yourself from falling? Use magic, stop it that way - Skyborn, or failing that a burst of emergency levitation just before impact. Now she was a pegasus, and that meant no more safety net. Fail? That would be it: broken neck, no second chance. Falling from this height, she'd be a pile of purple slime on the ground somewhere. Azure struggled to keep her composure, but there was a part of her that silently yelling "You ponies are crazy..."
"Okay, now I need you to spread your wings, Azure," Cloud Cutter said, oblivious to Azure's internal monologue. "Just feel the wind up here. Listen to what it... has to say. With your wings."
Well, that's an easy start at least, Azure thought. She spread wings spread wide and remained quiet... listening... but then she blinked, as if surprised at what was happening. A unicorn's Horn, a pegasus' wings... both channelled magic in ways similar yet at the same time quite different. The rush of new sensations was something no book could teach her and magical butterfly wings could not replicate. It was less 'forcing the wings to do as one asked', more "letting the airflow combine with your own magic and using it to your advantage'. Sure, there were the exceptions: that crazy rainbow pegasus who lead the Wonderbolts, definitely that one that looked at the wind and decided it did what she asked of it. Azure had a long way to go before she'd be pulling rainbooms.
"There's a... bit of rain coming from the south," Crimson Sky said, looking Cloud Cutter's way. The purple pegasus turned away, self-conscious at the loss of her weather sense. "Nice tailwind if you head north though," Crimson continued, "I'm not the best at weather reading, but it's easy out here with no land around to confuse the issue. It's just crazy that the jetstream's below us. That's that fast current that kinda... tickles its way off on our right. You wouldn't think we were that high up from how thick the air is."
"Imagine your wings catching the wind," Cloud Cutter told Azure, "Riding on top of it like a slide. When you flap your wings, you can push the air away from you. When you tilt them into a breeze, you can cut right through it. The warm air you'll feel around, if you catch it under your wings, you'll rise as sure as any airship. So just keep that in mind." She watched Azure's fierce concentration carefully, then nodded to Crimson Sky, saying: "I think we can start." He nodded back, then turned tail and gave a hard buck to the little cloud Azure was standing on, making it all explode into formless vapor right under her hooves.
No momentum, no warning, and especially no safety net! As much as Azure had seemed focused, that went completely out the window as the cloud platform was torn to shreds: the support under her hooves disappeared, and any chance for last-minute preparation went with it! With a stunned look on her face, her focus returned to her wings, thinking desperately over what she'd just been told. Wings wide to try and catch the wind, this was it. Failure here meant she wasn't getting out. There was warm air, definitely, and that breeze just to the north... somehow she could sense that. A quick look around and she was turning towards the north and trying to at least catch the wind... it was that or die trying.
Azure thought she might have caught something with her wings as she began to fall, but the wind must have been a dirty, dirty lie, because as soon as she turned north, her wings buffeted back and she plummeted, flapping in a panic. For every pony length she managed to flutter up, she fell three, losing altitude almost as rapidly as her heart was racing. "You're doing amazing, so far," Cloud Cutter said, gliding alongside the doomed pegasus, "You're not even screaming!"
"I screamed like a lil' filly when my ma did this to me!" Crimson Sky called out in delight, on Azure's other side. Who was on what side became confused as Azure went into an uncontrolled spin, and Cloud Cutter declared, "Spread your wings and just hold them still, and you'll stop rotating!"
Azure just about managed to keep herself from screeching right in Cloud Cutter's face. Something that became harder to see as she started to spiral out on control, spreading her wings wide to try and stabilize before starting to flap her wings wildly, trying anything at this point, her survival instinct kicking in...
"Don't worry," Cloud Cutter called out to her, sensing Azure's distress as Azure continued her angry chicken impression, "You're high enough that you can totally stall out and you'll still have plenty of time to pull out of it!"
"We'll catch you if you get too tuckered out," Crimson called back, "Just play around with your wings, do whatever! You can't get hurt at this height; there's nothing but air up here!"
'This isn't working... this isn't working!' Azure Feather thought. Then for some reason she imagined her Lieutenant, who would probably use her face as a punching bag if she saw Azure panicking like this. Flapping their wings like crazy... did she ever see the legends, or her pegasus friends do that? No! They were calm, collected, often barely moving their wings: a gentle push if anything, not this! Alright. There's warm air rising... over there. Wing spread to stabilize... slip into the thermal, angle upwards... maybe that would work.
Abruptly, Azure found herself soaring smoothly up into the air, at a steeper and steeper angle, until she just began to fall backwards, the sky receding away from her outstretched hoof. "You found an updraft!" Cloud Cutter declared happily beside the falling pegasus, "Aren't those fun?"
"Just drop like a rock!" Crimson Sky suggested, "Then just tilt your wings a teensy bit just until you feel the pull, and you'll swoop right out of a dive!" Azure at least had the first part of his suggestion down pat.
It wasn't working. It wasn't working! Azure continued to plummet nose first to the ground so impossibly far below, even though her wings strained as she tilted them more and the rushing air fought across them, and... then... everything else started to tilt. Her flight path itself started to tilt, from a downward drop angling forward, in a slow arc that progressively flattened out, until she was just... sailing forward on her wings, the air slipping under them like butter. Afraid to move them.
Finally, Azure allowed herself a small smile at not falling helplessly, but the next lesson was met with a harsh nod. Tilting her wings experimentally in little banks to the left, then right, she also started to recall something else: Sunburn's words. Her wings weren't just a way to swim on the air that was offered. She was the Champion of Wind. Surely... surely, if this didn't work... she could tell the wind what to do. If she could call down a tornado, surely, a mere breeze is nothing, right?
"There, that's a bit easier, isn't it?" Cloud Cutter asked, shooting through the air next to Azure at a slightly steeper angle. Crimson wasn't moving at all, flapping there in the air waiting for Azure to circle around to him. Azure didn't feel like she was circling, but slowly, as if turned by an invisible hand, she found herself facing him and then just racing past him.
Azure's patience had worn thin at first, but now that she'd levelled off... this wasn't so bad. She began a wide circle, seeming to catch another gust of wind, as she nodded gently. "Of course, you know, I've got it easy, sort of, but... I want to learn how to fly the right way first."
Crimson Sky was catching up to her now, saying, "Nice glide! What do you mean you've got it easy?"
"If you tilt your right wing slightly down, you'll veer to the right," Cloud Cutter told Azure, more interested on teaching her than finding out something that could be asked after the lesson, "Same for the left. If you run into an updraft, tilt them both down as you rise, and it won't flip you upside down. Half of flying, really flying, is just learning to hold your wings steady, rather than flap them to try and keep you from falling. As long as your wings are spread, and you have enough speed, little movements are all that you'll need to keep yourself steady."
"Yeah, unless you want height!" Crimson said, and flapped his wings powerfully and... vanished from her side, suddenly a swiftly diminishing figure as he slowly flapped upward increasingly far behind them.
"As Crimson uh... demonstrated, you can flap for height, but you won't be moving forward much until you return to a glide," Cloud Cutter said, a little nonplussed by the stallion's enthusiasm, "With time you can put your magic into the glide and... well it's the antifriction equation, but you don't need the academic details I'm sure. For the most part that's all flying is. Flapping up, updrafts, and gliding."
"How's it feel to be really flying?" Crimson asked, again somehow catching up with them again, though Azure found herself whistling through the air at speeds she couldn't measure without any point of reference to crash into.
"It's... something. Though I've flown before... it wasn't with these wings." Azure's words were a little distant, as if she was trying to put every bit of info that Crimson had told her in a matter of seconds together. "So it's distance, or height, rarely both, period," she stated, gently trying to bank to each side and quickly finding out what that meant. "Updrafts... downwards tilt to save yourself, and... that's pretty much it. Hmm. Actually not hard once you're taught the correct way..." she concluded.
"I'm... teaching it wrong, actually," Cloud Cutter admitted, "This lesson's about... learning to play with the air, and feel it out. You're up this high so that you can afford to make mistakes, experiment with things, just... knock yourself out of the sky for fun. It just seemed like you might... appreciate an explanation. As best as I know it."
Azure soon turned to Cloud Cutter. "Even if it's a course best described as a crash course, I do appreciate it. Especially the height aspect: both of you knew I wouldn't get it right the first time, and you took that into consideration... and I appreciate it more than you know. Textbooks only teach so much: you need to get out there to really know how to do it."
"Oh huh, so you had some unicorn spell to fly with? Sorry, didn't know," Crimson called over, a blush on his cheeks.
"Yeah. Called it the Skyborn spell." Azure called back. "Worked like a charm when I had magic, really... but what do you say we all just go for a flight at a bit lower altitude? Because if we get caught here, well..."
Eyes widening, Crimson looked over to Cloud Cutter saying, "Say that's right. What do we do if we get spotted?"
Cloud Cutter frowned, saying: "Well we're all already... mostly sky coloured, so it's not likely. But that actually hadn't occurred to me. Yes I think we should find a cloud, and... head back to the ship."
"Again, thank you, both of you," Azure said sincerely, "I needed this class... and then some." She grinned, starting to drop back a bit and let the two more experienced fliers lead. At least they'd know where to go, right? Not that she didn't, but then again...
The three continued to glide lazily about, making their way to the nearest cloudbank, where CC taught Azure about how to land on a cloud, head first, at full speed. It didn't require much instruction, though CC may have had to hide a smile after Azure finished pulling her head out from where it got stuck in the cloud. Azure rode a piece of cloud back down then, with CC beside her, promising that the next lesson would be about take-off and landing, without any cloud assistance needed.
Crimson Sky stayed close, just happy to be helping, and to finally meet that heroic and mysterious guardsmare, who was a lot more... calm and soft spoken than he thought she would be. Thankfully without incident, other than a brief panic as a giant avian shadow swept over them just as their hooves kissed solid ground. From the deep, joyful squawks and sudden brief rainfall, it quickly became obvious that it was just Reef up there practicing being a giant bird again.
Getting her face buried in a cloud was another new experience, but Azure Feather just laughed it off... hey, she was still learning. But the first lesson was done, and she didn't even need her new magic. The winged shadow did startle her, but to see Reef flying high... she couldn't help but smile. Finally, things were looking up.
The Equestrians were starting to become fond of their little twin-rotor aircraft, as they prepared it to venture out into the Cloudbreaks for the fourth time. No longer just a captured slaver ship, the Second Chance was almost part of the crew. Not long after dawn the supplies had been stowed, the freshly charged thermal crystals were installed, and six explorers boarded:
Summer Scribe: the little cyan unicorn was bursting with excitement over the latest island and its mysterious pyramids. The mission to sneak into an ancient monument and disarm the mechanisms inside was exactly her kind of fun. As both senior researcher and senior diplomat, she was thrilled at the prospect of finding a treasure trove of native history (perhaps literally!) while also making a powerful ally out of the cagey dirt sharks. Her excitement was tempered only by the memory of the abandoned soda factory, and her promise to put the crew's safety first this time.
Azure Feather: the newly minted pegasus, ready to prove she was a force to be reckoned with. Cloud Cutter and Crimson Sky had got her back in the air, even given her a crash course on weather manipulation. She'd followed up with a few exercises of her own to confirm she could still perform her core Air spells without a horn. The intense preparation left her optimistic about her ability to defend her squad, but still... The showdown with the drow pirates loomed large in her mind, and there was no way to be sure of her abilities without a field test...
Reef Skimmer: the hippogriff doctor, or at least he had been prior to a close encounter with a voracious batch of 'animate magical waste'. Emerging after several days of self-imposed isolation, he was keen to show everycreature (and possibly one pegasus in particular) that he was still a useful member of the crew, not a horrible mutant monster. To that end he sat very still in the middle of the foredeck, concentrating on keeping his shape as close to his original form as he could. Certainly it would be nice to see the bipedal burrowing shark-creatures, sapient felines or indeed any other new native creatures. He couldn't afford to indulge himself though; he had to keep a close eye on Summer Scribe, who clearly needed adult supervision.
Grenelda, the fierce griffoness: still stewing about the land-shark's lack of respect for her companions as well as her inability to do anything about it; at least up until she took the heroic initiative to draw the obelisk's fire. The hen considered herself a dedicated and confident fighter: she felt it was her duty to keep her pony allies safe and out of trouble. As such she worried about what kind of situation they were getting themselves into, stepping into a conflict between Abyssinians (or their kin at least) and bipedal sharks.
Sprocket: the unicorn engineer, enticed by her friend's reports of trackless trains, balloon-free airships and other wonders of dirt shark industry. Her previous trip had involved long hours watching the engine and an abandoned and very drafty temple, but it had wetted her appetite for getting away from the Harmony's engine room. Even if they weren't going to see the sharks this time, it was already more fun: she was happily flying the copter, having been taught by Nutmeg Inferno the previous afternoon.
Blaze Trails: untested by these lands, but well prepared, this toned green-furred redhead of an earth pony spent the previous afternoon preparing a full set of saddlebags for everypony, bedrolls, rope, extra rope, pots, hooks, emergency shoeing, waterskins, salt and seasonings, a hefty tent she carried herself, and a sharp knife shoved into everypony's pack. She had a field notebook to pencil in notes, illustrations, and maps - and her handy bush hat held on her head by her animate ears. There was a worrying looking brace on her hind leg, to which the mare clearly paid no mind. She would spend most of the flight out just gawking, as it was the first time she'd gone further than the meadow next to the ship. Every island they flew past was a new adventure to her just waiting to be discovered.
Ponies waved farewell as Sprocket took off and flew north, making a close pass over Triskelion Mine and sighing in admiration at the enormous armoured train. No sign of the fabled Megalodon, but the unicorn caught a glimpse of a self-propelled crawler pushing mine tailings around. Grenelda joined her in the cockpit as navigator, guiding them north-west towards the distant, cross-shaped island.
Meanwhile Summer Scribe was stuck in the engine space, rocking back and forth and muttering to herself while she watched the six dials Sprocket had pointed out. It was so boring! In truth she had only a vague understanding of what they actually indicated. Nutmeg had helpfully drawn some red lines on with grease pencil though, so she just needed to call out if any of the needles went out of range.
After a couple of hours in the air they were at last on approach to the island the sharks had called 'Fellis', the great cross spread out in front of them. High desert on one arm, thick low-lying jungle on another, a central valley running from a massive crater down the spine of the island to a grassy plain edged by a sizable (if ruined) town. There were certainly plenty of destinations to choose from.
By this point Summer Scribe was pretty confident the engine wouldn't blow up if she abandoned her post for five minutes. So she poked her head above deck, and with relief caught sight of the approaching island. Almost there! Seeing that distant pyramid surrounded by all the valuable minerals reminded her of her purpose - the reason why they'd risked coming. She nodded her head with renewed resolve, and called out: "We all ready to touch down and talk with some cats? Hopefully they haven't picked up on our, ahem, conflict of interest, yet. This might be our only chance to pick their brains!"
"A lot more water than the shark island. Looks pretty wild," Azure shrugged as she turned to Summer. "Probably best if I let those who have been here before do the talking. From what I gather, the native cat guys aren't the friendliest type." She looked around the faces of her squadmates - they knew why she was here, and it wasn't to play diplomat.
"That's just what that sharks think. I for one sure do hope the cat critters are friendly," Blaze Trails replied, abandoning her perch at the bow to come stand close to Summer. "Where are we touching down? I'd like to get us setting camp up a bit so we're not carrying the world when we go out into it."
"Do we know anything about these, erm, felines? Other than that they don't like sharks?" Reef Skimmer inquired. "That settlement on the eastern tip is by far the largest we've seen out here, though... look, see that line of arches? Several broken ones in the middle." From this distance the equines had to take the griff's word for that, though Grenelda nodded in confirmation. "If that was their water supply, gone to ruin, perhaps the population is long gone...."
Summer squinted, and checked the map she'd 'borrowed' from the sharks. "Well, whether or not it has cats, it's still worth taking a look - after all, with enough persistence, you can learn almost as much from a departed population as you can from an extant one!" Her eyes gleamed at the thought of a whole city to excavate.
"Whatever you say, fellow," Blaze said, squinting that way cluelessly. "Azure's right though - that' a thick jungle below us though. You don't get a thick jungle without a lot of water. Maybe we should... hey!" At Summer's map, Blaze's mouth dropped open, and she rushed over to butt cheeks with Summer, saying, "Now when did you go and get a gosh darned map??"
Summer Scribe blinked and floated the map up in the air, protectively keeping it from Blaze Trails! "This is an important native document I spent precious resources bartering off of the Landsharks to get! ...By which I mean I asked nicely and pointed out it'd help me do my job, and they agreed. Ahem."
"Sure it's important!" Blaze protested, jumping up to try and get at the map, "If we have a map we'll know just where to go on this big old island!"
Summer Scribe relented, saying sheepishly: "Yeah, that's what maps are for, huh? Okay, okay, I guess I should share it..." She lowered the document to eye level so Blaze could get her hooves on it.
The earth mare was quite happy to look, as long as the unicorn was doing her the favor of floating it there in the air. "There's a big old lake in the middle!" she declares immediately, "With nothing close by in terms of dwellings. If we camp south of there, we'll have road access, and we won't be stepping on anypony's toes." She took pause then, asking, "What the hay happened on the east arm, with that huge crater and all? Probably best to stay clear of there until we know better."
"I'm not going to sound like a broken record today, everyone. You know what I'm going to say, just keep your eyes open." Azure's delivery was clipped and to the point. One can only state the same thing so often before others start tuning it out. And safety was one of the things she couldn't stress enough.
"We should set down soon, whatever we do!" Sprocket called out from where the cockpit, where the controls were held firm in the unicorn mare's magical grip. "I can't refuel this thing on the go, and I don't want it to run out of juice in mid-air!"
The Second Chance flew high over the southern tip of Fellis, where the dense jungle seemed to continue right off the edge, clinging to a flock of small islets floating near the main island. Several streams emerged from the vegetation and instead of plunging into the depths, simply continued snaking lazily through the air, pooling into small lakes around the outlying landmasses.
Further north, in the central part of the jungle the canopy was pierced by several tall spires of worked stone, the ornate carvings intact but obscured by moss and lichen. While there were thinner stretches giving the impression of a causeway below, the only outright clearing was that created by a pyramid nearly as large as the one to the north, the upper tiers of its stepped golden bulk poking up through the trees.
"Everypony, look! Floating rivers!" Sprocket shouted in excitement from the cramped shelter that barely qualified as a pilot's cabin.
The little craft continued on through the open air between the southern and western arms. Ahead, the details Reef mentioned were coming into focus; a lake and a mass of stone buildings with a long line of stone arches connecting them. Something else drew the eye of the explorers though, at least all of them who'd been to Witchway Marsh; the tell-tale shimmer of a bubble of magic, domed over a patch of particularly verdant green a little way from the lower lake.
Summer stepped over to the railing to peek out at the southern pyramid and its attending ruins came into view. She was immediately comparing and contrasting the architecture, wondering if it was built by a different species or just in a different historical period. "A magic bubble?" Definitely a similar effect to the one on the the gillfolk island. Another upwelling of 'elemental' magic? "Now what might that be there for?"
Azure stared at the mostly-hidden pyramid, her body tense. By all accounts the one in the desert had damned near wiped out their squad - this second one could be just as dangerous. To say nothing of who or what might be lurking in the jungle. At least Grenelda was a competent fighter - the doctor had been just as good at the chompy fight, but his transformation had clearly hit him hard.
It was her first time working with Blaze, the earth pony, but so far so good. Azure nodded to her: "Can't argue with steering clear of that crater." She gestured with a hoof at the dome of shimmering magic. "Hope we don't have to go in there..." Perhaps the fight with the goo worms was a freak accident, but if the circular gate was the only way in and out... just too easy to get trapped inside.
Sprocket brought the copter around in a lazy arc, descending towards the centre of the island. Here the forest was lighter, broken by numerous clearings and meadows. It was easy to make out a cobbled road cutting through the woods; the unicorn aimed for a crossroads, where the eastern, northern and southern routes joined. She spotted a convenient clearing, perhaps two hundred metres south... but paused at the sight of a small cluster of buildings nearby. Was she flying right into an ambush? No, the roof was collapsed, it looked like just more ruins... an abandoned farm perhaps.
Carefully, keeping the rotors well clear of the trees, she set the Second Chance down in the long grass, the noise and wind flushing out a small horde of wildlife that ran chittering to hide in the surrounding trees. Safely down, Sprocket cut the throttle and gave herself a little hug at a job well done. If only Static and Nutmeg could see her now!
Reef instinctively gave a flap of his wings as he jumped off the deck... to very little effect. Bereft of any mass-lightening wing magic, the big grey griff landed much harder than he'd intended and crashed to the ground, splayed out in the long grass. The shock of the impact was enough to make his claws revert to blue tentacles, treating the ponies to a choice selection of avian curse words as he struggled to get to his feet - or rather get back to having feet.
Some of the tension left Azure Feather's frame as she watched their craft land safely. The doctor was first off the deck and she spread her wings to join him, only to see him fall abruptly to the ground. Surely the hippogriff was an experienced flyer - something must be wrong. Rushing to her friend's side, she checked for injuries while asking "Everything alright, Doctor? That was a pretty heavy landing."
"Old habits die hard." Reef muttered through clenched beak. "No need for concern, Azure, the only injury was my pride. Better than hosing down the deck I suppose, that camping pony would doubtless be furious if the supplies were soaked."
Azure nodded quietly. Meanwhile Grenelda had also taken to the air, landing some way past the doctor and looking off into the nearby woods.
Summer Scribe had kept a close eye on the buildings as they came down - they certainly looked abandoned, but the sharks had been certain the island was still inhabited. She gave a sympathetic wince at Reef's plight, not expecting a splash landing - but he seemed to be fine. Guess you can't break bones if you're made of jelly! Not having wings she levitated the landing ramp into position and carefully trotted down.
"Eyipe!" Blaze Trails squawked in alarm, watching the doctor's accident. She was going to say something, but just turned her hat down as Azure rushed to his aid, and let the matter be. Once Summer had the ramp in position she followed close behind, glad to get her hooves on the ground again. The earth mare ignored the ruined smallholding and surveyed the terrain, her ears following the fleeing wildlife.
Sprocket called out from on deck, "So... should I stay with the copter?"
"Of course not!" Blaze called back to her in surprise, "We're gonna be here for a while, and we need everypony to stick together! Though it might not be a bad idea to try to hide the copter a bit better."
Azure was very much in agreement: "Best if we stick together, yes. New island, several known threats, who knows how many unknown ones." They'd have to be cautious - and Grenelda wasn't off to a good start. "Hey Grenelda, can we keep a tight grouping here?" She trotted after the griffon, wondering if the hen had spotted something in the trees.
Sprocket jumped down into the engine room, as the creak of a metal door echoes from within and somepony fussing about in the belly of the beast. Sprocket came out then, the creamy unicorn followed by a few large, floating red crystals as she trotted down the landing ramp they recently installed. "We can jus' take these with us," she explained, "They need ta be charged in a fire anyways. The copter's a brick without 'em."
"Ah yes, I must say a splendid job flying us over here my dear, I understand you only started practicing yesterday!" Reef winked at the unicorn; in his experience these ponies tended to need lots of encouragement to perform best, the junior ones particularly. "Any room left in the saddlebags, or shall we find a cache for those valuables?" he called over to Blaze Trails.
"Hey I can't carry these all day," Sprocket complained, looking back at them, then at her own unfortunately heavy saddlebags, "They're still pretty hot though, so give them a few minutes to cool off before you start hoofing 'em." She glanced at Reef's... appendages, currently somewhere between claws and tentacles. "Or uhm... whateverin' 'em."
Reef considered showing off by blasting the crystals with a quick water jet, but he'd shattered enough test tubes to be wary of thermal stress destroying their only means of powering the Second Chance. "One could certainly take a little more weight, if you need to make room in your pack." he offered. "Assuming, of course, that we genuinely need that collapsible kitchen sink."
"Soap on a rope isn't a collapsible kitchen sink!" Blaze protested to Reef.
Sprocket seemed more amiable though, saying, "Sure, thanks a bunch! Just gimme a sec here." They waited a moment with Sprocket testily touching the crystals with her hoof, more and more firmly, until she could hold it against one. "Okay lessee uh..." she nosed at Reef's saddlebag, "Do we really need all this rope?"
"You don't wanna run outta rope," Blaze Trails cautioned. "We can probably ditch the towel though. I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to bring one along."
With things shuffled around, there was barely enough room among the six of them to pack the thermal crystals. Once they were done, Blaze trotted over to Summer Scribe and took another look at the map.
"We don't want to do anything reckless... and yeah, staying together makes sense," Summer said. She peered out into the distance, then at the map. "We could peek quickly at those abandoned buildings or head, mmm... I'd like to go eastward, closer to the jungle pyramid, but it's a bit of a trek, especially if the trail is overgrown, so perhaps we could check out something closer?"
"That all sounds great," Blaze replied, "but we should head up towards the lake first, to set up camp. I didn't mean for us to carry this stuff all over creation and back. We need a nice cosy spot to set up a tent, and then we can get out an on our way."
"Wouldn't mind that plan myself, miss." Azure came trotting back with an annoyed griffon in tow, nodding to Blaze. "I'll have to stand guard, though, as..." She paused, shaking her head. "Right. First time you and I work together. Should just keep it to the short story and say that well, I don't trust much around here except my own crew. Keeping us out of trouble, that's my sole mission." Trying to, at least - so far she'd had limited success at best.
Summer Scribe nodded in agreement. "Yep, for sure - camp comes first." She hadn't though about how long they'd stay, but if they had to explore the whole island - would make sense to have a base of operations.
The group made a token effort to cover up the copter with boards from a collapsed shed, then headed out. Marching north through former fields, heading away from the farm and onto a cobbled road. Unlike the fields it wasn't overgrown - someone was doing at least minimal maintenance. The terrain on the far side was very heavily forested, with a lot of thick bushes and bracken blocking the way.
"Oh you know this is just great," Blaze said in hearty anticipation, "Nopony's been north of here for quite a while. Follow me!" The earth mare reached for her side and pulled out the biggest knife anypony had ever seen, considering anything bigger would qualify as a sword. With quick swings of the sharp blade, she made short work of the branches and steadily pushed through the undergrowth, squeezed her way into the shady forest floor beyond. The bushes were thickest by the road, since the sunlight was there for them to feed on, so soon Blaze was just cutting away a thorny vine here and there, as they stepped over fallen logs and around lonesome trees.
Summer Scribe gawked. That knife was big enough to be classified as a war crime! Yet it seemed to be just the thing as its owner quite literally blazed a trail, hardly seeming to exert herself. Summer Scribe happily following along, appreciating having an expert along this time to forge their path.
The lake glimmered as they approached, but well up the bank from it, Blaze declared, "Okay! Here we go. The forest really opens up here." She stomped around the area littered with leaves, then stopped to listen, then looked at the lake, then turned back to fast the rest, saying, "How's about right here? Trees aren't too old, and it's outta the flood plain. We'll set up a tent, drop off our valuables, and nopony's gonna spot 'em back here."
"Jolly good." Reef said, absent-mindedly shrugging his pack off and staring out at the lake. "Hmmm, one wonders..."
Giving an absent nod in concurrence with Blaze's opinion, Summer followed Reef's gaze out over the lake. "Ooh, it is a pretty lake, yeah..." Hopefully its serene surface didn't conceal anything carnivorous and hostile!
It seemed that the camper pony would be fiddling with stakes and guy wires and such for a while, so Reef Skimmer took the opportunity to wade out into the water. It was quite unlike the crystal-clear lake where he'd shared a picnic with the kirin engineer; the brown tint probably came from peat bogs upstream. Still, it did feel good; just standing in it was invigorating. His sliver of the great pearl was long gone, but if he could become an enormous eagle, surely the familiar change to the shape of a seapony would be possible? First he relaxed, letting his feet revert to tentacles and grimacing at the still-disconcerting feeling of gaps opening up in his torso and neck. Then it was just a matter of concentrating; hooves to fins, legs to fluke, feathers to scales...
Summer Scribe looked on with clear interest. From an academic perspective, watching new kinds of transformation in real time was fascinating. And seeing how he used it would be even more exciting! Hopefully no one would object to her intense stare and note-taking...
There was no sign of glowing ribbons of light this time; just bits of the ex-hippogriff's body reverting to goo before warping and shifting. After a few false starts things suddenly clicked into place, the feathers and tentacles disappearing as Reef's form swelled... and kept growing... and solidified into a huge grey aquatic creature, much bigger than the already sizable seapony shape they'd seen before. This was a sleek, feral monster, like an enormous sea lion with the scales and fins of a fish, not to mention an impressive pair of curving horns and set of spikey spinal plates that reminded the ponies more of a dragon than anything else.
A wave of displaced water lapped up against the shore as Reef Skimmer splashed and thrashed around in shock, trying to get a good look at himself. "I say! It seems... oh, erm Summer?" As with the roc form, his voice had deepened though this time it was more of a bark than a squawk. "Do I have horns? It feels like I have horns!"
"Interesting!" Summer's own horn glowed as she scrawled some more notes. "Apparent violation of conservation of matter. May be magical effect? Able to manifest water perhaps. Full control over body type and stature with applied focus... Oh!" She jumps to alertness as she's addressed, squinting. "Wait, you were trying to turn into some kind of sea dragon thing, right? You didn't do that by mistake, right?"
"Looking great doc!" Grenelda cawed. That new shape looked like it could do some real damage, if anything lurking in the water tried to mess with them.
"Well, erm, I must confess it wasn't exactly intentional, but... you know, I truly believe I've become a bunyip... oceanic, of course, not tri-horn. Ha, who would have imagined!?" With a delighted and throaty chuckle the grey-and-pink sea creature disappeared into the murky waters, leaving only ripples on the surface.
Summer grinned broadly. "A bunyip, yeah! So wait, do you not know what you're going to get?" She twirls her quill out loud. "Does your body just kinda do what it wants, and you have to hope it's listening? Still, very cool - lots of potential here for sure!" sploosh "...Oh, there he goes!" Summer giggled. "Hmm... half tempted to go for a swim myself, but I think I'll watch and chill for a bit." She contented herself with gazing out onto the lake's waters.
Azure Feather seemed a little startled at the... beast Reef Skimmer had just become - this was a far cry and then some from the gentle seapony, the well-mannered hippogriff, or even the giant predatorial bird she'd come to know the doctor as. No, this just looked like a beast ready for a fight and more. Still, could be useful, and... at least he was back in his element, right?
Leaving the griff to his fun, she headed over to Blaze Trails. The only pony to have brought a real weapon that wasn't part of their form... and what a knife it was. Blaze had left it on a stump while she set up the tent; Azure stared at the blade appreciatively, saying "Quite a piece of work, isn't it?"
Blaze Trails let the tent slide off her back: it landed on the forest floor with a heavy thud. She sat on it like a log, looking up as Azure approached. "Ooh, yeah," Blaze Trails said agreeably to Azure, taking out a cloth and carefully wiping it across the blade on both sides, "You can't make your way forward without a good blade, my dad always used to say. She's a carbon steel blade with a stainless edge, earth pony forged ore straight from the Smokey Mountains. Cuts through bushes, vines, branches, you name it! You must know a thing or two about knives, bein' in the guard and all."
The other mare's words brought a smile to Azure's face, as she watched expert weapon care for the first time since she'd left her post in Vanhoover. "Wise words from your father," she replied, nodding softly and clearly impressed by the description. "Just between you and me? All this magic, these wondrous items here... sometimes it's just nice to see a solid Equestrian weapon doing its job. A piece of art, this blade."
"Weapon?" Blaze Trails asked, giving Azure an incredulous look, then looking down at her knife, then blushing as she looked to Azure again, saying sheepishly, "Oh, oh no, this isn't a weapon. You could use it in a pinch, but the blade's far to wide to stab anything with, and too thick for quick slices. This's is just for brush clearing, cleaning up the campsite, chopping vegetables, that sort of thing you know." Having cleaned the blade, Blaze gripped the handle in her mouth, sheathing it in a thick scabbard behind her saddlebags.
After a moment's thought, Blaze pulled out a knife from the second scabbard, smaller and thinner, with a tapering curve to its edge. "Now this's a weapon," she said emphatically, idly twirling it on her hoof, "They call her the Griffon's Claw. Ain't no critter gonna make a meal outta me with this to mouth with."
Spotting the actual weapon instead of the "tool", Azure chuckled a bit. "Now you see why I was in the magic division of the guard... goodness, with that knowledge, you're set..." She took a closer look at the Griffon's Claw, and nodded. "Yeah... as much as I can understand a big heavy blade as more of a tool... hit a drow with that and they're not seeing much afterwards..." she mused. Then her muzzle twisted into a bit of a smirk: "Speaking of drow... you want that claw to get some work done? There is a little battle brewing in the near future..." Sure Blaze was a civillian, but they needed everypony who could hold their own for this fight.
"You're talking about the slavers, aren'tcha?" Blaze asked Azure solemnly, "Boy howdy, I hope not." She looked down at her second knife, saying, "Killed a puma once. Couldn't scare the poor thing away. Can't imagine killing something who could ask me not to. I'm not gonna let 'em put the reins on me, even if I have to use this, but... I don't wanna have to. There's gotta be a better way than just sinking a knife in 'em all, you know?" She gave Azure a thoughtful look, adding, "I'm glad some of us like that sorta thing, though. Simple ponies like me need ponies like that, when we can't do what we need to."
Azure Feather nodded softly, hearing the other mare's thoughts on the matter. As much as Blaze knew her craft, and had weapons that could make any guard member proud - she was still just a pony. Most ponies didn't like to fight, she knew that. Blaze... just seemed to be normal. "I respect that..." The pegasus gazed into the distance, as if lost in her thoughts for some time. Was she the abnormal one? Was wanting to step up to the plate and fight wrong? The Lieutenant sure didn't make it look like that...
Grenelda, ever the reclusive sort, had retreated to the edge of the clearing. The griffon perched on a fallen tree, wings flicking as she settled, cat-like, and watched the perimeter unerringly for anything that might constitute a threat - it kept her calm and at ease. Her repose was disturbed by an explosion of spray out in the lake, as a huge pink-trimmed grey shape breeched the surface and rocketed skyward.
Reef Skimmer reverted to his default, tentacle-festooned shape as he flew towards the shore, supported by numerous jets of high-pressure water shooting from the flared tips of his wiggly appendages. This time his landing was smooth, albeit noisy and destructive, scouring away several bushes and blasting deep ruts in the soil, which immediately filled in with lake water. "Now that was just the ticket!" he enthused. "Do you know there's a whole shoal of something like perch down there, quite unlike any... erm..." Looking around at the damage, he sheepishly admitted "...one supposes that follow-on career in landscape gardening has slipped out of reach."
Grenelda fluffed her feathers, only to quietly sigh once she realised it was 'just' the doctor.
Summer Scribe perked up, paying careful attention to the way Reef flew now - fascinating! She wondered what kind of airtime he can get now, and if he has to restock periodically? "Heeey, nice!" The unicorn grinned, drumming her hooves as though in applause. "Well, just don't land anywhere where we're camping and I think you should be set!" she chuckled.
Azure's eye twitched: Reef Skimmer's landing was... destructive, to put it mildly. "So the Doctor has... that," she muttered to herself, quietly thinking about the uses of such a technique.
"Anyhoo, want me to help set up the tent?" Blaze asked more cheerfully, after sheathing her less utilitarian knife. She started unrolling the thing, tossing Azure some stakes, then apologizing profusely when Azure didn't just catch them in her wings. They got it rolled out, and unfolded, and sat there for a while, screwing segments of tent pole together. Pushing them through, staking them in. Sprocket joined in, not bothering telling the others by the lake since this wasn't going to take too long anyway.
The tent was... very large, easily the size of three regular tents combined. It almost didn't fit even in the big area Blaze picked out. "Sorry," Blaze said sheepishly at one point, "I brought tents in case of a dozen expeditioners or so. Didn't think it would be this touchy to explore around." They got the tent put up though, and a thick canvas rain cover stretched all over atop it. "Alright, lemme just work out the inside a bit," Blaze said happily as they stepped back to look at their work. She unzipped the tent, and headed in alone, stomping around in there for quite some time. Then she stuck her head out, saying, "Okay looks like it's good to go! C'mon in!"
Azure looked at the massive tent before her, only to tilt her head at Blaze's apology. "You just gave all of us an opportunity to rest in comfort or even to just take a minute to do so. Nothing to apologize over, in fact, thank you for it." Still she hung back, looking into the trees and waiting for others to go in first. Shelter was all very well, but it came with the risk of somecreature sneaking up on you.
Summer Scribe happily trotted inside... "Dang, this is impressive stuff. You work fast!" She grins happily, turning around in a circle. Of course, all they really needed was protection from the elements, but this much area was luxury: particularly if they would be excavating more ruins.
"I wonder if I could make it faster..." Sprocket said, looking at the poles. "I m-mean... all those stakes you had to hammer in! If you could make a telescopic geodetic structure out of lightweight struts, hmmm..." she fell silent under the weight of a sceptical glance from Blaze Trails.
Reef Skimmer had to dip his head to fit through the entrance flap, but once inside found there was plenty of space even for his larger body. "Hmm, I see that should we require a field hospital, you have us covered."
"T'be fair it would have been crowded with a dozen ponies, but sure, let's get everypony's stuff where it won't get rained upon." With everycreature inside save Grenelda (who insisted on keeping watch), Blaze set up six bedrolls, with plenty of space to walk between them. Whether Reef Skimmer could actually use his bedroll as he was, was debatable. Blaze was carrying a small folding table on her, that she opened up near the entrance, and dropped down her field journal on top of it.
"You can use this for writing if you need to," she called over to the ponies and other creatures clustered by their sleeping mats, "And the tent has a quiet charm, so we shouldn't be too noisy to any critters creeping around outside. All the comforts of home except a fireplace, right? Well, we can get to that later. For now let's go out and explore!"
Summer Scribe confirms that her bedroll is as it should be, and then waved a hoof! "Yeah! We've got plenty of daylight and I'm full of motivation. We have a case of one laser-armed obelisk to crack, after all!" She was more than impressed, and this would be a great home base to retire to. "As for our first destination, I'm thinking we should do the relatively normal one first - the abandoned town to the north." She gestured with a hoof at somewhere past the tent flaps. "We might find extant cat-folk to talk to, we might not - either way, we can try and get questions we have answered, and should walk away with a better frame to tackle the pyramid next. Sound good?"
"We could find out why it got abandoned," Sprocket suggested, "Might have something to do with the pyramid you said is on high alert. Or maybe they jus' abandoned it cause of the sharks. They'd hafta go through there to reach that upper plateau."
"Or maybe there's vile creatures crawlin' all over it," Blaze said at the exit to the tent, hopping excited, even if her leg brace gave her a bit of a limp, "We won't find out until we get going!"
The explorers made their way back down the short trail Blaze had carved through the undergrowth, heading west along the old road until they came to a crossroads, then north towards the ruins marked on Summer's helpful map. The journey took half an hour on hoof, alternating between a brisk trot and brief breaks while Summer sketched a mysterious, overgrown stele or Reef Skimmer attempted to catch an unusually colourful vole. The explorers were surprised by how quickly the climate changed here: even more than the islands they'd visited before, going from deciduous forest to dense pine trees to rocky barrens and weathered shrubs in the space of a few kilometres.
Crossing two streams via ancient stone bridges and taking a left at the next fork, they came to the site in question. To one side of the trail, a cluster of curious rounded structures that blended into the landscape, like a series of oversized, upturned clay pots. On the other side, a much more elaborate structure: a complex of sizable flat-roofed buildings linked by colonnades and ringed by a perimeter wall. The construction here was massive and squared-off, enormous sandstone columns and slabs fitted together without mortar.
"Well, here we are!" Summer Scribe held her head up high. "Abandoned or not, this will be an important study of the native cat population. One must be adequately prepared, after all!" Onward she strode, fearlessly approaching the seemingly unoccupied huts to examine them closer.
"The climatic anomalies of this place would occupy a team of pegasus researchers for years," muttered Reef Skimmer. While the archaeologist did her thing, the hippogriff occupied himself sketching the various shrubs and comparing them to his earlier notes. It was as if hordes of invisible weather ponies were up there, tirelessly maintaining the patchwork of microclimates. He thought of Cloud Cutter... no doubt she would have loved to study it all, had she not lost her weather working. Despite her unwarranted hostility, he still felt a pang of sympathy for the mare.
"Such a strange place," Azure said quietly to herself. Her new Pegasus senses were indeed going off in ways she still didn't understand, with all the strange weather around here. She kept her face blank, not letting the others see it was bothering her - they weren't pegasi, so they probably didn't pick up on the little twitches of her wings. As always the guard was at the rear of the squad, keeping everypony in sight at all times. While she still wasn't entirely confident in her new abilities, Azure was feeling less lost than she had right after the transformation. In any case, she'd do whatever she had to, to keep her team safe.
"I sure haven't seen none of these cat fellows yet, but I don't suspect we'll be running into them soon. This is their home after all, and some of us sure are making noise," Blaze Trails remarked, the last part under her breath. The deep green mare stood near a stand of pine trees, staring at the weird pot-shaped buildings, not sure if she liked the look of them.
Grenelda had maintained a certain level of paranoia all the way from the camp, glancing left and right, keeping watch all around the party. The hen felt like she's had eyes on her for the past twenty minutes, but she hadn't caught a peep of the watchers. Somegriff was out there, she just knew it - but who, and when would they make a move? "Not sure I like the looks of those," the rough lady griffon told Blaze, seeming somewhat distracted. "Don't move in yet. Just wait a sec, see if Summer makes anything explode." The griff kept a close eye out for any movement within the ruins.
"Explode?" Blaze Trails said in surprise, looking Grenelda's way. "These are homes not bombs, dear," she explained, "They make them out of clay and woven sticks... you don't see 'em much outside of Zebrica. I'm just a little antsy about waltzing up to somepony's doorstep."
"What part of 'abandoned buildings' don't you get?" Grenelda asked incredulously, "These are houses? Could still be traps." The hen stared around unhappily. "And... it's too open around here. Any kind of monster could spring out of those trees."
"Well I think they're fine," Sprocket said, sticking very close to the big scary griffon right now. She wasn't sure if she liked all this adventuring. Not a monster or a truck to be seen so far, "So nopony's attackin' Summer... might as well just go in and..." It took a concerted effort to step away from the relative safety of her companion, but she did, cautiously heading among the ostensible dwellings after Summer Scribe.
As it turned out nothing exploded, and there wasn't much to see in the long-vacant roundhouses. Summer quickly moved on to the much larger complex, trotting confidently up to the entrance then closing her eyes for a second to sense for dangerous magic. There were traces of... something, traces of a lot of different castings in fact, but it didn't feel like there was anything coherent and active. As for physical barriers, if there had been gates here, they were long gone.
Once past the perimeter wall, things were looking very promising. Intricate carvings were everywhere, in bands and rows on the walls and columns. The symbols were unfamiliar, more like tiny pictures than runes, but there was a definite cat theme; cat heads, bipedal cats, winged cats, armoured cats, regular cats, you name it. Then there were the statues... several scattered around the complex, along other worked stone shapes that seemed completely abstract in nature.
Each statue depicted a creature that seemed to Summer like a cross between an Abyssinian and a centaur: the lower body of a lion or panther, with a smaller upright torso where the neck should be bearing two fingered arms similar to Abernathy's. The poses were proud, contemplative or suggestive of spellcasting; the less-damaged statues held long staffs topped with unfamiliar ornaments.
Azure Feather had taken flight to get a quick bird's eye view of the area, and soon spotted the marks of a battle long past. Judging by the numerous holes, cracks, scorch marks, craters and similar damage, it hadn't been your typical pony battle. She shook her head - whether danger still here lurked or not, they were better off together. Alighting on a column, the pegasus motioned with a wing, indicating that the others should follow Summer. It would certainly make her job a lot easier. A part of her wished she could be examining the ancient architecture herself - her younger self would have loved this.
"May as well head in," Blaze Trails said, trotting forward and looking back to Grenelda. "C'mon, don't be a scaredy cat! ...bird."
"Whatever," Grenelda replied, leaping into the air and flying straight over the perimeter wall, leaving the unhurried Blaze trotting crisply along behind.
Sprocket looked up as the griffon flew over her: the dusty unicorn mare's hackles went up as she realised her bodyguard had flown the coop. Blaze paused beside her though, laying a hoof on the other pony's back and saying, "Let's go see what the others are getting into." So the two entered the statue garden together, while Grenelda and Azure circled for a bit before landing nearby.
Summer Scribe paused again, letting her horn sense her surroundings. "OK, no active magic, we're in the clear." Striding in, she took stock of the architecture and of the carvings. "Looks like a pictograph-based language system - hopefully Blue Type can translate them." She studies the statued as well, remarking: "Hmm... tauric body-type, definitely a celebration of magical capabilities; I wonder if their magical knowledge is still extant? Regardless, it strikes me as a race that'd be able to make our Obelisk problem with no problem." The unicorn wracked her memory. "...In fact, I remember seeing statues that looked like this outside the pyramid? I didn't have long to look, but I think that'd cinch the relationship."
Reef Skimmer arrived just in time to hear her musing: "Remarkable!" he said, trotting from one statue to the next. "'Tauric body-type' you say? Haven't heard that terminology, but it does suit. One certainly wonders if there are more species in the family..." He sat down and fiddled with his pack, looking for his camera and its tripod.
Summer Scribe nodded eagerly: "Yeah! I figure with all the species variety up in the Cloudbreak Islands - it's practically all new to science! - this might not be the last four-legged two-armed species we learn of." She peered at what he was- oh! A sudden moment of realisation: "A camera... I really wish I had one of those handy. It'd save a ton of time doing sketches." Of course, her quill and book are always nearby, with her satchel and telekinesis alike.
"Oh, did yours go missing in the crossing?" Reef said sympathetically. "Alas I have no flash powder, so of limited use indoors, but still... a completely new sapient species! Definitely worth a few plates... one does hope there are live specimens around somewhere!" He frowned, looking at the nervous Sprocket. "Assuming they're friendly, that is." Then he went back to fiddling with the camera, unfolding the bellows and setting it up on its tripod.
That was enough to set Summer's hoof tapping nervously. "Mmmm, 'friendly'... yeah, that's what I'm worried about - they have a big grudge against the Landsharks - maybe warranted? so I'm fretting about what they'll feel about us when we make contact."
"The place sounds like it's seen Tartarus and then some," Azure noted to Grenelda, shaking her head. "Whatever we're stepping into, we'd best be careful. Don't know about you, but there's something about the notion of 'magically blasted battlefield' that makes me think there's either a monster, a trap, or worse waiting the further in we get," she brooded.
"Those battles do tend to linger," Blaze Trails remarked, worry written on her face. She was sizing up the statues from a different perspective: "Hopefully these are just statues, and not the critters that were battling."
Summer shook her head; this speculation wasn't getting them anywhere. She took the initiative and started forward towards the main entrance, announcing: "Okay, I'm dying to know what's inside the complex." The question of whether anyone would follow was left hanging in the air.
Azure shrugs a little. "If the squad's going into a potentially dangerous area, the guard followed. I'm in." The pegasus took a few steps forward, then looked to the rest of her allies. Who else wanted to head into this... alien building, scarred by a battle of violent magics?
"It sure looks ancient," Sprocket said cluelessly, staring up at the tops of the sandstone columns, "I'll uh... take the rear. But... tell me if you see any traps, I might be able to unjigger them."
"Less worried about traps," Blaze said, peering into the building, "than spells left half finished, still intending to do harm. But.. it's not much riskier than the chance of tripping and falling on an old spear somepony left lying around though."
"Y-yeah well... maybe I can... do something..." Sprocket stuttered nervously.
"Don't worry we'll make sure it's safe," Blaze reassured her, "You take the rear, and see if you can open up any huge stone doors that close us off, or whatnot." The earth pony headed up to stand beside Summer, smiling and saying, "Thanks for asking! Good that you make sure you aren't leaving anypony behind. I agree let's go see what's inside now."
Sprocket just sighed, looking to Azure hopefully, for somepony safe to stick with.
"Knock yourselves out," Grenelda said, "I'll keep watch out here." However spacious as the entrance looked, she didn't feel like going into any sort of confined space right now. "With the doctor, I guess," she added, seeing Reef Skimmer still taking photos of the statue garden.
The interior spaces of the complex turned out to be a series of dusty halls and rooms, most carpeted in the scattered shards of smashed stonework and ruined equipment. Further in there was less damage; Summer recognised many of the items as instruments of magical research - a table covered in strangely shaped glassware, jars of dimly glowing sludge, wire frameworks that had once held arrangements of crystals - thought she had no idea what exactly had been researched here. The alchemical charts and sorcerous runes carved into the walls might yield answers, if she had a team of academics and a way to translate all the accompanying hieroglyphs.
Summer's eyes twinkled as she walked slowly through the building, gawking at all of the fascinating items. "Ooh, yes! This is a magical research building. It'd take me ages to fully figure this place out, and I guess we don't have that time, so I'll try to stay cursory." A pout of dissatisfaction, but still an amazing discovery!
Staring at the runes in awe, but then total incomprehension, Sprocket groaned and facehooved, saying "I'm the worst unicorn ever. Shoulda paid more attention in magic class." Still sticking close to Azure, she added, "So you don't have a horn anymore at all... must suck not being able to levitate things."
Azure had stayed quiet, shooting curious glances at the abandoned equipment but mainly keeping an eye on the dangerously excitable Summer Scribe. Sprocket's question prompted a thoughtful look on her face. After some reflection she opened her mouth to reply... only to find the words would not come. How could she sum up her life's quest, a dream realised but at an unexpected price, the intense embarrassment of fumbling around like a foal?
At last the ponies reached the largest, central hall. Here shafts of light shone in through holes blown in the roof to cast pools of light on a mosaic floor bearing an intricate circular mandala. One wall drew Summer's eye in particular; a large-scale if slightly stylised map of the island, bearing a series of prominent symbols inlaid in silvery metal. On the north arm, a stylised representation of the tauric creatures they'd seen in statue form. To the west, over the largest cluster of buildings, an Abyssinian rendered in side profile.
To the south, a shape that gave Summer a little chill of recognition - a sphinx, the legendary pony-headed giant winged lion that had given Somnambula so much trouble. To the east, what looked like a bipedal lion wearing bulky plate armour - likely a different species, or even a golem, given the massive build that bore little resemblance to the lithe Abyssinians. Finally, on an outlying island to the north-west, a symbol of interlocking curves that the ponies didn't recognise.
Blaze looked puzzled, asking, "Is it a magical map? Weird symbols - 'specially that one in the corner. Maybe whatever blew that whole island arm sky high messed up the map in here? It doesn't seem to be shifting about or changing or anything."
The armoured lion drew Azure's gaze, but she held back, maintaining her ready posture, scanning the various pillars and doors for any creature that might be lurking in the centre of the complex.
Summer had no such reserve: the unicorn trotted forward eagerly, fixated on the sun-lit map and ignoring the rest of the chamber. "Let's see how these catfolk categorized their islan- huh. Is that... a sphinx?" She tilted her head, staring with sudden recognition. "Huh. I wonder if that's something we can still- ahhhh!" Her musing was interrupted by the sudden pressure of a spell activating, right under her hooves.
If it hadn't been for the congealed residues of thousands of castings all around she would have noticed it earlier, but as it was, Summer's sideways leap came slightly too late. Green energy flashed through the stone mandala, creating a column of light filling most of the hall. Summer rosed up into the air, floating lazily in mid-air at the centre of the space, legs waving to no effect. Blaze Trails had been following close behind and was caught up in the effect, all sensation of weight disappearing as she too went drifting through the air, caught in the levitation trap. The two ponies would be stuck there until the monastery's owners came to deal with them; which would likely be a while, seeing as it had been abandoned for over a century.
"Oh - waaah! Seriously?!" Summer Scribe's griping was hardly an effective remedy, but it's all she could muster as her reflexes failed her and she was levitated into the air. She looked over at the also floating Blaze Trail, letting out a belated sigh before yelling: "Assistance, please!" She wasn't sure if the trap had any further functions, but she certainly didn't want to hang about! The little unicorn flailed her limbs a bit to see if she could get any sideways momentum going, but escaping the trap under her own power seemed impossible.
Blaze Trails seemed much less perturbed. "Oh a levitation trap! Boy does this bring me back," the earth mare declared, twirling in mid-air to get into her saddlebags. "Guess you were right, Sprocket!" she called out, "I dunno why they'd set their traps after a huge battle, but there you have it! Here, can somepony catch this?" Biting down on one end of a rope, Blaze tossed the other end well outside of the glowing field of magical energy.
Azure regarded the glowing green field warily. Two ponies trapped, including their lead researcher - unharmed so far, but who knew what other lingering magic might be here. Wind blades weren't likely to help here. If only she still had telekinesis... this would be so much easier, Azure thought. Instead she stepped forward and bit down on the rope, hesitating as she realised that only Blaze was connected to it. Then again, would she even have enough strength to pull even one pony out? Maybe if she used her wings...
Summer watched as Blaze got the end of a rope free, and Azure grabbed hold of it. All she could to was encourage them: pumping a hoof and waving at the newly minted pegasus. "Yeah - haul Blaze out, then you can lasso me afterwards!"
Biting down hard on the rope, Azure backed up, straining her legs and teeth to pull as hard as she could. Blaze was dragged away from Summer to the edge of the column of magic, but the force resisting her escape got steadily stronger, until she was stuck floating near the edge, caught between the straining pegasus and the spell determined to keep her trapped.
Blaze tried pressing her own foreleg down on the rope, wrapping it around it, but gave up quickly when that only dragged Azure closer to being trapped herself. Holding the rope, Blaze declared, "Boy howdy this thing has got us good! Can you tie the rope off somewhere? Those columns look pretty sturdy!"
"I'll go get Reef he's huge!" Sprocket declared helpfully, trotting quickly through the dusty halls, heading for the courtyard and leaving Azure struggling to tie off the rope without magic.
At the sight of Blaze barely making it out Summer let out a huff of sympathetic frustration; it looked like her own rescue would be prolonged. She nodded to Sprocket: "Yes, get Reef!" but the other unicorn was already out the door. Summer was left to fidgets with her hooves, spinning in place as she hung weightless in the air.
Azure Feather was happy to follow Blaze's advice: either she'd lose her grip on the rope, or they'd have a third pony trapped in the field. Thankfully, the column wasn't too far. She still felt intolerably clumsy doing everything with her mouth, but soon enough the knot was secure. She gave the rope a quick tug to double-check, then called out: "Alright, all set!"
Blaze twisted about to tie the rope around her torso, yanked to test the strength of the connection, then spooled the rope around her forelegs, by jamming one after the other down on its increasing tension, until slowly she started to drag herself out of the trap's incorporeal grasp. At last with a sudden squeak, she was free, briefly tumbling across the floor to slide to a stop near Azure.
Outside, Grenelda was perched on the perimeter wall, allowing her to scan the area while still glancing down occasionally to watch the hippogriff playing with his camera. It was always funny to see him get so excited over new kinds of creature - though she had to admit, these feline centaurs were genuinely interesting - a squirrel with neon stripes, not so much (though it did make it easier to find lunch). Every so often her keen eyes caught a glimpse of movement in the trees; so far just wildlife, but... there. That... was definitely a biped, crouching behind a shrub. Triangular ears, large eyes... had to be one of the native cats.
The griffon perked up in alarm, then held perfectly still, calling down to Reef: "I see them! I just knew we were being trailed by the cats. Going to take a closer look." In a sudden burst of movement, the hen spread her wings and leapt from her previous perch to a closer one. No doubt that would tip off their observer, but she didn't mind that: she wanted to be a strong, visible statement that this bunch of explorers was alert and not to be messed with.
Grenelda couldn't hear the hiss from so far away, but the griffon could definitely see the cat creature baring its teeth in alarm as it crept backward, startled by the griffon's sudden approach. Cover blown, the furry biped slunk away into the dense pine forest. As it went, Grenelda got a good look at the bow it carried, an arrow already nooked and ready, while a dagger glinted on its belt.
"...Shit. Thing's armed, too. Got a bow and a dagger," she reported back to Reef. "And I don't wanna assume that's just for self-defence and get bitten. I bet they'd make the first move if they felt warranted. We're not welcome here."
"Oh, erm, surely we shouldn't jump to conclusions?" Reef mused. "Abyssinians are carnivores of course, maybe the creature was out hunting and we piqued their curiosity? Then again... felines are generally territorial, and if they've been sabotaging the shark's expeditions, one imagines they might default to treating visitors as threats..."
Grenelda narrows her eyed at that. "Yes, quite. We should probably..." the hen gave her claws an instinctive flex, talons glinting, "...Let it know that we'd strongly prefer otherwise. Want to come help, Reef?"
Into the middle of this little drama, Sprocket came charging out of the complex, hurrying up to Reef Skimmer and panting, "Summer and Blaze got caught in a trap. We need you to help pull 'em out!"
"Sprocket! A trap, you say? One is at your disposal, of course..." Reef's beak hung open in a little grin, though Sprocket might not have realised it was such. "Alas Grenelda, it seems I must decline, at least for now... probably best if you keep watch while we dig Summer out once again?"
Grenelda leaned back on her high perch. "Hrmmm... sure, sure. I don't want to take any risks right now. Go help free Summer from whatever mess she's in now, Reef." She waved a claw at the pair then returned to staring into the woods.
Sprocket ran back through the complex with the hippogriff in tow, paying little heed to the abandoned facilities. They reached the central hall just as Blaze had finished untying the rope from the thick sandstone column. "One sec, and I'll lasso your unicorn friend!" the earth pony told them.
"Hmm," Reef said, looking sternly at the column of light and pony floating within. "So, was this spellwork so devilishly hidden that even creeping forward with horns out, there was no way to detect it before contact?" he said accusingly to Summer. "Or were you perhaps a little too eager to inspect those symbols over there?"
Summer Scribe blushed, feeling guilty and defensive. "I tried, I couldn't make heads or tails of anything! It was all a wishy washy mess of discarded magical residue that this didn't stick out at all. Really sorry!" She kicked her hooves, trying to keep some sense of dignity around her even as she did a slow involuntary backflip.
"Hey don't blame her," Sprocket said, looking at Reef in surprised offense, "It's all... woobly in here!"
"'Woobly', you say?" The hippogriff gave Sprocket an odd look, then jerked his head around, staring into space. "You know, it does feel strange in here. Mixed up. I wouldn't know what to make of it either, though I've only had these a few days..." Reef tapped the pearls now permanently attached to his head "...so honestly not much is making sense." He looked at Summer. "Consider your court-martial cancelled," he told her, then his tone softened: "Apologies. Was anyone hurt?"
Summer let out some of the tension in an explosive chuckle. "Honestly, things could have gone a lot worse: this seems to be a trap with entirely nonlethal intent. So far, all that's happened is me and Blaze hung out here for a bit, and now it's just me." She kicked her legs again, then sighed as she resigned herself to waiting passively for rescue. The only real casualty had been her ego.
Azure Feather shook her head. "No injuries sustained here, Doctor." The trap was a bother, but Blaze was out and rescuing Summer shouldn't take much longer. They'd got lucky - she worried if the next trap they missed would be less benign.
Blaze Trails stepped up, flinging the rope such that it unfolded as it flew forward until Summer could catch the loop tied in the end of it. With Summer hanging on for dear life, the combined forces of Reef, Azure, and Blaze smoothly pulled her out of the field, step by step, until she too popped loose. Sprocket restricted herself to cheered them on - there wasn't much room left to grab onto the rope anyway. The column of restraining force continued to glow behind her, as Summer Scribe climbed back to her hooves.
Summer scrambled back to her hooves after been yanked out, escaping the forcefield with a sudden pop. "Whew! Thanks, ponies." She took a moment to steady herself, turning around to satisfy her curiosity, holding her horn out to the base of the forcefield. "As I suspected - magic's coming right out of the design on the floor, here. We can walk around it, of course, but I'll have to pay attention to other traps here - shouldn't assume that was the only one."
"Good show Blazing Rails." Reef congratulated the capable earth pony. "Interesting that your rope wasn't deflected upwards as you cast it. One can only assume that spellwork affects living and unliving matter differently, or perhaps discriminates by mass, hmmm..." He shook his head again; a matter best left to unicorns.
"Oh, well it did fly a little funny," Blaze told Reef, "These sorts of traps look for something to big grab ahold of, like an unwanted intruder. They're not just a big blob of glowin' jello, more like a bunch of..." she glances at Reef's forelegs, "Grabby claws of light, looking for something to hold onto. They wrap around the rope, but it's them pulling against each other that keeps you there, not their grip."
"I think it's meant to stabilise you in the centre of the cylinder, otherwise we'd just have smacked into the ceiling..." Summer muttered out loud. Now that she was out of the trap, she could take a closer look at the map. ~Reveal your secrets to me, map...!~
"Starswirl's beard," Sprocket swore, looking in awe at the mandala at the floor, "I feel like these guys were like triathlon runners, and I'm just splashin' around in the kiddie pool."
"Good to see every creature's safe," Azure said in contentment, but was soon shaking her head again. "Keep your eyes open though. We're likely to run into more traps, or perhaps even worse. I can't stress it enough, be careful. We're lucky that trap didn't hurt anypony."
"Oh Azure, err, indeed, very fortuitous." Reef agreed. "You know, Grenelda was just saying something about cats trailing her. A cat with a bow and a dagger in particular. I think it ran away, she wanted to go hunt it down, but then Sprocket requested my assistance and, erm, one does hope she's still perched on the wall rather than doing anything rash..."
Azure frowned at Reef's information. "So we've literally got natives who know we're here? Lovely, if that doesn't scream 'major threat' - especially with them armed with bows, daggers... maybe even controlling that laser... this could even be worse than the drow." Her mind was going to dark places as she scanned the room for threats again, even more carefully this time.
Summer Scribe looked nervous at the mention of hunter cats. "Oh, so much for a peaceful first contact..." she lamented. "I'd be surprised if they have the laser under their control - I think it just does whatever it wants at this point, but... yeah, can't rule anything out at this point."
Sprocket tried to calm things down, saying "We don't know if they have horns or anything like that, or those zappy spear things bipeds carry in comic books and stuff. Just having bows and daggers doesn't mean they're harmless, sure, but it doesn't mean they're hot stuff."
Summer nodded, still looking shaken: "A bow's already enough of a credible threat that I'm concerned. I just hope they'll listen to reason!"
Meanwhile Reef Skimmer had carefully slipped around the glowing forcefield to get a closer look at the map on the far wall. "I say, that's a sphinx! They were said to live in pyramids, weren't they? And this... hmm, another subspecies of feline bipeds? With an affection for heavy armour?" He shot the unicorn a curious glance. "Do you have any means of determining how long this place has been uninhabited?"
Summer Scribe trotted over, nodding eagerly: "Oh, yes! There's techniques you can use, you can measure the levels of erosion and accumulated dust, gives you a pretty good estimation."
"Are you all nuts?" Blaze declared in shock, "They're gonna box us in here! At least if we're outside we'll have somewhere to run if they decide to tussle with us!"
The earth pony's words jolted Summer back to reality. "Err, uhh, yes! Sorry, going to have to abandon the investigation for a bit. Grenelda's still outside, right? Let's go see what she has to say?"
"Blaze has a point," Azure agreed. "We're up against foes with no intelligence on their capabilities, or disposition. The most foolish thing we could do is to let them to flank us on both sides. We need to get the advantage, at least, terrain-wise. Let's move out."
At least one of these ponies had her head screwed on straight, Blaze thought, even if the others were a bit nuts. She led the way as they all hurried back outside to check on their guard griffon.
Grenelda had been perched on the highest roof for only ten minutes or so before she spotted movement out in the pines again. A lot more of it this time; she couldn't be sure exactly how many cats were out there, but at least a clawful... and over there, more furry shapes taking position in a copse near the clay houses. They were a lot bigger than drow, more like a griff reared onto paws, and there... there was one shape bigger still, padding on four paws while carrying something long in its fleshy claws, something with a glowing tip.
She squinted, trying to make out the details. "Shit: this looks bad! Trouble inbound, and I think I see a magical staff of some kind," she called down to Blaze as the pony returned to the courtyard. She didn't want to get in a scrap with that creature, not until she knew what they were capable of. Arrows, daggers - those she understood well enough.
"I'll go hide, just in case," Blaze said quickly, "Wouldn't do to get all of us captured at once, if they're ornery." The earth mare dashed off to find some sort of a hiding spot.
Sprocket was the next to emerge, asking "What's going on? We're not gonna have to fight them, are we?"
Grenelda's eyes narrowed. Well, if Blaze wasn't going to fight, then hiding was probably the best thing she could do. The griffon glanced between the cat warband and the clueless Sprocket. "We might. Are Reef and Azure with you? I need some real firepower so I can stand up to them," she clucked.
Said creatures were right behind Sprocket, along with Summer Scribe who was still engaged in speculation with Reef Skimmer about what species were still extant on the island. "Say what? Cats with magic? We're facing Magicats?" Reef exclaimed. He considered turning into a roc... but would that escalate the situation unnecessarily?
Azure Feather was to the point: "Grenelda, hearing a lot of chatter... we've got hostiles incoming?" She gritted her teeth at the prospects of conflict, then sighed. "Let's confirm they're even hostile first: if they shoot first, we shoot back." The pegasus stared into the distance for a moment. "We can't trust anyone here - but that doesn't mean we have to fight them."
Summer Scribe perked up as she listened to the chatter. "They've got a magic weapon? Oh geez, this is serious." Her voice was more nervous than ever, looking over to Reef for reassurance.
Up on the wall, Grenelda shook her head. "They haven't fired a shot yet - if we can keep it that way, great. If not, you're gonna need to fight too, Reef. Azure, are you ready? Sprocket and Summer, you keep out of it for now."
Azure listened closely: "Understood, but..." There was still a chance for diplomacy. Summer had done it with the gill folk, and again with the dragons. Why wasn't she taking the initiative now?
"Okay, I... I can go hide nearby, I guess?" Sprocket said uncertainly. Blaze had already disappeared - should she run after her or what? She certainly didn't want to get hit by a magical weapon or whatever, but what if her team needed help? She just had no idea how to handle this sort of situation. Reluctantly the unicorn retreated, edging her way around the complex and looking for a rear gate to get out of the place.
From Grenelda's high vantage, she could see two of the creatures emerging from the trees, heading straight for the entrance to the compound. One looked like a big cougar that walked on two legs, dressed in a simple green tunic and carrying a short bow in elongated forepaws. The other was clearly one of the creatures depicted by the statues, a leonine centaur with an oddly flattened face, carrying a gnarled wooden staff topped by a crystal that cast a green glow. The two kept their eyes on the griffon as they approached, their weapons at the ready but not yet aimed.
The griffon clicked her beak, and hopped down to the courtyard, forming a loose formation with Azure and Reef. "Here they come. If they want to talk, we'll talk. If they're here to fight, we won't roll over and show our bellies." She stretched her lithe leonine body, wings stretching and floofing up, eagle talons tearing at the ground.
"Roger that, Grenelda. Leave Summer to diplomacy first," Azure repeated. "If it turns sour, I'll follow your lead." Before she'd expect to be in command, but uncertain as she was about her own abilities following the transformation... in truth Azure was relieved that some other creature was taking charge for this battle. Whatever the outcome, she was ready.
For once Summer Scribe didn't seem up to the challenge. "W-Wait, I don't know if I should be in charge of diplomacy if they're here with weapons..." she said timidly, hiding behind Grenelda and peeking out from under her wing. "I mean, uhh, I can say hi if desired?..."
Beyond the walls, the two strange creatures halted as Grenelda disappeared from sight; they hadn't yet reached the entrance, so couldn't see inside the compound. "Griffon!" a male voice shouted. "This territory is claimed, and defended! Out of respect for your clan, we give you one chance to retreat with your honour intact! Fly now, or taste steel!"
Grenelda's brow furrowed. Their diplomat seemed to be out of commission, and... well, you'd have to be an idiot not to take that offer. They was nothing to gain and much to lose from forcing a fight, after all. With a leap and a few flaps she was back on the wall, staring down at the Abysinnian and the cat-centaur. Raising a wing, she said reasonably: "I hear you. We accept your offer and will retreat." She glanced down to her allies, "We have some non-fliers with us in our party, so we ask only that you give us time to vacate them as well."
"You tread in the sacred halls of the mystics," the felitaur said in a deep female voice, gesturing with her staff for emphasis. "Don't test my patience!"
Then the biped again: "Alright, griffons, round up your pets. But... our eyes are everywhere, our bows at the ready, so if you're thinking of trying anything, think again."
To Grenelda it seemed like there was an undercurrent of fear in his voice, like he was projecting bluster to cover up his uncertainty. The female though... she seemed certain of herself. She got the impression they were afraid of a conflict too - and didn't blame them. Griffins here seemed to have a reputation, and while parts of it might be unwarranted, she could hardly complain.
With a quick flap the griff was back on the ground, out of sight of the cats and ready to address her companions. "Alright, let's get ready to leave. Azure, Reef, we're carrying a pony out each. Once we're airborne, then we'll figure out what happens next," she said gruffly.
No diplomacy, no battle, nothing? Just a straight retreat? If anything, Azure Feather looked... was that frustration, disappointment, or both? Either way, she headed to Summer's side. "Either we ride together again, or maybe you'd be better off with Reef... I don't know, Summer, it's your call." Azure could understand the other mare being afraid of the magical weapons - she'd seen some terrifyingly effective ones back in Equestria! But to call a retreat first without even trying diplomacy? She could only shrug.
"Retreat?" Reef Skimmer frowned: he'd also been expecting the ponies to do their friendship thing. "Very well." He concentrated for a moment, then his form rippled, warped and expanded again, as he transformed into an enormous grey eagle, or rather, small pink-crested roc. Aside from making flying less tiring, the intimidation factor should help keep those magi-cats at bay. "Oh, just climb on my back Summer, it worked well enough with Nutmeg."
Summer was sweating buckets. "...I-I don't know. I mean, we could try, b-but we're soundly in the wrong here. They've got us red hooved!" She turned to watch Reef's miraculous transformation in action - a few seconds and he'd become an elephant-sized bird! "Okay, you got it! I think that means you get Sprocket, Azure? Don't worry! I trust in your wings." She nodded as she clambered aboard her ride.
"Now this may feel a little strange - believe me, the feeling is mutual - but just, erm, sit tight there, ok?" Reef instructed his passenger, before sucking her hooves down into the gooey interior of his back and gripping them tightly. Then it was just a matter of letting his claws revert to tentacles and blasting off. The enormous grey raptor shot skyward, propelled by jets of high-pressure water that sprayed from the tips of his tentacle-feet, climbing rapidly (and incidentally turning the statue garden into a rutted mess of muddy puddles) before levelling off to circle high over the complex.
Summer gawked. "Woah, my hooves! Oh, I get it, this is how you keep me in place..." She looks out from the side and yelps as Reef started blasting water: "And this is the propulsiiooonnnn...!"
Grenelda clicked her beak in admiration: Gustus had mentioned it but this was her first glimpse of Reef's new form. Then she took wing herself, flapping around in search of Blaze Trails. "Hey! Blaze! We're leaving, let's be quick about it."
Azure was wordless in response to it all. As much as she wanted to protest, she couldn't, so she just mechanically followed orders: "Understood, Summer." Yet she couldn't help but add another comment under her breath as the unicorn walked away. "Well that makes one of us..." Confidence in these wings? Not yet; not even close. Still, she went galloping after Sprocket, catching the other unicorn just as she was about to slip out through a breach in the rear wall. "Guess I'm the one carrying you... fair warning, probably a rough flight ahead," she said apologetically, as she took one last look back at the complex. Lost opportunities. Well, one can't win everything.
Sprocket just trotted over to Azure, her expression meek as she stood ready to be picked up. "Not like I could get myself out of this. If you can carry me, that'd be just... way cool. Still can't believe you can fly with those things. Like, they're real wings, not... I mean... I dunno what I mean. Let's just get outta here."
Straining to the limit, Azure managed to get them both airborne, struggling to gain altitude with such a heavy weight in her hooves. Meanwhile Grenelda searched the grounds high and low, but couldn't find a trace of the earth pony. "Blaze? Hello? You out here? It's a cease fire!" she called out. Nothing. The griffon clicked her beak in annoyance: ok, fine. If the pony wanted to make her own escape, she could. Grenelda was left to spread her wings and fly away empty-clawed; she could only hope they'd find Blaze back at camp.
Not wishing to fight the feline inhabitants that had challenged their right to explore the abandoned magical labs, the explorers had taken to the sky; at least five of them had, the earth pony Blaze Trails had vanished into the forest and could not be located for extraction. Grenelda the griffon, Azure Feather the (newly-minted) pegasus and Reef Skimmer, originally a hippogriff but currently in the shape of a small roc. On the giant grey eagle's back (or should we say, partially embedded in it) was the cerulean form of distinguished researcher Summer Scribe, while the pink-coated unicorn Sprocket squirmed in the legs of the pegasus.
Reef Skimmer took the ability to change shape for granted; it had been nearly two decades since the Royal Pearl had been split among the hippogriffs of Mount Aris. Before his painful encounter with the unnatural worms he'd been restricted to two shapes - griff and seapony - and the change itself had been more or less automatic. Now new possibilities had opened up, albeit requiring much more practice and concentration to master. The roc shape was certainly useful, he thought: once airborne, the occasional flap was enough to maintain altitude. The whole messy business of wriggling tentacles and water jet propulsion could be put out of mind for a while.
This was in fact his first time flying like this in the daytime; it was reassuring to see things from a decent altitude again. There was Azure Feather, wings flapping hard to climb with the engineer pony gripped tightly in her legs... and there was the griffon Grenelda, spiralling easily up to... hmm, with no pony. "What happened to Blazer?" Reef called out, his roc shape making his voice deep and extra-squawky.
Grenelda shrugged her shoulders by way of response, as her wings stilled into a soaring glide. "Couldn't find her, wasn't responding when I shouted her name. I figure she knows what she's doing and we'll see her back at camp. If not, I dunno - we'll figure that out if she doesn't show up."
"Return to the camp?" Reef started down at the tiny feline shapes below, now creeping into the half-ruined complex; no doubt searching for spies or stragglers. "I suppose we should make a show of flying off in a different direction first, lest we lead them straight there. Then, erm, sneak back in and try to pick up Blazer, is that the plan? What about the copter?"
"Hmmmm, guess we can take the long way around," Grenelda considered, before nodding firmly. A minor diversion that might save a lot of hassle. "That Blaze pony, I think she just straight up ran off. My guess is, she's already making her own way back to camp. The copter? Yeah, we just don't fly that way, problem solved."
From her position riding on (or to be honest, stuck in) Reef's back, Summer Scribe was listening to the griff's conversation. "If we're juking the cats, maybe we could head down southeast first?" the unicorn suggested. "Get a closer look at the jungle and the temple hiding in there?"
Azure Feather finally reached the same altitude as the griffs, with Sprocket hanging nervously below, though it had been an enormous struggle. Physically her wings were fine, beating powerfully at her sides, but pegasus flight was as much magic as aerodynamics, of a kind very different from the unicorn spellwork she was used to. Flying with the weight of another pony in her legs was a huge thing to ask of a beginner, and it was clear that she couldn't keep it up for much longer. Make it back to the camp, maybe, but a leisurely trip around the island was out of the question.
"I say Azure, brave effort there, but... perhaps you'd prefer to put Sprocket next to Summer here?" Reef suggested, banking over to glide below Azure. "One can hardly feel the weight and you do look a little, erm, flustered."
"F-Flustered?" Azure managed, clearly straining to stay in the air. "You're... not kidding." The pegasus grunted as her grip faltered, her passenger slipping down a few centimetres. "Sorry Sprocket... can't keep this up..." The mechanic pony was trembling now, reaching out with her hooves, and unconsciously lighting up her horn to try and arrest her fall. Before she could close the gap with the roc, Azure's legs finally gave out, causing the unicorn to plummet like a stone while the pegasus shot upwards.
Fortunately Reef was already in position: his aerial catch of Sprocket was successful, if a little disturbing. The extra passenger landed in his back with a loud squelch, pushing the grey feathers aside and embedding half way up her barrel in the blue gooey substance beneath. "Oh, erm, perhaps I can just..." With a few false starts and odd sucking sound, Reef managed to re-extrude the second unicorn until just her hooves were held fast. "...and there we are." he finished, feigning nonchalance.
Sprocket's heart had leapt in her throat as Azure finally dropped her, but she'd landed squarely on the roc-like creature's back. Her panic flared as she continued to sink through him, but as his... stuff grabbed her and pushed her back to a stable standing, Sprocket felt like she could breathe again.
Summer Scribe looks over to Sprocket with a giggle. "Welcome to Reef Airlines! It's a little sticky, but I've had worse."
"It's..." Sprocket panted for breath from the close call there, "...something! Sorry uh... Azure, didn't think you'd have to fly far. You okay?"
"I'm... okay now." Azure stated, gliding along smoothly now but still trying to catch her breath. "Sorry... I'll have to work on my wing power if I'm going to do something like that again." It seemed Summer's confidence in her new wings had been misplaced, she thought glumly.
"So... south east, you said? Over the jungle?" Reef looked over his shoulder at the two unicorns stuck to his back, then over to the griffon. "Perhaps we could head for the aqueduct over there, then swing around? Should throw those kitty-cats off the scent, one would think?"
Grenelda nodded: "Sounds like a plan. If we're having to do this anyway, then some sightseeing isn't the worst." Not that she was feeling any love for this island after the death ray and the thoroughly unfriendly cats, but, eh.
"Not falling to my death, so no complaints here!" Sprocket called out.
"I guess we stick to the plan of retreat and regroup then? Fair enough. I'll follow your lead." Azure nodded, not enthusiastic about sticking around either. What were the odds the jungle would be any more welcoming? Still, they had a job to do here...
The three flyers stopped circling and turned south-west, staying close as they flapped away from the abandoned monastery and its besieging force of indignant talking cats, hoping to find a less hostile reception in the jungle and its mysterious stepped pyramid. Summer Scribe looked back at the receding complex and let out a bittersweet sigh of relief. "Well, that could have gone better, but it could have gone worse. I'll take it."
Reef Skimmer drifted lower, peering down at the landscape where the forest began to open up. A river snaked lazily through a small plain dotted with the signs of agriculture. Small, scale, disorganised, but fields of vegetables nonetheless. It pooled into a small lake, where a collection of small, rounded wooden buildings could be made out sheltering under and in the trees near the shore.
To the west, a line of stone arches led away towards a much larger settlement of more elaborate buildings, though both the aqueduct and the city were clearly damaged by some calamity. To the south-east, a glimmering bubble of greenish magic domed over a cluster of clearings and meadows, bright with flowers and dotted by some form of statues or sculptures.
"You see those pens? It seems the Abyssinians have a taste for swine, I'd say the same species we encountered in the river islands." Reef noted, before cocking his head in various directions. "One is feeling... something from that bubble. Hard to put into words. The feeling of going from meadow to jungle, but concentrated, intense? Apologies, I suppose that doesn't make much sense."
Summer Scribe was starting to calm down, as it seemed they were out of danger for now. Sure she was a thousand metres off the ground, embedded in a huge bird with innards made of goo, but it was a nice sunny day and the thrum of Reef's wings was soothing. She looked out over the landscape far below to give herself something to occupy her mind and senses.
"...You know, I don't blame the cats for telling us to scram. I guess." Her brow furrowed. "They were totally in their right to do so. It's just unfortunate that they have to be like this, you know? But... no biggie. There's plenty more to explore, so we won't be out of leads any time soon."
"In the right?!" Grenelda protested angrily, "Those cats were total jerks! They didn't even let you explain. And everyone thinks you're pets or something! So we were in their fancy school or library or whatever, which was already trashed when we got there by the way. So what!? I thought those sharks were just blowing hot air, but I guess they're right about the creatures living here."
"I'm just glad we got away!" Sprocket called over to the griffon, "They can't be total jerks, or they wouldn't have let us leave!"
Summer Scribe's tail twitches in a half-flick. "I mean, yeah. They didn't even ask why we were here, or even what we were, but..." She gulped, eyes downcast. Why had she hesitated, shirked her duty as part diplomat? A little hostility from the locals never usually stopped her. This time, she felt strangely... guilty? Then with the trap she hadn't spotted in time, hanging helplessly there waiting for Blaze to rescue her... yeah.
"They probably were too scared to do anything about it," Grenelda countered, "Did you see that male? He was just shaking in his boots, for no reason!"
"Some races are nice like us, some races are... less nice, I guess." Azure shrugged, taking in the landscape below. "Nice place for a vacation, but that's not what we're here for... Maybe we'll get a chance to meet them under better circumstances. Best not to worry about it right now."
Summer Scribe had already put the cats out of her mind: her gaze was focused on the shimmering dome of green magic below, nestled in a forested area near the smaller of the island's two lakes. She peered at Reef's head up ahead and asked loudly: "I had my eyes on the pyramid in the Jungle, but that magic dome... Doesn't it make you want to know why it's there? Are you as interested in taking a look as me?"
Reef Skimmer's huge eagle face turned back over his shoulder to regard his passengers. "The matter is intriguing of course, but..." said uncertainly to Summer. The whole incident with the slime worms was undoubtedly down to the abandoned factory, but he couldn't help joining Set Sail in unease at these incomprehensible native magics. "...that is to say, if there is but a single entrance, as per the water park, what if we get trapped in there?"
Reef glanced over at Azure Feather; that was a sound tactical reason for staying out, right? "It's not far from the village; we might end up having to fight our way out through a legion of felines. Assuming we can get in at all, if it requires one who can perform magic on plants; alas, our agriculture pony is... taking a stroll in the woods, right now."
"Yeah! Won't they just chase us out of this super magic dome too? It's even more protected looking than the ruins!" Sprocket asked. Stuck further back on the roc than Summer, she was craning her neck to try and see around the great gooey beast in vain. "Or the pyramid in the ruins for that matter. We need to find out what they're all up in arms about, before we pay a visit to more of their places!"
"Not all races even want to talk with others." Azure sighed, shaking her head in resignation. "Nothing wrong with it, but I guess we'll need to gain a positive reputation if we're to even get close, I think." She looked down warily at the lakeside village, then the shimmering dome nearby. After all, they think our team is two hungry griffons and their pets. They think we're nothing."
"Hmmm... but we have to face it: we have no plans of doing anything for the cats. We need that alliance with the sharks..." She echoed Azure's sigh: she wished it didn't have to be so transactional, but... "Because they're our only hope against the Drow right now. We picked a side. I would love to make friends with everycreature, but..."
"One shouldn't draw too many conclusions from one encounter, Azure." Reef admonished, before looking at Summer and cracking his beak open in an avian smile. "The same species can exhibit radically different behaviour depending on circumstance and local culture. Why, you might imagine harpies were the foulest beasts or the greatest, erm, temptations, depending on whether your first meeting was at the end of a pirate cutlass or the performers at, erm... certain establishments that specialise in entertaining sailors."
Azure sighed again at Reef's words. "To be fair, we've been called sheep, goats, camels, and now pets. Guess I really shouldn't be surprised anymore."
"Well I don't have anything against the cats," Sprocket said, giving Summer an uncertain look, "Maybe that's why they chased us away, because the sharks have been sending creatures to mess with them. Maybe it was a simple... misunderstanding?"
"Keep in mind our goal: we want to shut down that laser-pyramid," Summer said firmly. "It doesn't take a genius to realise that that thing is probably sacred to the cats and they'd oppose us if they knew what we were really up to. It's not like this is ancient history: we were told they're actively at odds with the sharks and messing with their mining plans."
The group had passed over the smaller lake now and were about to clear the edge of the island. "As for the jungle temple, one can only hope the canopy will hide an aerial approach from any hunters that might be skulking about in the jungle." Reef said. "One assumes it is the same plan, Summer: retreat if confronted?"
Summer nodded back: "Yeah, same plan."
"Retreat if engaged by hostiles? Understood," Azure confirmed. She didn't enjoy turning tail every time she was challenged, but Princess Twilight would probably agree: they were the intruders here, and fighting would only make them invaders. She flapped along behind the two griffs, scanning the sky now for any other fliers. It was good that Grenelda had kept watch outside, or they'd have been ambushed for sure... something to remember when they reached the jungle.
"But... they must be sacred for a reason, right?" Sprocket replied hopefully, refusing to give up on making peace with the Abyssinians. "If we find out that reason, then we can find a way for both of them to come to an agreement!"
The group sailed over the edge and out into clear sky, three tiny specks crossing the great blue void as they began a lazy banking turn to head east, towards the lowest jungle-covered arm of the cross-shaped island. "Ah, the characteristic optimism of pony friendship, erm, evangelism. Warms the heart!" Reef winked at Sprocket. "Say Sprocket, could I ask a personal question? One certainly doesn't want to put you on the spot, but erm, I find myself in need of a little more advice on... a certain matter."
Summer didn't share Sprocket's optimism, muttered to herself: "I kind of doubt it, if I'm honest." But she looks with curiosity between Reef and Sprocket, at first confused...then with a knowing and curious grin. Aha! Reef was still thinking about Set Sail!
"A personal question?" Sprocket asked, giving the giant bird a very confused look, "Why would you want to ask me a personal question? I can't promise I'll answer, but...?"
Reef Skimmer bobbed his head, looking unsure. "Well, one understands... that is to say, Nutmeg mentioned... you have a special otherpony? Or two special otherponies? One isn't quite sure how that works... so the matter in question is: what do you typically gift to them on, erm, hoof and heart day? Just a little, err, equipological study one is putting together."
Summer said nothing, but her lips turned up in a bashful, slightly blushy grin.
"I..." Sprocket sounded torn as she trailed off, ears drooping, "I mean you just... a-anything, really. You shouldn't ask me. I don't know what to get anypony. My special somepony, well one of them, they just... t-this being stranded has him so... I just wish I could get them something nice but I don't know what would get that would get him to even look at me anymore. I just... I-I'm having some troubles with one of m-my band right now, so I just don't know. S-sorry don't mind me, just ask somepony else. Summer probably knows ...all about it." She sighed unhappily.
"Oh. I do apologise, erm.. one is sorry to hear that, of course." Reef stammered. "Stressful times for everygriff, to be sure."
Summer Scribe ear-flattened and nodded as well! "I'm sure you can see things through, Sprocket! Good luck!"
Azure Feather snorted dismissively, too far back for the others to notice. Friendship wasn't something she truly believed in any more, at least not the "most powerful magic around" part. Sure it worked for Princess Twilight, she'd become its icon, but everypony else... And love? Even less so. There was one thing Reef had right in it all, she thought. Stressful times. Right now she was concentrating on not getting an arrow to the wing. She still hadn't said a word.
It took only ten minutes for the explorers to cross the gulf of air and spiral down towards their objective, nestled in the thick green vegetation carpeting the lower arm. The jungle here was even thicker and more vibrant than the central part of Blissful Pastures, fed by numerous streams that trickled down from the central lake and out into the fragmented, suspended delta at the southern edge of the island. Colourful birds were everywhere, many of them cawing and flapping and flocking, swirling nervously as they kept a safe distance from the newcomers, but no signs of cats.
The upper reaches of the pyramid thrust up through the treeline, a stepped bulk of sandstone topped by a kind of pavilion, a stone roof supported by squared-off columns. Several thinner stone constructions poked up as well, carved and tiered like oversized stone totem poles, lining a kind of avenue extending from one side of the pyramid, though the causeway itself was largely obscured by spreading trees.
"What say you ponies, set down near the summit, or push down to that open area underneath?" Reef called back.
Summer Scribe peered down over Reef's flank, oohing and aahing. "Now this is it! What a great pyramid." Confidence crisis forgotten, her face was alight with glee. "I think we might want to set down in the jungle and enter on hoof - just feels safer, somehow."
"Don't ask me," Sprocket said, still stuck in the middle of the roc's back, "I can't see anything down below!"
" I'd exercise caution either way: we know there are hostiles here, and with the standing order to retreat at the first sign of hostility..." Azure started, as she peered into the canopy, trying to spot any creatures that might be lurking below. "Your first option enables us to get the higher ground against any land-bound enemy, at the price of leaving us in the open for flyers to attack - such as a sphinx. Going down gives us cover from above, but opens us to ambush. Still... we have to scout the area: I can't see any openings at the top, perhaps we'll find an entrance at ground level."
"Your wish is my command." Reef nodded. Carting around ponies again... well, no need for a cart this time, but the whole thing was getting quite familiar. The pink-crested roc let his claws revert to the blue tentacles they truly were and folded his wings, swopping down towards the gap in the canopy between the sloping pyramid and the adjacent jungle. Water blasted down again as he squid-propulsed to a hover, hanging in the green-tinted shade of the trees.
It was a striking sight, a long sandstone causeway covered in moss and vines, flanked by lines of statues and steles, with the jungle pressing in from both sides. Two score stone sphinxes bore silent witness to the arrival of these strange new visitors, as Reef's water jets delivered a much-needed pressure-washing to the avenue's flagstones. Glancing around and content that there was no immediate threat, Reef Skimmer clicked his beak and settled to the ground, flattening to allow the ponies to disembark.
Sprocket tumbled off, landing hastily, and working her legs out in relief to be finally free. She looked around the jungle apprehensively, the sunlit foliage almost glowing as it pressed around them every direction except that strange stone pyramid.
Grenelda landed beside Reef, still ticked about the reception from the cats back there, but maybe a little less after ponies had to go and throw it all back into ambiguity again.
Quite the loud entrance, Azure thought, coming to a landing next to Grenelda. Then again, it came with the territory of being a gigantic bird. But at least... at least there were no hostiles here. Not yet, at least.
Summer Scribe disembarked as well, wobbling a bit on her legs for a moment after aceing the landing. She looked down the rows of statues then at the stepped pyramid, her expression a mix of excitement, curiosity and wonder. The kind of wonder a pony got from working in unknown, dangerous, yet fascinating locations - the kind she lived for.
The statues lining the avenue were very familiar to Summer; the leonine body, eagle wings and pony head topped by elaborate headdresses matched exactly the legend of Somnambula (less legendary and more confirmed history since the heroine had returned from the nether). They seemed simple sandstone, with no detectable magic; the plinth each sat on was decorated by numerous scenes of stylised creatures fighting, or casting spells, or giving speeches.
"Alright! Here we are." The little unicorn nodded her head eagerly, walking forward to begin examining the sphinx statues. Stone eyes looked down at her, silent and serene as the day they were carved. The carvings beneath were fascinating, fanciful creatures and places she didn't recognise. Much as she wanted to make a methodical study... they might not have long here, if the last site was anything to go by, and the main structure took priority.
"Let me take point: I'll keep my eyes open for traps and secret doors," Summer told the others. "Hopefully this pyramid holds the answers we're looking for about our laser problem..."
"No offense Summer," Grenelda said with one feathery eyebrow raised, "But you took point about an hour ago, and immediately walked right into a big glowy floaty trap."
"Mmm... point." Summer's frustration and exasperation only showed a little on the surface. "Well, what would you rather do, then?" she asked - floating it without a real sense of what kind of response she's fishing for. Did anypony else want to take the lead, even?
"I'll see what I can do," Azure declared, stepping forward towards the pyramid. After all, it was her job to protect every creature on this mission, not every creature minus one, and right now point was the most dangerous position. "I haven't been to any place like this in the past, but if something bad has to happen, best that it's me and not anypony else," she concluded, carefully venturing into the monumental structure.
Reef Skimmer seemed oblivious to their dilemma; he'd reverted to his tentacle-bedecked default shape, and was engaged in the tedious process of trying to squash himself back into something resembling a hippogriff.
"I uh..." Grenelda said, glancing away at Summer's unfortunately poignant retort. Then she brightened and looked to Azure saying, "Yeah, Azure'll take point. She knows what she's doing. Problem solved!"
"Don't listen to her, Summer," Sprocket said with a roll of her eyes, "Bet I would've walked right into that trap too if you weren't first." Azure was already off though, so she trotted after the guardpony, wondering if maybe she would end up being 'first' this time.
Summer grinned and ran to catch up with Azure, giving the pegasus a playful shoulder bump. "Don't worry! You got this." She has a tone of voice that sounds teasing, but she's genuinely happy for the company up here in front.
"Hey, I—hey!" Grenelda shouted, bounding after the ponies leaving her in their wake, "It's not like I'm scared or anything, wait up!"
The avenue did indeed terminate at a monumental entrance built into the base of the pyramid, built from the same massive stone slabs as the rest of the place. A hallway extended into the dark interior, the walls lined with more of the carvings. Instead of neat rows of pictographs they'd seen at the previous site, there was a disorganised jumble of hundreds of tiny scenes, of impossibly varied creatures in all kinds of poses and situations.
"All of you, just... calm down," Azure muttered. "Any sudden moves could be very bad, especially in tight spaces."
The guardpony leads the way, heading down the straight, square tunnel until they were perhaps a quarter of the way into the bulk of the structure. The unicorns sensed an energy here, an upwelling of ambient magic that increased in strength as they went deeper inside, but there were no concentrations that would indicate active spells. Summer was right behind Azure, letting her horn tingle with the dull pulse of magic sensing, checking every tile for pressure activation, every wall for tripwires, being as systematic as she possibly can be.
She stopped every so often to admire the carvings, comparing and contrasting the various scenes to their own history. It looked like a wide jumble from all places and times. Sphinxes were present in most, but usually only one or two at once - definitely a minority compared to all the Abyssinians, trolls, mabu, drow and less recognisable creatures. "There's clearly a lot of history recorded here," Summer said reverently. "A lot to learn from, but finding the specific knowledge we're looking for might be like a needle in a haystack... In any case, we'll probably have to venture deeper inside to get anything really juicy."
The entrance tunnel ended in a large, square room, with rich and intricate mosaics covering the floor and walls. The light came from a shallow pool occupying the centre of the space, apparently filled with water yet glimmering with a soft sourcelesss glow. Prominent crystals jutted out at regular intervals from the lower parts of the walls, set at various positions up to the height of a pony's head. Facing them was a wide doorway blocked with an enormous slab of grey stone, on which were a scattering of curious symbols.
Ten glassy orbs in various colours contained symbols Summer recognised as the fundamental Elements of this place. In one corner, eighteen smaller orbs were inset; one glowing with a dim golden light, the others dark. The only other notable feature was a glowing trail of what seemed like crushed amber lead from the droplet symbol to the flame symbol. With a wave of her horn, Summer confirmed that this slab definitely did hold an active spell.
Summer Scribe paused again, concentrating on the tingling sensation in her horn. "There's a source of magic here, but I don't think we're near any spells," she said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone of voice. She inspected the shimmering pool, its light reflected as sparkles within the surrounding crystals, finding it to be just pretty for the time being. Then she made a beeline for that door, which smelled very much like a puzzle; a test for the worthy. A grin filled the unicorn's face as she inspected it.
"Yeah... there's something here," Sprocket whispered, her hooves echoing in the quiet empty space as she looked around, horn faintly aglow. "Something big. Can everypony feel that? It's not anything, just a really big... what is that... big thing, Summer? Sorry, I..." her ears turned down at the other unicorn, "I don't know nothing about magic, but you can feel it, right?"
Summer Scribe paused in her analysis of the puzzle, nodding to Sprocket. "Yeah, I feel it too - a big source of magic, somewhere around here. I don't think it's even connected to any spells - it's just there."
Azure just stepped to one side, falling back into the role of guard, watching for signs of danger. As a unicorn perhaps she could have helped Summer, but no longer... her ability to sense magic, to shape it... all gone along with her horn. All she could do was let the unicorns work.
"Okay, this seems simple enough!" Summer took out her notebook, levitating it for all to see and flipping to a sketch of the ten elements she'd made back at the shine on Blissful Pastures. "If it's connecting water to fire - we know that there's five canonical pairs, so I probably just have to indicate them all in sequence." With a glow of her horn, she applied a telekinetic 'shove' to pairs of elements - water then fire, undead then life, tech then magic, dark then light, earth then air; she had to crane her head way back to hit some of the higher orbs. Satisfied, she stood back to watch for the reaction!
For the first pair nothing happened; it seemed they were already connected. After that though a light push on each of the inset orbs was rewarded by a soft chime, as golden-glowing arrows flashed into existence: Undead => Life, Tech => Magic, Dark => Light. With each new arrow another of the small orbs began to glow. Earth to... the last push on 'Air' triggered not a melodious crime but a harsh sound like a cracked gong. All the arrows disappeared instantly, and the room suddenly brightened with an orange glow as the crystals around the edge powered up.
Summer Scribe gave a pleased tap-tap of her forehooves against the stone floor. "Success! Possibly?! Maybe? Ok, let's see what that did." She turned in a circle, keeping her horn in magic sensing mode as she approached the pool, looking all around the glowing orange crystal-lights too. Maybe something changed in the pool? Actually... she felt a sensation in her nostrils, tingly like she's about to sneeze. Summer backed up, glancing around nervously: "Spell charging - be careful, everyone."
"Oh is that what—" Sprocket murmured, pausing in the process of backing away nervously from the mysterious symbols and ominous glow, then blushing at her ignorance and continuing to back up all the way into the corridor.
Azure stared at the crystals, then the walls... those little glassy patches, were they... ? Suddenly putting two and two together, she cried out: "We have a problem! Everypony up!" She leaped into the air, making a split-second decision; Sprocket seemed safe, but Summer... in the line of fire, and too far away for a carry.
Taking a deep breath even as she pumped her wings, the pegasus prepared to employ her new powers. A strong enough gust should do the trick; didn't need to be precise, as long as it carried Summer into the air. If she was right... anypony left at ground level was in for a bad time. Tension built in her pinions; she released the energy just a second before the punishment for being a pretender to the secret of the elements was unleashed.
Forced upwards by a sudden blast of air, Summer Scribe was tossed like a piece of salad as the wind whipped up the pool, spraying glowing droplets all around the room. Then the beams of energy burst forth from the crystals, filling the lower reaches with a criss-crossing grid of burning-hot light. Sprocket was safe in the entrance tunnel, watching the light show and wondering at the spellwork behind it. "I don't think that was the right combination!" she called out.
Grenelda was not so lucky, screeching in pain, surprise and indignation as beams caught her in the flank and tail. She too flapped into the air to hover near the roof, blowing on her smouldering fur and feathers. The humming beams continued for a few more seconds before flickering and dying away, leaving the room as it was before save for the glowing mist now swirling around the pillars. "You think?!" the griffon shouted angrily, grabbing at her own tail to pinching out the fire on its tip.
Summer Scribe floated gently back to the floor, stumbling in shock as her hooves made contact. Her jaw hung open, dumbfounded: either that wasn't the solution, or this puzzle was designed to straight up vaporise ponies. "Geez! Good instincts, Azure: you're my saviour today!" She had a sympathetic wince for Grenelda though, seeing the griffon come off much worse from the trap. "So, uhh... Hmm." All she could do was stare at the puzzle again; it seemed to have reverted to its original state. Was it her fault, or did the Spirit of Infuriating Puzzles choose today to spite her? "Sorry, sorry, working on it!"
Meanwhile Azure Feather descended quietly to the floor and folded her wings. Her eyes were wide - sure, she'd practiced summoning wind a couple of times with Cloud Cutter, but this was the real world! If she could achieve anything like what she'd done in the challenges of the wind temple... things were looking bad for the drow! First things first though... she'd watched Summer closely as she manipulated the puzzle. "So far so good until you tried to join Earth to Air - didn't seem to be what it was looking for. The small orbs lit up with each arrow, then went out when you tried that."
"Oh, yeah..." Summer eyed the small orbs, "like a progress meter! We got four, then, uh..." She scratched with a hoof behind her head, "But if I linked every other pair then maybe the direction matters? Or, wait, no: eighteen orbs, eighteen connections... only ten elements so it must wants more than just pairs. It wants... some directed relationship from element to element?"
Summer furrowed her brows. Her notes from the shrine held no clues as to a broader relationship between the elements more broadly relate together, but... if they were anything like Equestrian magic, it would make sense for them to have a deeper structure. "Ok, let me start by doing the obvious." She restored the four connections that worked before, then tried reversing the last pair. A push on air, then on earth: storm wears down mountain, given time to work, and this time the golden arrow illuminated, along with a fifth orb in the corner of the slab.
Summer Scribe makes a face. "Hmmmm! Okay - so it looks like it's not just pairing off all the elements, but going from strength to weakness." She turns to Azure with a 'help me out here' smile on her face. "So! Azure. Champion of Wind! What's some other elements you feel confident that you could beat? One or two come to mind, perhaps?" She leans in!
Azure looked right to Summer, before slowly looking around at every element. "I don't see Wind causing anything special to Undead, nor Magic or Tech. The first thing that immediately comes to mind is that wind can extinguish a candle flame, but only helps an inferno. So that's a coin-flip at best. But..." she shuddered. "The Wind Spirits that made me into this... utterly annihilated any trace of me being a unicorn. Giving me pegasus wings, going from Equestria's element of Magic to that of Air. So if you want a more-" She cut herself off, eyes wide. "Think like a Skylander, not an Equestrian." She reminded herself. "Air obliterated my Magic."
Summer Scribe's ears flattened, but she looks enlightened. "Think like a Skylander," she concurs, thinking for a moment... "Huh... Yeah. Air did obliterate your Magic. That has to be more than just coincidence... let's try it." She nodded firmly, telekinetically tapping the spiral symbol of 'Air' then the star for 'Magic'. At the touch of the latter, the hateful gong sounded again and the ominous glow returned to the crystals ringing the room.
"Oops!" Summer Scribe was flushed with embarrassment. "Sorry, Azure, I really thought your idea would work - uhh, windy thingy again, please?"
Grenelda was instantly into the air and hovering up near the ceiling, with her scaly forelegs crossed and a very unimpressed expression. She wasn't going to let that thing get her twice!
Frustration showed on Azure's face as she realised she'd misled her squad. She quickly got airborne, calling out to Sprocket: "Don't get caught, you know exactly what's coming." Of course she wasn't about to let Summer down, once again summoning her wind powers, this time with more confidence as she knew it worked... but damn it, she should have known better.
Another blast of wind and again Summer was floating on a cushion of air as burning beams lanced out and filled the room below. It was actually quite pretty when you weren't in danger of third-degree burns, with the spray whipped up by Azure's wind powers splitting off millions of tiny rays as the droplets vaporised in the light, filling the space with a shifting cobweb of light. Sprocket wasn't quite so lucky this time, spending a little too long staring at the symbols and taking a hot laser right in the sprocket as she scampered back into the entrance tunnel.
After drifting back down from a narrowly averted lasery death, Summer Scribe trotted over to Azure, and pulled her into a quick, gentle hug. "You didn't do anything wrong, OK? This is just how puzzles go - if you're not told the rules, you need to deduce them, and if it was trivial to do so, then it wouldn't be a puzzle. It just so happens that this one has lasery death as a feedback mechanism, but you have it on lockdown. We're safe, thanks to you."
"Mostly safe!" Sprocket called out in frustration from the entrance.
"Sorry!" Summer called back.
Azure Feather seemed to appreciate the hug, but the reminder of Sprocket's injury set her shaking her head again. "Close. Close ain't good enough. I mean, thanks for the vote of confidence, but..." A deep sigh: she had to do better.
"Now you know it's coming, you could just, you know, pick her up, instead of blasting her into the air?" Grenelda suggested to Azure in a maybe less than a helpful tone, "Close is fine though. That thing hardly even singed me. Keep the doom and gloom to stuff that's actually dangerous, would you? We got room to mess around here."
With the trap had deactivated again and the puzzle reset, Summer got back to her hooves and tapped in the four combinations they'd successfully discovered. "Well, if we're tying observational evidence to this... what about all the times your wind magic has torn trees apart? You blew two holes in the forest, before your transformation, then there was that time you cut a path, near the factory?" She pointed a hoof at the stylised-foliage symbol for Life. "Maybe 'Air' beats 'Life' too?" A couple of quick taps and the arrow was glowing there, while an entire row of the little orbs light up. Two more rows remained dark:
Summer smiled at their progress. "We should probably expect each element has at most two arrows coming and two arrows going, if the elements are in balance. Let's stay focused on wind - what two things might beat it?" She squints at the puzzle. "If the candidates are Fire, Water, Undead, Tech, Dark and Light... Hmm. I don't have a good intuition for this one."
The unicorn tapped her hoof in thought, then chuckled. "Maybe you and Reef could have a fight, and we draw an arrow for whoever wins? Or maybe we can try and figure out Life's two wins... Do we think it erodes Earth? Slurps up Water? Clogs up Tech? Soaks in the Light? It can't be all of those, I think..."
Azure looked dubious about the prospect. "I'd rather not fight an ally, particularly in a dangerous place like this? There must be another way to find our strengths and weaknesses..." She racked her brain: if not magic, what else did she fear?
Summer's ears dropped at Azure's response. "Well, I was mostly facetious, but... If we could experimentally set two elements against each other and confirm one 'wins', then the puzzle would be trivial after that. Hmmm... we didn't exactly bring equipment to run magical experiments."
A distant shout interrupted their musing, echoing down the long stone entrance tunnel. "Ladies? Can you hear me? Company!" came the hippogriff's call.
"Oh, Reef!" Summer Scribe jolted from her aimless musing to wave a hoof and shout in response. "Cats?! Should we come out or hide in here?" She looks suddenly concerned. Now's not the time for this!
"We could rush 'em?" Grenelda suggested.
Hopefully not the cats... not now, of all times... urgh... Azure shook her head a little, nodding a bit at the griffon's obvious frustration. There are other problems right now...
Summer Scribe thought a moment then nudged Azure. "We've gotta head head out - we might as well be fish in a barrel if we let them trap us in here. Whatever we want to do, our options are better outside." She hated to leave a puzzle unfinished, but they could hardly leave the doctor alone out there.
"Absolutely... I'm expecting the attack this time, really." Azure muttered, shaking her head and deciding to take the lead once more, expecting this time the Abyssinians would skip talking entirely and go straight to fighting. First impressions and all...
"They probably have Blaze Trails, and now they want us next," Sprocket said glumly, "They're not gonna put up with us a second time, are they? What do we do if they attack?"
Summer Scribe nods over to Azure, "We'll have to defend ourselves if we're attacked. Everypony get ready."
The four of them trotted (or in Grenelda's case, padded) back down the tunnel, blinking as they emerged into the sunlight. There was Reef Skimmer, with his feathery tail turned to them: wide grey wings spread and head lowered as he stared down the newcomer. A winged feline form stared back at them, in plain sight in the centre of the avenue: a sphinx, furred and feathered in shades of deep red. The creature could be from legend, except for its size; barely bigger than a pony, it could stand eye-to-eye with Grenelda. There was no elaborate headrest, but it did wear a golden half-mask, dented and scratched but lovingly polished and inset with a prominent crystal where a unicorn's horn would be.
Sprocket couldn't believe what she was seeing. A monster right out of Equestrian legend, one that it'd taken a great pillar of virtue to defeat, whose magic and powerful strength were both deadly and cruel. ...she thought they'd be bigger. Azure took a more practical attitude, bowing her head as she regarded the creature. A lion with wings and magic... lovely.
Several possible reactions flashed into Summer Scribe's head as she saw a real, living, legendary sphinx just standing there in front of the party. She quickly settled on jaw-dropped admiration and giddy disbelief. "Oh-my-gosh. A sphinx. A real sphinx! Cooool!" The unicorn gawked for a moment, then began galloping forward in a clatter of hooves, eager to get a closer look... only to skid to a halt next to Reef Skimmer as caution began to re-assert itself. "Oh! Uhh. Hi! Uhh. I should introduce myself first??"
"Oh yes," a feminine voice purred, as its owner began to pace, wingtips flicking. Eyes hidden behind crystal lenses stared at each of the newcomers. "You will tell me without recompense, what kind of creatures you are and whether you come as plunderers or pilgrims, for you tread in the territory of Ne'kuno and her pride, guardians of the Oracle's grave."
Face to face with a creature of legend, Summer Scribe scrambled to find appropriate words. "Cooool! Wait, I already said that. Okay, introductions." The pale blue unicorn made a sweeping gesture with her hoof to suggest a collective noun: "We are ponies, from Equestria.... and one hippogriff-plus-some-water-monster, and one griffon, to be rigorous." And now came the lie by omission: "We are here as pilgrims." She bowed her head low. "We come here seeking the wisdom of your feline brethren long past in our time of dire need. Will you have us?"
Some way behind Reef Skimmer and Summer, Azure Feather and Grenelda stood tensed and ready for a fight, with Sprocket sandwiched protectively between them. Azure remained silent: Summer was still their diplomat, even if nerves had gotten the better of her in the last feline encounter. If things got dicey, though, this would likely be her biggest test yet. The powers attributed to the single sphinx mentioned in Equestrian legend were formidable - taking away a pegasus's flight, materialising objects on command. Even if this one seemed... smaller... than expected, the carvings suggested a whole species rather than a unique monster. How many more were lurking in the jungle?
Ne'kuno stopped pacing, sitting her rump on the stones and curling her tail around, while keeping sharp claws and teeth very much in view. "Ponies. Of course. A tribe of the unicorns... and the third breed of the bird-kind, the hippo-griffons." She stared for a while, inscrutable yet clearly curious. "You seek our secrets? What do you bring in trade?"
The creature was about two-thirds lion and one-third pegasus, Summer Scribe thought. What taxonomy had hippogriffs as the third entry, she wondered - maybe it was a Cloudbreak Islands thing? She'd have to figure that out later: for now there was high-stakes diplomacy to conduct. Naturally that meant customs she didn't know about yet was expected to obey. All she could do was try to wing it.
"Well, information for information - what has you the most curious?" the unicorn said, with what she hoped was a friendly grin. "Our newly minted Champions of Wind and Water? Equestrian spellcasting and 'tech? Our social customs of friendship and togetherness?" Summer tilted her head, trying to imply that she'd presented a spread so good, so alluring that it was hard to choose just one thing to boast about.
"I would hear of this alliance of unicorns and griffons. The kingdom of Equestria?" Ne'kuno ventured. "Two Elementals among you, and you claim Magic as well?" A flicker of motion caught Azure's eye; another, bulkier sphinx, peering out from behind the leaves to one side of the causeway. It had visibly tensed as Summer said 'Wind and Water'.
Sprocket sure could think of a lot of things to say, if she had any idea how to do diplomacy without sounding like some dumpy low class broad who doesn't know up from down. Grenelda just didn't want to get chased away again, but wings or not she wasn't about to let these pussy cats get away with any more bullshit. For one thing it wasn't good for her reputation with the ponies: she was supposed to be the tough one here.
Summer Scribe nodded: "Well, sure! It wasn't 'Magic' before we crossed into the Cloudbreak Islands, but it was magic, so I think it fits." Her horn glowed as she picked up a loose rock from the ground, levitating it for a moment before giving it a gentle toss, sending it arcing through the air before clattering back down. Demonstration complete, she gestured into the distant sky. "Our land is from beyond and far below, past the Storm Barrier - we don't have your system of elements or your species, except, well..." She admitted, "We have our own legend of the Sphinx, and there's a remarkable similarity there! I'd love to know how that is, really!"
Azure tensed even further as Summer veered into sensitive territory. If she continued on that path, explaining that the sphinx Somnambula had faced was a monster... well, the reaction would likely be negative. Still... Ne'kuno didn't seem to know as much as she pretended. If they could catch them surprise with her own wind powers and Reef's water element... the battle should be winnable. Two elementals, two unicorn casters and a griffon with plenty of combat experience; surely that would be enough to best these flying cats? As long as it was just two...
"It cannot be!" the sphinx hissed. "The Endless Storm is the edge of reality, there is nothing beyond!" Ne'kuno was clearly agitated, rising to her feet again. "Wind, Water, Magic... such an abundance of Elementals. The academy was laid waste, the Skylanders no longer fly our skies. You are creations of the Eonites, are you not?!" At their leader's accusation, a pair of sphinxes padded out from their hiding spots in the jungle to each side of the avenue, the three now forming a loose semicircle around the Equestrians. The males bore no masks, making their scowls apparent.
"What the hay are Eonites?" Sprocket called out, despite her fear of screwing up the negotiation.
"Woah, woah, woah!" Summer Scribe backed up, eyes widened in panic. "You said you wanted knowledge, don't get upset when you're given it! It's true, there is a world beyond the Storm Barrier!" she protested. The sight of two more sphinxes had her sweating nervously. They were clearly ready to fight, and if they got any more agitated they'd probably start one without blinking. "Look, I don't know what you're getting at: the Skylanders do exist! We even teamed up with Spyro and Sunburn!"
"Maybe they exist, but they're keeping a low profile?" Grenelda suggested uncertainly.
"And we have absolutely no idea what these Eonites even are!" Azure blurted out. At the sight of the third sphinx, her expression turned grim. If they kept coming the squad would be outnumbered, and unlike the last group these foes could follow them into the air - or perhaps deny it to them altogether. This could quickly turn very ugly.
"I am Ne'kuno, daughter of Re'pippi daughter of Ai'kida daughter of the legendary Sa'ratch, greatest of the Skylanders!" the lead sphinx shouted angrily. "You dare mock their legend, their sacrifice? You dare feign ignorance of those who transgress the covenant, force the Elements into undeserving hosts?" The lion body was tense, ready to spring. "Tell me your true purpose here!"
"Are you saying people are doing this to us on purpose?" Sprocket blurted out in shock, "How?!"
And the shouting match ensues in earnest, Summer thought. All she could do was shout back: "We're not lying about anything! I told you what we know and why we're here, and you can take it or leave it!" The unicorn was fuming: it had dawning on her that escalating basically guaranteed a fight, but what other choice did they have?
"Reef Skimmer was infused with the element of Water through an accident - completely by mistake. Azure braved the trials of the Temple of Wind and was rewarded for completing them. So? Is there something wrong about us and what we've done? What's the big deal, huh?"
The idea that her transformation wasn't voluntary - that some creature forced her to become a pegasus and lose her magic... was it really what happened? Or that what happened to Reef wasn't an accident? Doubt was gnawing at Azure Feather and destroying what remained of her cool. She hoped these sphinxes were bluffing, because the alternative was too horrible to contemplate.
The two male sphinxes looked to Ne'kuno for direction. Her glare softened as she looked from Summer to Sprocket, then made a show of making the Equestrians wait as she licking her foreleg. "You wish to possess the secret of the pods? Why would you look for that here, unless..." She frowned; she'd already given away the beginning of it. Old Ai'kida would have called her out on being so un-enigmatic. "A morsel of knowledge in return for... what? Can you tell us of darkness, or mirrors, or sharks?"
Summer Scribe tilted her head from side to side in disbelief: wait, that actually worked? She was getting such bad feedback here. Were sphinxes really that bad at communicating, or... she thought back to Reef Skimmer's difficulty with pony expressions. Perhaps it was another culture gap.
Also... 'secret of the pods'? What 'pods'? It was probably a bad idea to just bluntly ask. For that matter, what was with the minimalist choice of topics? 'Sharks' would probably just lead to gushing and evidence-free speculation, so she should probably refrain from that. Darkness, could that be a reference to our Undead ponies? And mirrors? Are those special in the Skylands? "Well, err..." Summer fumbled the answer, as her brain raced to process all of this.
Reef Skimmer was no diplomat, but he did his best to pick up the ball. "Now see here..." the hippogriff began, "The legends of the sphinxes and their great monuments and magics have been told in our lands for many generations. We simply had to see them for ourselves. Our purpose is merely to appreciate what greatness can be found here in the Cloudbreak Islands." The big griff dipped his head respectfully.
Summer Scribe considered that for a moment, then nodded in agreement, going along with this... rephrasing, of the point she'd made before. "Mhm! We simply must know if there's any relationship between yours and ours, you know..."
"Yours? What do you mean 'yours'? You have sphinxes in your kingdom? Why would they join you?" Ne'kuno asks, her voice a mix of disbelief, anger and concern.
"Well..." Summer admitted, "They wouldn't exactly join us. All the historical references indicate that they were capricious and menacing, and also..." she took a few steps back and held her hoof as high as she could, "Bigger? But besides that, the resemblance is uncanny! Feels like you both enjoy riddles, too." Okay Ne'kuno hadn't literally told a riddle yet, but might as well have, with Summer's brain racing to try and work out what the sphinx wanted.
"But if they were willing to band with us, we'd totally have them! I could tell you all about the Tale of the Three Tribes, the origin of Earth Ponies, Unicorns and Pegasus's allegiance..."
"Oh yeah, and the fire of friendship, that burned all those windigoes away and saved us from an endless winter," Sprocket said fondly, "I love that story!"
Summer Scribe bumped hooves with Sprocket, cheered by her enthusiasm. "You bet! I love a good oral tradition."
"Bigger?" Ne'kuno purred, smoothed by the hippogriff's flattery and apparently unconcerned by 'capricious' or 'menacing'. "Of course Fire would defeat Wind-beasts, we might speak of that another time. Pray tell me of these sphinxes, in the land of the unicorns. How great did they become? What elements did they master, and how?" She stared at Summer eagerly.
Summer Scribe's ears perked, as one does when carefully scouring an escape room for clues; she quickly jotted down a scribble of a candle flame stabbing an arrow into a swirl of wind. That puzzle was going down, just as soon as they'd extricated themselves from this terrifying encounter!
"Err, well, our knowledge on the subject is limited - that and you have to understand, elements don't work the same way back at home as they do here - so please forgive us, that's a big part of why we're so curious!" Summer's lips curled in a nervous little smile as she hoped her excuse would suffice. Though at the same time she pondered how she might poke a few more elemental affinities out of these knowledgeable felines...
Azure took note as well, albeit mentally. So, fire is an element that she was weak to? Funny that Sunburn, the archetypal fire elemental, was one of her closest allies here in the Cloudbreak Islands! Sometimes alliances formed between the strangest things. She shook her head to clear it of such notions - even if the tension had cooled a little, they weren't out of danger by a long shot. Best to stick to the task at hoof.
Meanwhile Summer decided she had to weave an inspiring tale out of what she remembered of the legend - it was pretty clear their new friend Ne'kuno was hungry for the juicy details. "...But we do know a few things of note. For one, their size - ten ponies tall, so vast that entire temples would have to be dedicated to them! So talented with magic, that they could disguised their appearance fully from head to toe with but a thought! Truly, they were unlike any other species in Equestria!" Gratuitous sucking-up, perhaps, but it seemed like Ne'kuno might go for it.
"I dunno why they even left," Sprocket had to admit, "Seems like they had a pretty good deal there. They were big, but I mean we have some other big creatures too. I wonder what happened to them?"
"The transference spell! They must-" Ne'kuno cut off the foolish male before he could reveal anything more.
"Te'kepan! Enough!" she growled, before pacing even closer to Summer Scribe, staring eagerly into the pony's eyes as if she might lift the secret straight from the mare's mind. "And the treacherous centaurs? Do they live in your kingdom? Are they allies of the great sphinxes, or were they vanquished by them?" Reef and Grenelda's claws tightened as the sphinx was almost nose-to-nose with the little unicorn, her tail lashing in excitement.
'Transference spell? Hmm! Curiouser and curiouser.' Summer thought. Gotta follow up on that- She managed to suppress a scared yelp into a gulp as the sphinx leaned in close. Her face was close to that of a pony, but her mouth held soooo many sharp teeth! Her plan had worked though: Ne'kuno was hooked, the play was to keep reeling her in. Not that ponies knew much about the centaurs of Equus either, but hopefully enough to tell a compelling tale.
"Oh, you won't have to worry!" she began. "We already dealt with our centaur problem definitively. They were gluttonous magic eaters, unrepentant, even to the point of claiming the magic of the alicorns - and we banished them back to Tartarus where they belong!" She held a hoof to her chest, bursting with pride for Equestria's accomplishments. Okay, in truth it had been a single centaur - the others would surely recognise the exaggeration, but it was more exciting this way.
"My mom said he was the size of a mountain, when he took everypony's magic away," Sprocket added, with a haunted look to her eyes, "Didn't seem like anything could stop him, but the magic of friendship just utterly destroyed him. They say it was the one power he couldn't consume."
Te'kepan stepped close to his chieftess. "Perhaps they stole it from us," he whispered.
"Either way, the ancestors mastered it. We will possess it again." Ne'kuno replied, her mind churning with ideas of how she might accomplish this. The sphinx favoured Summer Scribe with a toothy smile, saying "Your recompense... the secret of the pods was it? A mere summary of course... unless you happen to have the details of how these sphinxes gained their size and power?"
Grenelda was vague on interactions between ponies and centaurs, but she didn't like the sound of 'consuming power', much less 'nothing could stop him'. Particularly as she noticed wings beating overhead as a fourth sphinx settled into the branches arching out above the causeway.
It seemed Summer Scribe was attracting a bit of a crowd with her tale-weaving, she thought! She wasn't expecting Equestrian history to be a useful skill out here, but it was a welcome surprise! The unicorn still had no idea what the 'secret of the pods' might be, but if the Sphinxes were offering it, it was probably valuable. She pondered whether she could (or should!) confabulate a reason why Somnambula's sphinx had been so powerful, but with so little to go on... If she came up with something incoherent that didn't withstand scrutiny, they'd just anger the sphinxes again. So... "Yes, I believe that will do! I'd love to tell you more, but I'm afraid this is all we know about our Sphinxes already!"
"Wait... recompense for what?" Sprocket asked in confusion, "We don't know nothing about any pods. Mostly we're just curious what this pyramid is, and what's goin' on around your island here. But you don't need to tell us if you don't want. Just tell us where we can go without making anyone mad, and we'll go there."
The second male growled at Sprocket: "A secret told, payment in kind! Do you doubt our honour?"
Ne'kuno waved him off. "They are ignorant of our customs, Ze'noath, that much is clear. I will speak of the pods. Ages ago, the Arkeyans were on the march, invading much of Skylands and overtaking the great temples that were the only means of crowning Champions of the Elements. The fate of the Giants, first of the Skylanders and only hope against the mechanical conquerors, hung in the balance," she intoned, before pausing for a moment to recall the rest of the tale.
"Goldlings and Fey both proposed a solution; each sought the favour of the Giants, wanting the defence of their own realms to take priority. The fey needed only to train and refine their innate abilities, developing the talent to empower other creatures, though their laws compelled them to require gifts before delivering a boon. The goldlings were masters of artifice; our own Mystics aided them in the creation of the Empowerment Pods, devices that could enfold a new-born elemental, enhancing and strengthening their attunement. Like many of their creator's works, they required gold as fuel."
Summer Scribe listens carefully. "Empowerment Pods" she whispered, thinking over the various artefacts they'd seen so far. None of them looked like they could do that - which sounded incredibly useful, by the way. If they could make any of their allies as strong as Azure - or, well, Reef, if his rapid improvement continued - it would be extremely beneficial. With a few powered-up ponies, she imagined they could hold our own against the pirates without anyone else's help! They could all become true Heroes... but, well, that's pie-in-the-sky for now. Summer tapped her hoof, curious. "Gold as fuel? Hmm, I'm going to have to keep my eyes open... if we ever found something that useful, we'd do just about anything to get hold of it. Interesting!"
"That does explain why there isn't any flippin' gold around here anymore," Sprocket grumbled under her breath.
Azure Feather was a lot less enthusiastic. Empowering... sure, that was worth considering. True, if they could endow the whole crew with 'super powers'... it would make surviving this place a lot easier. But... both empowerings so far came with a huge cost. It felt like that was the way things worked here; could a fancy artefact bypass the laws of the 'Elements'?
Ne'kuno seemed to agree. "Useful? Take care, if you truly renounce the Eonites, lest you repeat their folly!" the sphinx warned. Then she fell back into that curious hypnotic tone that the creatures seemed to have mastered: "You see, the Skylanders were too pressed to reject any aid in their time of need, but ultimately allied with the fey, who charmed their way into the grace of Eon and were able to appear wherever they were needed, unlike the cumbersome pods. So the artefacts were left to slumber until the cataclysm rent Skylands asunder, the Skylanders sacrificed lest destruction become total annihilation at the hands of the Lord of Chaos."
"In the dark times that followed, all creatures sought power in all its forms, to preserve self and kin, to win what resources remained. And so in a desperate, misguided attempt to replace the Skylanders, the Eonites corrupted the pods, perverted them to implant an affinity, instead of merely enhancing it." Ne'kuno shuddered and closed her eyes. "Such a thing was not meant to be. A proud creature forced into such a pod emerges a tortured wretch, yet a powerful one, at least until their own power consumes them. Such are the 'necessary sacrifices for the greater good' that the Eonites demand."
The masked sphinx paced away, before looking back to the ponies. "A secret given, a secret told. We are in balance." she said firmly.
Those last words struck Azure like a thunderbolt; she looked at her allies, hoping they'd recoil from the notion. Creatures forcing artefacts to do what they should not, forcing other creatures to become what they weren't. An 'empowering' as dangerous as Reef's, as costly as hers, if not more so. Secrets of the sphinx... Azure's confidence failed as doubt flooded back about her own transformation. Was she... the ponies, even the Skylanders, were they really the heroes, or was seizing the power of the Elements unnatural? Azure's expression was tortured as her gaze returned to the sphinx.
'Folly? ... Oh. The folly is implanting elements?' Summer thought. She blinked, then looked over to Reef and Azure... 'Like we've already done, kinda. I guess if that lumps us in with the biggest evil army the Cloudbreak Islands have known, it makes sense there'd be some instinctual backlash there. ... Hmm.'
"I see," she said curtly, "Thank you for your knowledge, and for your warning." The unicorn bowed her head low. If she was following correctly, it didn't mean the pods were useless - perhaps they were safe to use on existing Elementals, just not to make new ones - at least if they could find one that wasn't 'corrupted'. In any case it was clear they weren't going to magically solve their problems. Azure clearly looked worried - probably wondering if she was going to be twisted into a horrific reflection of her former self, along with Reef and the Undead ponies. It didn't seem likely - everyone agreed the Skylanders were ok - but... yeah, dangers all around.
"Sweet mercy that's awful..." Sprocket said, sinking to her haunches, "We didn't touch no pods or nothing like that. That'd be like a machine that forced somepony to... to get a cutie mark. To be somepony they ain't. We—we won't tell you any more stories if you don't want, if it's that important to you. But ponies don't need to be paid back just for telling you about ourselves. I-I guess that means we don't have any valuable secrets, but it just don't seem like something you could put a value on. Guess I just dunno how to do that, sorry."
"You have nothing more in trade?" one of the male sphinxes growled at Sprocket, before looking to Ne'kuno. "They are of no use to us, Wisest".
"Any that show the proper knowledge and respect may gaze upon the life-works of the ancestors, Te'kepan." the golden-masked sphinx told him sternly. "You know the oath." She looked to Summer, slitted eyes narrowing behind crystal eyepieces. "You will show respect, yes? I would hear what you expect to learn, from the great sphinxes of old."
Summer Scribe bit her lip. Now there was a question. There was a lot on her to-do list - chiefly making sure her and her friends are safe from the drow - but that didn't exactly have the mystic air the sphinxes were (probably) looking for. She'd figure out that practical stuff on her own, somehow. When it came to big, philosophical, historical questions, one thing floated to the top of her mind: "...Why are the Cloudbreak Islands like this? A bunch of floating islands suspended within a giant tornado? Besieged by factionalist wars and interdimensional invaders - was it always like this?" She looked Ne'kuno right in the eyes, trying to convey her hunger for knowledge.
"I'm just here to back ponies up and see what kind of gadgets are around here," Sprocket said sheepishly, "Kinda maybe should've expected they'd all be magical in these parts. Still it's a real learnin' experience."
"I'm here to protect the ponies," Grenelda said, pointing a thumb claw Summer's way. "Long as she's not in danger I won't do nothing to hurt no one. What kind of knowledge and respect is proper here anyway?"
Azure relaxed a little as it became clear Summer and Sprocket weren't about to run off to find a 'pod' to mess with. An older part of her, a book-loving pony that had existed before the guardsmare, would love to hear about the history of the place. That wasn't her role any more though - the sphinxes were still a clear and present danger, and it was up to her to watch them, ready to react immediately if she turned hostile. Summer was there to handle the archaeology - and the diplomacy.
Ne'kuno took a few slow paces, looking at each of the visitors in turn before answering. "The halls of the ancestors hold ancient secrets, a foundation of lore and an inspiration to every sphinx that comes of age. The conflicts of the day mean little in such a place..." she looked down unhappily, then stared, considering if these creatures deserved more without recompense. The creature's wings flared out and resettled, before she explained "...Only two joined the ranks of the hallowed ancestors since the Sklyands were torn asunder. If you seek fresher secrets, you must trade with the living, not study those long departed."
"Wow, you guys live a long time then," Sprocket said with a look of respect to the sphinx, "The Cloudbreaks appeared in Equestria many centuries ago, so they say! I guess that'd be the same time the, uh, Sky-lands got torn asunder."
Longer than ponies, that's for sure, Azure thought - though the sphinxes probably couldn't rival the princesses in power or longevity. At least, she hoped not.
Summer Scribe waved a hoof, "Well, hang on, hang on. I have a particular incentive for more recent secrets right now, but that's just to ensure our safety." She leaned in, eyes glimmering. "I do really want to know how the Skylands became the Skylands, if that's something you're privy to! Please?"
"What do you offer in turn?" the second male sphinx said gruffly, glaring at the little unicorn. Neither seemed happy about their leader's decision to let the Equestrians back into the pyramid.
"Hmm.... maybe you'd be interested in learning about Equestrian magic?" Summer suggested. "It has a totally different basis from Skylands magic, so it should be like nothing you've ever seen before. I can give you the runes for Levitation, or Light, or Detect Magic, or..."
"Runes of power?" the sphinx said, with a barely-disguised hunger. "Do they function only for your kind, or for all who inscribe them?"
"Well, traditionally only a unicorn or an alicorn can cast them, or enchant them into a surface..." Summer grinned and winked, trying to butter up her 'opponent'. "Buuuuut... I'm sure a talented and heavily magical Sphinx like yourself can figure it out without needing a horn."
Sprocket snorted in amusement, saying: "No reason for 'em if they only worked for us. 'Our kind' just uses our horns." With a guilty look Summer's way she added, "Unless you're good, eh heh."
"You will demonstrate, then I will speak of the creation of Skylands." Ze'noath purred; it seemed that flattery was as good as catnip for this particular band of felines.
This sudden talk of runes provoked a pang of nostalgia for Azure Feather: her former self would have been happy to demonstrate! Once again the pegasus felt the loss of her horn keenly. She knew she had to stop focusing on this - after all she had wind magic now, control over weather to put any pegasus back home to shame, power that had just saved Summer Scribe from the heat rays, but... she sighed. For now she just watched the sphinx known as 'Ze'noath' closely. The creatures were hungry for power, yet... even those simple spells were of interest? How much had they lost?
"Sure, sure," Summer Scribe said. "So this is the spell, like, every Unicorn learns first, but even this one speaks to the fundamentals of spell creation." She took out her notebook and scribbled a series of inscriptions, holding the page up for the sphinx to see. Then she pointer her horn, concentrated and made the tip glow with a cool, serene blue light. Another moment of concentration and it detached: a mote of magical light that floated in a lazy orbit around the sphinx.
"And of course, Levitation..." She stared at a pebble, concentrating again as her horn shimmered. Even when she released the magic the stone remained airborne, drifting lazily through the air at a constant height above the ground. "It'll stay up for half an hour or so. Anyway, if you want to play hide and seek, I'll always win, because your magical bodies stick out like sore thumbs! We can try-"
"Tricks the least of creatures could perform, should they win the favour of Magic!" Ze'noath growled angrily. "Your notation is of no use to us. Have you no runes of power?"
Summer was sweating again: tough crowd. "Not handy. Look, this isn't my speciality - inscribing runes that work consistently is like, a whole-day ordeal for me - but they do work. If it was anywhere nearby I'd show you the ones that power the Storm Piercer on the Harmony... or, err, maybe I could tell you about something else?" She clopped her hooves together nervously.
"Or, we could learn what we can, and then don't worry about what someone doesn't want to tell us," Grenelda said. The griffon rolled her eyes, sitting back on her haunches with forelegs folded, looking extremely bored.
"C'mon! I just wanted to learn the one more thing. I swear!" Summer whined.
The tension was almost unbearable for Azure. These sphinxes just wouldn't let up, veering between 'almost friendly' and 'threatening to attack' with each turn of the conversation. It seemed to her that if they kept playing the game like this, sooner or later things would boil over into outright hostility - and against four sphinxes, that would end badly.
Ze'noath just scowled at Summer, but his fellow guardian was not ready to give up. "You deny forced empowerment." the other male said flatly. "Tell us then how you gained the favour of Wind, Water and Magic."
"Whew. Okay, that I can do," Summer said in relief. She gestured at Azure: "Azure here did the trials in the, um... Temple of the Four Winds, and now she's the Champion of Air, fair and square." Then at Reef. "Reef, uhh... he fused with some magical water monsters in what might have been a water temple? And now he's a... Champion? ...of Water?? Long story short, I don't think we did it the 'intended way'."
"Erm, not a water temple as such, no." Reef Skimmer said, dipping his head in embarrassment. He held up a claw and let it soften and revert into four wiggling blue tentacles, extending from the stump of a foreleg. "Freak accident really, involved an attack by this, erm, 'animate magical waste' and the destruction of my shard of the Great Pearl..." He grimaced at the still-raw memory, before saying in frustration "Look, I don't suppose you creatures have heard of The Gulper? Somepony..." an unhappy glance at Summer Scribe "...unsealed the site of the accident, released the remnants and, well, here we are." Reef fell silent, glaring at his tentacles as he slowly glooped them back into the shape of an eagle claw.
"Wait, we have the favour of Magic, too?" Sprocket asked, confused.
Summer Scribe's hoof hovered around like a broken compass as she thought for a moment. "...Wait, yeah. We don't have a champion of Magic. I didn't say that by mistake, did I?" She blinked, starting to think this wouldn't be a satisfactory answer, either.
Dangerous predators or no, Azure had had enough. She stepped forward, breaking her silence: "We told you our origins already! We went to the griffon's temple, I completed all the challenges and the spirits not only granted me their power, but changed my form completely. Reef was transformed by the... things that escaped from the soda factory, and as for Magic... all Unicorns have some degree of magic, it's not a matter of being chosen!"
"You just like to play diplomat, twittering with these cats," Grenelda grumbled, looking away from Summer. "The answers don't even matter..."
"Knowledge does too matter! Knowledge is the backbone of society!" Summer retorted. "Every little fact eventually finds its place and ends up mattering!" she said vehemently.
"Then why don't you ask 'em if we can visit their village, or what's the matter with those two-leggers on the west side of the island, or something actually useful?" Grenelda shot back.
Summer Scribe's head lowered in shame and guilt. "Sorry, sorry. Promise I'm sorry," she mumbled. An ear flicked at Grenelda. "To be honest? I get the impression they know a lot more about old things than new things. Do you want to try?"
Azure's ears flattened as her companions started to argue with each other. They shouldn't be showing weakness and division in the face of a potential foe! Waving a wing as if to dismiss the others, she told the sphinxes: "You wanted the full story? Well, now you've got it." A shame really - at least the sphinxes hadn't assumed the ponies were mere pets.
"Enough!" Ne'kuno commanded the squabbling Equestrians. "You will respect the traditions, if you intend to spend one minute more in our territory!" She glared at Grenelda, wings unfurled and hackles raised in challenge. The tension spiked again as evercreature waited to see if the hen would back down.
Summer Scribe gulped. No tradition respecting, no pyramid! This was important! She regarded Grenelda with a pained grimace, saying nothing but implying 'please be nice for once??'
The griffon wouldn't back down so easily. "What are the traditions??" Grenelda shot back to the angry kitty, bristling, though her tail drooped low, "We're just trying to be decent to you and we don't even know..." she looked away with a huff.
The leader of the sphinxes stared at the griffon, until it was clear she would not meet her gaze. Dominance re-established, at least for now, she turned back to the pegasus, expression still hidden behind that golden mask. "The Temple of the Four Winds, that place is known to us. A new champion... perhaps a cub will go seeking there." Ne'kuno looked to Reef next. "And is there any more of this 'magical waste' remaining?"
"One certainly hopes not!" the hippogriff said indignantly.
Summer Scribe nodded in quick concurrence with Reef. The less of those things in existence, the better! She looked back to Ne'kuno, asking meekly "Is that sufficient, then...?" She wanted knowledge, sure, but she couldn't do this all day! There were other tactics she could try, but the exchange felt borderline-adversarial and she's wary about wearing out her welcome... or her luck.
The sphinx merely smiled at that before nodding to her subordinate. "Go ahead Ze'noath."
"It was three score millennia past, when the realm that would become our hope was naught but a dark void." the male sphinx intoned. "The Ancients came to that place nonetheless, finding a treasure greater than any gold or magic: countless drifting shards of crystalline potential, a vast gyre of imaginite waiting for the touch of great minds to give it form. Delighted at such a canvas, the ten greatest Ancients each dreamed into being an Element, while the lesser members of their race busied themselves in the creation of islands and beings to populate them. So Skylands was spun out of nothing, and long did the Ancients rule over their creation, until they resumed their search, leaving mortals to make their own destinies." The ease with which he rattled this off suggested that this was something all his people learned at a young age.
Summer Scribe listened intently... then tilted her head as she realised that was all she was getting. Well, hmm. She was hoping of learning something of the nature of why the Skylands are this way now, but got a relatively content-free creation myth. She tried to look excited anyway, so as not be an impolite guest. "Cool! Thank you so much, Ze'noath." She bowed low on her hooves for good measure. Keen to get out of the encounter without starting a fight, she followed up with "So, are we free to enter your temple? As seekers of wisdom, of course."
Ne'kuno took a step forward, staring intently at Summer. "There are none attuned to Earth among you?"
"Well, err, Blaze Trails would be the closest to counting...?" The unicorn looked around, as if the earth mare might pop out of the jungle at any moment, but... nope, still absent. "Maybe kinda sorta. But... no, she's not here. Why?"
The sphinx cocked her head, unsure what to make of this. "Make no attempt to disturb the Oracle's grave! Take nothing and disturb nothing, and you shall go in peace. Deface the legacy of the ancestors, and you will face the wrath of the guardians. You understand?"
Summer crossed her hooves and nodded swiftly. "Yes ma'am, no looting, I promise." Honestly, she had to say this a lot. It was usually true!
The stress slowly drained out of Azure Feather as the situation was resolved without conflict. Thank goodness these creatures knew reason, even if they liked to posture. "I think it's pretty clear," she said, taking a step backward and refolding her wings. "Seems you can't do anything around here without attracting some creature's attention," she added, looking over her should at the stepped bulk of the pyramid.
Ne'kuno walked away, putting a little distance between herself and the newcomers before sitting in the centre of the causeway. Following her lead, the two other 'guardians' paced over to flank her. "Then enter, if you have the wisdom." the masked sphinx told Summer. "We will be waiting. One more thing... beware of the crawling vermin. It has been almost two moons since we last sanctified the halls." She made a show of licking her paw. "A mere trifle for elementals such as yourselves, no doubt."
"I got four 'elementals' right here," Grenelda grumbled smugly to herself, holding up one sharp claw. Glancing upwards, the griffon noted that the sphinx lounging in the branches overhead had been joined by another. How many more were there?
"Crawling vermin, huh?" Summer mused; she'd handled a few squatter rodents in her life, it shouldn't be a problem. "Duly noted! I'm like, super ready to enter. Thanks for your time and for your permission!" She bowed low once more for good measure, nodding to her assorted company. "Alright; we all good to venture back in? I'm itching to finish that puzzle..."
"You and me both, Summer..." Azure agreed, staring at the dark entrance. "Let's go, but again - be careful. Seems like lasers aren't the only thing to worry about in there."
"Puzzle?" Reef said, as the group made their way into the dark tunnel leading to the first chamber. "Lasers?!"
"Yeah. Lasers," Azure nodded. "Get ready to fly if we make another mistake, alright? I can only save one of you per attempt." Concern returned to her face as she considered what further dangers the squad might face inside.
"Yeah, they're hot, so watch out!" Sprocket said to him with an amused hip bump, as she followed alongside. "Could use a little bit of wisdom right now."
"Oh, I've got it all figured out!" Summer Scribe said brightly, seemingly perfectly calm in the threat of laser death. "It was a fun one actually!"
The five of them emerged into the antechamber, its rich mosaics still lit by the glowing fluid in the shallow central pool. On the far wall, the ten elemental symbols and eighteen small orbs awaited their return with infinite patience.
"So!" Summer flipped her notebook open, turning to a fresh page and quickly sketching the symbols for the ten elements. "I've taken the liberty of re-arranging the elements into different positions, and in a few short moments you'll see why!" She added a few arrows. "First, here's everything we already know - plus that little hint the sphinx dropped. And I didn't even have to pay a single fact for it!" She giggled, feeling like she'd gotten away with a grand heist.
"And now, I make my first educated guess." The unicorn draws a line from Life to Tech. "It only makes sense, right? The passage of time and growth of plants gumming up our greatest technological achievements - it all turns back into debris, never the other way around!" Confident in her deduction, she lit her horn and pressed the relevant orbs on the puzzle wall.
Sprocket skittered for the entrance hall again, but Azure Feather didn't budge from her spot. Summer seemed to have this figured out! Maybe that's why the Skylanders of old defeated the 'mechanical conquerors' the sphinxes spoke of.
A cyan glow shimmers over each elemental orb in turn as Summer's magic activated them. By the time she was done, nine arrows glowed with golden light and half of the small orbs had lit up, while the ominous spiked crystals ringing the chamber remained dark.
"Now, to the crux of my solution!" She beamed: this was the smart part. "There are ten elements, and everyone knows that magical systems obey internal symmetries of one sort of another. Initially I thought there might be a five or ten way symmetry, but the moment the Sphinx gave away the game, we had two chains of three - Water beats Fire beats Air beats Earth, and Tech beats Magic beats Undead beats Life. If you just jammed them together, that'd be six, which doesn't make sense? So what kind of symmetry could it be instead? There are 18 arrows in total, which doesn't go cleanly into four - and then it clicked." She draws an arrow from Earth to Water, from Tech to Magic, and from Light to Dark.
"Light and Dark are opposites of each other! Which means they're each other's weaknesses! That leaves eight elements with four cycles of four, each with two strengths and two weaknesses, to figure out. Isn't this exciting?" With a few more taps eleven of the small orbs were lit; though only ten arrows glowed, as the one linking light to dark had merely become double-ended.
"Yeah!" Sprocket called out from the entrance. The unicorn crept curiously back into the room, a little less wary now that Summer seemed to have it cracked and hadn't set off the laser trap. Meanwhile Azure thought quietly, considering the combat implications of these relative vulnerabilities.
"Curious that earth defeats water, when oceans wear down coastlines, but... one does confess, that *feels* right." Reef Skimmer said, looking around nervously, suddenly conscious of the massive weight of stone above. "Or perhaps griffs just aren't suited to going underground," he admitted.
"The links from the outer cycle to the inner one are already uniquely determined by Wind beats Life," Summer explained. She went around the diagram, pencilling in Fire destroys Undead, Water erases Magic and Earth crushes Tech.
A few more presses and the puzzle wall mirrored Summer's diagram, with just four orbs still dark. "We just need one inner-to-outer match-up to determine the rest." The unicorn turned to Reef Skimmer with a grin. Indicating the diagram, she asked: "What do you think is most likely to beat your element, Water - out of Life, Tech, Magic and Undead?"
"Woah, fire beats undead," Sprocket called out, staring up at the twisted diagram of elemental relationships, "I almost don't wanna see that."
The hippogriff cocked his head, considering. "One can certainly rule out undead. Sorcerers and engineers certainly have means of moving water, but... hmm, it's hardly scientific, but one must confess a certain sense of foreboding when we were considering entering that Life bubble earlier. Beyond what one would reasonably expect from challenging a tribe of Abyssinians, that is." Frowning at the puzzle wall he concluded: "My guess would be Life, but don't hold me to it."
Summer nodded: "Life beats Water it is! That's my best guess as well, since every other connection I could make lacked a certain intuition to it." She completes the pattern correspondingly: Life consumes Water, Tech cages Fire, Magic controls Wind (huh, don't tell Azure that one!) and Undead rises from Earth.
"And with that, we have a beautifully symmetric object, a diagram of all of the Skylands' type matchups!" Beaming with confidence, she tapped in the final combinations. "Let's just see what the wall thinks."
The sound of a deep, melodious bell filled the air, as the arrows shone brighter before flickering out. With a grinding rumble, the entire puzzle wall began to sink into the floor, slowly revealing the space beyond. Vindicated, Summer Scribe took a bow. "And that is why I am the Puzzle Master."
"Indeed!" Reef admitted, looking around the room with those sudden, jerky head movements griffs favoured. "No lasers then?"
Azure nodded politely to Summer; finally they could move on. She did wonder about her second weakness... magic... her former self? Was that why she couldn't keep her horn; was Air afraid of Magic? Ugh. The pegasus shook her head, frustration returning to her expression. No time for that now. On to the next task. "No lasers. Maybe worse. Exercise caution," she told the griff.
"Eheh, yeah, Grenelda would've killed me if I'd toasted her again." She looked up at the hovering griffon apologetically, before peering at the open doorway, her horn gently pulsing with the tingling waves of magic detection. "Okay! Let's see what's deeper inside. Azure, Grenelda, keep an eye out for... vermin, crawling, was it?"
"Fifty bits says they're the size of an elephant," Grenelda groaned, but landed next to Summer as Spocket came trotting up to help with the scan. "What do your unicorn horns see?"
The stone tunnel continued on a little way before opening out into a much larger chamber, occupying the entire centre of the pyramid. A forest of enormous square columns supported a stepped roof lost in the gloom overhead. Dim orange light came from the perimeter, where a series of niches held statues akin to the sandstone sphinxes outside, but much more lifelike. A subtly different glow came from the opposite side of the space, diffused and blurred by the numerous veils that hung all over the chamber; cobwebs, fluttering gently in the slight breeze.
"Ooh, spiders," Grenelda said in pleasant surprise, slinking on in, "I was afraid it was gonna be rats."
"Ooh, this is big. Now we're talking. Geez, it's a mess down here, though..." Summer lit up the tip of her horn, taking slow, cautious steps and clearing away cobwebs in front of her as she advanced. The perimeter was better lit, so she approached one of the sphinx statues to investigate further. "Anyone see anything moving, just sing out."
"Understood." Azure said curtly. She summoned the barest breath of air, moving slowly to clear the cobwebs and as many lines of a sight as she could without being reckless... though if someone had to spring a trap, probably best it was her.
This time the sphinx statue was made of glazed ceramic: life size and with realistic colours, sitting on a pedestal more finely carved than those outside. Again the ponies were struck by the dissonance of a mostly normal pony head atop a predator's body. The pictograms were enigmatic as ever, but one particularly large and detailed one took pride of place: a small hairless biped next to a larger green one, in some sort of workshop. All around were more bipeds, stylised in form and in various stages of assembly. They were clearly made of wood, yet some seemed to be carrying supplies and mixing potions, presumably helping the living creatures create more of their kind.
"Hmmm." Summer Scribe leaned in, admiring the pictograms curiously. "What's this? Some kind of artificial, manufactured race? Looks small and wooden, so not like the golems we've seen before. Interesting..."
Sprocket was more hesitant, poking a hoof nervously at the webs the others tore aside, pulling back as the sticky stuff clung to her hoof. "Guys?" she calls in, "These webs are uh... fresh. You know what happens when you hit a spider's web, right?"
"Counting on it," Grenelda said, looking around sharply, "A little more light'd be nice though. Care to use one of those tricks the least of creatures could perform, Summer?"
"Oh! Right away." Summer grinned at the little in-joke and gave her horn a faint 'tap' on the air, dislocating a glowing blue mote of light that floated over to Grenelda. "I like that this spell is basic. Means I never screw it up." She frowned as she pondered Sprocket's warning. "Why'd it have to be spiders, anyway..."
"Could be worse," Grenelda replied, backing up close to Summer, "At least spiders taste good."
Summer Scribe stuck out her tongue and pulled a face. "Eww, gross. If you eat any spiders I'm looking away," she joked, even as she tried to peer through the columns and cobwebs to the far side of the chamber. There was some sort of... magical disturbance there, she could quite place-
A soft yet repellent sound of scuttling and chittering filled the air, as the explorer's eyes caught flickers of movement all around them. The extra illumination revealed a scattering of eight legged, black-furred shapes crawling over stone and web, with further flickers of movement hard to make out behind the layers of webbing. The spiders were the size of a pony's head, with brightly coloured abdomens.
"Guess we didn't have to wait long to find the resident vermin." Azure muttered as she spread her wings again. "Guess that means I finally get to give these an actual field test...!" After all that practice with Cloud Cutter she'd been hoping for the chance.
"Ah, a new species! Such variety of pigmentation, fascinating..." Reef Skimmer said, seemingly unconcerned by the growing numbers of arachnids swarming at the edge of the pool of light.
Summer didn't share the hippogriff's curiosity, backing away in disgust: "Ugh, oh, gross, why does it have to be big spiders too..." Her body shuddered involuntarily, then her horn was glowing as she picked up a rock in a half-hearted attempt to arm herself. Honestly though the unicorn hoped her companions would whisk this problem away for her.
Grenelda didn't hesitate, pouncing on the nearest spider in reach and slashing it open, keeping a claw on it so it couldn't turn to bite her. A fine strategy for lone prey, but many others clustered at the edge of the light - in the gloom and flickering shadows she couldn't even tell how many. "There are a lot of spiders here," the hen remarked nervously, fluffing her wings out as she faces the growing hoard.
The griffoness tossed away the carcass of the first spider, but as she did so sticky fluid leaked from its punctured crimson abdomen. The stuff immediately caught alight in the air, spilling burning droplets on the floor and causing tiny flames to flicker around the tips of Grenelda's claws. A thin wailing screech came from all around, as the spiders scuttled forward, driven by some urge to eliminate the intruders.
"These aren't just spiders!" Grenelda shrieked, "They're working together! And they're made out of fire!!"
Deep in the ancient pyramid, hidden in the jungle of an impossible sky island, Azure Feather stared at the oncoming swarm. 'Spiders with inside: lovely', she thought. Opponents both numerous and deadly: if the puzzle they'd solved to gain entrance could be believed, she was especially weak to fire. The pegasus's fragile confidence began to drain away as she imagined stomping one, only to go up in flames. She could only hope her air magic would suffice to deal with them from a distance.
Nearby had been a grey hippogriff stallion, but with his concentration broken Reef Skimmer's form shifted and separated, transformed into the bizarre beast he'd been trying to keep hidden. Trying to ignore his legs and tail reverting to bundles of tentacles, he called out "Social arachnids are rare, to be sure, but- gah!" One of the creatures leapt straight at him; he reflexively blasted it back with a jet of water, punching a hole through several layers of webs. Energy sparked and crackled as the thing's bright blue abdomen disintegrated in the stream, causing Reef to spasm in shock. "Damned things have some sort of... defence mechanism!" he shouted, shaking his tentacle to try and dismiss the stinging sensation.
"That was lightning!" Sprocket shouted from the rear of the group, "What element's lightning?"
"Whaa! They shoot fire? And lightning??" Summer Scribe's jaw dropped with alarm. This place had a greater concentration of weird beasts than even the Everfree Forest. The unicorn let fly with the rock she'd been levitating, pelting a spider that had gotten uncomfortably close. She was really starting to envy Reef and Azure: those two basically had super powers, all she had was her horn and her wits! The panicked projectile struck off centre, but still knocked the advancing spider's legs out from under it, sending it skittering across the floor on its back.
"Chalk that up to the Wind element!" Azure called back. "I can bring thunderstorms as well as tornados!" Outdoors at least; she wasn't so sure about underground. For now she took aim at a spider with green markings on its abdomen, her wings moving swiftly to conjure an air blade. Her practice paid off: she nailed one of the creatures dead on and splattered it into a puddle of goo and broken chitin - goo that hissed and bubbled as it ate into the floor.
"Green ones have an acidic mixture!" she warned, "that could be Earth... no, it eats through it... Magic?" ...Her other weakness? Why did they have to come to this cursed place...
Summer Scribe huffed in displeasure, focusing her magical efforts into a gentle glow around the fallen spider, sending it hurtling away before it could attack again. "Alright, if they're made of volatile elemental explosions, then they can just explode each other!" she shouted. "Azure, got any cool windy things to show off today? It's only a problem if you let them bite you, right?"
"They're even colour-coded!" Sprocket said in excitement from the pathway her companions tore through the webs, "Watch this!" The creamy furred unicorn lit up her horn's amber glow and took aim as it brightened, until a hot little fireball shot forth, soaring across the room and slamming into a red one, who immediately exploded among its companions in a burst of heat and flames. "Awesome!"
"The brown ones are normal!" Grenelda announced, while using one held in a foreclaw to beat the other to a pulp. The griffon screeched in pain as a third got her on the thigh, but her hind legs made swift work of slashing it open. Then she charged after more, her spread wings slicing webs left and right.
Despite their successes the bulk of the swarm was still advancing, seconds from overrunning the Equestrians. "Azure... we have to push them!" Reef called out, as he blasted multiple jets of water at the floor in front of him. The resulting tidal wave swept the spiders back and sent them scuttling for the pillars, crawling upwards to look for an alternate attack route.
Azure nodded in approval. The doctor had bought them some time but she needed to deal a lot more damage to these critters. "Let's see if this works, then..." she muttered, flapping her wings with far more force than before. The blast of wind blew away the majority of the spiders, ripping away their webs and leaving the remainder struggling for purchase. The two unicorns made good use of the opening, splatting several of the creatures as they scrabbled and chittered in confusion.
Then with a sudden twang followed by a squelch Reef Skimmer found himself with an obsidian-tipped arrow embedded in his chest. The hippogriff gasped in pain, recoiling then just staring in shock at the protruding tail of the shaft. Grenelda's quick reactions saved her from a similar fate; already in motion, she twisted around to look for the source of the attack, and in doing so dodged the bolt of purple magic streaked out of the gloom. The brightly glowing blob whistled past her head and splattering hot energy over the wall behind her.
Time seemed to slow as Azure Feather scanned for the source of the attack - there, rendered visible by all the webbing they'd cleared away. Two arachnid shapes the size of griffons, with spindly green torsos rising from where the spider's head should be. One was nooking another arrow to its bow, while the other continued to gesture wildly, shaping a fresh bolt of magic. "Heads up! Archer, mage, far side!" Seeing the mage getting ready to fire again and knowing all too well her weakness to magic, she dove for cover behind the nearest column.
Summer followed in turn, her ears twitching in anticipation of further shots. The little unicorn tried to slow her breathing as she peeked out from behind her cover. "What on Equestria? Who's shooting at us now?" It was too co-ordinated to be mere traps... sure enough, there was something moving at the far end of the room... Oh no. She shrank back: giant spiders? With something on top... "Seriously? Drow-spider-taurs? This day can't get any worse..."
Grenelda's comprehension of the situation was much more vague. Blasts of magic narrowly missing her - it was the botched heist in Baltimare all over again. "Oh shit, it's the fuzz!" the griffon screamed, as she grabbed the nearest brown furry body in her beak and booked it for the exit.
With the others behind cover or retreating, the stunned Reef Skimmer was left to take a bolt of magic in the flank. The hit burned away his fur and produced a steaming patch of dark blue. A deafening screech filled the air as the mutated griff lunged forward, casting about with murderous eyes for his tormenters.
"That wasn't very nice!" Sprocket shouted from her hiding spot behind one of the sphinx statues. She stuck her head out long enough to take aim at the spidery mage and toss her own little magic trick at the creature. The flaming sphere punched smouldering, smoking holes through the webs between her and her target, then hit the creature's abdomen and burst into a miniature firestorm. The spider-drow hissed and scrambled for cover, abandoning the spell she'd been preparing.
"Yeah, you leave Reef alone!" Summer Scribe shouted as well, casting about with her magic and finding the carcass of a blue-striped spider to launch at their attackers. It only made it half way across the huge chamber, but the resulting spray of electric sparks temporarily blinded their ambushers. "Reef, you're way more durable than you were before!" Summer called out in encouragement. "Which makes sense, if you're a water creature now! You don't have to fear their arrows: show them what you're made of, literally!"
Azure knew she should be giving covering fire - even if the doctor was immune to arrows, those magic bolts were bad news. Yet for once her limbs wouldn't co-operate. All she could do was hide behind her pillar, mind fixated on the elemental puzzle. Air was vulnerable to magic? Would a single hit from the enemy mage slay her instantly? Seeing Summer and Sprocket brave the danger jolted her out of her paralysis. The pegasus forced herself into the open, spreading her wings... only to see Reef Skimmer already in motion.
The hippogriff shook his head, trying to clear his mind and process Summer's words. His eyes followed the arc of Sprocket's shot to fixate on the target: the spider-creature that kept casting that damned spell. The now-enraged tentacle-beast surged forward, pounded across the space and closing inexorably on the spider-drow. Distracted by the searing pain in her abdomen, the spider-mage was unable to form a proper spell. Instead she released raw energy as a gout of purple flame, only for it to be lost in the torrent of water Reef sprayed in front of him. Her companion loosed another arrow, but it too was deflected to clatter harmlessly against a column.
Then the water elemental was upon them, blue tentacles wrapping around the spider-drow and bearing her to the ground. The creature screamed in pain as legs snapped and carapace dissolved, but that only gave Reef an opening to stuff another tentacle into her mouth. The blast of water down the poor drow's throat instantly destroyed her lungs, leaving the creature a twitching corpse.
Reef Skimmer dropped the limp form and turned his rage on the remaining spider-drow, who skittered away in full retreat from the ferocity of the nightmare beast's assault. The creature disappeared into the mouth of a shaft, taking one final blast of water to the abdomen before he could flee to safety somewhere deep below. The griff watched it go, eyes still wild and tail-tentacles thrashing back and forth.
Azure Feather had seen her share of combat in the Lavender Blades, but the sudden, brutal ending of the conflict gave her pause. Were all hippogriffs like that, or was it something to do with Reef's transformation? A part of her didn't want to be the first to speak up - after all, with that look in his eyes, would the doctor attack their own squad next? She shook her head - no, no more cowering in cover. Somepony had to take the risk, and she was the professional guard. She trotted slowly across the gloomy chamber, saying hesitantly: "I'll admit, doctor... that was quite effective, but... you took an arrow to the chest, is that what proved... this?"
Summer Scribe trotted close behind, cheering "Yeah! Show them, Reef!", then stopping and gawking at the full-scale tentacle-monster bloodbath on display. She had to look away from the mangled remains: "...Goodness! Reef really knows how to kick tail now. Hard to say they didn't deserve it, though!"
Reef Skimmer was shaking and panting through his gaping beak, still staring around the chamber as if another attack might come at any moment. "What were... What... Good grief. What have I done?" he murmured.
Summer quickly scanned their surroundings - no more of the large creatures, smaller (though still dinner plate sized) spiders scuttling for their lives... she breathed a sigh of relief. The biggest risk now was standing right in front of her. Summer cautiously approached the griff, waving and smiling. "OK, that'll do. You did it - those drow-spiders are done for. Nice work!
Sprocket didn't head forward so much as lay there against the column she'd been hiding behind. She couldn't stop shivering. Why couldn't she stop shivering? The noise that creature had made, it sounded like pain. Agony. She hadn't thought it would... she just thought they were going to... its body had just crumpled, and then melted. It didn't even look like a creature anymore. She should look again, just to make sure it was...she didn't want to look again. She couldn't look again.
A feathered and furred shape passed near: - Grenelda, padding back into the main chamber with a look of rage and alarm in her eyes. The griffon's expression turned to confusion and disbelief as she returned to what was no longer any semblance of a battlefield, the opposition routed and the surviving vermin fleeing into every crack and crevice they could find.
Not even noticing the orange haired unicorn mare lying quietly over there, Grenelda walked in the relative silence, her front claws clacking on stone as the griffon ventured deeper, walking all along the length of this great room to reach the others. She stopped at the many-limbed corpse, an uncontrollable shiver going down her entire spine as her leered back from that... thing. Then on to her companions. "You... defeated them?" she asked in disbelief, "The heck are you doing over here?"
Finally the explorers could catch their breath and get a good look at the far wall of the chamber. There stood the distinctive curved columns and enormous metal disc of an elemental gate, this one bronze in colour and bearing the stylised mountain symbolic of the Earth element. Summer, Azure and Reef had seen such gates before, yet there was something different about this one, something that shouldn't be there: a mass of pulsing veins that snaked up one of the supports and spread out over the central disc.
The disc itself was incomplete, translucent and flickering in places as if slowly being drained of its solidity. Summer's eye followed the mass of veins down to a cluster of rounded black structures tucked away against the wall, like a clutch of enormous slimy eggs each big enough to hold a pony. The glistening structures glowed with a sickly purple light, which pulsed in the same rhythm as the veins draining the gate. Summer had the sudden notion - not that she took much convincing, but the force of it was surprising - that these things had to be destroyed.
Summer Scribe, with an appraising gaze, looks upon the door with wonder. "Coool..." And then as though compelled, her eyes wander to the throbbing black sacs. "...Yet gross." She suddenly recoiled as a thick distaste filled her mouth. Blinking, she looks from them to the elemental door - "They're doing something weird to the door. They're as unwelcome here as those spiders were. Let's destroy them." Firmly convinced by this shaky rationalisation, she picked up a rock in her field, building up energy for a moment before launching it at one of the sacs.
Azure Feather's words had finally got through to Reef Skimmer. The tentacle-griff stared at the pegasus, then at his own chest. Sure enough, the tail of the shaft was still hanging there... before it dropped off and clattered to the ground, the stub melted away where Reef's body had dissolved the rest of the arrow. Ear-tufts flicking, he opened his beak to reply, but before he could say a word the blast wave hit.
Every creature was stunned and deafened as the sacs exploded, the light blinding in the dark space while the noise reverberated off the stone walls. Summer yelped as she was thrown onto her side, skidding back a few steps on the polished sandstone. Azure winced and assumed a combat stance, trying to shake her head clear. Thinking they were under attack again she looked around in vain for more of the spider-creatures.
Once everyone's night vision returned it became clear that there were no further foes, only Summer's handiwork. The sacs were gone, leaving only a huge scorch mark and deep cracks in the walls - along with the seal, leaving only the empty pillars of the earth gate. In the chamber beyond, something large and golden glistened.
"Siren's taint Summer, what in Tartarus are you doing!" Reef bellowed, wings spread to loom over Summer. "Must you poke every damned magical tumour with a bloody stick? Couldn't give us a moment's peace first?"
The blue unicorn was wincing with pain as she got back onto her hooves. "Wait... the gate opened from that?! ...I have no idea why I didn't take more precautions before doing that." She hung her head in guilt... but it was like she was compelled to do it? Or at least, she acted without thinking... Still it certainly had an interesting consequence: instead of repairing the seal, it blew it to high heaven!
Dismissing the other's objections with a vague wave of her hoof, Summer lit her horn and trotted up to the gate. Beyond was another short tunnel ending in a third chamber, much smaller and covered in rich mosaics similar to the puzzle room. Summer paid them no heed, for the object in the centre dominated her attention. Another reclining sphinx, this time cast in pure gold, with sapphire eyes that seemed to stare into her own.
"Oh... That's shiny..." she muttered, captivated. A promise, of knowledge, secrets, power... did she want to get into the northern pyramid? Defeat the drow? Truly unlock the mysteries of Skylands? How else could she save her friends? All she had to do was... become the Oracle. Enraptured, the unicorn stared into the glittering sapphires with twinkling eyes of her own. "Yes, Oracle... I can help my friends if I know everything." With absolute self-confidence, she trotted closer, stretching out a hoof to touch the golden face...
The sphinx's commands rang in Azure's ears: do not disturb anything inside. Especially the 'Oracle's Grave', whatever that was. Now Summer Scribe had that look in her eyes, waltzing through the gate as if she's completely disregarded Ne'kuno's warnings. Reef had gone through one of those gates, and gone through a horrible transformation. She'd been the second, and while her experience had been... less chaotic, that had been with the aid of the Air spirits.
As for heading through an elemental gate to investigate an unknown artefact, one the guardians of the place had explicitly told them to stay away from... No. Not this, not now. Azure dashed forward, following Summer through the gate to try and stop her from doing something crazy. Even if she was ready for the consequences, how would the sphinxes react to the betrayal? They could hardly afford another enemy!
Azure galloped into the final chamber with Reef not far behind... just in time to see Summer's hoof touch the statue's not-quite-pony face. The researcher's form began to twinkle with a thousand tiny lights, mane and tail the first to dissolve into sparkling energy. Summer Scribe looked back over her shoulder at her companions, flashing one final smile before her form disintegrated entirely, scattering into a cloud of blue fireflies. The glowing motes hang in place for a moment, before being sucked into the gemstone eyes of the golden sphinx. With that, she was gone, leaving Azure and Reef alone in the chamber.
"What the blazes... Summer? Summer!?" Reef turned wildly to Azure. "Was that a spell? Did she teleport? Tell me that was a teleport?!"
Do not disturb the Oracle's Grave... do not disturb the Oracle's Grave... do not disturb anything, couldn't anything have been more clear than that?! Azure's frustration boiled over as she pounded a hoof against the floor. "Luna's stars, Summer, for once, couldn't you respect what you were told, for Celestia's sake?!"
Hearing raised voices, Grenelda padded in to join them. "What are you doing in here? Hey... nice statue! Is that solid gold?"
"Keep away from that thing!" Reef shouted, moving to block her path.
Azure just stared at the thing, sitting serenely there as if nothing had happened. Finally she turned to Reef: "How are we going to explain this?!" Seeing him holding back the avaricious griffon, she ordered "Nobody else in here!! No need for more casualties!!"
"The what? Statue? Dammit!" Grenelda swore, skittering back and letting the others out of the little room.
"Trapped! It was a trap." Reef told the griffon, wincing - aside from his fear for Summer, his side was still burning from the drider's attack. "It didn't just... disintegrate her, surely?" he said, still hoping for reassurance from Azure.
"Disintegrate her? Summer you mean?" Grenelda asked, looking around in confusion - no unicorn to be seen, on either side of the gate. "Oh no... did it get Sprocket too?!"
Azure could only sigh, looking sadly at the doctor. "I honestly couldn't say for sure. One of us is going to have to bring the bad news to the Sphinxes. Firstly that one of us was crazy enough to disturb the Oracle's grave - even after we were specifically told not to. Second, that the same creature is... is now not with us." She shook her head heavily before pounding her hoof against the ground again. "Damn it. Do you want to go or should I?"
Reef collapsed to the floor, too shaken to even worry about hiding his tentacles again. "One supposes... they might know what happened? What that thing did to Summer? I mean, where she is..." he said, pushing away the possibility that the unicorn had been vaporised for now. "Though they might not be in the mood to tell us." Dangerous magical predators or not, right then he was more concerned about telling Set Sail than the sphinxes.
"So it was Summer?!" Grenelda asked in increasing agitation, "She probably deserved it! She probably... she just started messing with the damn thing, didn't she!"
"Would you rather I go tell them, then?" Azure Feather asked, looking back towards the Oracle as she sighed wordlessly. Grenelda took the words right out of her mouth. She was ready to do what she had to. Reef Skimmer nodded back; he didn't feel in any shape for a confrontation, yet... the longer they delayed... Summer could be trapped in a hidden chamber filling with sand or some such.
Grenelda was still confused: "What are we gonna do about Sprocket?? How did it get her? It was just sitting there! Does it target unicorns specifically and like zapped them both?"
Reef's ear fins perked up. "Sprocket? No, she wasn't... Sprocket?!" the griff called out. "Oh no, not her too..."
"Go look for her, Reef... I'll stay here, in case... ugh, I don't know, there's got to be more to this!" Azure declared in frustration. "She can't just have... damn it, Summer..." Her attention turned back to the gate and the statue beyond, as she waited as if hoping her squad-mate would just magically reappear.
A disorienting blur of colour, a vortex of incoherent vertigo, all of her senses feeling scrambled and dislocated. When Summer Scribe regained consciousness, she was looking out at the open gate through the facets of sapphire eyes, like some kind of compound... oh no. She'd touched the statue, and now she was in the statue. Inside the statue? "Hey! I'm in here!" she tried to call out... only to realise her voice was echoing nowhere but inside her own mind. She could see, she could hear... the others were arguing about her disappearance out in the main chamber... but she couldn't move or talk!
'Damnit, why'd I have to go and touch that?' she thought, 'I mean, it was a compelling offer, but of all ponies I should know this stuff always has a catch!?' A mental sigh. From the outside, there was no hint of her continued existence: the Oracle gazed on in silence. On the inside, the unicorn (or at least her mind) was metaphorically throwing up her hooves.
'Wait, wait! No one needs to tell anyone any bad news! I'm still in here! Just a bit incapacitated... I can figure this out! I've dealt with worse!' Well, maybe not worse as such, but there must be upsides to this! She was the Oracle now. Or at least in the Oracle. It should have an answer to her problem - surely she just needed to ask the right question?
Summer tried to take deep breaths, only to panic as she realised she wasn't breathing at all. Eventually she calmed down and projected the thought: 'Oracle, what can I do to give my friends a sign of life? I don't know the first thing about where I am now, but I'm sure I can figure it out with a bit of direction...' Yet as before, her mental voice simply echoed back. It seemed there was nopony else... or at least nosphinx else here.
Another mental sigh as she realised she was the only conscious being present: 'Hello? Damnit, I got tricked by something with about as much force of will as a rock.' If she could've hung her head, she would have. Yet... there were memories here, strange and foreign. Desires, emotions as well, or the echoes of them... unending, burning curiosity the most prominent. Greater even than her own, like an emotion detached from an emoter, it pervaded her like a mental atmosphere and encouraged her to dig deeper, to search through this strange new world she was immersed in.
The matter at hand... how could she interact with the pilgrims? Fragments of information that swim freely into her waking mind as her mental focus shifts to and fro. She remembered many coming to seek her knowledge, cats and other creatures too... so many that they blurred together into an endless stream. To reply, she had only to manifest the necessary shell, then possess it. Well, do as the Oracle does, Summer supposed...
She gathered the full force of her will, alert and anxious, and attempted to summon a vessel into existence. With a shimmer, then with a distinct pop of displaced air, a perfect effigy of Summer Scribe stood motionless in the sanctum, a frozen smile plastered on its ceramic face. Summer's consciousness found herself staring through crystal eyes at her own tail, glazed in blue and white. Not quite what she was hoping for, but... it was a start.
Again she tried to wave her hooves in frustration, only for the statue's golden paws to remain motionless. 'Okay, great, that's me!' she thought, 'but also... not me!' Suddenly she felt claustrophobic, as if she would be trapped in lifeless gold for all eternity with no escape, no way to even tell her friends... She shook it off. No sense panicking. Summer turned her thoughts to the 'library' around her, teasing out the answer to her next question: 'Ok, now what? How do I 'possess' it? I'm kind of stuck in this statue right now, but you still remember how to do it, right?"
Summer had never quite cracked teleportation, but she'd done the exercises; you were here, you imagined yourself there, enfold yourself in energy like so, and... Summer blinked as her perspective suddenly shifted. She blinked again as she realised she now had actual eyelids to blink with. As she understood what she was actually asking, it was already over! Like things were happening at the speed of recall.
She took a moment to drink in her new sensory feel: glazed eyes of ceramic that view the surrounding world with a magical sensory charm, tinting things with colours that normally don't see the light of day. A full-body 'hearing' from the vibrations that ring through her ceramic. A strangely rocky, earthy body-feel, like every move she made was of grinding hardened ceramic, hooves clicking and clacking solidly against the ground, her skin feeling so impeccably smooth: no fur to speak of, her mane and tail now static set-pieces.
It was certainly strange, but... surprisingly normal at the same time! Summer looked back at her own body; glossy, but yeah there was her cutie mark, her horn... huh, kinda muffled, but it was doing something. Maybe this wasn't so bad? She turned to face the golden sphinx, wow, now that was a chill... that was her in there, yet here she was looking back at herself.
"Woaaah..." There was her voice, echoing as if emanating from a deep cave within. She lifted a hoof to examine the way the light bounced off of its laminated finish, then her gaze went back to the sphinx statue. It seemed that was her 'real' body, even if she was possessing the effigy - she'd better keep it safe. Instinctually, she lit her horn, trying lift it with her field... it didn't budge. To be fair, a golden statue bigger than a pony would be a difficult ask for Summer on her best day, but now... perhaps it was the difficulty of projecting magic through that ceramic horn, but... no she managed to lift a pebble. She just wasn't getting a grip on that statue at all.
Beyond the elemental gate, Azure Feather was still waiting patiently, watching closely for some sign of life. Her ears perked up at the glow of blue magic from the inner sanctum. She cautiously approached the entrance, looking for the source. Summer Scribe was right there! Whole and healthy and... shiny. Featured painted on, as if she was a varnished statue. A moving statue?!
Summer pulled a face. Something was up with her magic; at least she hadn't lost it altogether, like poor Azure.... Oh! Her eyes locked with the approaching pegasus. "Azure! Thank goodness. Can you hear me?" She pointed a hoof at herself, making a 'this is me' gesture.
"W-What the..." Azure stumbled back, beyond confused. Was this Summer?! Was this... a construct of her? What in Celestia's name...?!
"...I can hear you, but... what in Equestria..." The pegasus couldn't make heads or tails of this, but... "What... but you..." She pointed weakly to the 'Oracle's Grave', unable to get another word out, and her eyes wide as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.
Summer Scribe nodded eagerly, so happy to be reunited with her friend that Azure's confusion barely registered. "Yes, I'm in there now. Well, I'm in here too. Like I'm possessing it? I only just figured this out so I'm still putting the pieces back together." She trotted over to tap her hoof on the golden sphinx: click click click. "So unfortunately..." her brow fell "...that means we're going to have to disobey the wishes of the sphinxes and smuggle this out. ... Smuggle me out." She tapped her hooves together, giving Azure an imploring look. They wouldn't just leave her in there out of cultural sensitivity, surely...?
Azure Feather just stood there, stunned. Her friend was stuck in a blasted statue, the very one she was warned not to touch, then turned into... or possessed... or Celestia knows what happened with this... look-alike. As for the idea of smuggling out this enormous, dangerous magical artefact, no doubt precious to its sphinx guardians... Azure grunted in frustration, clearly torn between concern for her friend and fear of what would happen if they defied the sphinxes.
Summer Scribe leaned in to Azure, the light glinting off her glazed-ceramic muzzle while her shifting body made soft grinding sounds. "C'mon! It's my body, we have to be able to get it out of here, right?" she pleaded, "What good's an Oracle that just stays deep in some tomb day in and day out?" She gestured at her true body again. "I don't know if it's because I haven't figured things out yet or not, but I don't feel strong enough to lift it, but maybe you can?"
As her thoughts settled a bit, she began to appreciate the source of Azure's reluctance: the feline guardians, still waiting out in the jungle. "...Ok, yes, we might need to come up with a good cover story so the Sphinxes agree to let me, err, I mean The Oracle pass. Maybe if The Oracle decreed it they'd have no choice but to agree? Hmm, I need to think..."
Reef Skimmer lumbered around the central chamber of the ancient pyramid, still in his awkward tentacle-limbed form. He searched through the vast gloomy hall, peering around the thick stone columns and yelling "Sprocket? Sprocket?! Grenelda, make yourself useful and help me find that pony."
"Make myself useful??" Grenelda squawked in an offended tone, as she flapped in the air nearby. "Like I haven't been useful already?! Two of ours are dead, and you're going to give me a hard time about not being useful now? Really?!"
"I'm ...over here!" Sprocket's voice called out with difficulty, from behind one of the regular sphinx statues lining the walls of the chamber. She'd retreated to her former hiding spot; too bad nopony had remembered where she'd hurled the fireball from. She spoke as if she's tried to call out a few times already, but this was the first time she'd had enough control of her voice to even make a sound. "Not dead! I'm just... I'm just..." Not in pain, exactly... at least, not physically.
"Ah Sprocket, there you are... ah, that is to say, are you injured?" Reef Skimmer suddenly became conscious of his wiggling hideousness and looked away from the creamy unicorn, trying to squeeze his tentacles back into proper feet.
"I'm—!" Sprocket yelped, stumbling to her hooves. Seeing the griffs approach had pushed her to pull herself together, so she was able to do that at least. Looking away from the doctor, she said: "Ha ha just a little... just a little shook that was... gonna just gonna go outside." The flustered unicorn stumbled drunkenly forward, heading out of the belly of the dark temple, seeking the puzzle room and the comforting glow of its pool.
Reef easily bounded ahead of the shocked unicorn, blocking her exit. "Sprocket! Nasty business, to be sure, but listen to me!" he exhorted. "Summer is gone! And those sphinxes probably heard the blast." Sure enough, looking down the tunnel they saw a trio of leonine shapes silhouetted against the sunlit entrance, cautiously advancing towards the puzzle room. "We have to get our story straight before they come in here."
Sprocket shrank back, eyes darting left and right as she looked for a way around the deadly tentacle creature blocking her escape route. Reef clicked his beak in frustration; he still looked pretty monstrous and grabbing the mare would likely result in total panic, and she had magic... he looked to Grenelda hoping for support. The hen frowned but stepped forward, putting a claw on the pony's shoulder and hauling her along as they returned to the sanctum. Sprocket looked distant, dazed even, as she, the lady griffon, and the once-hippogriff reached the gate. There they found a ceramic pony arguing a case for her freedom.
"What the blazes..." Reef squawked. He stared in disbelief, head cocking one way then the other, relief mixing with annoyance. "Is that you Summer? You do realise you look like... is it some sort of curse?"
Summer Scribe looked down at her hoof. "I guess you could call it a curse? Could be worse though: I can think and I've got a body I can talk and walk with - I don't need any kind of medical or magical attention. Not to mention I have the whoooole of the Oracle's extensive library of knowledge to peruse at my leisure! So as curses go, I couldn't hope for a better one..." She bowed and grinned, still giddy at the possibilities.
"I thought you were disintegrated!" Grenelda complained, pointing a claw at the imitation unicorn. "So we've all been worried over two ponies, for nothing?"
"Not exactly nothing..." Azure Feather started, shaking her head. "Look, it seems Summer's stuck in that golden statue, but can... create and control a look-alike of herself?" In truth she was still confused. "So now the question is: how do we get the statue out of here?"
"Yeah, uhh, just this teeensy tiny problem..." - Summer squished the air between her forehooves together they were virtually touching - "...that my 'real' body is now a heavy golden statue with incredible cultural significance to a civilization we're on shaky-at-best diplomatic terms with. But, I have a plan, if you're all willing to hear it out..." A stony cough, then: "And sorry for the fright, Grenelda. I was figuring it out as fast as I could!"
"Uh... seems easy enough," Grenelda said, walking up to Summer Scribe with a quizzical look, before heaving the clay figure bodily up into the air. "You're really light actually!" the griffon declared in surprise, "But what's this got to do with that gold statue back there?"
"So... so what happened?" Sprocket asked in a wavery voice, with tilting her head at Grenelda and Summer, "Why are you all like a... a doll? We have to get our story straight, or... something? The sphinxes are in the other room headed this way."
"Oh, you have a plan now do you?!" Reef hissed, relief giving way to anger at the crazy unicorn who'd gone poking dangerous magical mysteries she should've kept her beak well clear of, again (though confusion was still present and in no danger of leaving any time soon). "Does this plan involve getting things back to normal in the next-" he glanced over his shoulder at the entrance tunnel "...thirty seconds? As Sprocket said, company is imminent..."
"Wait," Azure started, "...thirty seconds?" She paused to smack one of her front hooves squarely on her forehead. "The sphinxes... ugh, we don't need this, not now...!" Her wings flared out as she prepared to fight again... oh, this really wouldn't be pretty, would it...
Golem-Summer's head tilted at Reef's outburst: she looked confused for a moment, squirming in the griffon's grasp and trying to peer past the hippogriff, as if to assess the threat. "Err, thirty seconds? Well, um, basically the idea is that we need to play it up like The Oracle in its own inscrutable wisdom has instructed you and the rest of the team to carry it, that is to say me, out. I'll need some time to construct a good excuse and maybe make myself look like a sphinx and umm... yeah. We don't have time for that do we?"
"Uhh, uhh..." She was starting to panic again. "...someone break this body quickly!" Summer gestures with a hoof at her glazed blue self. "Don't worry, it's safe! I'm not really in this body. I just need to hide and pretend nothing happened, quick!"
Grenelda shrugged and dropped the ceramic Summer. The effigy fell a metre or so to the floor, landing with a clack and a wobble. Hairline cracks appeared her legs, but she seemed to be intact "...Harder!" she pleaded.
Reef glared at the unicorn effigy, before scooping it up in his tentacles and, in one smooth motion, pitching it into the hole the spider-drow had crawled down. Summer's final wail faded away as she descended the shaft, ended in a distant shattering sound followed by a shriek, as an unfortunate lookout got a faceful of ceramic shrapnel. Deed done, the hippogriff looked around at his companions. "Monstrous arachnids attacked, we fought back, they abducted our companion. Agreed?"
"Well, she did go down the hole," Sprocket observed, wide-eyed.
"They're probably abducting her pieces, as we speak," Grenelda pointed out.
"To be fair, they were trying to open the way here anyway. We just sped up the process, but we can just forget to say that part." Azure agreed, turning to watch the trio of felines approach. She knew she'd have to do the talking this time.
Summer Scribe found herself inside the Oracle once more. Bereft of her avatar, she couldn't talk, emote or do anything further. Instead of trying to summon another, she just watched to see how the sphinxes would react, how her allies would fare. At least Reef seemed to be on the ball - it would take hours at least, to go through all these memories and make a convincing play at being the Oracle - possibly even days or weeks.
By then the sphinxes had entered the main chamber: Ne'kuno broke into a run as she saw the open elemental gate. Her two subordinates fanned out, stalking through the columns to get into flanking positions. The four explorers stood quietly near the gate, trying to look as innocent as possible. "What is the meaning of this?!" came the sphinx leader's shrill shout. The gem on her golden mask glowed brightly, and it seemed as if she was about to attack. Then the sphinx's gaze fell on the broken remains of the spider-drow, and she came to an abrupt stop, staring warily at it then at the intruders.
"We were attacked by those creatures." Azure began, trying her best at damage control. "They broke into here, and we lost... we lost one of our companions. As..." She sighed: of all the ponies on the crew, Summer was one she'd hoped to call friend. "...As you can see. They took her down that shaft." She nodded firmly, then looked to the rest of the group, checking if any creature wanted to add anything. Best not to mention the statue if she could - they been warned not to interfere with it.
"I only killed... spiders," Sprocket said haltingly, "The big spiders, I d-didn't mean to—j-just the small ones. T-they didn't..." She didn't seem to have much to contribute to the conversation.
"They dare enter our sacred grounds..." Ne'kuno hissed, glancing in disgust at the slain spider-taur. Then her eyes were boring into Azure again, even through the jewels of her mask. "And the gate? How did you open it?" she pressed.
"As I said, we didn't open the gate," Azure explained, holding her ground. "The spider-creatures did, using some kind of device. I've never seen their kind before - I know even less about what their devices can accomplish." Azure knew she was getting dangerously close to the truth - she could only pray to Celestia that the sphinxes would accept their story...
"I didn't see it open," Grenelda said cautiously, "I just heard it uh, explode."
"I'd wager some kind of organic growth, tendrils connecting the gate to eggs or pods of some sort." Reef added. "Damn things took a hit in the crossfire, quite a bang I must say. That's when the gate opened."
"Oh Celestia, what if those were spider eggs?" Sprocket said, horrified, "Were they spider babies with an earth affinity? We didn't just b-blow up earth spider babies did we??"
Ne'kuno looked like she was about to answer, then shook her head; now was no time to get distracted by a secret trade. "Don't move!" she commanded, her voice sounding shaken and uncertain for the first time. When the newcomers made no objection, she hurried over to confer with Te'kepan near the gate, leaving the third sphinx to watch the others. A brief whispered conference, then Ne'kuno placed a paw on one of the gate's pylons. A translucent image of the central disc flashed and flickered into existence for a few seconds before fading back into nonexistence.
Turning to Azure again, she pronounced "The gate has been drained... and that corpse is fresh. It seems you are telling the truth. You say the beasts had not yet reached the Oracle's Grave?"
"To our knowledge, they hadn't." Azure answered, trying her best to stay calm through it all. That part was true at least. Ne'kuno's piercing stare was getting to her - it was an intense challenge trying to keep any hint of duplicity from her face, knowing the felines would likely attack if they realised the truth.
Meanwhile the immobile Summer could only watch as a male sphinx padded into her chamber and began to check for signs of theft or damage. She gulped, mentally at least - her hoof barely made contact before she was dematerialized, so hopefully there were no blemishes or hoofprints to pick up on... if only she'd checked while she had an avatar, but this wasn't exactly an eventuality she'd anticipated. Azure's story was alternate history fanfiction for sure, but so far it seemed to be holding up to scrutiny. She thanked her lucky stars that the drow weren't around to challenge it!
"So you bury your oracles under that statue in there?" Grenelda asked curiously.
Ne'kuno nodded to her companion; he flapped into the air, hovering over the hole in the corner of the chamber and peering down the shaft. Then she glared at the griffon; secret or not, the sphinx couldn't help but snap back: "The oracle sacrificed themselves, preventing the doom of Fellis! The greatest of us all, fifty lifetimes of knowledge lost just to push back the trollspawn rabble! And for what..."
Ne'kuno's voice cracked with regret and trailed off. Then with a sudden blood-curdling scream, she loosed a beam of energy from the glowing gem on her mask, exploding the remains of the spider-creature. "And now the spidrow would make a mockery of our sacrifice. They gnaw at the heart of our island like worms in an apple!" she screamed. The already shaken Sprocket recoiled from the sight of that pony face showing such predatory rage.
"Accursed creatures, all of them," Azure nodded. She seemed like she wanted to say more, but she left it at that. Further words just risked enraging the sphinx further or risk tearing her story apart.
Te'kepan glided down to land quietly next to his superior. The male sphinx placed a paw on her trembling shoulder. "Ne'kuno. The seal has been broken. We must restore it." He gave the explorers a sympathetic look. "The blue unicorn is nowhere to be found. They lost one of their own, fighting the abominations."
"They got what they deserved, attacking ponies without warning..." Azure muttered, shaking her head. "How goes the campaign against the beasts?" she inquired - it seemed like the sphinxes were in their own private war with the spider creatures.
Trapped in the Oracle, Summer Scribe was beginning to panic again. Everything was going so well: it seemed like hatred for the drow-spiders - spidrow? - was perfect as something to bond over, but wait-a-sec. If the gate went back up, that was kind of it for her! She flailed her mental hooves, hoping someone gets enough sense in them to make sure she's not sealed away forever!
"I heard a story once," Grenelda said, eyeing the sphinx's lashing tail, "Said my grandfather's grandfather fought and died over a fancy piece of gold. Sacrificed themselves to save us all from this hideous beast who was after it. They said we lost everything, but to see griffons strut about these days, you wouldn't know it. Because we didn't lose everything. You still have..." she pointed at Te'kuno, "Him. And him, and him, and... yourself. Long as you can count on your friends, you don't need to worry about what you lost, only about... how to stop the spider monsters. And... I dunno how to stop 'em, sorry."
Ne'kuno turned away, taking a moment to regain her composure. When she faced them again, her voice was confident and commanding again... if not quite as much as before. "The spidrow and their pets don't dare show themselves on the surface. Yet... the molekin tunnels go on for many kilometres, an endless dark to set traps and ambushes. Even the power of Earth would not suffice, in the enemy's spawning grounds." She snorted, then hung her head.
"So you came to our halls for knowledge, yet lost one of your own, fighting the abominations. I... thought you would face only the spiders, not their masters. We owe you a debt, for if you had not come, the remains of the Oracle would be lost to the darkness." The sphinx frowned, pacing nervously back and forth; she had to focus on securing the pyramid, the strangers weren't foe, but not friend either... "Now is not the time for talk. Come to us again in a moon and we will speak further."
"You speak of the next sunrise?" Azure spoke, tilting her head. A short time spent around Princess Twilight had given her a little taste of the archaic language, as used by Princess Luna after her return. She simply wanted to confirm that they wanted to see the group tomorrow and not in a month...
"Do you unicorns not known of the cycles of the moons!" Ne'kuno hissed, getting agitated again. She wanted to claw something, hunt something, until she calmed down. Then deal with the intrusion, secure the temple, come up with a strategy... only then would she be in the mood to trade secrets with groups of strange elementals turning up out of nowhere. "Twenty seven days for the Eriene, the greater, to rise and set. Yet if you are still eager... let us say a fortnight, ten and four days to our next meeting. We will be ready for you then." the sphinx said, in a tone that suggested she wasn't in the mood to argue.
"Quite so! Next fortnight, will do our best to drop by, swap a few more tales what?" Reef sputtered, "Will be sure to bring some tea next time." The doctor was keen to get what remained of the group out of the oppressive place without any more combat or casualties. Too much like being buried alive, he thought - all the more after Summer's confinement.
"We only sought confirmation, and I apologise," Azure bowed her head. "A fortnight, fourteen days. Understood." She nodded. "We will be prepared to speak then. May health and safety be with you all." A final bow, deeper this time as she showed the sphinxes respect.
Te'kepan returned Azure's bow, dipping low and giving a little flourish of his wings. Ne'kuno stared at him, startled and suddenly unsure if she was playing her role correctly; she compromised with a curt nods to Azure, Reef and Grenelda in turn (Sprocket seemed to have escaped her notice). "Ze'noath, escort our guests out of the territory," she told the other guardian.
"We can take the spiders, right?" Grenelda called over, holding up one of the brown bodies, "I know a killer recipe for roasting 'em!"
A hoarse chuckle from the other male. "By all means griffon, help us cleanse the pyramid." he rumbled. He waited patiently as Grenelda gathered spiders and Reef squeezed his body back into one piece, then padded behind as the four visitors made their way out of the pyramid. Two more sphinxes were guarding the entrance; they tensed at the sight of the griffs, only moving aside at a reassuring node from Ze'noath.
Azure sagged a little with relief as they headed out into open air. She'd got them out; she could only hope Summer knew what she was doing.
In truth Summer was struggling to stay calm and get to grips with her new situation. Ok, so if the real problem was getting stuck in this room, she just needs a solution to that. Think, Summer think! ... Or better yet, remember. She had all the memories of the past Oracles on tap, after all... ah, of course - she was basically an Earth Elemental now, with corresponding powers! A seal designed to keep out those without the blessings of the Earth won't be any problem for her.
She sighed (mentally) with relief - not that getting out of the pyramid would be easy, particular since Azure's cover story clashed with explaining that she'd become the Oracle, but... at least she wasn't trapped. Surely she could find the answer! Though the mention of 'in a moon' does worry her; that was a long time to wait.
Movement in the main chamber... oh, they were leaving now. ...Without her, of course. Well, it wasn't the worst prison cell. Maybe she could figure her own way out, but... she should probably wait to see if her friends could find a solution, before trying anything crazy on her own. All she could do was prepare as well as she could for their triumphant return!
The party winged their way back to the camp, approaching from the south. As they glided over where the Second Chance was stashed, a pebble smacked into Reef Skimmer's belly (he was by far the largest target, after all). Craned his neck, he spotted a familiar-looking red-maned green-furred pony crouching in the bushes, about to sling another rock. She ceased her assault as she got the party's attention, sitting on her haunches and waving her arms over her head.
The grey roc wheeled around and came down for a landing near the copter; Reef had refined his technique enough to need only a brief blast of water jets. Following closely behind came Azure Feather and Grenelda, the latter carrying Sprocket in her claws. "Blaze! What a relief to see you safe." Reef said, as he began to squeeze himself back into hippogriff shape. "You won't believe what happened to Summer Scribe..."
Azure Feather sighed as she trotted over. "And I couldn't blame you... it's pretty unbelievable. We found another elemental gate... which, if you've looked at Reef and myself, kinda tells you what kind of craziness to expect..."
"Now see here Azure," Reef said in a vaguely offended tone, "that water park was perfectly safe. Kept the bipedal fish safe from the drow even! The magical waste came from somewhere else entirely. One can't speak for the air gate, though my understanding was that participation in all that champion business was your choice?"
Azure paused and shrugged a little before replying: "Guess I did make a misstep there, but what I meant is that passing through these gates resulted in some things you'd never see in Equestria."
Blaze Trails was a mess. Her tail was all tangled up in sticks, her fur was matted and she was missing a saddle bag and her leg brace, giving her a noticeable limp. "Oh I don't doubt it," she says wearily, as her companions surrounded her, "but you're not gonna believe what happened to the tent! Didn't think we were dealing with super paranoid bush hunters. They managed to sniff it out, either by following our scent or just because they didn't like a broken branch here and there. I'd give 'em credit, but it's theirs now, and I don't got another one."
"That's okay though. I don't think anypony could stay the night at any of these islands. You would not believe how much trouble they gave me after you went and stirred up the hornet's nest! The forest was just crawling with those two-legged cougars. So I've had myself a fun day don't you know, but I didn't expect I'd be getting back to the copter first, what with how I had to creep along and double back so much to confuse the kitties. I don't think they expected a pony could climb trees. So... what's happened to Summer now?"
"Good grief," the mostly-hippogriff exclaimed, looking at Blaze in a new light. "One imagines it must've taken considerable skill to evade an all-out search. This is their home territory after all. Hmm. Climb trees you say?" Reef shook his head; it was no time to be planning experiments.
"So... ah yes Summer, well, you see there were these sphinxes, rather smaller than one might expect, and a pyramid, and some very interesting and sadly, very hostile drow-arachnid-hybrids. No sooner had we dispatched those blighters, than Summer blew up an elemental gateway and went and prodded a golden idol. Which disintegrated her. But she's still alive somehow, inside the statue. Don't quite understand it myself, but... well, the sphinxes are terribly fond of the thing and we had to leave her there. For the time being..."
Nestled in the bow of the great airship, the saloon provided a superb view of the sunset through full height windows. Golden light streamed in, casting the eight creatures within in sharp relief. It should have been Set Sail's favourite room on the ship, with its pleasant decor and expansive views to stave off claustrophobia. Since the crossing though, it seemed every visit was to deal with loss and disaster. A week ago it had been Reef Skimmer and the unnatural creations of the abandoned factory, now it was Summer Scribe and the ill-fated expedition to the island of felines.
Seated together were the explorers: Blaze Trails, the dark green earth pony guide, Azure Feather, the blue unicorn-turned-pegasus guard and Champion of Air, Grenelda the griffon and the big grey hippogriff doctor, Reef Skimmer. The engineer Sprocket was absent: no sooner had she brought the Second Chance down to land in the nearby meadow, she'd fled for the comfort of Static Signal's embrace. Of distinguished researcher Summer Scribe, there was no sign.
Across the table sat Clashing Gale, purple batpony and leader of the storm piercer team; the Captain was sure he'd know what to do if a rescue was needed. Next to him was the chief engineer Nutmeg Inferno, the kirin standing in for Sprocket and providing an engineering viewpoint should it be called for. The scaly-backed deer-like creature was listening intently to the away team's story, keen to hear about their adventures.
On the other side was Blue Type, the older earth mare's expression alternating between excitement and concern as the explorers spoke of the cat-centaur monastery and then the hostile natives. She was clearly worried sick about the absence of her friend and superior. Finally at the head of the table was Set Sail, facing another terrible situation that she was somehow supposed to lead them out of.
"...and Summer seemed to have it figured out by that point," Reef Skimmer was explaining, "She deployed her magic again, activated the element symbols, caused numerous glowing lines to appear, and hey presto the whole wall sunk into the floor, permitting passage into the main chamber. That's when the real trouble began." he said mournfully.
Grenelda waved a claw out. She clearly looks annoyed, but in that 'this is what happens when OTHER PEOPLE don't listen' way. "Turns out the place was infested with spiders and driders. No big deal, the fight was totally under control -" He gives an approving nod at Reef - "Especially with thanks to our new powerhouse here."
"It was most certainly not 'totally under control'!" Reef squawked indignantly, shocked by the hen's casual dismissal of the life-or-death situation. He looked at Set Sail; how was she handling this? He'd got in trouble before, rushing an explanation - he had to make sure she had the facts this time. "So... it was an enormous chamber with more life-size sphinx statues lining the walls. Terrible sightlines you understand, place was full of enormous stone pillars and cobwebs. Many, many cobwebs, bit of a giveaway really... we had perhaps five minutes grace before, oh, perhaps a hundred large arachnids had gathered about."
Blaze Trails could say nothing other than glower at the fact that she was stuck crawling through bushes and hiding from cats while the others got to get into all the really fun stuff, and it was her own damn fault for assuming that the natives wouldn't just let them leave, and there would be a flier to pick her up right outta trouble if she had known. Her leg brace was reapplied, and her leg was actually pretty sore from having to abuse it in her unexpected bush diving.
Her glowering was tempered by the fact that that excitable little unicorn hadn't returned, something that left Blaze saddened and devilishly curious just what happened to her. Perhaps if Blaze hadn't been acting like such a mudpony, she might've been able to help Summer before the worst happened. But at least her earth pony heritage meant that she wouldn't be troubled by injuries like this for long.
Clashing Gale was watching the two griffs closely, his face filled with concern. Truth be told, he had feelings for Summer Scribe that went beyond mere concern for the safety of a crewmate - feelings that had been pushed aside by his transformation, but that were now returning in force as it became clear something bad had happened to her. Azure Feather's mood was clearly grim and that didn't bode well for Summer's situation.
In fact the blue pegasus was sipping at a glass of water, and staring at it as if the clear fluid would give her answers, as she sighed. "I only saw the last moments of the entire process... damn it, we were told not to touch it... we were told not to! Damn it..." Another sip of water, which at this moment, she only wished some alcohol could lace this drink...
"Yes, well, we shall get to that shortly...." Reef Skimmer admitted. "So... Grenelda made the first move, decided to make a snack of one of the spiders. That seemed to agitate the rest and we were beset by the creatures. Fascinating really, it seemed there were several subspecies in the same swarm, with different defence mechanisms... one wishes there had been a chance to recover some specimens..." the griff trailed off, staring into space.
Grenelda licked her beak. "I'd do it again - that was delicious." A little chortle as she relived the ravenous pleasure only a carnivores knew. "It's what happened next that completely derailed anything." The hen clicked her beak and dipped her head. "The driders were setting up some kind of magical infestation to drain an earth elemental gate-"
By now Nutmeg Inferno had looked like she wanted to ask a question several times, only to look down shyly, as if unwilling to interrupt and call attention to herself. Now though she looked between the two griffs: "Spiders and driders? Oh no! What are driders?!"
Grenelda puffed out her head-feathers peered over at the kirin. Right, all this crazy new stuff needed an explanation. "Driders are, like... Big hostile critters, spider lower halves, drow upper half. No clue what their relationship to the other drow are, but they hunted with bow and with magic, and they had killing intent." She sticks her tongue out. "Reef managed to get the killing blow on one of 'em, though - couldn't be more proud of him! Plus, that liquid body is really good at tanking hits - bet it hurt, though..."
"Oh, spidrow!" Nutmeg nodded. "Like drow but even better at climbing! And making webs. ...I guess! So... draining a gate with their biotech? Were they trying to get into the nexus?"
"Search me," Grenelda shrugged. "We beat the spiders, then like totally unprompted, Summer blasts the damn thing open." Her voice rose and she fluffed up her wings in annoyance: "Waltzes in, and vaporizes her body to throw her spirit into this 'Oracle'!"
Blue Type perked up, in shock. "She did what? She's in the - oh no, Summer..."
Azure shook her head slowly, still trying to figure out the mysteries that the glass of water had and she didn't. After a few seconds the pegasus explained: "We were specifically told not to touch what the Sphinxes called the 'Oracle's Grave'. That golden statue, about as big as a pony and several times heavier than one, of a sphinx. Well, Summer did, and now she's trapped in it. If the Sphinxes caught us leaving with it, you might not even have had a squad returning here today."
Blue Type could feel tears of worry beginning to well up in her eyes. "W-wait! But, Summer - what happened to her? Why'd you have to leave her behind?"
"We... we didn't have a choice," Azure said grimly. "I hate the idea as much as the next pony..." With a grunt, the Champion of Air downed her glass of water and trudged off to get another.
Clashing Gale was left to sigh: 'trapped' didn't sound so bad, but... vaporised? He wondering what it would take to get Summer back, assuming it was even possible.
The mention of killing had snapped Reef Skimmer snapped out of his reverie. He glared at Grenelda, then gave the distressed Blue Type a sympathetic look. "Yes, now see here Grenelda, Azure... no sense skipping ahead! The captain..." a nod to Set Sail "...needs a proper debriefing. So... yes, fascinating creatures. Spi-drow, the sphinxes called them. Summer speculated back in that statue garden about more species in the centaur family, and lo and behold... a combination of primate and arachnid. So... two of the blighters, opening fire without warning, arrows and some manner of magic projectile. And I must say, their ambush was extremely effective."
Set Sail was furious. Her green kerchief was around her neck today, though if that signified anything, unclear. The blue haired brown mare stood, wings folded, glaring at Reef Skimmer more because he just happened to be in the direction she was looking. Any number of incredibly stupid scenarios were going through her head: how Summer tried to run into the crowd of spiders to look at something shiny, how Summer stole something from the Sphinxes and got caught and now was being held for ransom, not that Set Sail had any idea how they were going to pay a legendary monster for release from whatever cage they'd stuffed Summer in.
Her fury softened at Blue Type's words, at last sighting upon something besides her imagined Summer Scribe. "Yes, Reef," she said, looking to the half-eagle, half-equine creature she called friend, "What did Summer do, get herself captured? The rest of you came back okay, so I assume you managed to defeat these spiders, and... spi-drow as you said they were called? Please... continue."
"Certainly we prevailed, but had I not been... transformed, that first arrow would have punctured a lung, likely put me down," Reef explained. "That first bolt of magic missed Grenelda's head by centimetres, a hit would've likely blinded her. With the griffs down and the smaller spiders still a factor, the ponies could easily have been overwhelmed." An odd whistle, then he lamented: "Our lack of tactics and training nearly got the entire shore party killed."
As it was... dark, underground, surrounded by spiders, shots coming out of the gloom from unseen enemies, well... Grenelda ran aw- retreated, that is to say. The ponies took cover, and I... well honestly one rather lost one's composure. The arrows turned out to be an annoyance, but the mage began firing on me as well, and by Novo those shots stung. So... yes, as Grenelda said, I rushed the, erm, spi-drow. In hindsight, we could have simply retreated, but... I'd lost sight of Grenelda and Summer, chain of command was unclear, so... when I saw Sprocket firing back on the spider mage, I... well, I put her down. With... excessive force. The archer crawled away down a shaft and that was that."
The big griff stared guiltily at his claws for a moment, before adding indignantly "Not to mention the exploding eggs! Although one probably should. So... no sooner was the threat vanquished, than Summer spied one of those magic gates at the back of the chamber. The thing had this curious black organic material attached, veins leading to large sacs or eggs."
"And of course Summer Scribe couldn't even wait for us to locate Sprocket and Grenelda, couldn't even wait for the, erm, body to grow cold. She zapped those bloody eggs with her horn and what do you know, they exploded. Could've brought down the whole pyramid! As it was, just blinded and deafened, just what one needs after a life-and-death encounter." Reef huffed. "The whole statue business came after she blew the gate open. Azure saw that, I was looking for Sprocket."
Grenelda saw Blue Type's obvious distress and huffed. "I hate to say it, but this was just the culmination of Summer acting like Summer. Between the catastrophe at the factory and the levitation trap she blundered into at the temple, I don't know if she knew what risks she was taking on or not, but it's clear as day her lifestyle bit her in the ass too hard this time. I don't like the idea of leaving her behind, but she brought this one on herself."
"Well that's at least workable," Set Sail said with a sigh, "Their statue was a trap, go figure. A teleportation trap, sounds like? We'll just have to find whatever cage they've thrown her in, and sneak her out of there." She sighed again. "I suppose sphinxes here are going to be just as treacherous and cruel as the one in Equestrian legend. I assume they baited the poor mare into touching it? Summer never could resist what takes simple common sense. Still it doesn't make sense why they didn't capture the rest of you too. Did you fight your way out? Reef?"
Blue Type looked desperately at the griffs then Azure Feather, hoping for some piece of reassurance, or at least something that would let her make sense of what had happened. "She's really trapped inside a statue, in a sphinx temple?" The tears overflowed and began to stain her fur, as she realised how terrible the situation was. Poor Summer... "T-There must have been some reason! She must have touched it for a reason! We can't just leave her behind like that!" The earth mare lowered her head, trying to hide her face and keep herself under control.
"I'm sure she's out of it by now." Set Sail said disapprovingly, "Why would they leave her in their trap? We have to find where they're holding her, after they took her out, and... reset their trap or something. I'm sure Azure had a good reason why she couldn't just break her out." She looked to the pegasus guard, who'd just returned carrying a fresh glass of water awkwardly in her mouth. "That's when the sphinxes attacked, right? And you had to leave her to their mercy, to escape?"
To Azure Feather it felt like the captain was accusing the squad of lying to her. She reared up, putting her hooves on the table and saying seriously: "Listen. Summer is trapped inside a life-size golden idol of a sphinx, that they call the 'Oracle's Grave'. My guess ,we'd be butchered if the Sphinxes even knew we touched it. They don't know everything. We know even less! Damn it, we're looking for allies against the Drow, not another tribe looking to tear us limb from limb like them...!"
The mare's muscles were tensed, her eyes glaring. Seeing the shocked faces of the others, she backed down and took a long drink from her glass, hoping to avoid another outburst. Her gaze returned to her captain, as she said in a calmer voice: "All I know now is that this... may well be the elemental magic here afflicting Summer Scribe, a sort of curse like Reef's at the Water Gate, or mine at the Air Temple. Like ours, it comes with benefits and drawbacks: Summer's not without power in there. She created a... a weird... look-alike of herself. It was her... just... not her."
Blue Type was breathing deeply, trying to steady herself. Azure's words offered a little bit of hope... but a lot of uncertainty. "OK, good - she's still herself in there." She rubbed at her forehead, taking a deep sigh and trying to think. "So you- you think this is like your change and Reef's change? Just her own elemental attuning? Then maybe she knew it was going to happen - but I still don't understand why she'd trap herself like that..." Meanwhile Clashing Gale just stared quietly into space, trying to come to terms with the idea of the team leaving Summer behind.
Azure frowned: "There was no time to figure it out. The sphinxes must have heard all the noise from the battle with those spider-drow, they were coming... if they'd even seen Summer then... I don't think we'd be here. But... look, I don't think they're bad creatures. Their leader, Ne'kuno; she warned us after all. We set up another meeting with them, in two weeks. Now again - I'd rather have them as allies rather than enemies. It's going to be a tougher sell to them, but I prefer a group that fights for a cause, to one that just sells their services to the highest bidder," she concluded. The pegasus slumped back in her seat, sighing and shaking her head.
"A... weird look-alike of... so they did leave her in their statue trap?" Set Sail asks, wings disruffled, completely confused, "How do they not know she touched it, if they were the ones who tricked her into touching it? I mean, they could see their trap was sprung, right? You have another... meeting with them? How could they be our allies, if they captured Summer, and then attacked you before you could save her? They're sphinxes! They're—they're evil, right?"
Reef Skimmer nodded along to Azue's account. "You see Sails... I mean Captain! Captain Set Sails! Erm. So of course I thought Summer had been teleported somewhere! It was that or disintegration and no one wanted to consider the latter. So the obvious question was, where had the trap sent her, could the sphinxes help, dare we risk asking them. But then... there was that strange business with the ceramic Summer Scribe, threw the teleport theory out of the nest. Some kind of golem, it seems!" Reef blinked, was he being clear?
"One returned with Sprocket in tow and it was just standing there. Like a vase the size and shape of Summer. Walking and talking just like her. That's how we know she's trapped in the gold statue - told us herself! Then told us to smash her and come back later, when we heard the sphinxes approaching. Thoroughly surreal." He shook his head.
Grenelda's expression was stern, brow furrowed, not showing much sympathy. "Honestly? I don't think the sphinxes had any part in it. I think Summer chose to touch it herself. Then she disappeared; yeah, I think it's just how this 'Oracle' thing works. Like somegriff gets to be inside it and they become 'The Oracle', something like that." She shrugged her wings.
"That's awful!" Nutmeg Inferno muttered. "Why would they use a destructive scan?! Oh... oh, magic, maybe it's different with magic." The kirin stared at her hooves; maybe her random Tech insights weren't what was needed here.
"Indeed," Reef agreed. "So... then the sphinxes arrived and it seems they had no idea what had just happened! Nearly lasered us for breaking their seal, but... they saw the remains of that poor spider creature, and took us at our word that we'd been ambushed. Let us go in peace." He glanced at Azure. "We... told them Summer had been carried off by the drow." Catching Set Sail's eye, he said "You know I don't think the sphinxes are so bad, really? They're just in a tough spot, what with their island in ruins and those spider creatures trying to break into their temple."
Grenelda nodded to the other griff. "Yeah, seems like it's like this super-important religious artifact to them. We had to lie to them, because we had no idea what they'd do if we knew we desecrated the 'Oracle's Grave'. They came in all riled up and looking for a fight, Azure did really well to talk us out of it." The hen shook her head dismissively. Damnit, why couldn't Summer keep her stupid touchy hooves to herself just once?
Blue Type tried to give Grenelda a stern look, but it melted under the gaze of the fierce griffon. She chose her words carefully: "I... I can't say I always understand what Summer is doing or thinking. But she's so bright, so confident, so passionate about her work... I don't understand why she'd throw that all away! There must be a way to get her out! There must be some kind of plan we can make!" She threw her head under her hooves again and whimper-sobbed some more. "I don't know if I can handle losing her. I already miss her so much..."
Set Sail's continued insistence that the sphinxes were at fault nearly triggered another outburst from Azure Feather; thank goodness for the doctor and his words. Her next sigh was one of relief, as she nodded to Grenelda as well. "Thank you, both of you, I... urgh..." Fatigue was catching up with her; it had been a stressful trip, and she hadn't slept well.
"The sphinxes didn't have any part in it?!" Set Sail declared with an angry stomp, "Who captured her, then? You're all acting like the statue itself disintegrated Summer Scribe to dust and sucked her into it like some kind of a vacuum!" she looked around pleadingly at the confusing witnesses to the scene, asking, "Can't somepony give me the straight story here? What in Equestria's name happened to that mare?"
"Damnit, Set Sail! That is what happened!" Grenelda shouted angrily, her voice almost a screech. "There was no one else in the chamber. Summer Scribe blasted her way in and vanished, then she was in the statue. The sphinxes didn't come in until later. She really did just straight up trap herself in a golden statue." The griff sank back, muttering: "And who goes around touching important artifacts like that without knowing what they do in the first place? Like I said, it's her own damn fault and no one else's."
"One does get the impression that it wasn't a trap, as such," Reef Skimmer said thoughtfully. "Can't imagine why a trap would include the ability to create an animate statue of oneself. I think we must assume... the artefact was designed for some other purpose, and Summer activated it. I believe my colleague's theory," the hippogriff gestured with a wing to the hen sitting next to him, "is along the right lines. The sphinxes described it as a 'grave', hmm... holding the spirit of the departed, perhaps? A means of enduring beyond one's mortal shell? A flight of fancy, except..." Reef gave Clashing Gale a meaningful look "...it seems things we thought fantastic can be quite real, in this place. Yet... the statue was quiescent, until Summer provoked it."
Set Sail fish-mouthed at the griffonness, her ears turning from Grenelda to Reef Skimmer, the mare's expression going from anger to confusion, to outrage, to horror back to confusion, finally settling on incredulous shock. "She trapped herself in a golden statue," the pegasus mare asked flatly. "It just disintegrated her into dust, and... and sucked her up. But she's somehow okay?"
Grenelda peered over towards Azure. "You're the first one who saw her statue lookin' self - do you want to explain it to Set Sail? Again, 'cause she's still not getting it."
Azure just nodded grimly. "It's as the doctor said. The look-alike was glazed ceramic, like a vase, yet it was otherwise a perfect, animated copy of Summer Scribe. Her voice and all, a sort of golem would take even an archmage weeks, if not months to create. Yet it was no mere automaton, it was clearly the real Summer controlling it. It was as light and fragile as a vase too... I guess that's why it was so easy to smash. If I had to guess? Summer Scribe is now as capable with the Earth element as I am with Air, or Reef with Water. She's just... trapped."
Blue Type trembled a bit, rubbing at her face with her hooves as she tried to think. "Goodness... And all we have to do is convince the sphinxes to let us have our Summer back?" Her voice was uncertain - she knew it would be a tall order. "I just... She's still alive! There has to be a way. We can't..."
"Okay, well, okay," Set Sail said, backing down from her fury, "I have only one question then. Why didn't you bring her... look-alike back?"
"She asked us to break it. So that the sphinxes wouldn't see it. Hmm..." Reef Skimmer said, cocking his head "...one wonders if she was just worried about the sphinxes turning hostile, or if she knew more about her predicament than she could say." He brought a claw down hard on the table, with more of a thud than a clack. "Damn it, if only we'd had more time!"
Grenelda's brow furrowed again: "Best guess... we gotta take the Oracle itself out; that's the big golden statue, not the golem Summer made. She was really insistent on figuring out how we could carry it. I'm sure she wouldn't miss something that obvious." The griffon cocked her head, considering. "So it's statue retrieval or nothing. Whether she knew she'd be so stuck before she zapped herself into the Oracle... I haven't got a clue. Seemed like she was winging it, as usual."
"It must be a significant artefact!" Nutmeg nodded eagerly. "We should retrieve it and run some tests, try to figure out how it works. If it's more like a teleporter than a scanner, then the process could be reversible!" she said optimistically.
Blue Type sniffled and tried to wipe the tears from her face. "Yes... and we can't let Summer suffer in a tomb alone! I don't know how, but we must negotiate with these sphinxes! They'll see sense, I'm sure!"
"Remember that these creatures know how to fight," Azure cautioned them, "And that this is their sacred artifact. The thing they care about most, and they warned us not to touch it. We could go near, perhaps, but touching it? Very doubtful." Seeing Blue Type's distress, her expression softened - reckless or not, Summer was her friend, too. "We'll talk to them. We are not just abandoning a squad member; we'll get her back... somehow."
"She wanted you to... take The Oracle's Grave." Set Sail said slowly. "The golden statue that... disintegrates you when you touch it. The statue that's a super important religious artifact to the sphinxes. Sphinxes, plural," the pegasus concluded, looking for signs of recognition in all of them. Sliding a wing down her face in despair, Set Sail folded it, saying, "Okay, okay we can work with this. Summer is... safe, so-to-speak. We know where she is, and she's not in ...any more danger, at least. We just need to talk to the sphinxes, and... and they'll never let us just walk off with it. Celestia dammit, Summer, why do you have to make things so complicated..."
"The sphinx mare called their whole group the protectors of the tomb or some such." Reef Skimmer said. "Hard to imagine they'd be willing to part with it." He cocked his head, thinking. "They saw Summer's negotiation as an exchange of 'secrets'... willing to trade, perhaps, but what have we to offer that would entice them to abandon their life-long duty? The best case would be that they have the means and desire to extract Summer from her confinement... but if they don't, and we let them know she's in there... will be that much harder to get her back." The hippogriff sighed. "She said she wouldn't do it again. Promised even! So much for minimising risk."
Blue Type took another deep breath as she pondered the options. "Well, one figures out how to befriend other cultures by understanding them as thoroughly as possible..." She tapped her hoof on the floor, in unconscious imitation of Summer. "They treasure secrets, but I don't think any amount of secrets is a fair trade, if this is transactional. If we cannot appeal to their better nature, and their idol is of irreplaceable importance to them... I wonder if there is some crisis of similar magnitude we can save them from?"
The mare began to sweat as she realised how unlikely this sounded. "I know: this is getting into pure fantasy given our current, well, condition, but what else would be an option to us? Deepening the lie? I guess it's true that they don't know who is in The Oracle yet..."
"So... did you make any progress with the particle beam pyramid?" Nutmeg blurted out. At the shocked looks from the crew, she stammered "B-Because... the dirt sharks! They might help! With Summer Scribe, you know, if we solve their problem, maybe they're friends with the sphinxes, and..." the kirin trailed off.
Grenelda smirked. "Well, there were lasers in the sphinx pyramid as well. Itty-bitty ones. Maybe Summer would have figured something out if she didn't go and off herself... Hmm, say..." She clicked her beak. "You know Nutmeg here has a good point. Let's not forget our plan: doing a big favour for the dirt sharks. We know the felines won't like it: we're talking about sabotaging the big laser pyramid and helping the sharks mine those fancy rocks around it. Assuming that is still the plan."
"So look, if we're already destined to be on the sphinxes' bad side, why do we have to appease them? It's not like the pyramid's guarded 24/7 - why don't we just take this 'Oracle'? The moment we do we've picked a side, but it was kinda inevitable." She puffed her down up a bit, proud of such a cutting insight.
Azure just shook her head at that. "My guess, if we disable the laser on top of Summer's problem... we can kiss goodbye to any prospect of alliance, or even neutrality, with the sphinxes. They'll want our heads. From what I heard, the sharks are after one thing, and one thing only: money. Loyalty, friendship, alliances, they don't give donkey dung about that, you don't have money, they'll turn their backs on you first chance they get. The sphinxes are in a jam with the spidrow. Perhaps if we help them with that, we could call them friends - forge an alliance, even?" she concluded hopefully.
Clashing Gale had no patience for tip-toeing around these alien creatures. "Who cares about them, what they want, what they need at this point? None of them can be trusted, that's clear. One of our most valuable crew members is trapped in their relic: bottom line is, we've got to get hold of it. Then we can find a way to get Summer out."
Blue Type gulped: "Goodness, should we really be so forward about inciting such hostility with the sphinxes? They don't sound like an enemy we want to have..." she demurred, though... in truth she had no better idea to offer.
Reef was staring into space again. "An outright confrontation with the sphinxes... inadvisable. We saw five specimens, likely more went unseen. Flying predators, probably combat trained, perhaps used to fighting the spider creatures... likely as dangerous as griffons, and at least one was a combat caster. An engagement on their home turf, perhaps in a confined space... casualties almost inevitable - on either or both sides." He gave Set Sail one of those unreadable eagle stares, though his ear-fins flared out in anger. "Given that the whole business was our fault, one can hardly pay such a price, even to retrieve a crewmate."
“We are not stealing something that important to them,” Set Sail said flatly, “They didn’t attack us, we don’t attack them. They might not be our allies, but we do not need more enemies right now. Summer is safe, for now. And if what you say is true, she’s not going anywhere any time soon. We’re not gonna have any casualties, and Summer doesn’t count because somehow she was disintegrated and is still totally fine.”
Strutting past Reef, she continued, “Since we’re not, I repeat, not stealing from innocent creatures, a treasure they have sworn their lives to protect, we might as well open up a dialogue with them, to see if they know anything more, if we can get Summer out of there, if we can help them somehow, and to see if sphinxes are even possible to befriend.” Her feathers and fur fluffed as she walked stiffly up to Azure, saying, “There’s... a reason those pillars are so defended. We find out the reason, we find out what needs to be done, so that everypony is happy."
"If the sharks are awful as all that," she continued, "then we’ll know. But do recall that they could have given our crew over to the mercy of the drow, and they didn’t. They could have killed them, eaten them, captured them, instead they let them go, at no cost to us. After showing off some crazy machines, that Static is still squeeing over, and then asking for help.” The captain stood there a moment straining not to show fear, and then her countenance broke and Set Sail walked hastily away from the other pegasus mare.
Azure nodded quietly to the captain. "I see. We could have lost the squad to the sharks as well... I... I see." They were good points, and at this point she was uncertain how to proceed. Clashing had it wrong though; just ignoring the native creatures' various situations wasn't an option, not with them in such a weak tactical position.
“The two-leggers might know the reason for all the defences,” Blaze Trails spoke up, drawing Set Sail’s attention as the captain paused to look her way. “I wasn't there for the sphinxes, curse my luck,” the red-and-green earth pony said resentfully, “But something had those cat creatures so riled up you could bounce a coin off the tension. Enough their whole tribe mobilized to kick us out. I still feel so bad about trampling all over their magic school without knowin' it was off limits.” Shaking her head sadly, Blaze concluded, “If we ever do go back to that island, the first thing we're gonna have to do is go and apologise to them two-leggers.”
Blue Type let out a shaky sigh as she listened to Set Sail's words. Calm, reasonable, in control and on top of it all - it was reassuring. Still, she fretted: if the meeting with the sphinxes was weeks away, that was a long time to wait - perhaps even longer before they could see Summer. Unless... she cleared her throat with a nervous swallow: "Umm... I feel a bit transgressive even suggesting it, but..." An uncertain pause. "...Maybe one of us should check in on Summer? You could use the invisible magic soda to minimize the risk. I just... don't want her to be worried sick. She should know what we're planning to do to rescue her, whatever it is. And if she knows something that will help, we ought to know."
Set Sail's ears went down; she avoided the earth pony's gaze as she said: "We can... send someone in to check in on Summer. That's fine. But I don't care whatever airheaded plan she's got, we can't just take a... I wish I had been there, to... stop her."
Azure looked thoughtful as she considered Blue Type's suggestion, while Clashing Gale seized on it: at last, something they could do: "Yes! Somepony should go soon; it needs to be somepony the sphinxes haven't seen. That rules out most of you, but I wasn't on the squad..." A chuckle: "Magical invisibility? That's the key we're going to use..." He looked at Set Sail: "I volunteer. Will anypony accompany me?"
Blue Type looked adoring at the sleek, striking batpony: "...Thank you so much, Clashing Gale! That means a lot to me. Though... we should decide what to do as a team. I'm sure Summer will understand that now."
"Appreciate you stepping up, Clashing," Reef Skimmer said warmly. "So, backup for a stealth reconnaissance assignment... Cloud Cutter, surely? Damned uncanny, how that mare sneaks up on you... and wasn't she the one who discovered the invisibility potion?" The hippogriff frowned; was he letting personal feelings cloud his judgement? He'd rather the spooky mare was inflicted on the enemy than hanging around the ship, but... no, she was the logical choice. "By all means we could use more intelligence, but... perhaps Azure and myself should be on hand. At a discreet distance, you understand... just in case."
"I'm not that quiet," Cloud Cutter said. Somehow she was standing right next to Reef Skimmer, without anyone realising until just then.
A loud squawk escaped the griff's beak as he half-spread his wings, staring in shock and horror at the purple pegasus that had materialised from nowhere. "Hiding under the table? Really now!"
"What?" Cloud Cutter said, not reacting to Reef's squawk other than the draft ruffling her mane, "I just walked in."
Grenelda cackled: a throaty laugh at Reef's expense. "Oh, sorry, Reef - that was too good."
With the tension broken, even Blue Type stifled a quiet giggle. Sure, they were in a tough spot - but Summer was alive. There was still hope. She'd just have to work harder to learn all she can about the sphinxes: do anything she could to help the others rescue Summer.
Tired and frazzled, Azure didn't appreciate being startled by Cloud Cutter's sudden entrance. She rose to her hooves and looked ready to protest, but thought better of it, saying "...As the diplomatic representatives, a decoy of sorts for the real operation... I can see it, doctor. Not a bad idea, and really, better to have a rescue operation for what may be like sending two ponies into a hornet's nest..." She admitted.
"Hmm, yes, be that as it may..." Reef spluttered in embarrassment, before turning to Azure "...I seem to recall the sphinxes telling you to meet them in a week's time. Can we wait that long? Or do you propose outright telling them about Summer's predicament? At the very least, they will send some sphinx to check on her... not conducive to Clashing's infiltration."
"It was two weeks, doctor." Azure confirmed. "We may not be able to put off a confrontation with the pirates for so long. The griffons said they would be here soon, and if Sunburn becomes available as well... how long could we delay? It is only proper that I am present, of course." There was a somewhat... dazed look in her eyes for a second, not something that would escape Grenelda, Reef or any other fighting creature's attention, but quickly faded.
"Back to the subject... if Clashing does get caught, we could dive in to explain, but..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "I suppose that couldn't end well. Apologies." Just what was she thinking?
"If things end up going that topsy turvy, maybe we should just grab Summer and haul while we still have a chance?" Grenelda suggested "Hrmm... that'd basically be the end of diplomatic relationships, yeah? So no shame in cutting and running after that." Inwardly, the griffon was wondering just what Summer was up to - sooner or later she'd start messing with the sphinxes on her own. That pony was just incapable of leaving things alone.
"And what do we do after we steal the statue?" Set Sail said, with a frustrated stomp, "There's nothing good that could come of that, even if we could do it. The moment they learned what we did we'd be back to square one. And what good would it do? Having a statue with—with earth powers is nice, but... where do we even put it? We don't have the—the only specialist who could've found out what it does magically got trapped inside it!" Giving a baleful look Grenelda's way, she said, "Yes if they outright attack us and... yes it's okay to steal the statue, then. I just... don't want to give up on them yet. I know they're sphinxes, but..."
Grenelda waved a clawed dismissively. "Well, she'd be a member of the team! Just a particularly heavy one. Someone'd have to be on carrying-Summer duty, and we'd probably just scram from anywhere the Sphinxes would look for us and never come back. Maybe we'd fix the dirt sharks' problems in a hurry, maybe we'd leave the island entirely and seek a resolution elsewhere. Look, this is only if the alternative is never having a chance to get Summer back. I love the idea of sticking it to the Sphinxes, but I don't like that it's dangerous."
"So... we return to the cat island. The goals being, an infiltration of the sphinx pyramid, to ascertain the status of Summer Scribe, then an attempt to make peace with the Abyssinians and the feline-taurs?" Reef Skimmer stated. "Hmm... it was strange that we just left, without attempting to negotiate. Summer managed to befriend dragons, after all," the hippogriff said thoughtfully. "Who will take up the mantle of diplomat, in her absence?"
"Well, at the very least we need somepony to visit her, and quickly," Set Sail said, giving Clashing Gale a beseeching look, "If you do that, and find out her situation, and tell her that we're working on getting her out of that statue, then maybe we will have a week before she decides to do something that the sphinxes... notice. While you're... checking in on her, discreetly, maybe the sphinxes have a less... guarded place we can visit without them getting all riled up about it. Like a...a village? I don't know how sphinxes live. Between that and Blaze's idea to apologize to the two-legged cat creatures, we might just pull it off." At Reef's question, Set Sail paused in thought a moment, then looked hopefully to Clashing again.
"I could make a winch for the copter!" Nutmeg said helpfully. "You could attach it to the statue and... oh... some pegasi can pull air carriages can't they? Can you do that Clashing Gale?"
"I... admittedly don't know. Pretty much all pegasi can, but... I'm not exactly a pegasus anymore, y'know?" Clashing Gale's confidence suddenly drained as he realised he hadn't checked his magic; could he even cloudwalk now? Reef had complained about losing that ability, and Cloud Cutter could no longer do weather working... concern filled his face. "Maybe? Really couldn't tell you, Captain, I'm sorry."
"Hmm, you raise an interesting question Nutmeg." Reef said, looking at Clashing thoughtfully. "I found myself bereft of any ability to reduce weight, my own or that of cargo, following the whole worm business. Yet Clashing Hail and Cloud Gutter can clearly still fly without the aid of jet propulsion or transformation. Perhaps an experiment or two would be warranted."
"We could always find out," Set Sail said a little blushingly, "Just... try to pull a cart, right? I can..." The pegasus mare sighed, sinking to her haunches and admitting, "I'm going to come on this expedition. I had a... little luck with being a diplomat earlier. Blaze seems... pretty nice, too."
"Well, I do my best," Blaze Trails said, lifting a hoof as if to hide her nose shyly.
"And your leg is...?" Set Sail asked, eyeing her leg brace.
"Oh, I'm more sore about losing the tent than I am in my leg," Blaze replied confidently, "Winter just put it on to be careful, you know."
Blue Type was thoughtful, at the prospect of taking a more direct role in negotiating for Summer Scribe's release. Of getting closer to her... she shook her head. No: she had to be rational about this. She'd be no use if things got tense, and from what the others had said, it sounded like the most dangerous island yet - and her judgement would be clouded. So she just sat down on her rear, silently wishing luck for the crew.
"Ok then, I can pull the cart," Set Sail said seriously to Clashing, "if things truly get so bad that we have to grab Summer's statue and run. We need two teams I think. Clashing and CC, for project Visit-Summer, and Blaze and I for... project Apologise-To-Cats. Reef, and Azure, you're..." She found herself willing to look at Reef, at least, "both... given powers of terrible destruction by this place. If things go south, we... need you there too. Otherwise... it's not safe for Blue to head that way just yet, and Grenelda, I mean no offense, but... you've seen Reef Skimmer and Azure in action. We don't want to bring a ton of muscle, and leave the ship undefended, right?"
Grenelda was no coward: she was prepared to go wherever she had to, so long as her allies need her protection (and, if she was honest, common sense). Yet she cocked her beak, amused: "Hey, they chased us out and stole our tent, what are we apologizing for? Seriously... yeah, those two can wipe the floor by themselves. I'm practically just an attack cat by comparison! If those two want to take point, I'd feel safe in their claws. Err.. and hooves," she corrected herself.
"One hopes it will not come to that." Reef said unhappily. "But..." his beak cracked open a sliver, "I appreciate the compliment, Grenelda."
Azure smiled a bit. "Gives you a chance to rest before the real fight against the drow, right, Grenelda?" But the smile quickly faded. "Will admit I'm not too much of a fan of going against a potential ally's wishes, but..."
Grenelda cocked her head and opened her beak in an avian smirk. "Believe me, the first moment I can, those slaver assholes are eating dirt."
Smiling in relief as the mood lifted, Set Sail concluded: "Then that just leaves who to pony the engine on the copter."
"Sprocket has psychological issues! And Static is trying to cure her! And... I've drawn up the blueprints and my ponies know what to do and, um..." Nutmeg looked down shyly "...is it ok if I come on the mission, Captain Sail? 'Cause this seems like just the most exciting island ever!"
"Of course," Set Sail said, a little surprised by the question, and being called 'Captain Sail', "You're the one who rebuilt that copter, Nutmeg. You know it better than any of us. Plus you're right. Sprocket is..." Set Sail winced, "...she needs Static right now, so it would be very good of you to come along."
"Great! Thanks Captain Sail!" the kirin nodded enthusiastically. "I'll just go... install that winch. Never know when you might need a winch!"
"Have at it," Set Sail said, glad that Nutmeg was being so enthusiastic about it.
Grenelda cocks her head and nods to the kirin with a grin. "Have a pleasant stay on the island," she said with just a hint of sarcasm. It had been three kinds of trouble, but awfully pretty and hey, maybe some actual treasure.
Nutmeg Inferno turned to leave... and froze, as she spotted another pony standing in the doorway. A tan stallion with a cream dapple, giving her a cold stare of disapproval. The kirin's ears went flat; "Oh, uh... just gotta deal with... whatever Gearshift needs. Uh, bye!" With that she pranced off towards the engine room. Gearshift looked around dispassively at the creatures gathered in the saloon, not saying a word, before trotting briskly after Nutmeg.
Creatures filed out, until it was just Reef Skimmer still sitting there at the table with Set Sail. The pegasus looked up at the griff expectantly, wondering what was on his mind. "Captain... I believe there are things we need to discuss. Truly, we're in a tough spot just now." He dipped his head, looking away. "We're all tired though and I need to check on Trade Wind and the other patients. Could you spare some time tomorrow morning? Take breakfast together, perhaps?"
"Oh," Set Sail said faintly, giving him a bit of a moonstruck look at his proposal, "Yes I... I could. D-did you want to, um..." and there comes the blush. "W-whatever you wanted to discuss or... or um..."
"Splendid!" Reef said quickly. "One will endeavour to catch up with you first thing tomorrow then!" He actually saluted, touching a pinion to his brow, before hurrying out of the saloon, leaving the pegasus to watch the last sliver of sun disappearing below the horizon.
Set Sail watched him go, and a silly smile fought its way onto her face. Covering it with a hoof, she said, "It's just... it's just breakfast, not anything..." though from the tone of her voice it didn't sound like she wanted to believe it. She turned to see the sun set, feeling like... like she had to get ready. Just to... make sure it was a... good breakfast.
The sun was clear of the horizon, but dew still glistened on the grass as the two creatures emerged from the great airship. One was a silvery grey hippogriff stallion with vivid pink crest and tail feathers, though close inspection might call that into question. After many hours of practice Reef Skimmer was looking much as he had when he joined the ship, yet there was still a broad band of bright blue gelatinous substance around his barrel.
The first time she'd seen a group of hippogriffs, just hanging out on the dock as her own ship came in, Set Sail was surprised how elegant they were. Griffons looked exactly what you'd expect a half-eagle, half-lion creature to be; an awkward chimera of two deadly predators, all sharp edges and attitude. Hippogriffs were tall and lithe and more, well... blended? Feathers getting progressively smaller down their barrel until they became fur at the waist, long crest and tail feathers that fell more like a mane, tufts of feathers the sides of their heads that gave the impression of pony ears without actually being ears.
Reef's band of goo disrupted that smooth look; he looked like a giant foal had broken her toys and then glued two mismatched halves together with resin. She tried not to chuckle at the thought. His head was a little different as well, with fishy fins marking the location of his ears instead of feather tufts, but that didn't seem like a big deal: he'd had those as a seapony after all. The stallion did look strangely naked without his amulet - not that the pegasus had seen that many hippogriffs, but of those she had seen, none had been without their sliver of magical pearl.
"One does hope a spot by the stream will suffice, Captain," he was saying. "The crow's nest is a little impractical now... I'd suggest a cloud, but alas, it seems they no longer deign to support my weight."
"I can't argue with the clouds, they just do what they are," Set Sail said with a shrug, "You'd think since they're made of water, you'd be able to sit on them since you're all water now." The brown pegasus was on the larger side for a pony mare, though that still left her head well short of the griff's withers. She kept just shy of making eye contact, she seemed dismissive of her carefully combed blue mane with a lush, red flower twined in it, one of the ones from the florid jungle across the stream no doubt. It certainly didn't look like it was tangled in there by accident.
"The stream is fine," she said, "Not like we need to go anywhere private to have a little breakfast together. I'm sure nopony will come bother us unless it's real important." She made that quite clear to her crew before she left. "Thanks for carrying the uh... the food."
"Least I could do." Reef said, glancing back at his saddlebags: the bowls inside clinked quietly against the pot of porridge. "Some of what I have to say... best said in private." He sighed. "As for the clouds... well." He cocked his head, considering how to explain it.
"Sails, you know how once one's wings are spread, you are only as heavy as you need to be? The tight grip of terra firma slackening to a light caress, one might say? An experience unique to winged creatures, one imagines... and apparently something I won't experience again. Flying now seems to be more of a case of smacking old terra firma clean in the muzzle with a summoned torrent, until the old sod is forced to relent. Relaxing on vapour is out of the question."
"Still sounds more like an earth thing, but I'm no expert on that stuff," she said, risking eye contact with her clear green irises taking him in. "And it's... more than fine. Whatever you need to say to me in private, I'm okay with. I like to think you can tell me anything, not just as a captain but as a... friend."
The two reached their destination, settling out the blanket and supplies. While Reef poured the porridge, Set Sail unpacked the bread, breaking off a piece of the tough stuff, one for each of them. There wasn't much of this left in the supplies, but it had to get eaten some day, so why not now? Sitting there as delicately as she could on her haunches, Set Sail looked up at her stern looking but warm-hearted friend saying, "So, what is it you had to say to me?"
Reef picked up the lump of bread in his claw and just stared at it for a while, before his eyes went to the pegasus, noticing her mane adornment at last. "Ah... I had no idea you had an interest in botany, Captain." A wink, hoping to put her at ease. "Firstly I must say I do appreciate your desire for a peaceful solution to the whole island of cats situation. Ponies are famous for it, to be sure, but still inspiring to see it in action. Hippogriffs, well... our efforts in that direction tend more towards protocols and conventions, minimising the chaos and brutality of it all, than avoiding conflict in the first place."
Set Sail blushed when he noticed the flower, one foreleg briefly lifting up towards it before planting down again. She felt a little ashamed at his wink, because of course he knew what she was doing here. Clearly thought it was childishly amusing. At his praise, Set Sail said bashfully, "Well I don't know if it's all that," toeing at her own bread before her, not yet partaking of any porridge, "It's not like we're avoiding conflict, with the drow and all. And those... spider drow. I just feel like we got off on the wrong hoof with those others, accidentally trespassing in their sacred temple, and then accidentally touching their..." frowning, she had to clarify, "Semi-accidentally, but it definitely wasn't the best way to say hi, or the way I want us to be known."
The griff's stare became fierce at the mention of the spider creatures, yet he ducked his head, ear-fins flicking. "Captain... we both know Summer Scribe is a problem. Intrepid, knowledgeable yet incurable reckless, it seems. Yet... with us all focused on her predicament, I fear we missed a more general concern." Reef put the bread down and began to pace through the grass. "Hostilities with the spider-drow were likely inevitable. Through no fault of our own, we walked into an ongoing conflict between them and the sphinxes. And frankly, Sails, it was nearly a disaster. We were up against an archer, a caster and their pets."
"And what happened? Grenelda nearly took a magic bolt to the face... and then ran, abandoning her companions to their fate. Azure Feather... Azure could have won that fight on her own, I'm sure of it! Gustus told me about the bats; and that was before she became the 'Champion of Air'! Yet she hid behind a pillar, why?" His voice got louder and louder as he continued to unload, gesturing with claws and wings for emphasis.
"One can't blame Summer for doing the same. Sprocket though, that mare gave a tremendous showing, standing firm and flinging fire at the enemy mage, but... what if the archer had turned on her? As for myself, well... I'd have gone down to the first shot, were it not for my... transformation. Did I order a retreat? Try to scare the enemy away? Knock them prone, perhaps?" The griff clicked his beak.
"No, I stood there screeching like an idiot, letting the mage take pot shots at me, until I saw Sprocket joining the fight. Then I just charged in and slaught- Killed the caster." Reef let out a long breath as he finished his rant. "We were lucky everygriff made it through that fight, never mind the statue business. Had the sphinxes not seen the remains of the spider-drow and backed down, I'm sure that would have gone even worse."
"I can talk with Azure about that," Set Sail said grimly, "Grenelda said she thought you were right behind her. Didn't she come back for you? She kept telling me that she did. As for Sprocket... she hasn't talked about it at all." frowning, Set Sail said, "Something really shook her about that fight. She's not a fighter, but... well I'm just not sure what's gotten her so spooked. She said it wasn't the spiders but... she didn't want to talk about it. I don't think I've seen her out of the engine room since you got back. Maybe you could talk to her about it?"
Reef snorted. "Oh, to be fair to the hen, Grenelda had the right idea. Retreat would have been the safest option, particularly with the sphinxes right behind us. Only as a squad though, and no one gave the order." The hippogriff ceased his pacing, trotting back to the pegasus and sitting down. "Captain, I'm not here to complain about individual crewmembers. My point is that if we are to continue getting into these situations... which seems quite likely... then we should have at least basic training. Pre-agreed tactics. Chain of command. One is far from an expert in these matters, but... one has seen the Royal Marines in action enough times to have a fair idea what we're missing."
"I'm not sure Sprocket's going out again," Set Sail said, sliding onto her side there out in the sunny meadow, "But Azure has been doing plenty of training. And Grenelda well I mean, she's got a lot of experience fighting, if not a lot of training. What do you mean chain of command? Is that one of your hippogriff magical artifacts, like a chain necklace or something?"
Reef stared at the pony, indignation rising in his throat; how could she joke about this? "Well I say, this is hardly the time for flippancy... erm, hmm. You really don't know?" He cocked his head. "I was under the impression pegasi, of all ponies, were the closest to griffs? Rich military tradition and all that? Have I been misled?"
Set Sail started to retort, but her eyes dawned in realization then. Her ears went down, and she turned away, head sinking guiltily. "My parents were earth ponies," she muttered lowly, "I grew up on the sea. Never wanted to leave but..." she spread her wings, "...wings are wings. I'm just better in the sky. I mean I love flying and I still visit them a lot, and there's plenty of flying to do around a ship even on the earth. But I went to Cloudsdale once, just to see if I could. Didn't even know what to do there. So I dunno about pegasi traditions. I know they didn't have enchanted chains though."
"Oh, I-" Reef blinked; although in principle, he knew the fundamentals of pony genetics, he'd always thought of the three kinds of pony as distinct tribes. Intermingled, to be sure, but distinct. "Both parents?" he wondered out loud, before immediately grimacing. "Ah, I do apologise. That does sound like a... difficult childhood. Though truly, you didn't want to leave?" Reef asked uncertainly. "I just assumed... your cutie mark, does that not speak of a desire to fly great vessels through the skies?" That was the whole point of cutie marks, wasn't it: to broadcast ponies' skills and desires so their society would run more smoothly.
“It's more that I just like balloons,” Set Sail said, straightening up enough to look upward fondly, “They're kind of my thing. I know earth ponies aren't keen on leaving the earth, but get in a balloon, and they'll go up as surely as I will. I got my cutie mark on a balloon ride with my parents. They're really supportive. I was just flying around the other balloons, and they were laughing 'cause I was having fun. Didn't even realise it until I landed in the basket. I don't know what a cutie mark is for other ponies, but for me it's just that fond memory, how I could give ponies a little bit of what I feel up there. Lift their spirits, you know?”
Her smile grew a bit strained as she said, “But yeah, then I had to go learn about balloons and airships and ballast and lift and all that. Nobody forces you, but ponies do kind of... assume that's what you like. I'm not ungrateful though. I got pretty darn good at taking care of a balloon. And I got to go on this expedition.”
Another avian stare, but Reef's beak was hanging open. "I had no idea. That's... beautiful, Sails." The big griff blinked, twice. "I mean, erm thank you for indulging one's curiosity, Captain. So... where were we..." It seemed such a shame, to turn the tone back to practical matters, but he had no choice.
"Ah, so if you would permit me an analogy. Imagine you are attempting some tricky manoeuvre with the ship, oh I don't know, let's say approaching the docks in a storm. A tough assignment but your close-knit crew of experienced ponies can handle it. The captain gives the orders, and when the captain can't be there the first, second... third mate, they make the decisions. When a rope snaps everygriff... pony, well they react immediately, because they've drilled for such in advance."
"Now, imagine that instead of your crew, a group of strangers are attempting this task. One was a junior deckhand on a different ship. Another has three years experience operating hot air balloon tours. A third has no practical experience at all, but wrote a research paper on aeronautics. A fourth, well he spent the last decade on airships... as a quartermaster. To cap it off, nogriff is captain; one fancies herself the first mate when the sailing is smooth, but doesn't take charge in the storm. Now how is that sorry bunch going to fair, docking the ship in a storm?"
"Oh, I get what you're saying!" Set Sail said, eyes dawning in realisation, "Yeah, we could be training to figure out what everypony should do in a fight. Or at least planning it beforehand. But what does that have to do with the captain, and the first mate and such? The captain decides where the boat goes, and keeps everypony working together in harmony, I mean, ideally. They don't make the decisions when a rope snaps though. That's up to the pony... griff...creature who's near enough to deal with it. Your people would just go ask their captain what to do, in the middle of a storm?" A pause, and she adds, "Oh, it must be because you can just turn into fish ponies, so storms are no big deal to you."
Reef raised a claw to his face. "It seems analogies aren't my forte either. Look Sails, combat is chaotic, and you're facing not just the environment, but an enemy who will exploit any weakness they can find. Ensuring everygriff understands the tactics and objectives is essential. Not just griffs... ponies, zebras, even Abyssinians, they all have a hierarchy of officers who expect to be obeyed on the battlefield. Dragons don't, and that's a major reason why they never conquered Equs." A long exhale. "Now to be sure, we don't need the whole bureaucratic business. What we need is a team that trusts each other, knows what each is capable of and what their role is in a fight. And when a tactical decision must be made for the whole team, somegr- somecreature has to be ready to make the call."
Ears going flat, Set Sail said, "I am not putting you in charge of the next expedition, if that's what you're asking. You're right though, we need to train together to practice what we're gonna do in a fight." Shaking her head, she said with a frustrated huff, "Can't believe it never occurred to me. Of course you're gonna want to get to know each other somewhere safe, before trying to fight off spiders with bows and spells. Is that what I've been doing wrong all this time?"
Reef sighed. "Captain, I'm speaking of what happens if... when we get into another fight. The skillset is quite distinct from exploration, or diplomacy. Clearly the ideal mare for the job would be Azure Feather; she is the only one among us with real experience in small unit combat. Yet... she seems quite unwilling to take the lead. Wish I could say why."
The griff stared into space for a while, trying to fathom the taciturn blue mare, then shook his head. "As for myself... well I confess to an interest in campaign strategy, fleet tactics, that kind of thing. The practical side, frankly rather tedious - beginning to regret skipping all those sword practice sessions, if I'm honest. Yet if there are none better qualified, one is prepared to do what one can."
"Well don't ask me about Azure," Set Sail said with a roll of her eyes, "She got turned into a flipping pegasus by that stupid air temple, so I don't think anypony knows what's going on in her mind anymore. Who says she wanted to defend you against those spidrow?"
As he shook his head, and said that stuff about himself, Set Sail listened, but confusion crossed her expression again. "What good would sword practice sessions do? We don't even have any swords. Anyway yes I'd appreciate it if you'd do some training too. You're pretty good at figuring out how to use your abilities to compliment that of others, so try that maybe? I'll talk to Blaze and CC, and Clashing. We can all get together to have a... pretend to fight party!" Chewing nervously on a wing, she added, "But uh, we gotta be careful, especially you. You're very powerful. I'm sure you won't accidentally hurt anypony though, right?"
"I am quite certain Azure's sense of duty has never been stronger!" Reef retorted hotly, not forgetting that the blue guardpony had been the first friendly face he'd seen after the incident with Cloud Cutter. "Her confidence however... I fear that has taken a dive." he said sadly. An odd whistle, then "And as for myself... still a dangerous monster, eh?" The griff held up a claw, staring at it angrily. "You do realise my talons are blunt as butter? Alas that poor spider mare was as stupid as I was, just casting and casting when escaping my foolish charge would have been a trivial matter." His voice cracked. "Maybe... maybe those were her eggs, that she was defending? The ones Summer blew up?"
Touching his upheld claw with a hoof, Set Sail said seriously, "You're not a monster, Reef. What do you think a monster is, anyway?"
Reef looked away, refusing to meet her eyes but not withdrawing his claw. "Oh, I don't know, something horrible and unnatural, born of foul magics or master of eldrich power or some such." he muttered. "Windigoes and hyfras and manticores and so on. Though I think manticores are misunderstood really, ponies just seem to have an inherent bias against..." he trailed off. "Rocs?"
Putting her hoof down, Set Sail said, "Windigoes almost destroyed the world. They didn't try to stop it. They couldn't or wouldn't restrain themselves. It's like any dark magic, feeds on itself, never stops growing. Hydras eat ponies, given half a chance, you can't live with them. Manticores and Rocs are dangerous, but they keep to themselves usually. They don't give others a hard time. Reef, you are very dangerous. The ocean is blunt as butter too, and it's one of the most dangerous things out there. But it's not a monster, and neither are you. Summer Scribe..."
Shaking her head and looking away, Set Sail reluctantly concluded, "She's... more of a monster than you are. I really think she's got some good in her, but she was just out of control. Plenty of creatures are dangerous. It's the ones we can't live with, who won't or can't stop hurting others, the ones who... must be stopped. Those are the monsters."
Reef frowned, thinking this over. "After I was done moping in the hold, I went to Summer. Told her she was criminally reckless or something like that, that she should put Blue Gripe in charge. She convinced me it was an accident and she wouldn't do it again and... we could be friends again. Yet here we are." He sighed. "She isn't responsible for the death of that creature though. Only what came afterwards."
"To be honest, Grenelda was the one who screwed up there," Set Sail said, looking over the way of the ship, "At least, if she hasn't been totally lying to me, but it makes sense. She was just trying to make a meal of one, and get them to back off. She's right that spiders don't usually hunt in packs. But everything after that, the only response you could all be responsible for is defending yourself. I do think you should have retreated, but I wasn't there. It's my fault really, I should have thought of you all practicing what to do together, before it gets all crazy and hectic."
"Oh, she couldn't have known." Reef said, withdrawing the claw and waving it dismissively. "For all she knew it was just a pack of mindless vermin. Look... Captain, I appreciate the effort, but there's no getting around this. Nogriff ordered me to kill that creature. One just went ahead and did it." He started into the distance, his eyes haunted, as he murmured "Just like last time."
"She was a-attacking you," Set Sail said, looking up uncertainly at the despairing whatever he is, still unable to read that face, but something in his voice worried her, "With magic. You said she kept casting magic... bolts at you."
"Quite so, and were I still a hippogriff, they would have been quite deadly." Reef said, his voice bitter. "Yet once my rage was trained on her, her magics were easily overcome." He sighed. "I know for some the intent to kill is justification enough. No quarter given, except perhaps for formal and complete surrender. The oath I took though... well, not to do no harm as I hear pony doctors profess, but to minimise suffering. Cure what I could, and cause no more than strictly necessary." The griff dipped his head. "On that count I failed. Likely one's actions awarded us another mortal enemy, at least if they had any means of reaching us."
Set Sail stood alongside him and leaned against him as well as she could, lending weight and warmth to her words as she said, "Reef, I'm—I'm sorry. I didn't know you felt that way. I don't know what happened; I wasn't there. ...Sprocket was really shaken up by something."
Reef looked startled for a moment, then slowly and hesitantly extended a wing, placing it lightly over the pegasus. "Oh, Sails... I should be the one apologising." He reached out with a claw, one talon lightly touching the petals of the flower in the mare's mane. "For leading you on with the promise of a roman- err, that is to say pleasant breakfast and then burdening you with all this nonsense." He sighed. "Although... if you would permit me one more flight of fancy..." the griff said uncertainly, "I did come up with a notion last night, a chance perhaps to turn this around."
Looking down at her untouched porridge, the brown mare pulled away from him, looking at Reef in shock saying, "You wanted me to think this was going to be a rom...roman—a pleasant breakfast??"
"Not at all! Erm, I mean, not as such." Reef dipped his head. "Look, I-" His beak opened, then closed again. "In truth... that sounds delightful. It's just, we're in such a pickle right now what with Summer and the sphinxes and the pirates and that deadful business with the spiders... oh hang it all." He cocked his head, looking at the mare sadly. "Perhaps one could... make it up to you? After things have calmed down a little, I mean."
Facing Reef, Set Sail eyed him with an even more unreadable (to a griff) expression than usual, then said cooly, "It's fine. Go ahead and tell me your idea about how we might turn this around. I need all the help I can get at this point."
Reef stared back, wondering for a moment if ponies and hippogriffs were just not meant to be together. Finally he got a grip on himself, setting such sentiment aside, at least for now. "So. Erm. Well, I was thinking back to what you said about the Battle of Canterlot. The storm guards, and how they, erm, coloured your view of bipeds. These spider-drow, what do you suppose their view of other creatures is? Locked in a mortal struggle with the sphinxes... creatures that might as well be pony heads on griffon bodies."
"I imagine they saw us as allies of their enemy, or at the very least, a similar threat." Reef looked guilty as he realised what he'd said. "Not that you're to blame for your feelings, of course! But I do wonder... perhaps if we had a more familiar emissary, negotiation would be possible?"
The captain didn't seem to follow, so he explained. "We do still have a drow on the ship you know. A drow looking for an opportunity to prove herself. Or perhaps just put us in her debt, yet... perhaps that would be worth it? If we could find out why these 'spidrow' risk so much, breaking into the sphinxes' sanctum... well." The griff's beak cracked open just a little. "Perhaps your desire to make peace is infectious."
"Oh I..." Set Sail said, lifting a hoof to look at it, "I hadn't thought about that. The sphinx was said to have the head of a pony. It's hard to imagine that we could be as fearsome as those... giant storm beasts. I could talk with Silent Arrow, I suppose. She still doesn't seem to understand the slightest thing about friendship but I think... we might be having enough of an impression on her to impress uh, her." She sighed.
"She might just turn the spi-drow even more against us. But I couldn't think of any way to approach them at all, in a way they didn't make them think we'd kill any more of their kind. We're already stretched pretty thin though. I don't know if we could risk that, while I'm off getting captured by the big cats, while Clashing's getting caught in the sphinx's temple, or whatever awful thing is going to befall our current plans."
"It's your decision of course, Captain." Reef said, looking down. "But Sails... I implore you, to give it a chance. If Miss Arrow agrees, that is. Surely between us we can come up with a protocol that minimises the risk, and..." He looked up, his eyes haunted "...I just can't get the image of that spider creature out of my mind. To be sure they fired the first shot, but she was... she looked so scared, at the end. Wouldn't want her death to be for nothing, you understand?"
Set Sail looked down, saying lowly, "Nopony should ever have to die afraid. Angry, surprised, content, anything but fear." Then she met Reef's eyes with her own green irises, saying, "It's a long shot, but they deserve an apology more than any other of those rude little creatures. I'll try to figure something out. Thank you for caring so much about the poor mare, even after she hurt you. And... t-thank you for taking me on a romantic breakfast." The dark fur on her muzzle concealed the blush.
"I didn't... mares don't know if they're just being foolish and reading the wrong signs in stallions. I didn't know if you were even considering thinking of... me in that way. I know you needed to talk about this serious stuff, but... you still thought of me in that way, and I didn't wear this... flower in my hair for nothing. So..." She risked a swift kiss to his cheek, then fluttered back, red-faced and flustered, saying, "Thank you. Let's um, eat and get back and... get ready to do whatever we're gonna do about that cat island, and the spidrow."
The griff's enormous wings fluffed out, and for a moment his claws started to revert to blue goo, before he was able to regain control and change them back. "Truly? Well, erm... that's just splendid, Sails. Captain. Captain Set Sails!" he stammered. "One is eternally in your debt, of course. Oh, err... the porridge is almost cold." And with that he busied himself with spooning breakfast into his beak.
It quickly became clear that an immediate return to Fellis was out of the question. With so much at stake, careful preparation would be needed: Summer Scribe would just have to sit tight for another day. Taking the doctor's advice to heart, Set Sail asked every expedition member with combat experience to accompany her, then lead them out into the meadow. An assortment of creatures followed behind, trotting two-abreast.
First came Azure Feather and Reef Skimmer, two creatures changed radically by the magic of this strange land and coincidentally their only active military officers. The former had the most combat experience by some margin, but was still unsure of both her Air powers and her pegasus form. The hippogriff had seen his share of sea battles and shore raids, but as a surgeon and field medic rather than a soldier.
A pair of griffons followed: Grenelda and Gustus. In a rare moment of charm, the hen had actually managed to convince Reef to loan her his ornate wing blades, on the understanding that he would dissolve her if she failed to return the family heirlooms in good condition. Then came two of the unsettling purple ponies: Clashing Gale with his charming smile and silky bat wings, alongside Cloud Cutter, her glowing white eyes as blank as ever.
Bringing up the rear were Blaze Trails and Nutmeg Inferno; on seeing the kirin trying to pull a cartful of strange gadgets, the earth pony had insisted on slipping into the yoke to assist. That left Nutmeg with no way to escape Blaze's stream of frontier anecdotes, but she didn't seem to mind, listening eagerly to the pony's tales of traversing the Everfree Forest.
It was a long trek to reach the old abandoned quarry, but certainly worth the effort. Ridged ledges stepped down to a central pit whose flat, stony floor would weather any attacks far better than the delectable grasses of the meadow - not to mention the lack of wooly inhabitants to spook. Rough-hewn cubes of rock were strewn about, cut from the cliffs then just left to lie there by whoever had abandoned the quarry. They served as handy platforms, but their ultimate purpose or destination remained unknown.
"Alright, now what we're doing is about practicing, but it's also about communication," Set Sail said, once they'd all assembled in a vague group at the bottom. "We need to know what each of us is capable of. So I suppose we could start with each of us demonstrating our abilities. Blaze, thanks for bringing all that stuff. Now I just need the dummy. Nutmeg?"
The kirin was quick to understand, reaching into the cart and pulling out a crude torso constructed of tightly-woven sticks and grass, with four branches standing in for legs. She flourished a hammer and chisel in her clear sparkling horn field, enlarging one of the cracks in the ground until she could jam the support pole into it. The training dummy was left standing there, just waiting to be attacked.
"Well, who wants to start?" Set Sail said, "I just want to see what you can do, if you needed to attack some creature." One brown wing shifted thoughtfully over something strapped to her side.
Azure Feather had declined Set Sail's invitation to lead the exercise: she'd never enjoyed drill, much less taken the lead. She had to admit though, having everypony trained and ready to work as a squad would make a huge difference. Even Reef - the hippogriff might be a fellow soldier, of sorts, but it was clear he wasn't used to working with ponies. His transformation had been harder than hers, but he'd apparently recovered well, more or less saving their hides in the pyramid.
She could only hope Clashing Gale would follow. The stallion had little idea of what his new form could do: like Cloud Cutter, he'd lost his weather working, but didn't seem to share her shadow-teleport or 'anti-life' ability. Perhaps they would learn more today - for now he just stood to one side, between herself and Cloud Cutter, waiting to see what combat abilities their squad-mates would demonstrate.
The two griffons nodded to each other, eager to show what they could do. Gustus had been giving Grenelda a crash-course in wing-blade usage; harder to use than claws to be sure, but with greater reach and cutting power. Reef's blades were a little long for her, but the gleaming metal still looked deadly strapped to her phalanges.
The tiercel strode forward, bobbing his head to the others. "For a griffon, fighting is as simple as unleashing that predatory instinct deep down inside..." Head cocked, he sized the training dummy up, marking it as his foe: feathers flaring up, leaning forward, legs tense, talons beckoning... Muscles tensed like a coiled spring, he leapt forward in an impressive burst of speed, tackling hard into the dummy. Talons razed through the wood while his sharp beak gouged and tore into it. The eagle-lion's weight pulled the support pole clear out of the crack, bearing the dummy down to the ground.
The griffon puffed proudly as he backed off: "Time your strike properly, connect with both claws, eheh, and your foe's done for." He shoved the pole back into the ground for his mate to take a turn.
Grenelda lined up, wings spread as she too sized up the dummy. Of course she could bring down prey as easily as Gustus, if not moreso... but today it was time for something different. "Now then... I'm finally ready to try out these babies - thank you for the generous loan, Reef! Claw and beak are one thing, but flourish a bit of steel as well - they'll think twice before they lay a claw on my crewmates!" she cackled.
A confident puff of her neck down and click of her beak, then she too was springing into the air, wings coming down in heavy beats as the hen climbed above the quarry and then banked hard, circling around into a power dive. The griffon was a blur as she swooped past the dummy, one wing flexed to slash the blade through it - just as Gustus had shown her. Dust and splinters were blown everywhere in her wake, as she gracefully corkscrewed around and came in to land. Grenelda's beak hung open in a grin; now she could create carnage without even landing. "...Damn, I should have tried this sooner," she chortled.
"Good show Grenelda! Took me months of practice to do that." Reef Skimmer shouted, "And, erm, you were fine too Gustus." A brief pause, then he stepped forward and stared around at the onlookers, looking embarrassed. A sigh before he let his body expand into that strange mutated form, his legs and tail becoming bunches of blue tentacles, while his head, torso and abdomen all slid apart, connected by more of the same. He raised one tentacle and released a blast of water, soaking the dummy and rocking it back on its stick. Then he charged forward and awkwardly pounced it, stopping a little short to avoid crushing it entirely.
Realising how lame this had looked, the big griff snorted and began to change, expanding and fusing back together until an enormous grey bird occupied the centre of the quarry, nearly as large as their commandeered drow copter. Torrents of pressurised water blasted downward as Reef rocketed up into the sky; rain splattered down as he banked around in a wide loop, taking aim at a dilapidated storage shed on the edge of the pit. With an ear-splitting screech the roc dropped out of the sky, arresting his descent at the last possible moment with a massive blast of water that smashed into the rotten structure. The shed exploded into a cloud of spray and flying splinters, leaving a tentacle-legged grey roc standing in a small, muddy pond. Reef looked exultant for a moment, before sheepishly reverting to his default form and loping back over to the others.
"That was awesome!" called out the little kirin over by the cart.
Grenelda cackled again, seeing Reef's frustrated yet total destruction of the aged shed. "Hey, don't look so down about it! You can destroy now. You hardly need those wing blades on you when you can hit like a tidal wave of acid!"
"Oh, one can't create acid, as such." Reef told the hen, sounding distracted. "One can, erm, dissolve matter, it seems, but strictly on contact. I suppose that might be useful if we run into another of those big stone-plated brutes; you know, the species that tried to eat Azure and Summer. In any case, wing blades do benefit from a certain grace, one that you possess in far greater quantity than I." The griff dipped his head in respect, drawing a fresh smile from Grenelda and conflicted looks from Set Sail and Gustus.
"Yeah... so, anypony want to finish this poor thing off?" the pegasus asked, looking at the torn, crushed and now waterlogged training dummy.
Azure nodded gently, smiling at the show the three griffs had put on. Grenelda was one of their best fighters to be sure, and Gustus no slouch either, though the hen was showing true potential now with those new weapons.
Clashing Gale was far more interested in the doctor's performance: he shivered as he watched the hippogriff's body transform, revealing the unnatural blue gel within. This land's magic was still new and unsettling to him - Reef's tentacles seemed particularly bizarre, though he would never say it to Reef's face. The... frankly sub-par initial attack didn't impress, but what followed was a different story. Having a big, mutant griffon clumsily pouncing was one thing. Having an elephant-sized angry raptor screaming toward you while blasting literal tonnes of water into your face? Now that was something else. The bat-pony simply stared at the shed's wreckage for several seconds before turning to Azure Feather, a stunned look on his face. "Tell me your Air element tricks doesn't involve anything like that," he muttered.
"Long story short?" she whispered back. "Take your whole squad of storm-piercer ponies, combine their weather powers into one pegasus, make the workings faster... I think that would be a fair description." Clashing could only shake his head in reply.
Seeing the winged folk whispering sweet nothings to each other instead of taking action, Blaze Trails felt it was time to step up. She cantered around the quarry in an easy lope, bounding between ledges and pillars and intermittently skidding to a stop to hide silently behind one of the huge blocks. Twice she somehow reappeared from behind an entirely different block, causing several onlookers to question their belief that only unicorns could teleport.
"Just a littl' misdirection!" she called out, chuckling before bounding over to the dummy. Her mouth went to a scabbard at her side - the smaller of the two strapped there - and emerged with a wicked-looking curved knife. Two quick passes drew long slashes down the flanks of the dummy, then with a final flourish Blaze wheeled about and bucked the dummy's head clean off, to sail in a long arc over to the wall of the quarry. "Yeah that maulwurf ain't gonna bother nopony again!" she called out happily.
Gustus's crest fell as he sees Blaze Trails' apparent teleportation trick. He tilts his head left and right as though trying to find the hidden mirrors and wires, but remains distraught. "Goodness, now there's a feat I'd love to pull off, eheh, maybe then I'd be fit for the front lines..."
"Nice job, Blaze!" Set Sail said happily, trotted into the centre. "Nice job, everyp—everyone! One sec." Seeing the dummy reduced to a handful of twigs clinging to the support stick, she bit down, uprooted it and tossed the remains away. Nutmeg disappeared into the cart again and pulled out another woven dummy, prancing over to hammer it into the crack. "Who's next?" the brown-and-blue mare asked, looking around, "Azure? Clashing?"
Clashing Gale just shook his head slowly. "Sorry, Captain, but I'm afraid I don't have anything to show any... creature here. Ugh... if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take my leave, something doesn't feel quite right..." He shuddered, then turned and trotted out of the quarry, slipping into the undergrowth before anypony could object. There was something he needed - and he didn't want any creature to see him getting it.
Azure Feather was left standing next to... she looked expectantly at Cloud Cutter, but the purple mare just stared into the jungle where Clashing had disappeared. Azure sighed: "Guess I've got to show what I can do, then." She nodded firmly and stepped forward, eyeing the pristine training dummy. "Thanks for giving me a fully-intact target, Captain... too bad it won't stay that way for long."
The blue pegasus spread her wings and began with a familiar trick, but with a twist: her wings glowed an odd shade of green, making three quick slicing motions that created a flurry of three wing blades. As they sliced into the dummy Azure leapt upwards, floating on motionless wings as if riding a sudden air current. The dummy was an easy target; she needed something sturdier, turning her attention to the cart-sized granite blocks scattered around the quarry. A few more flaps and she'd conjured a cyclone, a twisting funnel of air strong enough to shove a pair of blocks backwards. The sound of grinding stone was barely audible over the howling wind as they slid several metres.
Azure let the wind die - now it was time for something genuinely impressive. She flapped with a steady rhythm, concentrating as she forced moisture out of the air. Despite the clear sky, the quarry was suddenly covered in low-lying cloud, which quickly charged with energy. Azure thought back to the air temple - all she needed to do was gather the charge, lead it down to her target like so... A bolt of lightning crashed down, lighting up the quarry as thousands of amps flowed through the stone. White-hot sparks flew from the impact, then the block broke apart under the stress, collapsing into rubble.
The clouds dissolved away as fast as they'd appeared. "...I've a few more tricks, but for the sake of the scenery... I'll leave it there," Azure said calmly. "I expect to treat those pirates to my full repertoire."
Grenelda and Gustus look increasingly excited (and gobsmacked, respectively) as Azure Feather ramped up her combat demonstration, until finally a lightning bolt strong enough to obliterate stone strikes down from the heavens, leaving them both shocked (in the figurative sense). "Daaamn. You can do that now?" Gustus exclaimed.
"That is some serious voltage!" Grenelda crowed.
"That was stupendously awesome!" called a kirin way back in the peanut gallery, looking up much more excitedly, "You are SO good with the Air Element!"
"Bravo!" Reef called out. "What a show. Although... one can only assume that last trick only works outdoors?"
Gliding down to land by the group, Azure Feather seemed at least pleased with herself, bowing her head before replying. "Learned from the best, Nutmeg, Grenelda... really appreciated, thank you." Then a smile and nod to the hippogriff: "I would say so, Doctor - I need good-sized clouds to pull the charge from, for now at least."
Set Sail just stared in horror, wings outspread, not even seeing the halves of stone fall apart as she focused on the pegasus at her work. Finally tearing her eyes away, she muttered to herself under her foreleg. Finally she forced herself to put it down and look up at Azure with a fixed smile, saying: "Good... job, Azure! I guess a plain old... training dummy isn't enough for you. You'll... get those pirates, for sure!"
Azure looked concerned as she turned to face the captain. "I can hope so... those pirates, the drow... I get the feeling we haven't seen all of their tricks yet. If Sunburn's words are true, of which I have no doubt... I'll need those tricks. Especially that one trick I didn't use. One can only hope they'll be enough." With that she retreated to her previous spot, ready for the next squad-mate to show their own tricks.
"Thank you Azure, I... um..." Set Sail gave another very awkward smile until Azure gave up on trying to get a response from the poor mare.
Cloud Cutter had taken note of the lighting, to be sure, but was still looking worriedly after Clashing Gale. Or at least looking - she didn't really do 'worried' anymore. Realising that it was her turn, she said flatly: "I'm like Clashing. I don't have much I can do."
"Oh, go ahead, do what you can then!" Set Sail told her, glad for the distraction from... that, "This isn't a contest. I want to know what's stopping you, so we can work on it." With a wince she added, "Err... and I know the thing you do won't..."
Cloud Cutter seemed to just stare at the dummy for a few seconds, though creatures in the know would notice her shadow detaching and zipping over there. The pegasus appeared right next to her target in a purple flash, then a second and subtly different flash burst out of her - a small one this time. "It's dead," she said flatly.
"Can't you use your wing blades to...?" Set Sail asked, looking over at the purple pegasus.
Unfurling her wing, and hooking a foreleg around the dummy's middle, while wrapping her wing around its neck, blade pressed to it, Cloud Cutter said, "I might be able to take a hostage. But as Grenelda demonstrated, wing blades are designed to be used most effectively at high speeds. I won't be destroying any dummies like this."
"I see..." Set Sail said, rubbing a hoof on her chin. "Well, it's okay," she looked up happily, "That's exactly what we want to know. I want to see everypony else before we start working on it though."
"Everypony else?" Cloud Cutter asked in confusion, "Like whom?"
"Like me!" Set Sail declared hotly, "I'm going on the expedition too, y'know!"
Azure nodded, saying brightly: "Sounds good, Captain! Let's see what the leader can do!" Set Sail... Azure hadn't seen her in battle. Could it be that the Captain was an accomplished fighter herself and she'd just mistakenly judged a book by its cover? Reef Skimmer also watched the captain closely, beak open in what he hoped was an encouraging smile.
Set Sail smiled bashfully at Azure’s praise, saying, “Alright, so I don’t have any special Element abilities or anything like Reef and... Azure. But I did want to show off this axe I... found. It’s heavier than a sword, but uh, I’ve been trying out a few ideas.” With no further ado, the mare stuck her nose under her brown wing, pulling out her purloined battle axe from an improvised sheath on her flank. Set Sail looked at the dummy thoughtfully, axe in mouth. Then her wings spread and she charged at it.
Leaping at the last second, her wings buffeted the thing in the wind of their beating, as she took the axe in her foreleg mid-leap and spun, sinking it deeply into the dummy with all her weight and momentum, landing hard. The dummy sagged under her attack, while Set Sail bit the handle, tearing it out of the dummy with bits of grass pouring out the side, Set Sail used that momentum to swing it around and sink the axe into the other side of the dummy. Then biting the handle again, the axe was torn from the dummy when Set Sail shot vertically up into the air in one powerful flap of her wings. She soared around in a circle, until with the axe cradled in both her forelegs, she accelerated forward in a steep dive.
It seemed like a collision course, until Set Sail turned her entire body sideways, holding the axe before her and even bracing a hind leg on its heft, the moment it cleaved through the dummy like butter. The training dummy exploded in a spray of twigs, sending its upper half spiralling into the air. Already far beyond it, Set Sail frantically back-winged in a total fluster, losing her forward momentum and stumbling her hooves to a halt behind it.
Dropping the axe, she charged back saying, “Oh, sorry! I didn’t think it would...” With tiny little shallow beats of her wings, the blue and brown mare corralled the sharp bits of straw and dust into a cloud around the dummy, until it settled into a neat pile around the cracked base. “Uh...” Set Sail said, looking back with a blush, “Next dummy, Nutmeg?”
The sudden and final destruction of the training dummy is like a release of tension for Grenelda, watching avidly and chortling with such bloodlust and delight. "Set Sail, that was brutal, I loved it! You really rock that thing! Whew, I'm just imagining it splitting drow heads and I'm in heaven!"
Azure couldn't help but smile. For a pegasus without horn magic or earth pony strength, wielding an axe like that was no easy thing - yet the Captain showed she's got solid fighting ability! "Looking really good there, Captain!"
"Indeed, excellent technique there Sails." Reef said warmly. "Demonstrating that pegasi have a finer grasp of mass-momentum adjustment than griffs, more than makes up for the higher wing loading I'd say."
“I just figured if I went fast, the axe would hit harder,” Set Sail said, giving Reef a puzzled look. “You don't need fancy mass-momentum magic or whatever, just to take advantage of all this...” she waved a hoof vaguely around, "...space to breathe. Didn't think it would go all the way through though. Hope I didn't damage my axe!" As the captain trotted over to fuss worriedly over her weapon, Nutmeg headed up with another training dummy balanced on her back.
"Oh but you see pegasi fly by... erm... you know, never mind." Reef said, frowning. "So, just Nutmeg and Crashing Gale... hmmm, where did that fellow get to?" He looked around the quarry to no avail. "Stepped out to relieve himself, perhaps?"
Gustus shrugged his wings; "Well, err, he did have a bit of a look in his eyes when he hurriedly excused himself. Hungry, maybe...?"
"He said something didn't feel quite right," Cloud Cutter reported, "And then took his leave. I hope he's okay."
"Indeed. One imagines he can handle himself, but... what if there's another of those chompy-spawning monstrosities about?" Reef said. "Perhaps we could practice search-and-rescue... oh, erm, after your turn of course, Nutmeg."
Finished affixing the new dummy in place, Nutmeg looked Reef's way saying, "Oh, me? No I can strike creatures with my wrench, but I am more of a support class than anything. Just like how the griffons were ineffective against the dummy, but against innumerable smaller foes they'd tear through them like a wood chipper. My strength is in um..." The kirin hurried over to her cart and began to rifle through it.
Grenelda huffed at being called 'ineffective', then eyed the kirin warily as she approached bearing a peculiar apparatus. It looked like a long pipe, attached to an assembly of gears and a container full of pebbles. “Grenelda, could you try this on?” Nutmeg said - the bulky thing clearly did have a harness at the centre of it. “Don’t worry I’ve tested it, but I think you’ll like it best.”
"Hmm, you aren't going to, erm... catch fire?" Reef wondered. "Not even a little bit? I mean, the way you lit that campfire at the lake, surely if you did that while bucking an opponent..." he suggested.
Grenelda raised an eyebrow, still trying to figure out if she'd been slighted or not. But sure, fine, she decided: it's true enough that she's most effective against flesh, and nothing to be embarrassed about when it's one's calling. "Oh? Err, sure. What is it exactly?" She slips limb after limb through the contraption, looking quizzical, standing there as though awaiting further orders.
Nutmeg fish-mouthed at Reef for a moment, then said nervously, "Uh well that... only happens when I... lose my temper, and it's... not very... um..." At Grenelda's query, Nutmeg turned to her in relief, saying, "Oh it's a matter accelerator using a bit of fire crystal to accelerate a flywheel since the Skylanders didn't have any energy cells to spare. The flywheel is half the weight of course, dimensionally rotated for safety. But um... just point that barrel in the direction of the dummy, and pull... this trigger." Her cloven hoof pointed at a handle with a trigger, which Grenelda could pretty easily grab in her claw.
Azure stayed quiet as the contraption was strapped onto the griffon's back. 'It's a rock thrower,' she thought. 'Nothing to it... right?'
"It's a what now?" Grenelda tilts her head, patiently listening. "Point the barrel and pull the trigger? Oh, a fancy techy crossbow kinda thing. Okay, let's try it out!" She was curious to see it in action, wasting no time in lining up on the dummy then grabbing and squeezing the trigger. A snap-flash of fire crystal energy flaring, the whirr of the flywheel spinning up, then a chunk of metal was accelerated out the barrel with a thump, leaving a wisp of smoke behind as it hurtled towards the target dummy and... snap. The dummy shattered, the shell tearing through and hurtling onward to embeds itself in the opposite side of the quarry.
Even as she recovered from the sudden shove of recoil, Grenelda's beak was gaping open! "Hooh, damn, Nutmeg!" As if contaminated by the source of its acceleration, the shell had left a crimson red trail of energy lingering in the air, especially around the shattered remnants of the dummy.
Azure seemed more confused than anything by the display... but from past experience with griffon crossbows she knew that sending something sharp and dense flying that fast into a target would do serious damage. Blaze Trails was a lot more vocal, whistling and saying, "That's one mighty impressive slingshot you're toting there Grenelda! Heh, not sure you'd wanna let loose with that thing while you're flapping about - might send ya tumblin'," she chuckled.
"Oh, that's the best part," Nutmeg said eagerly, "I had this cool idea, why not use a flywheel like a gyroscope? So as long as it's charged, all it'll do is push you backwards, if you're flying in the air, correcting for any spin! I was trying to make something that could be fired while flying, so that you could stay at a distance, and have an easier time aiming. Static Signal tested the pony model, and it worked great!"
"Ingenious." Reef murmured, not quite getting the mechanics of it but assuming it had something to do with precession.
Grenelda looked sceptical, but Nutmeg knew her stuff, so finally she admitted, "Damn, I need to try that, if I can borrow your accelerator a little longer?"
"It's yours, far as I'm concerned," Nutmeg said, swaying on her hooves unsurely, "I haven't figured out how to keep it from running out though, but I'll set up some kind of charging station. If it stops uhm... shooting and you can't get back to me, just drop it. It's not any more sophisticated than troll tech riflery, I just had to make it weird because of we don't have the chemicals for cordite. So it won't give our enemies any forbidden technological secrets or anything."
"Alright, that's... that's a lot better. I probably missed... well, everything..." It was Clashing Gale, who'd rejoined the group when nopony was looking. He smiled weakly as he looked around at the destruction: scattered grass and twigs, the shattered stone block, remnants of red energy... "Yup. Everything."
Set Sail was happy to see the bat pony return - safe and sound of course, no doubt he could take care of himself. Though that did remind her... "Nutmeg, do you think you could... alter Cloud Cutter's wing blades, to work on the edges of Clashing Gale's wings?" she asked, trotting over to the kirin.
Cloud Cutter's ears went down at that, but Set Sail assured her, "We'll find something for you. There's no need to have those on you, if they don't work with your abilities at all."
"I hate my abilities," Cloud Cutter said evenly, "But you're right. They were expensive, but... I suppose I can't be a privileged little rich filly anymore. They're not heirlooms or anything. I can probably show Clashing what little I know of how to use them."
"Sure, I sort of made a little forge to shape all this metal anyway," Nutmeg said, with an uneasy look between Set Sail and Cloud Cutter, "Depends on its composition, but... yeah basically."
"One is happy to assist, of course," Reef said stuffily. "In fact I believe I have the Royal Navy Wing-Sword Duelling Manual stowed in a locker back on the ship. Likely under my sea urchin collection," he mused.
Clashing looked a little sad to be take an ally's weapons away, but if they were truly no longer useful for Cloud Cutter... the decision was clear. "They'll- they'll be of good use, Cloud Cutter... I'm sorry." He sighed; she'd been on the Storm Piercer team from the beginning, and he hated to see one of his ponies so down.
And so the training continued. Set Sail managed to destroy another dummy with her other trick: flying around it quickly, delivering a tiny little cyclone of kicks from all directions. Nothing martial or calculated about it: it was just how she learned to fight as a foal on the docks, mostly facing earth ponies. When her final buck broke the dummy off at the base, it went spiralling upwards in the updraft - the pegasus squeaked in alarm, flapping up there to grab it before it could land on somepony's head. She then reassured everyone (or in truth, herself) that there was at least one more dummy apiece for all of them, and they could totally destroy it if they wanted to.
Blaze Trails was sure most of their problems stemmed from wandering about in the open, without a care as to who or what saw them coming. If they could just be a bit more discreet, why, it would be easy to avoid trouble. To that end she took two creatures at a time into the woods and told them to get as close to the quarry as they could before they were spotted by the others. Scores varied wildly, to say the least. Reef was spotted almost immediately, with Nutmeg not doing much better despite her considerable size advantage.
Gustus did better, matching Set Sail's progress, though Grenelda still chided him on his lack of stalking technique, saying she'd never have taken him on a job, back in the day. Clashing did quite well, almost keeping up with the griffon hen despite lack of training. Blaze herself was the best of course, save for... Reef found himself squawking in alarm again as Cloud Cutter had somehow made it all the way behind him before the inevitable 'boo'. Unfortunately she was unable to explain her technique, but Blaze Trails was happy to, giving everycreature a few pointers as they each had a few more tries.
Then Grenelda gathered them for an impromptu lesson on the basics of hunting wild game. Ponies, being the not-exactly-bloodthirsty creatures that they were, didn't have the knack for where to strike exactly - so Grenelda demonstrated using Gustus as a (stammering, but compliant enough) dummy. You went for the eyes and jugular, she explained, diving out of the sun so the opponent would be blinded if they tried to watch your approach, slamming hard enough that the head gets whiplash, and how to sink in your claws ('or weapons', she corrected) such that you're on top with the momentum advantage and your opponent's pinned in place.
One by one everyone was encouraged to feign opening blow attempts against her, Grenelda proudly giving feedback, or counter-pinning anypony who wasn't sufficiently bold and brave with their initial attack. Then Set Sail took her best shot at improving the griffon's speed-based power attacks, but they didn't make a lot of progress in that regard, especially with their larger wingspan making quick turns and rolls more difficult. She... tried to show Azure, but suddenly had to rest due to a mysterious headache, which somehow made her ears drop guiltily.
Cloud Cutter told Clashing the basics about wing blades at least, reassuring him that she'd hardly miss them. She was more worried about killing things by feeling weird, than mundane changes in her life. Nutmeg showed Grenelda more about how to shoot and aim the improvised backpack-rifle, and even managed to get some of the others to try her contraptions. The armour plates made of something she called 'spider tricks' even managed to resist the rifle shot, though the dummy was still knocked back by the force of the ricochet. The kirin had to explain the concept behind a signal flare, but it was pretty obvious after she fired one up and it burned with a bright red light as it drifted back slowly down.
Azure took the chance to teach the standard and less standard combat terms used by the Royal Guard. In the heat of battle you had to get your point across in two words rather than ten - and the less ambiguity the better. This was an area where being a bookworm actually helped. Even Reef Skimmer benefited from the lesson - while he knew the basic principles, terminology in the hippogriff navy was quite different from the pony royal guard.
When they took a break to relax and dig into the snacks, Reef seized the opportunity to lecture them on formations and manoeuvres. He began with simple concepts such as feints and flanking, grabbing clawfuls of rocks and laying them out to represent opposing forces. Then things progressed into mutual support, wedges, covering fire, enfilade and ways to combine air and ground forces. Things got steadily more abstract as he worked through pike phalanxes and flight formations. Eventually Set Sail had to point out that perhaps the details of 100-ship naval battles and logistic trains supporting armies of thousands of griffs might not be relevant to their current situation. The hippogriff conceded the point - after all, the sandwiches were now all consumed - and concluded his lecture.
Blue Type shivered; their little space on the tween deck felt empty, bereft of Summer Scribe's endless cheer and enthusiasm. Not that she was alone: the strange little ape-creature had been chattering away for hours now. With her green skin and pointed ears, the spindly drow might have been a child of Abernathy's species, except that her ears were even longer and her nose much flatter.
Silent Arrow had been with them for a couple of weeks now, and the drow had been looking for ways to help the ponies the whole time. Always in return for something though - better food, information about Equestria, walks in the meadow - and several times she'd been caught sneaking away to rifle through the chart room or spy on the engineers. Not enough to merit punishment, but the crew was still wary enough to keep her guarded at all times. Blue Type was grateful of the presence of Crimson Skies, both in case their prisoner decided to take her hostage, and because the pegasus stallion was a real charmer.
They'd been going through the bundles of documents recovered from the MagiBubble factory again, this time looking for any information on Fellis, the island of sphinxes and assorted felines where Summer was trapped. Silent Arrow clearly lacked any sort of formal education, but Blue Type was grateful for the few facts she could provide, as the documents were two centuries out of date and confirmed little other than that the city on Fellis once imported a lot of magical soda.
“Oh, hey there, captain!” said the informal guard: a blue pegasus stallion with a shock of red hair on his head and butt.
The chocolate-brown pegasus mare paced in on four sturdy hooves, saying “Hey there, Crimson. Am I interrupting anything?” Following after came the tall grey-feathered shape of the airship's doctor: the hippogriff Reef Skimmer.
Blue Type and the elf-like creature (that certainly was not an elf) sat at a table covered in mysterious scrolls (that were mostly just sales figures). The former lay on her belly with lavender hooves folded neatly beneath her, while the other perched on a step stool, the closest thing ponies had on hoof to an actual stool.
"Oh, Set Sail!" Blue Type said brightly. "I heard you and the others spent the whole day training, so you can rescue Summer tomorrow!"
“I'll be honest with you Blue Type, it would be an absolute disaster if we rescued her tomorrow,” ostensibly captain Set Sail said glumly, “A last minute, last ditch effort after everything else has failed, the whole island is after us, and we have no choice but to make enemies out of them all. I know it’s Summer Scribe so that’s probably exactly what’s going to happen, but what we’re trying to do is check on her, to make sure she’s safe and aware that we’re working on getting her out of there."
She sighed. "We will get her out of there, but I hope it won’t have to be tomorrow. What we need from the next trip is enough know-how about that island to travel around without getting chased off soon as we touch ground. Apologise to the creatures there for a lot of stuff that... well, mostly stuff Summer has done.”
Looking down, the blue-and-lavender earth mare said forlornly, "I wish I could do more to help. All we really know is that there used to be a sizable town there, with air docks and wholesalers. The Abyssinians... or Fellisians, as they're called here, were apparently quite loyal customers. Oh and also the 'molekin', another species we haven't encountered yet."
"Miners like the sharks, but timid, heh." Silent Arrow explained. "Hide in their holes at the first sign of trouble!" she jeered, before catching herself and adding "s-so I heard, uh. Yeah." Nervously glancing at the pony chieftess and the weird griffon following behind, she bit her lip and ventured "So, uh, you ponies got the attention of some sphinxes, huh? That's bad luck, that is."
With a surprised laugh, Set Sail said, “Oh come on, they’re just a bunch of dusty old sphinxes. What bad luck could they possibly bring on us?”
"You kiddin'?" Silent Arrow said in shock. "Sphinxes are full of secrets, ancient nasty secrets, each of 'em knows fifteen ways to curse a creature with as much as a look! Tough as griffons and canny as witches, know everything you did and everything you're gonna do, that's what my, uh, that's what... I heard."
"Curses?" Blue Type said nervously. "Is that what happened to Summer, she fell under a curse? Oh... I do hope you're right Set Sail, that you can make them see reason. If they're interested in history and magical theory, surely we could have a fruitful academic exchange?"
“There was a sphinx where we come from, centuries ago,” Set Sail said, gazing off, “Said to be the size of a house, with the power to take away a pegasus's flight, brought a whole nation to their bellies. The story goes that even with all that power, the sphinx was beaten just by answering her riddle.” She looked back at her concerned companion, saying, “From what Reef here said, the sphinxes on Fellis are... smaller than that, and seem like they could be decent people.”
Looking to Blue Type, the captain said with a regretful smile, “What happened to Summer was no more than a terrible accident. I don’t know how liable sphinxes are to curse a pony, but in this case, the only thing they did was warn her.”
Turning back to the drow, Set Sail concluded: “Anyway, if sphinxes are tough and canny as all that, seems like they’d be better to have as allies than enemies. Who uh... who was it that taught you about them, if I might ask?”
The drow looked away as she mumbled "Just some old sister." Then with a forced smile she told the pegasus: "Stories we tell 'round the fire, you know? Things that keep you alive... most of the time."
"Indeed, she regaled Azure and myself with quite a few tales," Reef Skimmer spoke up, staring intently at the drow. "Hard to say what's fact and what's fiction, though what once seemed fanciful must now be taken seriously, given the things we've seen here. Even chimeras of drow and spider, it seems."
Silent Arrow's eyes went wide. "Spi- Spidrow? You've seen the Blessed? What were, uh... so how did that go." she asked, failing to hide her curiosity.
"Could have gone better." Reef Skimmer said with uncharacteristic brevity, eyeing at Set Sail to see how the captain wanted to play this.
“Stories are valuable for keeping you alive it’s true,” Set Sail continued to tell the drow, disregarding Reef’s comment for now, “They also show that someone cares about you enough to tell you them. I didn’t have any sisters, just two brothers, but my grandma had some tales... well that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I know a... little bit about pirates, and the creatures we’ve spoken with say your people have been pirates for a... very long time.”
"Pirates? We're free drow!" Silent retorted. "We're not conscripts like the rest, we don't serve and die at the whim of some self-styled overlord who don't even know our names!" The little biped bit her lip again, looking around at the equine faces (and one large beak). "I-I mean sure, yeah we're pirates, the best pirates you know, storied and successful and feared by all," she said, almost convincingly.
“That's just what my great-grandma said, and she was right,” Set Sail replied, “She became a pirate when some bad ponies had taken power, and breaking the law was her way of fighting back. Her crew had a lot of support at first, but they were pirates too long, too afraid to stop. Once her pirates destroyed all the evil traders, there was no more support, no more easy targets."
"They started losing ponies, and ships... and my grandma was born a pirate. She didn’t know how to farm, or build ships, or fish, or anything like that. Eventually the pirates threw their own leaders overboard and gave themselves up, because it was all they could do."
"I told you this story, because we’re going to let you go. As freely as we can risk. But I don’t think you should go back to your clan. You’re already out of easy targets, you’re already losing ships and... drow. We’ve met some creatures who are very mad with your clan, and it might not be safe there pretty soon. I’d like to reach a peaceful solution, but... I’m not gonna let you wipe us out."
"The deal is, I need your help. You might’ve noticed we’re walking around on all fours and different colors... too easy to mistake us for the sphinxes those 'Blessed' you speak of are fighting. You look like they do though, from the waist forward at least, and they might not see you as a threat. I’ll let you go free as a bird, if you deliver a gift to them, a peace offering I guess. I’d do it myself but..."
Spreading her brown wings, Set Sail struck a pose, concluding, “Rarr, evil sphinx. Y’know? So is that a bad idea? I’m not gonna send you to your death. Do you think the spidrow might shelter you until this all blows over?”
A long silence as everyone present absorbed what the pegasus had said. Finally Silent Arrow piped up: "I saw you talking with those dragons. You think we can't handle a dragon or two?" She straightened her shoulders and raised her head in a gesture of defiance, but her voice was more uncertain than ever. "Spidrow... I got no magic so I guess they won't stick me in a cocoon, but... probably never see sky again, after they put me to work. Unless they got a copter and no pilots," the little drow said sadly. The only time the strange creature had seemed genuinely happy was when she'd spoken of flying the Wyvern's Sting, before it became the Second Chance.
"What d'ya want with them anyway, sending a bribe- uh, 'gift' like that?" The drow's eyes lit up as the pieces fell into place "Oh, you wanna hire them, don't you? Think they'll be mercs, help you take down the sphinxes maybe? Sure, I can be your, uh, agent." Silent Arrow seemed to be warming to the idea. "You gotta make the right offer though, I ain't going up to a band of Blessed with a- a bag of oats or something like that, they'd... uh, they'd get real angry."
Set Sail opened her mouth to reply, about to call the whole thing off, but Reef Skimmer broke in first. "Cocoon?" he asked, unable to contain his curiosity. "Why would they cocoon mages, specifically?" The notion put him in mind of the pods changelings used to place creatures in, before their reformation.
"Oh, uh, guess you never heard 'bout the Blessed then." Silent said, glancing warily at the big hippogriff. "Don't you even know the legend of the Chaos Mother?"
"No, but it sounds fascinating!" Blue Type said eagerly, picking up her quill in her mouth. "Plees du continu!"
The drow rocked back on her stool, thinking back to the traditions that had been drilled into her when she was a girl. "Uh, well, she was the matriarch of the dark legions, long long time ago, before the Lord of Chaos or the breaking of the sky. They said she tried everything to take down the Skylanders, 'specially doing stuff to her minions... changing 'em, trying to make 'em stronger. Make us stronger, I guess. That's where goliaths came from - her magic, still in our veins, passed down the years. Did stuff to the trolls and the 'clops as well, and made pets of monsters too fierce and too many to recall."
Seeing the scholar pony lapping this up, the drow paused and asked "So you're gonna show me round the engine room right? Officially, like." She'd barely gotten a look at the strange devices the ponies were building before a particularly paranoid brown stallion caught her sneaking.
"Oh of course, of course!" Blue Type nodded eagerly, too engrossed in the tale to even look to the captain for confirmation.
"Uh, great! So yeah the Chaos Mother made all kinds of creatures but the Blessed were the best of 'em. 'Cause drow make great witches, great warriors, but we, uh, kinda run outta juice pretty quick? But the Mother knew of a kind of spider that fed on all kinds of Elemental power, soaked it up and stored it in their fat spider butts, heh. So she thought, join them up with drow and you got power and finesse, you got unstoppable fighters!" Silent enthused. "But... only so long as they got Elements to feed on. Without that, they just wither and die. And... I think that stuff's a lot harder to find now, than in the olden days."
“Huh, that explains a lot about our trouble with them,” Set Sail said, folding her wings and pondering. “Oh well, it was worth a shot. If I need anything else from you Miss Arrow, I’ll let you know, but I suppose for now we’re gonna have to be the ones putting you to work. I’ll talk to Nutmeg about seeing if you can help out in the engine room. And... Reef,” she turned to her strange hippogriff friend, saying solemnly, “...you had no way of knowing.”
Heading out of the room, the brown pegasus turned and said, “Oh uh, go ahead doing what you were doing, you two. One of the engineers’ll let you know when they’re ready for you.”
"Wait, uh, Captain!" Silent Arrow shouted, jumping to her feet. "What- What's gonna happen? To my clan? You gonna swoop in with those dragons, try an' take the Hand? 'Cause dragons or no, we- they ain't going down without a fight!"
"What's gonna happen is they're going to stop being pirates, one way or the other!" Set Sail called out over her shoulder, "All I know is I'll do whatever it takes to keep my little ponies safe." And then she's gone.
Reef Skimmer watched the captain go, face unreadable (at least to the ponies) as ever. Then the hippogriff dipped his head down to Crimson Skies' ear and whispered "My dear fellow, would you mind keeping an eye on the Captain? One imagines she'll be off to the clouds again, and... erm, perhaps you could just... follow behind and make sure she stays safe? Alas one finds oneself the proverbial minotaur in the crockery shop."
"Well I would, if you can keep an eye on the little miss here," the red and blue pegasus said, indicating where Blue Type and Silent Arrow were sitting, "But Set Sail does this sort of thing now and then, you might not know. I can understand if she needs some time alone to let off some steam."
"Oh I can imagine, but you must understand, the Captain is under unprecedented stress just now. One has reason to believe she might..." Reef snorted in frustration. "Look, could you just make sure she doesn't fall off the cloud? Worry not, I'll take custody of our guest here."
"Can do, but don't doubt her too much," he said with a salute, She's a lot stronger than she puts on." Heading to the top deck and spreading his wings, Crimson leapt up into the sky, because of course that's where Set Sail had gone.
The weather had taken a turn towards cold and damp; fog lay low over Blissful Pastures along with intermittent drizzle: just enough to make their coats damp. Five ponies made their way out from the great airship tethered to the island edge, heading through the meadow camp to the copter parked just beyond. Two of them had been to the island of felines before: Blaze Trails, the green earth pony guide and explorer, and Azure Feather, the recently-turned-pegasus royal guard and master of elemental Air.
Two ponies with deep purple fur and manes followed: bat-winged Clashing Gale and feather-winged Cloud Cutter, ready to infiltrate the lair of the sphinxes in search of their missing crew member, Summer Scribe. The final pony was their reluctant leader, Set Sail, who was flanked by the big grey-and-pink hippogriff Reef Skimmer. The team was assembled, their gear stowed, yet one creature was missing: the kirin engineer Nutmeg Inferno, along with the thermal crystals that drove the Second Chance's boilers.
"Alright, everypony, we've got too much to do today, and not a lot of time to do it," Set Sail said. The pegasus strode to the head of the group, axe sheathed at her side. "So I see everyone's here except Nutmeg. She was coming with us, right?"
"Indeed and it seems she did find time to install that winch," Reef Skimmer said. "Strange she isn't eager to test it... ah, but as I recall the mare does like to sleep in."
"Of all the days one could take to do that, she picks today?" Clashing Gale protested. "When we're already late for a challenging mission?" He shook his head, muttering "It is what it is, I guess..."
Cloud Cutter just nodded quietly to the captain, her face remaining expressionless. "Hmm. Perhaps you should go fetch her?" she suggested.
"Sure, I'll go see if she's in her bunk," Set Sail said, "Anypony else want to check around for her? Could uh, maybe Azure could check the engine room, and Cloud Cutter could check that funny cannon Nutmeg's crew have been installing on the stern? I wanna get out of here pronto."
Another nod from the spooky pegasus: the next time anypony looked her way, there was no trace of Cloud Cutter. Azure nodded in turn and headed off as ordered. The stoic guard kept it to herself, but she too was irritated: why would some creature start ignoring orders? Nutmeg knew they had a lot to do, right?
The task seemed to be in claw, so Reef Skimmer lay down on the deck of the copter and began to relate the previous night's findings to Clashing and Blaze. "You know that drow we've been keeping captive on that ship?" he began, "Talkative little slip of a thing. The captain and I were asking her about the spidrow, and it turns out..."
Nutmeg wasn't the only creature in the engine room, but the other techs were happy to point Azure over to a workbench in the back. The red-ruffed kirin was reared up on it, tinkering with some sort of boxy device. There was a distant, thoughtful expression on her brown-furred, golden-scaled face.
A quiet sigh came from Azure as she spotted her target working on another gadget. Of all places... and of all days. "...Last minute preparations, Nutmeg?" she asked calmly. No need to dress ponies down for being late when they might have a good reason, right?
Nutmeg's screwdriver went clattering out of her strange, two-toed hoof the moment Azure spoke. Looking up with a nervous grin, the kirin said: "Oh yeah, I'm uh, just fiddling with... I was just messing around with this, must've lost track of time. Is it time to go already? I'll uh... I'll be right there."
"The squad has been assembled, yes..." Azure Feather began, but she had to ask... "Is everything alright there, Nutmeg? I mean, this is an important mission, so if there's anything troubling you, it might be better to speak your mind first...?" Her voice carried concern for a friend, as well as the mission's safety...
“Oh, no no nothing’s wrong, I mean it’s not like you need me there or anything,” Nutmeg says with a blush, “I don’t have to go, I’ll probably just weigh you down. So maybe I should just...”
“C'mon, Nutmeg,” a stallion’s voice spoke up. Nutmeg Inferno looked over to her second in command: Gearshift was standing right there with an amused smile on his face. “You don’t want to stay cooped up in here, right?" the dappled stallion continued, "It’s not like you can’t handle it. You’ve been out there! I can’t believe I’m the one who has to tell you to go out and explore. It’s not like you!”
Azure sighed again, this time less quietly. "Nutmeg, you're going to be a valuable member of this squad, I'm pretty sure of that, and besides... we will likely need more..." she glanced at the mysterious device, "...weaponry, should things go wrong here, don't you think?"
“Yeah, I’m just...” Nutmeg seemed reluctant to meet the stallion's gaze, but after an awkward pause she turned to Azure with a relieved smile. The kirin stepped away from her workbench to join the purple-maned pegasus, saying: “You’re both right... I’m just being dumb about it, again. C’mon Azure, let’s go.”
"Don't go talking like that, Nutmeg." Azure said reassuringly, shaking her head. "I really do think your work's important, and nerves before a mission... well, it's a thing. I'd lose track of time sometimes when I was focused on magical research... a while back," she admitted.
“I didn't really have many career options other than developing tech, actually," Nutmeg said as the two left the workbench, "There's a lot of demand for kirin engineers you know...”
“Wait!” Gearshift called out, “Don’t forget your equipment!”
Nutmeg blushed horribly and scurried off, returning to Azure’s side a minute later bearing her tool saddle and wrench. “Yeah, so as I was saying...”
Gearshift was likely the only one who appreciated how troubled the kirin was: he watched the two mares closely as they left the engine room, heading over to the gangplank to get to the chopper.
Flight time to Fellis was perhaps an hour and a half, with Set Sail at the helm and Blaze keeping her company in the cockpit. The pegasus guided the Second Chance towards the lower arm of the cross-shaped island, heading for the dense group of islets floating off the southern edge. Here the dense jungle seemed to spill out into the air, with suspended streams and lakes winding between aerial cliffs covered in tenacious plant life. Steering carefully around the vines criss-crossing the bottomless canyons, the captain set the little ship down on a patch of bare rock atop one of the islets.
Blaze Trails immediately went looking for dry wood, as they'd need a fire to recharge the thermal crystals. After waiting a little while to confirm no sphinxes were flying out to challenge them, Set Sail ducked into the cargo pit, emerging with a few bottles of the precious magical soda.
Clashing Gale gave the beverage a sceptical look, tilted his head and saying: "So this... this stuff actually has magical powers? Then again, judging by what I've seen so far, I'd be more surprised if something didn't..." He just shook his head: pretty much everything he'd seen in this place had been some flavour of crazy.
"Yes, it's more like a potion than a soda," Set Sail said, "Cloud Cutter tested it: it will turn you invisible for 10 minutes or so." Winging bottles into Clashing and Cloud Cutter's saddlebags, she continued: "You each have two doses of it. One to get in, one to get out. Beyond that, you'll just have to be very..." the captain looked the pegasus mare's way, "...quiet."
"You've been told about the entrance puzzle, and hopefully they don't have any defences set up yet between that and the earth seal. Once you get to the seal... either Summer will be able to get you past it, or you give up and leave the moment you're in danger of being detected," she explained. "Avoid all confrontation no matter what."
"Understood," Cloud Cutter said, staring out over the jungle to where it embraced that strange stepped pyramid.
"Got it, Captain..." Clashing muttered, following his team member's gaze, then looking at Cloud Cutter herself, wondering what she was thinking. The batpony's brows furrowed as he focused on his orders. "Between you and me? I hope the puzzle isn't active, but if it is... then we have to complete it quickly and quietly." He sounded a little nervous at the prospect: combat was one thing, but mysterious magical locks...
"You know the elements and their weaknesses, so you should be fine. If you can't get past it, just come back and we'll try to figure out what to do," Set Sail said, "But we have a limited supply of sodas, so... just be careful. We'll stay hidden here until you get back."
"Best of luck, ponies." Reef Skimmer said, with a dip of his head. "One will stay on alert with Azure here, do our best to get any pursuers off your become should it be necessary." A frown, then "Though I sincerely hope it won't be."
With that the two purple ponies were airborne, keeping below the treeline as they headed for the great sandstone structure poking up through the canopy. Both nimble and experienced flyers, they easily wove between the tree trunks, pausing to perch on a broad branch as the plaza came into view. A double row of reclining sphinxes... just statues, on each side of a worn and cracked causeway leading to the pyramid's entrance.
No sphinxes were visible, but their view was blocked by the intervening trees and no doubt the magical predators could be hiding in any of a thousand spots in the surrounding jungle. Popping the caps off their carbonated potions, they drained the glass bottles and watched each other fade from view before continuing.
Gliding down to the temple approach, they caught sight of movement at the other end of the causeway; a lone sphinx, padding off into the jungle. Clashing Gale's hooves softly clopped as he landed, but a swift look at the distant creature confirmed they had not attracted their attention. He couldn't hear Cloud Cutter land, but she was indeed close behind, drifting down to the ground just to his right. The mare moved in almost total silence, perceptible only in the undercurrents of her wingbeats. The two looked toward the entrance to the temple: a tunnel wide enough for a phalanx of sphinxes to march abreast, dwarfing the two little ponies. Seeing no guards barring the way inside, they moved ahead together.
There was a little hesitation from the former Storm Piercer team leader, enough for Cloud Cutter to take the lead as they entered the massive structure. Creeping forward one hoof at a time, she noticed a faint glow in the dusty floor. A tracery of fine lines formed a circular pattern spanning the entire width of the spacious stone corridor; the pegasus had only noticed it where a pebble had blocked the sunlight from the entrance, causing a glint in the tiny shadow.
The spooky mare reaching with a wing to the left, but couldn't feel Clashing Gale, which was definitely not according to plan. She had to risk whispering aloud: "Clashing, magical trap on the floor," hoping that he would be close enough to hear. Spreading her wings, she hopped up into the air, gliding quietly over the faint glowing lines. To her horror the magical construct immediately began to warble. With a heart stopping chirp, (oh wait no just a chirp), the whole pattern flickered worryingly, then her flight continued unabated, until she landed on the other side.
'Thank goodness this place is as quiet as a tomb' Clashing thought - he might not have heard his partner otherwise. As it was the sounds of the jungle outside died quickly as they moved down the corridor, and the quiet whisper was enough. Unwilling to risk flight, Clashing slowly made his way around the pattern, pressing himself against the sandstone walls. The pattern didn't even flicker this time: perhaps the bat-pony wasn't as skilled at the craft of stealth as Cloud Cutter, but he was certainly no slouch.
Not waiting to see if she'd triggered some form of alarm, Cloud Cutter headed further in, slowly, looking hard for any further such traces or other things that stuck out.
The two ponies reached the first chamber with its tranquil pool of mysterious glowing liquid, uninhabited and still. There was no sign of the elaborate puzzle the others had described, only a huge open doorway leading further into the temple. Clashing let out a breath - he'd memorised the instructions as best he could, but he was dubious about the chances of opening that massive gate without alerting the sphinxes. Now... if the inside of the temple was unguarded, then one of them could stand guard to ensure the other wouldn't be disturbed. If there were hostiles inside... it would be time for another plan.
The pair proceeded onward into the enormous central hall, a forest of square stone pillars lit only by dim flickering light from the alcoves around the walls. Looking around carefully, it seemed there were cobwebs strung between the pillars, and more scattered over the floor - but not the natural cobwebs the others had found. No, these were more of the loose-woven tapestries of golden magic thread, glimmering on the edge of visibility. Clashing Gale instinctively turned to look for Cloud Cutter, forgetting for a moment that she was invisible... and saw the sphinxes instead.
A pair of the creatures, great lions with the wings of griffons and the heads of ponies, just lying there in a corner near the entrance. Well placed to ambush anypony that entered from outside, or to respond to any disturbance in the main chamber. Looking closer, it seemed like a male and a female, reclining on either side of a flat board covered in strange shapes and tiny crystals. As he watched one of them stretched out a paw and pushed one of the pieces a few centimetres forward, then looked to the other expectantly.
Precious seconds of invisibility ticked away as both CC and Clashing stared in dismay at the maze of golden filaments, seemingly impenetrable even to fliers. But progressively, they realized that one section of the room had no wires crossing it. It looked like a coincidence, but there was a section beyond that, and beyond that. A barely visible tunnel that could be navigated without setting anything off. The edge of Cloud Cutter’s hind hoof barely brushed one wire as she glided through the maze, but she looked back and the wire seemed to hold.
Then Clashing Gale landed on top of her in a thumping scuffle. 'Really not the best time' he thought, beginning to scramble off but almost instantly freezing as the two ponies became suddenly and shockingly visible. Fortunately with the sphinxes engrossed in their game on the other side of the huge chamber, they escaped detection until the magic could kick back in. For now at least: there could only be a couple of minutes before the soda ran out.
Without a word the bat pony got to his feet and slipped away, with Cloud Cutter following close behind. She extended a wing to lay her feather-tips against Clashing’s back, to prevent another collision as they approached the elemental gate together (and if she was honest, to provide a little comfort - after all they were on their own, far beyond Equestria, deep in a temple built by sphinxes). At last they stood before the gate: an enormous disc of golden metal bearing the stylised mountain symbol of the Earth element.
The disc was supported by ornate curving pillars set flush against the wall, blocking all passage into the inner sanctum. Surveying their surroundings, one other feature stood out; an area of broken floor slabs filled with a flattened pile of rubble, all that remained of the spidrow's tunnel after the sphinxes finished filling it in. 'No sign of animated clay dolls' Cloud Cutter thought. The strange magical construct called an Earth Gate made a faint ringing noise as the purple pegasus cautiously tapped its surface. She suspected it would sound out quite loudly if somepony were to bang on it like a gong.
Clashing Gale's frustration rose as he realised that time was about to run out - the traps, the cautious approach, now this locked gate, all had eaten away at the limited window of invisibility the potion had granted them. Without that magical stealth they'd be in plain sight of the sphinxes: if they couldn't find a way into the final chamber quickly, things would quickly turn nasty. It was with that in mind that Clashing Gale started to search around the pillars at the edges of the gate - didn't Summer find something there initially? All he could see now was a sizable scorch mark and some cracks in the wall...
The ponies' ears twitched as the sound of unfamiliar hooves echoed from one of the side alcoves. They sounded hollow, clicking and tinking like stone on stone. Like all the others, the alcove was occupied by a life-size sphinx statue on a substantial rectangular plinth... and it seemed like somepony was peaking around the edge. The glazed ceramic skin, the blue and white colours, the delighted expression - it was Summer Scribe alright, yet clearly not as a flesh-and-blood pony. She seemed to have anticipated the soda strategy, as she stared straight toward the gate, made a 'come here' gesture with one hoof gesture, then scampered back into her hiding place behind the statue.
Clashing just stared as Summer's gleaming tail disappeared from view; this was surely the craziest thing he'd seen yet in these impossible floating islands. Sure, he'd been warned, but to actually see the cute little unicorn like this... well. It looked like she wanted to talk at least, so he trotted over as quietly as he could. The space behind the plinth was cramped, but just big enough for three ponies; he sighed with relief as they stepped out of sight.
Cloud Cutter didn’t need to be asked twice. Her mental countdown had less than a minute remaining - assuming it was even accurate - so she hurried quickly over to the alcove. After re-establishing wing-contact with Clashing, she asked “Summer, are you alright? In quiet tones please.”
Summer's tail was swaying from side to side, a broad smile on her face: "Oh, more than alright!" Despite her joy at seeing the others she managed to keep her voice to a whisper. "You have no idea how much I can do with this new body. I've got the combined knowledge of all of the previous Oracles to sift through, and I can do more than just make myself."
It was a good thing Clashing was still invisible, because his expression was shock and disbelief. Of course Summer had figured out this new magic so quickly, she was a brilliant mind, but still... how could she be so upbeat, trapped in a statue, animating a vase-like replica of herself? Still... it wasn't quite the same as having the pony herself, but Summer like this was still a huge improvement on no Summer at all...
"Get this: I thought about making a ceramic sphinx body, and it worked!" Summer said happily. "...More or less. So then I started thinking that if you two didn't come here to break me out, maybe I'd just pretend to be the last Oracle, somehow having survived the discharge of all of her energies, and talk my way out..."
"That's not a... bad idea," Cloud Cutter agreed. The blank-eyed purple pegasus seemed distracted as she slowly faded into visibility. "But we're here because the captain wanted to ask that you not be an absolute terror to these sphinxes who... unknowingly hold you here. Our best plan was to try to negotiate with them to procure your release. We don't know how much the sphinxes told you. They said they need a few weeks to shore up their temple against invaders such as the spidrow and err, us. And Summer... Set Sail is... not pleased with you."
Summer Scribe slowly tilted her head, unblinking eyes staring at the translucent ponies as she considered. "...Oh. I guess I'll suspend Operation Sphinx Vacation for now, then." Even though she was swimming in a library of knowledge about the Sky Lands, she was still in an information drought when it came to the rest of the team's plans, so she seemed eager to listen.
"Well, ok... but the moment you start asking about me, the jig's up, so we better be totally sure that they'd accept anything for the False Oracle's release." The ceramic unicorn sighed and pouted. "Hmm... sorry, Set Sail. Honestly, I wasn't even thinking when I touched the statue. Like, literally wasn't. It was like an uncontrollable urge boiling up inside of me, a voice sweet talking me into reaching out for my wildest dreams and... rrr, I don't think this is going to convince Set Sail. Just don't tell her that part."
Sphinx vacation? Clashing Gale looked confused - then realised that he was now visible, and smiled for Summer's benefit. He was happy to see her after all - just not yet over Summer's apparent transformation into an omni-knowledgeable vase. All he could do was watch her closely, keep quiet and listen.
The Summer-golem's ears flattened... then perked right back up again. "Oh! By the way! Set Sail's probably going to want to know about the tunnels! The tunnels the molekin dug ages ago that can lead us straight to the laser pyramid in the north from underneath! Unfortunately I can't make a map right now, so would one of you like to memorise some directions?" She looked expectantly (and in all honesty, a little manically) at the pegasus.
“We’ll try our best,” Cloud Cutter said uncertainly, “I don’t know what this Undead magic has done to my navigation sense though, so no promises. You truly were... compelled to touch it?”
Summer tilted her head, recalling. "Yeah, it was like... The Oracle itself was reaching out to me to invite me in. Funny thing is, I can't find any information about such a thing happening before, but it usually has someone in it, so maybe it just wasn't documented? Dunno." She shrugged her shoulders. "Anyway, if you're ready, you need to go..." She rattled off a short list of landmarks and bearings that should bring them to Catseye Mine, at the eastern end of the old Molekin tunnel network.
"...Also, they might have a little spidrow infestation. Not sure if that part's still current," she admitted sheepishly. "Anyway, make it through there, you'll be inside the other pyramid and we'll finally be able to shut down the magical laser and get the Landsharks on our side!" She rubbed her hooves together: simple! "So if nothing else I can at least make sure you can save yourselves, right?"
Clashing Gale paid close attention, memorising the directions and nodding firmly... but then shook his head at the idea of saving every creature but Summer. That... was just not an option. Keeping his voice as low and steady as he could, he asked "Shouldn't we at least try to get you out of here?"
Summer Scribe nodded eagerly! "Well, that's what I was hoping for! What's your plan? There's Sphinxes on guard. Are you going to fight them to submission, sneak past them or just run for it? I can open the Earth Gate at your command." She'd interpreted Clashing's request as leaving right now, forgetting for the moment what it would do to their chances of allying with the sphinxes.
"Even if we could carry the statue out, where would we take it?" Cloud Cutter protested. "Some other highly secured location? Nopony has any idea how to extract you from it so... it's your prison, whether it's here or sitting out in a meadow somewhere."
Summer Scribe laughs! "Oh, I don't want to leave The Oracle. I just want to be back with the rest of you and out of this pyramid!" That wide grin was plastered on her face again, even crazier looking than before. "But if you insist, I do know how to get out of The Oracle... if someone else is willing to loan me their body and take my place inside it!"
Dismissing that bit of body horror with an incongruous chuckle, she continued: "But I don't want that. I kind of feel like this is where I'm meant to be, you know? Just have to, uhh, get past the Sphinxes somehow. Ahaha." She rubbed a hoof behind her head - it felt strange now she didn't have fur. "Okay, so it seems like you really don't have a plan, huh? We're just hoping Set Sail can talk our way through this?" It was certainly possible, but Summer didn't like how... uncertain, nebulous and in-the-future that feels. What if it backfired and made this her tomb for good?!
“Not like my body’s worth staying in anymore,” Cloud Cutter grumbled under her breath. Somewhat less bleakly, she said: “I’m not sure how much of the crew knows this, but there is a chance we might end up moving our base camp to Fellis, if we can get along with the Sphinxes here. So we’re counting on Set Sail to talk our way out of a lot. Once we get back she and Blaze are going to try and make peace with those two-legged cat creatures, whose temple you accidentally... trespassed in. Hopefully without trespassing in anything worse. But what I’m saying is we do have some plans, just... no really good ones.”
"So anyway, we're going to try negotiating with the sphinxes," Cloud Cutter summarised. "So I wanted to say you don't have to conceal your presence here, but... your idea of manifesting a sphinx is intriguing. We'll hold off on any confessions if you want to do that. And don’t tell the captain I said so, but anything you can do to ...encourage the sphinxes here to negotiate with us would help, even if it means a little terror here and there."
Summer Scribe tilted her head to the side... "Hmm, I see. So we have a lot more riding on the Sphinx's good graces than just having to avoid them if things go south. Ok, I won't do anything rash on my own - I don't want to jeopardize Set Sail's plans. Wish her my luck." As for the other negotiations... she could offer an anecdote at least: "Hmm, you know, the different feline races of this island - the Sphinxes, Mystics and Fellisians - used to get along super well before the war with Kaossandra pushed them all to their limits and rendered the island a shadow of its former glory. It might be possible to re-ignite those old allegiances with some good manoeuvring and charisma. Might be an angle worth trying for?"
Mystics? Fellisians? Kaossandra?! Clashing felt out of his depth here. At the idea of trying diplomacy first though... the batpony nodded softly to the idea of diplomacy. "Hey, sometimes it is better to not fight at all... in fact, it often is. See what you can do on that angle, I'd say." All three of them were most definitely visible now, crouching in the shadowy recess between the statue's plinth and the wall of the alcove.
Summer smiled back at Clashing. "Yeah, keep my identity a secret for now. I like the idea of being such a nuisance that they want to give me away, but I think The Oracle is too culturally significant for that." She tapped her chin. "...I'll think on it. We've got time. I'll do anything that'll make your negotiations easier."
"Ok, but... I just meant, we could take..." the batpony gestured vaguely to the vase form before them. He knew that they'd have no chance to sneak off with the actual statue, but this... at least then Summer could talk to Set Sail herself, right? He wasn't seem confident it would work, but he still felt they had to do something for Summer...
Summer Scribe blinked at Clashing: "Oooh, you want to take... this? I mean, I doubt we'll be able to take it wherever we want - my consciousness is still in The Oracle, I'm just possessing this body. Not sure what the range on that is! Not all the way back to Blissful Pastures, I'm certain. But, if the others are waiting in the jungle, and we're done catching up, it's worth a shot: maybe I can say my greetings... it'd, err, well, it'd be nice..." She tapped her hooves together nervously - that might mean throwing this body away for nothing! Buuutt... that's okay, it seemed easy enough to make another.
“Thank you, and I’m sorry we couldn’t do more,” Cloud Cutter said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes (it never did any more). “We’ll be together again as soon as we can, hopefully without any murderous sphinxes on our tails. For now, taking your... semblance out might have to do. Not sure how to do that... if something goes poorly, you can at least get your dolls out of the earth gate, right? I mean...” Cloud Cutter tapped Summer’s side, her hoof clinking on the ceramic. “You are made of earth now.”
Summer Scribe waved a hoof confidently, giggling as she was tapped, "Oh yeah, I'm really light. Just don't drop me. ...Or get seen," she said. "I assume you two brought a second dose of invisi-soda, but I can't drink it." She tossed her head dismissively. "This form is nothing permanent for me. Worst case... I can just sneak another me through the Earth Gate, some time when nopony... nosphinx is watching."
She hung her head low, smile still on her face. "You know it means a lot to me that you'd invest so much just into coming and saying hi, let alone that you'd pledge to rescue me. I'd totally understand if you decided it'd be easier to leave me behind. Would be what I deserved, right? Ahaha. I could become my own neat little footnote in history, at least."
Clashing looked to his companion: "Think we can make it out with Summer? Maybe if one of us makes a distraction, to draw the guard's attention."
Cloud Cutter considered it for a second, then asked: "Matter of fact... how small of a doll can you make? If we could fit you in a pocket..."
"...Oh! That's a good idea," Summer said happily. "I know I can make a sphinx and a me, maybe I can make a mini me too." She peers off in the direction of the gate. "Unfortunately, opening the Earth Gate is kinda bright and noisy, otherwise I'd love to try it right now. Another time, maybe?"
"Clashing and I do have one more dose of invisibility," Cloud Cutter suggested, "If we kept to the sides when they rushed in at the noise... but you'd have to prove you can make a mini pony before we risked anything like that. Otherwise, you're gonna be pretty visible no matter what we do."
Summer hmms. "Yeah, I like the idea of deliberately getting the guards' attention by messing with the Earth Gate, as misdirection..." She frowned in concentration, then lowered her head, "Buuuut... I've been trying to make a mini-Summer right now inside of my little jail cell, and it's not coming out great." She decided not to mention the three ceramic sculptures of newborn foal Summer Scribe that had just appeared in there. "Miiiiight need to practice this when I have time to sit down and think."
"I wonder what else you could make, with practice..." Cloud Cutter pondered, "A drill? A plate? Curious..."
Summer Scribe laughs. "I don't think a drill out of pottery would be able to get much done, but I appreciate the idea." She looked between Cloud Cutter and Clashing - a little sad that she'll remain captive for now, but the talk had warmed her heart - metaphorically speaking. "Well, if I'm not being rescued today, I don't think I should keep you any longer, okay? Good luck with Fellis. I'm sure this isn't the end."
A sad nod from Clashing Gale - if they alerted the sphinxes they could easily lose Summer for good, and that was unacceptable. The idea of a mini-Summer was a good one, but that needed the one thing the ponies didn't have at this very moment: time. She would be fine, he told himself, but... ugh. It still felt so incomplete, mission-wise. "Anything else before we get going, Cloud Cutter?"
The purple pegasus mare simply shook her head. If she had it in her heart to be upset about this, then her heart would probably beat more than once a minute.
"...Send my regards to Set Sail for me," Summer waved to them. "Wish her luck in the mission. I'm sorry."
The batpony stepped up to her, hesitated for a moment, then put a leathery wing around her. "We'll be back, Summer... you just stay safe until then, got that?" As much as he wanted to say more - he couldn't find the words, so he pulled away from the embrace and fished his second invisibility potion out of his saddlebags. He glanced at Cloud Cutter - she'd silently extracted her own soda and, without another word, drank it down. "Take care, Summer." With that Clashing followed suit and the two purple ponies faded from sight.
Summer Scribe settles back into the alcove, sighing as she watching the two go. She released her hold on the golem and returned to the thought-realm inside the Oracle, planning to search its huge store of memories for more clues.
The two ponies carefully flew through the maze of magical alarms and onwards into the entrance tunnel, leaving a pair of sphinxes to sit up and stare into the gloom, wondering where the slight draft had come from. The guards quickly checked the perimeter, but other than a faint scent of equine (no doubt lingering from the previous day's visitors) nothing seemed out of place. Meanwhile the unseen intruders were weaving through the tree trunks, making their way out into open skies. A short flight back to the copter, and they'd be able to share what they'd learned with their friends, and decide what their next step would be.
Clashing Gale, leader of the ill-fated Storm Piercer team and newly minted batpony, darted and glided through the jungle. He still missed his feathers, but he had to admit these new wings let him pull off aerobatic tricks that had been out of reach before. The magical soda was starting to wear off - his forelegs were visible as ghostly outlines - but he was nearly clear of the main island. The stallion could only hope Cloud Cutter was close behind. A few more minutes weaving around the massive floating boulders and suspended streams of the outlying delta, and the Second Chance came into view.
Glancing back, there was no sign of sphinxes in pursuit, and... there, a flapping purple shape that could only be his pegasus companion. She was hard to spot amongst the foliage, but stood out as she crossed one of the churning watercourses. Ahead was the copter, parked on one of the many outlying islets south of the jungle. The pair formed up and glided down as one, landing near the bonfire Blaze had started. Nutmeg Inferno was making good use of it, reheating the thermal crystals that powered the little ship.
"How long to we give them before- ah there you are!" Reef Skimmer called out, slowly opening his eyes as the ponies drew near. Determined not to let the spooky pegasus surprise him again, the hippogriff had been focusing on the strange impressions he'd been getting since the lesser pearls from his amulet had ended up fused to his head. When he ignored all the sights and sounds and focused on the unseen, the two scraps of unlife stood out in sharp contrast to the riot of life surrounding them. Then there was that little tornado somehow contained within a pony named Azure Feather, and a kirin that seemed so immersed in technology that she might as well be an extension of the engines.
Set Sail had been sitting near the fire, but the brown-blue pegasus mare but she scrambled up immediately as the scouting party returned. “What—” she asked Cloud Cutter, but the purple pegasus just ran past her to the copter
“Ink. Need ink,” she said by way of explanation, flapping up to the deck to rifle through the cargo pit.
The (acting!) captain hardly missed a beat as she turned to the batpony stallion. “What happened?” she asked, “Did you reach Summer? Is she alright? Are the sphinxes alright?”
In truth Clashing Gale landed rather heavily, still getting used to the slightly different aerodynamics of the new form. Still, it was better than crashing, that was for sure. The batpony had to admit - there was nothing like returning to the home base after a mission. Doing it without even being scratched? Bonus. Just one problem, though... "Mission was a successful failure... we didn't rescue Summer Scribe, but... neither of us were hurt, and I'm pretty sure we weren't detected..."
Blinking in confusion, Set Sail said, “Rescue her? The mission was to check on her, and inform her of the situation, and only to rescue her if things go absolutely horribly wrong. I’m glad you aren’t hurt. Did you manage to reach her?”
"We did," Clashing Gale replied swiftly. "We had a discussion as well. It seems the sphinxes are still unaware of Summer's presence - and she was able to teach us a thing or two about the island as well." His voice faltered, as if he wasn't sure of his memory, but Cloud Cutter had re-emerged with an ink-tipped quill in her mouth... oh good, she was taking care of it. Indeed the purple mare was hunched over one of Summer Scribe's notebooks, silently transcribing the directions they'd received in the pyramid.
“She had something to teach you?” Set Sail asked, puzzled but relieved, “Did she overhear the sphinxes saying something important? What was it?”
Clashing Gale and Cloud Cutter reported their infiltration and encounter with Summer Scribe as best they could, prodded along by their captain's nervous questions. Summer's condition, her idea of making a sphinx golem to masquerade as 'The Oracle', the suggestion to infiltrate the northern pyramid via old mining tunnels and the rather disturbing news that she could be extracted at any time - but only via swapping her mind with a willing body donor.
Cloud Cutter described the magical tripwires the sphinxes had set up, while Clashing noted the guards posted inside. Finally they confirmed they'd talked Summer out of doing anything rash, at least for now, and decided against trying to sneak her avatar past the guardians. The unicorn had seemed in remarkably high spirits given her situation.
“Well that’s...” Set Sail's began weakly, staring off into the sky as she tried to process the rush of new information.
“...something I’ve never seen before!” Blaze trails broke in. The green-and-red earth mare jumped up and hurried over to the group, eager to interrogate Clashing herself. “In all my days... A statue that can suck you in and it’s full of ancient knowledge? And those sphinxes don’t even know about it? Why didn’t it just swap her mind the first time? How old did she say the statue is? Where is she getting all that clay to make pottery out of?”
The batpony was quiet for several moments before replying: "All I can say is... it seems Summer's element is Earth - which explains how she can create ceramic golems from nothing, like Azure can create a windstorm or Reef, an absolute torrent of water..." He wondered if Nutmeg, or for that matter himself had the power to manifest anything...
"Indeed!" Reef nodded eagerly to Clashing. "I performed a little experiment on the flight over, on the notion that this water jet business might be transference from a local source rather than creation ex nihlo - had no problem washing down the deck, so if it is the former, the range must be a dozen kilometres at least. Haven't noticed any drop in local humidity, so-" The griff shook his head; probably not the time for such trivia. "Anyway, this plan of impersonating the sphinxes' spiritual leader, well... it's awfully... Summer Scribe, if you catch my drift? Though... do we have any other prospects for her retrieval?"
“Oh huh,” Blaze mused, slightly mollified, “I wonder if it’s because she’s in the statue or if Earth’s just her thing.”
Azure Feather listened quietly to the report, relief filling her face when she heard that her friend remained safe. The two undead-infused ponies had done fine work, likely better than she would have - stealth was never really her thing. She was about to inquire about the mine tunnels before Blaze Trails launched into her interrogation; Azure smiled as the barrage of questions put the bat-pony off his game.
“I-it’s a good chance for us,” Set Sail finally declared uncertainly, “Befriending the sphinxes. If Summer Scribe has truly discovered their... very strange form of a library, which not even they know how to use, she could help them a lot, and if we’re friends with her... it’d give us a chance to show our good intentions too. I can’t say fooling them into thinking she’s their spiritual leader is a good idea, but Reef was saying—" she turned to look up at the hippogriff.
"I remember you were saying earlier that the sphinxes didn’t seem troubled by the notion of deceit or cruelty of the sphinx of Equestrian legend. So maybe it wouldn’t be the... end of the world to fool them like that. But creatures here have a hard enough time trusting strangers as-is. If Summer tries to do something like that, I can’t exactly stop her, but I think we ourselves should... stick with trying to befriend them. Is that too uhm... unassertive? Does anypony else have any thoughts on this?”
Clashing Gale shrugged lightly. "You know my feelings on the issue. We need to get Summer Scribe back with us, anything else that happens... well, it's a price worth paying."
Azure Feather finally spoke up, shaking her head. "While I'll agree that getting Summer Scribe back with us is of high priority, so is friendship. Especially with the prospect of a major battle looming in the near future." She stared off to the southern horizon... oh, the drow's turn would come soon.
"Pretending to be a different creature can be ok sometimes!" Nutmeg chipped in. "If... you have a really good reason I mean," she added, looking down in embarrassment. "I mean there was that incident in Manehattan where Gearshift and I had to, uh... but then there was that other time where somepony pretended to be me and... oh. I suppose it can turn out pretty badly." She turned away, her expression downcast.
“Oh sure, a—” Blaze Trails said with a warm smile to the red-ruffed kirin. Her smile hesitated as the kirin turned away from the group. “No honey, it’s true!” the mare said, trotting over to Nutmeg, “A good disguise can go a long way. You gotta be ready for when the truth comes out, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep yourself safe. I’m goin’ right back to apologise to those kitties, and I spent the whole day sneaking away from ‘em! It’s all about revealing yourself on your own terms.”
"Really?" Nutmeg looked like she needed a hug, but was reluctant to let Blaze touch her. "But impersonating another pony is a crime in Equestria! Or... it can be, maybe only if you're mean about it. If the sphinxes are mean does that really make it ok?"
Forehoof lifted, Blaze certainly looked like she wanted to hug the other mare, but gave the kirin her space. "It's only a crime if they press charges," she said with a sheepish smile, "But it's actually totally legal to impersonate a creature, as long as isn’t anypony real. You kirin aren’t gonna get in any trouble for that stage-acting you do.”
"Oh of course, stage acting!" Nutmeg said brightly. "Everypony loves that!" She rubbed her flank affectionately against Blaze for a moment before springing back in shock. Blaze gave the kirin a bemused look, then laughed quietly and settled to her haunches.
'Back to the subject at hoof,' Azure thought, shaking her head again to clear her thoughts, then taking a step towards the spooky pegasus. "So, Cloud Cutter... um, what's that you were sketching back there as we landed?" Her voice was level, mildly curious, hoping for a reply yet not trying to pry. She'd let her ally speak her mind.
Cloud Cutter slid the edge of the parchment between her feathers to hold it in place as she extended the wing towards Azure. “Just something Summer asked me to remember. I wanted to write it down as soon as possible. These are directions to something she called a ‘Molekin’ tunnel, which supposedly connects directly to the northern pyramid from underneath. She said we could shut down the laser that way, and allow the sharks to get at those pillars.”
“Oh good!” Set Sail said, poking her nose in the way, “She would have knowledge of that, wouldn’t she? What did she say the pyramid was for, and why it was turned on? Is it protecting the columns for any reason, or just a mistake? What did she say the columns were there for?”
“She... didn’t explain that,” Cloud Cutter replied uncomfortably, “She just told us how to reach the pyramid from underneath, so that we could shut it down, and get the Land sharks on our side, and nothing else.”
"The sphinxes requested a meeting in two weeks. Time to shore up their defences, it seems." Reef Skimmer mused. "Hard to imagine Summer sitting tight for that long, but if she does have a library to read... hmm. Well we can't sit on our tailfeathers that long. If we are going to take a crack at that doom ray monument, shall we ask permission first or beg forgiveness afterwards? I suppose it depends if the cats treat it as a deadly nuisance or a treasured tourist attraction." He gave Clashing a meaningful look: "I don't suppose Summer enlightened you on that point?"
Clashing Gale shook his head slowly. "No, Reef, I'm sorry, we didn't get any information on the pyramid itself." In hindsight he should've asked more questions: a few more minutes wouldn't have hurt, hidden in the alcove as they were, but... he'd just been so glad to see Summer and then so focused on the fear of being discovered.
Azure Feather was rather less enthusiastic: "The fact that we don't know what it's for is a problem. Could be a defence mechanism, could be just a out-of-control ancient device, could have some bizarre purpose we can't guess at. Summer, however, she's got that library... she could find out, given time, right?" She paced around uncomfortably in a tight circle before continuing. "I just don't think it's a good idea to rush into a decision which could permanently damage our reputation with the sphinxes."
Set Sail fish-mouthed for a moment, then wiped a hoof down her own face, groaning, “Ok... we’ll table that for now, until we learn more about the pyramid.”
Cloud Cutter shrugged, and folded her wing.
"Another crack at talking to the cats then?" Reef Skimmer nodded. "Very well Captain. Didn't Glue Type mention a proper settlement with docks or some such? Maybe that's the key, approach as if we were merchants come to trade." The big griff dipped his head: "In retrospect barrelling into their hunting grounds as if we owned the place was a little brash."
“She did, in fact,” Set Sail said thoughtfully, “But why would the map label it as an 'Abandoned City', if there was anypony there to trade with? And why did you barrel into their hunting grounds? I thought all you did was trespass on their temple.”
"Oh, one means in the generalised sense." Reef said, making an expansive gesture with one wing. "Wild cougars range over 100 square kilometres you know. A whole tribe of talking ones... one imagines they think of this whole island as their hunting ground. Minus any territory claimed by the sphinxes, that is."
"Shouldn't we wait a bit?" Azure began. "They did say two weeks, and it's only going to have been three days..." Her voice trailed off - in truth she didn't like the idea of doing nothing for a fortnight either. Clashing Gale held his tongue. He didn't like all this speculation - he'd give his opinion when it mattered - or if the Captain asked.
Looking thoughtfully at Azure, Reef added: "Ah, you think perhaps the sphinxes were speaking for the other felines as well? I confess I've been thinking of them as separate societies, but we don't really know how these species interact."
“We are planning on possibly trying to visit the sphinxes today,” Set Sail told Azure, “You’re right though, we are going to stay very clear of their pyramid until they feel safe again. Or until... they need our help with something.”
Azure just stared, blinked in surprise a few times, trying to process the information. "Another visit today... I see. Well, I'm not going to question it, Captain." Not openly, at the very least. "They said two weeks. Going now would be two, technically three visits in three days." At least there was agreement about the pyramid...
Set Sail put a hoof to her lips and said in a little amusement, "Ssh. Only one visit, remember? The other visit didn't happen at all."
Azure shrugged and shook her head. She had voiced her concern: an alliance with the sphinxes was highly desirable, and they shouldn't risk it out of impatience.
"Uh, I... so, Captain!" Nutmeg spoke up, nodding to the copter. "Got the crystals all topped off and ready to go. Where do you want me to fly her? "
“Oh uh, I suppose a more strategic location might be called for,” Set Sail said, looking at the floating cliffs surrounding them, “A few kilometres isn't far, but it would be nice if we could be a little closer to the abandoned city. We're not going to risk another forbidden and/or accursed place like that, but if we skirt the edge of it, we should be able to reach that... fishing village, or whatever it is."
"Then we... introduce ourselves to any who approach us, and if it looks like those bipedal cats are going to be trouble... I take off, with Blaze and retreat to the copter. So... maybe we could move to one of the little islands around that dome? Keep the copter below view from the ground on your way there of course.”
Nutmeg blinked owlishly, then stared at the expanse of air and floating boulders between their position and the main island. "But there's no path... oh, you're going to carry us?" A nervous glance at Blaze Trails, then Reef Skimmer. "You're the Captain, Captain. I'll start her up." The kirin swiped the crystals out of the blazing fire without so much as flinching, before springing up onto the deck of the copter and disappearing into the engine space.
Blaze Trails just smiled, watching the enthusiastic lil' thing go
Reef Skimmer looked embarrassed as usual, as his legs morphed into clusters of blue tentacles. He kept away from the others, refusing to meet their gaze as he put out the bonfire with a spray of summoned water.
“Creating water from nothing sure is convenient,” Set Sail said happily, nuzzling Reef with her cheek in passing, before trotting onto the copter. The kirin engineer vanished into its underbelly with the fire crystals floating behind her, reinstalling them in the boiler and readying for launch.
Azure Feather nodded in relief - it seems like they wouldn't be aggravating the sphinxes today after all. Clashing Gale nodded as well: the conversation seemed to have concluded, and it was time to depart once again... "I'll be on the foredeck, Captain." He bowed to the pegasus, shook out his wings, and heading up to take his position next to the forward harpoon launcher.
The dual rotors spun up and the repurposed drow copter lifted off. Set Sail was back at the helm, steering the aircraft directly away from the jungle and any sphinxes concealed within, before wheeling around to bear north again, making for the western arm of the cross-shaped island. In the centre was a small lake, perhaps a kilometre across, fringed by trees and boasting a sizable village on one bank. Between them and the lake was an expanse of gently rolling grassland dotted with stands of trees and the occasional rocky outcropping.
Dominating the area was a shimmering bubble similar to the one they'd seem on the gillfolk's island. The magical barrier distorted their view of the interior, but it seemed like a lusher version of the surrounding landscape: grass so green it seemed to glow, beneath curiously shaped trees and what might be oversized mushrooms. On the far side of the lake a much larger settlement could be made out, overgrown and at least partially fallen to ruin. The outlying island was further still, a single isolated peak capped with a sizable structure they couldn't quite make out from this distance.
The pegasus decided to scope out the terrain before picking a spot to land - with the crystals freshly charged, they could afford to take their time. She guided the copter west and then north, following the edge of the island. They passed the mouth of the river, watching the water tumble over the edge and vanish into nothing. Then everycreature aboard was treated to a closer look at the city... which proved not to be as abandoned as the map claimed. A mismatched jumble of stone and wooden buildings in a riot of clashing architectural styles, it was certainly in bad shape, with many structures collapsed or looking like they were about to.
Yet... creatures were moving down there, travelling in ones and twos through rubble-strewn streets or crossing the remaining catwalks and skybridges that had once joined most of the buildings. Most of the fields ringing the city had long since gone back to nature, visible only in outline, but a few were still cultivated. As they came around to the northern side of the peninsula, a dramatic construction came into view: a chain of suspension bridges spanning almost two kilometres, linking the main island to its smaller companion. Though the chains were rusty and covered in creepers where they approached land, the deck seemed intact, and wide enough for two carts to pass side to side.
Near the south end of the bridge was a complex of air docks that must have rivalled Vanhoover's, though the collapsed rooves of the warehouses and broken-off ends of several piers made it clear it was no longer maintained. To the north the bridge joined a wide cobbled road that spiralled up and around the smaller island, threading through trees and standing stones that might be sculptures. At the top was a substantial stone structure, glints of brass still showing through the moss covering its central dome. No shrieking siren this time, but with the noise the copter's intermeshing rotors put out, it was all but certain the felines knew they were coming.
"Mental note: get another balloon," Set Sail grumbled, staring balefully up at those noisy rotors.
Nutmeg Inferno had long since emerged from the engine room to stare eagerly at the scenery. A hurt look crossed her scaled face at the Captain's remark. "Oh... maybe I could look into some kind of stealth mode." The kirin stared into space, cheering up almost immediately as she considered the possibilities. "Or maybe a spy mode!"
“What's the difference?” Blaze Trails asked curiously of the kirin.
Nutmeg stared into space again, then smiled at Blaze, saying "You know I'm not sure! But 'spy mode' sounds more exciting, don't you think?"
"How about 'sneaky mode'?'" Blaze suggested with a giggle.
"'Sneaky mode'! That's so pony!" Nutmeg nodded happily.
Ears dropping bashfully, Blaze replied, "Guilty as charged."
“Whatever it is, I’m putting the copter down... somewhere hopefully out of reach,” Set Sail said, bringing their ship down to a gentle halt on the side of the tiny islet facing away from the main island. Two whole trees of cover. She jumped out then, and beckoned to everyone else with a broad brown wing.
"Quite," Reef Skimmer said, though his beak cracked open: he was glad to see the crew in high spirits, Nutmeg especially. "Will you mares be needing a lift?"
The explorers assembled on the forward deck, Azure Feather and Clashing Gale standing at attention, waiting for the Captain's order. Neither looked happy at the prospect of another trip into the Abyssinian's (or rather, Fellissian's) home turf. The batpony was first to speak up: "What's the plan and where do you need me?"
'Took the words right out of my mouth,' Azure thought.
“Yeah... good idea Reef, let’s just make sure we’re on this,” Set Sail said, “I’ve got Blaze. Azure has Nutmeg. The rest of us can fly out if there’s trouble. Who’s going to go with Blaze to the village then, and who’s going to stay here with the copter?”
"Oh, err..." Reef glanced at Azure; now that he thought about it, they hadn't included that whole 'nearly dropping Sprocket' incident in the last debriefing. "...are you up for it Azure? It's not far, but..." he trailed off.
"I'm eventually going to have to manage, aren't I?" Azure shrugged a bit, chuckling. "Sure, I'm on it."
"I'll stay here with the copter," Clashing Gale chipped in as well. "Creatures around here don't seem to like me or Cloud Cutter too much..." He added under his breath: "...can't imagine why..."
"Really?" Set Sail said in honest surprise to Clashing, "But you look so... I mean to say, um... s-sure. You stay with the copter. If we're not back in an hour, you come looking for us. And yes Cee-Cee should stay back too, in case her sneakiness is needed." The purple pegasus's ears folded back at that, but she made no verbal protest. "Um... assuming you wanna explore the village, Nutmeg?" Set Sail concluded.
"Of course!" Nutmeg nodded. "The city's structures are in bad shape but maybe there's still some technology inside them!" A frown crossed the kirin's face. "That needs fixing, I mean!" Turning to Azure, she said nervously: "You're not made of goo are you? Oh no I suppose that's a Water thing... but you're not gonna put me in a tornado or anything, right?"
"I gave her some pointers on how to just carry a pony, the other day," Cloud Cutter offered helpfully, "Blasting them into the air with her wingbeats is no more, I'm afraid."
"Well, great!" Nutmeg said, the smile back on her face. She ambled over to a clear space and stood with her feet apart, in a helpful 'ready to act like luggage' pose.
Azure braced herself for a tough flight. As much as Cloud Cutter tried to be helpful and encouraging, it was hard to forget having to drop Sprocket in mid-air. If the doctor hadn't been there... granted, her air magic had improved since then, but... She hoped kirin weren't as heavy as ponies - they certainly looked lighter-built - otherwise this would be a bad day.
Set Sail and Azure Feather lifted into the air, carrying their payloads of earth pony and kirin respectively. Alas Nutmeg Inferno proved surprisingly heavy for her size - heavier than Sprocket, even - and Azure had to flap as hard as she could to keep them both airborne. The two spooky ponies watched silently as their companions headed for the main island, dwarfed by the enormous grey bird following them like an eagle-shaped thundercloud: Reef Skimmer, taking the shape of a roc once again.
“Follow the breeze, c’mon!” Set Sail called back, leading them coasting around to a steady southwards path, occasionally flapping to gain altitude, but for the most part just slicing through the sky, with nothing but an impossibly deep expanse of air below them. She made swiftly for the main island, not even 500 meters away. Slipping into the forest, Set Sail released the nervous Blaze Trails to land firmly on solid ground, then winged around to face Azure and Nutmeg struggling along behind her and... was that Reef Skimmer?!
If flying with Sprocket was a nightmare... now Azure was in Tartarus. Cloud Cutter had explained about pushing her magic into things she was touching - a skilled pegasus could make a whole air carriage virtually weightless - but that trick seemed of need a lot of practice. Azure's wings flapped hard as she struggled to maintain altitude, said breeze being the only thing keeping her aloft. She stared folornly at the approaching trees... where could she land without accidentally ripping her wings off?
With a final desperate exertion Azure swooped down like a thrown stone, before pulling up just enough to clear the cliffs forming the edge of the island. Alas the rocks blocked her view of the oncoming trees until it was too late. She promptly released Nutmeg Inferno, leaving the kirin to fall from about three ponies up, and clumsily back-winged for all she was worth. It wasn't enough: Azure ended up greeting the oncoming trunk with her face. Fortunately the undergrowth broke her fall: the blue pegasus flopped into some bushes in a tumble of legs and feathers.
Nutmeg landed heavily on four hooves, buried up to her ankles in the earth, shaken but apparently intact. "I-I didn't think you would... I-I'm not air-droppable!" she spluttered between rapid breaths.
Reef Skimmer could be seen overhead through the gaps in the canopy; oblivious to the disastrous landing, his deep avian voice called down "No sign of incoming felines... let's meet up in that clearing ahead!"
Any outrage Set Sail felt was dwarfed by alarm, as the kirin went plummeting and Azure took a tumble. “Azure! Are you alright??” she asked, zipping down to the fallen pegasus and landing beside her.
A second attempt at carrying a pony... and a second crash. She berated herself for flying more like a sickened breezie than the pegasus she was. Damn it all. Azure slowly picked herself up, tapping each hoof on the ground to ensure no significant damage was done. One, two, three and four... good. Wings were next, lots of feathers out of place, vanes unzipped and twigs stuck through, but no real damage. Nothing more than scratches... and a whole lot of dignity lost. "I'm all right, Captain..."
"Y-your wings they were acting like... I mean..." Set Sail said, looking at Azure in a panic, "I mean, it's good there are no scratches. I—I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd have a problem—Nutmeg!" The captain went charging over to Nutmeg, nosing worriedly at the kirin saying, "Well at least you landed in soft soil. Are you okay? It was only a six foot drop or so, I think?"
The kirin thrashed ineffectively "J-Just a b-bit... uh. G-Give me a moment." Nutmeg stuttered, then closed her eyes for several seconds. When she opened them again, it was if she'd briefly forgotten where she was. "Oh! Captain Set Sail! And Azure Feather... oh no, is she hurt?" She tried to move, then looked at her feet. "Oh. I seem to be stuck."
Azure hung her head as the Captain panicked over her well-being and Nutmeg had some kind of episode. It was all too clear: she'd failed to get her friend across safely. She just shook her head quietly as she turned to assess Nutmeg's situation: still ankle-deep in the soil.
"Are you... alright?" Set Sail asked in confusion at Nutmeg's puzzlement, "You seemed a bit uhm, shaken? Hold on." She grabbed the kirin around the waist, and with another strong wingbeat pulled her up out of the dirt into the air, then set her lightly down again.
"Oh! Thank you Set Sail." Nutmeg said, staring around and clearly not quite with it. "I'm... I'm Nutmeg Inferno. And I'm fine. I'm great actually!"
Snickering, Set Sail said, “Yes, yes I know you're Nutmeg, not Alright. I think you're just fine.”
A goofy smile was plastered on the kirin's muzzle. "Blaze Trails! Azure Feather?! How are you?"
“Over here.” Blaze called out to the kirin. She'd trotted over to the other pegasus, looking her over: “Just checking in with Azure. Needs her feathers straightened out, but otherwise everything seems hunky-dory.” She turned to Azure, saying with concern, "That was quite a spill you took there. Still trying to work out the kinks with carrying another pony, huh?"
Azure could only nod and grunt, finally answering with a simple "Yeah." Some pegasus she was.
Four quadrupeds emerged from the forest: first the red-ruffed brown kirin still kicking crusted mud off her legs, with a green-furred and red-maned earth pony mare close alongside, shooting the kirin a concerned look now and again. Two bird-winged ponies followed: a brown-and-blue mare with a green kerchief tied around her head, trotting next to a pink-maned, azure-coated guardpony.
Following the island’s edge, they paused at the sight of a gigantic meadow, rimmed on three sides by woodland and the island edge on the fourth. It put them very much in mind of Blissful Pastures: familiar fluffy sheep pranced around the field, chewing serenely at grass tufts in their mouth. Among them were very large porcines, rooting at the ground and chewing on bushes, their ponderous pink bodies dividing up the clusters of wooly white.
With her mind on the map, indicating a road leading from the field southwards to the main road, Set Sail murmured, “Here we go. They’ll definitely see us after this. That is if they haven’t...” she looked up at Reef Skimmer, circling overhead in roc form “...noticed him yet.”
Blaze Trails smirked, impressed by their flying guardian, then shrugged at the futility of stealth. "They'd notice us sooner or later no matter what we did - dang cats stalked me all the way back to camp, and I tried everything I could think of to throw 'em off. This is their territory and we're just guests. Figure it's only a matter of time, so what'll we say this time? No intrudin' on sacred ruins this time?"
Azure Feather was still brooding about her lacklustre attempt at carrying Nutmeg, one that earned her a crash and Nutmeg a fall that she was lucky to escape injury from. The whole business didn't sit well with her - the landsharks were reckless mercenaries, that was bad enough but at least they had some serious industry and impressive weapons. What did these cats have, other than hostility? At least the sphinxes had given a good first impression. Yet... she was only on the expedition to guard the other ponies. If the Captain wanted to talk to these two-legged cougars, she had no right to object.
"Not noticing a massive bird like him?" Azure remarked, with a stiff chuckle. "They'd have to be blind. Best case scenario, he's a distraction. Worst case scenario, they have eyes on us already. Honestly I don't know where you're even going to start with the diplomacy..."
“It’s just like Blaze said,” Set Sail explained, “We need to apologize for accidentally trespassing on their sacred grounds. And hopefully learn more about them that way, maybe even make friends.” With a grimace Azure’s way, she agreed, “We’re certainly not trying to hide, but Reef is certainly being a bit...”
Beyond the captain, Azure saw the elephant-sized grey raptor spiralling down to meet them, sending sheep bleating as the ran for the treeline while pigs squealed and tried to hide in their sties, piling up in a mass of squirming pink bodies as they all tried to fit through the entrances at once.
“...obtuse about it,” Set Sail concluded with a facehoof.
Azure couldn't help but sigh: "Not good."
"Ladies!" the enormous eagle called out, "One hopes you enjoyed your little trot through the woods. I, erm... ah. Apologies for all the commotion," Reef Skimmer shouted over the din,"...but I do believe we've been spotted." He managed to land without using his water jets, leaving the meadow with only giant-sized bird footprints, then gestured with a wing at the path to the village. As he spoke, a startled feline had turned tail and fled for the safety of the settlement.
“So much for a low profile,” Set Sail groaned, watching the biped flee. Looking into Reef's eagle eyes, she said, “We need you to back us up. We’re going into what might be enemy territory, and they might try to capture us, or even punish us for no reason, so the four of us are going to take a nice quiet walk to the village, while you keep overhead, waiting for me to come up and give you the all clear, or one of us to shoot off one of Nutmeg’s flares, in which case you come down with water guns blazing, alright?”
“You know I can make them work underwater if I can get some ammonium nitrate!” Nutmeg pointed out helpfully.
The monstrously oversized bird stared down at the pegasus, beak slightly open. "Understood, Captain! Sound tactics. One had best get back in the air then..." After a take-off run that took him half way to the edge of the island and wingbeats powerful enough to strip leaves off the nearby bushes, the transformed griff was climbing up to resume his station overhead. By this point the sheep were long gone, while several pigs had managed to offend each other enough that they began to fight among themselves, heedless of the predator above.
Blaze Trails twitched her ears, watching the cat scampering into the distance; no doubt to get backup. "Hrmmm, well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, so we may as well get it over and done with." She appreciated having a proper plan this time: Reef on standby, their leader determined to talk it out rather than running like they were guilty of something. Her tail flicked as she nodded to Set Sail: "So, you'll be taking point with the negotiations, then? Suck up, emphasise we're not a threat, we have a common enemy, how can we help each other, whatever angle we can take? If we can get 'em to see us as equals, what a relief that'd be..."
“I’d be happy at this point for them not to see us as food,” Set Sail said to Blaze with a sigh. The pegasus mare stepped briskly out into the sunny meadow saying, “C’mon, let’s get as far as we can towards the village before they send the welcoming committee our way.”
Azure was less optimistic, watching the treeline warily. Yes, the ponies had backup in the form of an avian who probably knew his elemental powers better than she knew her own. He was virtually made of water, after all. But there was no telling what the cat was doing. Calling backup? Cowering in fear? Having the Captain take charge of negotiations was definitely better than letting the guard do it, but... All she had to do was stay ready and try and keep things from going south.
The four eased past the sheep on the meadow, keeping a wary distance from those now very wary pigs, then trotting quickly down the dirt trail once they reached it. Into the forest they returned, the trees rising to either side of the trail, until reaching a wider, more well beaten path leading right to the suspiciously unabandoned abandoned city, and left to what was marked on their map only as 'Village'.
“Alright, this way,” Set Sail said curtly, taking a left turn.
“We’re not going to the city?” Nutmeg uttered in dismay, halfway through turning right.
“Too many walls,” Set Sail said, “We’re going to the village, by that little lake. Come on!”
“But a village won’t have any ancient artifacts, or lost technologies or anything!” Nutmeg protested, “There’s a whole metropolis ripe for exploring this way!”
“We’re here to apologize, and make friends, not explore, and not steal any of their precious artifacts,” Set Sail said with a huff, “I’m surprised at you Nutmeg. I think that Tech magic might be getting to your head!”
“Oh, y-yeah, oh right, sorry uhm,” Nutmeg said, the kirin flinching at the thought.
“Just come on,” Set Sail said nervously, “I can already hear them galloping this way. With any luck they only saw Reef as a threat, so just keep out of their way if they don't bother us.”
Blaze Trails chuckled and sighed with Set Sail as they trotted together. "Setting our expectations low, but I guess we take what we can get." Ears perked, she listens and looks into the distance, anxious to see if the cats came with weapons raised or just curious.
"Keep out of their way if they don't bother us, but that's a coin flip, I'd say. It's any creature's guess what these predators are thinking." Fortunately Grenelda wasn't around to object to Azure's gloomy assessment.
Sure enough three of the felines came into view, running with a fluid grace quite unlike the bulky storm beasts Set Sail remembered. Two of them wore elaborate armour of metal plates and supple leather, enamelled and embroidered with bright colours and elaborate patterns. Clearly warriors, each had a bow in hand and some kind of blades in sheathes on their back. Trailing behind and huffing as he struggled to keep up was a cat in simple green tunic, likely the same one that had fled the scene a few minutes earlier.
The lead cat immediately spotted the equines coming their way and slowed to a walk, eyeing them curiously. "Haven'a seen beasties like these 'bout the island. Got some new stock in Lucky?" she called back to the trailing cat.
"Nuh.. no... huh. Nothing o' mine. Pretty looking things though ain't they?" he said, admiring the new arrivals. "Wonder where-"
"Couple got wings there," the second armoured cat interrupted, eyeing the ponies with a distinctly predatory gaze. "Might've flew in behind this birdie monster yer squealing 'bout? Hah, betya they taste like candy..." He licked his lips.
Blaze Trail whispered over to Set Sail: "Hrmm, looked like they're here rarin' for a fight. Let's try to not give them the excuse." Her ears pricked as she overheard the distinctly... ravenous talk. The earth mare frowned: just the way the cats were looking at them was unnerving! She waves a hoof, lifting it and calling out; "'Ehy! No need to eat us. We're critters just like you, and we'd like to say hi, sit down, friendly chat, all that."
"Right! Not beasts, sorry! And not food!" Set Sails said stiffly, staring at the cat creatures with her wings half spread.
"We're here to make friends!" Nutmeg added helpfully, waving a two toed forehoof their way.
Azure Feather neither waved nor spoke: her eyes were locked onto the warriors facing them. All this talk about friendship, it only worked when things started on the right hoof... and it didn't look like they had here. Quietly she tensed, wings unfurled and wind magic ready... oh, these creatures would have a bad day if things went hostile now.
"Oh yer talking creatures! Sorry I am, not seen yer like about these parts!" The lead cat stared at the four ponies curiously. "You two are kinda like little sphinxes, ain't you? But you..." she gestured to Blaze "ain't got no wings and yer more like... some sorta deer?"
Blaze Trails looked herself over, suddenly self-conscious. "...Well, no, I'm a pony. Earth pony - the ones with wings are pegasi," she jabbed a hoof at Set Sail for emphasis.
"I'm like some sorta deer!" Nutmeg said cheerfully, "Though I'm not sure what the scales are for. You'd think that I would know that, but I don't!"
The unarmed cat pushed through to the front, grimacing at his companion's bluntness then smiling nervously at the visitors. "Don't mind Wild, she don't meet many friendly creatures, know what I mean? You wanna talk some? That sounds just grand to me! Lucky Bet, please to meet-"
He was interrupted by a harsh laugh from the other guard. "So which one's the bird monster Lucky? Oh it must've been quite the scene, flying goats come down to see what yer doin' and frighten ya clean outta yer fur."
Blaze Trails couldn't help but chuckle at Nutmeg, shaking her head. At least she's harmless, right? 'Less she turns into a nirik at least. She was about to continue greeting the cats when the rude one laughter cut her off. The earth mare considering her options for a moment - it was probably best if they didn't go 'yeah, we have a big water monster bodyguard just in case you decide to attack us' right off the bat, right? Keep it casual: "Hey, hey, it's ok if he was scared. A little caution takes you a long way, right?" She pointed a hoof at herself: "Blaze Trails, at your service."
That was just about the last thing the Air Elemental expected. From 'tasty wings' to 'are you deer?' - were felines just inherently fickle? Azure took a step back, letting Set Sail handle the negotiations as was agreed... ugh. A little caution goes a long way... isn't that the truth. Her wings relaxed just a little as she forced herself to calm down.
"No Doub, I swear it weren't like that!" the unarmed cat whined. "There was a feckin' huge bird all ready to scoop up... uh... uh ma hogs! Uh... Blaze Trails, ya say? Lucky Bet. So.. wouldya mind taking a littl' break just here, 'cause I gotta go stop 'em fightin'-" This time he was interrupted by a trio of ear-splitting bangs, accompanied by flashes of coloured light from above, quickly followed by an equally deafening screech. Lucky clamped his paws over his ears, while the two cat warriors shared a glance before loping forward, around the ponies and towards the field where the livestock were again cowering.
Blaze's ears flinched at the bangs... then shot straight up. "The heck?! Sorry, hang on, I gotta see this." That must be Reef... under attack? Did he need help? Either way, this wasn't something she could overlook - she went galloping back to the meadow to check out the situation.
“Ohh that’s not good,” Set Sail said, looking direly overhead, “Azure, can you go check on him, tell him we’re okay if he’s still up there, and let us know, if he’s crashed somewhere? I should have told him not to come... Blaze where are you—?!" the captain squawked as the earth pony took off back the way they came.
Azure could hardly have not noticed what just happened! The sudden bangs took her by surprise, and that screech... it had her covering her ears as well, and made it all too obvious what was going on. The doctor, their aerial guard, was at least in trouble, if not worse! Set Sail's order matched her instincts exactly: "You got it, Captain." The blue pegasus was soon rising into the air, scanning the sky furiously for signs of the massive bird...
Blaze galloped along behind the sprinting cats for only ten seconds or so before yet another strange creature came into view. She'd seen its like before, as sculptures outside the abandoned magic school, and in brief glimpses when she was on the run. Like a centaur: a two-part body with four legs on the ground and two reserved for grasping and carrying, but thoroughly feline. Like the female she'd hid from earlier, this one carried a long staff that crackled with magic, although it seemed newer and more ornate.
"Wild! Double! Just the cats for the ocassion!" the felitaur rumbled in a deep stallion's voice. "Put a little show on for the beast, a touch of sound and fury to encourage it to go elsewhere, but it seems more enraged than discouraged. I do fear we might have a thunderbird looking to dine on Lucky's hogs, even if it is an odd looking one." The creature seemed more excited than scared, which Blaze could understand given his powerfully muscled body and obvious magical talent.
Meanwhile Azure had cleared the tree line and sighted Reef Skimmer. The giant avian seemed unharmed if a little dishevelled, wheeling about and glaring daggers at the irritant below. "Azure! Look alive, the damn thing's taking pot shots!" he called over. "What's the word from Sails, do we teach those kitties a lesson?"
Azure was quick to reply, fully expecting another volley of shots to come - she wasn't party to the conversation at ground level. "Heard, Doc!" She called out. "Word from Captain is diplomacy is still on! They looked like they were ready to fight, but seemed to think better of it..." She finished, as she flew over to the great raptor. "And I'm going to be honest... as a pony... I don't get it..." Reef was a predator, or at least half-predator... though maybe it would take a griffon to understand these felines.
Back on the ground Blaze Trails blinked, her eyes going wide at the sight of Reef Skimmer being fended off by one of the natives! There was a sinking feeling in her throat: that was her friend they were shooting at - even worse, what if Reef shot back and blew the whole damn meet-and-greet to hell! So despite her nerves she tried to be tactful: "Well, hang on now! You don't know he's after your hogs in the first place, err, is this a common occurrence you have to deal with 'round here...?"
"Thunderbird?" The lead cat cringed as she got a good look at the huge bird. "You gotta zap it 'Dream, 'fore it zaps us. Beak and claws on somethin' that size ain't no joke to start with, but lightnin', that's somethin' else... are ya listen' ta me?" The felitaur wasn't, his attention instead taken by the green equine.
Set Sail and Nutmeg galloped up, not far behind Blaze Trails. The blue and brown pegasus stopped short at the sight of Reef Skimmer and Azure cruising around overhead, the latter flitting around the former's ponderous form. “Zap it?” she squeaked as the lead cat's words sunk in. “Lighting?! No!” Jumping in front of the big cat-like centaur, Set Sail shouted urgently, “No zapping! No zapping. Just wait! I got this.”
Then she went galloping off towards the bird soaring overhead. Set Sail didn’t have this; she was going to ruin everything, but she didn’t know what else to do. She didn’t have time to argue with him up there. She didn’t know how long that strange cat creature with the staff would hesitate at the behest of a complete stranger. The pegasus skidded to a halt as close to the edge of the island as she dared, so that the sheep and pigs would at least have plenty of room to run away.
Spreading her wings to lend her strength, Set Sail shouted up into the sky at the top of her lungs “Reef Skimmer!!” Then all she could do was fold her wings and look up at the soaring roc, hoping that Reef would hear her, and see her sitting down here on her haunches, and then do what she needed him to do.
Blaze Trails blinks a bit as Set Sail's impromptu plan is hatched... but she thinks she gets it, so she plays along, standing in front of the felitaur as well and waving a hoof. "Juuust a sec here, we'll get this sorted out, sorry for the inconvenience..."
Azure would soon speak up as she would hear the Captain's cry. "That's... definitely the Captain's down there, Doctor... looks like she's summoning you. Maybe we should get down there and see what's really going on?" she suggested, looking to the shape-shifted hippogriff. This was turning out to be quite the trip.
Reef Skimmer watched the ponies galloping around down there, no doubt spooked by the terribly annoying magic. The captain was shouting... something. A warning? A plea for aid? None of them seemed injured, but perhaps the larger creature was charging up a more powerful attack? "Indeed, I'd best get down there. Azure Feather, would you do a griff a favour and stand ready to blast that big one, should it make a move with that staff again?"
Azure nodded softly to the Doctor's request, a simple one she could easily fulfill if the conditions proved it needed. "I can do that, no problem."
"Splendid." At her nod, Reef banked around and came in for a rather heavy landing in front of Set Sail, ruffling fur and feathers as he back-winged to a halt. He glared disdainfully at the two cats who'd raised bows and nooked arrows, before watching intently to see what the centaur-like creature would do.
Talk, it seemed: "Now here's a curious scene, to be sure," he purred. Looking warily at the grey roc, then down at Blaze Trails, the cat-taur asked "I don't suppose you forgot to put your horn on this morning, little horse?" A smile that showed a great many sharp teeth - Blaze wasn't sure if that was deliberate. "How about you tell old Everdream just exactly what's going on here?"
"Mmm.... yeah, proverbial cat's out of the bag, I reckon we're all about to talk anyway," Blaze said carefully. "That bird you were trying to spook is Reef Skimmer, and he's with us. So let's try to be polite about this, alright? He's no wild animal and you don't need to blast him, or us for that matter." She tipped her head, doing her best to stay calm and keep a poker-face. If worse comes to worst, she could at least run like Tartarus while Set Sail concocted a backup plan. "We good, then?"
"Now that does depend on the specifics of what you're doing here on Fellis," Everdream purred to Blaze, his staff still at the ready. "It seems we're in the season for visitors of the stranger sort, not traders no but sharks that dance with death, griffons that pry and elves that circle and spy."
Meanwhile Set Sail trembled a moment, then leapt forward, hugging Reef around his stupid huge bird neck. “Oh thank Celestia,” she sighed in relief against him, then pushing back to stand before her friend. “Reef, you were flying too close to the livestock of these creatures,” she told him seriously, “That’s why they were attacking you. They thought you were a beast, looking to make off with one of their pigs. Everything else is fine - they were quite friendly after we introduced ourselves. I was just so worried that I told you to fly overhead hoping it would keep you safe, not even thinking they would think you were some sort of large predatory bird.”
"Well one is by and large an avian, especially so just this moment, and a species of obligate carnivores can hardly be prejudiced against predators now can they?" Reef said indignantly, once again managing to slip past the thrust of the Captain's argument.
“They can't be prejudiced at predators, but they can fight with them over their food,” Set Sail said patiently, “Just... take your smaller form, if you would. I think I can... well Blaze probably knows the details better than me, but I think we can explain what’s going on, and get along with these bipedal cats just fine. At least we can find out more about this island, and maybe even the pyramid.” She hesitated, glancing back over her shoulder briefly before adding, “Err... one of them wasn’t a two-legger actually. I didn’t get a good look at him, things were happening kind of fast down here.”
"Oh, Sails..." Reef said, gingerly caressing the pegasus with one oversized wing. "You have the whole friendship process well underway then? Of course you do. One was rather... concerned, what with magic going off and you hidden under the trees there, but... it seems, no need for a silly griff after all."
Blaze Trails was thinking hard - she was certainly bearing the brunt of talking. Oh well, here went nothing: "Really when it comes down to... we're kind of refugees. We're stuck in a strange hostile place and trying to carve out somethin' safe for ourselves and find friends to stand by. The drow are breathing down our necks and if they decide they don't like the looks of us it's all over. We're hardly in a mood to make enemies - we're bad enough off as-is!" She sighed dramatically! "So, I hope you can accept peace with us?"
Wild Draw was still watching the thunderbird - at first it seemed like the little winged horse was suicidally attempting to strangle the beast with her legs, but the bird reciprocated by putting a wing around her and it became clear the gesture was friendly. Wild Draw lowered her bow, but wasn't ready to invite these strange creatures to tea just yet.
"We sure don't be lookin' for more ways to get into a scrap," she told Blaze Trails, "but this here is our land, for a thousand years and more, and we'll fight to the last cat... if needing be. So... you tell me what yer meanin' by refugee. How many of yer kind be needin' a home?
"Yeah, ya got wings, 'least enough of ya to fly the rest around it seems, so not like you gotta come here." Double Blind added dubiously.
Blaze Trails nodded reassuringly: "Don't worry, it's not this land in particular we need to settle in - we just don't really have any place to call our own 'round here yet. Right now we just need safe passage and the assurance that you won't stick us with those arrows and spells of yours the moment you decide you don't like how we look."
From above, Azure watched in relief as the doctor landed and the Captain smiled and hugged him. It seemed like the gathering of her squad and the cat tribe - two and four legged varieties - would be peaceful after all. The blue pegasus circled again, sensing the winds around her and letting the flow of air over her feathers calm her mind, then glided down to land near the others.
"I take it hostilities won't be in the cards here, Captain?" she asked. If talk of refugees was now underway, then things were going a lot better than she expected... yet even if things seemed peaceful, she needed to keep her guard up. Celestia knew these cats could switch moods in an instant.
“I’m doing my best, Azure. I hope it’ll be enough,” Set Sail said. She glanced at her companion, self-conscious as usual as he slowly squeezed back into hippogriff form. “Now um... let’s give Reef his err, privacy. We have a lot to explain to those creatures back there.”
Azure nodded back, her muzzle curling into a small, quiet smile. "Yeah, can't argue with that line of thought. Between you and Blaze - I think you've got this." A little chuckle: "Come on, let's go see how they're doing. Maybe we're aren't going to be invited to tea anytime soon, but at this rate... you never know." One could hope, right?
In a meadow full of pigs and sheep, somewhere on the northern edge of Fellis, a quartet of well-armed and wary felines faced off against a giant grey eagle, which had just landed a hundred paces away. A leaf-green earth pony and a chocolate-brown kirin stood with the cats, while a pair of pegasi attended to the roc. Satisfied that Reef was ok, the two winged mares trotted over to the cat people - three of them bipeds, the fourth a centaur-like creature carrying an ornate staff..
Set Sail immediately ducked her head saying, “I am so sorry. Our friend was... afflicted with a strange transformation on a different island. He’s found a way to... expand himself so he can fly more easily, but obviously it makes him look like one of those thunder birds. He was trying to stay out of the way up there, until we could speak with you about it, and I guess he wasn’t far enough away. He’s just worried about us... herbivores, so he’s been staying close to us, even when he...probably shouldn’t.”
As she talked said creature shrank down from elephant-sized eagle to strange horse-sized creature, gaining rear legs and numerous tentacles as he did so. With his usual embarrassment, he began the tedious process of squeezing himself back into hippogriff form. Nutmeg Inferno had seen it before - she was staring at the cat-taur's ornate staff, wondering what it was made of.
"Your friend is a thunderbird? Or some kinda... squid beastie?" Wild Draw shook her head in disbelief. "Your other friend here," she waved a paw at the earth mare, "was askin' about 'safe passage', but she ain't saying where to. You gotta understand there ain't no place on this island that ain't claimed and defended and not thrilled 'bout more mouths to feed."
Blaze Trails sighed: somehow they'd gotten deep into a miscommunication! "No no, we aren't settling here. Maybe I'm sayin' this all wrong? I just wanna know for sure that we folks can explore around here without being attacked or shooed out."
With a grateful nod to Blaze, the green-kerchiefed Set Sail explained: “We’re quite capable of feeding ourselves. There aren’t enough of us to even bother a village; we’re just the crew of one very lost ship. We’re here to learn more about this island, so we don’t um...”
“Some of us blundered into a place we thought was abandoned, and a whole buncha guys came outta the forest to see us off,” Blaze said frankly, “It must’ve looked like we were robbing the place, and I just wanted to find who watched over it, so we could let ‘em know we didn’t mean any harm.”
Blushing, Set Sail looked up at the cat-taur and said, “Y...yes. We might've gotten off on the wrong hoof. I just want to make sure we don’t do anything like that again.”
Azure remained silent once again, knowing her place by now when it came to negotiations: keep quiet, only speak when directly addressed, or when she had critical information. It was clear as day to her that this tribe was ready to fight: experienced in battle and even better armed than the sphinxes. Potentially, good allies... if negotiations went well. It had been a rough start, but perhaps... Azure seemed calm now, though her wings twitched: she'd still prefer to be in the air.
"Explorin'? Next yer gonna say yer adventurers, right?" The darker fur on the male warrior's face made him look vaguely like a giant raccoon, an impression that his sneering cackle did little dispell. His superior scowled but did nothing to reign Double Blind in.
"Hey hey maybe they're just curious!" Lucky Bet called out as he caught up with the group. "They look harmless en- Ah, my poor hogs! Hey Squealer, Boxer, you stop fightin' right now or-" The feline farmer stared fearfully at Reef Skimmer for a moment, then ran off in the direction of the pig pens, trying desperately to calm the still-agitated porcines.
Blaze squinted askance at Double Blind, then chuckled and shaking her head. "Nah, nah, we're not here to do any looting - we have enough enemies as is. We'd prefer to remain in your good graces, so I'm hoping we can clear up any miscommunications we have left." She looked back at Reef, sighing with relief: it looked like the cats were standing down. "Anyway, raiding isn't how us ponies do things. If you've got no qualm with us we've got none with you."
Azure finally decided to speak up: "If we were to actually attack any creatures around here, it'd be creatures that attacked us first - namely, the drow." She nodded to Blaze Trails: "As my ally just mentioned... we don't have any problems with you. And I'd rather keep it that way: we're already figthing the pirates, we don't need more enemies. Honestly... they seem to be enemies with just about everyone around here." She sighed - why didn't these creatures just band together and eliminate the threat?
The centaur-like mage watched the conversation with an amused expression. "You must forgive our brave defenders for jumping to conclusions," he told the ponies. Seeing the Nutmeg fixated on his staff, he gave it a little shake and smiled as kirin's head bobbed up and down in response. "Unexpected visitors so often seem intent on looting what little we have left on Fellis. None have yet tried to talk their way out of the situation, but if they did, I wonder if they might claim to be 'explorers'?"
“You’re free to lock up any of us who thinks they can walk off with somepony’s treasure, no matter what they say,” Set Sail said grimly, “If I don’t get to them first. We are explorers, but not treasure hunters. The only thing we want to take with us is stories.” And artifacts, she omitted, because explaining that they were only interested in archaeological finds and free exchanges of diplomatic gifts was asking to be misunderstood.
“What is your staff made of?” Nutmeg asked abruptly. She shrank back at the renewed attention from its bearer, as if somehow surprised at getting it. “I mean what is its story? I mean...” she clarified, thinking hard, “In my village the matriarch said that every tree has a story and every stick has a tree, so I was just curious if there’s a story about what tree it came from and... everything...”
"Ah... you're a curious one aren't you?" Everdream rumbled "An artificer, perhaps? This stave... a relic of five generations past, from a time when tempering traptanium was the least of the mystic's talents. The crystal, attuned to Magic as only a living being might, now that's a treasure, pretty as the mounting might be."
“Oh, I’ve never even seen Traptanium before!” Nutmeg declared in excitement to the taur, heedless of Set Sail’s words and even of her own reticence a few seconds ago. “Five generations? That’s at least a hundred and fifty-five years! Most living trees aren’t even that old! And um... y-yeah the crystal is nice. I’m a... Tech Elemental though, so that part would probably go right over my head.”
"More like eleven score and change, miss... oh, I didn't get your name." the cat-taur said. "The horn of a unicorn, the scales of a dragon and the hooves of a deer, most curious," he added, stroking his chin as he admired the kirin.
“The horn of a unicorn?” Nutmeg asked in confusion, “No no, their horns are all spirally and unbranched. I’m a kirin, and my name’s Nutmeg! I’m afraid I did catch your name earlier. Pretty sure I’m supposed to ask for it first, but oh well.” She extended a yellow hooved, brown-furred, red-tufted foreleg, declaring: “Pleased to meet you mister Everdream!”
Wild Draw stared at the mage and his new student, then shook her head. She had more practical concerns: "I ain't lookin' to lock anyone up, what'd be the sense of that, they'd just need keepin' and feedin' forever. I'm just havin' a hard time believin' you'd be comin' all this way just ta tell tales and swap songs. 'Specially if you've run into trouble - drow was it? Get them buzzin' round here from time to time but they know better than to try their luck. Most of the time," the cougar hissed.
Blaze's ears perked up: she liked the sound of that. "Hmmm. Y'all good at keeping the Drow at bay?" She nodded with enthusiasm. "Yeah, our ultimate goal is to get the drow out of our hair, and it'd be a tall order do it on our own, so we're explorin' and makin' friends to see what all can be done. And it sounds like you'd appreciate if they got out of your fur permanently, right?" She smiled at Nutmeg and Everdream - mutual curiosity could be a great way to open up!
Azure cracked a smile: this was going in the right direction now. "A group successful at keeping the drow away, to the point they rarely even try their luck? Sounds good, really good..." Finally, another alliance - definitely worth chasing. But too many words could be just as bad as not enough, she thought, and the pegasus fell silent again.
“Imagine if we went to say, tell tales and swap songs with a certain drow pirate clan east of here,” Set Sail said dryly to Wild Draw, twirling a hoof as she thought of how to word it, “And they... caught us in traps, declared they were going to eat us, then attacked en-masse. I realize we might resemble sheep, but they been after us ever since, as if they can’t let one measely critter get away, just because they defended themselves.”
"Those broken elves are thieving conniving scum, every one of 'em, that's for sure." Wild Draw agreed, looking from Blaze Trails to Set Sail and ignoring the less practical conversation going on nearby. "But here's the way of it... sure they could attack the village, maybe take a slave or two, likely lose a drow or two. No sense paying that price when there's easier pickings elsewhere. And sure we could go after 'em, maybe shoot em down, maybe lose our ship. And we ain't got ships nor cats to spare, you know? Got bigger problems; sharks tryin' ta trash the place, stinkin' sneakin' spiders leechin off Dream's magic, griffs swooping in to poachi our sheep and- oh speak o' the devil." The Felissian warrior sucked her teeth at the sight of the grey hippogriff trotting their way, blue goo still showing in a band around his barrel but apparently keen to join the conversation anyway.
That made Azure uneasy again: the griffons were enemies of this tribe, and they had three griffs among their crew. They'd better clear that issue up fast, if they wanted allies. Much as she wanted to come to the doctor's defence, better to let the diplomats handle it...
Blaze Trails pondered the cat's words. The plan, as far as she knew, was that the ponies helped the sharks mine out what is clearly Felissian land. It seemed like these felines could hold their own against the Drow though, so... She hated to choose one over the other, but they should go with whoever'd make for more reliable allies, right? But... that was a conversation to have later, in private. For now she tested the waters: "So, ya feel like there's any chance of a quid pro quo here? We help out with your problems, you help out with ours?"
"Oh..." She nodded over to Reef as the gooey avian approached, "Hey, Reef. Sorry for the earlier shock - I think we're on the same page now. Did you want to ask these fine felines anything?"
Extending a wing, Set Sail not so subtly stepped in the way blocking Wild Draw’s path to Reef Skimmer, telling the biped: “This is my friend Reef Skimmer, who just walked past all of your unattended sheep and didn’t poach any of them. He’s also our ship’s doctor, and a very kind gentlecolt who only ever eats fish.”
"Err... yes. As the mare said," Reef Skimmer nodded. "One certainly has many questions..." he gave that felitaur an appreciative glance "...but perhaps they should wait; at least, until you've reassured your fellows that we come in peace." The griff pointed with a wing at the tree line, where several more of the bipedal cats and a second cat-taur had emerged and begun cautiously approaching.
"Sure, sure. You just keep your claws to yourself griff," the male warrior, his suspicion not so easily dismissed. "You want meat, you gotta trade for it." He looked around at the ponies, then laughed. "Though I guess the horse must be honest, otherwise you'd have made snacks of 'em all by now!"
“He isn’t making snacks of us because we’re his friends,” Set Sail said testily to Double Blind, “And I’m sorry about Blaze. We’ve been terribly beset by these drow, and a lot of my crew are looking for an easy end to it. Don’t listen to her; we’re not asking for your ship, or your fighters. If we ever have a plan to take down the pirates, then I’ll ask for your help. Right now I’m just asking for your friendship. Forgive me for saying this, but it seems like you Skylanders don’t have a lot of chance to make friends these days.”
"Skylanders!" Another harsh laugh from the junior guard. "Oh you got us rumbled, little horse, truly I'm Daring Blinder. Took down ten hundred eeeevil trolls just last month with me sweepin' shriekin' shuriken storm-o-doom, I did. Defenders of the Sklyands, just taking a breather, defending a field of pigsties for a bit," he said.
"Shut yer mouth, Doub," the lead warrior snarled, patience finally exhausted. "And you..." a gold-furred digit sporting a sharp sickle claw pointed at Blaze Trails. "I'm still not getting the sense of you waltzing in here, with yer..." the feline looked at Reef Skimmer and gulped "...griff that can turn into a thunderbird or vice versa or whatever you are."
Blaze Trails turned away and gave a sheepish hoof-wave to the gathering crows of felines. "Right, that we are, here in peace, I mean..." she stammered nervously. Exactly how do you prove for a fact that you're not here to cause trouble? At least Nutmeg seemed to be getting on alright with the spell-slinger: naive as she was, perhaps that would inspire confidence - assuming she didn't blab about the ponies' prior relationship with the sharks.
"A ki-rin! Not in any bestiary I've read, I do believe, but so much has been lost." Everdream told Nutmeg Inferno sadly. "Now, no need to be coy. We're both intelligent and reasonable creatures." he purred to Nutmeg. "Tell me truly, what is it you're in search of, here on Fellis?"
Nutmeg blinked, looking down at her hoof, then looking up at Everdream again. Then she lowered her hoof to stand on it again, saying uncertainly, “We’re here to find out about your island, so that we don’t do anything bad. And Blaze is here to apologise for when we almost did something bad, and maybe get back her tent. And I’m here to... help out if I can. I know Magic and Tech don’t get along, but maybe you have a little tech, and might not have anyone to repair it. Oh, and to see this island, because it’s really cool!”
"Did something... bad?" Everdream said with a charming smile. "So this is not the first time those pretty little hooves have touched the earth of Fellis? Do tell me, little Nutmeg, what calamity might have led to the loss of a precious tent."
“Uhm, well I–I wasn’t there, so you’d have to ask Blaze, she’s right over there,” Nutmeg said, sinking to her haunches and wringing her forelegs, looking away, “Sorry I really don’t know about the tent. We came here once before, looking for um-”
Blaze Trail gave Nutmeg a worried look before interrupting: "Err, well, hang on... no calamity happened, I just had to abandon it 'cuz I was being tailed by cats all the way from, because, uhh..." Her ears pricked up as she realised she might have admitted too much.
"Look, it was all a misunderstanding, okay? Swear I won't let anything like it happen again... Ahem... and Reef's just normal folk, good, honest, fine - what's the problem? You're going to distrust us just 'cause we're not from around here, that's that?" The earth mare tilted her head, her muscles tensing.
"Another kind of not-a-unicorn?" Everdream said playfully as he bent down to get a closer look at Blaze Trails, though one hand remained firmly on his staff. "And when was this game of hide-and-seek, winner takes tent? I'm sure I would've heard if a creature like you had come to play with us... ah, but maybe it was with the hunters of Frostglass Lake? ...to the east?" he suggested.
“I’m more like a not-a-sheep. She’s a not-a-unicorn. You can tell by the hooves,” Nutmeg offered to Everdream helpfully, glad to not be the centre of attention anymore.
Azure Feather just surveyed the scene quietly. That talk of alliances went south fast, she thought: Nutmeg and Everdream seemed to be building a rapport, then... ugh. She couldn't fault her squad - they were doing the best they could - but the pegasus slumped a little as she compared this negotiation with the last... four or so attempts at an alliance. Always the same: the Harmony's crew wasn't from the Skylands, instant distrust.
Sure the dragons had been helpful, the griffons were a possibility, but other than that... She honestly didn't know how Twilight and the elements had done it, befriending all those hostile creatures on Equestria's borders. For now she watched warily as a small crowd of the curious felines gathered in a loose circle around their group, ready to spring into the air and unleash her wind blades if negotiations failed. Reef Skimmer seemed to share her concern, subconsciously unfurling his wings.
Wild Draw stared for a moment, then relented: "Look, here's the way of it, you got something to trade, you can do it Hazel Glen. You got a serious offer o' some kind, sure, you can try and sweet talk Royal Flush. But I ain't gonna have strange creatures just wandering 'bout my turf, poking their snouts in ta whatever strikes their fancy. Whoever I have keeping an eye on ya, that's one cat not watchin' for sharks and such, ya get me?"
“You keep talking about watching for the sharks,” Set Sail said sceptically to lead warrior, keeping herself between the cat and Reef, “Are they attacking your villages? Or are they those looters you were talking about? We’ve run across those creatures before, but we really don’t know much about what they’re doing here. Other than that this island doesn’t seem quite... dry enough for their liking.”
"Hey! Trust ain't something you get for free!" Wild Draw said indignantly, but the green pony had already turned away, to jump into the conversation between the kirin and the felitaur. Annoyed, she turned on Set Sail: "Sharks'll take anything that strikes their fancy, iffing it's not nailed down or sometimes even if it is!" she accused. "Call it 'salvage', sounds nice like 'explorin' don't it? Sure, they don't generally go for killin', but they'll just go smashing up the mystic pillars like they don't want Fellis to ever-" The cat caught her tongue. "Like they have no respect for our territory," she finished lamely.
A touch of fear was creeping into Blaze: it seemed the only impression they'd managed to project was a bunch of nosy good-for-nothing critters. Given the feline's opinion of the sharks - it was gonna be a lot easier to piss them off than to make friends. "Well, look, uhh... I set up camp in the middle of nowhere, figured no one would be around to even take offense, really, and you should have seen how long they tracked me down, couldn't shake 'em at all, ahaha... but, yeah, it was over by the, uh, 'Frostglass Lake', I guess that's a different tribe from yours, so don't know if you even heard of it happening or not."
"Aha, I see," Everdream said sagely. "Alas, they are an insular bunch, even quicker to assume the worst of outsiders." Everdream said sadly. "Did you run into Arcana, per chance? The seer of Frostglass... a creature like myself."
Blaze shook her head: stuck inside the compound, she hadn't seen the mystic that had challenged Grenelda.
Azure just couldn't place these cats - why couldn't they just be friends, or attack for that matter? Why did it have to be this tense standoff, constantly afraid of saying the wrong thing? The doctor looked ready to rumble, and the feline guards as well, yet... Blaze was still talking, Nutmeg seemed happy. This could still go either way.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to touch a nerve, it’s just we really don’t know anything about this place,” Set Sail told Wild Draw with an apologetic wince. “Or the sharks, or pillars, or anything. And I promise we won’t be long. We might not even have anything to trade. Can we at least take a quick trot to this Hazel Gove, to find out what creatures are looking for? And if we come again, is there a better place to land other than your animal farm?”
"So was that your copter, that was buzzin' about? Should'a landed at the docks, if ya wanted ta trade." Wild said sullenly, finally putting her bow away. "We get friendly folk on occasion ya know, but they don't slip by and go sneakin' unsettlin' the livestock, not if they know what's good for 'em."
The Fellissian guard gave the newcomers another look over, sharing a tense stare with Reef Skimmer for a moment, before biting her lip and saying "So it be then. Doub and meself'll be escortin' you ta the hollow, now you behave yerselves and there won't be no trouble. Any funny business, you'll regret you ever thought'a messing with us, clear?"
“Well, the only problem is it’s... not our copter, per say,” Set Sail said, hesitant to accept the creature’s offer without warning her, “Remember when I said we got attacked by the pirates and uhm... defended ourselves? It’s the best way we have to get around right now, but... after one close call, we’ve been cautious about landing it at the dock of anyone who might think they were shooting some pirates right out of the sky. But we can definitely fly ourselves down to your dock. Most of our crew are fliers. I hope that won’t be a problem?”
"So lemme get this straight, a gang o' pirates came ta scoop ya up, an' ya turned the tables, rode off in their copter?" Wild said, eyebrow raised as she motioned the ponies to follow her down the track.
"Yeah I can see that goin' down, if ya had yer thunderbird keepin' watch." Double Blind said. "Tasty little horses as the bait and then zapp-zapp-zapp, barbequed elf am I right?"
"My good sir, I assure you that is not at all-" Reef began, before thinking better of it. "What one means to say is, griffs may be fierce but these little ponies, cute as they may be," Reef almost avoided glancing at Set Sail "...are surprisingly capable and tenacious."
"Sure, whatever you say, mister thunder-griff." Wild Draw said dismissively. "Bet they kick just fine - that is, if they're up against a shark that'll just stand there like a sack o' rocks and take it on the chin." Turning back to Set Sail, she said "So where ya parked now? Heard ya buzzing around but seems no cat saw you set down."
"Copter settled on Roulette Rock!" somecat called out from the crowd trailing them. "Near the bridge!"
"That be the case? Good place to spy from, ya were thinking? No... it's alright, no sense running back there now," she said before the pegasus could object. "Leave it there for now. You know what ta do, should ya be favouring us with another visit."
“Good place to reach your village, we were thinking, without landing on your sheep,” Set Sail replied, not even flicking an ear at the casual dismissal of pony bad-assery as she ambled along beside Wild Draw. “I’m really sorry for the confusion. I hope there’s something we can do to help out, or at least we could be somecreature who’s not giving you a hard time on these islands.”
Blaze Trails let out a sigh of relief as the tension eased off: it looked like the cats weren't such a grouchy bunch after all. "Should I stop by again and ask for this 'Arcana'?" she asked Everdream. "Anything we'd have to talk about?" As for Wild Draw - honestly she'd had no idea the sky dock was in active use, given its apparent age and abandonment. Lesson learned, right?
The feline taur followed a little way behind, flanked by the entranced kirin. "Oh, I think it would be best if I broached the subject, the next time the conclave assembles." Everdream told Blaze, before shooting Nutmeg an inquisitive look. "Or perhaps... I should make a special trip? What was that 'bad' thing you did, exactly?"
Blaze Trails thought it smarter to elide over the details and admit non-specific guilt - before Nutmeg could say anything to the contrary - so she lowers her head and looks embarrassed. "'fraid we didn't know what was and wasn't abandoned 'round these parts. Honest mistake, and we won't be intruding on feline territory again."
“They thought we were griffons, I guess?” Nutmeg answered the friendly taur uncertainly, not even a secondary source of the events in question, “Or... sent by the griffons? Reef Skimmer looks kind of like a griffon, from the front at least. I didn’t think the griffons were at conflict with Fellis, but... you’d have to ask Reef exactly what they said. Either him or Azure, the blue and purple uni—uh—pegasus there. They were there, I think.”
Well... hostilities averted, at least for now, Azure thought. Yet they weren't out of the woods yet. She had no doubt there would be more of the same in this 'Hazel Grove'. The pegasus followed along, silent as ever - thought she couldn't help snorting at Wild Draw's dismissal of pony fighting ability. She'd be sure to make sure that cat change her tune, if she decided to attack Azure's squad. Cats and sharks... she didn't know who to trust less. They were in a tough spot when the sphinxes - monsters from pegasus legend - seemed like their best bet.
On an island floating high in strange skies, far beyond the borders of Equestria, an unusual procession was making its way through the forest. In the lead, a pair of creatures that could be cougars save for their ornate armour and bipedal gait: Wild Draw and Double Blind, defenders of Fellis. Following close behind were a pair of small equines with feathered wings at their sides: Set Sail, reluctant leader of the Cloudbreaks Expedition, and Azure Feather, guardsmare of the Lavender Blades.
Then came an earth pony and a kirin, flanking a curious purple creature that joined humanoid torso to quadrupedal body, like a feline cousin to a centaur. The two mares chattered happily with the mystic, who punctuated his explanations with gestures of his ornate, crystal-topped staff. Next was Reef Skimmer, the grey eagle-horse keeping a close eye on the felines, managing to conceal his aberrant physiology for the time being. Finally a small crowd of curious cats followed behind: two of the centaur-like 'mystics' and several of the smaller bipedal kind.
They proceeded south down a rough track, emerging onto a more substantial throughfare; the cobbled road leading from the ruined city to the west to the island's central lake to the east. A few minutes heading east, before they turned off onto another more travelled track, heading south towards the village nestled on the shores of the smaller lake.
As they rounded the final turn the settlement presented itself as a sweeping barricade of tangled trunks: a dense barrier of twisted branches that reached several metres above their heads. The wide wooden gates stood open, but cats crouched on platforms in the trees, eyes bright and bows at the ready. Wild Draw made the necessary reassurances and explanations, and they proceeded through into the village proper.
It was on a scale comparable to the gillfolk town, several dozen buildings perched in trees and stepping down to the shore, where a jetty extended into the rippling waters of the lake itself. Arbortecture was present in abundance, with trees shaped into support columns, platforms, sky bridges, even complete buildings. Some structures seemed primitive with thatched rooves and hanging furs, while others were built of carved stone and gleaming metal.
Salvage was clearly present throughout the settlement, but different from Witchway Marsh, which gave the impression of being assembled from the cast-off junk of civilisation. Here the materials and artefacts had been carefully selected and refurbished, no doubt rescued and repurposed from the decaying metropolis nearby.
Cats were all around, climbing and staring and whispering as the newcomers came into their domain. They were curious, to be sure, but less startled than the gillfolk had been - either more used to strange visitors, or less prepared to admit it. The majority shared the golden fur of the first two guards, but others had the colouration of panthers, tigers or patterns the ponies didn't recognise.
Blaze Trails looked all around as she trotted along, clearly impressed: "Hmmm, well this is some fancy usage of foliage to construct a village. Nice place, very natural-feeling." Very salvaged-feeling too, she noted: like the remnants of former civilization have been repurposed over and over. That bigger city might be interesting to explore - another time, and hopefully after confirming that it wouldn't be another transgression. She'd have to get herself back in the other tribe's good graces later, and for now take advantage of our warm-enough welcome here.
The group came to a halt in roughly the centre of the settlement, where Everdream spoke out and began to tell the others of these 'ponies' who'd come looking for aid following an escape from the drow. He seemed quite comfortable with the role of storyteller and Set Sail was happy to let him make the first introduction.
"Keep an eye on 'em Doub," Wild Card told her subordinate, "I'll go see what's keeping Royal Flush."
"Yeah, to be sure," the male cat replied, still looking worried by the presence of the weird griffon and/or thunderbird. "They'd be crazy to try anything here."
"Can't say we ain't seen some crazy creatures in our time," Wild muttered as she loped away.
Blaze's sensitive ears easily picked up the cat's conversation. "Indeed: we're here at your benevolence," she told Double Blind. "Wouldn't dream of tryin' anything outlandish. We meetin' Royal Flush in a moment, then?"
"Gotta agree, Blaze." Those were the first words Azure Feather had spoken in a while - she also looked quite impressed at the literal forest village they stood within. Still, the pegasus know her place here: she was the guard. The one that would pull their hides from the fire if things went poorly. Not the diplomat. With that in mind, Azure left it at that, concentrating on the surrounding crowd. They didn't seem to be harbouring hostility... yet.
“Thanks so much for showing us your village,” Set Sail said with tactful but honest gratitude towards Double Blind, “We’ll try not to be a bother.” She trotted over to Reef Skimmer, leaned cautiously towards her friend and subtly murmured in his ear, “Don’t try anything, by the way.” Then she turned to the others saying: “I’m going to see what these creatures are getting up to, to get an idea of what they need and who lives here. I don’t suppose we should split up, for our um... escort’s sake. Anything you’d like to do here?”
“Doesn’t look like there are a lot of machines, but there’s an iron hammer ringing off in that direction,” Nutmeg said, “Probably a blacksmith. So anyone who works with metal will know what little it is I can do around here.”
“I just wanna know what you cat people are up to,” Blaze said, looking more to any curious villagers than her fellow explorers, “Find out what’s been happenin' lately, and what adventures you’ve gotten up to. Especially in those ancient places outside these walls here. I wonder if any of you could enlighten a curious traveller.”
A certain cat's ears pricked up at that. Clad in worn canvas clothing with fur spotted like a leopard, she slunk up to Blaze Trails. "You're looking for adventures? Need a guide?" the fellissian said brightly. "Could ya see fit ta plumb the catacombs beneath the grand ruins of Fellis City? Or maybe yer all looking for a tour of the old arena, where the champions of centuries past fought for fame and glory and riches untold? Could even see fit ta take ya down to see the Oracle." She winked, "Now there's a sight every creature should see - that is if the sphinxes ain't in a mood this moon. All I ask is a little gold, and for a little more I can set you up with provisions-"
The spotted cat was cut off by the arrival of a new figure, a tall and striped feline cutting his way through the crowd while an angry-looking creature followed after. "Hey, hey! You can't just walk out on me, Flush!" the creature complained - definitely not a cat, she looked more like a bipedal tanuki. "I'm not gonna send one more shipment until you agree to-" The mabu's rant was cut off by Wild Draw casually interposing herself between the two.
Blaze Trails tilted her head, listening to the cat's offering - though the moment she asked for payment, the pony's expression soured. "Ah, no, I don't believe I'll be able to pay, sorry, though thank you for the offer." If anything, she'd scout the places out herself and offer the same service, cheaper! She didn't need a guide, she was the guide... though that too could wait. Ears flicking, the mare turns to turned to watch the newcomers.
"Cool it, Taleena," the stiped cat purred. "Take a little break, enjoy our hospitality. As you can see, many creatures are in need of my attentions. Things will work out just fine, don't you worry."
The mabu caught sight of the ponies and stared for a moment, before spluttering: "What? Who are these beasts? You can't just- I had an appointment! Do they have an appointment?!" Royal Flush just waved a paw, signalling Wild Draw to lead the infuriated trader away. The spotted cat who'd been trying to talk to Blaze Trails shrank back into the crowd, waiting to see what would happen.
"Always a pleasure to meet new frriiends," the tiger-like Fellisian purred as he strode over to Reef Skimmer, looking the hippogriff up and down as if appraising a piece of art. "Though I do hear a few rumours about griffons and goats roosting in places they shouldn't, oh, just the other day." Smiling down at the ponies, he said "But that can't be referring to these well-mannered creatures I see before me, can it?"
Azure Feather shot a brief glare at Royal Flush - goats, again? - then stepped close, whispering in the Captain's ear: "Need a bodyguard?" First time in a foreign culture, especially of predators - bipedal predators, she knew that was a big deal for Set Sail - it couldn't be easy for her. If the pegasus would rather stand alone, well... it wouldn't sit well with Azure, but the Captain's word was law.
Set Sail made a silent gesture with a wing, indicating that the blue pegasus should keep close. “Pleased to meet you too,” Set Sail she said warily, just a little sideways to the bipedal tiger-creature. “Royal Flush, I presume? We don’t mean to interrupt your appointments. We just... we’re just travellers from a very distant land, who don’t know our way around these islands. Blaze um... B-Blaze knows it best. You want to tell him what happened, Blaze?”
Blaze sized up Royal Flush, admiring the sleek tiger physique and clear confidence - caught red handed, if only he knew! Probably best to come clean if they were going to start fresh. "Ah, yeah, that'd be us." She gestured with a circling hoof, looking apologetic, but still steadfast. "See, thing is and all, we're new to this island and didn't know a clue about the local culture. Didn't know what was and wasn't abandoned, and thought we'd take a look around, checked out a temple, and got chased out by the local cats. We're lookin' to make up for it, if it's possible." That was well mannered, right? Maybe she'd get the benefit of the doubt if she was polite enough.
"Seeking to atone for past indiscretions, you say? Aren't we all." Royal Flush raised an eyebrow at the earth pony, before laughing heartily. "Swift Claw's wound up tight with sharks spitting in his face and Arcana whispering in his ear, and what do you do? Blunder in and roost in the mystic's most precious spot on the whole island!"
"Most dangerous spot." Everdream corrected. "If one doesn't count Ne'kuno's moods or the Pyramid of Gnosym itself."
"Oh indeed, indeed," the striped cat admitted, before extending a paw to the pegasi. "Royal Flush, mayor of the fine settlement of Hazel Grove, not to mention the great city of Fellis, such as it is. Blaze, is it?" A quick shake of hoof in padded paw. "What a fine day to meet new creatures... and who's your quiet friend here?" he gestured at the doctor.
"Reef Skimmer, officer in Queen Novo's Royal Navy, at your service," Reef said stuffily. He wasn't sure what to make of these cats, though the variation in fur patterns and anatomical details was certainly fascinating. "Hippogriff, you know - though we have griffons among our crew as well." He gave Azure a quick look, twitching his wings and flexing a claw as if to indicate that he was ready for things to get ugly, if it came to that.
Royal Flush seemed to pick up on the gesture as well: he took a step back, raised one paw, extended his claws and absent-mindedly licked them. "An unlikely bunch you are, to be sure. Cat's you aren't, yet curious as us you seem to be, dropping in uninvited then coming back to try your luck with a different pride."
Blaze Trails winced at what felt like a rebuke, but everyone seemed to be smiles and laughter afterwards. How was she supposed to know they were doing something so hopelessly dangerous?! But... it looks like she could relax, as these cats seemed more interested in new friends than retribution.
Blaze let her haunches slump a bit, then trotted up to offer a hoof shake of her own. "Blaze Trails, explorer, yeah. And if I had any idea at all I was doin' something that reckless I wouldn't have, swear. We had no intention of making a bad first impression - we want to live in peace with ya, and we'll do what's necessary for it." Though she thought to herself: 'and if we can't have that, then don't get upset when we go all-in on appeasing the sharks!'
Azure tried to suppress any outward sign of hostility as she stared at that flexing claw. Fighting so many cats at once, including several casters - it was a losing proposition, and since Royal Flush seemed happy to negotiate... hopefully it wouldn't be necessary. The worst thing she could do now was blurt something out and derail the Captain's efforts.
“We came on a mission to explore these lands, and encountered some... disastrous issues, that heavily damaged our ship,” Set Sail said, not quite looking at the capable seeming if shifty feline, “Our surveyors hadn’t seen any signs that this island chain was inhabited at all, but not a day after we moored on an island, we learned there were creatures still living here! Not a week later, we learned there were drow living here, and... that they were pirates looking to capture us or worse. So we’ve been kind of stranded ever since, and on the run from them to boot. It hasn’t been the best experience.”
“Griffons have been on peaceful terms with ponies for centuries, in Equestria!” Nutmeg offered, “The ones in our crew are not any of the griffons you’ve had problems with before. They’re not sheep poachers, to say the least."
"I do so prefer meeting civilised creatures," Royal Flush purred, "though I think of myself as an educated cat, and I've never heard tell of this 'Equestria'." The tiger-like 'mayor' shot a curious look at Everdream, but the big felitaur just shook his head. "Nor seen creatures quite like you before. Your kingdom must be far around the rim."
A pause as the tiger-man thought things over, then he ventured: "Far from home with a damaged ship, a sticky situation to be sure. Good thing you found us." Another smile that showed a few too many sharp teeth for Set Sail's liking. "You need provisions, parts, repairs... healers? I'm suuure that can be arranged. For the right consideration."
Blaze Trails cocked an amused grin at Royal Flush's incredulity. For the natives It must be frankly unbelievable that there was anything beyond that raging storm: she didn't blame him at all, and it didn't seem worth correcting. Ship repairs wasn't exactly her area, but she wondered exactly how much tech these cats had... "You have cats trained in shipwrighting, I take it?" She'd leave asking about payment until they'd confirmed there was a deal to make here.
"No better carpentry than here in the Grove," a random cat piped up from the crowd, "an' solid smithin' too, if what you got in mind ain't too fancy."
“R-right now we’re looking to find that um, consideration,” Set Sail said nervously, shrinking back from the intimidating fellow. “We can’t ask for your help i-if you don’t know us, and all. None of our crew’s in critical condition, s-so we have some time. W-we just need to learn what it is we can do for you. And learn more about... this island and...”
"The sad tale of Fellis, that's what you're thirsting for? Ask any of the mystics," Royal Flush gestured at Everdream, "but make yourself comfortable, they'll spin tales though day and night if you let them." A throaty chuckle. "So it seems you came all this way with no goods to trade or tribute with which to purchase allegiance? Or... was that lost in your terrible accident. Such a sad tale weighs on my heart." Laughter murmured over the surrounding crowd, leaving the ponies with an unpleasant feeling that they were being toyed with.
"Alas, unless you have a whole herd of architects and a thousand tonnes of marble - or a flock of griffons eager for long-term mercenary work - I do fear the restoration of Fellis is beyond your means. No matter! Not all trades must be so grand, for sure you will find business to conduct here in Hazel Grove. Oh and don't worry," the mayor winked at Blaze Trails, "I'll let Swift know he was all afeared over nothing. Just a perfectly friendly thunder-griffon and his knife-wielding horse friends. Now... was there anything else?"
Blaze Trails thought to herself: 'Well, it's true - We didn't exactly came here to trade or set up local industries - we came here to explore, and we lost most of what was involved in THAT when it went overboard. So as far as diplomatic relations go, we've basically been winging it ever since. Still, you don't have to rub it in, mister.'
Externally, she was all smiles: "Much as we'd like to solve all yer problems, we're trying to deal with our own first." A weak, unnerved chuckle. "Still, if we can do business, we shall, thank you; and your sending of approval is much appreciated." She still felt an urge to go apologise to the other tribe in person (not to mention rescue her tent), but that can come later.
“T-thank you for your time,” Set Sail said, not exactly trembling but certainly not looking the tiger fellow in the eye, “That–that’s all we’re asking. We’re not miracle workers, j-just some stranded travellers who are trying to... g-get by. We’ll make sure to use your dock to trade, a-and...” okay maybe a little trembling.
Was there anything else? The other things she was curious about - the cats' relationship to the pillars and laser pyramid in the north, how it might be entered, and what other landmarks around here may or may not be guarded - well, it seems a bit tactless to just ask probing questions upfront, so she keeps her mouth shut for now. ...Though, it has been nagging at her, and it seemed safe to ask: "Those pillars up north - chock full 'o crystals and rare ores and such - never seen anything like 'em in my life. Are they natural or...?"
At the mention of the pillars, Royal Flush instantly went from relaxed to alert, staring intently at the little earth pony. "So, you've been poking around Spellshatter Flats as well? Let me guess, you just wandered in there by accident, and the fates were nice enough to steer you clear of the Judging Eye's gaze? Oh no, I'm sure you had no thought of say testing our defences, or making off with the Hope." he hissed. The crowd went silent as the tension ratcheted up. Several guards took a cue from their leader and shifted into more prominent poses, while the mystics present tightened their grips on their staves.
Blaze Trails froze up, as tense can be. Time for some quick thinking. "Dunno what you're trying to get at, Royal Flush -" She rubbed at the top of her head with a hoof. "I just thought they were pretty and wanted to ask about 'em. Never seen anything like them in my life before we passed by in our airship." Now this is obviously a lie, at least if that laser was shootin' down everything that got close, but if Royal Flush knew they were working with the sharks, surely he would have lead with it. Maybe she just had a really good spyglass?
“Oh, Blaze didn't go up there. It was me and a few others,” Nutmeg piped up informatively for the fierce cat man, “We all saw it when the sharks gave us a tour!” The red ruffed kirin gave an unsure look to Royal Flush, then she turned to the nice hexapedal kitty instead, saying, “I didn’t think it would have a big giant beam of death! The maser was pretty easy to dodge actually, but boy did it surprise us! We were just going up to look at the pillars, but the pyramid thing had other ideas. We got out of there as soon as it started opening fire. Sorry it... blew up one of those pillars while we were running away. I hope that’s not a problem. They’re so pretty! Do they grow up like that by themselves?”
"You blew up one of the-" the tiger-mayor snarled, before cutting himself off. "So now the sharks are just swell guys happy to giving you... creatures a tour of our island? Any other minor incidents you'd... like to disclose? I don't suppose you accidentally snuck into the Glade and slipped a few clovers into your bags? Relieved Ne'kuno of her precious Oracle because you thought it would make a nice souvenir?" The crowd began to thin out, civilians retreating to their huts, leaving guards with bows and knives at the ready, watching their 'guests' intently.
Everdream gave the little kirin a sad look - it seemed to him that she genuinely wanted to be petted - then called out "Oh now come on, Flush! This is paranoia talking. They clearly don't have a clue between them. The fates must favour them, that they're still alive to tell the tale!"
Royal Flush didn't buy it. "Sure, sure. That's just what they want you to think. You always were a sap for a good sob story, 'Dream." He raised a paw to point at Reef Skimmer. "Now griffon, any cat will tell you, I'm not one to favour unnecessary violence. On account of your good manners, I'm giving you a chance to fly out of here with no blood spilled. Any of us see you on Fellis again, it'll be the last thing you do, understand?"
Blaze Trails held her head under a hoof, fuming for a moment. Damn it all! She thought they were being nice and willing to let bygones be bygones, but they're just as trigger-happy as any other cat here. Though if she put her hoof in it, it was Nutmeg who set the whole thing on fire - well true to form, she supposed.
If there was any silver lining, it's that it was probably never going to work out in the first place, right? Ha - to think that one of other the things they'd been shotgun-accused they kinda actually did, too! It was enough to make a pony cry. Still, if she's going to get a lashing from her allies later, she guessed she'd earned it: this was a hell of a lot of effort to put to waste, after all.
Azure Feather was back on high alert; damnit Blaze, why on Equus did you ask that, even she knew better. Set Sail got the tiger to offer the olive branch, then Blaze pissed on it and Nutmeg blew it up. The pegasus just shook her head in silence as the entire diplomatic effort was burnt to ashes in moments - anything she could say now would only make things worse. Cursing her inability to help in these moments, she looked to her Captain for orders. As expected, Set Sail's face made it clear: nothing left. Everything wasted. Best to just leave.
Nutmeg wouldn't let it go so easily. "What sob story?” the kirin demanded angrily, rounding on the tiger-striped cat, “It was awesome, and nobody got killed! I’m sorry your pillar got blown up but we were just trying to dodge the beam! And I’m the one who was up there, so you should be sending me away not him! Reef didn’t even know about it!” Blinking, she added, “Uh but I’ll die if you make me fly out of here by myself, so one of my friends will have to help with that.”
Reef Skimmer reared up, wings flaring out and folding protectively around Set Sail and Nutmeg as he came down between them. "Now listen here, cat, you have no idea what you're dealing with!" he bellowed. "You think a few arrows comprise a threat? So did the drow, and they met a sticky end indeed!" His bird feet had reverted to bunched of bright blue tentacles. "If this parlay is concluded then so be it! We will go in peace... unless you would prefer otherwise!" The griff's feathers were puffed out and his body tensed, no doubt ready to charge the guards.
"I'll take them to the docks!" Everdream volunteered, in a magically-amplified voice that boomed across the village. "There is no need for slaughter! Come now, are we civilised creatures or not?" he implored, pulling his staff away from where it had been touching his throat.
“He just said we could go in peace, Reef,” Nutmeg growled, “As completely a bad idea as that is. I can’t believe that knowing someone else who was nearby one of the pillars when something else exploded it is a death sentence around here. No wonder this place is falling apart.”
Blaze Trails, with a defeated look, gestured to Reef Skimmer. "Yeah... let it go, Reef, before they change their minds. Let's not make a fight out of it if they don't want one." Are we civilised creatures or not, indeed? Well, so much for that.
Set Sail was pretty much nonverbal at this point, just curled up in a ball against Reef Skimmer's left hind leg.
After a mass staring contest that seemed to go on forever, Royal Flush waved his assent to the mystic. Azure Feather watched sadly as the feline-taur lead her the squad out through the gates, with cats pointing arrows at them the whole time. "No need for a battle - not here, not now," she said, her tone as defeated as she looked. They'd tried friendship, and it had failed them - time to turn to alternate tactics.
The senior mystic, a centaur-like creature with feline features and purple fur, lead the way out of the village. Nutmeg Inferno trotted at his heels, while Reef Skimmer gingerly lifted the shaking Set Sail and placed the pegasus on his back, cooing softly to her in the hope it might calm the mare. Azure and Blaze brought up the rear, the former wary of surprise attack, the later shaking her head sadly at another failure attempt to negotiate with the Fellissians.
Two dozen bipedal cats watched them go, with arrows nooked to their bows and long knives held ready. The wooden gates thumped shut behind them, though not before a whole squad of warriors and another of the mystics emerged to follow them to the docks. A short trip north to the ancient road, then they were heading west towards the city - ironically, where Nutmeg had wanted to go in the first place.
Blaze Trails, mind swimming in self-reflection, gave Set Sail a weary look. "...Apologies, Captain. I had no idea I could screw it up so badly with just one line of inquiry. I feel about as blind as it gets." Another sigh, "...Though I hate to say it, but I was thinking as well, if they were that hair-trigger even after being so nice and welcoming, then maybe it was inevitable. I don't wanna excuse myself at all - I wouldn't have done it if I knew." She was still trying to understand what the hell just happened; Everdream didn't seem as paranoid as that tiger 'mayor', so maybe he could explain.
Azure Feather shared the sentiment - though most of her attention was on the guards trailing them, she was sad to see perhaps their best chance at an alliance slip away. The cats were armed, trained, numerous, clearly willing to fight the drow - now their only options were the gold-hungry mercenary disaster of the land-sharks and the cryptic, aloof and presumably scarce sphinxes. Even if they could deliver what the sharks wanted, how reliable were they, when the drow could just offer more treasure? And the dragons were busy with their 'core of light', the fish-folk scared into submission and who knew if they'd see the native griffons again... Another slow shake of her head: there was no one they could rely on out here.
"So tell me, little kirin, what really happened out in the desert?" Everdream said quietly, making sure the trailing guards could not hear him. "I could not say, for fear that Flush would descend further into paranoia but... I keep note of the openings of the Eye, and it has not since the sharks last brought their brutish mechanisms to plunder our Hope."
Sighing, Nutmeg said, “We saw them mining the pillars, and they told us they'd fix their ship if we figured out how to disable the pyramid. The captain said no, obviously. She could explain why, but she was traumatized by bipedal creatures as a foal, so I don’t know how long it’ll take for her to become operational again.”
“I’m fine!” Set Sail sobbed angrily, still held in Reef’s embrace, “They were just being predators! They were just being their natural predator monster—we were trying to save you!!” She curled up again, unable to continue further.
"Now Sails, you know it's not like that," Reef said soothingly. "What would Grenelda and Gustus think, if they could hear you now?"
"You wouldn't be the first creatures, to be sewn up in a fool's bargain by those cursed sharks." Everdream told Nutmeg, his voice somewhere between a purr and a growl. "Why, when I was a kit they would delight in providing 'lines of credit' to Fellissian families struggling to make their way in this world. Certainly the fuel and parts and conveniences came, followed by ever-increasing demands for payment as the terms of the agreement became apparent."
"The sharks anticipated their 'customer's' inability to pay. They generously accepted payment in pilfered artefacts - making our own people do the theft for them and pay the price if they were caught. Very efficient." He sighed. "Royal Flush put a stop to that at least. Yet... it bought only a brief respite, before they switched to even more destructive methods."
“Credit schemes are illegal in Equestria,” Nutmeg told Everdream sullenly, “We were only gonna exchange labour for parts, at most. The captain was worried they weren’t telling us everything though. We don’t even know if the pyramid is defending the pillars at all, since it’s also destroying them. We didn’t want to help the sharks mine all that Uberite, without even learning the what the pillars are there for. I guess I ruined our chances of that.”
They were approaching the gates of the city now, or at least the portal where grand gates had once stood. The ornate towers remained, though the arch above was broken. Statues of cats and cat-taurs twice as large as life stretched out their paws in invitation, their happy faces obscured by centuries of rain and moss.
Blaze chuckled a little at Reef's gentle admonishment. Maybe it made a difference that griffons didn't have teeth. Nevertheless, Everdream's conversation has her attention, and it sounded like this time she could ask safely: "You're talkin' about how they're clearing the pillars out up north, right? Will something happen if they're all gone?" Namely, she's curious as to if the protection of the pillars is superstition or serious.
Everdream considered the question for a moment. "I don't believe so," he told Blaze. "Many of my kind would never admit this, but... I for one put little stock in superstition or obfuscation, even as tools to placate the ignorant." He looked affectionately at Nutmeg, sensing a kindred spirit in this regard. "In truth the true purpose of the pillars is a matter of speculation. We do know that were not present before the Catacylsm, and that they slowly appeared in the following years."
"There is a... tradition, shall we say, that the mystics of old created them as the island's salvation, the keystone of their plan to restore our former glory. A lovely idea... but if so, the details have been lost to time. We can safely assume, I think, that if destroying the pillars would result in calamity, the Eye would not be so ruthless in its pursuit of invaders. No... us Fellissians are more worried about a dream denied, than catastrophe anew." Everdream stared at the elegant city they now glimpsed through the empty gateway. "Not that it is any less dangerous. When a people have lost so much... dreams can be as dangerous as fears."
Blaze Trails listened attentively: "mmmm, yeah... I get the impression you cat folks are on a razor's edge. Picked on from all sides by opportunists and predators and with nothing but your prior memories to cling on to. So I guess that's the gist of why Royal Flush snapped." Another deep sigh: it was still a near and close terror to fumble so hard. "It honestly seems like most folks are strugglin' in this wider world. It's too bad - I don't think we all have to be on edge but scarcity demands being at each other's throats."
"I must bear part of the responsibility," the felitaur said nobly, "I was so eager to learn of your kind and your lands, it did not occur to me you might benefit from preparation, before speaking to our leaders."
Blaze Trails nodded, "It's fine. ...I kind of get the impression that it'd have come crashing down one way or another, no matter what. But maybe I'm just rationalisin' it. Haha. Still, if there's no hard feelings between you and us, maybe it's not all for nought."
“If I ever find out,” Nutmeg said beside Everdream, in renewed passion, “...If I ever find out what the pillars are there for, then I’ll make sure you know about it, and then you won’t need to speculate anymore.” Her ears drooped as she added, “If I ever see you again, at least. You’re the nicest mystic I’ve ever met!”
"Well thank you, little kirin! No hard feelings indeed - if I take you at your word." A moment of tension, then Everdream laughed. "I jest. Though you would do well to ignore any further 'deals' those sharks might offer. They are ruthless... and the Eye is merciless, unfeeling spellwork." He sighed. "You know, Fellis was once a beacon of civilisation on the eastern fringe - now it is at the heart of a badlands."
They were now in the Old City of Fellis itself, travelling down a broad avenue lined with extravagant buildings. It had clearly been a wonder in its day, stone and wood all carved with elaborate patterns, rising in swooping curves and spires now broken by age and invaders. The builders had clearly loved the idea of multiple levels, placing steps and ramps and balconies everywhere, not just inside the buildings. Alas many of the sky bridges that had once criss-crossed above the streets now lay as broken masonry or rotting timber.
The felitaur considered for a moment. "I do not envy your position. If it's parts you need, perhaps you might find them in Metalania, except... no, it is far to the south." Another pause as he thought things through. "Your best hope would likely be a troll town, one not yet under the thumb of the Kaosians."
Nutmeg shuddered at that, saying, “I don’t even want to know what happens when you evilise a troll. That sounds terrifying. Anyway, thanks. We’ll... be careful around the sharks. They are ruthless, but I really do think there’s some good in them. If only they could let themselves be what they could be.”
Blaze Trails pondered, glancing over to Set Sail and Nutmeg. Given all their unfinished business... it seems unlikely they'd just pack up and leave. Even if they took Everdream's advice and bailed on the shark's deal, they couldn't abandon Summer Scribe. Still, it never hurt having options, so after a while she piped up: "...And which way would we fly for that?"
It took the best part of an hour to complete the trek back to the copter. The cat-centaur led them through the semi-ruined, not-quite-abandoned city to the northern gates, and from there the half-kilometre to the edge of the island. Here the road ended in a suspension bridge stretching to the outlying island, while a little way east stood the air docks. A collection of sky piers, landing platforms, warehouses and workshops in various states of decay, the docks had clearly been a prosperous and bustling hub at some point in the past.
One hangar in particular bore the signs of recent use, but the guards tailing the group had closed up, and no-one wanted to risk their ire by asking further questions. Instead they bid Everdream farewell, Nutmeg in particular rearing up for a quick hug. Then Reef Skimmer scooped her up; at Azure's request he took Blaze Trails as well, transforming back into his roc shape to carry them both the short distance to where the Second Chance lay hidden. Set Sail flapped shakily behind, watched carefully by Azure Feather.
“We’ll try to come back somehow!” Nutmeg called back to Everdream as Reef took off beneath her, “Just you wait! You’ll let us come back one day, and we’ll be friends for sure!” She settled forward silently then for the duration of the flight, perhaps not as confident of that as she sounded. Azure Feather shot the kirin a sceptical look, the tilt of her head seeming to wonder if the kirin really believed it to be a realistic possibility. She said nothing though, concentrating on making sure everycreature made it back to the ship.
The two spooky ponies watched silently as their comrades came in to land. Soon the group was reunited on the tiny floating islet the captain had chosen to land the copter on. Clashing Gale, for one, was happy to see the squad safely back on the ship. He had a hopeful look on his face as he waited to hear if they'd gained a new ally in the western tribe of cats - yet as the others approached, that hope died. It was clear just by looking at their faces that this was yet another attempt at an alliance that had not borne fruit. "Good to see you're safe, crewmates," was all he managed to say. Alliances or no, they still had each other, and that was the most important part.
Cloud Cutter stood on the top of the deck, watching the group approach; at first uncertain why they returned so soon, but their expressions and words quickly make it clear. Blaze Trails hung her head under the purple mare's empty-eyed gaze. "I'm sorry, it was my fault." Her ears went up as she tried to inject some enthusiasm back into the discussion: "But we can make do without 'em - we still have the tunnels Summer Scribe was talking about to investigate. If we can't make it with the Cats, we can make it with the Sharks, I hope."
Set Sail, still a bit shaky, muttered under her breath: "Should have known better..."
"Indeed." Reef nodded to Clashing as he slowly transformed back into hippogriff form. "One must say it was touch and go for a moment back there. Abyssinians are fickle at the best of times, but something's got those damned kitty-cats wound up tight and spitting at shadows." An annoyed frown, then "All quiet here I trust?"
"Correct, Doctor." Clashing Gale replied. "Helps that we landed well out of the way, got to say that was a smart move. But... no luck with the cats, huh? Damn... thought you might-" His voice cut off as Azure Feather glared at him - the batpony had been against allying with the cat tribes, while she had supported. Clashing just shook his head quietly, deciding to leave it at that.
“I can't believe they don't even know what the pillars are for,” Nutmeg said in frustration, pacing in circles by the copter as she tried to think, “Why would anyone be so defensive of something that was just a rumour? Was Everdream just lying to us? I bet he was in on it!” She slowed to look nervously at the northern arm of the island, adding: “I hope we didn’t do something terrible in destroying them.”
“If you ask me, those pillars are probably just that: legend, and the kitties don’t know any better,” Blaze said confidently, “I seen their sort before, and they’ll believe a funny lookin’ melon is a sign from above. Sorry: it was a mistake to try and apologise to them, but at least now we know the pyramid’s not guarding anything except old mare’s tales.”
Cloud Cutter flicked a hoof dismissively. "My guess would be that the pyramid itself was important, culturally and perhaps even practically significant, to the civilisation they used to have here. Since it fell, things have been running on inertia. You said they didn't even exist until recently? As Blaze said, the cats are probably ascribing intent to a natural process - even if 'natural' around here is very different to what we're used to in Equestria. In any case, we must do what is necessary to survive. We can be more respectful of cultural superstitions once the pirates are gone."
Reef Skimmer frowned: "One is certainly no expert in geology or magical monuments, but... one can't shake the feeling there is something going on here that we're missing, even if the contemporary inhabitants have forgotten its nature."
“Whatever. We tried, and we’re done, and we never have to talk to those creatures again,” Set Sail said darkly, switching her tail as she headed to the copter, “I’d like to see them try to force us to leave. Are the fire crystals charged up? We have one more... group to visit today.”
Reef sighed at that. "So, erm... tunnels, is it?" A little shudder. "After a round of refreshments one would hope?"
Cloud Cutter disappeared into the cockpit, then reappeared with a roll of paper in her mouth. It was the map Summer Scribe had 'liberated' from the dirt sharks, later rescued by Azure along with the rest of the unicorn's things, after the incident in the sphinxes' pyramid. "Here we are, Set Sail... and here's where we need to go," the purple pegasus said, stretching out the map with her hooves. "As best as I can tell from Summer's directions." She'd marked a spot in the valley to the east, the other side of the central lake.
Blaze Trails examined the document: "Hmmm... and we don't know much about these tunnels, yeah? Just that there's a way to get through into the pyramid? We'll have to be alert, then."
Set Sail seemed like she wanted to object, but then shook her head, muttering, “Tunnels. Fine, tunnels. Full of... spider beasts and magic eating creatures. I'd like to have Grenelda for this sort of thing, but... it should be fine without her. Nutmeg can... stay with the copter, and the rest of us are familiar with combat, right?” She looked around; they'd all trained together in the quarry, they should be able to handle it.
“Now hold on,” Nutmeg Inferno said, “That pyramid might be mechanical in nature. You don’t think you’ll need me there to operate the mechanisms to... turn it off?”
"Indeed," said Reef, while staring at his rear tentacles and trying to will them into looking like hooves, "and would we really want to leave our prize engineer at the mercy of whatever cats might come poking around? Speaking of which," he peered at the map over Set Sail's shoulder, "probably best land the ship somewhere on the outer edge and fly over. If we descend into that valley, the noise of those rotors will echo up and down the whole thing."
Blaze gave Nutmeg an appraising look: "You don't strike me as much of a fighter, so we'll have to keep you safe on the trip there, but..." It's true the kirin had been handing out gadgets at the training session, rather than doing any fighting herself, but... there could be all kinds of wacky inscrutable gizmos inside that pyramid. "...Yeah, I think we'll be needing you. We all down with this?"
Clashing Gale backed her up: "Definitely. If there's anything mechanical in there - like a machine generating the beam, or booby traps - Nutmeg's the one we want with us." He nodded - if she could fix the ship and the dragon's crazy extradimensional generator, she could probably handle turning off a death ray.
“I have some defences, but yes I have very little combat experience,” Nutmeg said, “I can flash bang any spiders that get too close to me, and I brought my, uh, experimental rifle - worst case I have my levitation and maybe some flamey things I could do. If I'd known we were going to fight through tunnels I'd have come up with something more appropriate - proper lights for a start."
Blaze Trails cracked an amused grin at Nutmeg talking about combat prowess in terms of a bag of tricks. As everypony knew, it was your grit and your strength and your reflexes that carried you in a fight, not cool moves. She'd definitely need a keep a close eye on the kirin. "Yeah we had no inkling we'd be tunnel fighting 'til Summer laid it on CeeCee and Clashing here."
The earth mare fished into one of the satchels mounted on her flank and pulled out an impressively sharp knife (and that was just one of her backups). "You better take this, just in case you need to defend yourself in close quarters in a pinch."
“A-alright, I can use this,” Nutmeg said uncertainly, staring warily at the sharp looking thing. She took the knife and its sheath in her sparkling magic, and hooked it into a spot on her tool harness. “In theory at least.”
Blaze Trails grinned: "Just remember to thrust your whole body into the motion and don't hesitate." Maybe Nutmeg wouldn't get a chance to try it today, but perhaps it would put her a little more at ease. Blaze always felt better with a sharp knife at hand.
With their blind, hasty and probably terrible plan agreed, the assorted creatures crowded back into the chopper. Nutmeg ducked down to watch the engine, Clashing resumed his favourite spot by the harpoon with Blaze looking out beside him, Reef sat heavily in the centre of the deck, while Set Sail took the helm, CC squeezing into the cockpit next to her. The intermeshing blades spun up, and with fifty wary cats watching from the main island, the pretty pink copter lifted off and soared away.
Set Sail headed north, skirting the cluster of outlying islands and descending steadily, before wheeling around to the east and bringing the little ship down beneath the northern arm of the cross-shaped island. She hadn't seen the deadly beam in action, but she'd heard enough that visions of the thing swatting their ship out of the sky in one blast danced in her head. Better to keep the mass of rock between themselves and the danger; the crew were left to stare up at dark crevices passing overhead as the ship traversed the underside.
After a few tense minutes they were out of the shadow and back into the sunlight, turning south and climbing gently to approach the eastern arm of Fellis. Here rocky ridges rose up on each side to hide the central valley from view, offering little purchase for vegetation or, they hoped, feline patrols. Spying a flat spot amidst the cliffs, Set Sail brought the craft down to nestle half way up the outer edge of the northern ridge. Here the ponies made their preparations, along with a hippogriff preparing by wolfing down a can of tuna.
With a nod from the captain, Cloud Cutter took to the air; ostensibly their stealthiest flier, she was the logical choice to scout the destination. Flapping up over the peaks bordering the eastern arm of Fellis, she emerged into a long, steep-sided valley. The terrain became steadily more inhospitable the further it got from the central lake; half way up, only unappetising bracken and weeds colonised the rocky slopes, with a narrow strand of pine trees hugging the central stream.
The purple pegasus began to glide across to the far side of the valley, and sure enough she soon spotted a substantial structure perched on the slope. The size of Ponyville town hall, it was clearly industrial, clad in rotting wooden planks that had fallen away in places to reveal a rusted iron frame. From this distance she couldn't make out anything inside, but the massive pile of spoil covering the slopes below and the remains of an air dock made its purpose fairly clear.
Swooping back down from her reconnaissance flight, Cloud Cutter reported in: "Hmm... you might wanna take a closer look at this, Set Sail." She gestured into the distance: "The place you mentioned? Not just a cave entrance, there's a big derelict building on top of it. Maybe a mine? Probably no one around anymore but couldn't hurt to make sure."
“Everypony wait here. I’m going to go take a look with Azure,” Set Sail said cautiously, “If we’re not back in an hour, take the copter back to the ship and prepare for a major rescue operation. Silent Arrow said the spidrow wouldn’t kill us, but I don’t want a single one of their... cocoons remaining, if they manage to put us in one of them.” That made Blaze spit out her oats in shock: nopony had said anything about being stuck in a cocoon.
"Captain! We can't just abandon you!" Reef said indignantly. "I realise I am a little, erm, conspicuous but..." his voice trailed off, but he stared at Azure as if to say 'don't screw up'.
“So help me Reef if you end up bound up in some cocoon next to me, then I’ll break my own way out just so I can kick your tail,” Set Sail growled, “I don’t think these creatures are all that powerful, but if they are, I don’t want them taking us out one by one, as we each fail to rescue the next. Get back to the ship, get ready, and then go all out, and you might be able to save us. It’s probably nothing though. Azure is... fearsomely strong, and we’re not going to take any risks we don’t have to.”
"Very good, Captain," the hippogriff said unhappily, ear fins flattened against his head.
Azure Feather had been staring into space, still thinking of alliances - could the trust the sharks or the sphinxes, and if siding with one meant making an enemy of the other, who should they choose? Her instincts told her that the sphinxes might seem aloof and primitive, but they likely had secret magic the ponies had yet to see, and their trust once given would be more reliable than a mercenary's.
Still, she had to remember her place here. Was she the Captain? No. Leader of the expedition's guard detail? Not even that. She was the newest Lavender Blade, a low-ranking Soldier who'd arrived late and ended up on the support ship - then the Friendship was lost to the storm, making her the only guard. Her duty, she reminded herself, was to protect the ponies and creatures on the ship. Not to play Friendship Princess. Not to play Morality Queen. To guard. To fight. That was all.
Set Sail's words dragged her out of her reverie. "Understood, Captain," was all she said: the captain clearly meant business, and being called up was a kick in the tail. Like she said - they'd make a flyby, check for hostiles, anything that objected would get a wind blade in the face.
The two pegasi swooped away from the cliffside, cruising around and gaining altitude to crest the ridge, glide over the valley and approach the abandoned structure. “I don’t like this,” Set Sail said uneasily, “This isn’t just a tunnel. They could be... nesting, all over that building.”
"If you want my opinion..." Azure began, as she scanned the scene for movement, looking around, "this is just a scouting mission. They won't be expecting a pair of pegasi. Let's stay mobile and airborne, stick together, fly out of range if we see any sign of hostiles. No need to be heroes. Worst comes to it and they have flyers of their own... you clear the airspace, I'll unleash the fury of the storm on them." A pause, then "unless you have other orders?"
Set Sail grimaced, then nodded uncertainly. “Yeah that sounds good... we've gotta get a close look, but scatter if you hear any movement. Other than that... I dunno, you know more about fighting than me.”
Close up it was clear that the damage to the building was not just from time and elements. Sizable holes had been blown in the wooden cladding and in places flaking paint gave way to scorch marks. Whatever had happened must have been long ago though, with moss and lichen grown over the scars and shrubs sprouting where dirt had collected on the roof. Peering through the gaps in the walls, the ponies spotted substantial machinery within, showing solid rust where the wind had blown through and thick layers of dust where it hadn't.
Assorted junk and debris was scattered around the site, including a pile of rotting timber that had probably been intended for tunnel supports. The gravel path winding down to the riverside causeway was collapsed in places and overgrown with bracken in others. The only movement was leaves rustling in the wind; if anything still inhabited this place, it was not evident from the air.
The place reeked of death, decay and disuse, Azure thought. If anything dwelled there, it was either hiding, nocturnal, or 'alive' only in the sense Cloud Cutter was. "Place looks like the sharks may have hit it once or twice. They have heavy weapons on their ships..." she speculated, looking closer at the holes. "Though... wouldn't they have stripped it, instead of leaving that machinery to rust? Seems safe enough to bring the full squad. As much as anything is safe here."
Set Sail flapped up and away from the mine, beckoning with a hoof for Azure to follow. “Yeah, I’ve seen enough. Let’s get back to the others.”
Five assorted creatures sat expectantly on the deck of the Second Chance, waiting for the two pegasi to return. Set Sail landed lightly and took a deep breath, holding it before slowly letting it out. “Summer Scribe is totally insane."
She trotted over to their map, gesturing with a wing. "She must not have realised just how far away this tunnel entrance would be. Even if it were a straight shot,” she traced a feather down to the centre of the island, then straight from there to the pyramid, "it’d be... ten kilometres? And it's not just a tunnel, it's... an abandoned mine? So probably a maze of shafts and galleries. Even assuming we don't get lost down there, we’d be facing magic eaters who can see in the dark, in a confined space, no doubt full of traps they've set for the sphinxes."
She began to pace back and forth, sounding increasingly agitated. "Even if there was a route through, it was a century or more back - there may have been a collapse. It might collapse while we're down there! Nutmeg’s right: we have minimal weapons, very few sources of light, no way to mark our passage. There was a building full of mysterious rusted machines that no one had walked off with. Those cats were building their homes out of places like this, so why has this one been left alone to go to rust?"
“I’m sorry,” she concluded, “but this is just suicide if we try it now. We need to return to the ship, and make preparations for a long underground exploration. We need ponies like Melonwater and Grenelda, who are not completely out of their element here. So unless anyone has any objections, I’m... going to say we should just cut our losses and get back for now.”
Blaze Trails listened to the tirade, her ears twitching. She was ready and rarin' for some spelunking, but the more she heard, the more her expression wilted, because the captain wasn't lyin' - the odds were stacked against them. Ten klicks of caves wasn't something you explored in an afternoon.
"...Damn, you've got nothing but good points. Yeah, we have to take this seriously, Set Sail. I dunno if I'm ready to give up on it, though - what other shot do we have at escaping those pirates?" Grenelda would be a welcome ally, she mused - though your average griffon liked tight spaces even less than your average pegasus.
Raising a two-toed hoof, Nutmeg asked, “What were the machines for?”
“I don’t know, Set Sail said unsurely. "Moving materials around? They were all rusted so probably not anything we could use.”
“They might not be entirely rusted though,” Nutmeg said, rising to her hooves. “Can I take a look, at the machines at least?”
Even with the inscrutable beak, Reef Skimmer was clearly relieved that the pair had returned, quickly and unharmed. "It does seem like a terribly long way to be crawling in the dark," he agreed. "Although... I concur with Nutmeg, that we should at least check this building. A map of the tunnels would be a tremendous help, or perhaps there are other documents, clues as to what we might face down there?" That blue mare would be happy to have more reading material, he thought.
Blushing, Set Sail said, “W-well the building seemed deserted but it might be full of those magic eating creatures I don’t know.”
“Please, it doesn’t matter if they’re broken,” Nutmeg says earnestly, “If they’re only rusted on the surface, the metal underneath might still be good. There might be working components, or... probably not anything large enough to beat into propellors. Not anything we could carry at least. But I’d like to take a look. I’ll be careful, please?”
Blaze Trail closed her eyes and thought for a moment. As long as it was just fightin' in a barn, they had enough heavy hitters to bust out of an ambush - and like Nutmeg and the doctor said, there could be useful supplies and intel. She opened her eyes and nodded: "Yeah, long as we're careful about it - don't wanna leave empty hoofed."
Set Sail sighed in defeat, saying, “Alright then, let’s all get over there. You'll see what I mean. If there’s any trouble, we’ll just have to be more trouble than it is. We... do desperately need parts and metal. Documents would be nice too - Blue Type must be tired of deciphering soda sales figures.” Her eyes grew hard though as she reminded them: “But whatever we find in there, do not turn anything on.”
"Well said, Captain," Reef nodded in accord, before rippling and expanding into the giant grey eagle. "Shall I be transporting you good mares once again?" he asked.
"Sure!" Nutmeg nodded, "Uh- wait a sec!" The kirin turned tail and dashed into the engine compartment, banging about for a few seconds before emerging again with the thermal crystals in tow. Levitating them over to Cloud Cutter and Clashing Gale for safe stowage, she pranced over to the roc and leapt onto his back. "Good to go!" she chirped.
Hopping equally happily into his back, Blaze Trails said, “You’re just the most gentlemanly creature I ever rode in since that one time in the Outback. Marsupials have their pouches on their bellies, don’t you know?”
"Oh indeed! One was unaware we had a fellow naturalist on the Harmony!" Reef said in happy surprise. "You know, that would permit a better view of the terrain, wouldn't it? Perhaps for the return trip?"
“Oh I’m no sorta scholarly science pony or anything, but I do get around a bit,” Blaze says with a blush, “Whatever you think is best though.”
Azure nodded quietly - her role hadn't changed. The risk was going up though, with wingless creatures to carry and any chance of stealth out the window. "Shall we divide into squads, captain?"
“Yes, I said let’s all get over there,” Set Sail said giving Azure an uneasy look, “How many ponies—creatures is a squad? Wouldn’t that be that all of us?”
The other pegasus cleared her throat: "There isn't any set number, Captain... but the Blades often work in fours," Azure explained. "We're special operations, we don't do set-piece battles. Even three, for a bodyguard detail... but I digress."
"Cloud, Azure, on me." Clashing Gale said firmly, answering Azure's question. "We're the lead element. Reef and Set Sail will form the second element, he's a bigger target and he's carrying non-flyers. If that's alright with you, Captain." Set Sail felt a sudden appreciation for how handsome and professional the sleek bat-winged stallion was - just as she had back in the meadow, when he'd asked to lead the expedition to the shark's island.
“Well of course, Clashing!” Set Sail said to the batpony with a wider smile, quickly growing quite smitten as she subtly shifted her tail aside, adding, “That sounds like the perfect plan. That sounds like we should... we should well... hehe,” laughing to herself at what she was implying in her funny joke, she thought about how wonderful and nice all this was, standing there gazing at Clashing in silent adoration.
Blaze Trails squinted at Set Sail's sudden tone of voice. What's with the lovey-dovey stuff now? She thought this was being taken seriously! It's almost too big of a tone change to believe unless... Set Sail and Clashing Gale are secretly falling for each other...? If so... really it was none of her business.
Azure's response was just "Understood." Internally though she was relieved: Clashing's plan was a smart one. The three better fighters as a vanguard, Set Sail escorting the doctor who would be acting as a transport for the non-flyers. Another nod: it was time to move out.
Reef Skimmer might have been concerned by Set Sail's attitude shift, if he hadn't been too enraptured by the possibilities of shapeshifting pouches to pay attention to pony social etiquette. Soon the explorers had taken wing and were making their way across the valley: the batpony in the lead with a pegasus on each wing, then some way behind the enormous grey roc with brown pegasus flitting along beside. No cats were visible below - though while movement would be easy to spot on the barren slopes, there was ample opportunity for concealment in the central stand of pines.
In any case the Equestrians went unchallenged as they circled the mine building before gliding down to a landing outside the main entrance. The oversize double doors lay smashed and hanging half off their hinges, permitting easy entrance to the cavernous interior. While Reef went through the tedious process of extricating his passengers and returning to hippogriff form, the lead squad advanced to the threshold.
Inside was a three-dimensional maze of conveyor belts, hoppers, catwalks and the enormous toothed drums of rock crushers. Rubber drive belts lay rotting on the floor amidst dust, debris and animal droppings. Several mine carts were strewn about, some empty but most full of crushed rock, sitting on rails that lead to the back of the complex. There, where the building butted up against the rock of the valley wall, the rails disappeared into dark tunnel entrances.
Back on her hooves, Blaze Trails was on high alert: the place was half-way to a ruin, not much use for mining but definitely a good spot for an ambush. She stuck close to the captain, boggling at the apparent complexity of the operation. "So, this is what you were looking to poke your hooves into, Nutmeg? Not sure it'll be of any use to anyone."
Having escaped Reef Skimmer's gooey back, the kirin went skipping hastily in to catch up, then looked around with wide eyes at the carnage but also the possibilities. Set Sail's eyes were still on Clashing... watching him trotting along there, flanked by, Azure & Cloud Cutter, well-formed rump and swishing tail... content and almost spaced out.
As the ponies advanced through the structure a hulking bipedal shape came into view, standing in a kind of alcove formed by two silos and an overhead catwalk. Bigger and bulkier even than a storm beast, the boxy body was supported by oversize metal feet and flanked by enormous wooden hands covered in iron spikes. Huge steel jaws jutted forward from the body, while its wide-set eyes resembled lanterns. A chimney jutting from the thing's back left no doubt that it was a machine of some sort.
Blaze Trails whistled, then chuckled with amusement. "Now, if I didn't know better, I'd say that's some kind of mechanical monster. Look at the thing - like it's got a face and arms and legs and everythin'. But what would a mine need something like that for?" She tilted her head, puzzled. "Must be some reason why it has to look like that, I dunno."
Nutmeg’s eyes lit up upon seeing the abandoned hulk. She ran ahead of Blaze the others and hopped up right up onto the steel jaw, her hooves clinking as she walked along it, declaring, “Oh wow, look at this! And in such good condition! Do you know what this is??”
High alert or not, Azure couldn't contain a chuckle. This brought back too many memories of the previous mechanical monstrosities the group had encountered - and how that quickly devolved into a mess of magic worms, malfunctioning machinery and general chaos. Watching Nutmeg investigate closer, though, Set Sail's words rang true in her mind: don't turn anything on. Hopefully Nutmeg would recall...
"Some kind of golem?" Reef Skimmer said, in a distracted tone. He's been staring around the space, jerking his head back and forth as if searching for something he could sense but not see. "I say, are you sure you want to mess with that? Looks like it could do some serious damage."
Blaze Trails stared at the kirin, happy as a foal with a new toy, "Not a clue, and so long as you don't make it come to life and start attacking us, I won't object."
“Huh?” Set Sail said distractedly, glancing over to the excited kirin. “Nutmeg, w-what are you doing up there??”
Ignoring the captain, Nutmeg stood atop the wreck and declared: “No, it’s not a golem. It’s an excavator! These round spiked thingies here they can break through solid rock, and they open to form grasper scoops that can lift the material onto this platform here and carry it away! It’s entirely coal powered, and these these eye looking things here are headlights to light your work area in front of you! Their only design flaw is no seat so you have to climb up the rock as you pile it on. But these things are classic um... ancient artifacts. I haven’t seen one in... I–I mean the ones in ...Equestria are a lot different.”
"Well I'll be!" Blaze Trails gaped. "Never seen anything like this back at home. Err, not that I'd know either way, really, but it's certainly a fancy way to do the job." Seemingly disarmed by Nutmeg's innocuous explanation, she trotted in for a closer to inspection. Seemed harmless enough - looked like it hadn't moved in a century.
"Seems awfully elaborate for a steam shovel." Reef said vaguely. "Captain, there's something... hmm. One has this feeling, there's something in here. It feels more like, erm... Blaze? ...than anything else." The peal-tipped spines that had adorned his head since his transformation were twitching slightly. "Stronger at the back... inside that entrance perhaps," he suggested, gesturing with a claw at where the rails disappeared into the tunnel entrance.
Looking steadily towards the dark entrance, growing perfectly still, Set Sail asked quietly, “Is it moving closer?”
"Can't exactly get a bearing," Reef whispered back, "but it doesn't seem to be getting stronger. Could be mushrooms for all I know," he admitted sheepishly.
Azure was already tense, half-expecting that machine to somehow come to life despite Nutmeg's assurances. The doctor's alarm set her wings spreading and her eyes looking for targets. She didn't know what he was sensing or how, but if the hippogriff's new abilities worked like hers, then... they were likely in for trouble.
Blaze Trails tensed up as well, gazing into the gloomy tunnel, trying to make something out... "Should we have a flyer investigate? Azure, Clashing, Cloud Cutter maybe? Back off if there's any sign of danger."
“Flyers aren’t much use underground, Blaze,” Set Sail murmured, still looking that way, “What I want to know is if anypony has a light.”
“We have flares,” Nutmeg suggested.
Looking to Nutmeg gratefully, Set Sail says, “Okay Cloud Cutter, could you take a flare, then do your... shadow movement thing, to get in there closer? It might be best if you... do the other thing first, just in case it’s dangerous.”
"Alright," Cloud Cutter nods. She quietly accepted a lit flare from Nutmeg, ducked behind a pile of rock, and... wasn't there anymore. Phasing back into existence closer to the tunnel entrance, she tossed the flare ahead. The sparkling pyrotechnic arced into the darkness, bouncing and rolling before stopping short against a rail. The tunnel turned out to be only a few metres before ending in a sizable cavern carved out of the rock.
Revealed in the light of the flare was a small steam train, dusty but intact and complete with a full set of mine carts. A miniature marshalling yard of rails and switches was connected to the outside complex and two tunnels leading further into the earth. Various other shapes loom the recesses of the cave: the ends of the conveyers that carried rock up to the crushers, stacks of crates and rows of wooden cabinets, entrances to further underground rooms.
Inching up to the entrance beside Cloud Cutter, Set Sail peered inside, murmuring: “I don’t see anything... it clearly goes quite a way in. We’ll probably have to come back to this.”
Cloud Cutter marvelled at the train for a moment - that could be useful, even if only for parts - before nodding to the captain. "Yeah, I don't see anything besides more mine, and we can't just keep poking our heads in deeper indefinitely. Shall we call it here, Set Sail?"
Hopping up between them both, Nutmeg looked overjoyed, then whined "Oh, but that is such a cute little train!"
Reef Skimmer was next to creep into the cavern, looking around nervously - there was enough headroom, even for a creature the size of a small horse, but not enough that he could take to the air. "Thoroughly civilised way to travel... certainly faster than walking. What do you say Nutmeg, can you make it run?"
Azure had to object to that: "I thought the idea was not to turn anything on...?" Did they already forget such a recent order? A train wasn't likely to attack them, but they were noisy contraptions and likely to draw the attention of anything lingering in the tunnels.
"Who'd a thought - a whole steam train, down here. How d'ya suppose they deal with the smoke?" Blaze wondered, looking to Nutmeg. "You thinkin' maybe it goes all the way to our destination?" That'd cut the travel time down by a lot. Problem is, just being in a train doesn't mean we can't be ambushed anyway... though it would sure give us some cover at least."
“Well I don’t see what good making a train run in a—oh! Yes I could do that!” Nutmeg said, brightening as she realised just how useful that could be, “What do you think are the chances there’s a track going the way we need to go?”
"We can only hope the former owners left a map somewhere," Reef began. "Perhaps if- what on Equus... over there!" His outstretched claw pointed at an opening in the rear wall, through which something was emerging. Something that writhed and slithered, something blue and purple the size of a tree trunk. Something with baleful yellow eyes that glowed faintly as it surveyed the intruders, before a sound somewhere between a screech and a roar echoed through the space.
Blaze Trails spotted the unnatural beast and backed off slowly, her eyes wide. Her mouth went to her holster, quickly fetching her combat knife, clenched between her teeth. "'th hell's tha thing?!" she mumbled around her weapon. Was the entire underground full of monsters like that? It didn't bode well!
“Hurry, we can—” Set Sail said, turning to flee, only to have her ears filled with the sound of a loud buzzing. The ponies darted back through the tunnel towards the rock crushing plant, then skidded to a stop as green shapes emerged from hollows and crevices and launched themselves into the air. Oversized insects with abdomens that glowed bright green, they zig-zagged through the air, closing in on the creatures that had disturbed their queen.
Azure grumbled as she saw the writing on the wall. First that monstrous... slug thing, and now giant glowbugs. Luna curse these this place: "Pincered..."
The explorers found themselves trapped in the short tunnel forming the entrance to Catseye Mine. On one side, a decaying industrial building that now swarmed with dog-sized insects, crawling out of their hiding spots and buzzing into the air. Their abdomens glowed bright green and electrical energy crackled around their stingers. On the other side, a gloomy cavern holding a miniature marshalling yard for the mine train. An enormous blue worm with heavy purple horns was squirming its way towards them, bellowing with rage at their intrusion.
Set Sail’s eyes darted around, sizing up the threat. “Nutmeg, you made a little cannon didn’t you?”
“It’s more of a crude rifle that—” the kirin began.
Set Sail cut her off: “Azure! Clashing! Go teach those flying bugs a lesson! Hit any that come at you with your rifle cannon, Nutmeg. Protect CC, while she charges her thing, then she can blast a bunch of ‘em at once! A-and Reef, I need you to drive that big caterpillar back. Blaze and I’ll get on either side of her to make sure she goes back in her hole!”
“I can’t 'ubdu a 'eature like tha—” Blaze said around the grip of her not-subduing knife.
“Then survive now! Subdue later!” Set Sail declared curtly, before charged off to the left.
Blaze hesitated just a moment, then ran for the right, trying to sneak around behind the train to keep the bug’s attention off the others. "This better be a one-off," she muttered to herself, "Don't know if I can deal with 10 kay-em of tunnels all swarming with angry critters..."
Cloud Cutter gave a curt nod: "Got it, Set Sail." She leapt with a quick wingbeat to land behind Nutmeg, feeling her body go cold (colder, anyway) as she began to glow a ghostly purple. "Time for a real test of that gun of yours, Nutmeg - hope you're as good a shot as Abernathy." She cocked her head to the side, unable to do more than patiently charge her attack.
"Roger that, Captain..." Azure acknowledged, eyeing the lightning crackling from the bugs. She saw her ally, the undead pegasus, charging up her strike... it looked like her and Nutmeg would be standing there, sitting ducks if the bugs had a ranged attack. That meant it was up to her to draw them away.
The guardspony charged out of the tunnel, taking flight into the relatively spacious interior of the rock-crushing plant. Channelling the power of Air, her wings glowed blue-green as she began to unleash paired wind blades, looking to pick off the lead bugs and hopefully get them to reconsider their attack. The magical projectiles easily knocked down the oversize glowbugs, slicing apart the buzzing wings and cutting open the soft abdomen, leaving diminished but still active threats as the grounded insects crawled for cover.
Even as Azure took out a second and then a third creature, a dozen others were pointing charged stingers at the ponies. Brilliant balls of crackling electricity streaked through the air, leaving trails of tiny sparks in their wake. Individually, the projectiles moved slow enough that a limber pony could easily dodge them, but the veritable hail of electricity meant dodging one could easily mean moving straight into the path of another.
Back in the tunnel, Reef Skimmer was on the attack. "Aye aye captain. Tally ho!" the hippogriff shouted, raising one claw as the scales melted into blue goo not too different from the body of their foe. He braced himself then let fly with a powerful jet of water, which struck the monstrous worm right in the face. The force of the jet would've knocked a pony off their feet, but barely to budged the multi-tonne bulk of the splatterpillar. It did succeed in blinding, bruising and enraging the creature, which thrashed wildly while releasing more ear-splitting squeals. Chunks fell from the roof of the cavern where the thing's huge purple horns hit rock.
“Rocks!” Set Sail shouted, dodging debris left and right, then jumping in the air to manoeuvre better. Her mouth went to her side as she drew her battle axe from its sheath. Then before the beast's thrashing could impale her on its horns, she smacked the flat of the axe right against its left horn, shouting “Shoo!”
Blaze Trails perked up as pebbles clattered down around her. "Yes, rocks indeed!" There's an idea... trying to slash the thrashing blubbery thing with her knife was a lot of risk for little reward. Maybe instead... The earth mare twisted around, planted her forehooves and bucked a sizable chunk of rock straight at the menace. The rubble broke apart into gravel, spraying into the things face and adding additional pain to the soaking Reef was giving it.
Set Sail's axe attack further added to the mother worm's confusion, though since it's head was the size of a pony there was little chance of concussing it. The combination of veritable firehose from Reef Skimmer and sharp gravel from Blaze Trails added to its torment, doing little damage to the thick rubbery hide but preventing it from focusing on any one assailant. Instead the worm hunkered down as the stubby spines along its side began to glow.
Blaze Trails was all smiles: "I think we've got it on the defensive, Set Sail! I'll keep bashing it with rocks, you keep smashing it with your axe, and it's bound to retreat!" She doesn't take note of the glowing spines - maybe that's just what they do, right?
Reef Skimmer let the water jet peter out; it seemed the thing was too resilient to be cowed by such measures. He'd have to- "Captain! Watch out!" The griff was rather less sanguine about the glowing spikes: he gestured with a tentacle at the beast's flanks, worrying that they were about to see a further escalation of the threat.
Meanwhile Clashing Gale had hung back, assessing how best to help. His first thought was to join Azure Feather in the factory, but without ranged attacks he'd have a harder time avoiding the enemy's fire. Then he spotted movement to the left - a glow coming from the smaller tunnels the conveyor belts ran through. A few silent flaps brought him to intercept... yeah, just as he'd thought, some of the bugs were creeping into the cavern, trying to come to the aid of their queen.
He might not have fancy tricks like Azure, but he was plenty dangerous in his own way: new, predatory instincts were telling him it was time for a meal! With all the commotion he easily ambushed the lead bug. A touch of a hoof was all it took to put an end to the flanking attack. Before it could realise what was happening, the first electric bug was paralysed and shrivelling away, giving only a forlorn final screech before it was reduced to a desiccated husk.
Outside in the rock-crushing plant, Azure Feather was ducking and weaving as balls of plasma sailed through her airspace. The space was filled with sharp cracks as they hit the walls and machinery, followed by sizzles as streamers of charge flew out in all directions. The air elemental dodged for all she was worth, all the while unleashing a barrage of air blades on the attacking insects. "Nutmeg, try take out some of the grounded ones, won't you?" she called down, "Got my hooves full trying to knock down the airborne ones!"
She twisted and turned as more projectiles sailed past her, grounding out on the hulking machinery and rusted support beams of the rock crushing plant. The pegasus mare's fur stood on end as arcs of electricity and showers of sparks played all around her, while the tang of ozone wafting into her nose. Her blood was pumping from the excitement; this was practically a dance in a storm for her. She'd drawn most of the fire, and was steadily whittling down the swarm with her return fire, but one trailing bug had spotted the purple glow in the entrance tunnel and fired a bolt straight at Cloud Cutter.
The purple pegasus had been keeping a close eye on the battlefield, ready to take cover should hostile magic or angry bodies come out of her way. She saw the ball of lightning crackling towards her and...! Stepped to the side, watching it fly past. "I admit, I was expecting a lightning-fast attack." The undead pony was still drawing in unnatural energy, her eerie glow steadily brightening. She looked to her side to see Nutmeg Inferno frantically working on her invention, asking "Can I help?"
The kirin was thinking she really should have prepared this before things went to heck. Gunpowder here, close those pieces together, place the rifle butt against the ground, insert bullet... “Just... one sec!” she fussed.
Sitting on the gun to orient it, Nutmeg finally got it together with the barrel pointed at one of the grounded bugs, and created a spark from her hoof to ignite the powder. Her weapon fired with a bright flash and a resounding boom - without exploding, thankfully. The grounded bug crawling toward her fell to the floor, with a smoking hole passing neatly through its head, thorax, and abdomen.
In the mine cavern Set Sail got in one more good speeding, spinning, smack but all she found herself doing was clutching the resounding axe in her forelegs. Reef Skimmer’s warning drew her attention: she just had time to shout “What? Where?!” Then a flurry of sparks shot out from the creature's spines, saturating the airspace around its flanks and briefly illuminating the whole cavern up in brilliant blue light.
Hovering close by, the unfortunate pegasus was struck by several of the projectiles. She dropped to the stony floor: fur smoking, body bruised and twitching. Her eyes glazed over and her muscles jerked randomly - like running head first into a lightning storm, Set Sail thought. Unfortunately unlike the time she ran head first into a lightning storm, she was far too close to the ground to recover. She plummeted to the ground in an ungraceful arc, landed gasping and dazed with her axe clanged down beside her.
Blaze Trails was standing further back, rear hooves facing the beast as she prepared to buck another rock: the earth mare took a single electric bolt to the rump, crying out in shock. 'Damn that stings!' she thought. Purely on reflex, she dashed for cover, seeking refuge behind a rusting ore cart. Blaze slumped and panting for a moment as she checked herself over: her hind legs were tingling and sore, but she could still move.
"Sails?! Sails!" Reef Skimmer yelled as he charged forward, losing both his composure and his hippogriff shape as he went. Desperate to save the captain, the water elemental threw himself at the beast's neck, wrapping a dozen tentacles around its body. It was feeling real pain now as Reef's unnatural metabolism began to dissolve the thick hide, burning it away like acid. The bloated worm resumed its thrashing and squirming, trying to buck off its assailant.
In the shadows a certain bat-pony continued his assault on the flanking force, as if encouraged by the sight (and taste) of the enemy's blood. Clashing Gale was draining a second bug of its life force when the mother bug unleashed it's lightning; he watched in horror as the captain fell. The final insectoid infiltrator took the opportunity to fly at his back, hairy green legs wrapping around his barrel while sharp mandibles tried to chew off his left wing.
He bucked the brainless bug clean off his back and whirled around. This time he wasn't satisfied with a mere hoof - he lunged forward, catching the flitting bug's thorax in his mouth, his fangs (fangs? where had they come from?) easily piercing through its carapace. The insect turned into a brown husk and then crumbled into dust as the bat pony savagely sucked away its life. Clashing was almost glowing with health and energy as he turned to see the doctor desperately throw himself into close combat.
Blaze hadn't seen the captain get hit, but as Reef called out she realised what must have happened - the pegasus had been a lot closer to the blast. "Set Sail! Are you ok?" She stumbled back to her hooves and stared at the nightmarish grapple between Reef and the towering bug - it was like the hippogriff had unravelling himself into a half-squid creature, enveloping the giant grub from every direction! With the beast distracted she was clear to run to Set Sail, propping the pegasus up as she struggled back to her hooves.
Sparks still flickered in Set Sail's fur as she looking at the thrashing worm, locked in battle with... uhm... yeah that was probably Reef Skimmer. “Everypony fall back!” she shouted frightfully, backing up towards the purple glow of Cloud Cutter's almost-charged bug-zapper-of-doom. “This beast is more than a match for any of us! We need to get out of here, now!”
In the main building Azure Feather was under relentless attack - far from retreating, the efforts of the smaller bugs had only gotten more frantic as their queen was injured. She managed to fire off a few more shots but most of them went wild, distracted as she was by the constant dodging and the storm of electrical impacts. "Cloud Cutter? I'm in a crossfire here!"
Fur alight with otherworldly purple energy, Cloud Cutter remained patient and serene, looking out over the chaos of the battlefield. "Neeeearly there..."
Azure quickly took stock of her predicament. Stay here and she was bound to get hit... besides, she's seen Cloud Cutter take down the plant-dog; she knew how devastating that attack could be. The last thing she wanted to be was get caught in its effect. From the shouts and screams echoing out of the tunnels it sounded like the fight in the cavern was going even worse; she couldn't risk drawing more enemies into that fray.
Time to break through enemy lines! Azure surged forward, weaving around catwalks and briefly tucking her wings to fly through the barrel of a rock tumbler. The swarm of green bugs milled about, hovering where she'd been and trying to relocate their prey. Their confusion only increased as another resounding boom and flash came from the tunnel mouth - Nutmeg was getting the hang of reloading the rile, picking off a second injured bug before it could approach.
"Ok, ready," Cloud Cutter intoned. The moment had come: she was now the epicentre of a flickering, a violent storm of Unlife energy, her eyes headlamps shining through the gathering fog. It was difficult to hold it inside of her as she leapt forward, wings flaring out to carry her up into the airspace Azure had just vacated. The swarm of flying bugs closed in, eager to tear apart such a co-operative target.
The pegasus's hovered for a second, glowing eyes closed as she waited for them all to get within range, then snaped open. Purple energy burst from her form, lashing out and washed over the insects, ripping away their life force. Buzzing wings turned to drifting dust, glowing green bugs to brown corpses that fell to the ground in a tangle of twitching legs.
Two thirds of the original hive were gone now, with only a few survivors buzzing aimlessly about or trying to crawl into crevices between the machinery. One survivor lay crouched on a catwalk, wings ripped to shreds by an air blade. It couldn't understand what brought doom to its fellows; all it could do was take aim at whatever target it could see, which happened to be the warm-blood making the horrible noise that had blasted away its hive-mates.
“Ha! I got ‘em!” Nutmeg shouted from the dark hallway at the rear, holding up her improvised rifle triumphantly in sparkling magic. “Great work Cloud Cutter? Azure, where’d you go!” she called out, “I’m ready to take out any you missed-” That was when the kirin’s eyes flicked to the crackling ball of lightning currently about 5.73cm from her right cheek. “Oh fu—”
Back in the cavern, things weren't going so well. Blaze Trails stayed close to the captain, retreating as ordered... but the doctor wasn't following, and there was no sign of Clashing Gale. "Is Reef gonna be able to handle this on his own?" she asked.
Reef Skimmer hung on grimly as the enormous worm twisted and thrashed. His blunted beak couldn't cut through its hide, but the dissolving effect of his tentacles had burned through and were beginning to consume the creature's soft interior. Hurt and desperate, the beast leapt into the air, smashing the mutated hippogriff against the roof of the cavern. A sizable stalactite pierced clean through Reef's chest, breaking off from the ceiling as the water elemental fell to the ground in a moaning, slithering heap.
The worm continued to thrash for a few seconds, purple blood streaming from the ring of dissolved flesh around its neck, before turning to face its tormenter, ready to leap again and crush him under its weight. The mutant hippogriff lay twitching on the cavern floor, a massive spike of rock emerging from his chest, the grey feathers around the wound denatured into blue goo. It's clear he won't be going anywhere before the splatterpillar leaped and, well, splattered him.
Blaze Trails could only stare, almost paralysed by fear as the monster made short work of her ally. "...Reef?!" She was hoping he'd just be able to, well, goop out from around the rock and reform, but no such luck, it seemed. Now it was closing in to finish him off, and she couldn't see how her hooves or knife would be enough to stop it.
“What are you doing?? Save him!” Set Sail cried out, charging blindly at the stalactite. She reared up, trying not to step in Reef as she awkwardly pushed at the impaling pillar of stone, wobbling it left and right. The splatterpillar reared up, bunching up in preparation to leap, looming above them in terrible finality as the captain stared into the eyes of inevitable doom for both them.
“Buck this,” Set Sail grumbled, then dashed over to her fallen axe as quick as a wink, her momentum carrying her around behind the creature, when she leapt into the air and shouted, “Over here! You want a piece of this??” It was enough to get the thing's attention, and by now Set Sail had remembered that her axe worked better if it had some momentum behind it. So she began flying around the monster, banking hard to keep away from the rocky walls, swinging the battle-axe to slice at its flesh. Her initial effort did little other than provoke an angry screech, but if she could just keep the thing disoriented until she could get up enough speed...
Alien bloodthirst and exultation coursed through Clashing Gale's brain; seeing the wounded splatterpillar, he didn't even think twice. He'd gone too long without feeding - the bugs had merely been an appetiser. If he could help his allies in the process, well that was a bonus. The bat pony swooped down, almost materialising out of the gloom of the cavern, four hooves smacking into the monster's hide before fanged mouth dipped low to begin draining the beast's life force.
Seriously wounded now, beset from both sides and dripping ichor from the deep wounds in its neck, the splatterpillar could only screech and thrash. The new attacker was latched firmly onto its back and its jaws sent fresh waves of pain into the worm's body, precluding any attempt to leap. The fleshy spikes along the beast's flanks began to glow; its only hope for beating back the warm-bloods was another volley of electricity.
In the main building, Cloud Cutter was panting with exertion as the last of the undead energy evaporated, flickering tendrils trailing from her wings as she hovered. She surveyed the ruin around her, confirming that her strange ability had done its grim work. Seeing one grounded bug still twitching and writhing, she swooped down and splattered it with a hoof, putting the creature out of its misery. She turned back to Nutmeg Inferno just in time to see a ball of green lightning smack into her face. The red-ruffed kirin crumpled to the ground - Cloud Cutter dashed over to aid her ally.
For a moment the fallen Nutmeg lay there, still as the grave. Then her whole body jerked and she immediately sat up, looking around in bewilderment, but smiling as her green eyes found her friend beside her. “Oh, Cloud Cutter!” she said happily, “What’s going on—AAA FRIGHTNING BUG RIGHT BEHIND YOU!” The insect in question had lobbed another lightning ball at them to finish the job.
Cloud Cutter turned, squinted and... gently pushed Nutmeg out of the way, stepping aside as the crackling ball of lightning ball floated past. "...These projectiles are very slow. You should have been able to dodge that," she pointed out, too gentle to be a real criticism. Then with a running leap and a couple of flaps, she landed on the offending bug, pounding it flat.
Nutmeg clung to her rifle protectively. “It–it caught me off guard!” she protested to the pegasus, “They come—come at you from all directions if they can. We were getting overwhelmed!"
Watching from above, Azure nodded with approval. She ignoring the few remaining electric bugs, which were scattering and scuttling into every crevice available, and glided down to land next to the others. Peering into the gloom, she got her first look at the desperate battle going on in the rear cavern: something enormous, horned and clearly very angry was squealing and thrashing. Much as she wanted to help, firing air blades into the fray risked hitting Clashing or the captain.
Cloud Cutter was having similar thoughts - hooves would do little against the blubbery beast. Her spooky attack would take an age to recharge, and even then risked friendly fire. For now, all she could do was stand guard over Nutmeg.
Set Sail was still in the air, dodging the beast's wildly swinging horns. Then Clashing was there, plunging in to distract her foe - perhaps it was for the best that she didn't get a good look at what he was doing. The cavern was tight, but the wind was with her as she picked up speed. Around and around she went - just like whipping up a tornado, except for the axe in her grasp.
Finally with the wind howling in her face, the brown-and-blue pegasus stubbornly gripped the axe in her teeth and foreleg and reversed course, heading straight for the beast's neck. Her wings strained as the wind she’d kicked up tried to blow her into the wall. She sank the axe deep into the wound Reef had opened, every ounce of momentum going into that slash, sliced right through the splatterpillar. Hopefully that would buy them enough time for Blaze to get Reef free and get out of there...
The screeching stopped instantly. Set Sail looked back over her shoulder to see the massive horned head fall forwards and splat onto the ground, completely severed from the ponderous body of the worm. The thing was motionless now save for a few dying spasms. The captain's gaze went to the wild demon of a pony standing on its tail; Clashing's head came up, and for a moment she was staring into wild, predatory eyes: crimson eyes that could compel her to do anything.
Then the moment was broken; the stallion was flapping down to the stony floor, fangs gone, eyes downcast. Further back in the cavern, Reef Skimmer had a ringside seat to the whole show. The hippogriff tried to say something, but only gurgling and spluttering sounds emerged from a beak now filled with blue goo.
Azure was already mentally berating herself as she surveyed the scene. She was too late to do anything, and... ugh, she left her allies in the other fight behind to fend for themselves. Damn it, so bloody careless, she cursed herself - maybe splitting into two squads had been the wrong move. At least the hostiles were down and every creature seemed safe - though the doctor was clearly not in a good way.
Blaze Trails unfroze at least, tension draining away as the monster was slain. She galloped over to Reef Skimmer, trying to assesses the stalactite injury. "Damn, that looks bad..." she gruffs - any normal creature would be a gonner with a spear of rock right through their chest. Blaze gritted her teeth and took the spike in her mouth - this would probably hurt, but it's gotta be done. Then she casually tossed the heavy stalagmite over her shoulder as if it was a tent stake: it shattered into fragments on the floor. "You still with us, Reef?"
Reef's reply was just another gurgle, but his chest was starting to flow back together, now the rocky spike was gone.
Set Sail hovered there in the dim mine entrance, her mouth hanging open as the splatterpillar’s entire head crashed ponderously down beside its writhing, twitching body. Her axe clanged to the ground below her, falling from numb forelegs, as she said dazedly, “I—I was just—it was kicking our tails! How did... I didn’t know it would just...”
She stared, even more shaken at Clashing, but the stallion did not lift his eyes to hers again. What was... what? For a moment there, he looked... Set Sail tore her eyes away from the bat pony, gliding uneasily around the worm to where Reef Skimmer lay, finding to her relief that Blaze had saved him after all.
"Oh... oh good, Blaze,” she said in some relief, landing beside the pair and saying, “Is he okay? The—the beast is—I–I guess I bought us some time.” Leaning to Reef’s head, she asked, “Reef, can you speak? How do you feel? I don’t know how to... tell if you’re injured.”
Reef Skimmer struggled into an upright position, not yet able to stand but at least getting his wings folded and his tentacles tucked in. After a few more attempts to speak, he managed "Like Tartarus, Captain..." His voice was still weak and gurgling: "...would be a flatfish though, if you hadn't... hadn't stopped that thing."
Blaze wipes a hoof across her forehead in relief. "Yeah... thanks to y'all for keeping the big bad bug at bay. No way I could have done that on my own." She indicates the wound, already closing up. "Hopefully his amorphous body can recover the rest of the way. Not exactly trained for first aid on goo creatures."
Nutmeg and Cloud Cutter came trotting over to join them; the rifle floating alongside in the kirin's her magic aura, as she declared in excitement, “Oh wow, you actually killed a Splatter— a big thing, whatever it is! Oh no, Reef are you okay?” He seemed the only one seriously injured, amazingly enough.
"It seems one has... no b-blood... to bleed," Reef managed. His eagle head was bobbling around on the four blue tentacles that stood in for his neck - a little comically, to be honest. The griff stared at his chest, where the hole had closed, leaving just a patch of blue goo amid the feathers. "Just as... just as well, that trauma... should've killed me." He looked around uncertainly. "Is anygriff... are you all ok? Some... some action outside as well, I t-take it?"
"Apologies... I thought... I thought the situation here was well in hoof," Azure said unhappily. "Moving to assist the other squad proved to be a poor one, and it's on me... Cloud Cutter and Nutmeg could handle it. Are you okay?" The enemy were down, but... this sure didn't feel like a win.
Cloud Cutter showed as much emotion as usual, which is to say none. "Set Sail. We ended most of the smaller bugs. The rest have fled the scene. A hard fight: Nutmeg received a shock, but no injuries." She gave a nod of approval to Azure Feather. "I wouldn't have stood a chance if not for your cover, keeping the bugs at bay while I... prepared. I see the look on your face. Be proud of yourself: your help was critical to our success."
“The big one shouldn't have gone down that easy,” Set Sail said nervously, glancing with unease at the cooling corpse, “We were barely phasing her, then... I mean Reef weakened the neck, and Clashing... did something, so ...that was ...probably it. I’m just glad you’re okay. We should never have come here. Who knows how many more of those things are down there.”
Blaze Trails took a moment to gather her thoughts. "Keep in mind, Set Sail: we were planning on coming back here anyway, with Melonwater in tow. Like it or not, we were going to stumble into this fight one way or another, so it's good that we resolved it now - without any real problems, assuming Reef gets back to normal," she finished, her tone encouraging as she tried to cheer up the captain.
“Oh, I... I hadn’t thought about that,” Set Sail said, paling as she brought her forehooves to her face, “We need to... to be very careful if we come back here. Definitely need Grenelda and... I don’t know how Gustus feels about bugs. Yeah... at least the entrance is cleared out. Maybe we can set up some sort of... base camp here, and those of us who aren’t fighters can venture further in once we’ve... cleared the way. There are many things here I just know the researchers would love to explore.”
"Mmmm, yeah, we just know so little about what awaits us deeper inside," Blaze Trails pondered. "If this is really our best hope for an alliance, we're risking a lot on unknowns." She tapped a hoof to her snout. "...But, as always, it's up to you. If you wanna push ahead with a new party, then that's what we'll do. I've been thinkin' hard as I can, but not coming up with any better ideas."
Clashing Gale had abandoned the discussion, taking advantage of his newfound night-vision and busying himself with searching around the cavern instead. This hadn't exactly been his finest hour, at least by pony standards. His combat contribution? Terrific, all things considered. Health-wise? Never felt better, even if his appearance was still a bit... wild. Civilian ponies seeing him baring fangs, feasting upon the enemy's blood? Terror upon terror.
“How many bugs did you get, Azure?” Nutmeg asked curiously, “I know the big bug back here has us all beat, but I couldn’t see what you did after those two you took down for me.”
"I couldn't give you a fair number," Azure replied. "The fact is, leaving friendlies behind when you don't know the situation of another squad... is incredibly careless of me. I should know better, and my Lieutenant would have had my head for making such a mistake. I'm just... glad you're all okay..."
"Tricky situation with... with those green insects... coming from behind," Reef mused. "Need to ensure we aren't... aren't flanked again, if... if we go into the tunnels," he added unhappily; this larger cavern was already claustrophobic enough, and unlike the pegasi he was too big to fly in there.
“It’s not right for me to continue here,” Set Sail said, ears dipping, “I have the crew to think about. I’m sure Trade Wind would be a great captain, but I can’t just put myself on the line like that, even if... w-well we need to return to the ship and make plans for a subterranean expedition. We hardly have any light sources with us, as-is. Hopefully those... bugs will ensure that the cats of this island don’t come looking around here. So maybe we can plan a little. We’re just riding on impulse as we are.”
Reef Skimmer struggled shakily to his feet... or at least, tentacles, as he was still in no shape to change form. "Don't say that Sails! We'd have been goners if you hadn't saved the day!" he exclaimed, as forcefully as he could manage, before looking away. "Erm. That is to say, you are the Captain, of course. Certainly we should regroup."
Set Sail blushed at that saying shyly, “Well I do my best. It was just weird though. ...i-it’s probably nothing.”
Blaze nods her head - feeling a bit weary herself. "Yeah, I'm ready to go back, too. I'd love to just collapse on the floor and have nothing to worry about for a bit - that'd be a good change of pace right about now."
Meanwhile Clashing was slipping into the side chamber the worm had emerged from. Finding little there except the rotted and broken remains of bunks and clothing, he moved on to the next chamber. There he found something rather intriguing. "Um, Captain? You may want to come take a look in here," he called out, trotting back to the group. "There's something you may find interesting... could be of use for a future task."
Set Sail lifted her ears, calling back, “Oh, you found something? Do you need a light? It’s pitch black back there!”
“Yeah. I bet this train would be totally adorable if we had any light,” Nutmeg said, sauntering up to squint at the train in the dimness, “Fresh coat of paint, oil up the gears, looks like a crystal engine so it’s definitely pre-cataclysm tech. Those last forever though!”
Blaze Trails chuckled politely as Nutmeg gushed over trains once more, brutal fight apparently forgotten. She followed along, wishing they could all be so carefree and spirited in a time like this, right? To be fair, it did look like a real beauty, at least once the dust and rust was cleaned off.
Clashing Gale frowned; he could see fine. Oh, right... "Sorry. Bat-pony things..." he muttered. "Saw something back there that might help, if I can find some fuel. Sit tight." The stallion disappeared again, leaving the others to chat nervously for a few minutes, before reappearing with a golden metallic shape hanging on each wing-claw and a oil can in his mouth. The brass safety lanterns were dented and tarnished, but quite functional. "Nutmeg, maybe you could get these going?"
“Oh cool! Oil lamps? These would be perfect for exploring those mine shafts!” Nutmeg said in delighted interest, taking one to cradle in her forelegs. She looked over to the oil can, and tugged it out of his mouth with her magic. “Hmm...” she said in disapproval, “This is lubrication oil, not lamp oil. It might burn kinda smoky. But beggars can’t be choosers I guess!”
Setting both down before her, Nutmeg got to work seeing about filling up the reservoirs of one of the lamps with the oil Clashing had procured from back there. With delicate care, she opened the safety shield and held her hoof over the wick. A spark and a flare of fire from her golden hoof, and soon the wick was lit and brightening. Nutmeg replaced the safety shield and picked up the lantern’s handle in her mouth, as its glow continued to brighten to basic visibility.
“Nice! I wonder what else is back there?” Set Sail said, looking from lantern bearing kirin to the dark room Clashing had emerged from, “They probably had everything you’d need to navigate these dark tunnels.”
"Kind of a kerfuffle that we didn't bring that stuff," Blaze quipped. "Guess those particular crates went over the side in the storm , huh?" Her ears flattened. "Mind if I take that second lantern off of you, Nutmeg? I'll feel more in my element if I could see where I was going."
Nutmeg nodded, then got the second lantern lit for Blaze. She levitated the first lantern over to the captain, saying, “If you wanna go look back there, go ahead!”
Set Sail stared at the lantern a moment, but then took the handle in her teeth so Nutmeg’s magic could release it. Looking over her shoulder at Blaze and the others, she asked, “Oo comin’?”
Blaze Trails, grasping the lantern firmly in her jaws, soundlessly nodded as well, making it rattle and swing.
Now that the creatures who couldn't see in total darkness were accommodated, Clashing Gale lead the group through a short tour of the side chambers. At the far end of the cavern, there was a sizable workshop filled with Molekin tools and spare parts for the train and assorted mining machinery. Nutmeg regarded them eagerly: to be sure they had the crate from the Skylanders, but she never said no to more parts.
Then there was the dormitory-turned-splatterpillar-lair, still filled with the foul smell of its former inhabitant. Connected to that was a room full of sturdy and sadly empty lockers, the locks long ago broken off and contents looted. The final room held piles of props, pick axes, rock drills, hard hats and, in a cobweb-covered chest Clashing had forced open... two dozen brown sticks, sitting next to waxed paper bags full of blasting caps.
Blaze Trails puts down the lantern for a bit to gape, smiling. "Niiiice. Now here's everything we needed. Seeing as we're stopping back anyway, suppose we can leave it all here and come back to supply ourselves before..." Nodding over to Nutmeg, "Taking the train, I suppose, if you can work your magic?"
“I can definitely work my magic!” Nutmeg said, poring over the assorted parts, “And I can probably fix the train too. Might take me a bit, if there’s anything that needs replacing.”
“Dasha gool idea,” Set Sail agreed sagely, “The hrai—...” She put down the lantern. “The train won’t be able to go past the first place the tracks have been damaged, but it could carry stuff in to that point. What’re these sticks in the chest?”
“Oh that’s dynamite,” Nutmeg said distractedly, “Helps you mine through rock, good at causing cave-ins though.”
"Cave-ins?" Reef said in alarm, ear-tufts flicking. "More magic? ...or is it some form of gunpowder? I should think we would want to minimise the risk of collapse."
Nutmeg's ears flicked, then she lifted her head and turning to look at Reef, saying seriously, “Oh no, we probably don’t want to use them. They’re only used safely by trained miners, and they’re kind of tricky to blow up actually, thus the blasting caps.”
She trotting over to join the griff in peering into the chest, saying: “The blasting caps will be gunpowder. The dynamite itself, or gelignite to be specific, is basically cylinders filled with nitro-glycerine mixed with an accelerant, plus cotton and sawdust to stabilize it. Assuming the nitro hasn’t leaked out, you use a blasting cap to trigger the dynamite, which makes a really big boom."
Meanwhile Blaze Trails continued to explores the storage room. Perking her ears, she puts her lantern down and carefully grabs a parchment map off of a table - making sure it's not able to crumble in her hooves. "Looks like this might be a map of the surrounding tunnels - you make of it the same thing I do?"
Set Sail hurried over to Blaze, looking at the fragile paper with wide eyes saying, “I think you might be right! That could make all the difference!”
"Ah, capital, good show Blaze!" Reef enthused. "Look, the rails run right along the spine of the island, down to that city we saw earlier. Branches here and here... that must be the pyramid. Hmm, one supposes that's how they shipped in all the rock needed to build the thing."
There wasn't much else to see in the little underground complex, so after packing up a few choice tools and parts, the Equestrians headed back out into the rock crushing plant. Azure Feather and Cloud Cutter quickly searched through the side rooms, finding only a few old coins and sheaves of yellowed documents for Blue Type to examine. Then the explorers finally left the dusty mine behind, emerging into the bright sunlight bathing the ruined air dock.
Set Sail looked around, staring longingly at the puffy clouds, just happy to be outside again. Then she got a good look at Clashing Gale: the bat pony's face and chest were soaked with a strange purple fluid. Her green eyes widened in shock as it dawned on her what it was. Set Sail stumbled to a halt next to the stallion, saying nervously: “Oh, uh... Clashing. You p-probably need to get cleaned up or s-something...”
Her wings were unconsciously but warily half spread, which accentuated the fact that the pegasus herself was copiously splattered with the same fluid, raining down on her when she sliced through the large bug’s neck.
There was a certain line to be crossed between 'Bat-pony things' and 'Things ponies just don't normally do'. That line had been crossed a long time ago for Clashing... though he'd hidden it from the others until now. He looked down at his chest and nodded. "Uh, yeah... can't exactly wriggle out of this one, can I..." He gave a soft sigh: "didn't exactly have an opportunity to freshen up, in an abandoned mine full of hostiles. Hmm, maybe..." His eyes went to the water elemental.
Set Sail nodded stiffly in understanding, then went trotting up to Reef Skimmer. The hippogriff was still stuck in his altered form: legs replaced by bundles of blue tentacles, while yet more stood in for his neck and waist. The blood-soaked pegasus mare whined plaintively: “Reef... Clashing has a—a little bit of blood on him that needs cleaning. I don’t suppose you could help him out? I don’t think you can just... leave stuff like that in your fur, even if you are a p-predator, which I suppose Clashing is now.”
"Hmm... indeed. Will never pass inspection like that, never mind predators scenting blood for a kilometre downwind." Reef said stuffily. Ambling over to the stallion, he said "Well sir, we shall have you fixed up in a jiffy. Erm... you might want to close your eyes." Clashing Gale stood there stoically as the tentacled hippogriff blasted him with several jets of warm water, scouring the bug ichor out of his purple coat at the cost of leaving the stallion soaked and dripping. "And there we are."
Huh... for some reason he'd expected it to be ice cold. Sure, Clashing was soaked, but warm sun and a nice relaxing flight would fix that in a hurry. Being washed by a hippogriff water-summoner... strange, but it sure did the job. "Wasn't even thinking of predators... thanks for bringing that up, Doctor, and thanks for the help," he concluded.
"Think nothing of it." Reef waved a claw dismissively. "Your contribution was instrumental in that little scuffle back there." Turning to the mare, he said "And.. erm, Captain, you seem to have... that is to say, shall I wash you off as well?"
Giving him a confused look, Set Sail said, “Me? But I don’t have any...” She looked down at her blood splattered forelegs, then back to her right flank with the delicate mist of blood speckling her fur, and then her left flank where even her cutie mark was partially obscured by the ludicrous mess painting every inch of her with gooey splatterpillar blood, declaring, “Oh Celestia, it's all over me!" She skittered backwards as if to escape herself until she fell butt first over the edge of the sky dock.
Silence.
After more than a few moments of contemplation, Set Sail managed to fly back up to the level of the sky dock, blushing red as she landed and refused to make eye contact, saying to Reef Skimmer, “S-s-so I suppose I could use a little a—a little...”
"Say no more," Reef cooed. The treatment was rather gentler and more intimate than the pressure-washing Clashing had received, as the mutated griff rubbed the bulbous tips of his tentacles through the mare's coat, mane and feathers, gently washing out all the insect fluids, not to mention a fair amount of dust and fluff. The water was hotter than before and quite effective at relaxing her muscles. "I do believe that's all of it," Reef said finally, withdrawing his tentacles and staring at them in embarrassment. "One hopes that was not too unpleasant."
With her soaked hair covering her eyes, it was hard to tell exactly what Set Sail was feeling right now, but she relaxed at the relief of that awful sticky feeling leaving her fur, and outright sighed as her tense muscles relaxed under Reef’s gentle yet firm touch. “Thank you Reef,” she said, sounding a lot calmer than she had for most of today, “I feel much better.”
Then she lifted a hoof to push her bangs out of the way, looking at Clashing sympathetically, adding, “And... I’m sorry, Clashing.”
Clashing Gale chuckled a bit. "No need to apologise, Captain, I'd be freaked out in your position... weird that I'm not more freaked out myself, actually. I guess I'm just trying to fully understand just what I am, you know? Today was the next step and... who knows what's next..." He trailed off from there, looking into the distance. He still felt better than ever, but... maybe not quite like a pony, any more.
“It’s just like Reef,” Set Sail said bemusedly, “It doesn’t matter at all what you are. It’s who you are that matters. Whatever you are, if you are yourself, then you can use your powers to help your friends, and I’m... glad to be on your side. So that's why I apologized. We're all in a strange place right now, whether we're a normal pony or not.”
Reef Skimmer was still feeling too sore to change into his roc form, so he flew back as he was, water jets blasting from his tentacle tips to force him through the air. Set Sail and Cloud Cutter carried earth pony and kirin alike, while Azure and Clashing flew overwatch, ready to pounce on any aerial predator that might harass their squad. No further threats appeared, and the group made it back to their hidden copter without incident.
As Nutmeg went to reinstall the thermal crystals and the others set about stowing their gear, Reef finally managed to force himself back into hippogriff shape, then drew a certain brown pegasus aside. "I just wanted to say, Sails... you're doing a fine job out here. Stellar, really, given the circumstances." Tentatively, he reached down with claw and wing to draw the pony mare into a tight hug.
Set Sail would have liked to disagree with him, to argue with him in any number of times she wasn’t doing a fine job, and any of the many ways she wasn’t okay, but it was just impossible to deny that he cared for her, as she lifted a foreleg and extended a wing to hug him back as best she could. “We’ll get through this somehow, Reef,” she said quietly, “We just have to. You all did better than I could have hoped. I just hope...”
She didn’t seem fit to finish that sentence, leaning into her friend’s comforting embrace.
Soon enough the Second Chance was ready for take-off. Set Sail took the helm once more, guiding the whirring copter away from Fellis, heading north to throw any feline eyes that might be watching off their trail before wheeling around in a lazy circle to head south. All the buzzing about had drained the thermal crystals enough that Nutmeg insisted on a pit stop; they alighted briefly on an outlying islet of Triskellion Mine. Blaze Trails quickly gathered shrubs and built a bonfire that Nutmeg eagerly to ignited, baking the crystals while the ponies looked on.
Blaze Trails closed her eyes and reflected as they waited for the fire to do its work. She wasn't quite yet certain if she wanted to go spelunking in that mine - she'd felt outclassed in the fight, and all this monster slaying and mining wasn't exactly her wheelhouse. But... she did still contribute, she's fine and healthy, and if she wasn't there to help when she was needed - well, if they lost the whole party in the mines they might as well be done for. Her mind wandered, and she thought about her poor expedition tent, no doubt now repurposed as an all-feline enclosure. Damn, how's she ever going to get another tent that good? Poor thing!
Nutmeg left the crystals to warm, indulging in her other reason to make a pit stop here. With the sun low in the sky, you could really see the sunset painting the clouds all sorts of colours, from where she stood on the edge of this island here, gazing out there and just taking it all in. Dark smoke trailed into the sky, contrasting against the orange and pink clouds, and drawing a shark airship to check for intruders. They waved and turned away at the sight of the Second Chance's painted hull, apparently willing to waive the parking fees as long as the Equestrians were under contract.
Finally the sun was gone and the crystals recharged; the copter rose into the air once more, making the final leg back to Blissful Pastures. There they found things quiet and peaceful for once, though much of the crew had stayed up waiting anxiously for the explorer's return. Their craft settled to a landing next to the much larger EAS Harmony and the tired crew tumbled out, heading in for a much-deserved rest.
Blaze Trails was a pony who took life as it came, rolling with the punches and trying not to take anything too seriously. The one thing she was dead serious about was her role as a guide, and protecting the ponies who needed guiding. They'd been to the cat island twice now (thrice counting the trip with the sharks) and faced mortal danger every time. Pushing through a musty old mine infested with spider-centaurs and giant bugs and who knew what was gonna be a doozy. Like the Captain had said, they needed the best ponies for the job and they needed to be prepared.
So Blaze had been doing the rounds, having a friendly chat with each volunteer - but one creature just wasn’t making herself available. Nutmeg Inferno had been just a peach, far as Blaze had gotten to know her on the copter flight, but as soon as they'd touched down the kirin had scarpered off without a word. Now Blaze was having a hard time tracking her done - she wasn't in her office, and all the mechanicky ponies could say was that the kirin was somewhere near the bow, installing a cannon of all things.
It sure was a nice day up top, moored next to the meadow: birds tweeting to each other, ponies wandering among the tents and long grass, sheep occasionally objecting to the intrusion with an annoyed baaaa. Sure enough, just behind the big weather device was a strange angular contraption, that could’ve been a cannon if you squinted your eyes real hard - yet no kirin in sight. Of all the things to work on right now; it wouldn't do them much good if they couldn't get the ship flying again.
Blaze Trails finally found Nutmeg below deck. The gold and brown, red-ruffed creature was squeezed up into a little nook, using her big old wrench to tighten the bolts that anchored the new whatever-it-was. Blaze trotted up slowly, not wanting to startle the kirin.
"So, about this push through the tunnels under Fellis... you're coming along, right? I could see how your eyes lit up when you saw that steam train," Blaze began. She considered the next part carefully: "Buuuut... you're going to need to take this seriously. This could get real dangerous: worst case, those bugs were just the beginnin' of the horrors down there."
“Oh I’m uh... not going,” Nutmeg said, staring back at the earth pony from her dark little crawlspace, her expression unreadable. “Yeah, sorry. I meant to tell you, but y’know... I was just thinking about Sprocket. She needs some more experience, and she wanted to go, I think. You should talk to her, and... uhm... she’s probably working on the port boiler right now - you know, in the engine room.”
Blaze Trails took a step back in surprise; she'd been all set to tamp down Nutmeg's enthusiasm, but it seemed she'd already had second thoughts. Maybe the engineer felt she wasn't up to the task, so was burying herself in work to take her mind off the situation? "Well, err..."
Blaze hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "If you say so, I suppose." No sense trying to force the issue, they were all volunteers out here. "So, you can vouch for Sprocket being up for the job? Have you talked about this with her, or am I gonna be your messenger?"
“Well sure she asked me about it. Talked with me about it, a little,” Nutmeg said, wiggling out from her crawlspace to stand before the sturdy-looking green pony. “She just needs a little encouragement. I know she can do anything I can, except walk into a firebox,” Nutmeg continued.
“When we formed our company, everyone wanted me to be the leader, and I do a pretty good job of that, but it’s mostly symbolic. You sign more contracts when you put a kirin front and centre. Sprocket, Gearshift, Static Signal, Scarlet Gauge, and Petunia are the ones who founded it with me, so any of them are, up for the job.”
She looked behind her, adding nervously, “I yeah, heh... gotta get these defences mounted, and see about testing them, in case the drow find us. So... sorry. I’m... uhm... busy.” Nutmeg Inferno blushed a grimace of nervous shame, then jumped back into the hole. The sound of tightening bolts confirmed the conversation was over.
Blaze Trails let out a slow sigh of discomfort. True, they were running on borrowed time - either they got the ship flying again or the drow were gonna hunt them down. And yeah, Nutmeg was one of the few who could do something about that - even fixed artillery was better than nothing if it came to a fight.
"Alright, I understand. Didn't get to talk to Sprocket so much, but... figure I'll just sit down with her and we'll work things out. If you say she's got the train part in hoof, I'll take your word for it." With that Blaze set off for the engine room, intent on tracking down the unicorn. Sprocket had flown the copter perfectly well on her first trip out, and by all accounts had given a good account of herself in the sphinx's pyramid, so... maybe this wouldn't be too bad.
Sprocket was indeed lurking at the back of the engine room, reared up on a table covered in assorted machine parts. The unicorn’s creamy pink fur accentuated her dark mane and tail, while her horn was suffused with an amber aura. She was levitating a screwdriver and a wrench, along with a ceramic cup of something black and bitter.
Her device started with a metal kettle connected to cute little hoses, equipped with an oil burner and acting as a miniature boiler to power the pistons. A touch of magic on a lever sent a little pony doll hurling across the engine room. Sprocket chuckled quietly at the success of her improvised steam-powered trebuchet.
Blaze Trails switched from an easy saunter to a frantic backpedal as the projectile flew across her vision. She looked around for a threat, or a weapon gone wrong... but no, seemed like the unicorn was just foolin' around. The earth mare gave a little laugh of her own before launching into the conversation.
"So, uhh, Sprocket. Hey! We met a few days back; didn't get the chance to talk so much on account of you flyin' the copter and all." She held out a hoof to shake. "So you know we're going back, gotta push through the tunnels to get into that pyramid, whatever it takes to get the sharks on our side. Nutmeg mentioned you were interested... does that mean fully onboard, or are you still working it through in your head?"
Sprocket hopped her forelegs from the table to the floor, looking wide-eyed at Blaze Trails before nervously shaking the hoof. “Seriously?" she said incredulously in her lowborn accent, "Ya think I should go back out there, after what I did?”
By now Blaze was sweating behind her ears. "Err... you're going to have to elaborate for me? Spent a long spell in sickbay before... oh, you mean in the pyramid?"
“I totally froze up,” the other mare said grimly, “I was a frikkin basket case after what Reef did. I never saw anything like it before! He killed her with water! I mean it was real wild, and I kinda want to see what else he can do. I’m goin’ stir crazy here just thinkin about it! Buuuut.... you don’t want somepony like me. I’m just a clumsy nopony who don’t know what I’m doing. Huh. The chief really recommended me?”
Blaze suppressed a frown, managing to nod instead. Couldn't blame an engineer for not being used to seeing creatures die. The pony clearly needed a pep talk. "Nutmeg recommended you straight up. Said you'd be better for the job than her, even."
The earth mare put on a grin and nodded again with more enthusiasm. "We'll need someone to repair and drive that train we found, and I'm sure the pyramid proper will have no end of mechanisms that need puzzling out, so you'll be a vital part of the team." That left the issue of self-defence against whatever was lurking in those tunnels, but Blaze would wait for Sprocket to broach that subject.
“Well I been... I been practicing and stuff, y’know just in case it ever happens again,” Sprocket said, fidgeting on her hooves, “Those chompies are a lotta fun to mess with. You levitate somethin' sharp,” she demonstrated with her floating screwdriver, “And just, wham, bam!” she swiped it in the air and jabbed it right into the table. The tool stuck fast: Sprocket stared in confusion as her magic failed to retrieve it, then shrugged.
“I mean of course I don’t got a lot of strength behind it,” she admitted sheepishly, “But we been doing some spectacular things with that gunpowder recipe of Abernathy’s. Check this out!” She levitated a vaguely circular chunk of wood from a pile on her table, saying: “All I do is hit this with a fire blast and boom!”
There was no boom. Sprocket stood blinking for a moment, then blushed, saying: “Eheh I can’t exactly show it off here. Don’t want to blow up the engine room again.”
Blaze Trails grinned: that's what unicorns brought to the party, right there! Thoroughly distracted, she gave the screwdriver an experimental nudge - sure enough, the damn thing was wedged in hard. She gestured with a hoof at the rest of the gear: "Y'got a weapon to show off, then? Anything like Nutmeg's 'rifle'? I wanna see it in action." Sometimes these techies had their own ways to handle themselves, long as they packed the right gadget...
“Well no, I just... y’know, took a piece of torn sheet metal out there, and... I’d have to get a real weapon I guess,” Sprocket said, her gaze dropping as she realised this was serious. “But it’s fine really. Nice thing about being a unicorn; ya don’t need to stick it in your mouth, so it don't need a handle. Heck just my horn is a weapon against anything that don't like fire. And I guess physically too, though it ain't too sharp... and that would be kinda gross. Mostly I was hoping, and not that I'm hoping I mean, but these explosives are wicked sick. I’d love to see ‘em— I mean, y’know... be all responsible with ‘em and stuff.”
"Alright!" Blaze said cheerfully, "sounds like you're perfectly capable of handling yourself in a fight. You've got your unicorn magic, and your explosives, however they work. And I have it on good word you're a talented engineer. And if you run low... you know they found more explosives, abandoned in the mine?"
"So... what's worrying you? If it's that combat's still scary for you, well, honestly..." Blaze lowered her head, "I gotta admit, it's been scary for me too. I mean I've dealt with my fair share of beasties but this is above and beyond, what with the giant angry slugs and swarms of electric bugs and whatnot. But I figure, ponies can always get it done together. If you want some quick self-defence training, be a pleasure to go through the ropes with you."
“Oh I’m just y’know... just trying to figure out how to deal with all that... screamin' and stuff,” Sprocket said with a shy look Blaze’s way, “I just dunno who to talk to about that stuff, and— yeah I could use a self-defence thingy. I don’t know if I’m doin' it right just messing around by myself.”
Blaze Trails nodded, her smile warm and affirming smile. "Then let's do it. I'll teach you close quarters combat, how to remain alert: all the tricks your mind and eyes need to be doing to not get surprised." She gently pats a hoof on Sprocket's shoulder. "As for the... screamin' and stuff. Look, you gotta realise that fightin' is just something you push through, when it's the only way to go what's gotta get done. You can take time to think through the consequences after, but in the heat of the moment there's no time for second-guessing. Keep it cool and hone your skills, so your instincts work for you instead of against you."
“Oh, well alright,” Sprocket said with a smile and a warm feeling in her heart, “I don’t know nothin' about honing my instincts, or trickin' my eyes, so if you wanna do that for me it’d be a real help. I don’t have enough ta do around here anyway, so a little rough and tumble might do me some good. You sure are nice, uh... whoever you are.”
"Goodness, did I forget to introduce myself? Sorry, I got so caught up in all of this. Blaze Trails, ma'am." She grimaced, but was soon back to nodding and grinning. "Yep, a little playfightin' will give you the experience you need. I'll show you how you can sneak up on creatures, how to get out of a pin, and how to use a knife, and if you bring that 'rifle' of yours I'll see if we can't get some steady shots out of it. Y'wanna head outside now? Doesn't look like you're doin' anythin' important."
“Yeah, lemme tell Static, and I’ll be right there,” Sprocket replied, then blinked at Blaze’s odd choice of words. “Sorry, I don’t know that I think I have a 'rifle',” the engineer pony said in confusion, “What’s a rifle?”
Blaze Trails blink blinked, making a 'long object' gesture with her forehooves. "The, uhh, shooty blasty explodey thing you were talking about? That's what Nutmeg called it - Abby's got one too? Or at least some other sort of 'gun'."
“Oh! Right, those cute little mini-cannons!” Sprocket blurted out, eyes lighting up, “The chief’s real good with them, knows all about how to make ‘em and stuff. I dunno if I’m copacetic with the idea of setting off that explosive powder in a metal tube right next to me though. Bombs make more sense to me - like, isn’t it better if the explosions happen over by the bad guys?”
Blaze Trail scratched a hoof behind her ear, feeling out of her element. "I admit, I'm not the pony to consult on these matters, but I'm thinkin' the explosion is to make the projectile go really fast? Like firing a bow but you don't even need the draw strength for it anymore." She shrugs, "Maybe there's a way to have it both ways, I dunno."
“Right, it’s just like a cannon,” Sprocket says, “The blasting powder goes in the back, then you add a little baby cannon ball. That’s why they’re tubes, to make the explosion all go one way, sending it right at whatever it’s pointed at. But uh... I mean we do good work but we don’t exactly have an iron foundry at our hooftips here."
"Sure, the plan is to make the explosion all go one way, but do you really think that plan would work out every time? Plus the barrel gets super hot, and makes ya ears ring. Sure I could shoot it in my magic... once. Then the projectile goes one way, the cannon goes the other way, and I’m a sitting duck without a weapon anymore.”
Blaze Trails cocked her head: "Hmm... right, yeah, I see." She's wasn't totally following, but the problems seemed clear enough. "Well... Here's something to think about. Maybe if the deal with the Shark goes through, we can see about getting better weapons, as well as the propellers we need."
"I still got this..." Sprocket tapping her fluted horn with a hoof, “and... how about I show you how cool these grenades I cooked up are?” Sprocket replied amiably. “They’re a lot safer, and sealed up, no need to mess with powder when somethin' nasty's charging at you. And uhm... I mean you’re the guardspony, so you should be the one showing me about weapons. So let’s stop yakkin' and get out and get crackin'!”
Blaze Trails looked amused: "I ain't no guard - you must be thinkin' of Azure. Me, I'm an explorer, just doing my best to fill out the ranks. But... thanks. Yeah, you show me something cool and I'll show you something cool too!"
The two ponies trotted off together, heading off the ship and down the forest track to the abandoned quarry, now their makeshift training area. For the two hours laughter and explosions echoed across the jungle. Sprocket showed Blaze her basic fireball, her fireball-assisted explosive, and how she heated up the chunk of jagged scrap to a glowing amber, to make it better at cutting things. Blaze made sure to get Sprocket a real knife, but... perhaps not a super rare and expensive one, or one with a flammable handle. And so one more pony was prepared to do the Nightmare’s work, down in the abandoned molekin mines.
Reef Skimmer was thinking along similar lines; stuck in a new body with strange new abilities, all his reluctant wing-sword practice seemed of little use. Front-line combat had never been his calling, but they were struggling to survive in a harsh and unforgiving land. As one of the few creatures with any sort of combat training and now an 'elemental' to boot, he had to learn how to fight all over again.
Thus he was flying over the dense forest that covered most of Blissful Pastures, heading for the quarry - best not to repeat the incident that had left the meadow rutted and sodden. It was a short hop so he hadn't taken his roc shape, instead just relaxing and letting the blue tentacles expand from his legs and midsection. Bereft of the ability to magically shed weight, even his relatively large wings didn't suffice to keep him aloft - not without the help of the streams of water he was blasting downward. Hopefully nogriff was sneaking about below, lest they get a sudden drenching.
It took only a few minutes to reach his destination. Somegriff- someponies rather were down there, a green one and a pink one, turning to look up at his decidedly unstealthy approach. The mutant griff came down for a slightly squishy landing a respectful distance away, saying "Ah, Blazing Trails, Rocket, one does hope one isn't interrupting."
“It’s Sprocket, not Rocket,” the creamy furred unicorn mare said, but pondered, “Though given what we’re up against, a rocket might not be a bad idea...”
“Oh don’t worry, we were just getting done here,” Blaze Trails said, waving a dismissive green-furred hoof his way, “You sure do make things wet on your way.”
“Long as he doesn’t get the black powder wet,” Sprocket said, giving Reef a suspicious look.
The griff frowned, flattening his ear-fins back. "As I understand it, correct procedure is to transfer the stuff directly from kegs to sealed leather pouches, or it simply won't-" he began, then thought better of it, ducking his head and saying "But I suppose we're all improvising out here. One will do one's best to wash only willing volunteers."
Sprocket just shrugged at Reef’s offhand criticism, saying, “We’re makin' our own containers at this point. What the heck is leather?”
“Uh, it's... never mind,” Blaze muttered, then turned to Reef Skimmer with a smile, asking: “What can I do you for?”
Reef cocked his head one way then the other, considering. "Ah, I confess I didn't anticipate your presence, was just out for a spot of practice you know... but since you are here, hmm." He eyed the blades strapped to Blaze's flank. "...perhaps you could lend assistance? Or failing that, advice;" his beak gaped open in an avian smile, "one got the impression you've crossed paths with quite the menagerie of hostile beasts."
“I’ve seen a beastie or two in my travels, you could say,” Blaze said with a shy blush, and a discerning eye toward Reef’s beak, “Nothin' from these islands of course. What sorta beast did you find?”
Reef Skimmer took two steps forward, then realised he was still a noodly tentacle beast. "Oh, erm, do excuse me," he said, averting his eyes as he started to squeeze himself down into hippogriff shape. "The diversity of megafauna out here really is quite wonderful, but a good portion of it seems hostile. My concern was not with one specific beast - though that overgrown caterpillar certainly put us through the wringer - more that, well..."
"As an officer of the Queen's Navy and one of the creatures, erm, 'empowered' by this place, one has a duty to stand on the front lines and defend one's fellow griffs, err, ponies." He dipped his head, saying guiltily: "Which in all honesty hasn't been going terribly well."
“Uh huh... that so?” Blaze said, eyeing the hippogriff as his chest and abdomen squished themselves back together; if he thought that was less disturbing than being all noodly, he had another thing coming! “What are you having problems with?”
"Ah, you see a griff's first instinct is to strike with claws..." Reef held up a foreleg, realised it was still blue and wriggly and glared at it for a few seconds until it resembled a grey-scaled eagle's foot. "...perhaps switching to the beak or hooves if situation demands. Yet it seems those instincts are now counterproductive."
He demonstrated by dragging his talons over a rock; instead of scoring scratches into the surface, they just slid over it, deforming as if made of rubber. "In retrospect, one really should have taken wing-blade training more seriously." He sighed, then his eyes went to Blaze's sheathed blades. "One was wondering though... 'griffon's claw', did you say it was? Would you indulge me in an experiment, via the loan of your blade?"
“Oh sure thing, one sec,” Blaze said, nosing around her midriff and pulling the curved blade loose of its sheath, then mouthing it off to him. As Reef took in his flexible digits, Blaze gave the strange creature a worried look “Try not to get it too wet, 'kay? That one ain't stainless, wouldn’t want a nice blade to go to rust, don’tcha know.”
"Thank you! One will certainly do one's best." Reef Skimmer was back to looking like a hippogriff now (save for having pearl-tipped spines on his head); he eyed the blade curiously. It was indeed an impressive bit of metalwork, rather larger than an actual talon but curved and pointed in a similar fashion. Sitting back on his haunches, he took the blade in one claw and pressed it into his other claw, the flesh briefly reverting to blue goo as the blade sank in. The hippogriff winced as it broke the surface and frowned with concentration as his body tried to push the foreign matter back out again, eventually getting it to stay inside.
"Bizarre sensation..." he muttered, "now, for the real test." Reef rose to his feet and walked a little awkwardly over to a bush. Then he brandished a claw and made the blade reappear in the exact position of his middle talon, a long and wickedly sharp piece of steel sliding out and taking the place of the talon-shaped goo. It was extremely impressive and intimidating for about two seconds, before Reef reflexively extruded it completely and the blade dropped to the ground.
“Oh uh... you probly don’t wanna lose your em... grip on it,” Blaze said with concern, trotting forward to the hippogriff and the downed blade. “Mind tellin' me how’s this gonna help you defend ponies, again?”
Reef seemed embarrassed, stepping away from the pony and looking away. "It just seemed that, well, if one still had one's talons then..." he trailed off. "I realise I don't possess the hunting skills of Grenelda, or likely even Gustus, but at least it's a... known quantity, if you catch my drift? Whereas trying to make use of these new abilities... you saw how that went in the mine. Trying something for the first time in a fight for one's life, nearly got Sails and myself killed."
Lifting a hoof, Blaze said cautiously, “Wellll I wouldn’t say you almost—”
“Are you nuts?!” Sprocket finally blurted out after staring in shocked silence the whole time. The creamy-pink engineer stomped up to Reef Skimmer saying in amazement, “You are nuts, aren’t you? I thought you were just some doctor, but you’re a freakin' crazy badass warrior! Breaking creatures in half and melting their skin off’s not good enough for you, you also gotta have a knife to cut ‘em with? Luna’s tits man, that is just wicked suck!”
Reef Skimmer was taken aback by the unicorn's outburst. "Well I- That is to say... taking down one surprised spellcaster is one thing but... you weren't there at the mine. Big purple brute the size of an orca, gave it the water blast treatment but the thing pretty much shrugged it off. I thought perhaps dissolve the beast, but one ended up impaled on a stalactite. Sails had to step up and take it down... one wonders how she became so proficient with axes..." Reef stared into space for a moment, smiling as he recalled the Captain's heroic defeat of the splatterpillar.
“I don’t know you gotta get proficient with axes, don’t you just swing ‘em?” Sprocket said, her confidence dimming as she spoke, “I didn’t know you got your tail kicked in that mine. But uh... you... remember why that spell lady was surprised, don’t you?”
The hippogriff looked down at the unicorn, wondering what she was getting at. "Sudden explosions of spray with no water source in sight are presumably a rare occurrence even in these parts," he said dryly.
Sprocket's ears went flat, as she lowered her hoof and said, “Seriously? You seriously don’t remember.” she said in less than impressment. Lighting up her horn, Sprocket’s magic did a thing, sparking a growing fireball right at the tip of her horn. “You remember this at least, dontcha?” the mare asked coolly.
"Certainly," he admitted. "Your spellwork was instrumental in revealing the number and location of the enemy, not to mention supressing the caster for a critical moment."
“It was my magic project back in school,” Sprocket said distractedly, staring at the flame before sending it streaking up to burst far overhead. “Lets you light things on fire outside the range of ya horn field. And uh... wake up phoenixes turns out.”
Her eyes refocused on the hippogriff. “So yeah, I was throwin' those fireballs at her. That’s why she was off guard. I wasn’t trying to kill her but... I kinda killed her too, because we were working together. That’s how ponies get stuff done. So get yourself a knife or whatever, but it don’t count as a fail if you get your tail kicked, and it lets your friend step in and... finish the job. You still killed ‘em just as dead.”
Reef ducked his head, seeming unconvinced. "I don't suppose you have any more like that?" he asked Blaze hopefully. "One has a variety of surgical implements of course, but nothing that would fit so neatly."
“You know, I had a few knives to work with in that battle,” Blaze said thoughtfully, picking up the talon-like knife, and carefully wiping it off on her shoulder fur, “But that caterpillar beast was tough! I don’t know that having a knife, or talon would’ve helped much. But your melty thing... it sure noticed that. Honestly, those water tricks you got are a lot more powerful than... than anything I could give ya.”
"In principle perhaps," Reef admitted. "In the heat of battle though, one feels as if one is... flailing around? Trying to apply it. Perhaps it's different for ponies; in the Navy everygriff must drill for close combat, all in the manual you know, such that action in a crisis is a matter of reflex. I suppose that's more hinderance now than help."
He looked from Blaze to Sprocket and back. "Oh, I am sorry. I suppose this does sound a little ridiculous. It's just... Azure makes it look so easy, you know? Infused with alien magic and she's creating typhoons and calling down lightning as if it was nothing."
“So why’re you bothering with knives then?” Sprocket asked, patting Reef on the shoulder, “You oughta be drilling for close combat with what you got, if you feel like you’re flailing around with it.”
“She has a point,” Blaze said with an apologetic smile, “Seems like your problem is not that alien magic, but the fact that you need more practice. Lose the old instincts, make new ones!”
“I been good at fire my whole life, so I dunno how that would be if I was suddenly shooting off water or something,” Sprocket said, shaking her head, “Still, you gotta do what’s effective, not what you think looks good. I know when you stuffed your... tentacle thing down that... spider lady’s throat and... made her sorta... burst, that was real... effective.”
"It is true that massive subdermal injection of pressurised water is likely to make short work of most creatures," Reef mused. He'd been horrified by what he'd done to the spider-creature, but... on reflection, was it really any worse than death by talon and beak? Arguably less so: it had been over in a moment. "Very well. But you must not tell all the mares back home that one has no talons to speak of. Why, I should never have a mate again!" The bird equivalent of a wry smile was lost on the ponies.
“Oh, you’re lookin’ for a mate, huh?” Blaze Trails remarked, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
Reef's expression slowly changed to shock as he realised what he'd said. "Well, erm, not as such... one is the only hippogriff on the ship you know..." A gulp. "There is perhaps one possibility, but one is still... working to make that feasible."
“Well I’m not namin’ names, but... I think you got a good chance,” Blaze said slyly, “So keep on at it.”
Fortunately his feathers concealed the blue blush. "Yes, well, be that as it may..." Reef quickly turned to Sprocket: "So! Woke up a flock of phoenixes, you say? That does sound exciting..."
The stepped sandstone pyramid thrust upward through the thick Fellissian jungle, pagoda at its summit baking in the morning sun. Deep within lay the cavernous central chamber, a vast hall of thick columns ringed by the statues of sphinxes of old. The space was dark and still: a sole guardian lounged near the sole exit, reading a dusty scroll. Yet he was not the only inhabitant of the space: nestled in its side chamber was the striking golden idol, its sapphire eyes aglow. The artefact was now host to an alien intelligence - alien to the Cloudbreak Islands, at least.
Summer Scribe was trapped in what was, as far as she knew, the greatest library of knowledge to exist anywhere in the Cloudbreak Islands. As thrilling as that was, she could only sit captive with nothing to do but think and relive ancient memories for so long, before the inaction became unbearable. Sure, it had only been a couple of days since Cloud Cutter and Clashing Gale came by for a chat, but the more Summer thought about her situation, the more it became clear that she'd have to take matters into her own hooves to secure her release.
The plan? Pretend to be a Sphinx Oracle, just like the ones of old, and make her demands. She'd skimmed a ton of relevant memories, more than enough to visualise herself as such a creature. The pony spirit inhabiting the golden statue focused her will, concentrating on a spot just in front of her. Ceramic whirled into existence: a leonine shape forming out of nothing. Glazed in cyan and blue with trim of gold, looking regal with all the relevant garb, and a smug not-quite-pony countenance.
Another moment of concentration and Summer was in this new body, animating lifeless clay as if it was a real creature. She settled into her new form, feeling it out... toed paws and wings, of all limbs! She felt them casually spread behind her, peering back with curious glee. "Ooh, I've never had real wings before. This should be fun to try out! ...Once I'm on the surface, of course."
"Okay, Summer - am I good to go? Do I look convincing? Sound convincing? Maybe deepen my voice a bit... Memorise some stump speech and jargon?" she muttered, ceramic paw-pads clinking on the stone floor as she pacing in her little cell - the pyramid's inner sanctum, sealed away behind the Earth gate.
Te'kepan was used to long stints guarding the Hall of Truth: sphinxes were patient creatures... most of the time. Without warning a voice boomed from the rear of the space, muffled by the barrier and echoing through the hall: "I want out! Let me out at once!"
To say the guardian was startled would be an understatement. He dropped his scroll and hurried over to investigate, arriving just in time to see the elemental seal flash white. The gate dissolved before his eyes... and out strode a glossy ceramic sphinx of cyan, blue and gold, with eyes narrowed and gaze stern. "I finally awaken from my slumber, and this is what I find? I've been left imprisoned in some cell like a discarded relic? Guardian, I demand to know whose decision this was!"
Te'kepan stared in shock at the avatar. There hadn't been an Oracle in his lifetime, or that of his mother; only his grandfather had spoken of the last desperate battle that had ravaged their home, and sacrifice that had ended it. "It cannot be... Oracle? They said... We thought you were gone forever!"
He bowed low, though his eyes didn't leave the avatar. Such a pale blue... he was certain the last oracle been moss green, unless the paintings were wrong? Still... he'd best keep his doubts to himself. Ne'kuno would know what to do. "Forgive us Oracle, but we are sworn to protect you from harm. Fellis is plagued by raiders without and vermin within; spider-creatures that would steal away what little magic remains."
The Oracle nodded quietly at the guardian's bow; her stern gaze softened slightly, though she still seemed troubled. "It appears I have slumbered far too long - for that I apologise. It took a long time to recover my strength and pull myself back from the edge of oblivion. I... hope I am still the same sphinx I once was." She closed her eyes for a moment and mimicked a calming breath.
"Is this what we've been reduced to in the mean time, then? Perhaps it is time I take care of my people once more, then. No mere vermin nor raiders can be allowed to scour our magnificence and force us into hiding and hoarding." The Oracle lifted and drops a ceramic lion paw, clinking on the stone. "Who is in charge? I request an audience at once."
Te'kepan looked around, unable to shake the feeling this was some kind of trick or joke - if so there was no hint of it in the dark, silent interior of the Hall of Truth. "Ne'kuno is First of the Guardians," he told the Oracle. "She is likely scouring the jungle for new burrows." He spread his wings: assuming this was the Oracle, he'd better make a good impression. "I will find her, tell her you request an audience!"
The Oracle nods sternly, "Good - thank you for your initiative. I will remain here until Ne'kuno arrives. I look forward to leading our Sphinxes out of fear once more."
Te'kepan's wingbeats died away as he flew away down the entrance hall... and Summer Sphinx fell back, collapsing to her haunches in relief. "Whew! That's a hard act to keep up. And I think Ne'kuno will be even harder to trick, but I've passed the first test." She rubbed at her forehead with a paw - marvelling at the weird, many-toed appendage... then realising there would never be a bead of sweat to wipe away, no matter how stressed she got.
"OK, time to prep again. How do I look... Wha!" Summer recoiled in shock, as she realised her feline hindquarters still bore her scroll and quill pen cutie mark. She silently thanked the gloom and the guard's poor powers of observation as she comically tried to rub rub rub at it with a footpaw... "Argh, don't tell me I can't fix this without..."
With a sigh, Summer got up and raced back into the golden statue's chamber. There was a loud shattering crash, like a dozen vases being dropped at once. A few minutes passed, then a brand new Summer Sphinx emerged: identical in every way, except with plain blue hips this time. "Whew: that's what I get for autopiloting the finer details! Gotta get this stuff right!"
Summer had no clock, no way to measure time in the maddening constancy of the pyramid's interior, but it seemed like perhaps half an hour before wingbeats echoed down the entrance tunnel. The leader of sphinxes had arrived, and not alone; two more of the creatures followed on each flank, forming a chevron with the golden-masked Ne'kuno at its tip. They padded cautiously through the puzzle room, alert for intruders. None were to be found, only the avatar of the Oracle, standing in the exact centre of the pyramid.
Summer Sphinx regarded her guests serenely, bowed low as they approached. "Ne'kuno, First of the Guardians - it is a pleasure to finally meet. I have awoken after a long, fitful slumber, to news that I have been gone far too long and our people are flanked by threats and scourges on all sides." She scraped an agitated forepaw on the stone floor. "This cannot be allowed to stand."
Ne'kuno stared at the ceramic sphinx, expression hidden behind her mask; after a lifetime of futile hope, of going through the motions because tradition and duty was all they had left, to actually meet the Oracle? It was too good to be true, but... "The return of the Oracle would be a wonderful thing!" she said carefully. "Yet, we are seekers of truth, and I find a hunger gnawing at me. Pray tell why you appear to us now, and so... different... to the Tu'yalla depicted yonder."
The deep red sphinx gestured with a feathery wing at one of the statues lining the perimeter of the hall - one Summer now recognised as the last of the Oracles. She'd drained her energy to nothing repelling the troll invaders, letting her consciousness flicker out. The line of Oracles had been broken that day, leaving the artefact empty for the first time since it was created.
Summer Sphinx nodded slowly, acknowledging the other's concern. "Indeed, it is most understandable. I have been gone so long, and my spirit broken into pieces, re-arranged in a nightmarish century of fever dreams nigh on oblivion. I do not know how much of the old Tu'yalla still remains - I believe I have been reborn a new, reconstructed from the empty wisps of what remained after my downfall."
She closed her eyes, in quiet contemplation. "I have been gone so long I'm sure I've passed into mythological history by now. I do not know why I am here now, besides that finally my spirit has clawed its way out of the depths and I can exist once more. It has... been some time."
Ne'kuno began to pace around the avatar in a wide circle, leaving her quartet of guards to stand mute and stunned (save for Te'kepan) near the entrance. "We held to our duty. We are sorely pressed by spiders and cyclopses, while sharks raid the north. Yet, we allowed those who seek knowledge to enter the Hall of Truth, even though the Oracle lay silent." She was far enough around now to look into the sanctum - the grave was still there, eyes glowing as blue as ever. "Surely you would not forget the tennents of Akk'tu'hesin?"
The Oracle nodded again, turning on all fours to maintain eye contact with Ne'kuno. "And I am pleased that you have maintained them in my absence." Her wiry, leonic tail flicked as she shifted to a grin. "I am not questioning that you have not done enough. Nay, you have done all you can in these desperate times. What I am suggesting is that with my return, we cower no longer. That we show Skylands that we are not a people who roll over and show their bellies in the face of adversity. Nay, that they once more have the Oracle on their side!" She swiped with a foreclaw, rumbling proudly.
Nekuno stopped pacing; the golden mask of Sa'ratch hid her frown, but her wings flicked in annoyance. "Inspiring words, Oracle..." a dip of the head, subservience but not submission, "but we are pressed on all sides. Spider-vermin gnaw at us from below, sharks descend to shatter the sacred pillars, Eonites and Kaosians alike come to pick over the bones of Fellis. Have you powers so great that you might rid us of these foes? Will you bring another earthen army to destroy them?" She made a show of looking around; "Forgive me, but I see only your avatar."
Of course Summer knew it would come to this. You couldn't exactly talk about a military operation without at least pretending to back it up! It was clear from her new memories that the Oracle could do more than just make bodies to inhabit: they could be given a life of their own. Limited, but enough to open up a great many possibilities - and in any shape she could visualise.
"Yes - it once took an army, did it not? And though I am still recovering my strength, I promise an army once more." Once again she marshalled her will, concentrates on shaping a Felyssian figure, a cat on two legs with her ceramic glaze and colours, a minimal intelligence that heard and obeyed. She would task it with simply walking out and presenting itself to her sphinx audience. "I believe, after all, I still have 'it'." The glazed sphinx smiled, inwardly praying this would work as intended!
The bipedal cat popped into existence just outside the open Earth gate, formed of glazed ceramic similar to the avatar. It seemed... fluffier than the felines Simmer had glimpsed as they evacuated the mystic's monastery. More like an oversized housecat than a cougar... in fact exactly like her old professor Musty Tome's cat, now she thought about it. That crusty mare should've retired a decade ago, instead of hanging onto her Principle Researcher post and throwing shade on the mostly-legal efforts of Junior Researchers just trying to make a name for themselves-
Summer's reverie was broken as the cat-golem walked straight into a sandstone pillar... and kept walking, face bumping against the stone with tink... tink... sounds as the legs continued to cycle, paws scraping over the stone.
The Oracle, dumbfounded at her own ineptitude, facepalmed and stiffled a nervous growl. "...Ahem." With a wave of her paw the newborn ceramic cat-creature corrected its heading, backing up a few steps and continuing to march forward as though nothing ever happened. Clearly she needed more practice! More immediately, she needed an excuse: "...Forgive me. The important part is, my powers have not faded with time. They just require sharpening."
The sphinxes stared with a mix of amazement and concern, unsure what to make of this undeniably authentic yet apparently inept Oracle. "That does seem to be the case," Ne'kuno said dryly, "Yet... this is the first golem to be created on Fellis since the Armory fell. Even such mindless automata could..." Enthusiasm crept into her voice as she considered the possibilities. "Yes, if we had a phalanx of these to draw the spidrow fire, flushed them out of their holes, perhaps we could cleanse them from the tunnels."
Summer was trying hard not to shake from the tension; for a moment it had seemed like she'd blow her cover, but... now things seemed to be going as she hoped. Even with her lack of experience on display, the mere hint of the legendary Oracle's powers was enough to bring a glimmer of hope. She fully planned on capitalising on that.
Summer Sphinx nodded eagerly, wings spreading and tail swishing pridefully. "Yes! A little time to hone my skills once more, then the spidrow must be shown their place." Though in truth, she was considering her next move: Summer didn't want to lead the Sphinxes into a prolonged and bloodthirsty war. What she really wanted was to aid her ponies by any means necessary. What if... "And in this war, do we have any allies available to us who could help?" She asked Ne'kuno, curiosity hinted in her eyes. "Perhaps even unlikely friends could be spurred to help with myself to rally around."
Ne'kuno sat her rump on the stone, staring at the Oracle (or at least, her avatar). This felt so strange... for the Oracle to appear now, after decades of silence, and she was so... casual? And direct... as if her near-destruction was nothing. The sphinx tilted her head, considering how to proceed. Perhaps the shattering of Tu'yalla's mind had regressed her in some ways.
"Oracle, the Fellisian alliance lies in ruins," the guardian said sombrely. "The Mystics make common cause with us, for the vermin covet their magic even over our own, yet they will not pursue the problem to its lair. As for the Couatan, they offer alliance but demand we strike against the isle of the sharks in return." Her tone was bitter. "Ze'noath councils against it."
"The place is a fortress, dotted with redoubts and bristling with cannons," the big male rumbled. "To say nothing of the great steel monstrosity that travels across the land, belching fire and smoke. Even if we could destroy such a thing, it would doubtless leave us decimated."
The Oracle lowered her head, as though deep in thought, her tail flicking before she answered: "Hmm... yes. We cannot replace one problem with an even greater one. I am sorry to hear that our alliance has deteriorated so. Perhaps the Mystics could be convinced to lend us aid once again..." She shook her head. "And in the case we cannot... are there any unconventional allies we could draw upon, perhaps? Has this island had any new visitors in my absence?" Summer knew she couldn't bring up ponies unprompted; she needed to guide the conversation that way...
"A few still come to trade at the old docks: mabu, gillfolk, even a renegade troll," Te'kepan chimed in, eager to show his knowledge. "Many pilgrims, though some were merely raiders in disguise, seeking to steal the grave- your body, that is. In times of old we might petition the Skylanders, but none have seen them since Re'pippi passed on the mask." A pause, then he said curiously "There were some strange creatures, four days past. Infused with Air, Water and Magic, but claiming not to know of the Eonites."
"They fought the vermin, though not by choice I think." Ze'noath added. "If they are to be believed, the spidrow were tampering with the seal on your chamber. Had the strangers not interrupted them, you might find yourself awakening in the vermin's nest."
"It would never have come to that!" Ne'kuno said angrily, crystal eyepieces literally flashing.
Summer listened in closely: of course she was very familiar the events in question, but it was interesting to hear what the sphinxes were aware of and how they interpreted it. "What is this? You say creatures of the Elements saved my essence from being drained right before my awakening? ... Fascinating."
She closed her eyes, drawing in her wings and placing her head in her forepaws as she pretended to think. "Whatever their true motives may be... If they possess power, and share a common enemy, we should not rule them out as an option." Nodding to Ze'noath, she asked, "Do you know where they have gone since?"
The male sphinx paused for a moment, waiting to see if Ne'kuno would speak, but she just glowered. "They claimed to be from beyond the Endless Storm," he explained "unlikely as that seems... perhaps an outlying island caught within the storm itself, or a plane apart from Skylands entirely? Two were unicorns of legend, unseen by even our people since before the Cataclysm. Two were griffons, and the fifth perhaps a hybrid, with hooves and wings but no horn."
Ne'kuno bit her lip then purred: "I bid them return in a fortnight, to speak further of their lands. They spoke of sphinxes in this 'Equestria', sphinxes grown to enormous size and power. I thought perhaps... the Spell of Transference... Tell me Oracle, what do you know of unicorns and their kin?"
The Oracle perked up, seeming more and more interested. "Fascinating... A creature we've never seen before? Making such far-fetched claims, too." Her brow furrowed. "To come from this... 'Equestria'? To claim of their own Sphinxes? Such unbelievable sightings can only be a sign of the times we live in. Perhaps I could not have awoken any sooner or later - perhaps it was fated to be right now."
"...Forgive me if my curiosity burns, but I wish to see them with my own eyes. I have never seen a living unicorn before - and I suspect that they may be something new altogether, if they speak truth." She scrapes a foreclaw at the stone floor, as though anxious. "In a fortnight, I see. Must I wait so long? Suppose it cannot be helped?"
"We needed time to attend to our defences!" Ne'kuno said defensively. "Never? Do you not possess the knowledge of all who became Oracle, since the time of Akk'tu'hesin?" she challenged.
Summer smirked at that reply... then nodded slowly. "Indeed, that I do. But I myself have never seen one myself. Memories and stories, true though they may be, are not the same. Am I not allowed to indulge in my curiosity, Ne'kuno?"
"Of course... Oracle." Ne'kuno made a show of licking her claw, brushing off the reprimand.
Te'kepan was quick to fill the silence: "Oracle, one of the unicorns was lost to the vermin! If not dead, then a fate worse than death, cocooned and drained of essence. Perhaps they believe their comrade might still be saved; if not, the promise of vengeance might entice them."
Summer takes a moment to realise that, yes, she was the unicorn who supposedly got kidnapped by the spidrow. Perfect: it seemed the cover story was working wonders! She flicked her ears and gazed at Te'kepan with clear interest. "Really now? It brings me sorrow to hear such a noble and elusive creature might fall prey to such savages." A sad frown.
"But... all the better if it means prospects of an alliance may blossom. I shall be sure to bring it up at our meeting." A flick of her tail betrayed inner anxiety - it seemed like a lot more waiting. She was out of her cell, the sphinxes hung on her every word; it felt like she should be more proactive! But asking to be taken to the Drider-infested tunnels 'just to have a look around' wouldn't go down well. Oh well; perhaps she'd think of something else soon. For now, "I feel... clearly I need to practice. There may be war in our future, and I don't want to be unprepared. Is there anything else we must discuss, presently?"
"There is much you could tell us, Oracle, much that has been lost-" Ze'noath began.
"Nothing so urgent as to preclude regaining your full power, Oracle!" Ne'kuno said quickly. "We shall leave you to your meditations!" There was indeed much to discuss... out of earshot of the Oracle.
Summer cracked a smile at that. "Yes, in due time, dear sphinx. Rest assured that I don't plan on going anywhere, and the knowledge of the Oracle is safe with me. When there are not matters of higher urgency occupying my time, I will gladly pass it on once more." She nodded in assent to Ne'kuno: "Very good."
"We are yours to command, Oracle." As long as the commands were in the best interests of sphinx-kind, at least. Ne'kuno bowed low, and the other guardians followed her example. Then she turned and hurried out of the pyramid, with the others padding behind. Summer was alone once more... save for the pussycat-golem, now walking mindlessly into one of the outer walls.
Summer slumped again, shaking and sighing with relief. Then she walked over and tapped the feline-golem on the head, sending it a command to dismiss and watching as it crumbled, collapsing into a pile of ceramic shards. "Thanks, lil cat - you've done enough for now."
With that the 'Oracle' returned to her chamber to plan her next steps. For starters she needed to get a lot better at golem making. Then she'd have to figure out what she - and her new sphinx allies - could do to help the pony cause. Maybe not going down into the tunnels just yet, but... perhaps some reason to visit the northern pyramid could be concocted?
The abandoned island floated at the edge of the vast aerial archipelago, a refuge of necessity for the battered airship moored at the eastern meadow. Soon after dawn, crewponies emerged into a damp, grey morning of overcast skies and intermittent drizzle. They began loading supplies and preparing the much smaller dual-rotor aircraft for flight. The Second Chance would be at capacity, carrying seven ponies and one griffon, plus tools and materials to repair the old mine train.
Leading the sortie would be Acting Captain Set Sail, who bore the burden of command uneasily but with determination to do the best for her little ponies. Joining her were fellow pegasi Azure Feather and Cloud Cutter, the former only a pegasus for a week, the later animated by Undead energies. Transformed batpony Clashing Gale and the griffon hen Grenelda would provide additional security, while the unicorn engineer Sprocket was along to handle repairs. The earth ponies Melonwater and Blaze Trails were along as their experts on geology and wilderness survival.
Finally there was the hippogriff Reef Skimmer: with no room left on the copter, he would have to fly alongside in the shape of a great eagle. He was still uncertain of his worth in combat, following the punishing encounter with the 'splatterpillar', but the need for a field medic was undeniable and he could hardly ask Winter Hope or Bluebell to face the spider-creatures. Besides, the captain was going down there...
The flight north to Fellis was uneventful, though they did spot a group of giant flying creatures in the distance, fortunately uninterested in the copter. Set Sail steered the ship to the western arm of the island, once more landing amidst the sheer cliffs above the central valley. It was only a short hop over the top and down to the rock crushing plant at the head of the mine, the flyers carrying the others down to alight on the collapsing remains of the air dock.
Azure Feather and Grenelda went in first and confirmed the site was still free of electric bugs, with Reef and Cloud Cutter close behind. Meanwhile Blaze Trails set about building a fire; there was no shortage of kindling in the half-ruined building. Sprocket watched with amusement as the earth pony fiddled with a bit of flint and steel. “What’re you doing?” she asked.
“Starting a fire,” Blaze Trails said, looking up at her, “Figuring those crystals that power the copter were drained on the way over, what with all the weight. Need heat to recharge, dontchaknow.”
“Yeah I know - Nutmeg told me all about them, before we took the copter out to the air temple.” Sprocket replied, “Just... hey back up from the fire a bit.”
Blaze took a few steps back from the unlit campfire as Sprocket lit up her horn. This was the spell that had earned her cutie mark: a swirly little firebird. Her magic flashed into fire the moment she released it, the flaming missile splashing right over the weathered remains of crates and shelves. A few prods from Blaze's hoof scooted the burning bits together, and soon everything around the fire crystals was burning merrily.
Leaving Blaze to tend her fire, Sprocket joined Set Sail and Melonwater, heading in after the others. Excitement and apprehension mixed on the latter's face as the group trotted into the mine proper, coming face to face with the remains of the splatterpillar.
Grenelda couldn't pass up an opportunity to tease the young stallion: "Ah, ain't she a beaut? Completely and mercilessly beaten down. Only wish I could be there to have done it myself." The hen cackled and flicked her wings, looking around for smaller bugs that might serve as a quick snack, then scowling as she discovered they'd been drained to unappetising husks.
"We could certainly have used your assistance," Reef Skimmer said. After changing back to hippogriff form he'd busied himself strapping on his ornate wing-blades, which hadn't been seen since his unfortunate transformation. "Damned fortunate there were no serious injuries - and that's only because one can apparently survive a stalactite through the chest." The value of the weapons might be as much psychological as physical, but the griff seemed reassured by them and set to dissecting the carcass of the beast, humming happily as he worked.
Grenelda whistled at Reef's tale of seeming invulnerability: "Daaaamn, you can do that now? You're unstoppable, Reef." Another throaty cackle, then: "I probably shouldn't say this out loud, but I am getting a little jealous!" Yeah she was teasing, but there was a kernel of truth: if you could just shrug off injuries, you'd never have to sit there and take anygriff's nonsense ever again, right? Writing off the smaller bugs, she padded over to the hippogriff, wondering if any of the splatterpillar's insides (now outsides) would be worth a nibble.
"Indeed, indeed," Reef said absent-mindedly. Finally registering the griffon's presence, he mistook her hunger for interest and began explaining as he went. "Ah now you see these rings of chitin here? Like ribs, only way something this size could keep its shape. Now look at these bands of tissue below the spines, they must be related to the electrical discharge we-"
Grenelda couldn't look any more bored. "Which parts are the tasty parts? We're not keepin' all of this in some lab somewhere, right?"
"Oh one certainly wishes we had the means to preserve the whole specimen, but alas... a few tissue samples will have to suffice," Reef lamented. "What was that? Tasty? Oh, hmm... one would suggest sticking with the green insects, rather less likely to be poisonous I'd say. The ones in here were, erm, consumed by Slashing Gale, but there are plenty of unaltered specimens out where Azure was fighting. I'm sure she can point the way."
Azure Feather had been silent on the flight over, going over the last encounter in her mind and considering strategies for fighting in the tunnels. Now she was poking into the nooks and crannies, making sure the area was secured before Sprocket got too into the repairs. "My wind blades keep things more... eh, edible, certainly." Azure certainly wasn't squeamish, but consuming the flesh of other creatures... it was hard for any pony to be completely comfortable with predators. "Flying and magic I can do, but cooking... for that you'd have to ask Sprocket." A slight smile. "Shall I show you where they fell?"
Grenelda cocked her beak. "By all means! I'm positively peckish." She brushed against Azure as a cat might when their owner promised food, following behind as the pegasus led the way out of the tunnel.
Azure wouldn't touch the things even if you offered her a fortune, but hey, if Grenelda liked it, well... more power to her, right? She trotted between rusting remains of the rock crushers, watching silently as the griffon searched for morsels.
Set Sail's ears were flat as she inspected the grisly remains; she shuddered as she listened to the rapacious griffon. “Remind me why I’m coming along on this crazy outing again?” She couldn't do anything about the mother beast, but she began dragging the insect husks out of the mine, to be tossed off the edge of the air dock. Nopony should have to work next to that.
Cloud Cutter trotted over to help with the carcasses; exactly the work for a pony like her, she thought grimly. “Because we’re all in danger anyway,” she said flatly to the captain, as she dragged a bug along by her tail, “So you might as well be in danger in a useful way.”
“I know, I know,” Set Sail replied, her frustration clear as she watched the icky things fall onto the scree below. Killing mindless bugs was one thing, but she wondering if she could do the same to something with a face. “It’s just frustrating. Everything’s gone so well, I don’t want screw up now, and have it to all be for nothing.”
“Everything is all for nothing in the very end,” Cloud Cutter pointed out, as she kicked her payload over the edge. The nihilism didn't make Set Sail feel any better. Suddenly a little nervous, the blank eyed purple pegasus added, “That's all of the ones Clashing got. The ones I killed are over there. I think they are lighter with no life left in them.”
A bat-winged shadow passed over them: Clashing Gale, flying a tight patrol above the air dock. He'd make sure they were warned if the locals took a mind to come investigate the mine. If things took a turn for the worse... protecting the Captain was his priority.
Satisfied with her fire and seeing the two pegasi on the dock, Blaze trotted over, her brown tail swishing. "Alright. What's the plan for today? We just wait for Sprocket to do her thing, figure out the train, rest of us just loitering until then?"
Set Sail shot a nervous glance up at the stallion keeping close watch from above, but didn’t remark on his dour attentiveness. There seemed to be an awful lot of smoke coming from that bonfire - she just hoped that cats wouldn't hike up here to investigate. “Pretty much..." she replied, "Let's regroup inside. I'm sure Sprocket's scoped out that train by now.”
Inside Melonwater they found collecting samples from the various hoppers and bins in the crushing mill and from the debris lining the bottom of the mine carts. "Must have been quite an operation!" he said, sucking his teeth. "Granite of course, hematite, cassiterite, galena... several kinds of crystal... I don't even recognise this one. Crazy to seen one mine working so many different kinds of deposit."
Grenelda was picking at a bug carcass with her beak and foreclaws, learning to enjoy it, savouring the textures and figuring out how to break it apart and get at the interior. "Mmmh! Damn. Gustus is gonna want some of this. I'll have to save one for the trip back." She cackled, stopping to give Azure a quick nod of 'thanks', before licking her licking her claws clean.
Cloud Cutter felt like her stomach should have turned at the sight, but as always everything felt... muted and still. “You okay, Grenelda?” she asked over the lady griffon’s shoulder, “Seems like something is really bugging you.”
That got her a piece of chitin spat at her. "Clam it, ghostie," Grenelda laughed, shrugging her wings to indicate it was just a jest.
Azure just chuckled and shrugged. "Griffons, just... let them eat, okay? It's not the prettiest display, but..." She shrugged. She'd seen the lion-birds in action: she knew having Grenelda along would be a substantial boost to the chances of everypony getting through this mission alive.
Cloud Cutter remained obediently silent, with just a little smile as she turned from the griffon and headed further in to see if there was any more that needed cleaning up. Oh, that... giant caterpillar was going to take some doing to get it out of the way. As soon as the hippogriff stopped poking around in it.
They found Sprocket in the driver's cab of the train, whacking valves with a hammer to unstick them from decades of disuse. "Captain! Looking pretty good here, much as I can see at least..." The little oil lamp wasn't doing much in the literally cavernous marshalling yard.
“Sure, take your time,” Set Sail said, “We don't want that thing breaking down at the wrong moment.” Sighing, she turned back to the explorer pony, telling Blaze Trails: “We really don’t know what we’re gonna find in there. The plan was to take the train as far as it will go. We found a map last time; look, Blue Type got it cleaned up and made a copy for us."
The pegasus mouthed the scroll out of her saddlebag. "See, there's a main track pretty much down the spine of the island, and it looks like this branch goes pretty close, maybe right under the pyramid. Assuming it hasn't caved in. Not sure how we're gonna get in... improvise, I guess."
Blaze Trails inspected the rather vague map. "Mm-hmm.... it's all we've got - damn site better than nothing, to be honest. Not that I'm feeling comfy about an epic spelunking trip with untrained ponies and hostile creatures about, so... let's just keep our options open and be ready to retreat if this starts looking like a suicide mission." She sucked her teeth: "Best of luck to us all."
“Woah, hey, you can really light up the place!” Sprocket called out from her perch in the train. Cloud Cutter hadn’t even noticed she started doing the thing, but sure enough an eerie purple glow was emanating from her body.
“I’m just doing it to see,” Cloud Cutter said cautiously, “I’ll keep myself very far away from others.”
“Not complainin',” Sprocket replied, “Could you uh... keep yourself very far away a little closer, maybe by standing right there so I can see what things are like under the boiler?”
With Cloud Cutter’s dangerous but useful light, Sprocket made rapid progress on the engine. Reef Skimmer's fascinating power to create water from nothing took care of the bone-dry boiler. Locked gears were unstuck, linkages were oiled and pistons greased. They regrouped around the bonfire, taking a last chance to enjoy fresh air and sunlight before the descent into darkness. It was burning down to embers now, the thermal crystals glowing bright red amidst the ashes.
“The train was just old,” Sprocket told the crew, “Weren't even broken, just laying there unused for forever and a day. We put those fire crystals in and it should just work. Or it could y’know destroy ‘em completely and leave us stranded... but I’m pretty sure it’d work. Same sorta engine as that copter we, uh, acquired."
"Destroy the power source, what's all this?" Reef Skimmer said, ear-tufts standing up. "Can we risk that? It's a long flight back on wing you know, especially with three passengers."
“Sorry, bad joke,” Sprocket said to Reef with a sheepish smile, “I dunno anything that’d destroy those fire crystals, but I never learned about no engine like this before, so you got me what it does.”
"I found the, uh... explosives." Melonwater said dubiously. "They look pretty old but no, uh, doesn't seem like they're sweating so... should be alright, if, uh... hey Sprocket, you wanna help me out with them? I'll handle the caps and all, just not too keen to put 100-year-old sticks of gelignite in my mouth, you know?"
“Did you say gelignite??” Sprocket declared, with a delighted and eager smile growing on her face.
Clashing Gale tilted his head at the mention of century-old explosives. "Just be careful with the stuff, alright?" he started, sounding concerned. "Really would prefer to keep every creature in one piece."
Grenelda was a lot more enthusiastic. "Explosions? Coool. I gotta be here to see this." She clicked her beak and gaped an avian grin.
"You can't just set it off in the open!" Melonwater objected. "You gotta, uh... hold on." The earth pony disappeared for a minute, then came back dragging a long metal device attached to a coil of flexible pipe. "Look at this! Definitely a rock drill, but no sign of magic. I think it runs off steam! Wonder if, uh... you think this might attach to the train somehow, Sprocket? If not, uh... it's alright, found some good picks back there too and, uh, I've got my chisels. Just take a little longer, that's all."
The dark-haired mare looked up at Melonwater dragging his thing over, whistling, and saying, “That sure is a rock drill. I could try to hook it up to the train I dunno, but you really don’t wanna dig through anything less than solid rock without a full-on tunnelling shield. I mean, you probably know all about that stuff. I just studied the machines and a few things here and there, heh heh...” She blushed, glancing away self-consciously.
"We won't be making new tunnels for sure, uh just, you know..." Melonwater blushed, looked down and fiddled with his hooves. "Just if we gotta use the gelignite to clear some rock, you gotta drill a hole for it first, right? I, uh... are you leaving all the carts attached? 'Cause if you are I'll put some rags in the last one and the explosives can ride there."
“I don’t see why not,” Set Sail said, “We’ll load up our supplies into them, and that way nopony has to fly all the way back to the entrance to get anything. So are we just about ready to get going?”
Grenelda clicked her beak impatiently: "Yeah! I got nothin' else to do here. We gonna get this train rolling or what?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," Blaze Trails mused. She kicked the charred wood away from the crystals: "You wanna grab these Sprocket, then Reef can douse this fire?"
Azure nodded as well: "Good to go. No sense lingering out here, the bipedal cats could turn up any time."
The ponies made their way back into the mine, loading the supplies they'd brought into the mine carts, along with tools and parts from the abandoned workshop. Sprocket lit the lamp on the front of the engine then climbed into the driver's cab, fiddling with the crystals as she brought the old locomotive to life.
Just behind her Set Sail shared the first cart with Cloud Cutter, followed by Clashing Gale squeezed in tight with Grenelda, her feathers tickling his now-membranous wings. Reef Skimmer's larger size meant he had the third cart to himself, followed by the two earth ponies. Last came Azure, in her habitual position of rear guard - she could keep an eye on everypony, while watching out for anycreature following them.
The boiler groaned and creaked as the pressure built up, steam beginning to hiss through the piping. Sprocket kept a worried eye on the pressure gauge, nervously fiddling with the valves and levers. She knew how a train worked, but how to drive the darn thing? Not like anyone else knew any better. The boiler held pressure though, and Sprocket said, “Okay, here we go. Brakes off, condenser on, booster pump... ok, drive set forward... I think this lever'll gets us going.”
Set Sail had enough time to declare, “You think—?” before Sprocket pulled the lever, and the pistons engaged. Everypony’s ears went flat back at an awful screeching squeal, but then the train jerked forward. The engine disappeared in a cloud of leaking steam, then pushed through it, slowly accelerating forward into the tunnel.
Something was clattering around inside the engine, but Sprocket shouted, “It’s okay, I think those are just the bearings! Holy hecking shit we’re doin it!” With a whole chorus of squeals, creaks and rattles, the little mine train trundled forwards on its ancient steel tracks.
The tunnel snaked from side to side as it headed downwards into the core of the floating mass of rock that was Fellis. Side passages branched off constantly, some of them obviously collapsed. The train ran roughly over rusted tracks, the plough on the front pushing aside the smaller debris that had accumulated over the years. Sprocket kept the vehicle at a trotting pace, wishing she could go faster but unsure how well the brakes would perform should the tunnel be obstructed.
"If it wasn't for the m-monsters, this'd be awesome!" Melonwater shouted to Blaze. "Look at all the strata we're passing through! Makes you wonder how these islands were formed, you know?"
“If there are any monsters, they’re definitely headed our way right now,” Set Sail said in an uneasy tone, with unhappily low ears, “This thing is way too noisy!”
Clashing Gale kept his mouth shut. Riding with Grenelda - well, there were worse things, the griffon could certainly take care of herself if they were ambushed, but still... this was less than comfortable. Even if he was a predator of sorts himself now, sitting close enough to smell the blood on the hen's breath was an unpleasant reminder. That and he'd never realised feathers could be so ticklish until his wings changed to skin flaps, ready for a griffon's pinions to poke at. Grimly he tried to push the thought aside and focus on the tunnel ahead.
At the rear of the train, Azure Feather's head was practically on a swivel, peering into every crevice and side passage. Thankfully she was alone in her cart: nopony to get in the way, no obstruction to sightlines as she stood ready to loose air blades at any creatures trying to get the jump on them. As she'd feared, this trip would be anything but stealthy. She just hoped they wouldn't encounter those bugs again; once was bad enough, and that was with room to dodge. Stuck in these tunnels, overrun by a horde, with civilians in the train; she didn't fancy those odds.
Deep inside the southern pyramid, Summer Scribe had been practicing for hours. She'd taken on the countenance, powers and (supposedly) wisdom of the Oracle. The unicorn (or perhaps pony spirit now) was quite thankful for the time to herself, as she had a lot to brush up on if she was going to pull this off. That first attempt with the cat-golem had been embarrassing, and if she was going to take and hold authority here she needed to restore some semblance of glory and dignity fast.
So Summer practiced again and again, making ceramic golem after ceramic golem, attempting copies of her pony friends, of sphinxes, of fellisians and even the centaur-like mystics. She reflected on each failure and consulted the library of memories for applicable advice, slowly improving her craft. It seemed the better she focused on the visual shape, the emotional idea, the feeling of what it is to be something - then held it in her head while raising it from the Earth, the better the result was - more correctly constructed, mobile and dexterous.
Making replicas of ponies like Azure Feather and Blue Type gave her a tinge of loneliness, of homesickness mocked with these lifeless replicas. It made for good practice though, since she could easily picture her friends in her mind's eye, and also yielded useful information. The pegasus golem could fly (though not with any especial prowess) and the unicorn golem seemed to have no spellcasting: despite her commands, the sharp horn remained purely decorative.
The only way she could get anything magical out of a ceramic self was with her own Summer Scribe unicorn avatar, and even then it was like casting through a sock: sparks, muffled telekinesis and dull sensory organs. It was enough to make her mournful; she knew now how Azure Feather must be feeling. You really don't know what you'll miss until it's gone. If continued practice couldn't get her past the limitation, then she'd be reliant on others for any serious magic - while all she could do was throw cheap replicas into the grinder.
Still, it wasn't all negative: what she lacked in quality she could now makeup in quantity. Depending on the quality of her creations, if she focused she could command and gain awareness of multiple golems at once. It seemed her limit was something like seven ponies or five sphinxes - bounded by total mass, perhaps? When she wasn't possessing one it was sort of like reading a written description of the golem's surroundings instead of seeing it for herself.
They could also process instructions with surprising flexibility (definitely not just dumb automatons - maybe piggybacking off of her intellect?) and the more she practiced, the quicker she could make replacements after breaking them. Assuming her real body is as tough to destroy as it looks and too hard to carry around, this could prove surprisingly effective in combat; for how fragile each individual is, in sufficient quantities they could wear anything down.
Finally, the time came for another meeting with the sphinx leader, Ne'kuno. Summer still hadn't settled on a strategy, though she definitely wanted to visit the Pyramid of Gnosym. If the ponies were following her instructions - and made it through the mine tunnels ok - they should be there soon, and it'd be a perfect opportunity to reunite with them.
What next thought - their plan was to shut down the laser, aiding the dirt sharks, who seemed to be considered irredeemable enemies of all the felines of Fellis. Oh well, Summer thought, there wasn't anything to be gained sitting around and worrying about it. Perhaps when the time comes, some excuse could be concocted. If not, then it would be the severing of a new allegiance to reform the old one. Right now she had to focus on getting there: the future remained shrouded in the fog of uncertainty.
The first meeting had been rushed, but now came a much more formal ceremony. Sphinx after sphinx filed into the pyramid - adults, elderly, cubs, most of them dressed in elaborate robes and jewellery. Almost fifty sphinxes - probably the whole settlement, with their finest regalia on display. Several of the creatures carried glowing crystals, which were placed about the chamber, dispelling the gloom. There were introductions and heroic stories, strange chants and prayers to the Elements.
All the time Summer Sphinx sat in the centre, with four sphinx automatons arranged at her side - the same chevron formation she'd seen her guardians assume in the previous encounter. The first guardian, Ne'kuno, was the last to arrive; she seemed impressed and pleasantly surprised by the rapid development in the Oracle's abilities. "With your permission, Oracle..." At a nod from Summer she launched into a short speech about their faith being rewarded and turning a new chapter in the history of the sphinx people. Then she stepped aside and all eyes focused on Summer's ceramic form as she rose to her feet.
She'd been struggling to supress impostor syndrome before, but now it was back with reinforcements. To be sure, Summer had always been excited by the prospect of the archaeological find that shocked Equestria and elevated her into the history books... but that was different from actually being the archaeological find. Looking all around as her sphinxy self at so many real, actual sphinxes who are putting their hopes and dreams into her...
It almost made her want to not let them down, but she knew deep down that someway or somehow she was going to, no matter what. So, with that sad fact acknowledged... she should really stick to the plan and do what she can for all her pony friends. In the mean time at least, she'd do her level best to be a great Oracle. Waiting for Ne'kuno's preamble to end, she considered her words carefully. This wasn't just some ad hoc meeting anymore. This would a guiding direction for all the sphinxes: her chance to show some real leadership chops.
"Sphinxes of Fellis," Summer nodded firmly, putting on her best dutiful and authoritative voice. "I have slumbered for a long time, and awoken to find our island, our people, our alliances in need of rebuilding. Beset upon by scarcity and opportunists - but we need not live in fear, or cower in resignation any longer. I offer, once again, my powers as the Oracle to secure our place in Skylands, to rise up as a proud people once more."
At a gesture from her paw, all the Sphinx golems around her crouched and flare their wings in unison. "For an army of the Earth, unrelenting in its numbers, can drive the spidrow from their nests. Sharks and raiders alike will think twice once they see what they're up against. Once more shall the Sphinxes, Fellissians and Mystics unite and secure what's rightfully ours!"
Growls and roars went up from all around as the sphinxes cheered the Oracle. They'd lapped up her rhetoric, seeing an escape from two centuries of decline. Each sphinx met her in turn, asking for guidance and blessings, while adorable cubs asked if she was really going to make everything awesome and fun again, like in the old stories. At least everysphinx had had their turn, and the ceremony was over. Summer was left with just the seven guardians (though Ne'kuno informed her that four more were away, scouting or hunting on other islands).
"Now, I have a question," Summer asked. "The Pyramid of Gnosym, in the plains to the north - does it still stand? Are its magical reserves still available for our use?"
"It stands to this day," Ze'noath spoke up. "Indeed, unlike the rest of our fair island, by all appearances it has escaped the ravages of time," the older male rumbled.
"Reserves of magic?" Ne'kuno said hungrily. "We always suspected as much... but the interior is barred to us, and the mystics no help. They claim their ultimate sanctuary must remain undisturbed, but do not deign to disclose their plan to us," she sneered.
Summer Sphinx mimed annoyance: "Hmph! Well, this can't do. Perhaps I can convince them to change their minds." She tilted her head. "They know well enough that they're squandering that resource. We do not need a super-weapon to break a fleet with - we need to repurpose its resources for the new problems we face."
"I would bet they are as stymied by the problem as we," Te'kepan opined, "just unwilling to admit it. The secret of passage has long been known to us - the four peoples of the Fellissian alliance, must act in unison to unseal the entrance. Yet few Leonoids remain, and those that endure are unreasoning berserkers."
"A testament to how far the mystics have fallen," Ze'noath mused, "as they once created a semblance of life, now they are powerless to command or restore it."
Ne'kuno waved a paw dismissively. "Oracle, do your memories hold another way inside?" she purred. "Such a grand structure must have its secret ways and passages."
Summer rubbed at her chin. "Hmm... yes, there are the tunnels dug by the molekin, one leads underneath the pyramid. But at this point in time, we'd have to wage a full-on war against the spidrow to clear that path. I suppose if there's no other options, but..." She looks contemplative. "I don't wish to give up on the intended entrance so easily. I would like to at least talk to the Mystics myself. Surely a possibility remains?"
"Of course, Oracle," Ne'kuno said, as if stating the obvious. "Couatan and Mystics alike will be... overjoyed, to know the sphinxes have an Oracle once more. Surely their leaders will wish to meet you - Everdream and Royal Flush certainly. Shall I send sphinxes to summon them here?"
Summer cracks a smile. "Please, at once. The mere knowledge that great things are possible once more should be enough of a morale boost to start turning things around. And once I can see the Pyramid of Gnosym for myself... Yes. Once the magic is once more available for our use..." Summer smiled, her lion tail flicking lazily, "I believe things will be looking up."
"Do not lose hope, Ne'kuno. I look forward to meeting Everdream and Royal Flush. But while you're sending for them to arrive, I believe I will check out this front door for myself." A curt nod; the necessity of being carried there by the sphinxes needs not be said out loud.
"Leave the pyramid?" Te'kepan's voice carried surprise and concern. "But... Oracle. Fellis is beset by raiders! We can guard you best-"
"We are the Guardians of the Oracle!" Ne'kuno interrupted. "We do not cower in our den. Yes... yes, a show of force might be just the thing, to make an impression on Frostpaw and Arcana. We will not be denied passage on our own island!" Summer's talk of ceramic armies was already getting her thinking in new directions.
Summer grinned, and made a swatting gesture with her paw; all four sphinx golems rose and did the same. "While I require an escort to carry me around, I am far from helpless. Any foes besetting me shall be worn down with a display of endless Creation. Anyone who travels with me shall be under my protection. I am not concerned with going where I please. Now then - will you fulfil my request?"
"Of course, Oracle," Ne'kuno dipped her head, her golden mask glinting in the light of the crystals. "Ze'noath, take two guardians to the vault and unearth the Oracle's palanquin." Looking to Summer, she admitted "It may be in need of some... cosmetic restoration, but I am certain it will still bear your form. The rest of us shall fly ahead, and ensure the Spellshatter Flats are clear of those who might defile the Oracle," she purred, concluding with a sharp-toothed smile.
Summer smiled and bowed. A part of her did like the idea of traveling in such luxury: not quite a replacement for having her own four hooves, but a nice consolation prize. "Very good - thank you. The palanquin can be restored later, when there is time and quiet. It will be sufficient in any state for now. I am looking forward to getting to work."
Ne'kuno began to leave, then looked over her shoulder: "Te'kepan will stand watch at the entrance, Oracle, should you need anything further. He seems especially willing to serve you." With that she was gone, loping smoothly out of the pyramid. Te'kepan eyed Summer and her attendant sphinx-golems nervously, saying "O-Of course, I serve the Oracle as she requires. ...Will there be anything right now?"
Summer Sphinx favoured Te'kepan with a sly smile, flicking her tail from side to side as she leaned forward a little. "Hmm, I believe that is all... for now. I welcome your company and your servitude; thank you. For now, I wait patiently until I can see the Pyramid for myself."
'Whew' Summer thought: so far she seemed to be playing the role just fine. She has a decent grasp of her new powers and with the Oracle's memories to tell her what she's meant to know and do... it looked like everything was proceeding smoothly. Unknowns hung in the air, waiting to spring in the future, but she's was doing all she could. Summer allowed herself a small smile: she was looking forward to reuniting with her friends, and hopefully the costs will not be too great.
Alien as it was, she had to admit she was... liking this form. The taste of elemental power. The respect and adoration of the sphinxes. Suppose she remained stuck this way? Perhaps it won't be so bad.
While Summer entertained her new subjects, somewhere deep within Fellis an old mine train rattled through its narrow tunnel, in motion for the first time in over a century. Presently it reached a larger gallery once rich with crystals; broken shards littered the floor, while the walls still glimmered with crystals too small to be worth mining. Sprocket spotted a collapsed roof support blocking the track ahead and engaged the breaks. With a long and painfully loud squeal the train shuddered to a halt.
The others waited nervously as Melonwater and Sprocket hoped out to inspect the wreckage. With some help from Blaze Trails and Reef Skimmer the props were forced back into position, the rubble cleared away and the train was on the move again. Five minutes more slow steaming brought them in sight of a fork in the track, the tunnel opening out into a larger cavern to accommodate the switch.
“Oh for the love of—fork in the track!” Sprocket called out behind her, “I’m gonna have to stop the train again, until we figure which way it’s goin'!”
Everypony's ears (and one hippogriff's ear tufts) went flat at another ear-splitting squeal as the train shuddered to a halt again. Azure Feather in particular grimaced and tensed - any creatures lurking down here would now be either scared, or pissed off - possibly both. Sprocket hopped out of the conductor’s cab, landing on the dusty stone alongside the track and heading up to inspect the choice of tracks. Set Sail jumped out too, walking along the train in the generous space provided for the switch. She trotted over to Sprocket, who was staring down in half comprehension at the entwined bars of steel.
“This isn’t working,” Set Sail remarked quietly.
Blaze Trails wasn't far behind, anxious to resolve the hold-up. "What's the matter now... Oh, a fork in the path?" She looked one way, then the other, squinting. "Err, do we know which way we're goin'? Should be clear from the map, right?" she added.
Grenelda just sat in the cart, preening her feathers and wondering why this has to take so long. Clashing Gale was more proactive, abandoning the griffon to join the others. He frowned as he looked around the cavern, muttering "I'd usually be terrified of being this deep underground... hmm." Maybe it was his newfound ability to see in complete darkness that made the difference? He turned to the issue at hoof: "Fork in the path... yeah, do we know where we're going or is this gonna be a coin flip?" Very helpful batpony here, folks.
"We'll wanna keep right! Unless it's a real sharp turn." Melonwater called out from a few carts back, unwilling to abandon the relative safety of the train. "Pretty sure we're not far enough west for... for the branch we want, you know?"
“The switch is already set to go right, so that's good news at least,” Sprocket said uncertainly, staring into the darkness of the relevant tunnel.
Blaze Trails regards the switch with the air of someone who doesn't know what they're doing, but wants to make sure the world's in its right place, before sagely nodding. "Alright, guessin' we're good to keep goin', then?"
An eagle head poked out of the train and jeered: "'Bout time!", drawing a scowl from a second, somewhat larger avian.
“This train is way too noisy,” Set Sail complained. Most pegasi had at least mild claustrophobia, and she didn't have Clashing Gale's night vision or Undead detachment to take the edge off: the brown mare was nervous as all get out in the dark, confined space. She trotted back to the engine, where the whole crew had gathered for a little conference.
“If anypony didn’t know we were here, they sure do now," she explained. "We should’ve just gone on hoof. Even if there's nothing down here - what about when we get back to the surface? We were counting on our little excursion going unnoticed, so the natives would still think that entrance is infested with giant lightning bugs.”
"It is a trade off, but...given how far away our destination is, that's a lot of walking we'd have to do," Blaze reasoned. "If we do get into another fight, we'd be in all the poorer condition for it."
Azure Feather chipped in with her opinion. "Fully agreed with Blaze Trails on that one. Either we took the silent road and spent hours - maybe days getting to our destination, or we took this road, as noisy as it was - and spend minutes instead. Squad condition after days of travel would have been less than optimal - this likely was our best option."
Clashing Gale just chuckled at the thoroughly military mare. "Sure you didn't spend a spell in the guard, Blaze? You two sound like you could work together in a heartbeat..." He shrugged. He really had no idea what they thought of each other and just felt... like none of this really mattered. He just wanted to get on with it.
Blaze Trail shook her head. "Nothing of the sort, sir - just spouting common sense. You learn a lot from toughing it out in the wilderness." She did smile though, taking it as a compliment from the handsome stallion.
"It rather seems the choice of stealth or speed is done and dusted," Reef Skimmer opined, "nothing to be gained prevaricating now."
“I suppose you’re all right,” Set Sail said unhappily, “I just don’t want us barrelling on into an ambush.” The captain flicked her tail as she passed Grenelda, saying, “She’s right too though. This train is slow! It really must have been left here since ancient times.
Set Sail turned to Clashing Gale and gave him a thoughtful look, before saying: “You can see in the dark, can’t you Clashing? No doubt anything living down here can as well, but maybe you could trot on ahead, to see if there’s anything nasty waiting for us when our train gets there? You and uhm... well I’d say Cloud Cutter, but her glow is pretty noticeable in this much darkness. Oh, but as bait...”
Pondering a moment, Set Sail concluded: “How about you go on ahead, with Cloud Cutter following along behind, and keep out of her light. Anything goes after her, you surprise them from behind, then both try to fall back to the train, and we’ll all be able to deal with it then.”
Clashing Gale would nod as he looked to the right side. "Right-hoof path, you say..." He regarded Cloud Cutter for a moment, then shared a meaningful look with Azure Feather.
"Hold on a second... Captain, forgive me, but this... this idea stinks," Azure said vehemently. "We know spider-drow are down here somewhere, Summer told us as much. We have to assume they know we're here. And no offense to either Clashing Gale or Cloud Cutter - we've seen how these two can fight when they have to - but you want them to walk into a potential ambush on their own? With no cover and no backup? Sure they can see in the dark... for a few weeks. The enemy? Likely spent their entire lives down here."
Azure fell silent, seeming surprised and ashamed that she'd stood up to a superior like that. It fell to Clashing Gale to conclude: "I think what she's saying is, are you sure that's the best course of action?"
“The best course of action is to turn around and abort the mission due to extremely noisy train,” Set Sail said testily, “But the entrance will be better defended if we come back to it later, and honestly I can’t imagine they could ever overcome an amazing pony like you! I mean if you have any... other ideas, I’m sure it’d be better than anything I can come up with.”
Reef Skimmer reared up to put eagle claws on the steel rim of his mine cart, ducking his head to avoid the ceiling. "Not to question your leadership captain, but consider what happened in the pyramid; blighters fired out of nowhere, hit me without warning, came a feather's breadth away from dropping Grenelda. The ponies survived because there was solid cover available, which they immediately availed themselves of." He rapped a claw on the ore truck, looking disappointed when his soft talon failed to make so much as a click. "If we do face such foes again, this is the best protection we're likely to find." He fluffed his wings and looked around unhappily. "Little opportunity for evasion in these tight quarters."
Grenelda clicked her beak: "Hmmm, yeah, come to think of it I'd hate fighting in this damn tunnel - can't do any of my usual tricks."
Blaze Trails pondered that before chiming in: "If we do get into a fight, I'd much rather have the cover, too. Perhaps we should stick to the train?"
Facing dissent at every turn, Set Sail relented with a sigh: “Makes as much sense as anything.” She hopped back into the front car together with Cloud Cutter, saying, “Fine then, let’s get this train moving. This ain't gonna be a stealth mission, so turn all your lights up, and be ready for anything!”
“My lights aren’t that pleasant to sit next to,” Cloud Cutter remarked cautiously.
“Your lights are the most important though,” Set Sail assured her, without missing a beat, “And I trust you not to release it right beside me. So c’mon, let’s go!”
Azure and Clashing returned to their own positions, at the rear and next to the unhappy griffon. Neither said another word, simply hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.
Steam hissed, pistons pumped and the train squealed forward, pulling through the switch and into the right tunnel. It had barely made it back up to trotting speed when the sole headlight revealed a fresh obstruction: a substantial pile of rock, right in the middle of the tunnel. A suspiciously neat pile of rock in fact, large boulders placed on the track with no gravel or cave-in above.
Set Sail was growing increasingly uncomfortable next to her deadly companion, so it was with a weird sense of relief that she leaped up as Sprocket again screeched the train to a halt, running over the top of the cab and jumping down to head right up to the pile of boulders. “What a mess!” Set Sail called out around the lantern in her teeth, looking up and around the pile, ears pricked, “We’re gonna have to clear these away to get this train any further.”
Cloud Cutter did not try to hold back a smile.
Blaze Trails stuck her head out the side of the train and sighed. "Damn, again? ... Wait a sec, Set Sail." She squinted at the unnatural-looking rubble on the train tracks. "Doesn't it look like someone put that there on purpose? Fresh, too," she remarked, tilting her head.
"Sails!" The shout came from Reef Skimmer, who was tossing his head back and forth, staring at the walls as if trying to see through the rock. "Grenelda! One has a feeling... something coming! Several somethings!"
Set Sail had since placed down her bright lantern, and surreptitiously taken the handle of her axe in-wing, staring in silence, trying to hear where they were coming from.
"Doc's right!" Clashing Gale exclaimed. "Hostiles incoming!" He quietly nodded to Grenelda - she'd be using similar tactics to his own, so it would be best if they charged together.
Azure Feather, meanwhile, knew she was likely the front line for this assault. Take cover, wait for the hostiles to reveal themselves, then let her wind magic do the rest. At least, she could hope it would be that simple...
Cloud Cutter, the thoroughly purple pegasus, was glowing like a lightbulb, giving her an unfortunately very short-lived advantage. In her unearthly glow, she saw a myriad of spiders scuttling towards her, and an even more gigantic spider with what looked like one of those bipeds embedded into it, holding a bow in its spindly appendages.
“It’s a good thing creatures know not to mess with us!” Set Sail continued to shout, nestled up against the boulders with wings spread, “Because all we want is passage! And we’ll give them no trouble if they chose to leave!”
Given Clashing and Grenelda were pinned down by the deadly arrows hurtling their way, it was pretty obvious their opponents needed some convincing. Cloud Cutter ducked low in the shelter of the train car, watching her shadow as it took on a life of its own, travelling outward in the light of her glow. The archer exchanging fire with Grenelda had just a second to comprehend the meaning of that, when Cloud Cutter burst into existence several inches in front of her.
“Goodbye,” Cloud Cutter said politely. Then she released her unholy light, exterminating everything around her.
Grenelda had grown up in the cluttered alleys and crowded bazaars of Mareran, on the Saddle Arabian border. Built long after the fall of Babtalon, the few griffons still living in the ruins were absorbed into the burgeoning pony settlement, though not smoothly. Even by the time of Luna's return, the griffs were still something of an underclass, many trapped in crime and poverty.
Her chickhood meant she was less claustrophobic than the average giff, but that didn't mean she liked being trapped in a pitch-black crumbling mine tunnel infested with unnatural arachnids. The hen peered out of her mine cart, trying to make out their opponents in the flickering lantern light. A flash of motion triggered a reflexive duck for cover; the incoming arrow clanged harmlessly off the iron hopper.
"Shit!" To her left, Clashing Gale's expression showed he was in a similar frame of mind. The hen's head popped up again, quickly assessing the scene: a swarm of spiders crawling towards them, but the arrow had come from further down... woah! Cloud Cutter was suddenly right there, all up in the face of a shocked bow-wielding spider-taur and glowing bright purple. So bright it was hard to look at; Grenelda averted her gaze as that unholy aura rippled out and made a mockery of the attacking force.
The wave of purple energy simply negated the life processes of the spidrow archer and the smaller (albeit still dinner-plate-sized) spiders surrounding it. His green face was a mask of shock and horror before the many-limbed form crumpled and fell motionless. Two spiders were far enough ahead to escape the blast; they froze for a few seconds, then pressed forward again, crawling up the rusty flank of the ore truck in search of the griffon within.
"Whoo! Cloud Cutter came prepared," Grenelda crowed. One spider made it to the rim of the hopper, but the griffon had heard its claws scraping up the side. With one slash of her talons she casually sliced it apart, pulling back before its flaming guts could burn her. Easy prey... but this was probably only the first wave. She turned to Clashing Gale and winked: "Wanna get the other one?"
The batpony watched with a mix of awe, horror and appreciation as Cloud Cutter decided the spider-drow should cease to exist. Quite the light show - much moreso in the dark mine than practicing at the quarry. Seeing Grenelda swat a spider he sprang into action, flapping up and out of the cart then spotting the remaining arachnid lurking near the wheels. Not much life force in the little creature, but he wouldn't say no to an appetiser... The stallion dropped out of the air, landing with one hoof on the spider. Moments later it was a shrivelled husk, electrical defence bypassed as its vital energies were stolen away.
Sprocket leaned out of the driver's cab, trying to get a better look down the tunnel. She began charging her horn, intending to send a burst of flame ahead like a flare. Before she could do so there was a sharp crack as an obsidian-tipped arrow punched through the driver's window. The thick glass crazed over with cracks but still hung in the frame, the arrow embedded half-way through it. The unicorn drew back in shock at the suddenness of the assault, losing her spell as her concentration was disrupted.
Out in front of the train, Set Sail was stuck between the locomotive and the pile of boulders blocking its progress. She flinched down as the arrow whistled past... then something splashed into the pile of rocks and splattered all over the nearby tunnel. An ichor that sizzled and bubbled wherever it landed - her quick descent meant that the pegasus only caught a few drops of the substance, but that was enough to burn pinholes in her wings and send a searing pain through her flank.
“Sprocket! Cover m—agch what—nnh!”. The pegasus crouched low behind the rocky cover, shivering in horror as she realised that a direct hit would likely have burned her skin off. For her part Sprocket used her glowing magic to clear away the shards of glass, the evil-looking black arrow clattering to the floor.
At the opposite end of the train, the bright purple flash had drawn Azure Feather's attention. Fortunately years of combat drills, not to mention spellcasting experience, meant she was primed to spot danger in her peripheral vision. She saw the tell-tale glow of the spell just in time to take cover, ducking down into the hopper. A bright bolt of magic streaked out of a second side-tunnel, sizzled over her head and blew a chunk out of the rocky wall behind, spraying shrapnel and purple sparks everywhere.
Knowing the caster would take a little time to prepare the next spell, she popped up again, seeking her opponent in the gloom. Another of the spider-drow, like its fellow accompanied by a half-dozen pets - instead of carrying a bow, its fingers and abdomen glowed with arcane energy. Without wasting a second, Azure sprang into the air and released an opening salvo of wind blades. If necessary she would escalate to a cyclone, but she didn't want to spend energy unnecessarily; she'd need every drop of mana if the trip turned out to be a gruelling slog through arachnid hordes.
Azure Feather fired once, twice into the darkness, then ducked again as another return shot came in; it struck the rim of the cart, spraying energy right into her mane. In the confusion of noise and shifting shadows it was hard to get a bead on the enemy... she flapped up into the air and loosed a third, then a fourth shot into the gloom of the side tunnel. The last one struck flesh, resulting in a piercing shriek and a stream of unintelligible curses as the spidrow scuttled back, seeking cover deeper in the tunnel. Meanwhile the magic duel had provided cover for a half-dozen spiders to crawl up to Azure's cart...
Fortunately Blaze Trails was on the case - the cart she shared with Melonwater was right behind Azure's. "Do your best to stay out of combat," she told the undergrad geologist, "I'll be close - just gotta stop those beasties from chewing on Azure." Looking back over her shoulder, she called to the hippogriff: "Grenelda, Clashing and CeeCee have got the front - you wanna help us clear the back?" Without waiting for a response, she leapt out of the train, knife in her teeth as she prepared to deal with the spiders.
With a well-placed swing and a smooth follow-through, the nearest was cleaved right through, collapsing into a pile of twitching, sparking legs. The others had warned her about these things' tendency to explode into Elemental energy, and she wasn't getting caught if she could help it. Looking up she saw Azure seemed to be winning the spell duel, except... there, a flicker of motion back the way they'd came. "Azure, spidrow, nine o'clock!" Blaze yelled.
Stuck in the middle of the train, Reef Skimmer took a moment to get his bearings, what with magical blasts going off all around, creatures shouting and screaming. That purple flash - no doubt Cloud Cutter was laying waste to the enemy again. He latched onto what sounded like a clear order and followed the earth pony, body expanding into a tentacled monster as he did so. The mutated griff scrambled and slithered over the next cart, ignoring the green earth stallion huddled in the bottom, and took stock of the situation.
There was Azure, firing into a side tunnel, there was Blaze, fighting spiders and shouting about... another enemy? Reef's eyes were made for searching the ground from thousands of metres above, not seeing in near-total darkness, yet... there was a many-legged silhouette, not to mention a feeling of life energy mixed with some unpleasant flavour of magic. He pointed his tentacles in the general direction of the hostile and let fly with the strongest blast of water he could summon.
The trailing spidrow had been creeping towards the rear of the train, hoping to get her spear into one of the invaders while they were pinned down by the spellfire. Now she found herself thrown back against the rock wall by a punishing torrent of water. Flesh bruised and carapace cracked, before the stunned creature was swept back into the side chamber she'd been lurking in.
Azure was startled by her companion's warning, not to mention the sudden jet of water passing centimetres from her head. She quickly she got her bearings and realised her squad were just doing their jobs. "Owe ya one, Blaze, Reef! We're pushing them back, but keep your eyes open for more!" With that she resumed fired into the side tunnel, ensuring no spidrow could advance that way without enduring painful lacerations.
With the first wave of spiders dealt with, Grenelda was peering into the side tunnel where Cloud Cutter stood. With the purple light gone she couldn't see anything, squawking: "Yo, get back, Cloud Cutter. Could be anything down there." Running off into that maze of utter blackness was suicide, their best bet was to hide in the train and wait for the rest to reveal themselves. Clashing Gale was thinking along the same lines, but he couldn't take cover while one of his squad was out there, fully exposed.
Gathering her courage, Set Sail peaked out from behind her rocky cover. “Okay, there’s two of them...” she murmured, "and a dozen smaller ones." Her heart beat at about a million times a minute. Sheathing her axe, she grabbed her lantern and advanced in reverse, skittering around the locomotive. “Keep the spiders back!” she shouted to Sprocket as she galloped past her, “We’re counting on you!”
There was the griffon hen, crouched in the second mine cart, and the batpony, standing to one side. Further back, all she could see was Reef's tail tentacles thrashing about, obscuring the action at the rear. “There’s a whole mess of them in front of the train!” Set Sail said with great urgency, “With some kind of acid spitting monster, so I can’t get close! No way Sprocket can hold them back herself. Grenelda! Go help her!”
A quick flap brought Grenelda up to the locomotive; she flattened herself across the top of the driver's cab, ready to take cover should any of this corrosive crap come her way.
The hen cocked a beaky grin as she looked down the sights of her flywheel-powered cannon. "Finally time to bust this thing out!" she cackled. Sure there were some spiders crawling around, but she was aiming for bigger prey... yeah, there was one of the spidrow, right at the back. Time to put Nutmeg's creation to work.
The flywheel spun up, the fire crystal flared, and with a whump it launched a superheated projectile. The griffon felt the kick through her whole body as she lurched back on the steel roof. Her snap shot went wide of its mark, streaking down the tunnel ahead of the train to blast a hole in one of the walls. The light and noise did effectively illuminate and stun the two spidrow lurking ahead of the rubble; one was nooking an arrow to fire back at the griffon gunner while the second was preparing another spell, electricity arcing between his raised spider forelegs.
Grenelda ducked away before the retaliation could arrive. "Sprocket!" she cawed, the thrill of combat getting to her as she slid down behind the metal cab. "Can you show 'em something nice and explodey! It's about two car lengths past the rubble!"
“Yeah! Got just the thing,” Sprocket replied eagerly. She levitated a wooden sphere out of her satchel; it hovered for a moment in the pretty glow of her orange magic, then sailed out through the broken porthole. The unicorn concentrated, brightening her magic around the ball; it promptly caught fire. With a final toss it sailed down the tunnel and dropped between the two spidrow, burning merrily.
“Now you can see!” Sprocket crowed - their foes were indeed quite visible in the flickering orange light. She wondered how long that one would burn before its other properties... heh, ignited.
"Nice!" Grenelda squawked out, waiting for the spidrow to take their shots before she replied with another of her own - and this time she would see what she was aiming at.
At the back of the train, Blaze had a thankful look on her face as Reef Skimmer took care of the second spidrow. "Good shot! Watch your right, the one that shot at Azure might be another still around." Another slash of her knife, another spider dispatched before it could leap onto anypony. Wary of more spells coming in, she tried to keep cover between her and the side tunnel.
Reef peered down the relevant tunnel - one of many, the creatures had certainly chosen a good spot for an ambush! There was indeed a glimmer of light somewhere in the depths. Unwilling to let the enemy take another pot shot at the ponies, he blasted more water towards the assumed target. Between the rushing roar and the spray blocking the sight lines, it was impossible to tell if he'd hit anything or if it was even an enemy mage vs a dropped lantern.
"Azure! Flanking maneuverer perhaps?" the hippogriff suggested. "One could keep up the suppressing fire, while you doubled back around that junction?"
Azure Feather considered for a second, then nodded. Stealth wasn't her forte, but flanking was basic combat doctrine... the spidrow could have more reserves back there, waiting to ambush her, but... surely Reef was drawing all the attention. She flew off into the gloom, working her way around to get behind the enemy caster.
Set Sail was starting to think this was going well; holding their own on all fronts; Grenelda and Sprocket holding out at the front, the others winning at the read, Cloud Cutter trotting back towards her... but there was something moving behind her, something rushing up the tunnel before steadying itself with weapon raised...
The spidrow miner had crept up close behind the first archer, ready to defend him should the Eonites charge into close combat. He'd fallen back stunned when the horrible purple flash and made his nestmate collapse lifeless to the ground. Thinking better of getting near that undead horror, he waited until she turned away and then hurled his heavy spear. Hopefully it would skewer the winged death sheep before it could annihilate any more of the brood.
Clashing Gale spotted the incoming attack just in time to save his squad mate. Already tensed and ready to spring, he leapt forward, wings spread. The batpony barrelled into Cloud Cutter, knocking the pegasus clear of the projectile at the cost of putting his own body directly in the path of the spear. The obsidian head of the weapon buried itself in stallion's guts. He crashed to the ground, hind legs spasming uselessly as he felt the wrenching pain within.
At Clashing’s cry of pain, Set Sail hurled herself down that pitch-black corridor without another thought. She dropped to a crouch next to the fallen stallion, looking with horror as her lantern illuminated the spear in his gut. “Oh Celestia you... h-h-hold on we’ll... oh stars I... d-don't move we'll... we'll get you some healing somehow!” she stammered. Then she straightened up, staring into the darkness where a thousand spidrow with spears could lurk. Sliding her axe under her wing, she ran straight in.
The miner rejoiced at landing a solid hit on... not the elemental that had killed his nest-mate... another flying death-sheep? And now there was a third one charging down the tunnel, somehow hefting an enormous axe... while he'd cast his spear, leaving only a utility knife. He wasn't one of the chosen, to raid the surface and fight the beasts of the depths. The spidrow whirled about and scuttled away, hoping to lose the death-sheep in the twists and turns of the tunnels beyond.
It was not to be. The spidrow’s life flashed before his eyes in the form of a lantern playing light across his body as Set Sail soared past him, landing lightly and blocking his way out. She delicately placed down the lantern as one of the spiders leapt at her unprotected flank, and then in a flash it got neatly sliced in half. Then it exploded. Set Sail pointed her axe his way and readied to charge.
"What are you?!" the spider-stallion screamed, scrabbling onto the tunnel wall as he futilely sought a way past the pegasus.
Climbing the wall only gave her more space in the air to build up her swing, as Set Sail smacked the spidrow miner right off of it with the flat of her axe, yelling, “Oh now you choose to speak to us!”
He landed, hopelessly brandishing his knife as she descended on him with her axe, but she only jammed the axe hilt-first into his thorax. Blanching in pain, he swung at her, cutting her across the cheek before she slammed her forehead into his, knocking him back, then kicking the knife out of his limp hand.
“Where were your words?!” the furious pegasus shouted, bucking the hapless spidrow to the edge of the lantern light, then advancing on him, saying “When you were throwing a spear into my friend’s gut?! Why did you attack us? Why do you always attack us?!” She jumped onto his fallen form, pinning two legs with her hooves and getting in his face, saying: “Those cat monsters on the surface gave us a fair warning before attacking and I hate them, so how do you think that makes me feel about you?!”
Meanwhile the two spidrow in front of the train were staring at the burning sphere that had landed between them. The sorcerer cancelled her spell, beginning to summon water instead, but by then Grenelda had taken the opportunity to draw a bead on them, her cannon spun up and ready to blast the creeps. “Not another move, or I shoot you in the head!” the griffon shouted.
“No no they really should move!” Sprocket declared urgently, “Like, right now!”
“What do you mean?!” Grenelda called down to Sprocket, “Do you want a face full of that acid?!”
“No! You should move, really!” Sprocket shouted at them, “Run for ya—” and then the wooden-cased bomb exploded in a titanic boom, sending both spidrow hurtling into the air to slam against the rock walls, then slide down to crumple on the floor. The tunnel was immediately filled by roiling clouds of dust, hiding them from the pony's sight.
“Well I warned them,” Sprocket muttered, "Twelve seconds on that one... maybe need more accelerant."
Grenelda cursed at the lack of a decent shot. She had to content herself with picking off the smaller spiders that had gotten close enough to the locomotive to still be seen.
Far back down the tracks, Azure was flying blind over the switchtrack. One wrong move and she'd slam into the walls, but she couldn't afford to tarry. She couldn't see the stone, but she could sense the air at least, creeping slowly through the mine. The noise and spray of Reef's water attack was right ahead... and there, her opponent. Azure could see the enemy mage only in silhouette, against the dim light from the lantern on the train. She crouched behind a bend in the tunnel, spider body pressed to the ground, sheltering from the jets of water hosing down the passage ahead.
No doubt waiting for a break in the torrent to fire back at the Doctor - Azure wouldn't give her that chance. She knew with all that water that the spider wouldn't see her coming... with that in mind, she just had to make best use of her momentum - by aiming a buck right at the drow's skull. Unicorn or not, every pony in the Lavendar Blades drilled in unarmed combat: the use of every pony's natural weapons.
Azure spun as she landed, pivoting around to bringing rear hooves into position for a swift blow to the cranium. The spidrow slumped to the ground unconscious, a massive bruise forming on the back of her head while her arachnid legs twitched aimlessly. Spider or not, this was good practice for facing the pirates, she thought. With her target knocked out and confirmed down,, she hurried back to rejoin her squad, homing in on the angry shouts from the next tunnel.
"You think you can take our m-magic? Y-you won't make it out with one drop!" the wounded spidrow hissed. "The c-chosen will put an end to you!" he declared, stabbing drunkenly at the brown pegasus with his forelegs.
“Take your magic?!” Set Sail pronounced, aghast, “The only thing we were taking was the train! You were attacking us to take our magic! We don’t need to take anypony’s magic! Why would you think anyone would do that, who didn’t need it to survive? Do I look like I’m half spider??”
Her rage dulling, Set Sail fluttered off of him, standing before him saying, “We heard all about your cocoons. I’ll kill every one of you before I let that happen. But I won’t attack first.”
"That can't... Lies!" the spider-creature hissed, his flat green face confused as much as angry. "What else is there to take? Gold? Gems? Many, many scavengers... picked the bones of Fellis clean! You- you don't know this?"
“Hate to tell you this, but I think every island is lacking in gold and gems,” Set Sail said with a wry grimace, “We’re like every other creature; what we’re after is food, and friendship, and ponies eat grass, not magic.” Brushing herself off, sheathing her axe and lifting her lantern, she took a few steps in Clashing’s direction, before looking over her shoulder and saying sadly to the spidrow, “I’m sorry, my friend is very hurt and... I wish we could’ve met under better circumstances.”
Then she hurried over to join the others gathered around the fallen batpony, leaving the spidrow miner to pick himself up and escape. Though she kept one ear trained his way... just in case he got any ideas. With their spidrow masters unconscious or fleeing the scene, the remaining spiders began to scatter and retreat back into the dark recesses of the mine.
The spear had plunged deep into the batpony's flank, striking just ahead of the hip, its wickedly sharp obsidian head completely buried inside. Blood was oozing out, staining his fur and pooling on the ground - strangely viscous and so dark as to appear black in the flickering light of the lantern. Clashing grimaced with the wrenching pain in his abdomen, along with the complete numbness of his hind legs. Panic tried to take control as he realised he could no longer move them.
Blaze Trails still gripped her knife in her jaws as she watched Azure Feather flutter past, looking around for further enemies - but they all seemed to be dead, or scuttling away as fast as their spindly legs could carry them. Honestly, she kinda felt redundant in these stand-up fights: no supernatural powers or attacks, no mobility options, just a knife and guts. It's not like she'd been doing nothing, but being on spider clean-up duty was definitely a support role.
Still things had quietened down - the Captain had stopped shouting, Reef had wound up his firehose routine and she could now hear... Clashing Gale's moans of pain. Damnit. Blaze dashed over to the fallen pony, arriving just after Azure. She winced at the nasty sight, then called back over her shoulder: "Reef! Clashing's hurt bad, come quickly."
Set Sail's mouth hung open - Blaze had beaten her to it. Instead she just sank to her belly beside Clashing, saying: “I know it looks bad, just... stay calm. Reef is on his way.”
Cloud Cutter was pointedly avoiding looking down the tunnel she'd treated to her own bland of oblivion. The least she could do was say goodbye, and that’s exactly what she'd done. And then Clashing Gale had taken a spear for her.
"Injuries?" Reef Skimmer had been watching out for that enemy caster to reappear, but his role as field medic took priority - he could hope Azure's return meant she had dealt with the creature. "On my way!" The mutated tenta-griff turned around and began clambering awkwardly back up the train, passing right over the cowering Melonwater. "By Novo... stay clear!"
Realising his saddle bags had come off when he transformed, Reef called back to Blaze Trails: "Can you find my pack? Must be back in the cart. And... as much light as we can... Azure? Can you get the second lantern?" he called out, no longer caring what arachnids might be listening in.
He turned back to his patient and caught sight of another form further up the side tunnel; the crumpled, withered corpse of the spidrow Cloud Cutter had blasted. The griff shook his head - the poor creature was clearly beyond help - and focused on the batpony. "Punctured peritoneum, torn kidney, lodged in the, hmm..." Reef fell silent as he began to feel around the wound, tentacles transforming back into eagle claws as he did so.
Azure Feather had been pacing around in the shadows, frustrated by her inability to help Clashing and avoiding eye contact. Even if she'd known healing spells, without a horn... she shook her heard. Now they was something she could do at least... she dashed off to retrieve the lantern from where she'd dropped it, near the last mine cart.
Blaze Trails nodded in turn, "On it." She sheathed her knife and darting back to look for the pack, quickly retrieving it and placing it at Reef's side. In the process she got a closer look at the stallion's wound - and the doctor's clear uncertainty at the prospect of a recovery. She frowned before asking tentatively: "What's your verdict? Think she's going to make it? I mean, he is a batpony, right? Does that change the rules at all?" Could they really heal themselves by feeding on other creatures, or was that just an old mare's tale?
Reef Skimmer just frowned as he fished a pair of forceps out of his pack. "Any normal griff - or pony - would've already dropped dead from a stroke, with blood this thick." His face hovered over the downed stallion's head, saying: "Clashing? Can you hear me? One must get this out so the artery can be clamped. If your kidney's lacerated, well... morphine had no effect on Miss Cutter."
Clashing Gale thought that being a batpony... or at least a vampire, an undead... meant that he couldn't feel pain. Cuts and bruises perhaps, but when it came to having a spear rammed through your guts, he couldn't have been more wrong. He gritted his teeth, unsure if he could even form coherent words, instead pointing his right front hoof weakly at his rear legs and shaking his head. He couldn't move them a centimetre, but still... better for him to have taken that shot than Cloud Cutter.
Azure took only a few seconds longer. "Apologies for the delay, Doctor..." Blaze had already asked the question on her mind, but... she'd seen her share of combat injuries, and this looked pretty bad. She took to trotting back and forth again, as if she was hopeful that the walk would stir her thoughts and memories enough to find a solution to Clashing's predicament.
"Thank you Azure." A nod to the guardspony. Even with the extra light it was hard to be sure, but Reef Skimmer was fairly confident the point of the spear had lodged in the pony's spine; the patient's gesture only deepened his concern. Blaze Trails had apparently been promoted to field nurse, as he whispered back: "Get him something to bite down on, and hold his wings down."
Blaze fished out a wood-handled implement from her own pack, nudging it into Clashing Gale's mouth. "Bite down," she said, as she placed hooves on Clashing's wings and gently pressed down. She could only hope the doctor would pull out a miracle, but she couldn't rightly imagine what form that might take.
Clashing was hurt badly, and Cloud Cutter wanted to help, but she also wanted to ask what about the next time, when her strange abilities left her a sitting duck again. She wasn’t sure how to deal with that, but really it was no surprise. Deal death and death comes for you. For Cloud Cutter, it wasn’t a matter of if, but when the next round would be fatal. She honestly wondered if she would even try to avoid it, when her only alternative was to be... this.
Set Sail couldn't bear looking on helplessly, so she trotted up to the locomotive to check on the others. “It’s quiet up front,” she said, thankful for the train’s light since her lantern was being used for a very important operation. “How are you two doing?” she asked, “Doesn’t sound like either of you are injured.”
Sprocket was still crouched in the driver's cab, peering into the gloom. "Captain! Yeah I'm ok. Hope those creeps that got bombed are alright. They sure ain’t comin at us no more. Though... the light from this train don't go so far with the dust. Can't hear anything at least.”
Grenelda was still up in her sniping position, staring down the sights of her makeshift rifle, trying to peer through the dust and smoke created by Sprocket's bomb. "Sounds like Clashing got hit something bad. Maybe he can use his new vampire powers to deal with it? Sounds like the rest of us are fine, at least." She just roller her eyes at Sprocket's moral musings: as far as she was concerned, if you ambushed her flock, then you got what you deserve.
As the dust begun to settle she picked out one eight-legged form crumpled awkwardly against the rocky wall. "Set Sail - I see somethin'. Looks like an injured spidrow - it's not movin'." She brings her rifle into position and aims carefully. "Want me to shoot it now? Not sure if it's still up for a fight."
"No!" Set Sail said emphatically. "We don't kill injured creatures. Not unless they abandon reason and- and keep attacking."
“Yeah, these are creatures, not beasts,” Sprocket said, “They know better than to push their luck. They’ll maybe come at us later when our guard is down, but whoever you see out there... isn’t a problem for now.”
Grenelda nodded agreeably down to Set Sail, though she kept her sights on the spidrow. "Alright. I'll shoot if it tries anything, but otherwise... ok." As the griffon watched, the spidrow did seem to be moving... feebly. It was bleeding from numerous cuts and cracks in its carapace. A quiver of arrows was strapped to its abdomen, but it seemed to have lost its bow.
“Once I get a lamp, I can go check on them,” Set Sail said, looking to the quiet darkness ahead, “And... do whatever needs to be done. We gotta be careful though... these aren’t just creatures. They’re magic eaters. Just like Tirek...”
Grenelda flicked her tail. "Alright - I'll cover you." For once she was thankful that she didn't have any magic - the spider creatures wouldn't find her as appetising as the ponies.
“I can go check it out," Sprocket said carefully, "but I don’t wanna get my magic eaten or nothing.” She paused at the edge of the light in indecision.
“Don’t go into the darkness, Sprocket,” Set Sail said warningly, “Wait until we have a lantern available.”
Sprocket looked back in amusement saying, “What do ya think I am, stupid?” She concentrated, lighting up her horn until it burst into a cheery orange illumination casting shadows on the cave walls around her. “There we go,” she said, looking forward again.
"Be careful, alright, Sprocket?" Grenelda called down to the unicorn, her gun still trained on the spidrow. "I hope they're not stubborn enough to pull this twice, but it might still be a trap."
As Sprocket crept cautiously forward around the pile of rocks blocking the track, her spiral horn aglow, there was a bright flash in the depths of the tunnel. A streak of blue light struck a ceiling support somewhere between herself and the injured spidrow, creating a shower of blue sparks that rained down in front of her. "Get back, beasts!" came a scream from the darkness "Stay away from him!" The strange mare's voice promised imminent harm, but also sounded desperate and confused.
Grenelda squawked in surprise. She peered through her rifle's sights, but the new attacker was much further down the tunnel and she couldn't make her out. "Sprocket, get back!" the griffon yelled, concerned that her unicorn ally was about to eat a spell bolt.
Sprocket immediately backed up, taking her glow with her, saying loudly: “Hey I don’t want any trouble!”
Set Sail flashed back to their last encounter with the drow: that prisoner who'd tried to set the whole ship on fire, the things she'd said in interrogation... about how her mate had died on the copter. That fallen male definitely didn't look so well. The pegasus was at a loss as to what to do, fretting and grinding her teeth. She looked back towards Reef and the others, desperately hoping that he'd somehow a solution to Clashing’s injury.
Sure enough, when Reef Skimmer pulled the weapon from the wound the batpony's jaw and wings jerked against Blaze's restraint... yet his hindlegs remained still. Grimly the hippogriff went to work clamping the blood vessels and gently enlarging the wound... the kidney might be beyond saving, it could be removed but even if he could control the bleeding, the patient would likely never walk again... As for the strange blood... the doctor looked to the most likely donor. "He may need a transfusion. Do you think you might be... compatible?" he asked Cloud Cutter.
Azure, all the while, had returned to her walk, muttering distractedly to herself... she had to find something to help with this... maybe something she'd learned in her guard training? Maybe in the battles themselves? She paused for a moment, staring into space, as something seemed to be coming back to her...
Instead of entertaining some foolish endeavour to turn a dank cave into a modern hospital setting, the empty-eyed purple pegasus noticed Azure pacing about, and headed over to her. It was certainly preferable to cutting her wrists to see if she still could bleed. “Penny for your thoughts?” Cloud Cutter asked, standing before the pacing pegasus.
Azure's focus was broken by Cloud Cutter's voice. "Oh..." She started, her expression still startled as she told Cloud Cutter: "I've seen Clashing take blood from other creatures and look much better afterwards. That drow I fought... she's still alive, just unconscious. I know the Captain wouldn't approve, sacrificing a living creature, but... we know these stupid drow can control their little pets. If we can persuade them to summon spiders... like... like that mother spider, in the Air Spirit's trials... then... perhaps that would save him."
Cloud Cutter raised an eyebrow at Azure, saying, “Not the ‘stupid drow’ themselves, but their spiders? That’s a very smart solution, if we could pull it off. I’m sure one would rather lose their pets than their life. But do you really think Clashing is such a stereotypical vampony that he can gain strength from drinking blood?”
A beat, and her ears went down, as Cloud Cutter glanced away and muttered, “...don’t answer that.”
Azure looked away, taking in the pain and anguish on Clashing's face... oh, dear sweet Celestia... he certainly wasn't in a position to confirm their theory. She could only shrug helplessly. "I can't say for sure," Azure began, "but you were there in the quarry - don't you think it's weird that one minute, he looked like he was ready to flop asleep, he gallops off, and ten minutes later, he looks like he could have run the Canterlot Marathon? As a bat-pony?"
Meanwhile Reef Skimmer had made up his mind: the kidney had to go, but it would be madness to operate in this dirty gloom. Assuming the strange pony didn't expire from blood loss before they got back to the ship... and if he was still vulnerable to infection and necrosis at all, it would be even odds of survival even then. His gut was torn as well, and... the griff suddenly realised that some of this blood might not be from the patient.
"Raze, can you inform the Captain that the patient needs immediate evacuation?" His voice dropped to a whisper, though one still quite audible to the two pegasi standing nearby. "In all honesty, a normal griff, erm, that is to say pony would have slim odds for survival. As it is... left kidney is a total loss and the L2-L3 vertebrae are separated... I fear even if he makes it, he won't walk again."
Blaze bit her lip: a grim prognosis indeed. "I... Do the best you can. I'm sorry." She bowed her head low and quickly trotted over to the locomotive, finding Set Sail shivering alongside. "Reef says that Clashing needs to be evacuated. Is that something that we can reasonably do right now? Looks like the attack's over, so..." She caught sight of the injured spidrow further up the tunnel. "Hmm... y'know, wonder if I shouldn't attend to that Drider's injuries while we're getting ready to go. Seems only polite if the fighting's over."
Snorting, Set Sail said, “I was thinking the same thing, but his mate is defending him, further down the tunnel. I don’t want to have her try something drastic.” Set Sail gazed backwards at the tunnel they came through, saying wistfully, “If we leave now, there’s no way we’ll be able to come back. We’ll have to declare the pyramid a lost cause; try to stay hidden until the sphinxes are willing to meet us again, try to find other allies, or ways to repair the Harmony. I wonder if Clashing...” her voice trailed off.
Blaze Trails gritted her teeth at that: the idea of abandoning all this hard-won progress certainly didn't appeal. Sure, they'd live... somehow, but was it even possible to save Clashing at that point? She tilted her head, imploring: "You wonder if Clashing...?"
Without answering Blaze, Set Sail trotted back to the grim sight of Clashing Gale. She’d heard of gut wounds. He could linger a long time, but getting better was a very remote possibility. But with his bat wings, and sharp predatory fangs, and his... disarmingly good looks. Surely that couldn’t possibly...
Melonwater had finally worked up the courage to creep up to the others; certainly it hadn't been a rising fear of being left alone to face monsters creeping up behind them! He froze mid-trot at the sight of the batpony in a pool of blood, the giant griff reaching into his body with his talons, to say nothing of the husk of the spider-creature barely visible in the flickering shadows beyond. "That's... uh... oh my Celestia... oh my... what in Equestria..." he whimpered quietly.
“Clashing,” Set Sail said seriously, getting up close to the stallion, “I need you to stay with me. Just, hear me out. Do you think you could heal yourself by... sucking someone’s blood?
Reef Skimmer was crouched over the batpony, tying a compression bandage with bloody talons; at the macabre suggestion he could only stare in shock. "Captain? Surely you can't be serious?!"
Clashing Gale stared right into Set Sail's eyes after the question, and... by Luna's stars, he really didn't want to admit to such a thing, especially not to his Captain, but it was either now, or he may not live to see Celestia's sun again. And as such, the bat-pony did the only thing he could do - admit that not only he could - but that he'd done it twice before. A weak nod - so weak Set Sail had to look for it, but... yes.
Blaze was right behind, leaving Grenelda and Sprocket to monitor the standoff. "... But who's blood would Clashing be taking?" she whispered. "If it was one of us, err, then we'd be trading one pony's life for another, right?" Would anyone here really take that sacrifice? Especially when it's still a gamble that it'd even be enough.
Sighing, Set Sail extended her foreleg, saying, “I don’t know what it’ll do to me, but it probably won’t kill me, if those penny dreadfuls are any indication of our current reality. So just try not to—”
"Absolutely not, Captain!" Reef snorted angrily. "I cannot allow-"
“Captain,” Cloud Cutter interrupted, for once. Set Sail looked up at her in surprise, even.
“Azure had a much better idea,” Cloud Cutter said, “We should do that instead.”
Set Sail looked to the pegasus guard hopefully.
Azure Feather was quick to step up: "Captain, I hate to be blunt with this... but to offer yourself as a target is..." She stopped herself from voicing her true feelings, shaking her head before finally saying it more tactfully: "Unwise is a very kind way of putting it. No; we wake up the drow, persuade them to summon spiders. There you go. Blood for Clashing Gale... and bonus meat for Grenelda. Every creature's happy, and most importantly we're all alive."
Melonwater couldn't believe what he was hearing. He didn't even want to know if those rumours were true; the teenage stallion lurched back into motion, making his way up the train to where the cute unicorn engine-pony was casting a comforting glow from her horn. "Are- gulp Are they still out there?" he asked.
“They’re picking up their wounded and getting out, if they know what’s good for ‘em,” Sprocket said to Melonwater, the cream furred unicorn mare gazing coolly down the dark tunnel, “And if they can’t, then... we’ll have to do something about that.” She looked his way saying, “But I hope it won’t be too bad. How are you holdin' out? You must be new at all this... fightin' and violence too, huh?”
"Uh yeah, I... uh, I heard the stories, about what happened on, uh, Researcher Summer's trips but..." Melonwater looked down in embarrassment "...most trouble I ever got in was when I ended up in the wrong stand at the college hoofball game." He shook his head.
"Say... uh... those rocks on the track? Not a ceiling collapse, looks like limestone... uh-huh, stress cracks, must be spoil from blasting, somepony must've carried it over and dumped there." He stared for a moment, struggling to make out anything in the gloom. "S-should I... do you want me to clear it away? So-so you can drive the train some more?" the stallion explained, blushing under his fur.
“How about you get in here, so the spidrow can’t take pot shots at you from down the tunnel while we chat,” Sprocket said with an amused smile, extending a foreleg to help him up into the cab, “We’re not moving the train in a while anyway.”
"Pot shots? Uh, sure," Melonwater said, hurrying up into the cab and squeezing in next to Sprocket. "Real cozy in here! Uh, your horn I mean, that's real nice... that light thing you're doing there. Like a nice warm fireplace," he smiled nervously. "So... uh, still out there then. We're just going to wait for them to leave?"
A few metres down the tunnel, the ponies were considering Azure's idea. "You mean to suggest that we ask a spider-drow to summon spiders for Clashing to feast on? That's..." Blaze Trails paused a moment, astonished. "It sounds brilliant... if we can convince one." Perhaps there's hope after all?
“I was gonna say,” Set Sail said, looking wide-eyed in agreement at Blaze, “But it is a very good idea. Creatures around here are big on the idea of give and take, especially the drow.” Giving Azure a worried look, she said, “There’s an injured one in front of the train, or... there was a second ago. I don’t know if there are any others we could... convince.”
"I might have a better option," Azure began, "I knocked out the mage that was taking pot-shots at us. The rear squad, that is. She's probably still right over there..." She pointed a hoof in the direction she'd come from. "Assuming her comrades haven't rescued her yet."
Set Sail thought it over quickly. “You and Grenelda go... and take one of the lanterns. Bring her over here, if she hasn’t been taken by her fellows. Then maybe we can impress on her just how serious Clashing’s condition is.”
“He also sacrificed himself for me, for what that’s worth,” Cloud Cutter remarked, “They might think highly enough of him to aid him then. I’m the one who killed their kind, so they should have nothing against him.”
"Lemme come! Gotta make sure she ain't going nowhere," Blaze Trails offered, hurrying after the griffon and pegasus. The three quickly made their way back along the train to the side tunnel, where they found the spidrow spellcaster moaning and twitching, on the verge of regaining consciousness. Blaze fished out her rope and with the help of Grenelda's quick claws, soon had the many-legged menace thoroughly trussed up and immobilised.
They heaved the creature onto Grenelda's back - not that Blaze minded the liftin', it was just the griffon's wings helped keep the beast from slippin' off - and made their way back to the others. All the while Azure kept a close watch for any regrouping drow: she didn't see anything lurking in the dark, though her sensitive ears did catch voices whispering to each other down the second rail tunnel, the one they'd turned away from.
"Possible hostiles in our vicinity," Azure grumbled, "Exercise caution." She turned around and began patrolling the perimeter. She had to stay vigilant: this was still hostile territory, and they couldn't afford another injury.
“I found the smelling salts,” Set Sail said, hurrying up from where she’d rifled through their packs - thankfully Reef hadn't skimped on the medical supplies, considering what danger they were in. “Hopefully these can wake her up?”
"One would hope so - she doesn't look draconic," Reef said dubiously, eyeing the captured spider-taur. He took a capsule from the pouch and cracked it his claw, waiting for a moment before holding the ammonia-soaked cloth under the nose of the creature. Sure enough she regained consciousness, coughing and spluttering then struggling in vain to free her hands or legs. The captive creature stared around wildly, eyes darting from one quadruped to the next as she tried to understand her situation.
Blaze Trails nodded to the reviving Spidrow, keeping her focus stern. "We've got a task for you to do. Soon as it's done, you're free to go." Nodding to the Captain, she explained: "All you need ta do is summon a few spiders for us."
"Task? You dare to command the blessed! I am... I-" The creature clearly wasn't entire with it, yet had enough awareness to react to Reef moving to examine her skull. "Beast! Keep your claws off me! Mutant spawn of Eon! You are mistakes, pale imitations of, uh-"
The hippogriff ignored her diatribe, pulling her hair back to examine the bleeding bruise where Azure's hoof had struck. He felt with a claw, while the spidrow screamed her head off. "Oh do be quiet. Simple fracture, bleeding, no depression - you were lucky. Now hold still." He went back to his pack to find another bandage.
Unfazed by the spidrow’s protests, with a wild anxiety in her green eyes, Set Sail stared down her foe, saying evenly, “Your companion said we were here to eat your magic, because it was the only thing worth taking around here. But me, I only eat grass, flowers, hay, and my magic is just part of me. I’m a tasty meal to you, and you’re not tasty to me. But I’m not the only one here. Your companion also threw a spear through my friend’s gut, and he’s currently dying thanks to you."
"Before you feel proud of yourself, I want you to know that my friend does not eat grass and flowers. He consumes blood. So you have two choices. You can save my friend’s life by summoning some of your normal spiders to help him heal, or you can fight us, and then you’ll be the one giving him your own blood.”
The spider-drow's laugh was a shrill cackle. "Grass and flowers! Do your worst!" She struggled again, futilely trying to free her hands. "You think you can use me to kill a few more kin, before you end my life? As if I would betray the people, to give succour to the likes of you!"
“I’m so tired of killing things,” Cloud Cutter said, with that unnerving empty eyed stare. Her words may have belied the purple glow limning her body, “I just look into your eyes and say goodbye, and then you’re gone forever. But I don’t want to. None of us do. We just want to save our friend’s life. And we are sorely lacking in life for him to feed on. If your spiders are too precious, then there must be something else we can sacrifice. Some... hapless beast who’d do more good in Clashing’s belly than menacing you all.”
“This is ridiculous; she’s not gonna help us,” Set Sail said impatiently, scraping the ground at the spidrow, “I’ll just—one of us can feed Clashing for now. I bet I could give him my blood, and still kick your asses to Canterlot.”
Azure flapped down into the circle of lamplight: "Captain... goodness, if someone should help him, I should be the one, the squad needs you to lead them... Clashing Gale can at least... defend you all once he's back in good health. I'll be fine... at least, I'm pretty sure I will be..." She sounded doubtful, as if unsure exactly whether the Air Spirits would approve of their champion making such a sacrifice.
"Yes, yes! Consume yourselves!" the tied-up spider-creature cackled. "You masters make you from shoddy magics, then send you to die before your bodies fail on their own! You will never know the blessings of the lady... uh.." Her rant died as she shook her head, lucidity beginning to return. "Or! Perhaps an exchange? You seek prey... sink your fangs into a sphinx! Oh yes, she still has magic. So much magic! The chosen will bring her, trade her for me. Tell them you hold Niqu of the Dark Flame prisoner and they are sure to strike a deal." Her face twitched into an insincere smile.
Deep in the abandoned mine, Clashing Gale lay in a pool of his own blood, a heavy spear buried in his abdomen. Reef Skimmer, the expedition's hippogriff doctor, was trying to stem the bleeding, with the earth pony explorer Blaze Trails assisting as best she could.
Four more creatures were gathered around - the pegasi Cloud Cutter, Azure Feather and Set Sail, and the griffon Grenelda. The hen stared coldly at their captive: an ungainly looking combination of hairless simian torso and overgrown spider abdomen. All the trouble of capturing this thing and the Captain was seriously suggesting she sacrifice herself to Clashing's unnatural appetite? Grenelda rolled her eyes: sure ponies were kinda squeamish, but... seriously?
"Screw this," she cawed. "If you're not gonna play along, then you'll be the meal." A razor-sharp foreclaw shot out and grabbed the spidrow by the neck; she began dragging the trussed-up caster over to Clashing Gale. "Hey! Got you a meal on legs here! You're hungry for some rejuvenating blood, right?" She cackled, then teased: "Was wondering what they taste like myself, but you deserve first pickings!"
Clashing Gale had been fading away, but Grenelda's words seemed to give him a second wind. Or perhaps it wasn't the words: the griffons talons had drawn blood, red beads of the stuff leaking from the enemy's neck. This time Clashing's true nature was undeniable; everypony was watching as his eyes went wild and his fangs extended. Like a wounded animal, desperate but dangerous, hungry and ready to feast.
The spider-mage struggled futilely against Grenelda's claws. "No... no, wait... argh, my neck! You dare... you dare..." The vampire's gaze locked with her own, and her face became a mask of horror.
“You don’t get it!” Set Sail shouted, slamming a hoof alongside Niqu's face and shocking the creature out of her trance. “We don’t eat magic. We don’t want magic," she explained, "We want. To survive. And if whatever happened to Clashing makes his body fail on its own, then I will find who did it and I will feed them to you, magic and all. But right now...” the mare slowly drew back, “We are going to keep him alive, and we are going to make it through this blasted place, one way or another.” Tossing her mane, she strode away, stating, “So I guess you just volunteered to have him drink her blood and maybe even suck out her soul for all I know!”
Reef Skimmer stared at the struggle for a moment, eagle face unreadable as ever, then nodded. "Indeed. Good of the many and all that." Reef let his form expand back into the tentacled water-beast he'd been supressing. "Chin up Slashing Wail, got a real treat for you to feast on tonight. Need any help there old chap?" A bunch of tentacles cradled Clashing's head as Grenelda forced the spidrow closer...
"Wait!" came Niqu's shriek as the batpony's fangs brushed against her neck. "I'll do it! Take the kin, not me, take them if you must... not like this. I can't go like this!" the spidrow sobbed, will finally broken
Grenelda chortled; this took her waaaay back, to when she'd happily take a clawful of bits to enforce some shady deal in the back alleys of Mareran. She never thought trekking through an old mine would be so much fun. "Oh good," the griffon cawed, "you're a smart one after all." She pulled the spider-creature away and dumped her opposite from Clashing. Her beak dipped down to whisper in the creature's ear: "You get one chance... and don't keep him waiting."
Rage and fear battled for control of Niqu's face as she stared at the griffoness, her eyes closing and her body shuddering as Grenelda's beak brushed her cheek. Her eyes remained closed for perhaps ten seconds, an eternity to the watching ponies, before she said simply "They come." Sure enough the skittering of claws reached the ponies ears as the spiders arrived in twos and threes, bodies the size of a cooking pot, abdomens glowing dimly with elemental energies.
Grenelda beamed proudly, saying "Good choice!" before pushing Niqu roughly to the side. "Alriiight, Clashing! Dinner's here. Eat up!" She nabbed the closest spider and held it up to Clashing's jaws, ready to helping him bite and chew if needed. You know, there was something heart-warming about helping a fellow carnivore in need chow down!
Clashing Gale had no interest in the meat - Grenelda could have that. What interested the vampire was the blood - he drained the spider's fluids with feverish speed, tossing it aside and seeking more as the fire returned to his eyes. Grenelda was kept busy for several minutes as the next few were devoured with equal ferocity. It took six more before he slowly began to regain the semblance of a pony... not that any true pony would act anything like he had...
Set Sail spun about at Clashing’s sudden movement, her first impulse to go for her axe, before realising that it was her friend. She... had no reference for what to do in this kind of situation. Grenelda seemed to know what she was doing, which as a... predator would make sense. Set Sail really couldn’t even imagine how you’d go about eating a... an animal.
Reef Skimmer stared in wonder as the batpony's flesh began to knit itself back together. He quickly ripped off the dressing and removed the clamps before they became stuck in the stallion's body, getting a brief look at the torn kidney sealing itself up before the outer wound closed as well. With the patient seemingly on the road to recovery, the hippogriff attended to the spidrow, bandaging her head wound despite her attempts to flinch away.
Blaze Trails just looked on in awe and disgust... but mostly awe. "Damn, wouldn'a thought a pony could do that? It's unreal!"
Grenelda just gape-grinned back: "Ha! I knew it: just like in the comics. Cooool."
Azure Feather shook her head as she watched the crawling creatures consumed by her squad-mate's new attitudes. Comics... no serious bestiary or encyclopaedia spoke of vampires as anything more than a myth. Indeed since their return the bat ponies had done everything they could to dispel such rumours. Was there a kernel of truth to the legends after all, or was this purely the work of the mysterious forces at work in the Cloudbreaks?
Just a few metres away, Melonwater and Sprocket were huddled in the driver's cab of the mine locomotive. The earth stallion had desperately tried to ignore the angry threats, then the hideous skittering and crunching and slurping... urgh. He felt like he was about to lose his breakfast. Desperately, he focused on the unicorn mare in front of him, an angelic light in the darkness. Say something, Melonwater, say something cool and sophisticated! "So... uh... is it true... that unicorns feel, uh, horny all the time?"
“Dunno,” Sprocket said carelessly, “I ain’t been anything but a unicorn, but I have been kinda uh... whatever you call it when you want it and can’t get it lately. Why? You telling me that you earth ponies don’t get horny?” She frowned glancing down, muttering to herself, “That’d explain a lot actually...”
Melonwater opened his eyes. Amazingly, he was not on fire. What had she said... "Uh, no, no we get... don't you know, earth pony stamina is legendary! Uh. Heh heh, yeah, just ask Blueb-" His mouth clamped shut - why did this happen every time he tried to talk to a cute mare? "Umm. Sorry, just a- just a bit tense with all that-" the green stallion waved a hoof in the general direction of the carnival of horrors currently performing in the side passage "-going on, you know? Uh." He shot the mare a curious look. "What do you mean, 'explains a lot'?"
“Why do y’think I’m chatting so much? I’m tryin' not to listen to it,” Sprocket said unhappily, her own ears folded away from that direction, “Figure if they need us they’ll come by. And don’t get me wrong, I know earth ponies can ... really work you over, at least the stallions. ...a few of the stallions. ...okay mostly I just been with Gearshift, but he’s... he’s just never in the mood anymore. Can hardly even talk to him. I think something’s wrong, but he won’t open up about it.”
"Uh, that's... that's a shame." Melonwater said. "Maybe I could- oh..."
Blaze Trails, relieved that things were under control (and if she was honest, looking for a distraction from the sight of a pony draining giant spiders of blood), moseyed off to check out front of the train. The dust had pretty much settled, and she couldn't see spidrow nor their little pets out there - seemed like they'd limped off and left the coast clear. She trotted back around the locomotive, interrupting the conversation: "Hey - Sprocket, Melonwater? I think... I think we're ready to go as soon as we unpile some rocks. Clashing's, uh... fine, and seems like the fighting's all done. Come help?"
Melonwater listened to the explorer pony being terribly brave and professional. "S-Sure Blaze Trails! Uh, you're going first right?" Seeing her nod, he trotted after, still looking nervously around for any sign of the spider creatures.
"Sure can," Blaze said, drawing her knife again more to reassure the stallion than for fear of ambush. "Pretty sure they've all learned their lesson, though."
“No wait, I’m goin first!” Sprocket shouted, jumping out of the cab and pushing past Blaze. “I got this light going,” she said, pointing at her glowing horn, “So don’t go into the darkness without me." She called into the darkness: "Matter of fact... we’re gonna clear away these rocks, okay?! Are you two gone?!” The only response was the low moan of air drafting through the tunnels; if the spidrow were still in earshot, they weren't giving it away.
Back in the side tunnel, Clashing Gale was feeling... well, still pretty sore and weak, but vastly better than a few minutes ago. The bloodlust faded away as he drank his fill. "...Remind me not to get hit with one of those again..." he muttered as he slowly rose to his hooves.
Cloud Cutter watched dispassionately as Grenelda made a snack of a dead spider (taking care to choose a brown one). She trotted over to the trussed-up spidrow and sank to the ground nearby. “I’m so sorry,” she said, honestly if not enthusiastically. “I wish we knew more about what we were doing here. Are you going to be short on... 'kin' because of this? Because you are going to live, Niqu. I know you didn’t want to, but... you just saved my friend’s life.”
The spidrow refused to meet the undead beast's gaze, shivering and looking at the abomination out of the corner of her eye. "Don't try to fool me, Empty One," she muttered. "More souls for the hungry nether, that is all you seek. Do you think you will endure where the others come apart, because your element preserves a mockery of life?"
Cloud Cutter's gaze never wavered: she looked evenly at Niqu and stated: “I don’t even know what the nether is.”
"Are you stupid?" Clashing Gale exclaimed. "What we wanted, right this blasted second, was to stay alive. Keep every single one of us standing, because... oh, what the heck. You creatures couldn't understand friendship if it hit you on the head. We don't want souls - we want to stay alive. Same as you, right? And I do have to thank you. I... I had to do what I did there... because if I didn't, one of us wouldn't be here right now... and that's where it starts and ends..." He turned away, going quiet as it sank in just how close he had come to the final voyage to Luna's realm...
"Friendship?" Niqu sounded genuinely stunned, as if she couldn't imagine why a strike party of Eonite war-beasts would mention such a thing. "You lived as serfs of the mabu then? Swallowed their lies, before you were-" a wry smile "chosen to receive the Elements."
Clashing's head snapped back up, clearly confused by the spidrow's babble. "Alright, now I'm convinced you're talking absolute nonsense... I don't know what kind of ideas got into your head when Azure smacked you upside the head - but I've got absolutely no idea what in Luna's stars it is that you're talking about." He sighed. "Look. As far as you, and I mean you specifically and I go? You saved my hide. And I thank you for it. Beyond that?" He shrugged.
Niqu just looked miserably at the vampire beast, then the shrivelled remains of the spidrow archer nearby. She shivered again and held her tongue.
“I don’t know what the 'mabu' are either, I’m sorry,” Cloud Cutter said with a wry grimace, “I may have heard them mentioned before. But you are right that what this element did to me is a mockery of life. Life is a pretty easy target for mockery though. Mostly I just don't like the part about...” she followed Niqu's gaze to the lifeless corpse of her brood-mate “...ending it,” the purple pegasus concluded. “I just don’t know any other way to defend myself. I can’t feel the winds anymore, and... this undead wind that takes their place is not so friendly.”
Medical emergency over, Reef Skimmer took stock of the condition of the crew... one brown pegasus in particular, standing to one side and watching the spooky ponies converse with the spidrow. Stepping close, he placed a claw on her back - she was trembling. "Captain," he said softly. "You saved Splashing Gale. And... kept your griffon fed and happy, it seems. Now... what are you orders? We can't stay here."
Melonwater and Blaze Trails were making short work of the boulder pile. The train would soon be free to move forward, which Set Sail considered a very good idea, before every single spidrow decided to swarm their location. More importantly, Clashing Gale was back on his hooves, his wounds were apparently healed.
“How do you feel?” Set Sail asked, standing uncertainly before the dark-seeing bat pony.
“Well, pretty good... considering.” Clashing said, looking guiltily around at all the drained husks of spider corpses he had fed on. "Physically at least. Hind legs feel kinda sleepy, but I can walk."
“Oh, thank goodness,” Set Sail said in relief, rushing forward to hug the surprised stallion's neck, ignoring the spider’s ichor smeared into his chest. “I don’t care if it’s a stereotype. You have an amazing ability!”
“Aren’t you worried I’m gonna bite you too?” Clashing asked the mare, worried that the prospect actually appealed to him. Set Sail smelled... tasty.
“I’ve been friends with predators before,” Set Sail said, backing up to stand before him with a smile, “And it’s true for every creature, we only need to eat when we’re hungry. Anyway I could probably take you.” The grim amusement drained from his voice as she looked at the scattered spider remains, saying “You... definitely ate a lot of these beasts though. I wish there had been some other way.”
Turning to the tied-up spider lady, Set Sail said: “I know you didn’t want to, but... you saved my friend’s life, so I have to thank you for that, Niqu. You’ve ended any quarrel we might have had with your people, and more than made up for your spear throwing friend; though please tell him to be a little less ...eager next time.” Then she craned her neck down to untie Niqu’s bonds.
The spider-drow stared at the pegasus in total disbelief. "You can't... I won't fall for-" Bewildered, Niqu reflexively moved her arms as if to start casting a spell at the ponies, but then thought better off it and scuttled off into the darkness of the side tunnel. Their last sight of the creature was her bulbous abdomen disappearing into the gloom.
Azure Feather could only shake her head again. Yes, they saved Clashing Gale's life, and maybe, just maybe that warranted rewarding the creature with her freedom, but part of her still wasn't sold on letting the spidrow go. Not like she was actually trustworthy.
With Clashing on the way to recovery, Set Sail gathered everyone together by the train, saying, “Okay the rocks are clear, but I don’t want to run into another ambush like that. If we could just get somepony to scout ahead... but I don’t want them to get caught in an ambush without cover or backup. Any ideas?”
"I suppose a dissection of the slain specimen is out of the question," Reef Skimmer muttered.
“We need to get moving though, like you said,” Set Sail said giving Reef a confused look.
“Maybe he wants something to do on the way,” Cloud Cutter mused.
"Can't you just back up the train if- if they try that again," Melonwater asked Sprocket.
“Uh, yeah,” the cream furred mare said, giving the stallion an odd look, “But why?”
"Oh, I guess you were up front... it was awful in the back, seemed like they were coming from all sides," the stallion said unhappily. "I thought maybe... like if we reversed, at least they'd all be coming from one direction, you know?" He wondered if he was just being stupid; if it was worth saying, surely all these brave fighting-type creatures would have thought of it.
“Up front, they were coming on three sides out of four,” Sprocket said, intrigued, “But yeah you’re right it would have been a good idea if we could’ve backed the whole thing up into the tunnel. Might’ve taken a while to switch it to reverse though...”
“Why don’t we use one of those invisisodas?” Grenelda interrupted.
Set Sail sighed, looking sadly at the hen and saying: “I didn't bring any, Grenelda... after we used four checking in on Summer Scribe yesterday, I thought we should save what's left for-”
“Well, uh, actually I might’ve... brought a couple,” Grenelda interrupted, as she gave a nervous laugh, “Just in case, you know, heh heh?”
“How many of our sodas did you take without asking?” Set Sail asked flatly.
“Just a... clawful,” Grenelda said, eyes darting shiftily, “I wasn’t gonna use them. Just in case we uh, needed them, you know?”
Facehoofing, Set Sail groaned, “How can you be so awful and yet so helpful? Yes, we could... use one of the sodas. Thanks Grennie. It only lasts ten minutes though, and I don’t want Clashing...” Set Sail looked over the batpony, “...putting himself in harm’s way just yet.” Still shaken from his experience, Clashing hardly offered any protest.
“So maybe you could go instead, Cloud Cutter?” Set Sail asked hopefully, giving the blank eyed pony an imploring look. “You can see in the dark, can’t you?”
“It makes no sense that I would, since I can just glow,” Cloud Cutter said, sounding almost grumpy about it, “But... yes. I can see... most things. Walls and... life. Nothing too detailed.”
"That's all we need!" the acting-captain said warmly. "You're the most experienced being invisible anyway."
Without further ado the undead pegasus reached over to take the bottle from Grenelda's outstretched claw. She soon had the top bitten off and the contents drained, quickly becoming translucent before fading from view entirely. "I'll be right back," came her disembodied voice, followed by the sound of wingbeats as she took off down the tunnel, heading deeper into the mine.
It was a very long ten minutes as the explorers waited for their scout to return. Melonwater and Blaze Trails finished clearing the obstruction, while Sprocket kept the boiler hot, ready to move the train at the first sign of trouble. Everyone else hunkered down in the mine carts, watching the side tunnels for any sign that the spidrow were back. Ten minutes became twelve: "It must have run out by now," Set Sail fretted, "I hope she's-"
"There she is!" Sprocket called out. Sure enough Cloud Cutter was flying straight up the tunnel toward them, the last hints of transparency draining away as dropped to her hooves and trotted around the engine.
Azure would soon speak up as the Pegasus landed. "Hopefully the news isn't too bad?" Wishful thinking, for sure, but at least she was trying to look at the bright side... even if that meant more of the accursed drow to take down.
"We have a problem," the purple pegasus said flatly. "The tunnel goes on another two kilometres, then goes into an enormous cavern. Big enough to fit most of Ponyville. The far end is full of pod-shaped structures, hanging from the ceiling and the walls. Webbing everywhere." She glanced at Sprocket: "The tracks seem clear enough, if we're taking the right fork again. There are at least a hundred spidrow in that nest though. And-" she frowned, looking to the captain.
“And... what?” Set Sail asked, leery at the attention and the sudden silence of the purple pegasus, “And what?”
"Set Sail, I couldn't get close; some of them seemed to sense my presence, even if they couldn't see me. But... I spotted another creature, trapped in a coocoon with only her head visible. I would have thought it was a strange tribe of pony, if I hadn't seen a sphinx in person yesterday."
“Only one?” the captain blurted out in surprise, with a very troubled look to her.
"Only one," Cloud Cutter echoed. "There were bones though, scattered below. I couldn't tell what creatures they came from."
“Well I had thought these creatures needed to prey on magical beings to survive,” Set Sail said, rubbing thoughtfully at her chin with a blue foreleg, “But a hundred spidrow with only one sphinx? That sounds more like... opportunity than necessity.”
“What do we do? We can’t just leave her there!” Sprocket blurted out, full of worry, “They just let her die and drop her bones?”
Azure Feather's hope for a clear shot to the pyramid was extinguished by Cloud Cutter's report: she couldn't see any positives in the situation. If they'd caught and cocooned a sphinx, surely they'd have no trouble doing the same to a pony. "Nearly our full squad... and we're still facing ten to one odds... at minimum," she muttered. If it was veteran guard versus militia, that might be manageable, but Reef was the only other military here... and he was a naval doctor. "Unless we can deploy some serious firepower - ideally literally - this sounds like suicide." Like the Changeling Invasion, from the Lieutenant's stories...
Reef Skimmer nodded to Azure "Indeed, just a clawful of the blighters gave us enough trouble. Frontal assault on a sizable settlement, well, one wouldn't fancy our chances."
"At least you can see," Cloud Cutter droned. "There are glowing plants all over the cave. The cables glow as well."
"Cables? Are you saying they have technology in there?" Reef asked cautiously.
"No. Organic: like blood vessels. They join the pod things and lead off into the tunnels." Cloud Cutter explained.
"Ah, I can venture a theory then," the hippogriff mused. "We spotted something like that linking the sac-like structures to the elemental gate - in the sphinx pyramid, before Summer blew them sky high. One would guess they're conduits for the energies these creatures feed on." His gaze went to Set Sail "As such I concur, they must have many sources of energy down here, draining creatures is merely... dessert?" He ducked his head "Supplemental, that is to say!"
Azure could see Set Sail was seriously pondering a rescue attempt; she had to speak up: "Captain, think about this. We ran into an advance force of just six - probably not their best troops, just whoever was closest - and nearly lost Clashing Gale - somepony far stronger and tougher than the average pony."
The batpony stared back at her, but Azure shook her head. "Hear me out, alright? Truth is, Captain, we go hoof-to-hoof with a dozen trained fighters - and I bet there will be a lot more taking pot shots at us if we attack their nest... no way are we getting through that without casualties. It would be pure folly, most likely we'd end up overrun and going straight to Tartarus."
“Yes, I’m aware that spears kill ponies,” Set Sail groaned in response, rubbing at her face with that forehoof. “It was embarrassingly easy to take us down. But we gotta get through that cavern one way or another, and if you haven’t noticed from the dank dark cave that we’re in right now, full of horrible monsters and deadly enemies...” She glared as Azure, saying: “We are in Tartarus right now. So if you have any better ideas that would be less likely to get the whole crew and everypony who’s counting on us killed... I am all ears.”
Azure took a step back from the force of Set Sail's words, nodding quietly in understanding. She really didn't have a better idea, save going back for more reinforcements, so... she knew when she was asked to shut her trap.
Cloud Cutter acted as if she hadn't heard the argument, her empty white eyes settling on Sprocket. "How fast does it go? The train, I mean."
“Oh I dunno, pretty fast I guess?” Sprocket replied, looking nervously at the spooky pegasus. “I'd say... this sorta train can hit about fifty kay-pee-haych, but the state of repair it’s in... I'd be shocked if we made it past forty.”
Cloud Cutter stared blankly for a few seconds, then nodded. "Then we could traverse the cavern in two minutes flat. That would give the creatures only a little time to raise an attack. Assuming the switch is set in the right direction... and we don't give them time to set up another ambush."
What with the dark and the stress, Set Sail didn't register Azure's distress as much as she should have. Turning to Cloud Cutter, she asked: “Are there any more obstacles on the tracks between us and this cavern?”
The other mare shook her head: “It was all clear. Two to three kilometres ahead of us.”
“We have one last invisisoda, thanks to Grenelda,” Set Sail said, giving Cloud Cutter a serious look, “Do you think you could get past the spidrow, and free the sphinx, if you had some sort of... distraction?”
The purple pegasus nodded. "If Clashing returns my wing-blades, so I can cut the cocoon open." She frowned again, "though if she's too weak to fly and I have to try and carry her... probably easier to stay in the cocoon."
Set Sail's eye twitched as her gaze roamed over Azure, Reef Skimmer - no, they were better as magical artillery - Sprocket, Melonwater - no wings - Grenelda, and... “Do you think I could get past the spidrow, and free the sphinx, if the rest of you drew their attention?” Set Sail suggested, “Because I can carry a cart full of rocks.”
"That... would be best," Cloud Cutter reluctantly admitted. "You can see well enough with the glowing plants, and since I changed I don't think I-"
"Captain! We can't risk you caught in the midst of a crowd of hostiles!" Reef Skimmer interrupted. "One volunteers of course. We've established that I can take a fair few of those magic blasts, and the creatures are sure to have a hard time restraining a roc."
“Well thank you for volunteering, Reef. You might have to take a few of those magic blasts, while you’re protecting the others on the train,” Set Sail said, sighing, and adding, “I know you’re worried about me, but that’s even more reason I should do it. They’ll be shooting at you, not me, if I’m the invisible one.”
"One supposes one could fly overwatch, as it were. Though that did not turn out so well with the cats," the hippogriff said unhappily.
"Either ways, can't stand here arguing 'bout it." Blaze chipped in. "If we're gonna' ignore common sense and plough on through this spider pit, not to mention stick our necks out tryin' ta save a sphinx of all creatures, then we don't wanna give 'em any more time to prepare."
"C'mon, Azure," Grenelda chided. "It'll be awesome! You with the tornados, Sprocket with the bombs, the doc with the water cannons, Cutter will do her flashy thing! Spiders won't know what hit 'em. They won't mess with us after this!" she crowed.
So, this insane mission would be going ahead, Azure realised. Her opinion was given, and overruled. She was a guard, and orders were orders. If the Captain told her to protect these ponies... she would, even if it amounted to a suicide mission. Grenelda's overconfidence drew no more than a frown from the blue pegasus. Yes, the squad had serious offensive capabilities, surely they could take out a good number of enemies... but Cloud Cutter had said at least a hundred drow. What if it was two, three, or more?
On defence they were sorely lacking: a simple spear had almost killed one of their toughest fighters. What if an arrow found the Captain? What if Grenelda was caught a magic bolt? In her opinion, this was an insane mission, but... orders are orders. Her spirits low, the air elemental could only try and steel herself for the battle ahead, trying to supress the thought that it would likely be her last.
"Now Grenelda, we aren't here as exterminators!" Reef was saying angrily. "Rescue a possible ally, certainly. Suppress the enemy, absolutely. Damage their structures, well, that seems unavoidable. But I will not participate in wanton slaughter!"
“The sphinxes amazingly enough are the only creatures on this entire island to demonstrate basic courtesy and kindness,” Set Sail said wearily to Blaze, “If it were one of the two legged cats, I... I don’t know. It’s just not right to leave her there, if they don’t need her.”
Heading over from where she had been rummaging around in their stuff, Sprocket said "Hey, captain, one thing.”
Set Sail looked her way, and Sprocket said, “I just checked the map for this thing and... there are two track switches. They both need to be pulled to the left if we want to go to the northwest. Wouldn't want to take a wrong turn and end up at the sphinx’s temple ha-ha!" The unicorn's nervous laugh did little to mask her fear, but if Set Sail said they were doing it...
“They just need to be pulled left, right?” Set Sail asked cautiously.
“Right,” Sprocket said, “Left.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Set Sail replied with a curt nod.
“Well okay then,” Sprocket said with leg shakingly nervous but growing enthusiasm, “Train’s ready, track’s clear. Let’s do this!”
Reef Skimmer climbed into the first cart, right behind the engine. Seeing the blue pegasus flap up unhappily to land in the cart behind, he whispered "Chin up Azure. Clashing got the worst of it because the blighters jumped us in the dark, but this time we'll have the element of surprise, not to mention room enough for your weather workings."
Blaze Trails winked to Melonwater. "Now you just sit here with in me and we'll let those flashy magic types do their thing. If any spider beasts see fit to hitch a ride without a ticket, we'll buck 'em back to Canterlot, alright?"
The green-furred stallion gulped and nodded, pressing himself down into the rusted steel hopper of the ore truck.
Deep below the island of Fellis, a ball of light moved swiftly down the tunnel that formed the spine of Catseye Mine. Set Sail had quaffed the magical soda she'd confiscated from Grenelda, and taken flight as soon as she'd faded to transparency. Feeling her way through the pitch black was out of the question, not to mention the possibility of lurking spidrow being drawn to her hooves clopping on the stone, so she had to fly - which meant she had to take one of their lamps.
She felt horribly vulnerable and claustrophobic, flapping along on her own through the narrow space, waiting for something horrible to jump out of a side tunnel. For the sake of her crew she pushed on, clamping her teeth down on firmly the lamp's handle. Fortunately there were no further ambushes or obstructions between her and the central cavern.
The pegasus emerged into a vast cave, perhaps 400 metres across, lit by carpets of bioluminescent mushrooms and magic that pulsed through veins, twinkled from crystals and pooled in spidrow's pods. Both floor and ceiling were forests of stone spikes, the largest of them fused into natural columns that supported the roof.
The tracks for the mine train crossed the huge space on trestles of rickety wood, branching several times to reach branch lines to the north and south, and to provide loops for turning and passing trains. Everywhere were enormous webs, stretched between the rock pillars, providing bridges and platforms for creatures that crawled and scuttled on eight legs. Pods the size of houses were suspended from the roof and walls on cables of silk, growing larger and denser towards the far side of the cavern, where a veritable spider village was located.
Set Sail stared in shock, letting the lamp slip from her mouth; it tumbled down into the gloom below, shattering on a rock and instantly going out. She squeaked in fear and flapped upward... fortunately no creatures were close enough to notice. She'd planned to ditch the lamp anyway, as it would no doubt have given her away when she got closer to the spider creatures - just not in such a careless manner.
Quiet as a passing breeze, Set Sail still felt horribly exposed like this. Azure was right. This was a terrible idea, they were all going to die, and it was all the fault of the pony who made them do it, the pony who Azure refused to disobey. She was stunned by the size and the scale of this place. Just how outmatched they were was finally starting to dawn on her. Still, at least she could see, and she could move freely, after such a terrible hair–raising underground trek.
It seemed unreal, that she could fly among this giant complex, with spidrow scuttling to and fro on that silklike webbing. In her mind she saw herself becoming visible after waiting too long, just in time for her body to become impaled by a thicket of arrows - and unlike Clashing, Set Sail had no alien powers to defend herself. Granted she could repel any incoming projectiles the normal way, with a strong beat of her wings, but that wouldn't be much good against the spellcasters.
It was peaceful in a way, giving herself up for dead - she had nothing to lose anymore. They were an insignificant stain on the history books, unnoticed and unremembered as the Cloudbreaks continued the way they'd always been. So it couldn’t hurt to check the train switches. If they could pull this off... it probably would have terrible unforeseen consequences, but somewhere in there was the undying hope that maybe just maybe they could pull through.
She glided out into the cavern, following the tracks. First switch... ok. Second switch... she cringed as she back-beat to a stop. It was still set on the main line, leading to the sky docks far to the west. She couldn’t see her own forelegs as she reached out, wincing at the feel of the rusted metal against her fur. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling so much as- clank.
The pegasus skittered away from the switch, looking around frantically. No... no spidrow had noticed. Maybe it had sounded louder to her than it actually was. She breathed a sigh of relief: now the train would turn onto the northern branch. Counting down the time remaining before she was made into a pincushion, she headed for the heart of the spidrow nest, where Cloud Cutter had said the prisoner was being... drained...
Her wings felt like they wanted to freeze up, but somehow she made herself approach the heart of the nest. Close up the structures were akin to enormous wasp nests, globes formed of some resin-like material with large holes providing access to the spidrow. The thick veins linking the structures and snaking off into the distance seemed alive, glistening and pulsing as they transported some unnatural ichor. Dozens of spidrow were dashing about, some shouting orders to the others to prepare for "Eonites attacking the nest!", others shepherding hosts of regular spiders or preparing spells, their abdomens glowing with traceries of power.
Desperately the pegasus searched through the frantic activity and nightmarish scenery for the prisoner. After a minute's search she found... she couldn't help gasping at the sight of a pony head sticking out of a bundle of spider silk. Almost pony, at least - the feline tail protruding from the other end confirmed it was the sphinx. Her eyes were closed, as if sleeping, though the branching black veins crawling over the coccoon suggested something far less benign.
Set Sail hovered there for a moment, wondering how she could possibly... then nearly froze as she realised a spidrow was staring right at her. With rising panic, she backed off... the creature had summoned another, they were whispering and pointing, they knew, they knew she was there
The whoop of a steam whistle rang out through the cavern, followed by the hiss of steam and clattering of wheels as the mine train barrelled out of the tunnel at full speed. Every spidrow's head snapped around to see the steel invader snaking into their stronghold. Something was rising from the centre of the train, huge wings unfurling. "A thunderbird?!" the nearest drow shouted, "how did that even get in-"
They were cut off by a piercing screech that echoed through the cavern as the enormous avian took flight, followed by another blast of the steam whistle. The host of spidrow immediately rushed to firing positions ready to defend their nest, many making their way to the blockade they'd set up on the central track.
Azure Feather had trained to suppress her fear - but part of her couldn't help but be afraid when the train steamed out into the enormous cave. She braced for incoming fire, but with all eyes focused on Reef Skimmer... that left her with two options. Either play it safe, stay in her mine cart and hope the train wouldn't be targeted, or... no. Not an option. She had to help the doctor - he'd attracted at least two dozen drow and more were spilling out of their nest-structures.
She'd go on the offence, give the spidrow something else to worry about - maybe even catch them in a crossfire. Grenelda and Clashing would defend the train. Blue pinions unfurled and Azure leapt into the air, scanning the nightmarish scene for targets. She began raining down wind blades with wild abandon, slicing through webbing and sending spidrow ducking for cover.
Sprocket was pretty sure they were all gonna die. So she was kind of glad she and Melonwater hadn’t got caught up in all that messy vampire junk, and had spent their time in a different way. It was a good way to go out. The train was achingly slow to her. She had every valve open, every lever pulled, and she would’ve been impressed if speed wasn’t so very important right now. For her part she was hurling flaming explosives: a pair of bombs arced out, boosted by her horn field. She aimed at the gross webby ball things that... huh, the spheres didn't stick like she expected, instead bouncing right off the webbing around the pods. They dropped down to the cave floor below, lying in the wake of the train as the fuses burned down.
Blaze Trails wasn't sure quite what to expect as the cave became wider, distant sounds echoing off the far walls, and what sounds like noises of... chittering, creeping, crawling on a massive scale. It was enough to put her fur on end - a spiders, no problem, but now she wsa an uninvited guest in the Kingdom of Spiders. Grasping her knife in her mouth and looking out the side of the train, she saw what looked like a clear path ahead, even if those trestles supporting the track looked mighty rickety. Even at full speed they'd have company for sure, so she braced herself on the squealing, speeding mine trucks, ready anything...
Reef Skimmer sailed towards the hive like a harbinger of watery apocalypse. With all the pillars and spikes of rock it was difficult to manoeuvre with his wings, but his feet had reverted to blue tentacles and he was half-hovering on the torrents of water they were blasting out. Structures of webbing and resin that had never before seen weather were suddenly treated to tonnes of water crashing down on them. Walkways collapsed and pods squirmed and split under the onslaught. As the shock worse off every spidrow in the nest who could hold a bow or cast a spell began to fire desperately at the oncoming avian, while the rest ran for their lives.
The arrows merely lodged in his body while the magic did little better, punching steaming holes through his flight feathers that did nothing to stop his advance. The roc swept over the heart of the nest, soaking and shaking everything and flying off into the gloom. Set Sail was buffeted by his wingbeats, then watched in horror as the cocooned prisoner began to slide... fortunately snagging on a strand of web before it could fall into the pile of bones far below. The nest was an utter chaos of dripping and splashing and screaming and scuttling.
“I’m going to kill him,” a dripping but thankfully invisible Set Sail thought calmly, “We’re going to survive, because I’m going to need to kill him after this.” Luckily her strategy didn’t rely on the web being dry... assuming Reef's barrage hadn't turned it to solid glue. Blaze Trails had been kind enough to loan her a wickedly sharp serrated knife; carefully pulling it from her makeshift sheath, she was relieved to find it made short work of the stringy stuff. The webbing was strong, to be sure, but no match for the sawing action of the knife. Strands snapped, pulled apart by their own tension and the weight of the prisoner.
As the webbing tore apart, it revealed more of the unconscious sphinx trapped within, no mask on her ponylike face to speak of, she had burnt orange fur from her head to her tail, with a set of golden spots on her shoulders that reminded Set Sail of dappling. Far too slowly, Set Sail cut her free, until the sphinx slumped bodily over her shoulder, making Set Sail flap frantically to account for the extra weight. The pegasus dipped dangerously downward, then rose again, pulling the limp creature free at last.
The sphinx was lighter than Set Sail had figured actually. The others had been griffon-sized, but this one was only as big as she was, and lighter built. Almost like carrying a foal rather than a grown mare. Just the thought that a foal would go through this... it didn’t matter now. Biting down on the knife in her teeth, it was time for Set Sail to enact the second phase of her rescue plan: fly for the train as fast as she bucking could.
At the other end of the cavern, the mine train thundered forward, wheels squealing and kicking up sparks as they ground over the rusted, long-abandoned tracks. Spidrow were arrayed in vantage points along the webbing to the side of the track and clustered near the blockade in the centre of the cavern; the bulk of them unleashed a hail of arrows and magic that streaked towards the train. At this range the accuracy was still poor, but the train was quickly closing the gap. A few spidrow hung on silk threads directly above the tracks - the first dropped as it passed underneath, landing on one of the ore carts towards the rear.
Blaze Trails wasted no time. She clambered out of her cart and skulked forward, knife in maw and body held low as she steadied herself against the bucking train. As much as Blaze wanted to use the element of surprise and knock the Spidrow out in one blow - he was on the ball, spotting her approach and brandishing his spear expertly. Probably a trained warrior, not just a miner caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. So Blaze kept her distance, cursing her lack of options: the spider-taur had the range advantage, and the train pretty much represents a straight line in terms of tactics.
Arrows or not, Grenelda wasn't gonna cower in the train when the ponies were having fun. She spread her wings and sailed into the air, soaring up to Azure Feather. "Yo! All good? This place is really somethin', huh?" She readied her rifle, keen eyes searching a target - then something else drew her eye. Slapped across the train tracks like glowing molten vines the size of tree trunks, pulsing and engorged with fire energy. "Shit - I don't think the train can plough through that, not without comin' off the tracks."
The hen clicked her beak, in frustration - then quickly realised this was a problem solvable by violence. She reached into her pouch, drawing out the last bottle of contraband magical soda - this one with a fiery red branding. The griffoness cackled as she gulped it down...
Azure followed Grenelda's gaze, taking not of the fiery veins. Damn it... she hoped the griffon could deal with it, because she had more pressing problems. The train was steaming into a hailstorm of arrows and magic bolts; cover or not, some were sure to find their mark. Unless... her feathers glowed brightly as she focused her power. Hail was at the mercy of the wind after all. With a few swift motions of her wings, Azure Feather summoned a roaring gale, blasting back the oncoming arrows to clatter harmlessly in the darkness. The hanging spidrow spun helplessly on their threads, shrieking as the storm tore at their webs.
The magic bolts were not so easily dealt with, arcing down to burst in sparks around and among the train casts. One bolt broke on the rim of the cart holding Melonwater, spraying both him and Cloud Cutter with the sizzling sparks. Azure saw the hit and flew grimly forward, somehow unaffected by her own gale as she struck at the enemy casters with precision wind blades.
A blast echoed through the cavern, followed quickly by another as Sprocket's bombs went off. Dust and shards of rock rained down from above as the shockwaves spread out. The ancient rotted wood of the trestles supporting the track creaked and groaned, under the sudden weight of the train and impact of the blast. Iron wheels screamed and shot sparks as the track began to buckle. Some of the spidrow began to retreat, but most held their ground, intent to defending the nest and not yet realising that the ponies meant to escape.
Grenelda gulped down the soda as she makes a beeline for the energy pipeline, folding her wings to stoop on the target. Fortunately she'd ignored Set Sail and got in some covert practice with the potions, otherwise it wouldn't be so easy to summon the flaming aura. She relished the feeling of heat, focusing it onto her beak and claws as she slashed the tree-trunk-sized vein. It was burning hot, but with this new magic she was temporarily fireproof. A few more pecks and slashes, biting and gouging at the thing - it ripped open, Grenelda squawking with feral glee as she rent it asunder.
...only for burning ichor to spurt out from the severed ends as it detaches! "Shit!" She squawked in a panic, instinctively summoning the flaming aura to envelop her whole body. It can just in time to prevent serious burns; relief washed over the griffon as she rose up from the track. Crap, she'd nearly been burned to a crisp - and Set Sail had told her not to bring the soda! She flapped higher to admire her handiwork - but not for too long! She saw a second vein up ahead that needed her attentions - before the fire soda wore off.
Set Sail flapped desperately through the gloom, weaving around obstructions and aiming to intercept the train near the northern exit, her brain struggling to process the flashes and screams. To her left, Reef Skimmer had slowed to a near hover, trapped in a dead end of heavily webbed pillars. Deafening screeches filled the air as the bolts of drow magic increased in number and accuracy, sizzling into his body. He responded with concentrated blasts of water that pummelled the surrounding structures, but the cavern was getting darker as light sources were put out or washed away, and most of the spidrow were avoiding his attacks.
To her right, she saw the train reach the second switch and veer sharply away from the main track, much to the surprise of the spidrow gathered at their central blockade. A bright flare from further up the tracks - the two severed ends of the vein spraying glowing ichor over the trestles, flames blossoming out - that was Grenelda! She was on fire, her feathers ablaze... Set Sail shuddered in sympathy at the pain the griffoness must be feeling. Then the train itself thundered over the burning trestles, globs of the napalm-like substance sticking to the front of the engine
Grenelda had indeed summoned a dramatic shroud of flame as she soaring in a high arc towards the next vein, filling the air with the shrill cackling of wild avian laughter! How was she feeling? Bucking great! On fire and tearing shit up! She focused the fire back to her claws and beak as she dove towards her target. Uh oh... kinda felt like... there was little less fire than before. Gotta finish up quick!
Riding in her ore cart, Cloud Cutter was in disbelief. She didn’t think anypony would ever show her affection the way she was now, and yet as she hunkered down in the train car, here was Melonwater, hugging her tightly and crying like a baby. “We’re safe in here,” she assured the poor colt, unable to comprehend how the teenage stallion had agreed to come on a mission like this at all. Bravado? Underestimation? He was probably braver than he himself thought he was, but all she could do was shield him with a wing saying, “Don’t worry. I’ll bear the brunt of any attacks. We’re almost there.”
She couldn’t leave the train car, to get riddled with arrows as she charged up her uselessly slow ability. She couldn’t send her shadow down the side of the train bridge, not for any actual use at least. She couldn’t charge up in here, because if she let it loose with ponies like Melonwater so close by... Cloud Cutter wished she could still cry too.
Just a few metres back, Blaze faced the spear-wielding spidrow. She'd finally realised what she had to do - a quiet sigh coming to her lips as she accepted the sacrifice. She charges at the Spidrow, yelling and feinting at a thrust - hoping the Spidrow would commit to a spear thrust in turn. Sure enough he fell for the ruse, stabbing forward at where Blaze would have been if she hadn't stopped short. With her foe over-extended and distracted, she hurled her knife, twirling it on a perfect arc towards the spidrow's face.
The spidrow ducked just in time - this one had clearly seen plenty of combat. Blaze's thrown knife scored a bleeding line along his skull, slicing off most of an absurdly-pointed ear before spinning away into the cave. His eight hairy legs kept him from falling from the speeding, shaking train, but his spear went wild, giving the earth pony the opening she needed to close to point blank range. Mouth now free, she yelled out a battle-cry: "Sorry - you don't have a ticket to ride!" Silly or not, it was all she could think of in the heat of the moment. "Hrrargh!" She lept forward, body-checking the spider-taur, then following up with a series of swift kicks.
Now he was armed and she wasn't, and she had to end this fight before her foe could regain his position. The spidrow clung on for dear life, tarsal claws scraping along the rim of the ore cart, but the punishing blows knocked his legs away along one side. With his footing lost, the creature toppled and fell into the darkness behind the train. 'Whew', Blaze thought; put one hoof wrong and she'd be the one hurtling into the abyss. Not to mention... looking down she realised where she'd been fighting. The last mine cart... the one full of possibly-unstable high explosives. Shaking with relief, the explorer crept back towards her own cart, silently mourning the loss of her favourite knife.
Azure Feather flew above the train, darting and dodging around bolts of magic, suppressing the remaining spidrow snipers with quick volleys of air blades. She nodded in approval as Blaze dispatched the boarder. The brilliance of the captain's plan was finally evident: the train was both distraction and feint. The spidrow assumed that they'd head straight for the nest, just like Azure had assumed they'd be fighting their way to the prisoner - but no, they'd veered north and headed for an alternate exist. No need to hold ground, just sow fear and confusion, buy time for Set Sail to complete the rescue.
She'd never done anything like this, but she vaguely recalled hearing Wonderbolts talk of 'thunder runs'. The odds were looking much better than she'd thought possible; most of the spidrow forces were out of position, ready to defend the nest, and she'd managed to suppress those who could fire on the train. She watched with admiration as the veritable phoenix of a griffon removed the obstructions. Now it was just a question of whether the Captain and the Doctor would make it out of the nest. In truth she wouldn't mind if he washed away the whole damn settlement, but that wasn't what they were here for...
Set Sail hated this nest, this twisty-turny spider webby maze of murderousness. She had her cargo in all four hooves, but they could see her now. They could see her, and who she carried, and she saw them stare at her in her peripheral vision, one, two, five spidrow! Shouting and pointing at her, and aiming arrows at her heart, when Set Sail couldn’t speed up because she didn’t have a straight shot. Then... gale force wind howled through the cave, blowing away webbing and arrows alike. The pegasus struggled to stay airborne, pushing into the wind... What—? She had a straight shot!
Flapping forward, she burst out of the tangle. The chugging train was right there before her, but it seemed so small, all the way across the cavern. With an aileron roll to stabilize the turbulence of her escape, the blue and brown pegasus mare shot forward, still holding onto her charge for dear life. To say nothing of Blaze’s knife - it wouldn’t do to make it out alive and then have to explain that she'd lost her knife.
In the driver's cab Sprocket was torn between staring in awe at her griffon friend who was taking out those hot spider cables, catching on fire, and not giving one single fuck about it, and crying out in fear at the train tracks straining under the weight of their passage and the consequences of the explosions. They had to make it. They had to—yes! The griffon got the second cable! She was burning on fire from head to toe. How the heck was she still flying?!
“Get us outta here!” Grenelda commanded, swooping down to land behind the cab where Sprocket was hiding. The creamy-pink mare looked back in confusion at the still-burning angry griffon and stammered: “How the—who—what the—” Realisation dawned on her as her ears flattened, and she said, “That fire’s magic, innit.”
“What are you blabbering on about?” Grenelda protested, “Go faster!”
“I’m goin’ as fast as I can!”
“Holy shit, here comes the captain!”
Azure's summoned gale began to dissipate, so the ersatz captain poured on as much speed as she could. Now arrows were whizzing by her, but it was too late. They scattered in the dense cone of air forming around her as she fought the remaining wind for every bit of speed she could... wait was she really...? Set Sail’s eyes widened just for a moment at the nature of her flight, before the iron train zoomed up entirely too quickly.
Her wings stretched out, back-winging like crazy as she skidding sideways through the air, saved in part by the extra weight of her unknowing passenger. Set Sail tumbled into the train car ahead of Cloud Cutter and Melonwater, yelping in alarm as she clattered in, head over heels. The cart itself rocked dangerously, squealing onto two wheels before the couplings pulled it straight again.
Reef Skimmer wasn't so fortunate. Unable to navigate the winding path through the webs Set Sail had employed, the hippogriff-turned-roc was still stuck at the east end of the cave, fighting a losing battle against the spidrow casters. Out of options, he turned his water jets backwards and shot forward directly into the thicket of pods and webbing, drawing his wings back in an attempt to ram through it.
The enormous grey eagle smashed into the webs, which tore apart under his assault. Unfortunately for the griff, hidden in the mass was a vein carrying energy from magic-charged crystals in a nearby cave. The conduit ripped open, electrifying the webs with eldritch lightning, which crackled and crawled over Reef's form. Stunned and half-paralysed, the roc fell like a stone and crashed into the floor of the cave, ending up in a twisted, thrashing heap of blue goo, grey feathers and white webbing.
Grenelda's beak hung open as she watched Reef Skimmer fight to escape from the spidrow nest. The giant bird flew straight into a mass of webbing, which exploded into showers of pyrotechnics. Lightning crackled and flashed, lighting up the whole cavern and sending the spider-creatures scuttling for their lives. The transformed hippogriff took the worst of it, falling out of the air and crashing somewhere in the shadowy depths of the cave.
'Shit!' the griffon thought; sure Reef seemed super-durable, but that was a hell of a beating. She considered plunging down there, maybe trying to burn away the tangles of webbing, but how the hell were they going to get him to the train? They were still steaming full-speed towards the exit, no more than thirty seconds before they were outta here - and not a moment too soon given that the track was collapsing behind them, battered by Sprocket's bombs and set alight by the severed fire-conduits.
Azure Feather flew above the train, continuing to suppress enemy fire with the quick application of wind blades. She saw the captain make it to the train, rescued sphinx in tow; Discord's beard, it looked like they were actually going to make it! The locomotive thundered over the second region of burning track, spreading more globs of fiery ichor on the engine as it approached the cave exit.
Her sudden optimism was shattered by Reef Skimmer's fall. Diving down there to help - now that really would be a suicide mission. The train would be gone and the distraction with it, leaving any would-be rescuers to quickly be picked off by the furious spidrow swarming above.
Yet she couldn't just abandon the Doctor to be captured. Think, Azure! Her mind went back to the sphinx pyramid: the elemental puzzle, the burning beams of energy, her timely rescue of Summer Scribe. Perhaps... the situation wasn't too different, right, just on a larger scale? And she had perhaps twenty seconds left to hit a moving target containing friendly ponies not to mention high explosives-
Azure shook her head. No time for doubts. Her wings glowed with power once more as she focused air energy on the far side of the cavern. An intense updraft to get things moving, then within that just the right gust to tweak Reef's trajectory; if she pulled this off she should retire from the guard and switch to hoofball, Azure thought.
Down on the cave floor Reef Skimmers's world was pain and confusion. He'd shrunk and reverted to his tentacle-laden mutant-griff form, but he was still covered in sticky webbing and the broken remains of pods. Arrows pierced through him in multiple places, making it hard to breathe let alone think. He should be able to dissolve this mess off, but it would take time and- why was wind whistling in his ears? He was underground... the world abruptly stopped making sense as a gale-force air current blasted the water elemental back into the air, along with several screaming spidrow that had been cautiously approaching their fallen nemesis.
Melonwater dared to peak over the rim of his ore truck just in time to see his doom descending, in the form of a giant gooey eagle-pony-tentacle-monster arcing down on a ballistic trajectory toward the train. Grenelda reflexively spread her wings, ready to bail from the inevitable derailment, but at the last moment Reef's instincts kicked in. He still had no understanding of what had just happened, but he managed to get his wings out and his water jetting just in time to arrest his descent.
Reef landed on one of the ore carts with a splat that rocked the trucks nearly off the rails. The next cart along caught one of the water jets; and thus Melonwater and Cloud Cutter found themselves sharing a warm frothy bath as they continued to ride the shaking, speeding train through the spider-filled gloom.
Got it! Not exactly a clean score, but she'd take it, Azure thought. She quickly took a head count: Set Sail plus liberated sphinx? Check. Griffon doing a phoenix impression? Check. Reef Skimmer? Taken care of. Blaze... Clashing... Cloud Cutter... was that Melonwater in there?! Never mind, all that was left to secure was... herself! Subconsciously summoning one last gust to speed her along, the pegasus caught up with the train and swooped down to a hard landing, clomping into an ore cart next to Clashing Gale. With a whoosh of steam the pony express disappeared into northern tunnel, leaving the shell-shocked spidrow to pick themselves up, assess the damage and wonder what the hell had just happened.
Sprocket’s heart was hammering in her chest as the dark hole loomed before them in the side of the cavern. She’d never been happier to be in darkness as the walls of the tunnel swept all around her, cutting off all view of that crazy spidrow nest. As their escape to relative safety slowly started to register on her conscious mind, her shoulders relaxed and her eyes turned to the levers and valves. The train hissed and whooshed as she released the engine pressure, slowing in its madcap race through the mine.
Grenelda let out a squawk and sigh of relief, beak open and panting as the last of her flames flickered out and the rush began to fade. "Whew! Nice one, Azure! Damn, you pack some real wind power in those wings of yours! Teach me sometime!" She clicked her beak in an impression of a grin, figuring it's probably not that simple but hell, she still wanted to express her admiration. "And Reef!" she called back, "That was some good shit! I can't believe how much of a beating you can take now and still be standing! You alright?"
Reef Skimmer just groaned: 'standing' was out of the question just then. In fact he was pretty much a ball of goo and feathers squished into an ore cart, with several tentacles and a beaked head sticking out. In the rushing darkness of the train tunnel he couldn't even see the arrows stuck in his form; he could only grit his beak and wait for his body to dissolve them away.
Clashing Gale put a reassuring hoof on Azure's side, giving the pegasus as much space as he could in the cramped cart. The guardpony seemed exhausted; between the hundred-plus wind blades and the gale-force winds she must have used a lot of energy. "Easy, easy... well done out there, heck of a rescue mission. Everyone's alive, everyone's alright... Captain was right after all."
Those last five words echoed in Azure's mind... oh, hell. She'd have to apologise later... and shut up in future. Guard or not, she was a foot soldier, not a tactician - arguing with the Captain back there had been foolish.
Cloud Cutter stood up and shook herself off; she was no longer soaking wet, but knee-deep in water was not how she'd expected to leave the cave. Rapidly cooling water, at that. They would have to stop soon and clean this car out.
“Oh h-hey,” Melonwater said in the darkness, “At least... we’re not on fire anymore.”
The purple pegasus wasn’t sure what to say to that.
Further up the train Set Sail came to slowly, nursing a bump on her head. A warm, furry body lay across her, one that she’d shielded falling into this train car. Much warmer than when she’d pulled the sphinx out of that cocoon. The memories came rushing back as she quietly murmured, “Oh Celestia we’re alive.”
"Are they-" Reef managed a croak, "...alive?"
The sphinx twitched and shuddered; her eyes flickered open for a moment and stared wildly around, before rolling back as she lost consciousness again.
“She’s pretty out of it,” Set Sail said quietly, leaving the sphinx still cradled against her, “I hope she doesn’t need any special treatment. I think we... managed to save her.”
Reef nodded in relief, then slumped back and concentrated on pulling himself together - much as he wanted to treat the patient, he could do nothing while severely wounded himself and stuck on a moving train in a pitch-black tunnel.
Blaze Trails was in better shape, clambering over the carts to take a look. She favoured Set Sail with an appreciative nod and a wide grain: "Fine work - you put it all on the line to save a stranger, and I respect that heavily." Her thoughts swirled as she got her first look at a real sphinx. "We'll get you back to your kin soon as we can, I'm sure of it."
“I couldn’t leave her there. They were taking her magic,” Set Sail said, shuddering with the horror of it, “No, they were taking her life...”
Sprocket drove the train onward, winding their way north through a tunnel that was even more dark and deserted than the first. This time it was a gradual ascent, taken at the highest speed she could manage while still giving enough distance to stop should there be a cave-in... or another ambush. The way remained clear though, until twenty minutes after their escape from the spidrow nest the train's lantern revealed a sharp bend ahead... along with golden light brighter than anything they'd seen since the surface.
The unicorn closed the throttle and worked the brakes, slowing the train as it negotiated the turn. This proved wise as they emerged into what was clearly a station, with rotting buffers marking the end of the track a mere train-length ahead. With a drawn-out squeal of worn brake shoes Sprocket brought their scorched and battered ride to a halt. The train had stopped at a platform, forming one end of a large rectangular hall.
The space was well lit by crystals set in the roof, while the walls and floor were polished stone. At the far end of the hall was a sizable passageway, with faint purple light shimmering within. The exit was flanked by a pair of statues: feline centaurs bearing staffs, resembling the mystic Everdream they'd met on their last visit. The crystals topping the staffs also glowed bright purple.
“Centaurs,” Set Sail said faintly, looking out from her ore cart at the shimmery-eyed carved stone figures. “Or... cat-taurs or whatever they're called. This couldn’t be the pyramid, could it?”
“Whatever it is, it’s the way we have to go,” Cloud Cutter said frankly, “We don’t want to be here when those spidrow get over the shock of our passing.”
Reef Skimmer was more interested in the sphinx. He clambered out of his cart - back in hippogriff form, though his body was covered in dark blue burn scars and a scattering of holes remained in his flight feathers - and made his way to where the former prisoner lay. "Pulse, breathing seem fine, no obvious injuries..." his claws moved over her orange fur with practiced precision "...poor muscle tone... to be expected, considering." The sphinx reacted to the touch by shivering, then her eyes snapped open. "A... griffon?" she croaked through parched lips, "Who- Where am I? Ahhh... I am drained nearly dry..."
Grenelda's attention was immediately drawn towards the felitaur sentinels; their golden, crystal-encrusted staffs in particular. "Yo - these look like mini versions of the big statues I saw outside the laser shootin' pyramid. I guess that means we're at Summer's secret basement entrance?" She tilted her head and tapped a foot, trying to get a good look into the hallway; was that weird sparkle some kind of force field? The hen stared for a while as though sheer willpower could make it give up its secrets, then shook her head. "I'm gonna guess if we smash those, we're in." The griffon began padding forwards to test her theory on the nearest statue.
Cloud Cutter flapped up into the air behind her. “Smashing is not the solution to everything,” the purple pegasus pointed out, “though I can understand you might think so when you’re with Gustus.” Looking down, her eye was drawn to the pattern of scorch marks on the floor. Starting quite suddenly, as if an invisible line was drawn half way up the hall. Some of them still had the burnt remains of rat bones in the centre. "Grenelda, you might not want to-"
The warning came too late, as purple light lanced out from the statue's staff and struck Grenelda in the chest. She was thrown back to skid across the polished floor, coming to rest against the train with her chest feathers burnt and smoking.
"Grenelda!" Reef Skimmer called out, abandoning the semi-conscious sphinx to rush over to the griffoness. He immediately sprayed cooling water onto her chest, dulling but certainly not erasing the pain of the blow.
“You were captured by the—holy Celestia!” Set Sail said to the awakening sphinx, jumping up into the air as Grenelda’s smoking body skidded across the stone. As Reef doused her, Set Sail hovered over Grenelda worriedly saying, “Are you alright??”
Cloud Cutter visibly winced as Grenelda went sailing past her, the empty eyed pegasus stopping just short of crossing those scorch marks herself. Heading back to the recovering griffon, she said, “I don’t think the statues want to be smashed.”
"Uuufffhhh! Fuck," Grenelda croaked out, her eyes wincing shut as her chest heaved, waiting for her breathing and heart rate to stabilise. The splash of water was numbing and forceful, a helpful distraction from the pain. "- Stupid cats and their magical traps. I'm fine, I'm fine, lemme lie down and regret my life for a bit." With that the griffon sank down to enjoy the coolness of the stone floor.
"Don't move!" Reef said Skimmer firmly. "Does it hurt when you breathe? Force like that could easily have cracked a rib... or three."
Grenelda focused a moment, trying to think through the pain and get a sense of her vitals. "Hurts like scat but I can breathe fine. Okay, I think I'm good. Took the landing alright. Wing probably took the brunt of the hit, not gonna check right now. My heart's beatin' fast, too." She easily followed the hippogriff's orders, content to play ragdoll in his claws for the time being.
Reef insisted on poking and prodding at the griffon's chest, feeling the bones underneath. He lifted her left wing, and her pained squawk confirmed that the pectoralis muscle was badly bruised. "No flying... or fighting for that matter, if we can help it. One will get a dressing on that burn and tie up the wing," Reef ordered, digging into his medical kit for the second time today.
“Well no one ever said it’d be easy,” Set Sail said, glaring at the statues with a huff. Meanwhile Sprocket was fussing around the locomotive, shutting things down then hopping off to investigate her surroundings. She disappeared into some kind of alcove, inset in the far wall up near the head of the train.
Azure trotted over, too tired to fly right now. Her face betrayed concern as she watched the Doctor treat Grenelda; it didn't look as bad as Clashing's injury, but she knew wounds caused by magic could be deceptive. "It's not too bad, I hope?" she asked Reef. "Last thing we need is another fighter stuck in sickbay... assuming we can get out of here without another fight." The hippogriff just nodded grimly and continued with his work.
Melonwater's green-furred face appeared over the edge of the ore cart he'd been hiding in. "Did it... did it shoot Grenelda?" he asked, aghast.
"Yeah, I got shot," Grenelda croaked out, "I'll be fine." She'd had worse! Five minutes to catch her breath, let the doc finish up with the bandage, and she'd be up - she wasn't going to let some dumb statue get one over on her.
Well this was a pretty predicament, Blaze Trails thought. Her eye went to those menacing statues, then the rescued sphinx. Not an exact match, but surely the feline was much more familiar with this stuff than the ponies. Maybe she'd have an idea for how to get through?
Set Sail was flapping around in frustration, until she followed Blaze's gaze to the wide-eyed sphinx still sitting in the train car. Her eyes lit up; gliding down to land next to the train, she said to the pony-faced cat, “Sorry, sorry! You were captured by the spidrow. We were just passing through, and it looked like you could use some help.”
The sphinx was murmuring something: "The pyramid... it must be... You brought me to... the Pyramid of Gnosym..." She closed her eyes again.
“Just rest for now,” Set Sail nervously assured her, patting the sphinx comfortingly, “We’ll... figure something out.” Turning again to regard the impressive array burn marks on the floor of the entrance hall, she asked: “...any ideas?”
“I ain’t comin' up with anything that won’t bring the roof down,” Sprocket said, eyeing the twin statues, “Maybe there’s something around here that could turn ‘em off?”
“If we could get closer to that doorway it might help,” Cloud Cutter suggested, without enthusiasm, “The force field in front of it probably means we aren’t finding a way past it over there though.”
"Y'all notice how spidery some of the scorch marks are, here?" Blaze Trails gestured with a hoof at the scorch marks. "Some of them got pretty close to the barrier, too. Guessin' they were really itchin' to get though there, to the point where they'd take casualties for it. None here now though, so... must've given up?"
"The spiders covet the power of the mystics of old," the sphinx whispered, her eyes still closed. "As do many creatures."
“We’re not coveting anything right now, other than a way to get out of the reach of those spidrow,” Set Sail said, staring at it in consternation, “Come on, there has to be some way. Maybe if we threw a cloth over their heads, they couldn’t see us?”
Azure Feather just stared silently at the sentinel statues, racking her brains for a solution. Wind seemed unlikely to help. If only she still had her magic... Clashing Gale was thinking along similar lines: "Aerial assault unlikely to help. We dodged the beams from the large pyramid, but that was in open air, not underground, at point-blank range."
Blaze Trails scratched at her head with a hoof. "Yeah, we've really got two problems, don't we? The zapping statues and the energy field. Does that mean we need two solutions? Or just shut the whole mess down, somehow? If we could suck up magic like those spiders... Though sayin' that, even if we could, how would we get close enough without getting zapped?"
Craning her neck, she considered the layout. "Ya know, the way those things are set up, looks like the hall itself is a blind-spot. See the angle, no line of sight from the crystals to the forcefield. But... you can't get there... 'less you could teleport." She shot a playful glance at the only unicorn present.
“Hey, don’t lay that on me. I ain’t Starlight Glimmer herself,” Sprocket said, scrunching insecurely. She'd finished poking about in the alcove and hopped back into the driver's cab. “There’s some sort of old tool shed over here,” she noted, “All rusted to heck of course. Picks and shovels and stuff, and we got that drill Melonwater found. If we got a week, we could maybe dig around the door?”
"One would imagine the spidrow have tried tunnelling around this place, if they've truly been seeking admission for years," Reef Skimmer said dubiously, as he rubbed burn salve onto Grenelda's wound.
Blaze Trails furrowed her brow, "Hrmm... yeah, that is a good question: why don't they just tunnel around it? I mean this stuff looks like regular stone, but..." She knew the right spellwork could make stone vastly stronger and tougher than its natural state - otherwise half of Canterlot would slide right off the mountainside - but Blaze had skipped out of those classes to go explorin' the Whitetail Woods. Daddy had been heartbroken that she'd never got her rockterate...
Wait... teleportation. The gears were turning in Azure Feathers's head: "Not a bad deduction. As it turns out... we do have somepony capable of teleportation... well, not in the traditional sense, but..." She turned to the spooky pegasus, saying encouragingly "Cloud Cutter... wouldn't your shadow walk double as some sort of that? I mean, that statue isn't going to shoot at shadows..."
Blinking, Cloud Cutter said, “Oh, I suppose that would count as teleporting. Even if it does open fire, it’s just my shadow, right?” The empty eyed pegasus looked down at her own shadow cast in the strange purple light, seemingly unsure that simple statement held true any more.
Blaze Trails blinked in surprise. Honestly, she was just kinda rambling there, but Azure was on the ball. "Risky... but yeah, not like we have a lot of options. What's Cloud Cutter gonna do over there anyway? Maybe if she could get behind the statues themselves? Give 'em a good buck?" She peered at the golden sentinels; they seemed pretty solid, and no doubt seriously heavy. An earth pony could topple 'em maybe, but CeeCee? "Yeah, I dunno where this is goin'."
“I doubt my hooves are going to disable those statues” Cloud Cutter said, “But I can check out the entrance at least. One second.”
It looked like she was just standing there, staring down the hall, but then her shadow slid strangely away from her body with increasing speed, halting just short of the force field past the statues. “If they fire at me, I’m pretty much pinned back there,” she said distantly, hesitating at the last minute.
The pegasus seemed to phase out of existence, then spring back out of her disconnected shadow. She found herself standing in the short hallway between the train station and the chamber beyond, blocked at the far end by a shimmering field of energy. Peering through the purple glow, she could make out an enormous stone ramp spiralling up into a shaft above. Around the perimeter of the room were assorted carvings and metal objects, some of which glowed faintly; she was unsure if they were decorative or had some unknown function.
The forcefield blocking her way forward was projected from a metal cylinder on each side of the hall, each two hoof-widths in diameter. On the left side, a golden metal plate bore a stylised engraving of a crystal-topped staff, rather like the one Everdream had carried, surrounded by what could be magical runes or just decorative flourishes. The hallway was otherwise bare, albeit with smooth polished tiles and colourful abstract patterns on the walls.
Blaze Trails nodded happily: safe and sound, looked like. Excellent. "Y'see anything back there?"
“There’s not much over here,” Cloud Cutter called back, “I don’t think the statues can see me though. There’s some... instructions? Must be pretty important, if they etched them in gold here! Unfortunately it’s just a picture of some kind of staff; I can’t read the runes around it. Maybe we could disable the forcefield by taking out these things on the side, which might be projecting it?”
The sphinx had opened her eyes again, peering with interest at Cloud Cutter's display. "The shroud of the wraith..." she whispered, "...are you truly horses? I had thought... you'd be bigger."
That drew a wry grin from Blaze: "Well, ponies, but yes. How you feeling? You with us?"
At least one creature that got it mostly right, Azure thought, as she kept a close watch on Cloud Cutter. Part of her had hoped she hadn't sent squad-mate into a no-win situation, the other part of her hoping the drow were taking their time regrouping before following them up the tunnel.
The burnt orange sphinx struggled into a sitting position, regarding Blaze Trails warily. "I am Te'summi, daughter of Uw'yeya." she said slowly. "The spidrow took my magic, but not my life, it seems." She looked around at the others. "Ne'kuno found mercenaries who would attempt my rescue?"
Azure frowned at the idea. "Mercenaries? Hardly..." A look from Clashing... yeah, she wasn't the diplomat. Best leave it at that.
“We’re ponies,” Set Sail said, with a curious look to the sphinx, “But we are related to horses somewhat. Yes they are bigger. You mean to say they have horses in the Skylands, but one look at ponies and they think we’re some sort of sheep?”
"I have seen horses only in the books of the Mabu," Te'summi told the pegasus, "If they endure in Skylands, it is not within a week's flight of Fellis." She cocked her head, saying flatly: "Oh... perhaps I was supposed to trade for that fact."
“Well, we’ll just have to do something nice for you in the future then,” Set Sail said with a half-smile to Te’summi, “Thank you for sharing that with us though. I’m Set Sail, and this’s Blaze Trails. That’s Azure Feather, and I suppose the rest can introduce themselves to you soon enough.”
Blaze Trails chuckled. "We're actually not on the best terms with the sphinxes, right now: we only rescued you by happenstance. I hope you don't mind that you might be a way to patch up our relations?" she offered. "Either way, rescuing you was the right thing to do: we saw you were stuck in there and just had to get ya out."
Blaze Trails chuckles. "We're actually not on the best terms with the sphinxes, right now - we only rescued you by happenstance. I hope you don't mind that you might be what patches our relations up?" She offers. "Either way, rescuing you was the correct thing to do - we saw you were in distress and did what we could."
"Truly? You would risk capture to save a stranger, not even of your kind?" Te'summi seemed to be somewhere between impressed and incredulous. "Then... you seek treasure in the pyramid of Gnosym?"
“Of course we’re going to help you!” Set Sail said, looking hurt by the sphinx’s words, “I-it’s nothing big. They’d capture us either way, right? ...I have no idea about any treasure. We’re here to help out some friends, and hopefully get some help fixing our damaged ship.”
Blaze Trails pondered her next words carefully; didn't want to mention the sharks, not given the reaction from the other cats. "No one has gotten in there for a good long time, that's the impression I get?"
Reef Skimmer finished tying a sling for Grenelda's wing... maybe a little too hastily... and trotted eagerly over to the sphinx, asking "Are you in need of medical attention?".
Te'summi shrank back from the much larger, fierce-looking creature. After a moment's stand-off, she said "My form is whole... though my thirst is substantial. Have you water to spare?"
Set Sail shot Reef a cautionary glance, before saying, “Of course. Let me just go get the canteens.” With that she hurried to the rear of the train, searching through the supplies piled there.
All the while Sprocket was staring in disbelief; this was fascinatin' and all but were they just gonna leave CeeCee hanging over there? "So... we gonna try and smash up those statues or what?" she said, climbing out of the train and trotting over to get a better look at the forcefield.
"Uh, not exactly... like she said, maybe do something 'bout the forcefield first?" Blaze replied. She called to the pegasus: "Can you get them apart? Need tools maybe?"
“All I know is it’s some sort of metal cylinders in the wall!” Cloud Cutter called back, “What tools would remove that?”
"Can you get a prybar between the metal bits and the wall?" Melonwater suggested.
“Maybe a really thin one!” Cloud Cutter shouted back, “They’re in the rock pretty tight! Don't- hold on." She appeared next to Melonwater in a purple flash, concluding at normal volume: "Don’t you have a chisel or something?”
Melonwater whinnied in shock as CC popped in, looking himself over as if checking he hadn't been drained of life. Then he cringed and said guiltily "Uh, sure Cloud Cutter. Don't think the pipes on the, uh, the jackhammer, they won't reach that far, unless... you can do something Sprocket?" His ears flattened. "Could try blasting but, uh, I mean I've been to a few mines but I'm not really trained..."
“I really don’t want to blow it all up because those spidrow’ll come right through here after us,” Sprocket muttered, with a nervous look down the dark tunnel from which they came, “They probably tried blowing it up already anyway. So get past this, without blowing it up, and fast. Uhm...”
“The forcefield has to come down either way, unless you can magic up a staff to work those controls," Cloud Cutter stated flatly. "We can probably get past the beams if we draw their fire somehow, once the forcefield is open.”
Grenelda wondered out loud: "I was able to lead the big beam by just twistin' and turnin' too fast for it to lock onto, but I dunno if that'll work here. These are smaller and, uh... zappier, and we didn't bring any warm bodies to sacrifice and experiment with." Still laying on the floor, she drummed her foreclaws on the stone, before finally beak-grinning to Azure. "Hey, if you think you're fast enough to pull it off, impress me. If anygriff here can it's you."
Azure cocked her head, considering the plan. Sure she had air magic, but she was still new to these wings. Maybe she could use her magic to speed Clashing or Set Sail's flight? The hall wasn't that big, and she could easily end up smashing them into a wall. Her fatigue wouldn't help matters either...
She shrugged back to the griffon: "Using air magic, there's a chance. A slim one, I can do my best but... we've already got several injuries in the crew." She sighed; the spidrow were probably on the way right now. "I don't want to risk them. What if one of the statues aims at me while the other blasts you again?"
“I was just thinking we throw something for them to shoot at,” Cloud Cutter said with a shrug, “Or use something as a shield to block them from hitting me, so I could play dodge the laser and then use my own thing, once we’ve all passed on into the other room.”
"Worth a shot. Here goes..." Blaze Trails took a loose piece of rubble in her teeth and tossed it on an arc towards the rear hall, judging the angle so as not to put anypony in the line of fire. The thrown rock had barely crossed the invisible threshold where the scorch marks began, when purple energy lanced out from the right statue's staff and shattered it into dust. The miniature blast echoed around the empty stone chamber.
“There, see?” Cloud Cutter said with flattened ears and a strained smile, “Easy!”
Blaze Trails just winced. "Question asked and answered, I guess."
Set Sail had returned with a full canteen in her mouth. Te'summi took the offering in her paw, eyeing it for a moment before raising it to her muzzle and gulping it down eagerly. "My thanks, they are most sincere," she told Set Sail. A weak nod, then: "I will tell you anything that may aid your escape, without recompense."
“Oh don’t feel like you have to go out of your way,” Set Sail said with a flattered blush to the sphinx, “But thank you very much, Te’summi. All I want right now is to see everypony home safely. ...a-and that includes everysphinx.”
"Fine." Sprocket stamped her hoof. "Looks like we're blasting then. I’ll be honest, I've never done it myself. I mean I've fooled about, but uh...” Sprocket said, with a sheepish smile Melonwater’s way, “You’re probably the only one here who has. Maybe we could uh, stick a little bit of the explosives to the thing? I heard they have shaped charges that work kinda like that."
"Well, uh... we're not drilling, so... we'd need something to fix it," the green stallion said dubiously. "Ideally act as a tamper as well, like a lump of clay... sticky clay. We've got fuses and matches so, uh... I can show you Cloud Cutter."
“Well hurry it up then,” the purple pegasus said impatiently, “I’m the only one who can get over there. I’m sure we can find something sticky and claylike around here.”
"Hey, yeah! I saw just the thing back there..." Sprocket dashed off to the dark recess full of rusting tools and returned with a bucket of old and extremely sticky tar. Meanwhile Melonwater carefully unpacked the gelignite from the trailing ore cart, attaching the fuses to two sticks and mouthing them into the bucket. It took Cloud Cutter just a few minutes to teleport to the barrier, emplace one stick against the projector on each side, pile up tar behind them and light the fuses. In a flash she was back at the train, looking at her tar-covered hooves in disgust.
"Cover your ears!" shouted Melonwater. Everycreature did so, and seconds later the portal exploded, the blast deafening in the confined space. One the dust had settled Cloud Cutter teleported back to inspect her handiwork: the metal tubes were split open, exposing cracked and sparking crystals within. A few pathetic flashes flickered where the forcefield had been; the pegasus tentatively held a hoof out, and found they did nothing to block it other than making her fur stand on end.
Grenelda whistled and jeered at the loud explosion! "Fuckin' awesome! Show that barrier who's boss!" she said, following up with one of her signature avian cackles. She tilted her head, trying to see past the barrier, but between the dust and the gloom she couldn't make anything out. "Y'see anything back there, CeeCee?"
"The wraith pony is within!" Te'summi exclaimed. "No living creature has trod those halls for a century and more!"
“It would have been nice if I could’ve been the first,” Cloud Cutter said sadly. Then, she turned and ventured carefully past the former barrier, beginning to glow herself as she checked for any imminent threats in the chamber beyond.
Azure's ears were ringing, but there was a smile on her face. Another of their crazy plans, but sure enough, it had worked... then her smile died as the sphinx spoke out. Wraith pony? That was... harsh. Really harsh.
Clashing Gale just sighed. So, they really did look like... that.
The second chamber was dominated by a square shaft, ascending into the darkness above - the scale was enormous, to pony eyes. A wide ramp spiralled around its perimeter, straight segments connecting square landings at the corners of the shaft. Looking around the perimeter, Cloud Cutter took note of the mysterious mechanisms, or ornamentation - it was hard to be sure - and several dark openings, presumably leading to side chambers. A glowing device drew her eye; a set of four golden plates, set into the wall not far from the entrance. Moving closer, she saw that each plate was engraved - one glowing red, another green, with two dark.
“Oh dear, looks like their barrier spell is on the fritz,” Cloud Cutter remarked in the quiet, “I wonder how that could have happened.” Lifting a hoof up, she touched the green lit square. It was subtly sunk into the wall relative to the un-pressed squares, so with a bit of pressure, Cloud Cutter depressed it. The light faded, and with it, the last of the purple glow from within the room she came from. Depressing the red square for good measure, Cloud Cutter declared through the ruined entrance, “The statues should be disabled now!”
"The way is safe?" Te'summi struggled to her feet, wings hanging down to the floor; the sphinx could barely stand. Set Sail and Blaze fussed at their lanterns, dispelling the sudden darkness.
Grenelda perked up and cackled as she saw the magic drain out of the sentinel statues. "Nice work, CeeCee!" She wearily stumbled to her feet, before getting second thoughts. "...Someone else go first, just in case."
Cloud Cutter waited a moment, then trotted out past the statues herself, her own purple glow lighting up the room again, casting strange shadows as she strode towards the ponies. This time no beams lanced out. “Okay, it does look like they’re disabled,” she said, “Now let’s hurry up and get everypony inside.”
The explorers abandoned their battered and singed conveyance. Sprocket looked sad to leave the old mine train here: for a centuries-old relic, it had served them flawlessly. She stopped to remove the thermal crystals before floating them with her tools into the pyramid. Meanwhile Blaze Trails piled gear onto Melonwater's back, then turned to assist the sphinx, letting the strange creature place a wing on her back. Reef Skimmer and Grenelda limped in together, both the worse for wear after their exploits. Set Sail took the lead, trotting through the tunnel to join Cloud Cutter at the base of the ramp, with Azure and Clashing not far behind.
Azure Feather was relieved that there wouldn't be any laser-dodging, but still, she was out of her element here. Underground, blasting their way into an abandoned pyramid built by an alien civilization using strange magics... she could only shake her head, and keep watch for any creatures that might be lurking in the shadows.
Once they were all in, Cloud Cutter showed the captain the control plates, turning the defensive statues back on to demonstrate. “And I think this one is the lights,” she explained, “It should be safer than using me for a light, but I wanted to check first.”
Blaze Trails trotted over with lantern in mouth, eager to check out the mechanisms. "...Yeah, I'm no Summer Scribe, but that looks like a pleasant bath more than a laser of death. Plus, the pictograph is carrying a torch, I think? I'd go for it too."
Reef Skimmer ambled over. "Ah, so this is the key to those murderous statues, is it? You got them back on? Wonderful, should make the spider-taurs think twice before trying to follow us in here."
"I don't want to get ambushed again," Set Sail said, reaching forward with a hoof to press the plate. With a soft click, the engraving lit up green. Golden light burst out of crystals all around, on walls and pillars along the ramp, dispelling the gloom. The explorers were indeed at the bottom of an very deep shaft, extending at least 200 metres above their heads. The side chambers lit up too; from where they stood the ponies got a glimpse of boxes, crates and shelving.
"Woah, this’s huge!” Sprocket declared. The sandy mare was staring up into the shaft overhead as she slowly walked around the chamber.
Grenelda snorted, anticipating the looong climb the shaft represented - damn, if only she could still fly! Well, whatever. She cocked her beak over to Azure, "You wanna flap up there and check it out?"
"Could go have a look, but one creature likely knows this place way better than any of us... and that's..." She tapped a hoof against the ground softly as she struggled recalled the name: "Te'summi, if I'm not mistaken..."
The sphinx stared around, happy to be within the mysterious pyramid at last. "Caution must be our watchword, for the mystics took many measures to protect their places of power," she warned them. "I have not the strength to fly, yet... no, my magic is drained dry. Unless one of you has mana to spare?" The winged feline looked hopefully at the ponies, unsure if any would be so generous.
Set Sail hesitated a little too much in her smile, asking the sphinx cautiously, “How exactly would we... spare this mana? You know the spidrow were trying to capture us and take it from us too, right?”
"I cannot take it unwilling, or would I, from creatures who saved me from a fate worse than death." The sphinx looked down. "I wish to aid you, yet without mana I can do little."
Blaze Trails looked sheepish, thinking she was not exactly a font of mana, while Grenelda tried to figure out if she should be offended.
"Mana..." Azure started, tilting her head. "Right... stored magical energy. How much are we talking about? Feel like I've drained most of my reserves." The pegasus looked to the Captain, her expression uncertain. "I will do what is necessary, but likely I will forego any further use of Air magic... not certain I could even fly if I was drained completely." She paused, sighing as she weighed the positives and negatives.
"I have never performed transference with a creature other than a sphinx," Te'summi said uncertainly, "but I am certain it will have no permanent effect. If you are blessed by the Elements, you may find them out of reach until you are rested." She held up a lion paw, the soft pads facing the ponies.
Set Sail’s eyes softened at that, as she said, “That’s all we’re really worried about. My ma used to talk about a terrible monster named Tirek who... well, you might be in luck because we are actually magical creatures. We don’t need to take magic from others, since it’s just part of what we are. I never thought that a magic eater would... ask permission. If you think it will help, I can’t say it’s a bad idea. I never thought of us ordinary ponies as the ones with magic to spare.”
Te'summi looked shocked at Set Sail's accusation. "Oh no, we do not consume mana as the spidrow do! Transference is merely a way to... redirect our own energy, to one who is in need, or who can do more good with it." She cocked her head. "Though in truth, there are some sphinxes who seek to take it further, to drain power and knowledge itself from the unworthy." Her eyes widened. "You must not tell Ne'kuno I shared this!"
Azure Feather hung her head in resignation, then looked Set Sail in the eye. "Captain, with your blessing... I'd rather be the one to give up my magic. If it's temporary, then, let's not waste time. Te'summi knows this place far better than us... and could help us more than I could in this situation. Let's face it, I'm out of my element... but it's your decision."
“W-wait, but we need your magic!” Set Sail protested, “You’re the best fighter we have! I meant she should take mine. Or any of ours - except Reef, he's still healing up. You could part with some magic, Melonwater, right?”
"Me?" Melonwater gulped. "I d-don't have a-any magic!"
“We all have magic, Melonwater,” Set Sail said, “Why wouldn’t you? It keeps you strong, makes your cutie mark apparent. Lets you do all that... weird stuff that earth ponies do. It’s been keeping us alive here. That's why the spidrow are so dangerous to us. You're just as tasty a meal as Azure or Reef Skimmer.”
Azure's frowned at Set Sail's hesitance. Te'summi was their best chance to get out - plus, rescuing a lost sphinx... surely that would do something good for diplomacy. This mention of meals... could they really ask a civilian to let his magic get drained? No, she should be the one, but... look what had happened the last time she'd spoken up against Set Sail's will.
Melonwater sidled over to the sphinx, clearly unhappy about this idea. "W-Will it hurt?" he asked pathetically.
"It is painless." Te'summi tried to smile, but she seemed uncertain. "For a sphinx at least."
"A friend of mine once said that pain is what you feel when something is taken away from you," Cloud Cutter said, "But when you give it freely to help someone, then it's not pain anymore. I forget exactly how they put it."
Azure nodded quietly in agreement. She had to force herself to stay silent, seeing Melonwater so nervous. Yeah... she was just the guard.
The young stallion held out a shaking hoof to meet the sphinx's paw. Te'summi's eyes closed as she concentrated on the transference. "You resist," she said calmly. "You must trust me. I will not drain you dry." Then the earth pony shuddered, nearly collapsing under the weight of his saddle bags. The sphinx took a sharp breath, and when her eyes opened they seemed brighter. "You have my thanks, pony," she said. "Now, let me be of service to the group."
“Lemme at least take your saddlebags,” Set Sail said worriedly, crouching beside Melonwater, “Don’t worry - we’ll be right as rain by the time we’re out of here.”
Te'summi turned to face the bottom of the long stone ramp. She raised her wings and began to gleam, light flowing over her form and then moving forward, congealing into another sphinx - a translucent duplicate of Te'summi that walked slowly forward up the ramp. Nothing happened until it reached the first landing, then after a few seconds there was a sudden metallic shing as a forest of metal spears burst upward from the floor.
The projection was unharmed, waiting patiently until the spikes dropped back into the floor, then another minute until they thrust upward again. Te'summi nodded, and bid her projection to continue. The second landing drew gouts of flames from the wall, and the third a crackle of electricity. The fourth and fifth drew no response; by this point Te'summi was straining with the effort. Her projection reached the limit of its range and dissolves into motes of light.
"The first three landings are trapped," she told Set Sail, apparently the leader of these 'ponies'. "They take between forty-eight and seventy-three seconds to reset. If I send a projection ahead to trigger them, we can pass through while they are dormant."
“That’s amazing!” Set Sail said, staring up at the image’s progress in awe, “All the magic in the world couldn’t have saved us from that, if we didn’t know how to use it like you do, Te’summi!”
Grenelda wondered for a moment how mana must taste; though she's not sure how she'd acquire that appetite. Tirek wasn't in any condition to ask! Dismissing the notion, she sat back and watched the show, whistling as the sphinx's doppelganger travelled higher and higher, triggering the traps and passing through unharmed. "Someone taking notes? Don't want those spikes up my ass," she chortled. "Nice assist, sphinxy. Good to know someone around here can show this place who's boss!"
“Time for me to shine, I guess,” Sprocket said, looking up beside the captain, “I’ll see about getting those things up there to stop doing whatever they’re doing.”
Blaze Trail trotted up alongside Set Sail. "Sounds like we have everything set to get goin'. Shall we go by the book? I s'pose fliers can fly up if they want to, not like the air itself is trapped, but some of us have to take the long way up."
“Weren’t you and Summer Scribe both trapped in the air itself, back at that temple on the surface?” Cloud Cutter remarked.
Blaze Trails sweated, looking up and down. "S'a good point, but it'd also be the biggest trap I've seen in my life. If you wanna play it safe I'm not complaining, though. With Te'summi here we have this down to a science."
The group proceeded to make the dangerous ascent. Te'summi used her projection to trigger the traps, and Sprocket was able to jam the spikes as they began to retract. Alas the flamethrowers were beyond the unicorn's ability to disarm (and in truth, she preferred not to destroy such a wonderful application of flame). The group hurried through while the flames were recharging, and proceeded to the third landing where Sprocket managed to track down and short out the power feed. From there it was smooth sailing, trotting, padding and limping up the ramps, spiralling upward until they were in the heart of the enigmatic pyramid.
The great pyramid dominated the northern arm of the cross-shaped floating island, rising far above the undulating dunes and strange rock pillars. It had stood for centuries, enigmatic and inviolate, but at last a small group of explorers had penetrated the basement entrance. They'd spent the last half hour slowly and carefully making their way up the main shaft, spiralling around the wide ramp, checking for traps at each landing.
The next landing was different: here a side passage led off into the heart of the pyramid. A cold draft flowed out of the opening and a purple glow was visible in the depths. Peering down the long stone corridor, the explorers saw the shining metal disc of an elemental gate, supported as always by curving pillars to each side. A stylised skull with mismatched eyes seemed to stare back at them from the centre of the portal.
Grenelda wasn't impressed: "Pfff, who's this supposed to be fooling? It's tacky as hell, it's not scar... wait." The griffon's eyes narrowed, and her brow furrowed as she thought back to the symbol puzzle in the sphinxes' sanctuary."...It's an Undead Gate, yeah?" Her eyes went to Cloud Cutter: "Bet you wanna, right?"
"Certainly feels that way." Reef said, cocking his head one way then the other, sensing the energies with his pearl-tipped spines. "Whatever's keeping Slashing Gale and Cloud Gutter going, there's a lot of it in there."
The pegasus didn't share Grenelda's enthusiasm, shying back from the entrance. “Why is there an Undead gate in the Mystics’ pyramid?” she asked, afraid to even look at it. “Weren’t they of the Mystic Element?”
Their rescued sphinx guide was quick to correct her: "The mystics work with all the Elements," Te'summi explained, "though they favour Magic."
“Magic, that’s it, sorry,” Cloud Cutter said. She was uncharacteristically agitated, flicking her wings and fidgeting her hooves. “We can—we can come back to this, maybe. If it’s... necessary.”
Grenelda's beak gaped open in a grin; she sidled over and playfully jostled Cloud Cutter's shoulder. "C'mon! You know you'll be thinking about it the entire time if you don't take a peek right now."
"One supposes it cannot transform you further," Reef said uncertainly, "...or Clashing for that matter, although..." he glanced over at Azure, who'd begun the expedition as a unicorn. "In any case... anygriff else had best be very careful, lest they find themselves similarly imbued."
Cloud Cutter startled, giving the griffon's claw an unpleasant jolt that left a cold feeling behind. The purple pegasus ran half way up the next ramp before stopping and looking back over her shoulder. “I know it worked out well for Azure, but... even she had to give something up,” she says very testily, “I don’t want to lose anything... more.”
Grenelda winced, shaking her frozen claw and blowing on it. She looked over to Clashing Gale; he was the other spooky pony present, and he was Cloud Cutter's superior, maybe he could rescue this?
The stallion had been staring at the gate, expression unreadable; sensing the hen's eyes on him, he shook his head. "Wouldn't wish... this on any other creature present," he muttered. "It's enough having my whole Storm Piercer team changed - don't want any more of this squad affected. Everyone else back."
His eyes went to Cloud Cutter: "See, here's something all of this has me thinking about." A hollow chuckle. "We were affected before we'd even made landfall. Transformed, like something out of a horror novel. We don't know why, or how long it will last, or if we'll ever turn back or just... die, when it runs out." He looked back to the gate. "I want answers. In particular... why us. It seemed hopeless, but now this place, it feels..." He shook his head, unable to put it into words. "This place has the answers. Or... has something for us, at least. And we may not get another chance."
“You can get answers, fine,” the agitated mare said, sinking to her belly right there on the ramp. “All I want is to never have come here, and to... to live.”
Clashing gave his squad-mate a concerned look, but his resolve didn't waver. "You don't have to go in if you don't want to, Cloud Cutter... but I want answers. Answers for myself, my friend, and my unit. I'm going in." He spread his membranous wings and took flight, traversing the long hallway in just a few powerful flaps. He landed in front of the gate, tossed his mane and then rapped his hoof on the metal, bidding it to begone. With an unsettling sound somewhere between a moan and a howl, the central disc flashed white then faded into nonexistence. The portal stood open, though nothing but mists could be seen within.
Grenelda perked up: after that boring trudge up the shaft, finally some excitement. Her eagle face bobbed left and right, trying to get a better look as she padded down the corridor to join Clashing. "Damn fog, can't see a thing. Looks way cool, though. You still brave enough to check it out, Clashing?" she grinned. Injured wing or not, she looked like she wanted in.
"Grenelda, like I just said... stay out!" Clashing said angrily. "Last thing I'd want is anyone else with this curse. Please." He hesitated on the threshold, looking back down the corridor and still hoping Cloud Cutter might join him.
The pegasus mare rose to her hooves and nervously took a few steps towards the portal: she too felt a longing to go in, and she had to tell herself it was a lie, another cruel trick. “I can’t believe you don’t remember,” she said bitterly, “A water gate, and Reef is—is that thing. An earth gate and Summer’s disintegrated and trapped in a statue. Sure, it feels wonderful and peaceful now, but we’ve never seen these gates and had something not... happen to us. Not even once.”
"Now now Cloud," Reef Skimmer's tone was conciliatory, but the hippogriff couldn't help feeling a little affronted. "That was not the fault of Water! Why, it would have been a perfectly enjoyable and harmless day out had not Summer's meddling unleashed magical waste into the plumbing. Speaking of which... I gather Summer herself would have been perfectly safe, had she not..." He caught himself, trying not to look at Te'summi "...thrown caution to the wind."
"Wonderful? -Peaceful-?! I look like a freak, I feel like a freak and I want answers!" Clashing Gale called back angrily. "There are so many things I've asked myself since I woke up... I've got nothing left to lose, and one way or another, I'm going to find out everything. Even if it ends up... making things worse somehow..." The bat-pony was clearly frustrated, stamping at the ground with his hoof. Thank goodness for the calmness of Water, he thought: Reef's logic seemed to douse the fires raging within the vampire, at least for now.
Grenelda waved a claw vaguely. "Pssh. I mean sure, looks like you have to sacrifice something that's important to you. Reef's a slime monster, Azure's lost her horn, Summer... all of Summer, hahah. But on the flip side, it gives you some awesome powers. Reef's an absolute tank of a monster now and Azure can blow anything away, quite literally. Really, what have you got to lose?" The hen clicked her beak: with prizes like that she'd jump into any elemental gate that called her name.
Even Azure spoke up. "It's like turning a page. We knew what we were - ponies of Equestria - but then the Elements reached out and said 'No, you're of the Skylands now'." She paused, looking at her feathered wings. "Yeah, it was a trade. I got my dream, real wings, and I'm a true warrior now. You know what? I do still miss my magic. You two? You're already creatures of the Skylands - you were the first among us to get that. Now you just need to find out what that means. So if you want my opinion: go."
Te'summi added her own wisdom: "The element of Unlife seeks entry at the moment between life and death," the young sphinx intoned "and rarely does it force the matter. I have wandered the halls of Undeath without harm, yet... step lightly in such a place. It demands... respect, from the living."
Cloud Cutter didn't even have the spirit to point out that she was no longer living. She fretted for a moment, then ventured cautiously: “Admittedly I’m not as stupid as Summer, and she... probably didn’t release any monstrous Undead worms to attack us. If you all think I should go, then I’ll go I don’t really care; I just want to go home, and that place only feels like home to trick us, but... I guess it’s fine.” Ears low, she gazed fearfully at the gate, but slowly trotted down the hall to join Clashing. There was only a still feeling in her chest: not a single beat of her heart.
Despite the batpony's warning, Grenelda seemed adamant: "Hey, I'm not missing this. I figure, worst case it's fun, best case maybe I get cool ghost griffon powers."
Clashing Gale looked to Grenelda... and just sighed. "You've seen everything Cloud Cutter and I are dealing with - positive and negative, and you're still... willing to risk yourself?" This didn't sit well with him at all, clearly, as he looked back to the gate.
Grenelda just chortled. "Worth a shot!"
Reef Skimmer trotted forward to join her. "One will do ones best to forestall any funny business," he said. In truth he was concerned about Cloud Cutter's mental state; clearly the mare had been hit hard by her condition, and there was no telling how she would react to whatever revelations might be found beyond the gate.
"No sphinx could turn away from the secrets of this place," Te'summi said, padding forward to stand with Clashing Gale.
He smiled at the sphinx as she stood by him. "Thank you... your presence is most appreciated, as... I'm not sure how much sense this will make. Together, we've got a better chance of getting the answers we're looking for. But... please be careful. I'd hate for the curse that's struck me to take you as well."
"Your concern is... pleasant," the young sphinx said awkwardly, "but in truth Ne'kuno - first of the Guardians - would be happy to have a true elemental amongst our ranks, even of Unlife." The winged feline shivered involuntarily.
Clashing nodded softly. "Having an elemental in your tribe... of any element is... yes, I think I get it," he said calmly. "It's like Azure with her Wind powers... being Chosen is quite the thing. I will not stop you."
Melonwater looked increasingly worried as more and more creatures stepped up to the portal. The exhausted earth stallion said weakly: "Do I have to go in there? It feels so, uh..." his voice trailed off. He trotted over to stand by Sprocket, pressing his flank against her as if eager to feel her body heat.
Blaze Trails was in agreement: "Hrmm, dunno if I wanna be involving myself with the supernatural quite as enthusiastically as the rest of y'all. If this is optional I think I'll wait for your return."
Azure Feather nodded: "Much as I'll respect Clashing Gale and Cloud Cutter and admit that this is the closest thing to an elemental gate for them... this is not for me."
“Nopony has to go in there,” Set Sail said with a torn look on her face, “You deserve answers, Clashing, but... I don’t think you should go, Cloud Cutter. You’re right. Every time we’ve run into these gates...” she shuddered, “It changes ponies.”
“I’m already changed,” Cloud Cutter said, staring dully forward, “What’s a little more? I haven’t been a pony since I woke up like this.”
“I was gonna go, but, uh,” Sprocket sat down with Melonwater beside her, “You need somepony keeping an eye on the entrance right? I’ll just stick with Melonwater here.”
“I’m—I need to go,” Set Sail said, looking worriedly at the purple pegasus, “J-just to make sure you’re all okay.”
Clashing Gale and Azure Feather exchanged a meaningful look, before the latter stared down at the floor. Neither of them wanted to risk the Captain, but both realised that it would be futile to try and talk her out of it.
"All set? Let's get on with it!" Grenelda cawed. "Sweet ghost powers, here I come!" The griffoness was shoulder-to-shoulder with the batpony as they advanced through the portal, disappearing into the swirling mist within. Cloud Cutter and Te'sunni followed after, with Reef Skimmer and Set Sail last to enter. Azure, Sprocket, Blaze and Melonwater were left to camp out on the landing, amidst the group's piled supplies.
Six explorers had made it to the far side of the skull-marked portal, moving through the wall of mist into the crypt beneath the great pyramid. Each had their own reasons for braving the realm of Unlife, though none were comfortable with the prospect. Emerging from the fog, they beheld an enormous void - not quite the size of the island's central cavern, but still large enough to hold a typical Equestrian village.
The space was lit by wan, source-less green light and filled with motion, though not of the living. Hundreds of small platforms were suspended in mid-air at various levels, forming numerous counter-rotating rings that slowly orbited a wide central pillar. The ponies stood on a balcony half-way up one wall; as the nearest ring of platforms drifted steadily past, they could see each was equipped with a tombstone, along with decorations of various sorts.
Here was a feline skull, staring endlessly into the gloom, there was an ornate lantern, its tiny flame somehow still burning after centuries without visitors. The silhouettes of much larger monuments were visible on the central column: a small group of monoliths clustered at the heart of the complex. A fit and nimble creature could certainly leap from platform to platform, making their way to the centre in perhaps a dozen leaps, but they'd better be alert and sure-footed, for the floor far below seemed to be an endless forest of stone spikes.
“Well, this place looks cheery,” Cloud Cutter said, looking about, her voice loud in the silence, despite her attempts to speak quietly. The empty-eyed pegasus was not trusting her instincts here in the slightest.
Set Sail was still sticking close to the other pegasus, looking over her worriedly. “Seems alright so far,” the blue-haired mare said, also afraid to speak too loudly, “I guess a world of floating islands would also have floating graves.”
“We haven’t seen any burial grounds until now,” Cloud Cutter murmured thoughtfully, “I doubt every creature in these lands has the luxury of being buried in a great pyramid.”
“Don’t land on the platforms,” Set Sail said vaguely as she took in her surroundings, “It might be considered desecration.”
“It might wake them up,” Cloud Cutter added darkly.
Grenelda tilted her head, peering around the gloom: she wasn't sure what to expect, but this sure wasn't it. "Naturally-occurring floating platforms? Weirdest graveyard I've ever seen. Lemme just..." She lurched forward as though about to take off, but winced and collapsed to her knees as a sharp pain flared up in her injured wing. "-Shit, forgot," she muttered, rubbing the muscle with a claw.
Now on the edge of the balcony, she could see look waaaay down to the spikes. She gulped, between the drop and the spooky graves suddenly very conscious of her own mortality. "Hah. Talk about hostile architecture." The hen peering at the closest rank of platforms, gauging their movement and considering her options.
Clashing Gale calmly stepped forward to join her at the edge. He slowly looked around, bat wings flaring a bit as he closed his eyes and 'felt out' the invisible forces swirling around the chamber. "The energies here feel... strong." He glanced at Te'summi, checking their new companion was safe and hadn't had a negative reaction to the place. "As you said - my guess is they aren't harmful on their own, but I can feel it rolling over my body. Like- like it's curious about me." He shook his head. "If we're still intent on seeing what's in the centre, I should scout ahead..."
The sphinx spread her wings and gave them an experimental flap, then hung her head sadly: "I have not the strength for this journey, not by wing or by paw."
Reef Skimmer was the last to trot out of the mist, looking around at the gloom unhappily. All this powerful magic, and the feline-taurs couldn't be bothered to light their basement properly? "One is perhaps... a little under the weather to play roc just now," he admitted - the hippogriff's body was still covered in dark blue burn scars from his pummelling in the spidrow nest. "Could manage a short hop as-is," an uneasy glance at Cloud Cutter, "assuming a quick wash won't enrage a horde of slumbering ghosts."
“So what’s our plan here?” Set Sail asked.
Grenelda was forced to admit that literally anything could go wrong if she leapt onto the platforms, from disintegrating and dropping her into the abyss to summoning the enraged undead. "My plan is living another day. Someone else go first - someone who can fly." Cursing her limited mobility, she sat back next to Te'summi, resigned to the role of bystander.
Clashing Gale nodded and spread his wings, peering back to Set Sail: "Permission to scout ahead?"
“Be careful," the acting captain said, "but... yeah, you’re the best equipped for this.” As the batpony leapt elegantly into the air, Set Sail headed over to Grenelda and the sphinx. “Sorry you got injured," she said regretfully, "We’ll be able to lick our wounds once we get out of this place. We still have enough flyers to carry everyone out in an emergency... I think.”
Grenelda nodded grumpily, her tail flicking with her annoyance. "Yeah, yeah - it's my own damn fault. First sphinx lasers, then cat-centaur lasers, argh..." She trails off, as her attention turned to Clashing Gale, climbing higher and higher into the gloom.
The stallion flapped silently through the still, musty air, keeping his distance from the drifting platforms as he made a wide circuit of the chamber. There was definitely a presence here, the feeling that they were walking through a dormitory where hundreds of strange creatures were sleeping. Yet... not here, exactly. Clashing didn't have the magical theory to explain it, but the others were both real and unreal at the same time. He winced as he got close to the central pillar, turning to fly back and settle next to the others.
"There's a presence here, much stronger in the centre. It's like... a little ghostly feel from each of the individual platforms, then concentrated a hundred times over. It gives me a bad feeling..."
“It could be what’s powering the pyramid’s firing mechanism,” Cloud Cutter suggested, giving a reluctant look toward the central pillar, “Might just be my imagination, but I can almost feel it from here.”
“Te’summi... I’m afraid we’re new to these lands,” Set Sail said, dipping her head guiltily before the sphinx, “I know nopony’s been in here in forever, but if you've heard any legends about it, then you’re likely know best how we should proceed.”
"No sphinx has graced these halls for two centuries or more," the young sphinx said uncertainly. "But... these must be the graves of the ancient mystics. It is said they would sometimes descend to consult their ancestors, to satisfy their curiosity on some detail of spellwork. Something like our own Oracle, though not so grand or public."
Clashing Gale looked over to Set Sail. He knows that he has so many questions, about what he's become and why, and... He might not get a better opportunity to learn than here. Leaning in close as his gaze swirled with magical charm, he asks, "I'd like to go to the centre, to try to contact them. I don't want to miss this for anything."
Surprised at Clashing’s directness, Set Sail takes a step back saying, “Of course you can go. You’re right, you don’t... don’t want to...” The mare's body relaxed and a grateful smile crept onto her face. She seemed increasingly disoriented as she continued: “... miss this for... anything. You always know what to... I love how you’re so... hot...” Her voice trailed off into silence, hardly knowing or caring about what she said; just glad to be here with him.
Reef Skimmer was possibly the least qualified creature on the expedition when it came to pony social mores, but even he had to suspect funny business here. "Sails?!" he said in alarm. "Are you quite alright?" He looked accusingly at Clashing Gale. "What on Equus has come over her?"
Clashing Gale tilted his head. "Come over her? She's just agreeing with me. Anyway... I have to see this. I'm not leaving until I have." He trotted back to the cliff face, flared his wings and took off.
Rebuffed, the hippogriff began to question his assumptions. Were pony mares really so easily taken with a dashing stallion? Reef had thought the captain might be developing feelings for him, but perhaps the batpony was more her type? Bat wings or no the fellow was a pony, not an eagle-horse. In that case the little project Summer Scribe had suggested was likely his only hope for winning her affections.
“Seriously Captain,” Cloud Cutter was saying, as Clashing took off for the central pillar, “I know he’s a capable pony, but you can’t just let him do whatever he wants, like some kind of lovesick—”
Set Sail didn't even look at the others: eyes fixed on the batpony, she spread her wings and leapt off the platform, gliding happily after Clashing Gale.
“...aaand she’s gone,” Cloud Cutter said flatly. “Captain, come back!” she called out futilely at the diminishing pegasus mare, “What are you thinking? You’re not even Undead! I should be the one who...” her ears went down as the purple pegasus said under her breath in a surprising amount of emotion, “Dammit...”
"Well one certainly isn't going to let them-" Reef clamped his beak shut, unwilling to admit to Cloud Gutter of all mares exactly what he wasn't going to let them do. Looking to the only sensible female here, he asked "Care for a lift Grenelda?"
The griffon's response was somewhere between a giggle and a snort. "Damn, Clashing's cute, but Set Sail is downright infatuated with him. What's she see in him?" She perked up at Reef's offer: no doubt kinda slimy, but better than sitting around like a pellet. The hen picked herself up and stretched her one good wing: "Alright. I don't wanna miss this!"
The hippogriff nodded and relaxed, letting his legs and tail turn back into bundles of club-tipped blue tentacles. "Now, erm, this may be a little, erm..." He awkwardly clambered over the griffon, holding her against his chest with a few of his tentacles, while the others prepared to blast water downwards. In a whoosh and massive fountain of spray that seemed very loud and intrusive in the still, sombre space, Reef Skimmer blasted into the air, wings spread more out of reflex than aerodynamic benefit.
Grenelda was treated to a whole new and rather disconcerting mode of flight, clutched in the tentacles of a mutant griff, suspended on water jets and pulled from side to side as Reef clumsily tried to manoeuvre around the floating platforms. Many were thoroughly soaked, but forunately he managed to avoid destroying any of the decorations.
The pegasus and the sphinx were left to watch the unwieldy display from the balcony. “Under the—!” Cloud Cutter shouted from the balcony, “Fly under the graves, you blasted...!”
"That is a... unique method of flight," Te'summi exclaimed, before looking Cloud Cutter in the eye and saying sadly. "It seems you must continue without me. I hope you will trade for whatever answers you find there."
Face-hooving, Cloud Cutter rubbed her forehead, before turning to look blankly at their remaining charge. “You can stay here if you like,” she told the sphinx, “But I’m going after them. Something’s not right about this. I can assist you in flight, if you did want to go over there too.”
Te'summi considered it for a moment, staring at the water elemental veering drunkenly about with the griffon hen squirming and screeching in his tentacles. "I... would appreciate that... if we could do it the pony way, not the griffon way?"
“That’s more like the... ‘Reef’ way,” Cloud Cutter said in a note of amusement, “I’ll simply fly below you and boost you up if you lose altitude. How about a good toss to get you started?”
The sphinx gulped, then spread her wings and nodded to the pegasus. Cloud Cutter's initial push gained her several metres of altitude, and it took only a couple more to raise her glide and allow Te'summi to land neatly at the central plaza. Reef and Grenelda splashed to a less graceful and much wetter arrival nearby. The former was blushing hard enough to tint his face noticeably blue even through his grey feathers, for some reason. "Ah Grenelda, do apologise, has been quite some time since one had a beautiful hen pressed close- err, quite." He took a few steps away and refused to meet her gaze as he tried to make his tentacles go away.
Grenelda huffed, flushing hard and looking away! "D-don't get any big ideas! I've already got a mate. And your slimy body is like..." She shuddered: maybe not slimy exactly, since her feathers seemed to be dry, but being held in those slippery tentacles wasn't her idea of a good time. She looked nervously back at the floating platforms, wondering if hosing several down with water counted as desecration - but no evil spirits made themselves known. So far, so good.
The group found themselves within a ring of monoliths, sentinels of smooth glossy stone standing three times the height of a pony. On close inspection each was engraved with the likeness of a felitaur, surrounded by runes and arcane diagrams of extreme complexity. At the base of each monolith a long shape was held by sturdy metal brackets - magical staves, each with its own unique and elaborate design, their crystals flickering with the barest hint of magic.
Clashing Gale stared around, feeling the presence - more real here, more awake than around the smaller graves... yet still not quite present. One monolith in particular drew his attention, pulsing with unseen energy as if reacting to their presence. It would take only the slightest touch to make a connection...
Cloud Cutter touched down nervously behind the sphinx, braced for a titanic explosion or otherworldly howl. Fortunately neither occurred; her hooves clicked on the ground as she hurried over to Set Sail. The blue-and-brown pegasus was facing away from her, still watching Clashing. “Captain!” she hissed quietly, poking the other mare’s shoulder with a hoof, “What are you doing? You didn’t have to come here: it was supposed to be me and Clashing!”
“Me and... Clashing...” Set Sail sighed, with a warm smile on her face as she gazed his way.
“Are you still–!” Cloud Cutter wanted to stomp in frustration, especially since she really wanted to feel lovestruck, or angry, or anything at this point. “Captain this isn’t normal,” she said, “You can’t just follow him like a puppy.”
Set Sail just giggled quietly to herself, glad to be with Clashing right now. If only there was something he wanted her to do.
“Wait, this literally isn’t normal,” Cloud Cutter said flatly. “Captain?”
No answer.
She turned away from the besotted mare, looking around at the ancient obelisks. They filling her with a sense of profound importance, like great beings waiting to speak with her. Like Princess Celestia herself in repose, waiting for her to... but no, Clashing Gale was well ahead of her and about to touch the damn things.
The batpony still looked a little frustrated, the fire rising within: his need to understand how and why his squad were turned into these Undead monstrosities. These obelisks had answers? He was going to get them, whatever happened. As for the others... he'd warned them. This was his curse. Their curse: himself and Cloud Cutter. He could only hope that if this backfired, the punishment would fall solely on his shoulders. Clashing glanced one last time at his companions... then stepped up to the largest obelisk and placing a hoof on its cold surface, trying to project his questions into the rock.
In truth, it was not that dramatic - an upwelling of green light, a distant groan and a gentle rush of air - yet in the stillness of the crypt it drew all eyes. Clashing Gale hastily took a few steps back as motes of green light drew together into a cloud, then coalesced into a centaur-like form. The translucent likeness of an elderly mystic stared back at them, his paws floating ten centimetres off the ground in front of the monolith.
"I wake, I wake after so long..." A hollow voice echoing as if from some hidden well, dry yet full of conviction. The spectre's glowing eyes took stock of the group: "...to find not my brethren, but a pair of gatekeepers... two griffons and a thrall." His gaze settled on Te'summi: "Daughter of Ka'sanna, did you bring these strangers here?"
"No, mystic," the sphinx said submissively. "In truth they saved my from the spidrow - the vermin that gnaw at the heart of Fellis. These griffons and... ponies, found their own way into your pyramid. Like I, they seek not to pillage, but to learn."
Grenelda wasn't impressed by the spirit's attitude. Should be grateful anyone even still cares enough to wake 'im up! She steadied herself, stretching her free wing, before head-bobing. "Yeah! You're the one who'll grant kickass spooky magical powers, I'm guessing?" Her raptor gaze was keen and eager.
The spectre's brows furrowed in annoyance. He stretched an arm towards Grenelda, palm open, and concentrated for a second. "You seek to align with Unlife?!" The mystic snorted. "Griffon, you know nothing of tranquillity, or eternity, or the Duty of the Gatekeepers. Seek your 'powers' elsewhere - perhaps Fire would relish your destructive instincts, or Dark your naked ambition."
Grenelda rolled her eyes and sighed. Passed over again - whatever, she's used to it by now. "Fine! Maybe I will." Hmm, that taste of fire from earlier did feel nice. And Dark does sound like it suits her. When were they getting off of this stupid island again?
“Two... griffons, two... gatekeepers, and...” Cloud Cutter murmured, looking from Reef to Grenelda, Clashing and herself. And... “W-what have you done to her?” she cried out, as angrily as she could manage. Very much irritated and just wanting to rest, like always. She stalked up to the ancient spirit, saying, “You can’t just make her your—your thrall! She came here for my sake, so... so enthral me if you must, but let her go! Please!”
Clashing snorted at the griffon's hunger for power - didn't clearly had no idea of the downside. He watched as Cloud Cutter's anger take hold... this was the most passion she'd shown since he'd woken from the coma. The batpony's brow furrowed as she mentioned Set Sail's condition: suddenly he realised exactly what he'd done. The batpony took a step forward, but his objection died in his throat - it was already too late to stop the revelation.
At Cloud Cutter's outburst, the apparition's expression changed to confusion. "The thrall is not mine, but yours, little gatekeeper. Or..." a quick wave of his paw... "ah of course, your brother is the one who feasts on Life." A dry chuckle: "The wings should've have given it away."
“Clashing?” the purple pegasus asked in bewilderment, looking to the bat pony, protesting, “But she’s—she’s totally infatuated with...” and then solidly facing the bat pony stallion, Cloud Cutter declared, “You can enthral ponies?”
"Now that is simply not fair play," came a mutter from Reef Skimmer's direction.
Grenelda just peered over at Clashing with a silent smirk, her guess confirmed correct.
At the mention of 'feasting on life' Clashing Gale's face twisted with fury: how dare this creature call him a vile predator?! Yet rational thought soon overcame the rush of anger, as images of what he'd done back in the mine rushed into his head unbidden. The fire died as quickly as it had come, extinguished by the flood of disgust as he realised the spectre was completely right. Cloud Cutter's words only added to the horror, striking him like a physical blow. Clashing stumbled backwards, reeling away from the purple pegasus.
"That... damn it, Cloud Cutter, you think I actually want anything like this? I..." It was all making sense now, but... damn it, the more he thought about it, maybe... maybe it would have been best if he faded away after that drow attack. Ended it in a noble sacrifice, instead of going around mind-controlling ponies and draining life from innocent creatures.
“Why didn’t you tell us you could do that?” Cloud Cutter hissed at the stallion fussily, “Why did you—how long has she been—she was fine just a few minutes ago!”
The mystic just watched, stroking his chin. "Ponies... winged cousins of the unicorns? I have never seen the like, yet..." a shake of his head "...time fogs even my memory. I am Logoros, last Master of the Great Chamber of Gnosym, and I fear..." he looked to the sphinx "...perhaps the last Archmage of Conclave of Fellis?"
"Not the last, ancient Logoros," Te'summi confirmed, "but the conclave is likely... much diminished, compared to your time."
Cloud Cutter winced at the moon-eyed Set Sail, then turned to the amused-looking spirit, saying: “My apologies. Archmage? We have a lot more to learn than it might seem. If our need wasn’t dire, we wouldn’t be here bothering you, u-until we were more sure of... dammit the pony among us who’s... good at this speaking to people thing is a thrall now. We’re not... I’m not good at—at speaking with..." her ears went down, "S-sorry.”
Set Sail was feeling pretty good right now. Clashing sure was a handsome stallion, especially when he was being all dark and broody.
Clashing Gale shook his head. Logoros' words fell on deaf ears, as his mind churned with the implications of what he'd done. Instead he fired back at Cloud Cutter: "If I even knew I had the ability, Cloud Cutter, or had the slightest idea how to use the blasted thing, then I would have told you!!" The vampire pounded a hoof against the ground in frustration, then shook his head again. "Maybe it's just better if my soul stays here, in the crypt where it belongs... damn it all..." He didn't want any of this; especially if it meant his own allies were going to hate him. Nothing could be worth that.
“Clashing, I feel like... giving up too,” Cloud Cutter said grimly, “I should be dead, and... and I will be soon, I’m sure. But we’re not the only ones here. So could you please stop feeling sorry for yourself for one second, and release Set Sail, so that we’re not embarrassing ourselves here in front of these incredible ancient beings?”
Clashing Gale certainly wanted to stop the enthrallment; he'd never intended to do it in the first place. Set Sail was the Captain, not... his blasted thrall! Damn it all. The answers had come, and Clashing Gale was short on words to respond. All he could do was stare at the brown pegasus and try to will her free of his charms.
Set Sail’s placid smile faltered, as she murmured worriedly, “Clashing, what are you...?” The brown furred mare swayed then, her eyes losing focus as she said in confusion, “But I... I was... Clashing was... what was I doing again?” She stared around at her surroundings, her irises narrowing as she caught sight of Logoros.
“I am so sorry!” she shouted anxiously to the aethereal felitaur, “I was just a bit distracted thinking about Clashing and...” she bowed before the spirit, going down on her front knee, saying, “My apologies, L-Logoros.” She stood straight again, saying, “My name is Set Sail. These are my friends, Clashing Gale, Reef Skimmer, Cloud Cutter, and Grenelda. And a—a sphinx whom we are with. I don’t know her customs regarding n-names.”
Her muzzle scrunched in confusion as Set Sail asked herself, “Why didn’t I introduce...?” but she looked up at the spirit again, blushing and saying, “I don’t know why I’m being such a space case here. Cloud Cutter is right though. We are explorers from a very distant land, and we know very little of your culture and magics. I didn’t think we would find a wise spirit to speak with in here. I’m so glad we came to speak with you then. Did... did you just call me a ‘thrall'?”
"It seemed more polite than 'ambulatory snack'," Logoros said, a smile on his ghostly lips. "But perhaps... it seems your vampire friend is newly turned. Unfamiliar with his abilities?"
Set Sail’s ears went down, and she said faintly, “He... hasn’t snacked on me. We’ve found other methods so far. It’s been two weeks now. Are the magics in him going to destroy his body over time, like the other uhm, Eonites? Sorry, that’s... it’s just some creatures have been saying we’re... some sort of unstable.”
The shade considered her words silently for a while, then stretched out a paw again, seeming to probe the party's nature. "Quite the opposite. They are Gatekeepers now, newly unborn perhaps but sure as any other, and will exist as they are now for a span far beyond that of mortals - assuming fate doesn't intervene."
He nodded to the hippogriff: "Ah... a Champion of Water, come to commune with those drifting in the final abyss. A griffon of the sea! What strange things that fluid Element is trying in this age! You are welcome, as long as you show due respect." Then his gaze went to the sphinx: "Daughter of Ka'sanna, I sense you are not aligned yet you have mastered much for your few years in Skylands..." and finally Set Sail "...and, hmmm, not an elemental perhaps, but one favoured by Air. Quite the group of creatures to come pay their respects to old Logoros."
"I am Te'summi, and I thank you for your praise, Archmage!" the sphinx said eagerly. "Perhaps you can teach me more? I offer in return... the foul doings of the Eonites! In their desperation to triumph over the Kaosians, they have corrupted the pods of the Goldlings, used them to force alignment using elements and creatures of their choosing. Ne'kuno - First of the Guardians - she says there are more and more every year. She said they... the false elementals are tortured creatures, not long for this world even if they survive the battlefield."
"I can imagine!" Logoros said, shocked despite his remove from material concerns. "Such a thing is folly." A nod to the brown pegasus: "Now I understand your fear."
“We haven’t seen any pods,” Cloud Cutter stated, “But we did encounter a large influx of... the magic of these islands, which overloaded our device and left me and a number of others...” she looked meaningfully to Clashing, “...as gatekeepers, I suppose.”
“I can’t thank you enough though Logoros,” Set Sail said, sagging in relief, “It’s such a relief to know that my friends are going to live.” Glancing at the two undead ponies, she added squeamishly, “In a manner of speaking.”
Clashing Gale listened quietly, trying to make sense of it all. Gatekeepers... outliving other mortals by a wide margin. The batpony slumped at the prospect. He hadn't asked for any of this: enthralling his own Captain without knowing it would weigh on his mind for a long time. Now to hear he would outlive his friends... just something else he hadn't signed up for. Beautiful, wasn't it?
"They are free of the struggles and chaos of Life now, free to find peace and preserve that which merits preservation," Logoros explained, seemingly unaware of the two ponies' tormented state. "Yet I cannot believe that you braved the defences of my pyramid, solely for such reassurance."
Set Sail pawed the ground in thought, then coming to a reluctant decision, she looked up at the great spirit, asking, “If I might ask, do you know why the land sharks might have an interest in your island? They’ve been pressuring us for information on it, and even took some of my crew hostage at one point. We think—we know that they’re lying to us about their intentions, but we don’t know enough about the situation. "
"That’s why me and the others - except Te’summi of course - came to seek answers in this pyramid. Because there must be something precious it’s protecting, and they’re trying to trick us into giving it to them, with a bunch of empty promises and lies. I'd like to help protect it, if... if I knew what it was.”
"The dirt sharks? They were ever opportunists, traders or scavengers... yet not killers. Not in my time, at least." Logoros shrugged and looked to Te'summi for confirmation. "Tell me, how goes the rebuilding? Does the alliance stand in conflict with one of their colonies? Do they covert our wares, unwilling to pay fair price, or our secrets, so they might replicate them?"
"Rebuilding?" Te'summi said, wide-eyed. "Archmage... there is little I could call rebuilding, at least in my lifetime. Save for your grand pyramid, we live simply, among the ruins of past wonders. The sharks raid the north, clashing with the Couatan... I- I am not certain of the details," she admitted.
“From what we've seen of Fellis.. I'd agree," Cloud Cutter said. "I don’t know what you were trying to rebuild, but the one city we saw was in ruins, those Abyssinians - or bipedal felines at least - just living in and around it.” Like Griffonstone used to be, she thought, though that would mean nothing to the alien spirit.
“All the rest of the land was abandoned ruins, a primitive village and wilderness," she continued. "The eastern arm of the island looked even worse: shattered and devoid of all life. A disaster clearly occurred here, and... your people still live, but they seem to be having trouble doing much more than that.”
“It’d help if they stopped jabbing a spear at anypony who tried to talk to them,” Set Sail grumbled.
"Truly?" Though beyond such mortal concerns as fatigue, the spirit seemed to slump. "Then... our plan failed. Yet, you say there is still a conclave? Still mystics on Fellis, returned from our Great Work in the Core? Why would they let things just... remain in ruins?"
"Your people... do what they can." Te'summi said tactfully. "But they are few, fewer even than my kind, and so much has been lost. Perhaps because they could no longer enter this pyramid? The door has four seals, yet the Leonoids will not co-operate. I saw one once, and... they are wild, like unthinking beasts."
"And the mystics of your time could not make fresh defenders? Or even repair the old?" The spirit mimed an angry snort, then a frown. "If the seals remain unbroken, how is it you are here to commune with me?"
“Those uh... weren’t the only seals,” Set Sail said nervously, “We... kind of may have broken a... a seal of sorts, down at a... train station. I-it’s still mostly intact. We didn’t have time to figure out how to get past it without any damage, because those spidrow creatures were right behind us. When they catch you, they drain you of your magic until you... you die. There were so many bones.”
Grenelda adds, "We did turn the statues back on behind us. If they do try to follow us, they'll become fried spiders!" She cackles.
"Mystics reduced to poverty, spidrow in the tunnels, strangers breaching the seals! From bad to worse!" Logoros lamented. "Perhaps it was all for naught. Fellis was one a beacon of civilisation on the Fringe - now you say it is lost, a decaying corpse slowly consumed by parasites and scavengers. The sharks - they must covert what artefacts remain. Or perhaps just scrap metal," he said morosely. The spirit seemed to be getting blurry, even less substantial.
“I... I suppose it can’t hurt to tell you at this point,” Set Sail said with a sigh, “Those land sharks I was talking about. They’re... they’re dying. It might not seem like a big deal to you, but they’re losing their lives for those pillars. They’re definitely lying to us about what they’re for, but I can’t believe they’d do that if it was just scrap metal. That’s why we came here, as I said, to find out why on earth this pyramid is killing them for harvesting it. I don’t even think they know what they’re there for.”
Logoros seemed to come back into focus, his head jerking around to stare intently at the pegasus. "So... the plan was a success. The bounty of Earth... the sharks seek to steal it?" He stared at something the ponies couldn't see, while his arms moved in a mystic pattern.
"The Eye has opened many times, in this last year alone. Have the sharks such forces that our power was not enough to defend Fellis? The creatures seek to wrest our gifts from their rightful recipients?" Anger slowly stirred in the ancient mystic, his detachment fraying under this affront to his legacy. Then he frowned again, as Set Sail's words sunk in. "Surely the purpose is clear? Given time, the ritual would provide such a bounty of materials, such riches for trade that the rebuilding of Fellis would be made easy?"
Grenelda clicked her beak: the gears were finally turning in her head, and she was nothing short of amused. "Oh, the pillars are meant to be the cats' nest egg? I hate to say it, but they think it's some spiritual ballahooey. They reckon that if the pillars are chopped down it'll sink the island, so all they've been doing is making it as hard as possible." She chortled: even Griffonstone hadn't made that mistake. "Figures! They haven't seen a helping hand in so long they don't even know what it looks like anymore and just bite it off." Her beaky grin radiated palpable amusement.
Clashing Gale had been listening carefully: questions about the curse still swirled in his mind, but this was vital to their mission... was that really what the pillars were for? A ritual... to create tradeable goods to facilitate the rebuilding of the island? It sounded crazy, but considering that the sphinxes bartered knowledge and the cats and fish-folk wanted payment in coin for their help, it did make some sense...
Her mouth dropping open, Set Sail was completely at a loss for words, blinking there at the implications of it. “That is a brilliant idea!” she said in shock, “The pillars are for inhabitants of Felis to harvest. Of course! But no one can get close because of that deadly beam this pyramid fires!”
"The sharks cannot get close! Not unescorted by a feline! But our people, of course the Eye does not open for them!" Logoros said angrily. "Do you think we would be so crude, so careless as to attack our own children?" He abandoned his monolith and began to pace around the plaza, paws still floating noticeably off the floor.
“Oh O-oh right that makes sense,” Set Sail said, in a daze that it was all a great idea all along, “Why... but why on earth...” She was left to her thoughts as her question went unheard with the spirit addressing the sphinx in the room.
Logoros was still ranting at no-one in particular: "The gifts of the Earth stand unharvested? How could they be so foolish!" He stabbed with a paw at Te'summi. "Sphinx! You must rectify this. Tell them to abandon such nonsense and get to work!"
"I- I will, of course, great Logoros!" Te'summi said. "Ne'kuno and Everdream... he is the most senior mystic... they'll want to speak with you! Though... I am unsure, how much use we can make of these gifts. The mystics still work runestone, but they... I think they have supplies enough, scavenged from the old city? The Couatan, surely they could still mine, but few traders still come to Fellis, and..." The young sphinx bit her lip; surely the elders would know better than her. "I'm sorry, ancestor! It is not my place to question the Archmage."
The spirit just looked at her sadly. "Do not be afraid to question the wisdom of the elders, young sphinx. If more had done so, perhaps Fellis would not be in this mess."
The crypt of the great pyramid was an enormous gloomy chamber, in which hundreds of floating graves slowly orbited the central plaza. There, at the heart of the structure, the explorers stood face to face with a glowing apparition. With a humanoid torso rising from a lion's body the old mystic resembled a centaur in general form, though his features were fully feline. The translucent face was twisted into a scowl, from the revelation that the mystic's grand plan to revive Fellis had been derailed by ignorance and superstition.
"What happened here, anyway?" Set Sail asked with a haunted look in her eyes, "What could've hit you so hard that... that it caused this mess in the first place? We flew by this pit; this... crater that was just unimaginably huge."
Logoros regarded the pegasus coolly for a moment, considering how to sum up the fall of his city. "All was chaos and confusion in the aftermath of the cataclysm," the spirit intoned. "Many islands lost to the grey before the sacrifice, and many more in the deed itself. The peacekeepers - the Skylanders - were gone. The Kaosians saw an opportunity to achieve their longed-for domination."
"Oh it took a few years of squabbling, struggling for dominance, but soon enough they were united and striking out to subjugate the free peoples. Resistance was minimal at first, but as they pushed west Mabu and Elf set aside their differences and combined their forces. To maintain the advance the Kaosians needed weapons, raw materials... and slaves. Fellis was rich, yet weakened, our hunting grounds curtailed and our people hungry and scared. The Kaosians came in overwhelming force, blackening the sky with their ships and swarming through city streets and virgin forest alike."
The ghostly cat-taur stared into space, his expression pained. "...Much was sacrificed to turn back the tide. Our laboratory spent a month under siege from cyclopses, spellfire tearing at the walls even as we worked to prime the Eye. The leonoids threw themselves into battle, each casualty taking a hundred trolls to the grave with them, yet even that was not enough. The trolls breached the great armoury, and in a final act of defiance our creations destroyed their own fortress, to ensure their weapons would never be used for evil."
Logoros sighed. "At last the Eye was open, rending the enemy fleet, yet their footsoldiers still marched across our island, intent on killing every cat that remained. It took the supreme effort of the sphinxes' Oracle to put an end to it, their numbers matched and overwhelmed by her waves of clay warriors. Yet that too was a sacrifice, for Tu'yalla's energies were drained to nothing. The line of the Oracles was ended, the sphinxes left to guard a lifeless grave."
"But thanks to their efforts, Fellis survived!" Te'summi said hopefully, "And our sacrifice stalled the Kaosian advance, gave the Eonites time to unite and resist. Even in death, the Fellissian alliance saved Skylands!"
"Indeed, quite the campaign! Stuff of legends even," Reef Skimmer suggested, joining the sphinx in trying to lighten the mood.
Logoros just scowled. "It was a desperate, brutal time," he said flatly. "Legends are rarely pleasant to live through. We speak poetically now of the War of Light and Darkness, or the Arkeyan Rebellion, but I have no doubt the creatures of those eras found them equally trying."
Grenelda tapped a claw on her beak, for once keeping her thoughts to herself. It sure sounded like the local cats had a hell of a rough history: griffons were no stranger to that. Figured that they'd end up moping around and complaining about their lost former glory, instead of seeing the opportunities right in front of their own eyes. The revelations were coming thick and fast and that probably meant a change in plans, but they could figure that out later.
“How awful...” Set Sail said, her tail low: 'a force so terrible it blackened the skies' sounded just like what the Storm King had done to Canterlot, and these creatures had no alicorns to rescue them. “That explains so much. This island isn’t isn’t doing so well, because you’re all... still wounded, too weak to heal yourselves. But the danger is passed; you can heal now, you just need a little help from—from somepony else.”
“They’re not going to heal that crater,” Cloud Cutter pointed out, her tone sceptical and her glowing eyes as blank as ever, “It would take a century - at best - to turn that into anything it used to be.”
“No, I mean their... their friendships,” Set Sail said, rubbing her forehead with a hoof as she thought it over. Looking up at Logoros, the pegasus said, “The sharks have been raiding Fellis to harvest the pillars, and they sent us to destroy the Eye so they could do so without their people getting killed. I came here to find out what they weren’t telling us, and it turns out that if your people harvest the pillars, then the sharks will still get their metal without losing their lives, but they won’t be able to do it by ripping us all off. And we’d be fools to destroy the Eye.”
Clashing Gale backed up and stood quietly, letting Set Sail say her piece. The curiosity burning within him was by no means quenched, but the captain's questions took priority. The fate of the entire expedition hung on her ability to find allies. His own remaining queries were far more selfish in nature - though not solely personal, as his whole team had undergone the Undead transformation.
Flustered for a moment, the brown pegasus looked away, nervous at what she had to say next. She gulped and came out with it: “Me and my crew are in trouble; our ship is heavily damaged, and there are pirates trying to eat us. We’re sitting ducks out there. If we could move to Felis, then we could help you out, and... be a little bit safer from getting destroyed."
"But your people won’t talk to us; they think we’re working with the sharks to steal their hope for the future," she lamented. "I can’t promise any miracles, but we’ll try to get your people to come here and speak with you so that they can learn the truth and end this silly raiding once and for all. So could you maybe... mention that we were here trying to help? I’d like to have at least a chance to show Felis that we’re not here to hurt them.”
Logoros stared at them for a while, absorbing Set Sail's little speech. "A damaged ship, pursued by pirates, doing deals with sharks. Then you braved spidrow and worse, breeched the seals... out of curiosity? I doubt even a sphinx would do so much, not when mere survival was in question." His dead eyes glowed with unnatural light, a predator's piercing stare boring into ponies. "You sought to close the Eye, in return for repairs or shelter. Nothing less could justify such a risk! Yet now you would abandon that deal?"
A pause, then he said sadly "Perhaps you speak truth. I know little of the present, what lies now beyond these walls. Call upon me again, and I shall say you came in peace, nothing more, nothing less. Yet I warn you... seek not to sabotage the Eye, lest you awaken the wrath of Gnosym."
“What deal?” Set Sail asked irritably, “They said they’d repair our ship if we turned off the Eye. I said we’d keep that in mind. I didn’t come here because it was dangerous. The flipping spidrow nest is just as safe as anywhere else in these blasted islands. When you don’t know what to do, all you can do is investigate. You call that curiosity? The sharks didn’t tell the truth; they didn’t know the truth, but they gave me a clue, so I followed it. The bleeding ship can drop into the abyss as long as my crew is safe. I just—”
Realising she wasn't exactly being diplomatic, her hoof went to her face. At length the acting captain said: “Sorry, yes you have my word we won’t do anything stupid about the Eye. For all that it kills things, it’s an amazing creation. Thank you for... giving us your consideration at least. I wish you all luck when, hopefully, your people return to this place.”
"Little horse, I have no way of verifying what you say," Logoros set, with a hint of frustration in his voice. "What is certain is that you rescued Te'summi and gave me this chance to empower her. For that alone I hope you find peace." Turning to Te'summi, he said "Take this, as tool and proof. It will unseal the main entrance, and if anything of the Conclave remains, convince my kin that you gained the trust of the great Logoros." With a wave of his ethereal paw there came a click from the monolith. The metal clamps had popped open, releasing the elaborate stave that sat before the tomb.
The orange-furred sphinx crept forward, whispering "Should I... you would entrust your staff to me?" At the spirit's nod she reached out and took it, tucking it under one wing. "Oh, thank you Archmage!" she said, sinking into a bow.
Watching Te'summi's take the blessing, Set Sail cast her eyes down in a little bow as well. She wasn't sure anything else could be said at this point. They needed deeds, not words.
Grenelda whistled then asked the question that's surely on everyone's mind: "Cool staff. What's it do? Is it blasty?" Logoros didn't look like he was going to answer - typical, the old bastard was clearly tight-fisted when it came to giving out magic power - so she just clicked her beak and smiled. "Hopin' the rest of the cats can be as reasonable as you! If it goes the way it oughta, you'll all own this island once again." 'We're gonna play both sides,' she thought, 'force 'em to make up and then taking down the Drow'll be no problem. Excellent!' The hen was practically daydreaming about where they'd go from there.
Logoros looked thoughtful. "The sharks of my time... struck a hard bargain, but delivered on their promises." He shook his head. "Only the leaders of this time can decide. Have a care, griffon, that your reach does not exceed your grasp."
Cloud Cutter sighed, trying to appear supportive, even as she wondered if she'd have to look elsewhere for her own answers. At least no one else had been turned into a zombie, and they'd learned things that would be of great use to the mission. Still... she began to walk away from the monolith, but then turned back to the spirit, saying fussily: “I realise you seem to have done it out of some... sort of obligation.” The purple pegasus gave a meaningful look at the intricately carved obelisks, resonating with unseen power: it seemed like the spirit was anchored to them. “But if I might ask... how did you become Undead? Instead of just dead dead?”
The spirit gave the pegasus an unreadable look, then explained slowly: "All spirits tarry for a time in the deadlands, though it may be a day or a millennium. Those of us with... fetters, obligations, things that forbid rest... we remain longer. And those with certain... knowledge, or affinity, they may still have the power to manifest in the lands of the living. For me, a gatekeeper must open the way, though once it is done I can do more than most."
Logoros paused, cocking his head with a quizzical expression. "These things are known to all Elementals of Unlife. You need only meditate, open your mind to the energies that animate you. Answers will come, though perhaps not so plainly as I would speak."
Clashing Gale stepped forward, listening intently. This was it: Set Sail's conversation had wound down and it was likely now or never to get the answers he wanted. Open his mind, the spirit said. In a flash, the realisation came: in the heart of the storm, that moment when the energy had burst out of the malfunctioning storm piercer. He'd assumed he'd been knocked out cold, along with the rest of his crew. But no... they weren't supposed to survive that. The Undead element... the powers at work here must have seen an opportunity: unsuspecting, fresh new souls to claim for their own. If it hadn't been for the alien magic, only corpses would have emerged from the storm.
The batpony's shoulders slumped, his membranous wings drawing tight like a cloak. They should have been consumed by the storm. Yet here they were. He had to look away from the others as it all came together in his mind: there was no 'choice'. And there was no altering this. If the Undead element hadn't raised its bony hand to keep them... well not alive exactly, but still walking and talking... then the crew would be down seven ponies and have even less chance of returning to Equestria.
Seeing her superior lost in thought but unable to read his mind, Cloud Cutter continued to interrogate the ghostly mystic. “I’ll... keep that in mind,” the purple pegasus said in a troubled tone, with one cautious hoof raised, “Have any spirits, or... or other things Undead ever gone the other way? I realize it’s impossible it’s just...”
"Ah, you regret going down this path?" The ancient feline's expression remained mysterious, but his tone became sympathetic. "The Elements may withdraw their favour from a creature that merely taps their power, but a true melding of creature and Element... that transformation cannot be undone. The Elements do not give up their chosen, Unlife least of all."
His gaze went to the batpony. "Millenia ago, a coven of witches thought as you did. They sought to use distilled Life to reverse the process. And thus vampires came into being." A pregnant pause, then a dry chuckle. "Oh it was not so bad. According to the story, the first few centuries were... strained, but Unlife came to appreciate the unique contributions your kind brought to the fiesta."
Clashing Gale was pulled out of his reverie as the spirit spoke to him directly. The remaining pieces of his mental puzzle had been dropped right in his lap: the origins of this realm's vampires, transforming him into what he was... the fact that he couldn't go back, and maybe the most important thing... "Just... meditate on the energies within and understanding will come..." he murmured, wondering if he'd ever be calm enough for that to work.
"I... I understand," Cloud Cutter said raggedly, head sagging despite herself, "Thank you for... sharing that; it explains a lot about what Clashing has been going through. I'm... I—I have no further questions, thank you.”
There was no point trying to bargain with a spirit who had no more say in these rules than she did. The undead pegasus turned and galloped away, her wings spreading for what that's worth as she leapt off the edge of the pillar and rose into the air. Everycreature stared after her for a few seconds, then came a shout: "Now see here!"
Reef Skimmer. It could only be Reef Skimmer, stamping a slightly gloopy claw on the stone. "That is simply unacceptable! These ponies are in need of treatment, not platitudes!"
"Griffon, you try my patience." Logoros growled. "Treatment? I just explained how creatures far more wise than you failed to-"
"Failed to remove this 'unlife', yes one will credit that, but what of restoring other abilities? The touch of Air that you sensed in the Captain... all pegasi share it. Until it was cut off by your unnatural energies!"
Clashing's own question died in his throat as the Doctor said what he was thinking, and much more forcefully at that. Yet... in truth he had to agree with the spirit. "Doctor Skimmer..." he began, "I'm not sure what treatment is possible, seeing as, well... if it wasn't for the Undead element, I wouldn't be not here right now, nor Cloud Cutter, nor anyone else on the Storm Piercer squad."
The batpony turned to the spirit and bowed stiffy: "Thank you for the answers, Logoros. Please forgive the Doctor's outburst... but he does speak truth. All Pegasi share a connection to the Element of Air, and Cloud Cutter seeks to attain that connection again. Is there a way to aid her?" He found no words to explain it further... he knew what she wanted, but the Undead element had already asked for her soul, for all of his squad's souls...
The spirit crossed his arms. "Your concern is touching, gatekeeper, but the Elements do not share their Champions," he growled. "Spellcraft may allow the use of other energies, by keeping them at arm's length... but you do not strike me as a mage."
"Margret Bellcrank!" Reef shouted, with claws tensed and feathers fluffed out. Seeing Logoros scowl he said: "Ah so you do know the name. Nutmeg mentioned that the Skylanders said that... well never mind, the point is, she became Undead yet retained her Tech. So it must be possible!"
"A... special case." Logoros admitted. "One in a million. It is true, that one got Unlife to admit Tech back into her form... either she was exceptionally persuasive, or impossibly stubborn." He shook his head dismissively. "No other has repeated the feat before or since."
"But... it is possible." Clashing Gale concluded. "One being... two elements. Hmm. Certainly a piece of knowledge Cloud Cutter will want to hear. And... one that could help her, too," he mused, thinking of Mystic Rune and her crippled horn; yes, many would like to hear of this...
Set Sail was looking between the hippogriff and the spirit with increasing anxiety. They seemed to be civil, but... “Reef, Archmage Logoros is not trying to deceive us here, and he knows what he’s talking about,” she said placatingly, “It’s just very unlikely to be the... solution. I know you’ve been frustrated with being unable to heal Cloud Cutter and the others, but they’re not suffering from any malady. There’s nothing wrong with her; there’s just something... Else.”
For once the grey hippogriff did not defer to his superior. He looked sadly after the departed pegasus, then said firmly: "Captain, the mare is clinically depressed. Perhaps even suicidal. As Clashing here says, we must pursue every possibility for treatment."
The avian eyed the glowing spirit thoughtfully, then trotted closer. "Now Logoros, old fellow, this is a fascinating predicament, wouldn't you say? Experimental treatment, one success that nogriff has been able to replicate? Worthy of a proper clinical trail, surely? Now what conditions might we need to recreate the effect?"
Logoros shot the suddenly-chummy griff a sceptical look. "The forces of Air and Unlife would have to accept the creature as a shared vessel," he said dubiously.
"Indeed, quite so," Reef Skimmer said, as if he understood the forces at work. "Now there are of course zones where Water choses to mingle with the other Elements. Even a certain Locker where it combines with Undead! Now I don't know about Air, but if there were a nexus where Air and Undead meet up for tea and scones... wouldn't you say that's just the place for our little experiment?"
"Difficult... but not impossible." Clashing Gale remarked fairly quietly. Goodness, maybe this would work, as he managed a bit of a smile...
“Experiment?! But—I—I don’t want to question your profession doctor, but...” Set Sail said quietly, the fussy brown pegasus fidgeting unsurely as she realised neither creature was listening to her.
Clashing Gale gave her a wan smile by way of reassurance. "Trying to recreate something that's only happened once, working out what's needed to do so.... what else do you want to call it?" He spirits were rising now that there was some hope for his friend; a part of him wondered if that was the Doctor's intention all along.
Set Sail's words fell on deaf ears: Logoros was starting to warm to the idea. "The nexus of concordance... that would be the logical place yes. Ah, my apologies, griffon... clearly you too have made a study of the Elements. If the subject enters the Eternal Organ, contacts the two Elements, then perhaps..."
He turned to the whispering ponies, a smile on his face for the first time since he'd awoken: "One exceptional creature hardly constitutes a pattern. Yet as this watery griff says, if in doubt, experiment!" A bone-dry chuckle. "You will need an Air elemental of course, to open the gate."
“M-maybe we’ll consider it, but maybe we should just... talk to her?” Set Sail asked with a weak smile.
The two strange stallions, feline spirit and hippogriff, seemed to be bonding over their enthusiasm for the experiment. Reef waved a wing at Set Sail dismissively: "Yes yes consent forms and so on, the usual procedure. So Logarithm, where would you say this Eternal Organ is exactly?"
"Logoros," the mystic corrected amiably. "Oh on the northern rim of course, though things shifted around so much in the cataclysm... You'd best consult a local."
Clashing Gale nodded to Logoros... yet it was there that he blinked. "That... that is no problem, we have a Champion of Air in our ranks... one that..." He looked to the captain, a curious look on his face. "Care if I inquire on one more point, Captain?"
"Oh of course, Clashing!" Set Sail said, caught off guard and a bit surprised that he'd ask, still.
"Just checking, Captain. Thank you." He then turned to Logoros once more. "We have an Air Elemental in our ranks that had her connection to the element of Magic severed by her transformation... could I inquire on the location of a... a nexus where those two elements are present?"
The spirit's enthusiasm drained away as he regarded the vampire pony. "Gatekeeper, understand that even one such miracle is a near impossibility. There is a precedent for Unlife permitting another element, albeit a singular one, but combining arbitrary elements..." He shook his head. "Many villainous Elementals have sought further power from a second Element. In all of recorded history, none have succeeded. Yet..." He looked to Reef again. "I bid you return, and share your results with the Conclave. In the unlikely event of success... perhaps we could proceed to further trials."
Just as the spirit's enthusiasm drained away, so did Clashing's smile. "Understood," he remarked simply, trying to suppress his annoyance at the mere thought of Azure being a villain; there wouldn't be any more questions from him that day.
“Provided they no longer accuse us of conspiring against them after this, we’ll be happy to share anything we find,” Set Sail said, eyeing Reef warily, “We really should be going though, before our friends start to worry about us. We don’t want to overstay our welcome.”
"I thank you again, for this blessing!" Te'summi called out; the talk of Elementals had be fascinating but mostly over her head. "Ah, my companion is gone... I must ask anew, if another flyer could assist..."
“I’ll be happy to, Te’summi,” Set Sail said with a smile, “I didn’t...” she paused confused for a moment, “...see if you needed to be carried, when you came in. Are you okay with just a boost?”
The young sphinx spread her wings, and with Set Sail's help rose up into the still air of the crypt. Reef Skimmer bid the spirit farewell and reverted to his tentacled form and took Grenelda for another reluctant water-jet ride. Clashing Gale was last to depart, spiralling up over the rotating rings of floating graves, then gliding down to following the others through the elemental gate. It closed behind them, the metal disc with its misshapen skull fading back into existence between the pillars.
Clashing Gale was happy to see the four ponies they'd left behind safe and sound and eager to hear what they'd found beyond the gate. Melonwater was lying there with Sprocket as they hurried up to them, holding the mare in a tender embrace, sleeping like a baby. Sprocket made a shushing motion with her hoof.
Blaze Trails was passing the time by carving: she had a knife out to a piece of wood she was carrying in her pack, and she was whittling away at it, forming some kind of curved shape. Maybe the start of a head? As her companions approached she quickly put the distraction away, relief evident on her face as she welcomed the rest of the party back.
Her eyes wandering from Cloud Cutter to Clashing Gale to Set Sail. Grenelda, at least, looks a mix of disappointed and bored. Didn't find what she was hoping for? She'd honestly expected somepony would be changed by the energies inside the nexus, and was pleasantly surprised that no one seemed affected. "Glad to see y'all back and in good shape! So... what was it like inside? Learn anything useful?"
“More than useful,” Set Sail said gladly, “We learned why this pyramid was created, and why destroying the laser would be a very bad idea.”
“Assuming they don’t just lock us out and tell us to never return,” Cloud Cutter pointed out dryly.
Clashing Gale tried to cheer he up: "Doubtful, considering that we're the key to solving their shark problem, one way or the other. That's gotta be worth something." At minimum safe harbour and free passage, he thought.
Blaze Trails tilted her head, not quite getting the implications: "So what's the big deal? We hoping for an alliance with the cats, all of a sudden? Rescuing Te'summi should earn us some favour, but..." As Set Sail explains the nature of the feline superstition surrounding the pillars, the earth pony gave a wry chuckle. "Oooh... now that is something worth knowin'. Poor things had the wrong idea all along.. Can't believe they're suffering so much over a gut feeling gone wrong."
The rest of the story came as they continued up the shaft, spiralling around on the huge ramps. The air slowly warmed until they reached a grand hallway, richly decorated with statues and mosaics. At one end they caught a glimpse of another vast room, filled with curious shapes and twinkling patterns of light: the ritual chamber at the heart of the pyramid. The other direction led to a substantial door, made from a single block of polished stone. Te'summi quickly found the right metal plate and touched the staff of Logoros to the corresponding symbol...
The sphinxes returned to the pyramid bearing a large wooden structure, a sturdy platform with two long poles and something like a gazebo built on top of it. It was covered in elaborate carvings and gold inlays, albeit with paint peeling in places. They reverently loaded the golden sphinx statue that now constituted Summer's true body onto the palanquin; the feel of paws on her metallic form was at once familiar and disturbingly alien to the new Oracle. Ze'noath and Te'kepan went to the front and each strapped one of the long poles to their back, while the other two sphinxes took positions at the rear.
It seemed sphinx flight worked on similar principles to pegasi, in that they could extend the mass-lightening effect to carts and similar items they were attached to. At Summer's query Ze'noath confirmed that in a pinch two sphinxes could fly her, but that four was less exhausting and altogether more impressive. The group padded down the entrance hall and emerged into the dappled sunlight of the statue-lined avenue. The sights and sounds of the surrounding jungle were sweet relief to Summer, who'd been stuck in the quiet gloom of the pyramid interior for four days now.
From there the group took flight. Summer's quartet of ceramic sphinx golems flapped into the air first, stiffly and clumsily but still not bad for a first attempt (she told herself). With the short stint of practice under her belt, her avatar was next to take wing. It was somewhat like her experience with Azure's butterfly wing spell, albeit with a bit more aerodynamics and less magic. Her wide wings seemed quite sufficient to carry her, though she was pretty sure she couldn't do that mass-lightening trick pegasi used to haul heavy objects around.
Finally the sphinxes carrying her palanquin rose into the air. The group joined up and headed north over the jungle, then bore north-west over the island's central lake. Summer was intrigued by the strange sensation, the cold metallic alien feel of her statue being carried along - a phantom touch lacking a mapping to any natural body part - while existing in a separate location that was also 'her', her avatar. Occasionally she looked back at 'herself' to remind herself where she actually was in space.
Ze'noath made a point of guiding them down to a low pass over a village nestled in the trees: the home of the hunter cats who'd hassled the ponies at the monastery. Dozens of bipedal cougars and a pair of feline taurs pointed and stared, both at the Oracle itself and Summer's ceramic creations.
Summer returned the favour, scanned the settlement below - rather rough and makeshift compared to even the other cat village - and there was Blaze's tent, set up next to one of the huts! Summer filed that away to be dealt with later, as they climbed back into the sky, heading over the hills to the northern arm of the island.
The pyramid of Gnosym dominated the horizon now, a massive edifice of gleaming marble capped by the crystal with its ominous glow. Summer stared at it anxiously, remembering how it had nearly obliterated the Megalodon (along with their first away team). The sphinxes seemed unconcerned though, flying steadily onward. They were over the desert now, a wide expanse of flat sand dotted by the curious mineral columns, each glittering with strange inclusions.
The main entrance of the pyramid faced south, a long flight of shallow steps flanked by two enormous statues of the felitaurs, each bearing a carved stone staff topped by a glowing crystal, like much smaller replicas of the one at the pyramid's summit. Ne'kuno was already there, flying in lazy circles with three more of her guardians patrolling further out. "Oracle!" she called out, "this place is fit for your presence. No trace of sharks nor Kaosians today."
"Excellent! Thank you, Ne'kuno." Summer's ceramic sphinx avatar watched as her palanquin was carried down to a landing near the pyramid, then flew in to examine the entrance in closer detail. Between the two statues was a huge stone door with depictions of the four Fellissian species on it: Sphinxes, Mystics, Abyssinians and what she now recognised as Leonoids. A clear pattern: she lifted a paw to the Sphinx picture and closed her eyes as if willing something to happen.
At Summer's touch the elaborate seal came alive with magic: the engraved sphinx began to glow and the air rang with a soft, continuous tone, as if a tuning fork had been struck. Either she was sphinx enough to fool the door mechanism, or the builders had made special accommodations for the Oracle.
"Ahem, ah, Ne'kuno. The four pictures here... It seems easy enough to get a Mystic or an Abyssinian here. But are there any extant Leonoids we can summon? She turns her head back, tilted. "I do not believe I am capable of opening this door on my own, though there are certain things I can try if there are no other options." Inwardly Summer Scribe was desperately trying to think of something: to get so close to reuniting with her friends only to be stopped at the literal doorstep would be nothing short of humiliating! Sure, there would probably be another chance soon, but to come all the way here and sit helplessly in front of a locked door...
Ne'kuno had been watching closely: she nodded in satisfaction, then said "Few Leonoids remain on Fellis, still patrolling the ruins of their fortress. They seem consumed by a blind rage, attacking all who intrude in their halls. Even the mystics, their creators, have not been able to tame them." The sphinx began to pace back and forth, staring that the door. "We know others endure, scattered across Skylands, but it has been many years since our scouts last encountered one."
Summer Scribe hadn't even considered what the sphinxes would've thought if the door hadn't recognised her. Huh, maybe she should've been more paranoid, ordered a servant to touch the glyph instead. Never mind, it worked out ok. She tapped a contemplative paw to her chin: tink, tink. "Hmmm. It's only necessary that a Leonoid touch the door - not that they do it of their own free will. With my powers, I can eventually wear one into submission no matter how long they rage. Do you have any objections, Ne'kuno?"
The leader of the sphinxes looked dubious. "Ze'noath?"
The older male thought for a moment, then conceded: "I know not whether they have a finite reserve of energy, as a sphinx would, or draw from the infinite power of the Elements, as you do Oracle."
Ne'kuno was already thinking along other lines: "Need it be whole, or even functional? Perhaps an arm would be enough." Summer still found it weird for such a pony-like smile to show so many sharp teeth.
Summer Scribe was a little put back at the casual suggestion of dismembering what would under better circumstances be an ally, but... she has to admit, in their current state as wild monsters, they don't sound of much use to anysphinx. So, after a moment's contemplation she responded truthfully: "The door, I believe, is not so... picky about what it is brought from each of the four species. I believe an arm would suffice, and that would remove the logistical difficulties of transporting a subdued monster across the islands. Then, do we have a plan?"
"It will not be easy, but with your-" Ne'kuno was cut off by a deep rumbling from within the pyramid, followed by a loud grinding noise as the enormous stone door began to sink into the floor. There would be no fetch quest for golem parts: it seemed someone, or something, had decided to let them enter.
Summer Scribe perked up, legitimately shocked and on the edge of her paws. She certainly wasn't expecting the puzzle to just solve itself unprompted. She stared at the rumbling, disappearing door: "...Huh? I mean, um..." She takes a moment to scour her mental library, like glancing over the index of a great historical store, and finds nothing. "...Hmm. No, I really have no idea why it's open, now. But it does save us the effort..."
She shook her head, dismissing the musings. Time to act regal! "Ahem... right then." Summer Sphinx strode forward, calling her four ceramic bodyguards to surround her. "In the name of Sphinx-kind, I, the Oracle, set paw in the Pyramid of Gnosym! The great structure of the Mystics will once more share its precious magic with us, so that we may use it for its proper purpose - to defend our way of life!" she proclaimed, strolling toward the threshold as the last bit of door sank to floor level!
With the portal open the platoon of sphinxes, living and ceramic, found themselves staring at a strange band of creatures gathered within the pyramid's ornate entrance hall. Several varieties of griffons and colourful equines, dirty and exhausted from their ordeals, plus one young sphinx holding an elaborate magical staff in her paw.
With her mission stated for all to hear, Summer Scribe strode forward into the chamber. Her ceramic sphinx bodyguards now moved in decent synchronicity with her - as though they were an extension of her will, an assurance of her power... then she couldn't help pausing at the surreal sight of all her friends, just standing there staring back at her. She'd spent days thinking about how this exact moment would go down, but actually seeing it in front of her was something else entirely.
Summer wanted to just run forward and hug them all and say how much she missed them, but she had a... persona to maintain in front of her new sphinx friends - the friends of her other self. She could only hope the ponies didn't overreact and blow it; hopefully she'd be able to talk to them in private later? For now, though, she had to pretend to be shocked.
"You all are... How did you make it in here?" the Oracle said, her voice stern yet tinted with intriguing confusion. That orange sphinx with the staff - Summer didn't recognise her, but she seemed to be friendly with the ponies? She'd address her first: "You - sphinx. How did this come to pass? You are here of your own free will, then?"
Te'summi stared in utter shock, her eyes going from Summer to Te'kepan to Ne'kuno and back again. "I-I... Who... Oracle?! I-I was taken by the spidrow, trapped so long in the draining darkness..." Her voice trailed off as a blur of dark blue fur flew over to her.
"Sister, oh my little sister, you are returned!" Te'kepan sobbed, throwing his paws around Te'summi's neck and pulling her into a tight embrace. Ne'kuno just grimaced at the display of emotion - her eyes were on the strangers.
It was lucky that Summer Scribe wasted no time in addressing them: a squawk died in Grenelda’s throat as she suddenly thought better about blurting something out. The dark-haired creamy-furred unicorn Sprocket, and the brown-feathered blue-maned Set Sail, both went from staring in awe, to shrinking back, ears low at the great construct’s stern words and forceful presence.
As for the blank-eyed purple pegasus, Cloud Cutter seemed to be fish-mouthing, at a loss for what to say. A certain cow-raised red-and-green earth pony merely took a step back, glancing warily at the assembled sphinxes as she kept her mouth ready to access the 'supplies' at her side. A pink haired green stallion still at Sprocket's side looked too weary to be afraid at this point.
Azure Feather looked surprised at the mention of 'sister', but would otherwise keep quiet, well aware that her diplomatic skills were... well, certainly worse than Summer's. Better to shut up and let the Captain handle this, she thought. Clashing Gale just stared in disbelief, one more impossibility to heap on top of all that had happened to him that day.
Seeing the equines around him fall silent, Reef Skimmer felt it was upon him to ensure they were not taken as impolite. "Ne'kudo!" the hippogriff called out, "old girl, what a pleasure to bump into you out here. Looking quite wonderful there, golden mask and lashing tail and so on and so forth. You recognise your dear chum Reef Skimmer don't you, and this is Captain Sails and her crew! Just doing a spot of sightseeing you know, and erm... say, that's a terribly impressive living-statue-person you've made friends with there!" Having given it his best effort, the big griff's beak clamped shut.
Summer Scribe cracked a grin as she sees the cathartic reunion of sphinx brother and sister: not at all something she could have imagined. That should make things go much smoother. Yes, she knew just what to do: her avatar looked over the assorted ponyfolk, as though searching for leader material. Since Reef was the one to volunteer a conversation opener, she decided to go with him.
An indulgent smile was on her face as she made a show of looking over the hippogriff. "You are an unusual sight indeed - an Elemental of Water, if I am not mistaken?" Chalk that morsel of knowledge up to mysterious Oracle powers, she thought, then gestured at Te'summi. "Am I correct to assume that your people have saved one of mine from falling to the voracious hunger of the Spidrow? I hardly expected to see another soul in the Pyramid of Gnosym, let alone a rescue like this."
Set Sail had a moment of open-mouthed horror at Reef’s approach and his terrible words that would surely get them all killed: he wasn’t supposed to know who this was, or who this was supposed to be. This was the exact opposite of what she wanted, which was of course what she expected to get. But Summer wouldn’t... would she? She couldn’t have actually convinced the sphinxes she was their...
Sprocket spoke up: “Yeah, the captain herself pulled her out.” She gave the captain an admiring look, then explained: “We were gonna get her right back to you, but I guess you’re already here!” Azure just looked at the floor: another reminder that she'd been against the whole operation. Truly not her finest hour; she resolved to stay silent.
“W-we didn’t expect to... run into you, here!” Set Sail said brightly with a fixed smile, her gaze darting among the many, many real sphinxes accompanying this sphinx-statue-Summer-Scribe. Just like the myth, great lions with pony heads and griffon wings... and very sharp teeth and claws, she couldn't help noticing. “You must be the... the oracle that Logoros spoke of! Terribly sorry for any intrusion. We um... I know it’s hard to believe but we really were just sight-seeing. I-it’s a long story.”
"Logoros?" Ne'kuno hissed, "What creature would usurp the name of the ancient mystic's leader? Whoever it is... their warning was timely, for you are now in the presence of the Oracle, and will show her proper respect!"
Set Sail looked on the verge of a panic attack, not knowing what to say to that, so Cloud Cutter glided over beside her. She met Ne’kuno’s eyes with her own empty stare. “The ancient mystic’s leader is long dead,” the purple mare said, “But so am I, and that doesn’t seem to stop me. He was laid to rest in this pyramid, so that he could watch over it, as far as I know.”
Frowning, she added, “Or it was a ghostly creature usurping his name, but he seemed very convincing to me.”
Melonwater just shivered, hoping to Celestia that Set Sail would get them out of this but ready to gallop back into the shadowy depths of the pyramid should that start looking like the better option. An encounter with even one of these legendary monsters would've been a fur-raising experience, and now there were a whole pride of them blocking the way out. Still... the reunited brother and sister seemed almost pony-like in their relief.
Summer Scribe nodded: thanks to her Oracle knowledge, she didn't have to inquire about the Proper Nouns being thrown about. She held her head high and said decisively: "Long I have slumbered, but once more I have awoken. And I do not intend for outsiders to poke around what is rightfully our property. Now then," she narrowed her gaze on Set Sail specifically. "Your bravery in rescuing one of our kind shall not go unrecognized - thank you."
"But the Pyramid of Gnosym is not for 'sightseeing'. It is more important to us than you can imagine! Its very existence is the only thing that stopped us from falling into ruin centuries ago! And you claim to have conferred with Logoros, the Archmage? It seems you have delighted in poking your nose into places that aren't yours. I would sincerely hope you have not let any Spidrow in behind you, with the reckless abandon you've displayed."
To the similarly very convincing Oracle Summer now seemed to be playing, Set Sail said: “I know and I’m so sorry, O-Oracle, but we needed to know more about this place. Sight-seeing is the only way we can be at harmony with your people, and learn our role in this world. We–we’ll die if we don’t find what to do, and there’s no way to find it but to... learn.”
Seeing her new friends in trouble, Te'summi pulled away from her brother to address the sphinx leaders. "Ne'kuno, O-Oracle... they speak truth, I was cocooned in the heart of the vermin nest and would surely have perished had this 'pony' not pulled me free. They entered the pyramid to confer with the shade of Logoros - that Unlife elemental," she nodded at Clashing Gale, "summoned him from the nether. Look, he entrusted me with his staff, so that I might open the way!" The young sphinx gestured enthusiastically with the ornate staff, which she seemed quite proud ot.
Summer Scribe quirked an eyebrow. What plights could these strange colourful folk be embroiled in that they'd toy with other people's most ancient and sacred places just out of a need to... survive? "Frankly, you have me curious. I would have assumed you were here to steal our resources, to usurp our secrets. You say you do this to... learn about us, so you can become friends with us?" She chuckled and shook her head - as though this were all unbelievable, yet too strange to be anything but the truth.
Nodding over to Te'summi, the ceramic sphinx continued: "Through your deeds, you've demonstrated that you really do mean what you say. And I can sense the magic in your allies, here - if you are willing and able to help, perhaps there is something to be done, here?" She turned to Ne'kuno. "What do you say? Their methods are... baffling, and I do not think their trespass should summarily be forgiven, but their intentions sincere. Their wish for friendship runs so deep that they'd risk everything; shall we give them an opportunity to aid our people? Then perhaps they will no longer need to resort to grave robbing."
Ne'kuno stared at the ponies for a long while, expression hidden behind her gleaming mask. "A transgression to be sure, yet... who among us would not trespass upon the most holies in pursuit of the deepest secrets of the sky lands? It could be their resemblance to us is not so superficial." She turned to Te'summi: "What do you say, young one? Do these strangers seek plunder or enlightenment?"
Te'summi opened her mouth to speak, then thought better of it. There was the mention of the sharks, yet... these creatures had saved her life. "They took nothing from within," she said carefully, "and promised the shade that they would not tamper with the Eye." Then her eyes opened wide: "Logoros revealed the nature of the pillars! We must..." Her gaze darted to Summer "ah, Oracle... perhaps you know, but... the Blessing was not what we thought. What the mystics told us."
"Oh and Cloudy here reactivated the lasers, so no fear about spidrow getting in!" Reef said happily, indicating the purple pegasus with a sweeping wing gesture. "Assuming the buggers don't learn to teleport... but we saw no sign of that!"
"Yeah they're gonna be lickin' their wounds for months!" Grenelda crowed, "What with their nest blown up and on fire and blasted by water and lightning!" The griffon cackled as she relived the experience.
“What Reef is trying to say,” Set Sail said pleasantly to Ne’kuno, as she wondered how she could jam her hoof into Reef Skimmer’s beak, “is that your pyramid is under no immediate danger. But we do need to tell you at length what we found under there. As for the nature of the pillars... it's true, my little ponies and I are in a position where I think we might be able to help.”
That put a grin on Summer Scribe's face. Things seemed to be going better than could have been anticipated! She nodded to Te'summi, "Your witness is appreciated, thank you." Then her head tilted at the pegasus: the nature of the pillars? That part was a surprise even to her. "You have something to relay about the pillars? Is this a private matter or something you can say right now?"
She leaned forward, wings half-spread. "If you have knowledge of value, I would be most curious... we need all the help we can get to rebuild our former glory." Stepping back and addressing the rest of the assorted creatures, she added: "And I am thankful to hear that you have respected the integrity of our pyramid. Yes, it sounds as if we important matters to discuss?"
Set Sail proceeded to explain the true nature of the rock pillars and the old mystic's intentions for them, pausing occasionally to let Te'summi verify the truth of her words and offer her own interpretation. Summer's shock at the revelation was largely sincere, though the other sphinxes didn't seem surprised, nodding to each other and basking in a good mystery solved. Eventually Set Sail explained that they had injured and exhausted ponies and needed to get back to their ship.
The Oracle told them they should catch their breath first, directing them to a side chamber just off the entrance hall of the grand pyramid. There the explorers gathered themselves and their belongings in what looked like a waiting area, with two of Summer's ceramic golems standing guard at the door. A pair of sphinxes went back outside to keep watch for intruders, while the others including Summer's avatar padded off into the depths of the pyramid, no doubt to make their own investigations.
The side chamber had likely been untouched for over a century; now the dark stillness was replaced by a bustle of activity as the tired explorers unloaded their gear. The room was sparsely furnished, with a few carved stone benches and tables, but richly decorated with geometric patterns and frescos. Blaze suggested that maybe it was for visitors to wait in when the cat-taurs were busy with one of their rituals, but that was just a guess.
The tension slowly drained out of the ponies and griffs, as they took the chance to feed and water themselves before the flight home. Reef Skimmer checked Grenelda's injury, while Melonwater took a nap on one of the benches. Sprocket levitated in the 'gift' the Oracle had given them for saving Te'summi: a kitten-sized replica of her light-blue form. Bemused, she set it down on one of the tables, wondering if back in the glory days the Oracle had an attached gift shop.
At length Set Sail trotted over to inspect the statuette. A beneficent smile was plastered on its face while the glazed ceramic eyes stared lifelessly back at the pegasus... then suddenly they were not so lifeless. "Hi Set Sail!" came a tinny little voice as the miniature blue golem began to pace around the table top, still grinning at the assorted creatures.
It was too much for Set Sail: the brown mare gave a goat-like bleat as she jerked back from the statue, then stiffly toppled over.
The tiny replica of Summer Sphinx let out a tiny, tinny, hollow giggle. "Don't worry, Set Sail. It's me, Summer Scribe! I just have to pretend to be the Oracle for a while. Turns out I can pretend really well, because I have the combined knowledge and memories of all the previous Oracles to draw on - well, like any of the previous Oracles would have, really. So it's an impeccable disguise. Indistinguishable from the real thing!"
Everycreature (at least those that were still conscious) was staring at the little sphinx; Summer beamed back, pleased with her own cunning. "So! As fun as this is... I am going to have to break it to the other sphinxes sooner or later. But until then, I want to help you both become friends, and maybe I can just let them down lightly by then?" She looks sheepish, a paw behind her head. "So, uhh..."
Sadly Set Sail couldn't appreciate the explanation, as she was out cold.
"...Set Sail? Hello?" Summer's brow furrowed. "Oh dear. Well, umm, the rest of you got that all, right?" She looked around again, her grin rather more sheepish this time.
"Sails!" Reef Skimmer blurted out. The hippogriff strode over and began checking for concussion. "Damn and blast. We already used the smelling salts on that spidrow. Captain Set Sail! It's alright Sails, can you hear me?"
“Wh—huh??” the pegasus said, rousing in his arms and looking up at the beaked face in confusion, “Oh I uh...” blushing she pulled free, zipping up to stand before him, staring at the ground and saying, “I-I must’ve passed out there. I think the stress is getting to me. I could have sworn that sphinx doll started talking to me!”
"Summer Scribe," Reef said, as if that was explanation enough. "One must do one's best to just... roll with her antics."
"You can make mini-mes?!" Grenelda squawked. "That's pretty cool. Like, you're getting the hang of this earthy stuff, yeah?"
Summer beamed, waving a paw up to Grenelda and finding her miniature perspective of looking up at a giant griffon amusing. "Well, sure, I'm getting the hang of it. I could probably spend a lifetime figuring this stuff out. But, yeah, I can make ceramic creatures based on anything I can clearly visualize and they do my bidding. I'm only 'in' one place at a time, but the others get the idea of what I want them to do - kind of like running off of my subconscious, so I just need to be careful to think thoughts good."
Sprocket just boggled at this crazy magic. The unicorn had once read something about a spell that would let a unicorn possess a doll, so you could communicate over a long distance, but it was in the 'ridiculously difficult stuff I'm never gonna be able to do' section of the book. Personally she'd just build a wireless set, but she had to admit there was a certain charm in doing it this way.
Seeing the captain back on her hooves, the mini Summer Sphinx sighed and tapped a paw on the stone surface of the table: clink clink. "Try to stay conscious this time, Set Sail! Do I need to explain everything again?"
“Oh, oh I thought... of course,” Set Sail said, restlessly pawing at the floor beneath her, “That’s... pretty brilliant, um, O-Oracle. You can speak to us through your statues of course. W-what can I do for you, your um... majesty?” She gave an appeasing smile.
Summer stared up at the pegasus for a moment then shook her head. "It's me, Summer Scribe. Really! You can drop the act for a moment. I want to help patch things up between the Ponies and the Sphinxes! Also, with that revelation about the pillars, it sounds like we won't be shutting the Eye off after all, yeah? Do we have a new plan?"
Sagging in relief, the brown mare said, “Oh thank Celestia. I didn't know if it was still you or... or if you had awoken the real Oracle somehow."
Summer could answer that definitively: "The previous Oracle found nothing but oblivion, unfortunately. I didn't swap mind with whoever was in the Oracle - my body got vaporized to upload me, so to speak." She side-eyed the pegasus, saying: "So I could technically get out if someone else is willing to trade places with me, but... I dunno, I kinda like it here?" Eh... maybe she should have kept that last thought to herself.
Set Sail nodded slowly, pushing the idea of swapping somepony else into the statue into her 'things I don't need to deal with right now' box. "Summer, the Eye is keeping the sharks from taking the Uberite, because it is a gift to the descendants of the island here!" she explained. "If we destroy it, they'll just strip the island clean, and their resources will be gone. But this way, the Fellissians can recover, by harvesting the pillars themselves, and giving it to the sharks!"
Summer nodded back: this all made sense. "So the idea is, everyone's happy, right? The cats have autonomy once again and can trade for the resources they want and learn to be trusting once more, the sharks get Uberite without having to throw trucks into the grinder, and we ponies get right of passage wherever we want for having untangled the whole mess."
"Yes, that's the idea." Set Sail paused a moment, taking stock of Summer's predicament. "So, how are you... doing? You don't seem too upset with being stuck in that strange statue."
Summer stretched her wings, taking a few paces along the table as she thought on that. "Well... I was lonely and restless for a while," she said at length. "But I had so much knowledge to absorb, things to learn and try and... Wow! Now that I'm out and about, I'm kind of enjoying what I'm capable of as the Oracle." The little statue gave a hollow-sounding giggle. "I'm just... nervous that I'll screw it up before I'm ready for the reveal. I hope this all works out ok in the end."
Reef Skimmer's brow furrowed. "You do seem to be enjoying yourself in there. Now this notion of cats and sharks getting along swimmingly... surely it isn't going to be that easy? That tiger-striped Abyssinian chap was downright paranoid, and the other tribe are engaged in open conflict with the sharks. Might be lives lost on either or both sides."
Summer Sphinx mimed biting her lip. "Mhmmmm... for sure, it's not something we can wave a magic wand and solve - they didn't reason themselves into thinking that the pillars were sacred artifacts, it was a superstitious leap of logic. But we now know the truth, and we just need to convince them of it, while also telling the sharks what they can expect from a new trade deal."
"We have Logoros's word - and, well, the Oracle's, heh-heh - that this can be believed..." she nodded enthusiastically, "But if we're to make this as good as possible for all of us, the deal should come from the Pony side, so that we get credit for making everyone happy. So - what do you think?"
“Well I ain’t volunteering for no swap,” Blaze Trails said, the red-and-green earth pony heading up to the sphinx kitten and squinting at it. “You were a right fool, you know that? Goin’ and touchin’ and takin’ things. You’re lucky you ended up with such a sweet deal. You could’a been worm food though! First you go waltzin’ into that levitation trap, and getting the rest of us in huge trouble to boot, and now this?”
Snorting, the mare concluded: “Your heart’s in the right place, but you gotta be careful. Think about what you do before you do it. They call us explorer ponies grave robbers sometimes you know, because some of us didn’t think ahead, went and grabbed something shiny, then got in huge trouble for it. I have half a mind to tell the sphinxes myself, before you get in more trouble!”
“S-she’s fine though!” Set Sail protested uneasily to Blaze, “She’s helping the sphinxes, and... and they really need help, so we can’t pass up this chance!”
“That’s why I’m not telling,” Blaze said crossly, “But you better not hurt those poor sphinxies when they’re trustin’ you like this. Even if we can, we’re not here to rob ‘em blind. We’re here to explore, make friends and that sorta thing.”
Summer Sphinx looked sheepish, rubbing a tiny paw behind her head as Blaze Trails chewed her out. "Eheh-heh... Yeah, I-I'm sorry. I really still don't know what came over me. It was like the Oracle spoke to me and drew me closer, but there was no mind in it when I found it...? Gosh, maybe I just made it up in my head. I'm really sorry, I shouldn't act like I have an excuse." She hung her head, trying to appear humble (or at least, adorable).
"Yes, I don't want to hurt the Sphinxes either. Not only would it be wrong to do, I think our best shot at shoring up our survival is making peace with both the cats and the sharks, now. So we're in this together until everyone's able to take care of themselves, right? Then maybe I'll reveal the truth. Please try to keep my cover until then. We in agreement, Blaze?" She looked up at the earth mare with that 'please don't think less of me because I blunder into every trap imaginable' look.
Blaze’s eyes softened at that, and she said with some sympathy, “Not everypony’s been around much as me. I know the first rule when things start drawing you closer is to back away and take a careful look at what’s really goin’ on, but you probably never even been mesmerized by an idol before. Just count your lucky stars it worked out okay this time, and don’t abuse the kinda power you got there, and I won’t have any complaints.”
Summer Sphinx nods calmly. "You got it, Blaze: I'm trying to take this as seriously as I can. ...For all of us. So here's hoping."
"What exactly does this 'Oracle' business entail?" Reef Skimmer asked, peering curiously at the little golem. "Are you their ruler now? Nekune did seem to defer to you. Do you know how many sphinxes there are? Any chance of them aiding us with the pirate situation?"
Summer looked thoughtful as she explained: "Oh, there's more Sphinxes around than you'd think. We're fine, just impoverished, a shade of our former glory. We have families, we have communities, we have rituals. And I am effectively their ruler, yes: their Most Important Po- Person. Though I don't have to make all the decisions: I'm more like Prophet than Bureaucrat."
"As to if they'd be willing to aid us with our Drow problem," she continued, "I suspect once they have their own affairs in order, they'd be willing to help repay us that way - perhaps even with all of Fellis united behind me. I mean, them. They certainly have the skill and magic to help - but first thing's first."
"Hmm. So... I take it we're leaving your real body - the big gold statue that is - here then," Reef deduced. "Can you still animate that little one if we take it back to the Harmony?"
Summer Sphinx shook her head. "Wish I could, but there's a range limit. So let's synchronise plans now, and execute them separately. I assume you're hoping to come by again, meet with the Sphinxes and convince them of a working relationship?"
“That’s the easy part,” Set Sail sighed, “The hard part is convincing them to work with the sharks. They’ve both been nothing but kind to us, but to each other...”
Summer Sphinx grinned. "Well, they are long time rivals and all that... So, we want to take a rational approach, yeah? They each have something the other wants and can both prosper for it. It's just business, as a shark would say." She grins. "Anyway, devil's in the details and all... but if we can convince them to be rational, I'm certain this is the play."
She cocked her head, thinking for a moment, then said brightly: "And I know just the place! There's this big building on one of the outlying islands, it used to be like the capital of the cat alliance! Where the mystics and coutatan - that's the bipeds - and sphinxes and lion-golems - they kinda went insane, long story - would meet up with their guests and allies. Just, uh, gimme a little time to set things up - say a couple of days? You can stop in, tell the sharks to expect an emissary from the Oracle, that'll make sure my messenger doesn't get shot at, hah."
There were a thousand more questions on the ponies' minds, but the afternoon was dragging on and everyone was keen to get back. Set Sail and Cloud Cutter took the crystals and flew up the central valley, leaving the others to rest while they retrieved the parked Second Chance. Summer made a show of appraising the bright pink aircraft and bidding them a formal farewell. Then the whirring copter took flight once again, the grey roc trailing behind and a pair of sphinx guards alongside as it flew over Fellis. Their escorts peeled off and returned home as they continued south, heading for Blissful Pastures.
The flight back was long, slow and cramped, the little copter packed to the brim with tired and injured creatures. Once again Reef Skimmer had to fly behind, the great grey eagle trailing by some distance as he wearily beat his wings. A cool wind picked up as the Second Chance whirred towards Blissful Pastures, ripping the last shreds of fog from the island.
The rounded bulk of their airship was still there, moored to the cliffs next to a meadow now decorated with tents and fire pits. There were new additions as well; a half-dozen colourful avian shapes, standing in a group along with smaller smooth-scaled bipeds. Off to one side a fire-feathered shape stood out: Sunburn, the Skylander dragon.
All eyes turned to watch the noisy copter as it came in to a landing in the meadow. Several ponies had cautiously emerged to greet the newcomers, with the griffon Gustus at the front: he was the only one who'd actually met the native griffons.
Sitting on the deck of the little ship, Azure Feather had been lost in thought, going over the events of the day again and again in her head. For all they'd achieved, it still felt like a failure to leave Summer Scribe behind, but... considering the risk she'd taking gaining her new 'position', it probably went as well as they could hope. Facing hundreds of spidrow on their home turf had been the heaviest combat they'd seen yet. Now it was time to get back to base, regroup, rest for a time before planning out the next move.
All that went out the window as Azure spotted the crowd of creatures gathered near the Harmony: griffons, gillfolk, of all creatures, who'd have thought they would be here? Of course her eye was immediately drawn to one creature in particular... oh, dear Celestia... Sunburn?! Ignoring her fatigue, she immediately took wing and glided down to land near Gustus. Azure bowed softly to the griffons and gillfolk as she passed nearby, heading straight for the Phoenix-Dragon.
Set Sail would've had joined her, except that she was piloting the copter. “What on earth...?” she asked, staring at the assorted visitors even as she worked the controls and settled the Second Chance into the grass. One quick glance to the others, a “Sorry, I’ve got to check this out,” and she was off, flapping straight over to the flock of griffons.
Seeing her mate chatting up what she assumed was the native griffon's leader, Grenelda opened her wings to follow, then squawked as she realised she still had that stupid bandage around one of them. The griffon instead leapt over the side of the copter, calling out “Last one there’s a rotten egg!” as she bounded over to the group of catbirds. She was not going to let any tall dark hen steal the heart of her beloved Gustus!
“Hot diggety are those the fishy folk?” Blaze said excitedly, looking the delegation’s way, “They say they’re not like anything you’ve ever seen!” A step that way, and she blushed, adding, “It’d be rude not to at least say hello, I mean.” Then she was scrambling down the latter to scamper eagerly off in that direction.
Cloud Cutter was left standing on the deck; she turned to Sprocket with a puzzled look and asked: “So the rest of us should wait here, or...?”
“Looks like politics to me,” the unicorn said, squinting at the group and shaking her head, “I’m gonna go find Static. Need to let her know I’m still alive. Heh, maybe even Gearshift.” She helped Melonwater off the copter; the earth stallion was dead tired, still drained from his transfer of magic to Te'summi. He took one look at the crowd of dangerous-looking creatures and then headed for the Harmony as fast as he his hooves could carry him.
Clashing Gale just remained at a safe distance, keeping an eye on the newcomers but not engaging. The batpony had been silent for the whole trip back, a hundred thoughts swirling in his mind. Summer's new position, Cloud Cutter trying to align to a second element, Azure's situation and his own fate, not to mention how to form all these potential allies into an actual alliance... Best that he just stand back and gather his thoughts; if he accidentally used his magical charms here it could kick off an unpleasant incident.
Of the five gillfolk present, Set Sail recognised three: the younger female and older male from the first group they'd met, and Brightfin, the teenage son of the chieftess who'd been keen to fight back against the drow even against his mother's wishes. The other two looked like they'd seen combat, bearing cumbersome weapons that might be harpoon-launching cannons, and wearing battered but serviceable armour.
"-and sure we're gonna take down those pirates," Gustus was telling a large black griffon with a scarred face and tattered feathers, "just as soon as- oh, hey, Grennie! Uh, 'scue me but that's my mate and she's looking worse for wear." He hurried over to meet Grenelda, the two griffs coming together in a feathery embrace.
"Set Sail!" Brightfin called out. "These fine feathered folk did see fit to carry us right over to meet y'all, soon as we'd finished 'splain' the sad fate that did befall the griffs that'd been stayin' with us, way back when."
“Oh! Brightfin!” Set Sail said in surprise, coming to a calmer landing as she saw some familiar faces here, “It’s good to see you again! Oh and... Indigo Burst, right?” she spotted the purple griffon, amonst the... very tough looking griffons he'd brought along. “I take it this isn’t just a friendly visit,” she concluded soberly. Blaze Trails hadn’t spoken yet, but was biting her lip, standing just a bit behind Set Sail looking the fishfolk’s way with an eager grin.
"If half of what I've heard is true, this is war!" the black griffoness growled. "We just got around to noticing! Be a pleasure to gut those drow, not an easy or a simple one though. Might as well be a fortress they're holed up in, and they got ships buzzing around all over. Indigo put in a good word for you creatures, said you saved his ass at the temple, so maybe we can make common cause exterminating those slavers." The hen gestured with a dark wing. "You're... kinda small I guess, but you got a tough looking ship there, least a couple of griffs and... guessing you can use that axe?"
"Yeah them little ponies are the bee's knees!" Brightfin spoke up, "They don't fear no drow and they got another griff too, he showed old Reedy a trick to banish the rot!"
Said hippogriff had in fact just caught sight of the crowd and picked up his pace, treating them all to the sight of a water-jet-propelled roc flying straight at them.
“War?” Set Sail said, suddenly feeling like she stepped into something she shouldn’t have, “I-I suppose you could call it war. My name is Set Sail and I’m the... acting captain. We’ve been getting ready to do something about the drow for a while now; so some of us have a few ideas for how to get them out of their shell. Sorry, I just...” She made an attempt at combing back her windswept mane, looking up and saying, “just got back from an expedition so I’m still a bit mussed up. Y-yes I can use the axe. It works better than a boat hook?” She gave an attempt at an awkward smile.
That drew a cackle from one of the other griffons; the black hen glared at him and he clamped his beak shut. Then she eyed Set Sail curiously. "Might not be the big dramatic kinda war that spreads 'cross all Skylands, but it don't make much difference when it's you and your flock fightin' for their lives, eh?"
The griffon's leader extended a claw to the pegasus. "Ebony Hail. Elder the of Windsheer Convocation and first griff of this here war flock. Just flew in ourselves so don't fret. How 'bout we have a little hunt, fill our bellies while you get unmussed, then talk battle plans over a nice fire?" She turned to stare at the approaching roc. "Uh, you got that thunderbird trained up or...?"
Set Sail glanced back, then jerked around to stare at the giant bird hurtling towards them. “One sec,” she said quietly, then shot off into the air, flying straight towards a head-on collision with Reef Skimmer.
The hippogriff-turned-roc had already begun to veer off, but at the sight of the captain coming up he back-winged furiously while shifting his water jets forward, coming to a near-hover just off the edge of the island. "Sails!" he cawed out, "one does hope those griffs come in peace?"
“Don’t you recognise the purple one?” the brown pegasus declared angrily to Reef, hovering before him, “From the Air Temple, remember?”
“I wasn't on that sortie!” he protested, "Rather, erm, indisposed. Down in the cargo hold."
Set Sail blinked, then blushed deeply, saying: “Yes they come in peace. Well, peace for us at least. I think we might’ve helped them realise why their people were disappearing around here. So they’re here to put a stop to it. At any rate it’s fine, they’re fine, I’ll deal with it, now please don’t collide headlong into us trying to save me. I have to get back before Grenelda says something very rude.”
The griffons stared at Reef Skimmer in shock as he glided down to a landing and reverted back into a tentacle-beast. He didn't meet their gaze, even more embarrassed than usual as he slowly squeezed himself into hippogriff form.
“This is Reef Skimmer, the ship physician, and... water elemental,” Set Sail said, as the great beast, currently shifting into a slightly less than great beast, landed safely beside her. “You remember Brightfin, and Lakeshine, don’t you Reef?” she asked, with a smile his way, “I think we’re all friends here.” At that, she turned forward, saying to the new griffons, “T-terribly sorry. We’re still out of sorts a bit. You must have had a long trip here too. Would you like something to eat? I’m told Abernathy charges a very affordable price for his ah... sheep.”
"Yeah, he's a hippo-griffon, I saw him be the biggest fish you ever seen!" one of the gillfolk spoke out. "Who'da thought they turn into thunderbirds too?" Slipscale wondered, "Guess that's kinda watery still."
"Never seen a griff with hooves," Ebony said, "nor a griff that got water in 'em, but that's a handy trick for sure. Price on the sheep you say? Who's Abernathy?" She looked around at the woolly morsels that had scattered to the far edges of the meadow. "If he ain't selling, bet we could find somethin' tasty in that forest, or is there a price on them too?"
“Not sure,” Set Sail said looking over that way, “Officially this is a sheep pasture, but it’s a little...” at the hundred foot tall twisted viney jungle, “...overgrown. He’s had a chompy problem too, just as a head’s up. Abernathy lives on the other side of the island. He uhm... manages this place, and has been gracious enough to let us set up camp here. I suppose we could visit him; it’s not too much of a walk.”
"Chompies," Ebony snorted. "Good, those harpoon-totin' gillies were itching for some target practice. So... you wanna walk?" the dark hen said dubiously, looking pointedly at Set Sail's wings. "Fine. How 'bout you and me go see this sheep-managing guy, talk shop on the way. Rest of my flock were all haulin' a gilly along with their usual kit, so they can take a break right here - unless that don't suit you?"
"Were that a lake I saw flyin' over?" the older gillman said. "Not that we're all dryin' out here, no not just yet," Scalesbrook explained, "but I got a coupl'a good nets right here and dare say I couldn't rustle up some nice tasty fish for our hungry griffon friends."
“N-no it suits me just fine,” Set Sail said, looking at her own wing with some confusion, “It’s a nice walk, and you can get a closer look at the jungle this way.” She smiled at Brightfin, saying, “The smaller lake has a pier on it, a good place for fishing I’d say. How about I show you two where the trail turns that way, and me and... Ebony Hail can continue onward.”
"Fine plan, to be sure!" Slipscale said. "Uh, you wanna come Backwash? Pick off any chompies that's foolish enough to bother us." One of the harpoon-gun-toting gillfolk grunted his assent, moving to follow the griffons.
"Perhaps one should escort you, Captain," Reef said protectively, trotting over with a band of blue goo still visible around his barrel. "In case of chompies, you know." He nodded to the gillfolk, saying "Ah that peroxide has worked wonders hasn't it. In combination with your salve of course. Fins in fine shape! Alas, we are still working on sourcing more of the stuff."
"Yeah it's, uh, workin' a treat," Brightfin said. "Yeah you go see if you can't find some dinner Scales, I wanna talk to these ponyfolk some more."
“That’s a good idea, Reef! Why don’t you come walk with us?” Set Sail said, smiling his way. “We did clear out the path of any dangers, but you’re always welcome to come along. You never know when we'll need help.” She turned to the others saying, “Alright, follow me everyp—wone, everyone who’s coming.”
Reef's beak cracked open in a pleasant smile, but inwardly he winced. His whole body ached from the pummelling he'd taken in the spidrow nest, but he could hardly turn down the captain. "Very good..."
The brown pegasus led the two griffs and two gillfolk away down the path into the forest, leaving the remaining creatures to make themselves at home in the meadow. Blaze Trails struck up a lively conversation with Brightfin, while Gustus introduced Grenelda to Indigo, who in turn introduced the other native griffons. With the tension broken, a few of the braver ponies emerged from the ship to start getting to know their visitors.
A dozen paces away, two creatures were having their own reunion. "Azure Feather," Sunburn said warmly. "Good to see you in one piece." The feathery dragon nodded at Grenelda: "Looks like your squad's seen some action."
A weary smile crossed Azure Feather's face as the dragon stated the obvious. "You go poking about in the caves and ruins of Fellis, action finds you, I'll say that much..." She gave a rough chuckle before looking right at him: "I have to say it's good to see you again. I... hmm." The rest of the words died in her throat as she thought about how the Champion of Air really looked just now... this mission really hadn't been her finest hour, she thought.
"Fellis, now there's a place that's been screwed six ways to Sunday," Sunburn said dully. "Not much left to save, even if the cats would let you. You guys just doing a random walk around your ship or... ?"
"Long story short, Sunburn, we're just trying to get allies wherever we can find 'em. We don't know the place nearly as well as you do, but there are a couple of strong possibilities for an alliance... not absolute certainties, either of them, but one can hope, you know?" Azure's wings sagged a little as her fatigue started to show. "Had to take some risks to get there: long-shot decisions paying off, let's say."
"Sphinxes, Mystics, Fellissians... all they're concerned with these days is territory, and survival. Might lure the former out with the promise of knowledge, but a straight up fight against a drow base? That'd take some convincing," the bird-dragon lamented. "Unless you found some functional leonoids?" he added hopefully. "Now those were wonderful creations."
"Sorry... no sign of those. I think Logoros said they used to live in the place that's now just a big crater?"
At this point Grenelda strutted up, giving Sunburn a beak-gape smile. “Hah, Fellis has more to save than you would believe,” she told the dragon, fluffing proudly, “We rocked that island, and now we’re gonna—oh, hi Set Sail.” The captain had taken a break from her own conversation to glare at the hen; Grenelda stared down nervously down at her claws.
Sunburn leaned over to bring his beak close to Azure's ear. "These creatures are proud but willing to fight with you, to destroy the slavers. Don't spend their lives without good cause," he whispered.
The dragon's words pierced Azure like a hot knife through butter. "Such is the way of any large-scale battle, Sunburn... I'm not the type to win at any cost. I'd much rather keep every single one of us alive rather than achieve complete and total victory."
"Glad to hear it," Sunburn said quietly to Azure. "Can't afford to lose more... decent creatures, 'specially ones that can fight, they're getting thin in the skies. So... you got a battle plan? Or... waiting for these potential allies to commit or decline?"
Sunburn stared at her for a moment, expression as unreadable as a griffon's. "Always plenty of creatures willing to fight. Too willing, if anything," he said darkly. "Not many creatures willing to fight for the right reasons." A pause then, "Dirt Sharks? Solid mercenaries, better technology than most. Expensive though. You found something that will meet their price?"
"We just might have." Azure said hopefully. "My guess, it's going to be all or nothing. Everyone's afraid of the drow defences. We either get both sides to commit to an attack, or neither will risk it. We'll just... have to see, I guess. Although I'll be first to admit: I'm not the best when it comes to large-scale battles. I know the principles, certainly - but this is a strange land full of strange creatures, and I don't have a perfect read on everything. I'll welcome any advice from anyone... or skill, comfort, anything."
"So if a gryphon wants the back line, or a particularly skilled gillfolk wants the front... it's their choice," Azure continued. "These creatures weren't drafted, they're volunteers, and I'll do what I can to make sure everybody's tactical experience is incorporated into our plan. We're all proud, resolute, hopefully united... but that isn't enough to guarantee victory. It's worth nothing if we end up grieving over dead friends." The pegasus mare fell silent.
Gustus elbowed Grenelda. "Look at 'em getting on like a stable on fire!" A pointed look, then: "Let's give them some space, darling."
Grenelda looked fit to protest, but with a blush and a frown the griffon huffed, “...fine.”
“Missed you,” Gustus said quietly, pressing up alongside her with a smile.
“No I missed you,” she said, smiling back as she met his gaze.
"You passed the trials, were crowned Champion for it," Sunburn was telling Azure, "to my knowledge no other creature here can say that. Ebony seems like a tough bird, she's been fighting Kaosians for decades, but ponies are the lynchpin of this alliance. If you don't take command - especially with sharks on board - you'll have four or five separate forces doing their own thing, allies in name only."
Azure's facial expression fell after the rundown from Sunburn, as she looked at the task at hand without rose-tinted glasses. "...So it's all on me... got it." She muttered, her body giving a shudder moments later. "I'm going to have to be perfect about this, then. No losses allowed..." The pressure was definitely on now, as she didn't want all of the Harmony's efforts to get allies to crumble because of her incompetence...
Sunburn placed a warm scaly claw lightly on Azure's shoulder. "Azure Feather. It's great that you value your allies, but an effective commander has to accept that loses happen. Sure, you minimise the risks, but you can't avoid them - not without conceding defeat, and that just brings danger of another sort. Don't torture yourself expecting the impossible. You don't have the..." an odd pause then a frown "...luxuries, that the Skylanders had when we faced Kaos."
Azure sighed. "I've already made too many mistakes. That's... that's all I can say. If it wasn't for the Captain's... will to accomplish the seemingly impossible, a thirty-to-one rescue mission... allying with the cats would've even be a possibility. I'll admit my latest mistake was trying to prevent that crazy stunt..."
"You can tell me about it later," Sunburn said, "I'm sure you've had a long day and require rest."
"Long day... yeah, you can say that." She smiled weakly. "Sorry, Sunburn... but I will say it's good to see you again." With a final bow, she retreated to the Harmony, quietly making her way up the ramp and then down to her quarters. Goodness, she couldn't remember being happier to see her little cot...
It was a bright, breezy and slightly chilly morning as Set Sail stood atop the EAS Harmony, the brown pegasus looking out over the pasture that lay below her and the jungle beyond. Her blue mane and tail ruffled in the wind, the former kept in check by her good old green kerchief. When had she started thinking of this place as home? A few ponies bustled around their little stand of tents, while the huge native griffons dozed in hammocks strung from the trees.
It felt familiar, and also safe, the acting captain concluded to herself, possibly the safest place they’d found since coming here. Everywhere else was full of dangerous ruins, hostile beasts, every single creature a meat-eating predator, and the aftermath of something terrible she didn’t fully understand. Yet she knew they couldn’t stay here forever. It was Abernathy’s good will that let them come this far, but she didn’t want to harm his pastures, his livelihood - none of them did.
They did not expect to come here finding the creatures of this land still struggling to survive. It felt like there was something missing, like there was a whole land missing, and the floating islands were just the fragmented scattered bits of it left for everyone to bitterly fight over.
She had made a decision, Summer did the exact opposite of course, and somehow this had gained them powerful allies. Sphinxes like the one of legend, mysterious creatures trading secrets like they were apples at the market. A leader who hid her face, even though she had nothing to hide. Set Sail knew Summer Scribe was wrong. She knew they had to be honest, and tell these creatures the truth. They had looked so full of hope when their great Oracle had returned.
She cast herself off into the void, wings catching her home, the air, sailing around the ship in a slow descent. Was she wrong about everything? Was she the problem, that Summer Scribe had been keeping in check all this time? Set Sail needed to find somepony she could talk to about that mare, and herself.
And who better to talk to about Summer Scribe than Blue Type, Set Sail decided, heading down to what passed as a laboratory on the converted warship. In the well-lit corner of the tween deck, an attempt at organization had exploded into chaos as possibilities and investigative leads have multiplied faster than they can be tamed down. Blue Type had been hard at work, learning as much as she could about this hostile world, so rich in history: trying to decipher its runes, learn its culture and lore, discover some kind of a pattern, anything that could be useful to the explorers out risking their lives for the crew's safety.
Without Summer Scribe around anymore to confer in, the hole in her heart had been filled up by workaholism: a desire to have something to show from all the misfortune their ill-fated expedition had suffered. Losing the lead ship, the crash landing that had crippled their engines, the transformations that slowly seemed to be claiming us one by one... If she could just learn something that'd avert even one more loss like Summer's...
“Hello, Blue Type?” Set Sail asked quietly, making her way carefully through the piles of artefacts. She stepped around a fallen scroll, and pushed another aside with her wing. Narrowly avoiding stepping on a crumbling book, she said, “Hello?” The lavender earth pony was sitting at the largest table, poring over a set of ancient-looking runes that Set Sail couldn’t hope to understand.
“...any luck in your research?” Set Sail asked, approaching the other mare with a sympathetic smile.
"Oh! Uh..." Blue Type tried to swap from 'juggling three things in her head deep research mode' to 'casual conversation mode' as she shakes her head down, turning to face Set Sail with a sheepish look. Pausing, formulating an answer to the question. "Ahem. Well... I haven't run out of questions to ask yet." She gave a light chuckle, the kind you give after realising your life's work had turned into a never-ending rabbit hole.
"This place is fascinating, but I have only little glimpses, bits and pieces of it here and there. How I'd love to be able to really piece it all together - plumb through historical archives start to finish, talk with the archivists - but, umm, everyone's far too busy, and everything too dangerous, for me to get a chance at something like that, so I'm just making do with what I can..." She lowering her head, releasing a soft sigh. "A-anyway, I just wish I could help more. Do you have something for me, Set Sail?"
“Actually I was hoping you could help me,” Set Sail said, settling onto her haunches beside the ponypologist. “You’ve been working with Summer Scribe for a while, haven’t you?”
Blue Type looked sad for a moment, then nodded her head. "Yeah - we were working together since before the expedition, in fact. Though under different circumstances. Umm..." Her eyes brimmed with interest. "You saw her, right? As the Oracle?"
“That’s right, and I’d... like if we could keep that between us for now,” Set Sail said with great unease, “Summer hasn’t exactly... told the sphinxes what happened yet. And that’s what I want to ask about. I told her not to tell them she was their great high princess or anything, but between me and Cloud Cutter, our signals may have gotten crossed, because that’s exactly what she did.”
Looking up to the ceiling where muffled activity from the top deck filtered down through the timbers, the brown pegasus said wistfully, “I was going to tell them everything, but I just don’t know anymore. I didn’t think this could ever possibly work, and yet... Summer is managing it. I didn’t realise how badly they wanted their Oracle back, and is it wrong to say that she isn’t exactly that? Mostly I just want to know if... Summer’s idea is the right way to go. I feel like I was wrong, and it wouldn’t do any good if we told the sphinxes, neither for them or us. But I just don’t know.”
Looking at Blue Type beseechingly, the captain said in an earnest worry: “I thought Summer was just a loose cannon, and here she is bringing us allies and friends. Am I wrong about that? I don’t know her as well as you do. Can Summer Scribe really be trusted to pull this off?”
Blue Type held a hoof to her face as she listened to the other mare's woes. "Oh, my..." she quietly murmured to herself. "On one hoof, it's a ponypologist's dream." A chuckle, as though aware she'd made a transgressive joke. "Just imagine how much she'll be able to learn - quite literally immersed in their culture and knowledge at the highest position! It is technically deception, but..." She pressed her hoof nervously to her snout, as though about to bite down on it.
"...Honestly. This is so much classic Summer Scribe. She'd get the most direct, most dangerous idea for how to get the results she'd want and fixate on it, consequences be damned. Worked better when it was something where she could absorb the risks herself than when it would fall into other people's laps. But I'm not surprised she'd be like this to the bitter end." Another low chuckle. "...To finish my thought. You said that the sphinxes really, really needed this, right? And... it sounds like she's giving them what they want. So let me ask you - do you think she's being a positive influence for them? And yes, the question of how to peel Summer away from them does remain open, but... one thing at a time."
“I... don’t know enough about them to say if she’s a positive influence on them,” Set Sail said, her tail swishing the deck in consternation, “The ones I’ve met make it seem like they’ve been able to do nothing but guard her statue and... fight a war of attrition with the spidrow. Given the size of the spidrow city, I’m not sure the sphinxes were winning.”
Less frustrated than when she came in, Set Sail met Blue Type’s eyes with a smile, saying, “But I do think the sphinxes seem to be a positive influence for Summer Scribe. If they ever suspect, don’t deceive them, but otherwise let’s just... let them think what they want to think, and see how things go. I’ll try not to underestimate her again.”
Blue Type furrowed her brow. "Well, that's what they were doing before the Oracle came back, right? Maybe with the Oracle's, well, Summer's powers, they'll be able to make some real progress. That's the hope, right? They get back on their feet and in return...?"
“Captain,” Cloud Cutter said, scaring the captain out of her wits as the purple pegasus was like right behind her. Looking up at the captain clinging to a ceiling beam, the empty eyed pegasus said plainly: “We can’t tell them about Summer Scribe. Blue Type needs Summer to be the Oracle.”
The earth pony was a little scared herself, stumbling back in a startle at the spooky pony's sudden interruption. "I, err, well... Whatever do you mean?!" She sounded curious... A bit taken aback at being spoken for, but... it was hard to deny the emotional resonance.
Cloud Cutter looked Blue Type in the eyes, hauntingly capturing her in that empty gaze. Then her gaze went to the captain again, telling the pegasus: “Sorry. Gustus said you went to go talk with Blue Type and I had to say something before you swiftly departed.”
She looked back to Blue Type, telling her evenly: “Summer Scribe, as the Oracle, has the combined knowledge of all the previous Oracles. Centuries of information on the history and nature of this place. She can translate everything.
"Not just everything Sphinx, but an expert on everything Skylands," the ponypologist said, her excitement manifesting as an uncontainable squirming. "Yes. Yes. We have to ask her about everything. She's absolutely indispensable, now. ... Hmm. I suppose it's not going to be as easy as just waltzing up and dropping her a line, right now."
She tapped a hoof on the floor. "Set Sail, I take it if we smooth things over with the Sphinxes, you'd be able to get some private time with Summer Scribe? I just need to compose a series of questions to forward to her via you, if that's okay..."
As the acting captain fluttered down to the deck, Cloud Cutter reassured her: “You really are fantastic at understanding people, and caring about them, but you’re not a scientist, so it’s perfectly fine you didn’t think of it. But the scientific value of this is a matter of life and death, so I had to intervene.”
“It... it’s fine,” Set Sail said with a dismissive wing wave, looking off distantly, “I’ll do what I can to smooth things over, if... I’m any good at anything. Sorry I didn’t realise—I mean—” she looked to the purple pegasus saying with a smile, “Thank you Cloud Cutter.” And then to Blue Type saying, “And thank you. I think I have a better idea of what we should do now.”
Blue Type nodded back with a quiet smile, feeling foolish for failing to recognise the true potential of Summer's condition. She guessed her friend's sudden absence made her feel... unavailable, lost in a way. "I don't know this is all going to turn out, but..." She ran a hoof through her mane, trying to calm her nerves. "I just know Summer Scribe's trying her best, in her own personal way. Let's make the best we can of this situation, okay? All of us together."
The Hall of Alliance was a distillation of everything the ponies had seen on Fellis. The grand structure stood scarred, half-ruined but still proud on an islet to the north of Fellis City. The interior was full of faded glory, tapestries now tattered and rotting but mosaic floors still telling of past victories and prosperity. Clearly it had stood as the cumulation of an impressive, multi-species civilisation, but that time was now two centuries past.
The enormous domed chamber at the centre of the complex reminded Set Sail of the Temple of the Four Winds, though there were no glowing crystals here. Instead the wind blew through cracked and missing panes in the stained-glass windows. In the brief silences when the inhabitants stopped shouting at each other, a mournful keening could be heard - not that there had been many such intervals.
The circular floor was dominated by an enormous stone table where the delegates sat, surrounded by a ring-shaped upper gallery packed with two hundred or more spectators. Cats and sharks and sphinxes and griffons and even a few gillmen all faced off, gathered into tight groups of their own kind, shooting each other angry and distrustful looks when they weren't watching the show below.
The central table was polished stone, with the delegates seated along two opposing arcs. There was a pronounced step between the two sides, seating the natives a good thirty centimetres higher than the outsiders. They were grouped behind four seals that symbolised their species: pictograms on the table top that Summer Scribe recognised from the abandoned magical laboratory.
Behind the first seal a dark red sphinx sat next to a pale blue animated statue: Ne'kuno and the avatar of their recently returned Oracle (secretly the spirirt of the pony, Summer Scribe). Reverence for the Oracle's legend and a fair dose of curiosity had driven the other felines to accept her offer to assemble here. The two sphinxes sat resplendent in their finery, Ne'kuno's face hidden as always by her mirror-polished golden mask.
Behind the next seal two bulky creatures lay on a platform, each with a four-legged lion body joined to a humanoid upper torso, like feline centaurs. Everdream and Arcana were not seeing eye to eye: the former was intrigued by the situation, while the later was quick to call the revelations lies: some kind of trick by the rapacious sharks and their equine dupes. The two mystic's staffs flashed and flared as they emphasised their words, at times seeming like their argument would devolve into a magic duel.
The third seal represented the bipedal cats, the ones the ponies recognised as Abyssinians. The tiger-striped Royal Flush kept his eyes on the sharks, full of bravado and giving away nothing, but surprisingly willing to engage. Beside him the cougar-like Frostpaw seemed much less comfortable, his eyes darting around while his ears flattened at every surge of noise from the onlookers. The massive thrones behind the fourth seal remained empty: it seemed none of the remaining leonoids were in a fit state for diplomacy.
The six felines faced off against a further three pairs of delegates, arrayed along the lower sweep of the table. On the left was the leader of the dirt sharks: Firesteel, gold chains glinting as he gestured and flexed, flashing the cats a sharp-toothed smile as he assured them that only Triskelion Mine could turn a profit on the 'third-rate minerals poking up through that litter-box to the north'. Occasionally he elbowed the other shark: his accountant Pitchblende, who offered supporting figures in his fussy, nasal voice.
To the right the blue pegasus Azure Feather sat with the fire-feathered bird-dragon Sunburn, representing the Skylanders and their interest in seeing Fellis reunited. Neither had said much so far, just watching the chaotic meeting with stoic unreadable looks. Finally in the centre sat a pegasus mare and stallion: Trade Wind and Set Sail, second and third mate respectively of the EAS Harmony, sole remaining airship (to the best of their knowledge) of the Cloudbreak Expedition.
Set Sail could see a few of her friends up in the gallery: she took some solace in the sight of the Grenelda and Reef Skimmer, ready to leap down and fight off the natives should things devolve into violence. That small comfort aside, it was her and her two fellow pegasi, trapped in this pit, facing off against an enormous crowd of alien predators.
"So like Miss Oracle here was saying, all that superstition was just getting in the way of business. You kitties got nothing to worry about, just a nice seven percent cut sitting there for the taking, once that laser's out of the picture. Hell, you wanna scout the best pillars for us, I'll make it nine percent! Easy money," Firesteel was saying magnanimously.
"So... daylight robbery with a smile and a gratuity, good to know you sharks never change," Royal Flush growled. "I've had better things to do than kick your sorry behinds, but now it's clear what the ancients intended. You ain't stealing one more gem of our inheritance, even if I gotta smash every one of your stupid carriages!"
“Alright, it looks like everyone’s here, so I think we can get started!” Set Sail said in a voice not quite a shout, “I’m Set Sail!”
A stallion with a lively blue coat and dusty red hair followed immediately with: “And I’m Trade Wind! You don’t know us, but that’s a good thing! We’re travellers from another land, who don’t stand to benefit from cozying up to either one of you.”
“You do know us a little though,” Set Sail added, “Enough to know that we’re not going to screw you over. It wouldn’t do us any good!”
“We stuck our noses where they don’t belong, and we learned something that could get all of you what you want, and save you a lot of trouble,” Trade Wind stated, “but before we talk about, it we need to agree on some ground rules.”
“We didn’t come here just to yell at each other, after all!” the mare declared, with a quick glance Trade Wind’s way.
“We each get to talk one at a time, starting with us, the ponies,” Trade Wind explained, “Because we’re the ones insisting on you all being here, so we better have a good explanation for it. Nobody gets to interrupt what you have to say, until you said it, and then you can answer questions.”
“This is the talking stick!” Set Sail said, holding up a simple rod with a bit of yellow painted on its tip, “Whoever has it is the one who gets to talk. We’ll pass it around the table clockwise, until everyone’s had a say. And then we’ll... do it again if we have to!”
“Nobody gets to talk more than ten minutes!” Trade Wind called out, “Say what you have to say, and then move on!”
“And just pass it on if you want!” Set Sail added.
“Does anyone object to those terms?” Trade Wind concluded, coolly eyeing the various delegates he was facing.
Royal Flush, Arcana and Firesteel immediately began objecting vigorously to those terms, the former because they 'weren't having no outsiders telling us what to do', the later because 'management consulting wasn't included in the contract'.
Summer Scribe cast a stern glare across both bickering parties. "Quiet!" she rumbled imperiously. "These ponies are the only reason why we're here meeting at all." She closed her eyes for a moment. "They are the only reason we have any chance of securing our sovereignty once again. Once we have terms, you may disagree with them - so be it. But we will have a proper debate, not squabbling and paranoia, so that we may come to the right conclusion."
Beside her Ne'kuno nodded quietly. "Yes... Let us take this seriously." She gave the mystic and Fellissian delegations a pointed look. "This is our chance to make amends on our long century of poverty and ruin. Would you have it crumble away too, like the rest of our society?"
The intransigent felines hissed back at the sphinxes, but did hold their tongues. Everdream was more receptive, giving Summer a slow nod. Firesteel shot her a canny look - an active Oracle was a new factor in cat-folk politics and he was still gauging just how much authority she weilded - then favoured Summer with a wink.
The two pegasi fluttered back to settle down into their seats. Set Sail wasted no time, sifting through the notes in front of her with a hoof as she spoke: “Ponies... come from the faraway magical land of Equestria. We may not have the same diet as you, but unlike the herbivores of your lands, we are just as smart and capable as any carnivore.”
“The purpose of our expedition is to explore and learn about these new lands, in the sky,” Trade Wind said in a confident baritone, “We were marooned when our ship was damaged, and while trying to recover from that, we met two very rich cultures that have a lot to offer each other.”
“The land sharks aren’t raiding the pillars for the fun of it,” Set Sail remarked mostly honestly, “They’re a noble and capable group with an awesome skill and passion, but they’re hurting for resources so much, they have to risk their lives and even die to harvest the pillars on your island.”
“The pillars were meant to be harvested though!” Trade Wind speaks up, “Just not by the sharks. The wonderous and mystical people of Fellis have grown these valuable resources to benefit their future generations.”
“Now that the Fellisians have recovered their birthright, they can give the Uberite to anyone who shows themself to be a friend and ally!” Set Sail says gladly, “And the sharks have invaluable equipment, machines, and knowhow that would help you all thrive, rather than just struggling to survive.”
“So that’s what we know, and that’s what we think will help,” Trade Wind concludes, “No one, feline or shark, has to die anymore. A fair trade agreement would benefit both of you, and let you fight for the important things, instead of getting bogged down in an endless conflict over resources. Any questions?”
"You ponies, you with the Eonites?" called a male voice: Frostpaw, the cougar-like cat from the northern tribe. "'Cause all this sweet talkin' and friendship, that's their line all right. For sure, I never heard of this 'Equestria'. If it's real, must be the other side o' Skylands."
“We’ve heard of the Eonites, a little,” Set Sail told Frostpaw with a bit of a grimace, “We ponies are all about friendship, like they are, but the difference is we’re actually here to make friends, not... kidnap creatures, shove them into pods and turn them into short lived magical monstrosities.”
“If you ever spot me shoving someone into a pod, you’re free to put a stop to my evil,” Trade Wind said wryly, with a sideways look at the strong-looking cat creature.
Ne'kuno listened quietly, inscrutable as ever with most of her face hidden by her golden mask. Now she leaned forward as though with a hint of credulity. "These are bold claims, ponies. We have known the sharks only as opportunists; they take what they can, not even seeking an audience with us - you say that now they will change their ways and honour a fair trade deal with us? What has changed between then and now?" Her tail flicked slowly.
Trade Wind looked to Set Sail, and the two ponies whispered together for a moment. Then he smiled, saying “Yeah... yeah.”
Turning to Ne’kuno the stallion explained: “The reason they want to honor the deal is it’s a whole lot less trouble. What changed is not them, but you. You discovered the true nature of the pillars, and now you have the power to share them. It's up to the sharks if they want to keep spending resources fighting you, but we wouldn't be here if I thought that was how it's going to turn out.”
With no more questions for the moment, Set Sail rolled the talking stick over to the shark delegation next to them, saying hopefully, “Alright, so what do you think?”
The smaller shark, Pitchblende, picked up the stick and looked at it thoughtfully, only for his boss to grab it out of his hand. "Guessing you call it the Mediation Mace, right? Nice little side-hustle you got going here." Firesteel smiled indulgently at the ponies, using the stick to make a vague sweeping gesture at the surrounding room. "Let's hope we don't have to escalate to the Arbitration Axe!"
An easy laugh that again reminded them just how many sharp teeth he had. "Passionate, yeah, that's us! Work hard and play hard, that's why Triskelion Mining Corp is the biggest independent supplier of raw and refined materials on the rim! Gotta correct you though Set Sail - we ain't hurting for nothin'. Working a dozen seams for two dozen customers, to say nothing of our booming reclaim & recycling arm."
"So why are we out here?" Firesteel asked rhetorically. "You see, after being cooped up down in the drift my boys feel the need for speed, and what kind of boss would I be if I didn't give my staff the chance to drive a tricked-out rig through laser death for the promise of a substantial bonus?! But I'm willing to part with that great benefit, so we can get a deal going with you kitties, get you banked up and integrated into the enterprise, you know? Honestly the commercials are marginal, but these ponies are saying it could be the start of a greater trading relationship, so why not give it a shot."
Summer gives a solid, unwavering gaze at Firesteel, as one seeing through deception would. "You call the uberite pillars 'marginal'? They are the most valuable deposit you've ever laid your eyes on, shark - not to mention the runestone, and the imaginite! Don't you dare try to undersell their value before us all. Our ancestors chose well in their ritual, bringing this material into existence and under our control. You are just a cut throat capitalist, and you know fully well what you are hoping to get out of this."
Summer grinned a wry, toothy grin. "So... we ask that you act truthfully, and acknowledge its true value, as shall we." Of course she had first hand knowledge of both the pillars and the sharks from when she was a pony, but no one would doubt the Oracle being able to figure this out, in her own mysterious ways.
Trade Wind spoke up then, saying loudly to the... odd looking sphinx character, “Excuse me! But you have to wait your turn. Ask a question or let the sharks speak.”
Summer Sphinx... cleared her throat: "Ahem. Yes, I suppose I did not pose that in question format... Carry on, as per your rules."
Firesteel waved him off. "Oh she's got a question - question about operating expenses, seems like. No doubt you got a thousand years of secrets in that stony noggin' of yours, Oracle, but any of them deal with accounts receivable and capital depreciation? See it's one thing to say a pretty old chunk of imaginite's just the finest thing you ever saw, it's another to pay your labour, transport, maintenance, security, refining, sales and marketing costs..." the hulking bipedal shark ticked off the litany of costs on his stubby fingers "...not to mention the next-of-kin pay-outs."
"Thing's only as valuable as someone wants to pay, and you gotta find that someone, get the goods to 'em, and make sure they don't get any ideas 'bout keeping the goods and the money, you see what I'm saying? Now that's what it takes to be a capitalist, and you cats are in the lucky position of having some experts who can handle all those details for you."
Before anyone else could object, he tossed the stick underarm at Summer. Ne'kuno sprang forward and caught it in a paw, anxious that it might shatter the Oracle's avatar.
Summer Sphinx cleared her throat again, recovering from a modicum of temporary embarrassments. Then she took the stick from Ne'kuno with a quietly muttered 'thank you', attempting to settle herself before the audience. As fun, and... almost natural it is to be the Oracle, she wasn't immune to stage fright when her performance was this important. "Thank you. My view on these matters is simple: we must do whatever it takes to restore our people to our former glory. It will take all us cats together, and likely outside help as well. We have been sitting on - squandering - the incredible resource the pillars represent."
"In our current diminished state, we lack the ability to harvest or use it. We have here in front of us a prospective ally, the Sharks of Triskellion, who are willing to trade incredible, life-changing resources for the minerals. Everything we could ever need to rebuild: construction materials, tools, machinery. Felissians, this is exactly what our ancestors wanted us to do, is it not? Would they wish us to remain in shambles to spite outsiders, or to secure prosperity whatever form it comes in?"
"So long as the compensation is fair, my desire is to see us trade for what we need. To take control of our destiny, and finally rid ourselves of foes and famine! ...That is all. While the character and fairness of the sharks must be judged and found worthy, this is the approach I wish to take."
"Oracle, we are all overjoyed that you once again guide the sphinxes," Royal Flush rumbled, emphasising 'sphinxes'. "If Everdream is certain mining the pillars will not curse us all..." a pointed stare at the scowling Aracana, "...that's good enough for me. Yet I must ask... have the sharks not already been tried, judged and convicted? Many of our parents and grandparents lost their remaining coin to the shark's ursury, and many treasures were sold to them for a pittance, by desperate starving cats. You all heard him: nine percent! How can that be 'fair compensation'."
"Your concerns are heard, Royal Flush." She turns a glance to Firesteel once again. "And that is why my proposition is simple: we get them to sign a contract today, fair to both parties, and hold them to it. If they are capitalists of their word, then we will get exactly what we have agreed upon. We have suffered long enough: now we will get what we deserve."
The talking stick began to glow then, as an unseen force yanked it out of Ne'kuno's paw. It flew directly into the hand of the female mystic; her other hand held her staff aloft, its crystal tip glowing. "Fools!" she ranted, "The shark-demons have sought the plunder and ruin of Fellis for a lifetime or more! A few tricks, some harmless-looking 'mediators', and you're ready to give up without a fight! You say we were wrong, all those years of reverence for our ancestors? Nay! Their plan will be revealed in due time, and we must-"
"ENOUGH!" Everdream's shout echoed around the chamber, flattening ears and leaving silence in its wake. His fury had been building as Arcana spoke, and now his own staff was touched against his throat as he spoke out. "I, EVERDREAM, AM MASTER OF THE CONCLAVE," he withdrew his staff and continued in a more normal tone, "and the sphinxes opened the way for me to confer with the great Logoros. No spirit of that calibre could be tricked or controlled by their like. You-" he jabbed a finger at Aracana, "-have clouded minds with superstition, and I will abide it no longer." The other mystic was glaring daggers at him, but was forced to submit, dropping her gaze.
"Now... it is my belief these ponies are agents of fate, come to catalyse our long-overdue resurgence." The cat-taur smiled down at Set Sail. "Already they have done more in a week than... certain creatures have in a lifetime. Yet it is up to us to..." an amused glance at Firesteel "capitalise on this opportunity. I know in my heart that the people of Fellis have it in us to rebuild lost glories. What I do not know is whether the involvement of the sharks will accelerate or hinder the process. At this point I remain open to both possibilities."
Set Sail raised her hoof asking, “Your friend might be wrong in some ways, but she’s trying to protect what she loves too, and she’s been here much longer than we have. I feel you’d benefit from a new relationship with the land sharks, but if your friend turns out to be right, could you please, um, resoundingly defeat us?”
Summer Sphinx quietly taps a claw against the floor, watching Set Sail closely. It would be nice if she'd project a bit more confidence about all of this... She said nothing, though. It was hard to get mad at someone showing their belly, but where was the Set Sail who forcefully pinned her in her cabin, in the aftermath of Reef's transformation?
Arcana did not seem to be mollified, just scowling and glaring back at the ponies. As for Everdream, he stared at the equines for a long moment, then slowly smiled. Then he turned to the final group at the giant meeting table: "It is said the Skylanders were a common sight on Fellis, centuries ago. Now many believe the Skylanders destroyed, disbanded or at least too sorely pressed to bother with the Fringe. I do hope you're here to prove them wrong, Sunburn." The mystic bowed his head.
"Hard pressed indeed if they're recruiting from these 'ponies'," Arcanna sneered, still trying to sow distrust among the other felines. Everdream ignored her, releasing the baton a metre above the table. Instead of falling it just hovered there; with the flick of a claw the felitaur sent it drifting over to Azure and Sunburn.
Through the whole conference, Azure hadn't said a word: instead, the blue pegasus had been intently studying the array of native creatures, sizing up possible threats versus possible allies (which were largely one adn the same). Her apprehension grew as the meeting wore on and the talking stick made its way around the table towards them. She had been planning to pass it straight to Sunburn, hoping his diplomatic skills were less lacking than hers. However Arcana's word had gotten her attention; judging by the scowl on her face, Azure was not going to let that insult slide.
Flapping up from her seat, Azure caught the stick in her mouth and paused to stare at the assembled cats. She hovered for a few moments then landed, composing herself and placing the stick on the table. "As Set Sail told you, we are from a land far away, ship and crew sent here on a long-range reconnaissance mission. Until we arrived we had no knowledge of this land's magic - nor any knowledge of the Skylanders, nor of the creatures that lived here."
She looked directly at Arcana, giving a quiet nod before stating: "You doubt the abilities of ponies, or our intentions? Where we came from, many have made that mistake... and many would-be-villains came to regret it. Now I say this with all due respect for your own magic, but chose us as allies, and you will not find us lacking. Try to do us harm... and you might get a nasty surprise."
"Now, I can't speak for the Skylanders - as I say we has only been two weeks since we first met - but I will raise one point in their defence. Of all the creatures here, only they came offering friendship and assistance. Sunburn has fought for us and Spyro gave us parts to help with repairs. In my judgement... they might be the most honourable and trustworthy creatures here."
Azure looked like she wanted to add more, but... her confidence faltered as she reminded herself that she was no diplomat. More words could easily ruin this. With a sigh and a shake of her head, clearly still frustrated with the cat's low opinion of ponies, she passed the talking stick to Sunburn and stepped back.
The bird-like dragon took it in one claw, giving Azure an odd look somewhere between appreciation and embarassment. Then he shook it off, pointing the stick accusingly at the felines as if threatening them with a magic wand. "You're probably thinking those are idle boasts. That would be a mistake," he growled.
"I've been fighting for Skylands for a long, loooong time. Faced down horrors you wouldn't believe, and destroyed every single one. Azure Feather here, she's not a Skylander - not yet - but she is a true Champion of Air. And like us, she puts her life on the line to save innocent creatures - not just her own crew, saw her dive in and save a family of strange griffs from Kaosian slavery. So you want my respect, then you give her respect."
Sunburn lowered the baton, continuing in a warmer tone: "Like Azure, I'm no diplomat. Spyro always handled that side of things. Situation seems clear enough though. Sharks have machinery and trading partners. Cats have labour and magic. Working together, you've got a shot at rebuilding. Don't, well... sure, you'll survive. Until the truce breaks and the Kaosian war machine really gets desperate for 'recruits'."
Summer nodded calmly to the feathery dragon. Now this was more like it: a reminder that there were bigger threats out there, and time pressure to get a deal done. With her knowledge as the Oracle, she was well aware of the many wars that have stricken the Sky Lands before: sadly, it was not the kind of realm where you could dawdle along and mark out a peaceful, unharried existence.
"Maybe the trolls are desperate enough to try and mop up Fellis, but at Triskelion we take security seriously," Firesteel bragged. "Near on a hundred emplaced guns, and there ain't nobody who bets against a dirt shark in a tunnel fight. They'd lose an army trying to bring us to heel, and they know it," he sneered.
Azure Feather stared back evenly at the shark, answering with: "Well, that may be true, but while you've rich in weaponry, you're sorely lacking in... survivability. You trade for most of your food right? And no doubt other vital supplies as well. I didn't see any fields on your island; I'm not sure your people can grow... well, anything in the environment you live in. On Fellis, they have farms and... hunting, and plenty of land and water to grow more. What would you give for a secure, reliable food supply?" she asked, sounding fairly confident...
Sunburn nodded: "If the Kaosians come for you... blockade would be the smart move... and that's the best case. Worst case, they either convince the drow to rejoin the other clans, or just drive them off the Hand of Eon. If the Kaosians can repair that, they'll lock down every ship, every flyer in the eastern Fringe." He waited for his words to sink in, then with a flick of his claw rolled the baton across the table, back to the ponies.
Set Sail reached forward to steady the baton and carefully picked it up in her teeth; she gave Trade Wind a hopeful look before tossing it to him. The blue-coated stallion caught it with a foreleg, his hoof curling neatly around to hold it against his cannon. He tossed his light red mane back and straightened up, saying clearly: “Alright, we’ve all talked about our situation and what we should do. So now we gotta talk terms. I’m gonna tell you what we ponies need that I think you might be able to help with, and what we have to offer you, that I think you might want."
“First off, we’re far from home, so our crew is the size of a ship, not a whole island. That means fewer of us to worry about, but we’re not gonna have as much to offer. Our numbers are around fifty, mostly flyers, mostly pegasi. The pegasi among us are trained balloon sailors, but the weather is in our blood, and we can help with any weather management you might need. We have some earth ponies who have a lot of strength and... pizzazz for lack of a better word. They can help with your food crops and rock processing, which is the name of your game right now."
"Few unicorns with their own list of tricks, from basic levitation and mending, to chromotechnics and welding. We got a crack engineering team who could probably give you sharks a run for your money; I’m not joking, they were only contracted with us out of messy politics and are seriously overqualified. We have a darned good doctor, and a couple of crew who've trained under him, though our crash has left them busy with our own injured...”
He paused to look back at his splinted legs, wincing before continuing: “But I’m sure we could help anypony in need, especially if they did us a favor or two. As for what we need, we need materials and parts, to repair our damaged ship. Our main propellors got torn up in an... unfortunate collission, and we got several shattered timbers that we’re still working on repairing. Our balloon is patched all to Tartarus - small miracle it's still airworthy, but I did say we were set to sail on this expedition for how good we are with a balloon.”
He gave Set Sail an appreciative look, then concluded, “Got a few carnivores among us, but for the most part we’re generalist herbivores. We can do fine with simple pastures and even browsing. Our current location meets our food needs just fine, but the last thing we need is... protection."
Shaking his head, Trade Wind said, “We’re just too close to the flyer-catching pirates that have been raiding your area, and they’re howling for our blood after we uh... defended ourselves. Once. By, uh... taking one of their copters. Seems like that's enough for them to get obsessed with destroying us. See, our current location is defenseless and our ship severely limited in its movement capabilities. If you help us with nothing more, we need a place we can take a stand, and fight with you against these awful raiders.”
Set Sail spoke up then, saying urgently, “The Kaosians and the Eonites both sound like terrible dangers. I’ve heard... some stories, about machines that twist you with dark magic, strange weapons that turn your friends into enemies. If they ever come back, you need an alliance: an alliance of the willing, who band together because they help each other, not because of some mind warping weapon or machine. Maybe they’re as broken as they left you, maybe they’re no longer a threat, but if you don’t band together as friends...”
“...then you’ll be bound together as slaves,” Trade Wind concluded, looking down darkly.
“Sorry, I just wanted to mention it. Um...” Set Sail said, blushing.
Shaking his head, Trade Wind looked over the rest, saying, “Right, so that’s what I think we should do next, talk about who you can help with what, and what you need help with yourself. But uh... don’t take my suggestion as law. Say what you need to say. We’re not here to judge, we’re here to learn.” He reached forward, placed a hoof on the table. With a glance at the two dirt sharks he set the talking stick rolling slowly their way, keeping his expression carefully neutral outside of an amused twinkle in his eye.
Pitchblende just watched with a resigned expression as it rolled past; Firesteel swept up the stick and twirled it with surprising dexterity in his stubby fingers. "So what we're talking about here is a close business partnership, with tactical contingencies! You want to leverage our full range of competencies up and down the verticals. Smart choice!" He flashed his impressive array of razor-sharp teeth in another winning smile.
"So we're gonna need to get some boys on the ground here and start iterating. 'course it's going to take a while to get you cats up to speed on Total Overmatch Shark Synergy Expedited Reporting, so in the mean time our consultants will handle all the admin. You wanna learn some tech skills? Course you do. That's why I'm opening up our internship program to all Fellissians! Send some cats to work for us, they'll be fully certified in, uh..." He glanced at the smaller shark.
"Three years sir."
"Let's call it two and a half!"
Summer Sphinx pondered that, stroking her chin, leaning over to whisper to Ne'kuno. "Hmm, now this part I have my concerns. I am not sure if our Fellissians will be so eager to sign years of their lives over to the sharks without clear compensation." Ne'kuno nods in calm agreement. "I can hardly imagine a sphinx lowering themselves to the level of forced labour. We are not a resource to be exploited - we are a free people."
"Did you have a question, honoured Oracle?" Trade Wind asked, giving her a look.
Summer Sphinx clears her throat. "Ahem, yes I do. These internships you'll be offering, Firesteel. They are paid positions, are they not? As you'd bestow upon any other employee of a different skin?"
Trade Wind made sure to break eye contact before he smiled.
"Certainly they are well paid," Pitchblende said, "in terms of total in-kind compensation. Secure shelter, engineering training and nutritious food are rare and expensive commodities!"
"Nice of you to offer," Trade Wind said flatly, "Now maybe you could tell us what you need?"
Firesteel shot Trade Wind a strange look. "Our interest in the minerals is clear. We've got the processing, the transport, the buyers. Labour, for sure, we could make more, sell more if I had more workers. Food? We ain't exactly going hungry, but a smart shark never says no to a new source of chow."
"Now as for you ponies - seems like the original deal is moot. Let's say partial credit - if these kitties see reason. You want those repairs, we can talk about signing over a few engineers. Just for a year or two. But... you're busy horses." Another wide smile. "You got more places to go, creatures to smooze with. You're wanna kick some drow tail, right? Show me a solid plan, and sign over all salvage rights to the Hand, and I'll spot you the repairs gratis. Might even throw in a little bonus, to help with the, uh, 'self-defence'."
Summer Sphinx flashes Trade Wind a grin at that. Finally the moment they'd been waiting for: a means to kick some serious Drow ass and bring some much-needed relief and security to the crew of the Harmony. That was the real prize she was after here. 'You better have a good plan for this', she thought as strongly as she could, as though the telepathic waves could leap across the room and influence Set Sail and Azure Feather.
“So what you need is salvage, labour, and somepony to help, uhm, kick drow butt?” Trade Wind summed up. “And you wouldn't say no to some nutritious food, it seems? We’re not making deals yet, just trying to learn more about each other. None of the Fellissians have gotten to talk yet, and you might find they have a lot more to offer than we do. How could we hold you to a deal you made now, if we turn out to be the second-rate option?”
Pitchblende narrowed his eyes at Trade Wind, wondering if this was some kind of reverse psychology.
Summer batted a paw at Pitchblende, before fixing him with a steely (well, ceramic) gaze. "About the labour part - ok, sounds like you want to treat your 'interns nicely'. But I notice the matter of compensation itself is not brought up. You can't be paid in food or shelter - that's just subsistence. I'm afraid to say that if you wouldn't treat a cat working for you as well as a shark, you're not taking us seriously."
"You what?" Firesteel said with exaggerated dismay, "I'm puttin' myself out here, offering a better deal than your common shark ever sees - not even talking student loan repayments!"
Summer Sphinx rolls her eyes with a quiet 'hmph' noise. "Maybe your predatory ways have worked in the past, but no more. 'We swear we're not ripping you off' is below the baseline of courtesy we will be expecting from now on. Payment for services rendered, in your own words - don't expect you can dazzle us with your quick talking. We shall read the terms of any deal you present us with and agree only if it is fair."
"You creatures think so short term," Suburn's rough voice cut into the argument. "The Oracle understands, she's seen a few centuries. Strong allies are worth more than one scam's worth of profits."
Firesteel lunged forward, opening his mouth to tell the dragon to stick to burning chompies, but Pitchblende put a hand on his superior's shoulder. The smaller shark whispered something into the CEO's ear. Firesteel frowned, then slowly relaxed. He waved a hand magnanimously at the sphinxes, saying "Sure, sure. We can go over the numbers, make sure it's a win-win. So... what's your stance on our little drow problem. Guessing our colourful friends here have been recruiting on Fellis as well?"
Summer Sphinx... shook her head. "No - this is the first I have heard of it. But... It is clear that our people cannot be secure until all who threaten them are taught their place. The Hand of Eon was an incredibly powerful artefact... even damaged, I would not see it in the hands of pirates. Like their spidrow cousins, the pirate drow must also be shown we are not to be messed with."
"Do my ears deceive me or are you creatures talking about attacking the Isle o' Misery?" Royal Flush said, his expression incredulous. "Pit of vicious slavin' demons? Guarded by a sky galleon and magick enough to paralyse any ship or creature foolish enough to approach? The clan that fought a troll fleet to a standstill a few years back?" The tiger creature looked up to the viewing gallery, gauging if the visitors there were serious about this. "Now I hate those sneaky scumbags, much as the next cat, but I'll endure the odd raid before I send my fighters into a death-trap."
Summer Sphinx tilted her head to the side... and nodded in agreement. "Yes, while I can weather a lot more than the average feline, it's an understatement to say this is a perilous endeavour. So you - ponies, and you - sharks, if you're signing on for this - will have to make a compelling case that this is a worthwhile endeavour. By all means: do your best to convince us."
Azure had been quietly evaluating each of the races in turn. The sharks... would likely be the heavy artillery, they had the guns and the armour, surely able to grab and hold the enemy's attention. The huge Cloudbreak griffons, no doubt they were even fiercer in a battle than the regular griffons she knew. The sphinxes were a deadly combination of might, magic and discipline; then there were the mystics, each seemingly the equal of a unicorn archmage, and with powerful predator bodies if it came to that. Even the gillfolk had their harpoon guns and ability to infiltrate waterways; if there were any on the target island.
So many forces, so many possibilities, and that wasn't even counting the Elementals. Herself and Reef Skimmer, bringing the forces of wind and water, then Clashing Gale and Cloud Cutter, ready to drain and snuff out enemy lives. Even Nutmeg and Summer would contribute, then of course Sunburn himself, a phoenix-dragon with centuries of experience... oh, she'd seen the inferno he was capable of. Their Elementals alone had a fair chance of winning this, she thought, but it would be a huge risk - they could just as easily lose the whole squad to some unknown Drow trick. Best to play this safe, make use of all the forces available.
"Those scum have long terrorised this region on the strength of a single warship, protected behind their sky traps. But... they're a paper tiger," she reassured them. "They can only exist because their foes are divided. Looking at you all here, we have a half-dozen trump cards, any one of which could wreck the drow's whole day. There's no way the drow can withstand an attack on multiple fronts. If we work together, they'll be toast before they even realise what's hit them."
"So the plan... now it's going to take a lot of work, but I have a few ideas. We start with a surprise attack, disable their sky traps - we already shut down one set in our first encounter, so we know how to handle that problem. Then we draw their main warship away from the citadel, with some kind of trick or feint. Then we hit it with everything we've got - cannons, magic, elementals... if everyone attacks together, it's sure to go down before it can do much damage to us."
"Then... it's just a matter of mopping up. Infiltrate a few forces into their base - maybe Cloud Cutter and Clashing, they're great at stealth - simultaneous attack from inside and out. They will have lost their best forces in the air battle, a few dozen second-stringers will have no chance against griffons, sphinxes and rifle-sharks."
Azure realised she'd been leaning forward, intent on describing her plan - every creature present had fallen silent, drinking in the details. The pegasus sank back, suddenly self-conscious; she hadn't even noticed the tremble in her legs. Even if they agreed, it was up to her to figure everything out; most importantly, how to allocating their forces. This could be her finest hour... or just as easily her darkest.
Set Sail and Trade Wind frantically whispered to each other, until Set Sail whispered “Seriously? Me??”
The blue haired, brown furred and feathered pegasus mare looked to the rest of the delegation with big eyes, saying nervously, “I-it’s called the Isle of Misery? Really? No disrespect to Azure, but we're just fifty ponies... a-and a few other creatures, but not an army! We don't really have the means to-”
"Now that's a plan! Yes, with the forces here we can crush the pirates!" Summer cut Set Sail off before she could do any more damage; she could read the room and they had some good momentum going here. "It will be the first act of the New Fellissian Alliance! No creature on the Fringe will dare challenge us after that, and even the Kaosians will think twice before poking their noses in here!"
"But... but... we’re just a... a ship’s crew, under attack by the pirates and we really just need a more defensible place to move our damaged vessel..." Set Sail's plaintive objections were drowed out by the rising cheers from the gallery.
"Yeah, let's smash those pirates!"
"Cats and griffs and gillies, together we can do it!"
"Teach 'em what it's like to have a ship come in blasting on your home!"
"Now we're talking," Firesteel roared, slapping his rough hide in amusement. "Just so long as it's clear - any and all salvage on that rock's property of us sharks. Gotta cover fuel, ammo, repairs-"
"You can have the machines, shark!" Ne'kuno called back "but we have first claim on all magic! Spellbooks, runestones, foci..." the sphinx looked over to Everdream "I'm sure we and the Conclave can come to an equitable arrangement."
"Indeed," the mystic rumbled, "and they would do you little good anyway, shark."
Firesteel waved them off, saying amiably: "Sure, sure. Tell you what, I'll even give our little friends here," he jabbed a clawed finger at the ponies "...first claim on the provisions. Can't get fairer than that!"
"Yeah, fair. 'Cause you'll be dividing any actual treasure equally, won't you," Sunburn rumbled. "That's the Skylander way, each creature on the op gets an equal share."
Dragon and shark glared at each other for a long moment, until the smaller shark Pitchbende broke the impasse with: "Surely the disposition of petty cash is not a blocker to our agreement. The value of approximately four hundred gravity lenses alone far exceeds-"
"One share per species and one per ship," Firesteel cut him off, "Final offer, take it or leave it."
"Done!" shouted Summer Scribe. "To the New Fellissian Alliance! And the end of the Isle of Misery!"
The whole chamber errupted in whoops, roars and applause, as the tension broke and the assembled creatures in the gallery started congratulating each other. Sharks shook paws with cats, while gillmen and griffons gave each other high-fives. Every one (save for a clawful of die-hard sceptics) wanted to believe this was the start of a better future. Meanwhile Azure was muttering to herself; "So... we're doing this... we're really doing this..."
Set Sail was left staring around with eyes as wide as saucers, her objections dying in her throat. This wasn't the plan! This wasn't what she intended at all! This was supposed to be a simple trade agreement, not a war council! Then Summer and Azure had gotten involved, and what had they done? Now they had to fight the pirates with no real idea how to avoid the battle turning into a bloodbath! Didn't they realise these were predators? The first taste of blood, and the whole thing could turn into a slaughter!
One thing she was sure of: there was no letting go of the tiger now. Set Sail and her little ponies would have to hang onto the tail and see this through to the end.
Their final night at Blissful Pastures was an uneasy one for the Equestrians, with the upcoming conflict looming larger than ever in everypony's mind. At dawn creatures got to work striking the meadow camp, returning everything of use to the hold of the EAS Harmony.
The dirt shark airship arrived a little after noon, the thrum of propellers and trail of smoke across the sky giving the ponies plenty of warning. Plated in solid steel and with gun barrels poking out in all directions, the Leverage projected a sense of durability and restrained menace. It was somewhat smaller than the Harmony, but still a sizeable craft.
Pegasi soon flitted out to buzz around the two ships, pushing them into towing position and attaching a stout rope between the two. Preparations for departure took only ten minutes, and for the first time in two months the converted Storm Army battlewagon got underway, albeit as an air barge trailing behind the shark cruiser.
Firesteel had been magnanimous in extending his invitation to the pony's allies, so the gillfolk came along for the ride. The flock of native griffons flew escort, in formation with the Second Chance. Even Abernathy agreed it was time to take a holiday, leaving Blissful Pastures deserted (unless his mysterious brothers really were hiding in the jungle).
The trip to Triskelion Mine was slow and tense going, with every creature expecting drow copters to swoop in at any moment. If any drow were in the sky that day though, they did nothing more than watch.
Clashing Gale stood at the railing, watching the island of Blissful Pastures recede into the distance behind them. Safe haven for the last two months, inhabited only by the chompy beasts and that strange green biped, now abandoned. Ahead the engines of the heavily armoured dirt shark ship chugged along, dragging them toward the twisting rocky spirals of Triskellion Mine.
The batpony was less than sanguine about the prospect, ears twiching and hooves scraping at the deck in frustration. Sharks - ruthless opportunistic mercenaries in his view, not a trace of Harmony to be found in their one visit. Was this really their best option? The captain seemed to think so, and he had to admit, third mate or not she hadn't steered them wrong yet.
He turned away from the railing and went below, glad to be out of the midday sun. His transformation had blessed him with the ability to see in pitch darkness, but at the cost of making midday a painful ordeal. The sleek blue stallion stalked through the ship's corridors, blinking the soreness out of his eyes.
He headed for the one spot that had become refuge and clubhouse for the former storm piercer crew, now representatives of the undead: the little workshop and parts store just behind the Storm Piercer's main equipment bay. Lightning Bottle had been more than willing to share it with the rest of them, particularly after the loss of Raindrops, the other technician. Clashing quietly pushed the door open, walking in on Cloud Cutter addressing the rest of the team.
“Fine,” Cloud Cutter said with flat ears, as the rest of her fellow former weather team gathered around her like a bunch of empty eyed zombies, like her, “It’s not good news, and I told you it’s not good news, but you’re right, you have a right to know. And it is... bothering me. I just don’t know what to do. Telling you won’t help, but... fine.”
Her ears unfolded slightly as she said: “We met an ancient spirit, apparently one of the greatest cat-centaur mages, and not even he knew how to stop being like this. This wretched half-existence that only brings death on others.”
She gazed off vaguely as she explained: “Logoros himself had been that way since the disaster destroyed most of these islands several centuries ago. The closest he'd ever heard to anyone getting this Undead out of them was a group of witches thousands of years before him. They cooked up something called 'distilled life', but all they ended up with was even more undead, and having to drink blood on top of it.”
With a peeved snort, she declared curtly, “Vampires straight out of a bad horror novel, who have to kill, and even love killing other fellow creatures. Hopelessly predatory, relying on their hypnotic powers just to make others like them. That’s the best they could—what? Why are you pointing behind me?”
Cloud Cutter turned, and the pegasus’s purple ears went from flat back, to drooping down, as she said faintly, “Oh... hello sir. I was just uhm, giving them the um, bad news. Sorry uhm, I’m sure being a vampire is... fine?” Her muzzle curled into a most terrible attempt at an appeasing smile.
The reaction from the small crowd of listening ponies was subdued. To them it seemed obvious by now that this was bound to happen, as if the universe conspired at every turn to make sure they'd be stuck with their new fate. The pegasus Silver Frost, now as purple as the rest of them, gave a single flap then settled down, hanging her head low. "Looks like I've got a long life of being purple and inscrutable ahead of me yet..." she murmured softly.
Next to her Spring Breeze seemed thoughtful: "At least it's better than having died... I think..." - a quick glance at Clashing - "S'long as we don't run out of sheep."
Clashing snorted and stamped a hoof on the deck, membranous wings half-spread, staring at Cloud Cutter with a sudden fire in his eyes: "You know damn well I had no idea I was doing that to the Captain! I'd never... uh," he glanced around at the shocked faces of his ponies. "Look, it won't happen again," he said, voice clipped.
"And yeah... vampire's no so bad, yes I have a hunger now, but mindless insects suffice." He didn't mention the urges, the dreams he kept having had of chasing down more challenging prey, sucking out their life as their futile struggles ebbed to silence. No need to alarm the others; instead he flashed a wry, charming smile as he said "And I was just out in the midday sun and haven't caught fire or crumbled into ash, so that's a plus."
Turning back to the others, Cloud Cutter warily admitted, “I may have been a bit too harsh on that. Dr. Gale is right, and he’s dealing with this better than... some of us.” Finally looking Clashing in the eye, she added: “I’m sorry, I’m just upset, and possibly making things out to be worse than they are, but... I just don’t want to kill anymore. And all we found was another dead end.”
Silver Frost lifted a hoof, saying meekly: "I mean, it's not like draining life is all that bad... Right? Griffons are carnivores, and they aren't bad critters just for being like that." The lack of confidence in her eyes suggested she was trying to reassure herself more than Clashing Gale.
The stallion favoured Silver with a little grin, then turned back to Cloud Cutter, the unofficial second-in-command of their little group. "I really don't know what's worse, Cloud: having your essence taken and replaced with... nothing, or replaced with something... vital and thrilling, but also predatory and alien and, uh... un-pony. Academic I guess since we have no idea how to make that potion, if it's even still possible."
Cloud Cutter nodded at that, adding, "So our chief operator is the only one who has to deal with... all the interesting aspects of being a vampire. The rest of us are just... animated corpses who don't know better than to just lie down and give it up. We all must have died in the Storm Piercer malfunction, and Undead revived us, meaning there's only one way to return to normal. Which is to... die again, for real this time, if that's even possible."
The thought of 'dying again' turned heads in the audience, most not wanting to consider such a prospect. As much as being Undead dampened your volition and connection to the living world, it's still easier to cling onto it than to even think about something so... drastic and upsetting. Especially with that whispering void inside you, just waiting to welcome you into eternal stillness...
Clashing grimaced, his voice full of concern as he said "Don't say that, CeeCee!" He'd brushed off the Doctor's notion of the mare being suicidal, but maybe the hippogriff was right to be concerned. He cocked his head before saying: "Look... there might be something else. You know you flew off before we'd finished talking to the spirit? Missed the last bit."
She blinked at Clashing's question, only curious for a moment, saying in mild surprise, "Oh, what did he have to say?" before she turned her nose down, sighing, and looked away.
"Well, after you left, Doctor Reef Skimmer laid into the spirit," Clashing Gale answered. "Said it was unacceptable and you deserved better. For a minute I thought we were going to end up in a fight with a ghost archmage, but then somehow he turned it around and they were all chummy."He shook his head: Water elementals didn't have charm powers, did they?
"Reef had this idea of 'aligning' you to Air as well as Undead, and he got Logoros to go along with it. Sort of anyway, he said it was a long shot and only one creature in history had ever pulled it off, but... that's worth a shot, isn't it?" he said encouragingly. Anything to get Cloud Cutter out of her current funk. "I mean Azure Feather's as much of a pegasus as any of us now - maybe more."
"That's... is that really possible?!" Mystic Rune blurted out. The only unicorn in the group, she'd been hit hard by the near-erasure of her magical talents. "Is there a version for unicorns as well?"
With a slightly less terrible attempt at a smile, Cloud Cutter said: “Oh well that would be... nice? Kind of Reef to ask. I might be more useful if I could put my weather studies to use again.” The pegasus mare had to deliberately sigh, as breathing wasn’t obvious to her anymore, before saying darkly: “It would probably just make me even better at killing.”
Silver Frost slowly blinked, then leaned forward eagerly. "W-wait... can anyone do this? It's not just a Cloud Cutter thing, right?" The absurdity of it struck her even as she spoke, but she wanted... needed something to put her hope in. "I mean, one creature in history beats zero, right?"
That finally seemed to get through to Cloud Cutter. “Yes, Silver! I’m sure you would love to get your magic back in order,” she said with a grateful smile to the other mare, “It had better not be only me, that would just be silly.”
Clashing looked away, worried that if he didn't he might accidentally use his magical charm again. "That's right," he told the group at large, "if we're ever going to get back to Equestria, we've got to get our abilities back. The whole crew is counting on us to make the Storm Piercer work again. So I expect you all to try your best." They were all highly trained ponies with a strong sense of duty - if anything was going to take their minds off their predicament, this was it. He didn't want to think about what would happen if they tried and failed.
The stallion nodded to Cloud Cutter: "I admit I'm hopeful it might work for Azure Feather too. Turning from a unicorn to a pegasus... it's not an easy thing, and she misses her horn as well." A glance at the fretting yet hopeful Mystic Rune, and he concluded with: "I guess that means we're looking for three separate super-magical spots: Air/Undead, Magic/Undead and Air/Magic. Doesn't matter. However long it takes, we're doing this. I'm sure the Captain will agree."
Silver Frost held a hoof to her head, lowering her gaze and thinking hard. It was important to remember, after so long without anything to focus one's mind and talents on, that yes, the Storm Piercer team were the only way the ship could get home. If only they could get our magic back... and who's to say they couldn't? The Cloudbreak Islands were a huge floating archipelago: so far they'd only explored a tiny fraction. "...However long it takes," she echoed, nodding in agreement as she looked into Clashing's eyes. Was that a flicker of a smile on her face for just a moment?
Clashing nodded enthusiastically; this was the most animated he'd seen his team in weeks. "From what Logoros said, that means finding this special place where Air and Undead mix, and then... convincing some spirits somehow?" he pondered. "If Azure's experience is anything to go by, that means running through some illusionary challenges. Like flying through hoops, real or metaphorical, 'til the spirits are appeased."
“Air and Undead is easy,” Cloud Cutter said with a roll of her empty white eyes. “Just find the stagnant air in an ancient tomb or something.”
"...actually, Logoros said something about an 'Eternal Organ'," Clashing said, "so for all our sakes I hope you can still carry a tune."
By nightfall the Harmony was securely berthed at the shark's sky docks, built into cliffs amid blockhouses bristling with cannon. Trade Wind immediately began taking the shark dockmaster to task about the planned renovations, while Nutmeg Inferno and Steady Brace began discussions with the shark engineers and foremen. They quickly agreed to dismantling the Storm Piercer and stow it in the nearby caves: nopony wanted to take that fragile and irreplaceable device into combat. Set Sail sighed with relief as she saw the shining steel propellors waiting to be installed. Despite (or perhaps because of) Firesteel's charming matter, she'd had a recurring fear that the sharks had no intention of making good on their promises.
With a busy day of work planned out for tomorrow, the explorers happily accepted their host's invitation to experience 'real dirt shark hospitality'. No executive lounge this time; small groups of creatures began to head up into Garnet Glutch, a sizable town of miners, steelworkers and dock hands. The bars were already doing a steady trade, and the arrival of sixty ponies, griffons and gillfolk (most of whom hadn't seen shore leave for months) kicked things into high gear.
The night was young, and Nutmeg Inferno was beside herself with excitement, the red ruffed kirin peeking out through a porthole at the dirt shark town beyond. She’d only heard of the place before, and glimpsed it as the copter had flown over. Now they were actually going to let her have access to their main society! The real stuff, no tiptoeing around gated access by high level executives. She wanted to get sooooo drunk.
She couldn’t risk it though. She had a good thing going here, and the slightest mistake could turn everything awry. But that didn’t stop her from analysing the situation from a distance, and planning on what she’d do if she could go make a fool of herself, and hoping... however much she could hope about anything.
She was looking over the balcony again with most of the rest of the crew already away and out on the town. No explosions yet, though from what Nutmeg knew about the mostly-pegasus crew, it was highly likely the day would end in a tornado or two. She didn’t even notice the approach from behind, until an avian claw tapped her on the smooth golden scales slightly conforming around her shoulder.
"...Hey.” Grenelda cocked her head to the side, beak agape in an expression of interest. "I see that look on your face. Eager to get out of that stuffy engine room and hit the town, aren'tcha? I'm coming with. Gettin' blackout drunk's more fun with a friend, anyway." A harsh cackle. "So, I dunno anything about this place, but they look like the kind of folk that'll appreciate a good drink. Let's pick a random place and hit it up - ready?"
“Oh... oh sure!” Nutmeg said enthusiastically, looking back at the griffon. There was a blue pegasus mare just behind her: Azure Feather, the Air elemental warrior. She used to be a unicorn, incredibly! “I was just thinking about heading down there, and you sound like you know your way around a good drink!" the kirin enthused. "Random place sounds great! Can’t be anything but, until we find where the good drinks are, right?” Peeking around Grenelda, Nutmeg added uneasily, “Uh, why is Azure looking at us funny?”
To say Azure Feather's mind wasn't fully interested in this party, this day off was no understatement - but the Captain had given her a task for the evening: watching over a mobile fire hazard and an over-enthusiastic griffon. Lovely... her mind was on the battle ahead. Still trying to plan everything in perfect balance between packing enough punch and not having many casualties... her wings felt like lead at the mere thought. Still, she would keep watch over these two, as the Captain had willed it.
Grenelda squinted back at Azure's wordless expression, and chortles. "Probably worried we're gonna go on a drunk rampage and burn the place down or something. Maybe she can loosen up a lil' and join us, huh?" Clearly saying the words as though expecting Azure to eavesdrop on 'em. "Anyway, y'ready, Nutmeg?"
“C’mon, Azure!” Nutmeg said, waving to the blue and purple pegasus pony, “Grenelda and I are having a night on the town!” The little kirin frowned, then added: "And possibly an early morning as well, depending on the gold-to-alcohol exchange rate!"
Azure heard the click of claws on steel, felt the gentle wash of warm air before she heard the voice. "Azure Feather." Low, almost a growl, but as full of warmth as its owner. "Will you be joining us on shore leave? Sounds like your crew could use the break. And, uh... I don't get many chances to unwind myself, these days. Wouldn't mind some pleasant company to pass the evening." Sunburn favoured Azure with a smile, then followed her gaze to Nutmeg and joined her in staring at the kirin. Then he chuckled, saying "This should be interesting."
Grenelda gives a hearty slap-hug around Nutmeg's side, grinning over to Azure and Sunburn! "Yeah, see? Sunburn knows what's up. Live a little! Relax! We're not fighting right now. You'll burn out if you act like that all the time!"
The phoenix-dragon jostled Azure with a wing. "Come on. No sense trying to do tactical sims until you've got the intel, and you won't have that until tomorrow."
Azure Feather just stared at Sunburn for a few moments, stress and worry written all over her face, then sighed. "It all sounds so easy when you put it that way." She shook her head; part of her just couldn't stop weighing the options, possible tactics, likely casualties... and all this depending on a stupid pegasus grunt who knew very little of these strange lands. Even her own forces were largely a mystery, never mind the enemy. Sill... for now, she'd at least keep watch. Control what she could. "Sure, I'll go..." she said unsurely.
And with that reluctant assent they were off: four mismatched creatures heading into a mining town built by bipedal land-sharks for a night of alcoholic revelry.
Nutmeg took the lead, bounding down the gangplank to hop lightly onto the land of this unquiet night. The unlikely quartet made their way up through the docks and warehouses to the town proper. It was built on both sides of a ravine, and in places down into it: the gap was criss-crossed by iron latticework bridges. The air was filled with the muted roar of hundreds of sharks making merry, but cutting through the din were strings of booms and thuds, like a dozen separate drummers playing their own drum solos.
The lights were fascinating, and the sounds were making the kirin's ears turn every which way. “Did you mean a random place within visual range?” she asked curiously, looking back at the others, “Or should I do a survey of the surrounding area?”
Sunburn loped after Nutmeg, calling out: "I'm buying." He tapped a pouch with a claw, making the coins inside clink, "I've been lugging this gold around forever. Could recommend a place on the north side... at least, if it's still standing. That was seventy-three years back."
Grenelda snuck a side glance - and a quick 'ooh' - at Sunburn's laden gold pouch; she clearly had no objections. "Nah, Nutmeg - you don't have to pick literally randomly. Just arbitrarily, ya know? Like, what about that place?" She thrusts a claw at a nearby pub - the doors swinging open as a landshark strolls out with a merry laugh, showing the inner illumination, benches with patrons and clinking of glasswork. Ooh, and even a few thumps of those strange... drums? "That place looks like it's popular enough to hold a decent clientele - good enough for me!"
Azure followed along dutifully. Sunburn was right about lacking intel, and... even The Lieutenant must have had a day off at times. Still, she had her assignment, and she would give it all of her focus. She couldn't let the Captain down again.
Colourful lights adorned the walls of the Drink and Drum, with basic metal light fixtures flickering intermittently overhead in the aged timbers of the roof. There was a shark or four at the bar with two rows of multi-coloured bottles behind. There was also a bartender shark clad in a neat vest suit, complete with a probably-fake moustache.
A few tables were set aside to the right, with a pair of sharks playing cards at one, and to the left instead of a pool table there was a whole array of what looked like giant drums. A land shark couple who looked like they’d had a bit too much were laughing and cavorting on the drums, falling over half the time they actually jumped on them, until a mid-air collision and a misstep finally catapulted them off a drum to crash into a disoriented heap against the wall, still laughing weakly.
Grenelda surveyed the premises: 'Cards? Hmm, I usually get mad instead of making smart plays with those. Probably a bad idea. Woah, what are those drum trampoline thingies? Cool... Okay, you're getting distracted, Grenelda. Focus on the main attraction!' She gave Sunburn a little 'come here' nudge and approached the bartender. The griffon awkwardly scrambling up onto a stool, looking like an oversized hawk crammed onto a too-small perch. "Yo. whatcha got that's strong enough?"
The bartender ambled over, sizing up his feathered customers. "You're a northerner, right? And, uh... fire griffon? Not that it matters, we serve all comers at the Drum! You want the hard stuff? Whiskey, gin, tequila, take your pick. Even got a bottle of cloud wine here, if yer feeling rich."
Sunburn just gestured with a claw, suggesting it was up to the griffon. He spied a trio of crewponies at a corner table: two mares fiddling with their hooves and not sure what to do with themselves, and one male with membranous wings. "I'm buying," he called out, "if you guys wanna get intoxicated."
Clashing Gale was happy to accept. The stallion strolled over to the bar, seemingly in better spirits than before, if still quiet and reserved compared to his pre-vampire self. Sunburn quickly sized up the bat-winged equine. "Clashing Gale, isn't it? Doubt this establishment has the right fluids to inebriate an Undead creature. Feel free to give it a shot, though."
Grenelda clicked her beak. Cloud wine? Oooh, now that sounded fancy. She took full advantage of Sunburn's charity, nodding her head and reaching over to jingle that fat wallet. "Cloud wine, yeah! I'll eagerly add that to the list of things I've imbibed!" She grinned over at Nutmeg and Clashing: "Say. Either of you two lovely ponies brave enough to try it with me?"
Sunburn raised a feathery eyebrow at Grenelda, but forked over a clawful of gold, dumping it on the bar to the delight of the bartender. The shark disappeared into a storage room and came back with a glass bottle full of swirling blue fluid. He gave it a little shake, causing tiny flashes of light to shimmer within the bottle.
"Smuggled in from Skylantis itself!" he proclaimed, popping the cork and unleashing a thundercrack that echoed around the bar. Several sharks cheered and clapped, while two at the back made a wager on whether the griffon would be able to finish the bottle before losing consciousness. The phoenix-dragon took a whiskey on the rocks for himself, while the ponies accepted foaming mugs of lager as the best available substitute for cider.
Nutmeg looked at all the bottles, making a random selection, but then her head snapped to look at the giant drums. “Ohh blazes there they are!” she pronounced, forgetting about the bar entirely to bodily leap onto a drum. The trampoline-like device catapulted her forward, all the way across the bar to smack flat on her back against the wall. Not fazed in the slightest, she pushed off the wall to land on a drum again, and this time made it from one to the other in two bounces before again tumbling off in a heap.
Clashing Gale couldn't help but stare at the acrobatic kirin. With a shrug, he flapped over to the drums. "Care if I join you for this? Could remind me of my old self, and uh..." He cast a gaze at the blue pegasus still standing warily by the bar. "Hey Azure, maybe it'd do you some good too, y'know? Loosen up a bit, you're looking worse than the old Captain of the Guard on a bad day!" he called out. Azure answered with only a few confused blinks.
Grenelda chuckled in amusement as she watched the kirin and batpony bounce around together. Then her attention snapped right back at the sight of the cloud wine, expression lifting. "Holy cow that is sweet. Yo, Azure, check this out!" She tipped the bottle right back and started pouring it straight into her beak, gulping the crackling liquid down with little hesitation.
When Nutmeg started bouncing around like a pinball Azure had braced herself for disaster... but no, it seemed this was normal for patrons here. The little deer-like creature seemed to be having fun, so... best to leave her be. At the sound of her name she looked around and... oh. This didn't inspire confidence: a drunk griffon would be difficult to control even on a good day. An average drunk griffon, never mind Grenelda. The pegasus could only shake her head slowly: likely this would not turn out well...
"Hey, uh, whatever you are!" a shark called out to the still frantically bouncing Nutmeg Inferno. "It's supposed to make a tune, see!" She jabbed with a stubby finger at a diagram painted on the wall, showing sequences of drums to jump on. There were several patterns, of increasing length and difficulty.
“I’m Nutmeg!” Nutmeg called back to the dirt shark in mid-leap, “Thanks a lot!” She proceeded to pound out the first few patterns with a mechanical precision, before landing beside the drums with a thump of her own, all smiles. “I didn’t think it would be so...” she said to herself, then blinking and declaring in alarm, “Oh no I forgot about my drink!”
Grenelda chortled at the apparently now musical maestro Nutmeg; she gestured magnanimously with one claw, the half-full bottle of cloud wine held tightly in the other. Trickles of lightning danced around the hen's beak, and she looked buzzed already. "Yeah, Nutmeg! You neeeed to try this stuff. If you dare, haha! *hic* It's shSO strong. Tastes like real lightning!"
Nutmeg's performance drew cheers and hollers from the sharks gathered around. As the smiling kirin bounded eagerly toward Grenelda, a draconic claw grabbed her shoulder. "Not afraid to be the centre of attention, are you?" Sunburn said, beak hanging slightly open. "But you might want to stick to something with less of a charge." He pushed a small glass of honey-coloured liquid her way.
The kirin hopped up onto a bar stool, ducking as Grenelda swung the bottle of cloud wine her way. “No, I uh...” Nutmeg gave the crackling bottle a wide-eyed and very wary look, “That looks... way too strong for me. I’ll just take a...” she paused again, to turn and look shyly at Sunburn. “...t-that,” Nutmeg concluded, curling a two toed hoof around the glass of honey-coloured liquid and sliding it in front of her.
Grenelda huffed at that. "H-hey, I've got things totally under control here!" she protested, her poofy, static-cling feathers spreading out in all directions. A little *bzzt* travelled from her to Sunburn as she poked him with a claw for emphasis. "Buuut.... yeah alright get me one of those too. Gotta pashe myself."
Sunburn snatched the bottle away and replaced it with more whiskey. "Here; this looks more like your speed, Azure Feather. Might be just the thing, for a Champion of Air."
Azure shrank back: she'd just seen a demonstration of the cloud wine's effects, clear as day. Lightning in a bottle was never this literal until that moment... and now that drunken griffon would be even more uncontrollable. Still... she guessed this was what happened if you had no shore leave for months, trapped on an island threatened by pirates. The crew wanted to unwind and she couldn't blame them for it.
Grenelda downed the whiskey in a few quick gulps, slid off the stool, and slunk away from the bar. Time to see what these drums were are all about, huh? She walked up to one and side-squinted at it: "You make music with these, huh?" Tap tap tap. Drum drum drum. Not much response when you use your claws. So she did the logical thing: backed up and flung her whole body onto the nearest drum-trampoline, wings flapping awkwardly and legs going in all directions.
The sight of the flailing electrified griffon was too much for Azure Feather. At long last, a tiny smile made its way onto her face. Sunburn was regarding her one of those avian stares again... "I'm supposed to be watching over Nutmeg and Grenelda and-" She was indeed doing so, and said adult griffon was currently throwing themselves at giant drums without a care in the world was. Her gaze travelled down to the glass of cloud wine in the dragon's claw. "...Damn it."
Sunburn snorted tiny jets of flame as he watched the griffon's antics. "She's just having fun," he said, "after all there's just one of her. Likely Gustus, Ebony and the rest of her flock are making more of a scene."
A quick sip then a surprised cough, as Azure regarded the bottle in a new light. "Pegasi back home would give their left pinions for this... ugh, Celestia was kind this day." Her tiny smile slowly broadened into a wide grin as she drained the whole glass.
Nutmeg just sat there perched with her forelegs on the bar, looking down at her drink. She poked her nose into the glass and drank a delicate sip, but then went back to perching there quietly contemplating it.
Meanwhile Clashing Gale was frantically ducking out of the way of Grenelda, as the griffon careened around the airspace above the drums. Catching sight of Azure, he called out over the drumbeats: "Hey, griffon... looks like you've got either a drinking buddy or a competitor... I'm not sure which one."
Grenelda sensed opportunity and flapped towards the bar, crash-landing near the others and sending a couple of stools flying. Her beak widened as she cawed out: "Sunburn, keep us topped up. You've got gold for days, right?" Then the hen leeeaned in to watch Azure closely, her claw held out to receive a mug of something sloshing and fizzing from the dragon, which she immediately began draining.
"You're going to be *so* nice and relaxed when we're done. Y'all need it bad, trust me."
Spurred on by the griffon's efforts, time passed into the night, and soon both fliers were well and thoroughly buzzed, Grenelda's cheeks were red enough to see through her feathers as she hiccupped: "Y'know, with those wingsh of yours - hic - you ever get tempted to, just, like, go ham and make tornadoes over the placesh, just to show that you can? Eheheh - I know I would. You're damn good at holding back with powers like yours."
Azure Feather wasn't faring much better. She really hadn't intended to finish the bottle of cloud wine, but Grenelda was right: she'd needed it. The pegasus was definitely relaxed now, more than she'd been since... well, ever since she could remember. Listening to the gryphon talk about her powers though... Azure shook her head widely. "Nah, nah... y'know how it is, in the guard, you fail discipline, you get chewed out... plus one for me on that, as my Lieutenant... sheesh, you think I need to lighten up... phew, you ain't seen her..." A huge smile was plastered on her face as she tried to imagine her old Lieutenant with a bottle of that stuff!
"See that's really the difference, between the bad guys... and the good guys," Sunburn said slowly, "Bad guys blow up whatever they want, good guys have to keep track of the set of stuff you're not allowed to blow up, and the set of stuff you are allowed to blow up. Which is bad guys and their stuff... for the most part."
He struck a philosophical pose, observing the chaotic trajectories of four bouncing sharks (the chaos came mostly from the fact they bounced off each other almost as often as the drums). "Now that I think about it, that definition is sort of recursive."
The night wore on, further drinks were consumed and things began to blur into a warm haze. The group stumbled out onto the street, where a green earth pony was circling around a heavily scarred shark. It turned out Blaze Trails had bet Rockhammer that she could knock him down before he could pin her. The burly shark might as well have been made of granite himself, with her drunken bucks not quite enough to topple him, while every time he went for the grapple she twisted through his clumsy arms like butter.
A circle of onlookers quickly materialised, and someshark began to take bets. The cheering drew the attention of a trio of griffs flying above, and with much squawking and flapping they landed clumsily in the street, scattering angry sharks to each side. Somehow Ebony Hail ended up in a claw-wrestling contest with Sunburn, while Indigo Burst challenged Static Signal to a race to the nearest cloud and back (both of them missed the cloud). Creatures were dispatched to the bars for further drinks and snacks and in no time a very rowdy street party had erupted.
Soon, Blaze Trails was in a stumbly pile on the ground, groaning and submitting defeat to the proverbial wall of shark in front of her. Grenelda got into a shouting match about who was the toughest creature, that nearly escalated into a bar fight. Fortuantely she was distracted by the commotion outside, nagging Azure to come join in the fun with her. But the blue pegasus was very comfortable sitting by the bar, reduced to a quietly smiling pile of pony. The bottle of cloud wine was long gone, and a very happy Air Elemental was just taking in the sights and contenting herself with that.
Giving up on her companion, Grenelda half-flapped, half-sprinted out of the bar, shrieking with fearless excitement as she loses herself in the crazed, chaotic, drunken energy of the outside atmosphere. That left Azure alone with Clashing Gale: pretty much the only one of them still clear-headed. Sunburn's prediction that there was nothing here strong enough to affect him much was proven correct, so he just sat back and watched the party.
“Woooooo!” Nutmeg cheered as she ran along through the street with at least three establishment proprietors chasing after her. The kirin’s delight at the discovery of 'fire' vodka that you could actually set on fire was only matched by her complete inability to drink it, spilling it all over her face and fluff, and promptly catching fire in the good way.
“I’m on ffffire!” she cheered, as one of the proprietors was forced to abandon the chase by a rather large explosion in the growing blaze consuming his establishment. The kirin trailed smoking fragments of a net that had been used to capture her, escaping when the fire managed to burn through it as everyshark tried to figure out how she was just sitting there on fire, and how to put it out after she crashed into a lantern, getting kerosene all over her in the second place.
A very exasperated Sunburn exploded into existence, blowing back but not extinguishing Nutmeg’s puny alcohol and oil fire. Grabbing the wiggling kirin under his scaly arm, he declared, “Go put out your fires. She’s with me.”
“Bye bye!” Nutmeg declared happily, waving a foreleg vaguely in the direction of the four bar owners still chasing her. Wait no, three. Okay now four. “I love youuuu!” she told her four new friends as her fellow fire friend dragged her into an awesome burning tunnel of fire, appearing with a flash of flames by a city fountain, and dropping her into it, holding her down until the tipsy kirin was extinguished, licks of flame still flaring up from the oily spots around her as she lay on her back and giggled into the starry sky.
Of course the angry sharks weren't going to give up that easily - Sunburn ended up tossing the last of his coins onto the ground as a distraction and then flying away from the resulting scrum. He kept the wiggling, giggling kirin held firmly in his claws as he glided back to the ship. With that source of amusement removed the remaining ponies did their best to teach the sharks a selection of Equestrian songs, but somepony always forgot a line or switched into a different song entirely, prompting gales of laughter.
The party was left to slowly wind down, creatures staggering away in twos and threes as fatigue got the better of them. Several griffons ended up roosting in attics, figuring that if they could get the windows open that was as good as an invitation. Sliptail the gill-woman had to reassure several sharks that her uncle hadn't drowned himself in a fit of melancholy; he was fully amphibious and just sleeping it off in that old water trough. At last the ponies trotted back to their airship, leaning on each other for support before finally collapsing into their bunks.
Morning sunlight crept over the jagged peaks and dusty plateaus of Triskelion island, revealing a mining town somewhat battered by the previous night's revelry. It was nothing the rough-and-tumble place hadn't seen before, a hundred times or more, and no doubt the sharks would have things fixed up in time for the next boisterous celebration.
The assorted creatures emerged with a chorus of groans, headaches and desperate mixing of dubiously-effective hangover cures. Ponies and sharks got back to work, and by noon the last of the Storm Piercer machinery was dismantled and carried away, leaving the Harmony's bow clear. A new piece of equipment had been promised, one more suitable for defeating the air pirate menace.
At length the shark's air yacht streaked into view, all gleaming lines and roaring rotary engines. The hatch opened, revealing not a monster truck this time, but the domed bulk of the Elemental turret. Dock workers and deckhands joined forces to unload the weapon and install it on the pony's airship. Other workers were boarding over windows and running cables up to the crow's nest to power one of Nutmeg Inferno's strange electric guns.
The hippogriff Reef Skimmer had just completed his own preparations in the sickbay. Emerging onto the deck, he quickly spotted Set Sail; the pegasus mare was standing with a small knot of senior creatures, supervising the rennovations. "Ironic really, as if an old veteran retired and resigned to a peaceful life, now taking up arms once more, to defend his village from those who would steal away his loved ones," he remarked to no-one in particular, as he trotted up to the group.
"Don't know 'bout all that but that turret's a beaut," Firesteel assured them, "and you ponies ain't even picking up the bill! Old Smoothscale was pitching a fit when she heard her son-" he jabbed a stubby thumb at the young gillman, "-was set on poking the hornet's nest. But yeah, once the old bint stopped ranting, said she'd do anything that to keep him safe. So there you go, one fully-refurbished genuine-Goldling-made defence turret. Now you just gotta find a couple 'o elementals to run it."
"I sure do hope that thing's set to blast some demons seeing how much we gillies paid to fix it," Brightscale sniffed.
Blaze Trails and Grenelda had been working the ropes and winches, combining the former's encyclopaedic knowledge of knots and slings with the latter's dextrous claws. It was good to see their ship get put back into fighting shape; as she shifted cargo Blaze mused on their justification for taking the offensive, the need to fight for what was important and all creature's right to self-determination. Grenelda meanwhile was cooing at the exotic new cannon and Grenelda wondering how kickass it would look when it fired.
Overhearing the management talking, the griffon elbowed Blaze to get her attention. "Elementals, huh? Who's gonna run that thing? Guess we could put in Reef, or Azure, or..." She trailed off, inviting Blaze to speculate.
The earth mare thought if over: "Hmmm... yeah, but they're already like turrets in their own right. ... Probably we want to assign some Undead ponies to it, right? Folk who haven't developed their combat skills, but have the necessary energy."
Grenelda's eyes widen, and she whistles. "A spooky turret, huh? I didn't even think of that... maybe it can shoot angry ghosts? Oh, that would be rad."
With the turret emplaced, Set Sail flew off to find Trade Wind, her notional superior. The second mate was hobbling around on the pier, checking the crates of items they'd removed from the Harmony for safe keeping, and shouting at sharks to be careful with them. The stallion's hind legs were still in casts, but at least he was mobile again.
“Alright, now we’re going to have a dignitary come on our vessel, so it’s very important that we protect her... statue,” Set Sail told him. “She’ll be stored in the engine room, where we’re most shielded. Nutmeg was confident she could have our engines sending electricity to the mini canons she calls railguns."
"The pirates are bound to go after our balloon, but it’ll take multiple hits before we lose enough cloud cells to maintain altitude. I’ve asked some pegasi to shore it up with cloud walling. The gillmen are graciously allowing us to use their defensive energy cannon, well... offensively. Preliminary tests have shown that it can—”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Trade Wind interrupted, “You seem like you have everything pretty well in the bag. I’m not gonna be able to fight like this, if that’s what you want.”
“No, I was... just wondering if... you wanted to give your approval,” Set Sail said, “Tell me if there’s anything I’m missing, and I’ll get working right on it.”
“You’re the captain,” Trade Wind said, “If anything I should be seeking approval from you? Permission to take leave and all.” He looked back at his hind legs with frustration.
“I’m not the captain though!” Set Sail retorted, still hovering there just above the wharf. “The First Mate is the captain if he goes overboard, and if they’re both lost, then the Second Mate—”
“I know how it works!” Trade Wind snapped at her, “You don’t get it, do you?”
“G-get what?” Set Sail asked, her brown ears tugging back her kerchief as they dipped low.
“I’ve never even been in a real fight, mare,” Trade Wind told her, “I’m a souped-up accountant. I do ship’s manifests and trade deals, not... pirate battles. Most action I ever got was a few bar brawls and chewing out the slackers." He snorted.
"Set Sail, the captain’s... lost, and so is Pearl. Our ship was full of holes, and we ended up flying into a monster den when we thought this place was just gonna be abandoned. We should be stranded on that island, with no ship, and no plan, nothing to do but eat Abernathy’s grass and hope for rescue. You kept the ship, and the crew together, and even I can tell how ponies look up to you.”
“W-well what else was I supposed to do, just let the ship founder?” Set Sail asked, “I haven’t brought anypony together. They just sort of like me, and I just tell them to do their thing. I’ve made so many mistakes, I should be—”
“Would you just shut up about your problems already?” Trade Wind snapped at her, “You’re better than I am, alright? I admit it! The only reason you’re not second mate is ‘cause you never even tried! Heck, you could’ve easily taken Pearl’s place. Captain Sky would— well, he might shed a single tear, if he saw what you’ve done with this crew, because you’re doing such a great job at acting in his stead. You’re a fucking great captain, Set Sail! We’d all be lost, if... if you were not!”
Set Sail landed and folded her wings, turning away, unable to find the words to say just how wrong he was.
“Or you could give up and let everypony get eaten by pirates, sharks, or whatever the heck predators are all over these islands,” he said, “If you know anypony else who’s a better captain then you’re free to step down, but otherwise you just gotta deal with it, because I can’t save you, any more than I could save the... well you know.”
“I don’t think you’re right, but you’re not giving me any choice, are you,” Set Sail said quietly. Her heart felt heavy with despair as her last hope for escape died with his stubborn refusal. The worst thing was that... Luna damn it... he was right.
“Give ‘em heck, Captain,” Trade Wind said, “And bring our little ponies home safe.”
The blue and brown pegasus looked at him, then spread her wings, and blasted up in the air, flying away without another word. Trade Wind watched her leave, then his head dipped, staring blankly forward as dark thoughts churned in his brain.
“And Celestia save us if I’m wrong,” he muttered.
With the overhaul almost complete, ponies streamed down to the mess for a well-deserved lunch. Goodbyes were said and tears were shed as those ponies who couldn't contribute to the upcoming battle were sent to wait things out on the shark island. Melonwater was adamant he wanted to stay with Bluebell, protecting her from any boarders, but Cloud Cutter coldly pointed out that if he took a shrapnel wound from a stray shell, Bluebell would have to waste time treating him instead of somepony useful. One stare from those empty glowing eyes and the earth stallion agreed to join Trade Wind, Blue Type and the other noncombatants.
With full stomachs the ponies spilled back onto the top deck, to be treated to the sight of a strange and striking skyship approaching the shark's island. It was long and lean with a heavy prow, resplendent in intricate carvings, faded though colourful paint and peeling gold leaf. There was no balloon to hold it up or propellers to push it forward; instead the ship was carried by magic alone and driven forward by banks of rowing oars, somehow finding purchase on empty air.
Flapping coloured dots flew alongside, resolving into the leonine forms of sphinxes as the ship drew closer: some organic, some with the smooth ceramic skins and slightly jerky motions of Summer's constructs. The sharks watched closely as the Fellissian ship approached but kept their guns untrained, allowing the galley to dock at the cliff port. On the deck gleamed the golden bulk of the Oracle's statue, surrounded by a crowd of bipedal cats and a few of the larger cat-taurs.
The statue stayed on the Fellissian ship's forecastle, while Summer's avatar along with her cohorts disembarked, flying over to to join the others at a meeting hall above the dock. The phalanx of ceramic sphinxes was quite impressive, gleaming in the sun and moving in tight formation, while Nekuno and her guardians followed close behind. Even Te'summi was there, still clutching the Staff of Logoros, while Everdream the Mystic padded down the gangplank. The feline delegation was soon assembled next to the ponies, sharks, gillmen and griffons that formed their new alliance.
"It is a pleasure to contribute my services for such a worthy cause," Summer began, "For no true peace can come to our people until the Drow can never threaten us again. The Oracle will ensure it... with your help." She nodded regally to the sharks, gesturing with a paw at their sky docks. "You build such magnificent airships - I hope to see them put to good use. I, for my part, will be ensuring that no end of ceramic soldiers will harass all in our way." Turning next to Azure Feather, she asked: "I believe you are in charge of the operation, yes? What are our plans for the assault?"
Face to face with this... other... Summer Scribe, not to mention her impressive retinue of legendary predators, Azure Feather's face was creased with worry and self-doubt. The theoretical notion of taking out the drow just got very real, and her plan... had to be perfect. Anything less was not an option. Failure meant none of them would see Equestria again, at best; more likely an unpleasant death or life as a slave, a caged curiosity to be poked and laughed at.
Azure took a moment to regain her composure, resolving to stay calm, drawing herself up and looking Summer Sphinx squarely in the eye. "Yes, noble Oracle, I will lead this coalition, yet... I do not know its exact composition: numbers or abilities. Could I begin by asking exactly what each of our allies can contribute? How many ships and fighters do we have to work with?"
Firesteel took that as a cue to strut into centre stage: Summer had stroked his ego and he was proud to show off his people's accomplishments. "Obviously, Triskelion assets are well-placed to form the backbone of a mobile strike force," he told the gathered creatures, "starting with the Leverage, pride of the fleet." He gestured at the double-decker airship docked nearby, all steel plating and jutting angles.
"Broadside of eight rifled breech-loaders on each flank, with a pair of swivel guns fore and aft for mobile targets. Riflesharks as well of course, and marines to repel borders. Then you've got my ship, fastest on the fringe, with a couple of the finest quick-firing guns in a turret under her nose. Now she ain't built for heavy combat, but brawlin' would be a waste of her talents. Hit-and-run passes is where it's at, knock 'em down before they even know you're comin'."
The shark flexed his arms then placed his hands on his hips. "Last we got good old Profit Margin. She ain't a warship at all - oh we could load a few cannon on the deck, but it wouldn't make sense seeing she's slow as molasses and creakin' at the seams. No, she'll stay back until we got sky superiority, then come in and unload the ground forces."
"We'll need infantry to take the Hand - a few armoured trucks wouldn't hurt as well. Everything else is shot down or under repair, mostly thanks to the drow, though they sure ain't the only threat to honest trade in these parts. Now... my crew's got your pony ship all fixed up, so let's hear what you're bringing to the table."
Nutmeg Inferno took a few nervous steps forward, staring wide-eyed at the surrounding crowd. "S-S-So, uh... the EAS Harmony is pretty sturdy of course, nothing high-tech but magically-treated wood and decent quality steel. Thanks to the sharks she now has a Goldling dual-mount Elemental energy projector: middling damage but rapid fire and runs as long as there are elementals inside to power it."
"Then there's the cannons... well not real cannons as such, because we haven't got a forge or a reaming lathe or anything like that. So... I've thrown together a couple of dynamite guns... they run on compressed air, that means we can fire mining explosives and not have them blow up in the tube. I was wondering how to make enough shells in time, then Blaze pointed out that a carved wooden nose nailed to a baked bean can would work wonderfully!"
A blissful smile, then the kirin continued: "And the new propellors are working great, so we're faster than ever! N-not as fast as the Exocosus of course," she paused for a dreamy stare at the shark's 'Executive Air Yacht', "or even the Second Chance, but pretty good for a conventional envelope-supported airship. Since most of the cargo went overboard" - Azure's reflexive grimace went unnoticed - "we've used the remaining weight margin for extra armour plating!"
"Finally, I managed to make another, uh... electromagnetic accelerator?" The kirin stared into space for a moment. "You know, like the one I was ready to fire at Cynder! Though that would have been a terrible idea. Uh... but yeah we've set one up in the crows nest and another on the stern, on top of the engine room. They take a while to charge, but you can shoot a big metal spike really fast, or for a soft target a whole bunch of smaller spikes!"
The kirin suddenly seemed to feel the weight of all the eyes on her, fiddling with her hooves. "A-And... last but not least... there's the Second Chance! Firesteel was really nice and after I showed him the plans for the railgun he waived the charges for burning down that bar and even gave us a 'Puckle gun'!" She smiled awkwardly.
"I don't know what a Puckle is but, uh, it's like a giant revolver with a crank to turn the cylinder. I've put it on the bow mount, we've still got the torsion spring launcher on the back for nets and harpoons. And... I think that's everything?" With that Nutmeg skittered backwards into the crowd, where her engineering crew smiled and reassured her that she'd done a great job.
Everdream was the next to step forward, the big cat-taur hefting his magic staff as always. "The hopes and dream of Fellis ride in the Fortuitous," he proclaimed, "last of the great air galleys. Perhaps she's showing her age, but the mystics of old built to last, and her magics remain undiminished. She carries two heavy ballistae and a giant catapult."
"Now you might think such ancient weapons are as nothing before the fire and steel of the modern age, but the bolts are tipped with elemental crystals, while the trebuchet can loft a whole shower of the same," he explained. "The energies released on impact are... formidable. However, the true strength of the Fortuitous lies in her crew: mystics trained in combat casting and two score coutatan warriors, bows and blades at the ready."
Set Sail had been making some last-minute repairs to the Harmony's balloon, but now she swept down out of the sky, blowing into the viewing platform with a dusty whoosh of a backwing, declaring “I’m here! I’m here!”
The blue and brown pegasus hovered there for a moment, staring at the impressive array of creatures. She seemed a little flustered as she told them: “Sorry, was busy checking with the—er— and Crimson Sky just told me we were having a little meeting here to talk about combat abilities. I don’t wanna toot my own horn, uh, but I guess that’s what we’re all here for.”
The mare finally landed, very conscious of the fact that she was distinctly shorter than, well, all of the other creatures there. She trotting nervously along the edge of the platform, before taking a stand and saying: “We are a crew of about fifty ponies currently, plus a few griffons, one kirin, one donkey, and a hippogriff who is currently... gifted with the powers of elemental water."
“We have two among us who you would call elementals,” Set Sail continued, “Azure Feather, who... completed the Trial of the Wind, and earned her wings, and Reef Skimmer, who... well it’s a long story, but he can bring a tide of water with him wherever he goes. We have one unicorn who might have an affinity for fire, and several of our crew have been... gifted with the Undead element."
"The pegasus Cloud Cutter has a short-range teleportation ability and a... light that kills everything around her, depending on how much she charges it. The uh, bat pony Clashing Gale has the means to, uh... gain power and rapidly heal from... kill- uh... draining other creatures. And... our chief engineer Nutmeg Inferno is a Tech elemental, which you may have guessed from her ability to rapidly outfit our ship with weaponry.”
Frowning, she said, “Those are what you will be familiar with, using magic and techniques common to these lands. But my crew and I are not from your lands. We are ponies. Several of us are unicorns, with a special horn capable of many different forms of magic. They're not what you’d call combat oriented, more specialised to delicate tasks of fine manipulation. Some others among us are earth ponies who each have a knack for certain things that shock and amaze even me. But neither unicorns nor earth ponies can fly, so the vast majority of our crew...” She spread her feathered wings wide, “...are pegasi.”
Flying up from her spot on the ground to hover above everyone on strong flaps of her wings, Set Sail declared, “Pegasi are naturally what you might call combat oriented. Our ancestors were proud warriors, and that has stuck with us, even we simple sailors here. None of us...” her gaze flicked guiltily to an empty-eyed pegasus in the crowd, “...are cloud engineers, but any of us can fashion a sort of crude cloud barrier solid enough to stop most projectiles. That’s what I’ll be protecting the balloon of our ship with."
"Enough time and we can... I hope... construct a storm, leaving the pirates to deal with heavy rain, lightning, and even sleet and snow. Working together, we can generate, well, basic tornadoes at least, which wouldn’t do any good to a creature or ship caught in their paths. Finally, we are ourselves...”
She drew the heavy cyclops-made axe from its harness at her side, sailing off away from the crowd in a rising spiral then banking back towards them. The pegasus fell into a fierce dive, driving her hind leg before her to smack thin air with a whoosh, then swinging her axe through the shockwave. Demonstration complete, she returned the weapon to its harness, concluding: “...weapons. Give a pegasus enough time to pick up speed, and you’ve already lost, as the saying goes.”
Set Sail landed again and strutted forward. “The flight traps of the pirates are serious trouble for us, but if they’re disabled, we can fight as well as any griffon. So I just wanted you all to know our ship isn’t just an armoured behemoth. It’s also a crew of fantastic sailors, fierce griffons, creative unicorns, clever earth ponies, and pegasi. We’re only fifty-three in number, but we’re here to fight for our survival, for the safety of your lands, and the creatures on them. So... thank you. I uh, I didn’t mean to interrupt, sorry.”
The captain nervously started in the direction of the other pegasus in the crowd, then stopped short, and took a long look at Azure standing there. Then Set Sail just sat her haunches to the ground, looking around at all the strange creatures gathered round
Summer Sphinx, for her part, believes that the best way to tell is to show - so, looking at Set Sail and Azure Feather side by side, she lifts a paw and concentrates her gaze. Earthen energy whirls from the ground of the island, hardening itself into the ceramic shapes of the two pegasi, standing side by side. Glazed, glossy, coloured, creaking with every small motion.
"Excellent! For my part, I offer the powers of the Oracle - to create an unending army from the power of Earth itself. I can make them in the visage of any creature I am familiar with -" Nodding politely to the two pegasi, as their ceramic copies nod and lift hooves for a moment. The oracle had clearly been studying these 'ponies' closely, if this was to be believed!
"While they do not bear any of the same supernatural powers and are not impressively durable, they can fly, they can fight, and they can wear down any opponent that can be held at bay. Should our ships remain aloft and under our control, we shall surely win." Summer beamed proudly at the rapid improvement in her golem-making ability.
At her side, the sphinx Ne'kuno took a step forward, golden mask hiding her face as always. "And you also have our combined Fellisian forces to call on - Mystic battle mages, Couatan warriors, and our own sphinx magic." Te'summi, stood nearby clutching her new staff, nodded silently but firmly. "As Everdream said, we have just the one ship to contribute to the cause: the Fortuitous. She's ponderous, but tough as nails and ready to lay siege on the Drow base and carry our troops forward."
Azure seemed to be deep in thought as she nodded to both the Oracle and Firesteel, her wings tightly folded as she was trying to think of a plan, yet to say the little Pegasus was nervous was no understatement, the occasional twitch of a wing the easiest sign of such. Yet it was starting to come together for her. They had two heavy ships with long-range artillery, one speedster - no, two, if you counted the Second Chance... and an absolute tank of a ship.
So far so good, but it all depended on what the enemy would field. She had to play her cards right, and right now she was still playing half-blind... "We know of the sky traps, but as for the enemy forces... we've had only brief glimpses. Do any here have more detailed knowledge?" she asked the group as a whole, her newfound confidence slipping back a little.
"Military intel isn't one of our core businesses, but that ain't to say we don't got the goods. Pitchblende," Firesteel playfully slapped the smaller, bespectacled shark on the back, "time to bust out that slide deck."
Pitchblende winced as usual, before smiling weakly. He gestured for some underlings to bring out a flip chart, which he paged through as he continued to talk. "Ah yes well the primary threat is of course the so-called 'Ravager'. Originally a galleon, the drow have steadily upgraded it, over several generations. Now see here on the prow: a turret with two super-heavy guns taken from Troll Mega-Tanks. They constitute the primary anti-ship threat, and will make short work of nearly any vessel. Fortunately the weapon favours calibre over velocity, limiting the range, and the drow rarely fire it - likely because ammunition for such a beast is hard to find."
"As such..." he flipped to the next page, "these are their workhorse anti-ship weapons. Two wing turrets taken from Mark 31 tanks, each with two high-velocity guns. Then you've got the anti-flyer guns: rapid-fire energy blasters top and bottom, and two more on the wings; also salvaged from wrecked mega-tanks, no doubt. Oh there's a dozen of the original cannons on each broadside too; the drow mostly use those for intimidating settlements. Lots of fire and smoke, saves on the good ammo, you understand. Though no doubt it would still make a mess of any ship that pulls alongside... or any creature, if they're loading grapeshot."
"Then there's the copters," Pitchblende flipped to the last page. "Now it's hard to pin down just how many the pirates have operable and in service: most likely it changes from day to day. Subtracting the one acquired by our friends here, we could face anywhere from two to five. We believe they have two with light cannon, for shaking down merchant ships; the rest have harpoon/net launchers for hunting and, erm, taking captives."
"Finally there's the fortress itself. Alas our intel on that is rather light, given that the gravity manipulators make short work of any scouts and, erm... well, Firesteel has declined to purchase any slaves that might've seen the interior."
The shark CEO suddenly looked embarrassed for some reason, as if not using slave labour was something to be ashamed of. "Not compatible with the Triskelion mission statement," he explained. "Besides, when you factor in the low motivation, escapees, possible sabotage... yeah."
"Certain secrets are known to us," came a low feline voice: Ne'kuno, leader of the sphinx guardians. "We know that the drow have a plethora of weapons, cannon and siege engines of every description, yet most lie rusting and unusable, broken by the troll assault or the ravages of time. We know they have sorcerers, surely not a match for the Mystics in power but numerous and vicious. And we know they have behemoths: a bloodline spawned by the Chaos Mother, hulking giants that could give even a Leonoid pause." She stared at each of the leaders in turn, expression unreadable as always behind her golden mask. "This I tell you without recompense, out of respect for our alliance."
Ze'noath stepped up beside her, rumbling: "Do not succumb to fear. The so-called 'Sky Terror Clan' are but a shadow of their past selves. I believe they have barely three hundred souls remaining, and many of those are children, elderly, non-combatants of other sorts. A pawful of brutes and sorcerers cannot stand against the glorious force I see gathered here today." He cocked his head, then added: "Assuming, of course, it isn't blown to smithereens before it can land."
Summer Sphinx cracked a grin. "They have only one ship to their name and we have four. Excellent. While it sounds impressively armed and armoured, we have every other advantage to our name." She bowed her head low. "I would not be so foolhardy to think that I can come up with all the details myself, but - it sounds as though if we stay out of the firing arc of its main cannon, harass it from a distance and keep on top of the drow copters, we can wear them down with minimal losses." She glanced over to the assembled creatures, as though inviting them to propose their thoughts.
This wasn't the time for weakness, Azure Feather thought, as she tried to coalesce all this into a battle plan. Obviously they had to achieve air superiority, before the remaining forces could move into position for the ground assault. Being perfect was... impossible, but the closest she was to it, the better. The key thing, she thought, was to try and split this into phases; if they faced the enemy battleship and the fortress defences and the gravity traps at the same time, they were bound to take heavy losses. But if they could split these threats up, defeat them one at a time..
With one more deep breath to compose herself, the Air Elemental turned to look to her allies and began. "We've already won half the battle, forming this alliance, assembling here as a team. I intend for the unity to last well beyond this battle... but I digress. Gillfolk, please report to the deck of the EAS Harmony: you will be manning the deck guns, and should the ship be boarded... you have your own weapons to fight back. Defend the elemental cannon at all costs - Brightscale, you will be inside operating it." There... the first pawn was on the board. Next...
"So we ain't gonna be riding those griffs into a flying battle?" Sliptail piped up, sounding disappointed.
"That sure wasn't on the cards," Ebony Hail said dismissively. The big black hen scraped a claw on the ground. "No sense slowing us down and worst comes to it, turning one casualty into two. You gillies can do more good on a ship."
Azure Feather shook her head, as she turned to gillwoman. "While I'll admit that it looks flashy and that it sounds like a good idea, one needs to look at this from the griffons' perspective - that will slow them down, disrupting their battle ability and indeed..." She nodded to Ebony Hail. "Exactly: if the griffon gets shot down, that would be two casualties."
"Cloud Cutter. Your role will be similar to the gillfolk, except with more... stand off. Flying close to the Harmony, any copters or similar enemy threats that get too close to the ship are to be dispatched." Second Chance will assist, and also hunt down any enemy copters that try to harass our allies.
Her eyes searched the crowd for... there, the big phoenix-dragon was standing at the back, quietly watching the proceedings. "Sunburn!" Azure called out to the Skylander, "...you're with me. I... I have some plans for the enemy battleship... ways to ruin their effectiveness." So many more were awaiting her orders, though: cats and sharks and griffons and she still hadn't placed a single airship in her plans...
"Certainly the Harmony is terribly short-crewed for a warship," Reef Skimmer noted. "So, flier attack on the enemy capital ship eh? It did occur to me that perhaps if one of our vessels could induce them to give chase, that might allow either the Leverage or the Harmony to manoeuvre into the rear quarter and fire on them unmolested by those heavy bow guns. Something along the lines of Admiral Conch's famous feint in the Battle of Fangborne Rocks..." The hippogriff's voice trailed off as he realised nocreature present shared his interest in Equestrian naval history.
Summer Sphinx, nodded in agreement to the griff, flicking her tail in an appropriate mystical feline demeanour. "Yes indeed. We have the numbers advantage, simply put: the drow simply do not have enough equipment available to them to outmanoeuvre us. If we press them with an attack on two fronts, they can only adequately focus on one."
"Exocosus can run rings 'round that sorry hulk," Firesteel sneered, "but they know that and won't bother chasing. Might draw off the copters that way, but if you want bait, it's gotta be a ship the drow think they can beat."
“Don’t the pirates have some sort of flier traps?” Set Sail asked, “We can’t attack their capital ship with fliers, if they’re all being dragged into the traps.”
"Not just an issue for flying creatures," Pitchblende replied, fiddling with his flip chart, "the Hand is still capable of immobilising ships, if they approach within three kilometres."
That piqued an amused expression from Summer Sphinx; she lowered her head to tap her chin. "...Hmm. Do we know if it has a maximum capacity? I would happily clog it up with my ceramic creations if it means more important fighters may roam freely."
Sunburn shot that idea down, stepping forward and explaining: "The Hand of Eon was originally built to move whole islands. Even shot to hell and jury-rigged by drow, not likely to run out of power snaring individuals."
"And an immobilised ship is fresh meat for these drow..." Azure mused. "No, there's no way around it, we have to launch a pre-emptive strike - hit them by surprise, with an operation specifically aimed at taking down those towers - and only the towers. It's their trump card - so we can't let them engage us until the traps are neutralised. I've knocked down one myself some time ago, so I know how to knock them out - but I can't do it alone. Though I think I know somegriff who's been dying to have another crack at it..."
Azure turned to her avian friend: "Grenelda. You know how annoying those things are, and... think that new gun of yours can take them?"
The griffoness cocked her beak open in a cackle. "Oh, do I ever. And I have some other ideas if that doesn't work." She reached into a side satchel and pulls out two branded bottles of magical cola, holding them out for all to see - a vibrant fiery red and a zebra striped white. "How do the words 'massive angry flaming griffon disaster' sound to you?" Her voice dripped with joyous anticipation. "Can't think of a better way to go out!"
"Well, one certainly looks forward to that particular spectacle," Reef said dubiously. The hippogriff looked from Set Sail to Azure. "One would like to volunteer for the advance party? Given my... condition, I should be able to, err, dissolve those towers, or worst case the traps themselves. And if somegriff, err, creature is going to take a harpoon from those copters, best it be one who can shrug it off."
"That's what I figured..." Azure replied, unable to hide an amused smile: Grenelda might be a bit unruly, but she certainly had enthusiasm for battle. It was... nice. Reminded her of her old unit? Anyway... "Thank you Reef Skimmer. Sunburn, can I count on you to complete the pre-emptive strike unit?" The surprise attack was critical, but also terribly dangerous... they needed to put their best hoof forward, without risking any more creatures than necessary. Sunburn, Reef, Grenelda and herself... the toughest and most effective flyers available.
The phoenix-dragon frowned. "Sure, the gravity sheer likely isn't severe enough to preclude wormhole formation." A pause, then a blink. "Uh, I mean yeah I can teleport through that tractor beam and slag the towers. Probably." He stared at Azure for a moment, then admitted "Would be good to work together again."
Grenelda cackled in amusement, then her eyes glimmered with excitement. "Oh... shit! I'm gonna be fuckin' fighting with a Skylander, aren't I?" She'd intended that to be a whisper to Gustus, who was sitting next to her with a pained expression as he heard his mate would be flying into danger again - but in her excitement the hen just couldn't keep her voice down.
"Will be a pleasure to work that turret for ya." Brightscale enthused. "Only right seein' as how it's been in Witchway long as anyone can remember. Also be a pleasure to blast those demon copters outta the sky! Uh, so if y'all off taking out the traps, anyone gonna be working the other side of the turret?"
Azure Feather nodded. "Correct, Brightscale, and there is one who will be happy to join you, I believe... Clashing Gale, can I entrust that to you?"
The batpony cocked his head, then nodded firmly. "Just like working the Storm Piercer again, except we'll be cutting through clouds of drow copters instead of the regular kind." He seemed quite satisfied with that post.
Brightscale shot the vampiric pony a nervous glance and gulped.
Clashing Gale couldn't help but notice. "Make no mistake, I've got your back." Straight and to the point, he felt, but part of him cringed in anticipation of the likely similar reactions he'd get from friends and family; if they ever made it back home.
"Very good," Reef nodded. "So the advance team will disable the traps and withdraw. Likely the enemy will send their full complement of aircraft after them."
Azure Feather smiled. "Why not place one of our ships to greet the chasers, then? If we can get them to fly out of range of the fortress defences before engaging, that reduces their firepower significantly. I feel the Leverage or Fortutious - or even both together - would be best suited to serve as bait. I'd like to keep Harmony as a surprise for them. As far as we know, the drow have never seen it."
Summer Sphinx seemed quite pleased by this plan. "Whichever ship this is, I suppose I shall be on it to irritate the approaching enemies as much as possible? Yes, this is good."
"Leverage is decked out in top-quality, tempered steel plate," Firesteel bragged, "'less you got fancy magic on that rowboat, she's best placed to take point. Maybe once you see her tank a shell or two, you'll consider an upgrade. With a ten-percent alliance discount!" The shark grinned at the sphinxes.
Summer Sphinx coils her tail with coy amusement. "Yes, please do impress us~" Nodding quietly over to Ne'kuno next to her.
"You're gonna draw off the ships, then? Leaves the island defences as easy prey for a war flock," Ebony cawed.
"Are they gonna send their gravity ship filer grabber thing along with their full complement of aircraft?" Set Sail fretted, certainly out of her element here, but afraid to let any problem go unaddressed.
One of the male sphinxes spoke up: "The gravity mechanisms are built into the island," Ze'noath told the pegasus. "Ancient and sophisticated magic. The drow are hard-pressed to even keep it working. We can be fairly sure they have not developed a ship-borne version."
"Thank you..." Azure wasn't sure if she'd heard the sphinx's name, "...that's definitely a relief to hear, though we can't let our guard down. Everything hinges on this surprise strike; if that goes badly, then the ships will still have to engage, but at a significant disadvantage." A little twinge of fear ran through Azure as she recalled being trapped in that crystal pool, with the enemy copter closing in. Now wasn't a time to get emotional, but she wouldn't soon forget...
"Indeed, very good," Reef said. "So Leverage and Fortuitous form the lead squadron? A credible assault force on their own, likely to draw the full attention of the enemy. Shall we have Harmony and Exocosus attempt the flanking manoeuvre then?" He nodded to Set Sail: "If you could see fit to whip another of those instant cloud banks, that might allow us to get into position undetected."
Set Sail smiled at Ze'noath, relaxing a bit more. This wasn't really her thing; sure, she had ideas like blockade, sabotage, inclement weather... nothing that hadn't occurred to anyone else here. She was just glad she'd lucked out with a couple of brilliant tacticians on her crew, helping her and all of them out. She was pretty sure they were brilliant tacticians at least. Set Sail was under the uncomfortable impression that it took one to know one.
"The Harmony will definitely be a shock to them, with that elemental cannon fully powered and Nutmeg's wild inventions as well," Azure mused. "If we can get behind them, shoot their propellers... one surprise volley from that cannon may turn the tide of this battle to our favour. Exocosus is no slouch either, even if their main hull is completely armoured, maybe you could knock out their anti-flier defences. A surprise strike would, again, be the best case scenario."
Grenelda clicked her beak, all excitement and confidence. "I'm so damn ready to send these pirates packing. Let's fuck 'em up and show no mercy."
Summer Sphinx chortled, nodding to the eager griffon. "The first and most important step to once more asserting our sovereignty over these skies. I look forward to showing the Skylands we're not to be messed with."
Azure took a deep breath, and slowly let it out again. The strategy was sound, but... battle plans rarely survived contact with the enemy. Still, everything seemed solid, and if they could take the gravity traps out of the equation, their superior forces should carry the day. Preparations almost complete, all that was left now was to execute...
Late into the evening the assorted creatures continued frantic preparations for battle: locking down everything that could be locked down, unloading all non-essential equipment and shoring up every bit of structure. They could not afford to waste any time: it was only a matter of time before a pirate scout copter spotted the new ships docked at Triskelion Mine. Thus in the early hours of the following morning, five airships set out into the darkness, heading south towards their date with destiny.
Two hours later the first rays of dawn glinted on the thick steel armour of the shark frigate. The Leverage was hanging in the air roughly twenty kilometres west of the so-called 'Isle of Misery', the ship's silhouette masked by a nearby cluster of floating islets. The ornate Fellissian war galley was hovering nearby, with felines of all kinds waiting restlessly on the deck. The shark captain's eyes were on his chronometer; the advance force should be going in now. They'd give them fifteen minutes to engage, then begin their own dash towards the target, hopefully running right into the fliers and their pursuers.
On the Fortuitous, Summer Sphinx paced up and down the deck, or at least her avatar did: the Oracle statue itself was stowed in the hold below. She'd spent the flight out getting in some final practice at creating flying golems, trying to work out any kinks in the process. Pegasi, griffons, sphinxes... trying to gauge her limit for simultaneous control, she'd peaked at a dozen active units.
Summer smiled as she watched the latest batch bank, dive and bob in the airspace around the ship. So far all her practice had been theoretical: this would be the first time taking her ceramic creations into combat. She could only hope they'd be everything she'd bragged them up to be.
Twenty kilometres to the north west, a large and unusually substantial cloud had been slowly drifting closer to the pirate's island for the last hours. Nestled within were the bulky EAS Harmony and the smaller, sharper form of the Exocosus, engines barely ticking over. The pony's commandeered copter hung lifeless, suspended below the larger airship on ropes, ready to spring into life when battle was joined. A few pegasi darted around the ships, shoring up the concealing cloud and generating an artificial breeze to move it along with the ships.
Set Sail flew ahead of the ship, on the edge of the cloud bank, straining her eyes to make out the pirate's island. The dawn light had transformed it from a dark shadow in the distance to a very real and formidable fortress. The enormous castle sprawled over most of the central island. Reaching out from that like a spider's web were enormous chains of unknown metal, hanging in great arcs and connecting to many smaller islands spaced around the core. Surrounding them were the hundreds of tiny islets that she knew could draw in a flier and trap them, leaving them at the mercy of the drow.
It terribly unnerved her, as she gently coaxed the clouds around her to flow along with the ships, that these pirates had some power capable of pulling a pegasus out of the air. She had never felt it, which made her even more wary of yet another thing about this blasted land that could take the skies away from her.
That was why they were all flying with a rope around their barrels, in case the lead ponies got caught in the pull of the traps. Her crew were fanned out behind her, at different angles from the ship so as not to get tangled - though if it came to it, they all had their mouth knives ready to cut the lines loose. Of course the safety lines wouldn't help if the ship itself got pulled in, and... this was as far as they could go without risking that. From here, it was up to Azure and her team.
Meanwhile Nutmeg Inferno scampered between the fishy operators of the railguns, trying to ensure they knew about safe firing rate and the barrel heat, and how to leap to safety if the ramshackle devices sought fit to explode. The red-ruffed kirin made sure to assure the nice gilmen that they would be plenty of warning before that happened. She'd managed to throw together another two of the flywheel-charged mass accelerators as well: they were primed and ready to take down any enemy fliers, boarders, or even copters should they get close. Finally the dynamite guns sat ready to deliver punishing blows to the enemy warship, though she wished they'd been time for more test runs...
On the deck of the great airship, shrouded in mist through which the glow of dawn was just beginning to filter in, the strike team was assembled. The newly-turned pegasus, the griffon hen with Nutmeg's makeshift cannon strapped to her back, the grey hippogriff stallion and the fire-feathered avian dragon: all of them had been to the cursed place before, and despite the danger they were all looking forward to putting the place out of commission.
Azure Feather inspected her unit and gave a nod of approval. Reef Skimmer and Grenelda, two of her most battle-hardened allies, that had already proven their worth in combat several times over. Then there was Sunburn: since she'd first laid eyes on him she'd dreamed of sharing a battlefield with him, fighting with him at her side... but now wasn't the time to get emotional.
Here was supernatural power and kirin technology that far outclassed the abilities of her old unit, yet she knew they must not get overconfident. Sure, they might as well be unstoppable if she was still facing a raiding dragon or a few greedy diamond dogs, but this place had dangers like nothing she'd seen back in Equestria. Total focus was the only way they were getting out of this without casualties.
"And... 07:45... mark!" said Winter Hope, the unicorn looking up from his pocket watch.
"That's it then," Azure acknowledged. Their allies would soon begin advancing towards the island; they had to go now, or abandon Summer and the others to a one-sided encounter and a likely gruesome fate. "Strike Team... begin operation." Azure sprang into the air and took the lead, flying straight for the target at her best sustained speed. She knew time was of the essence: the quicker they got those towers down, the better the chances of success for the overall operation.
Grenelda was not far behind, her larger wings whipping the mist into whorls as she flapped hard after Azure. Reef Skimmer nodded, reared up and leapt off the deck, diving steeply for a few seconds as his shape rippled and expanded into his roc form. Sunburn just stood on the deck watching the others take to the sky, then spread his wings and in a dramatic flash of flame he teleported to catch up, flying in formation right behind Azure. A few seconds later the four flyers burst out of the cloud and into clear air, streaking toward the pirate base.
Cloud Cutter just watched them go, from her position on the deck of the Second Chance. The converted drow copter was unpowered, hanging from a rope sling below the belly of the Harmony, concealed along with its mothership in the artificial cloud. She hated being alone on the little craft, but it was a necessary precaution given that she was lit up like a firefly with unnatural purple energy. This way if she did lose control and release it early, at least she wouldn't kill every living being on the deck.
She'd insisted on being the one to keep watch on the strike team, and give the signal for the airships to break cover. Her flash should be bright enough for the others to see even inside the cloud; in truth, she'd just been desperate to find a non-fatal use for the thing. Then Gustus and Static Signal could fly down to the copter and cut it free, the pegasus flying and the griffon working its single, but grimly effective 'Puckle gun'. As for her... she fidgeted unsurely with her wing blades. Cloud Cutter didn’t doubt she would swiftly end some creature’s life with them today, but she wished that she didn't have to.
Azure Feather led them straight towards the closest mid-sized island, at the limit of the web of chains. She quickly spotted the flimsy latticework of the transmission tower at its summit, and eyed the surrounding cloud of islets warily. Each was topped by a crystal dish with its shallow pool of water, and she well remembered being trapped in one. It took only a few minutes to cross the distance, before she once again felt a tug on her body. Feeling the strange sensation of skidding sideways through the air as the trap began to draw her in, the pegasus instinctively summoned a breeze to help her fight the pull; to little effect.
Grenelda was feeling the same thing, even as she eyed up the Hand of Eon like a hawk searching for prey. The griffon cocked a quick side-eye at Azure's frantic struggles; for her part she was content to let the gravitational pull draw her in. The big elemental gun strapped to her back was warmed up and ready, so it just meant she'd be in position to shoot sooner. "Alriiight. Time to start taking pot shots? Azure?"
Azure struggled to keep her composure. "Yeah. Alight, let's get to it. Remember: ignore the traps and the chains, focus on the towers - that's the weak point, bring that down and this whole sector's useless to the drow." She'd said this five times over in the briefing - she didn't really think the griffon would forget, it was just that being dragged out of the air like this was... yeah.
Grenelda just opened her beak wide in a griffon grin. Then with a quick twist of her wings she'd slewed around to zero in on her target. Her claws gripped the stabilising handles of her back-mounted cannon, squeezing the lever that set the flywheel spinning and elemental Fire energy surging into its chamber. "Got it! Fucking shit up in... now!" A flick of the trigger and BANG! The device was gyroscopically stabilised, but her whole body was still kicked back by the recoil as it spat out its payload (and a shower of sparks for good measure).
The projectile punched a hole through one of the metallic structures ringing the top of the tower, causing several pieces to spall off from the shock. The pull on their bodies began to fluctuate, setting Azure's teeth chattering. With the grip of the trap weakened, Reef Skimmer went full on attack. The giant grey eagle blasted streams of water from his tentacle-feet, the sudden thrust breaking him free from the Hand's grip.
The transformed hippogriff rocketed forward and smashed into the transmission tower, leaving half of the metal latticework embedded in his gelatinous body and the rest flying in every direction. The unseen force disappeared, creating a bubble of safe air; yet that was just the first of a dozen towers (assuming the one Azure had destroyed on her previous visit had been repaired). Reef landed heavily on the island below, flattening numerous bushes. "Effective if rather painful!" he cawed, "no need to wait, one will catch up!" Then he set to removing the larger sections of metal with his beak, leaving blue patches in his feathers.
Grenelda erupted into shrill whoops and gleeful, malicious cackles. "Take that, you stupid gravity trap! There's plenty more where that one came from!" Confident now that they could deal with this nuisance, she stretched her wings and tugged on the straps of her harness, pulling the cannon back into the most comfortable position. The action cycled with a click, chambering a round ready for the next tower. She just hoped it didn't jam, but... if it came to it, the bottles of magical soda were clinking together in her satchel, and she was just waiting for an excuse to use 'em.
Reassured that the others were able to handle the task, Sunburn wheeled around and split off, heading for one of the towers closer to the central island. His trajectory began to curve down as he got within range of a fresh array of gravity traps, but then with a string of firey flashes the phoenix-dragon had teleported all the way to the power transmission tower. He immediately set about melting it into slag, hovering nearby and unleashing a continuous stream of fire from his beak.
Azure smiled for a moment, but knew better. As fun as that was to watch, and as skilled as her unit was... "Yeah, we have to keep moving - this is bound to get their attention, so we've got a few minutes at best before we're facing full on air-to-air combat. Sunburn, uh..." The dragon was already doing his thing, very effectively it seemed. "Reef... catch up when you can. Grenelda, let's go..." Even if they couldn't get every tower, the more traps that were downed, the better.
A minute of powerful flapping and Azure was ready to give the next tower a dose of her own power. Wings glowed green and then air blades were streaking out, cutting into the weak points of the structure. Sparks flew and the surrounding traps began to malfunction, buffeting Azure hard enough to send her next volley wide. She skidded into a sideslip, heading straight for one of the gravity traps while her wings fought for purchase on the air.
A crash landing seemed inevitable, but then a blazing projectile streaked past her and shattered the dish of the trap into crystalline shards. Grenelda came swooping in with a smirk on her beak, cawing out: "I think we better take these out together - they can really suck you in something fierce, even if you know it's coming!"
"You're not kidding... damn it." Azure cursed herself for her clumsiness, but again - no time for that right now. She needed to remember her origins, what she'd been fighting for in the guard: Equestria. Friendship. Teamwork. All that... yeah, yeah. "Not going to make the same mistake twice..." she muttered, drawing up to a steady hover and flushing magical power into her pinions again.
She loosed another flurry of shimmering projectiles from her pinions, and with no anomalous gravity to mess up her aim they flew true. The elemental blades pinged and cracked into the tower, warping and splitting metal with every strike. Broken pieces clattered and sparked to the ground before the entire structure came crashing down into ruin, rendering another swathe of gravity traps non-functional.
"Gotta take down at least two more, to give the ships a clear approach!" Azure called out. "With me Grenelda... we make a good team!" The blue pegasus headed almost directly south, aiming for the tower closest to the enemy base. Take that down, she thought, and then they could clear out before the drow were fully mobilised. The pegasus strained her wings to the limit, in her haste taking a line dangerously close to the central island. Grenelda trailed behind, the bigger griffon burdened by the weight of Nutmeg's improvised weapon.
The enemy base was a massive fortification, ranks of walls and towers and keeps, scarred and half-ruined by uncounted battles. As she drew close Azure could make out the little dots of drow scurrying around, no doubt rousing troops and readying weapons. The buzz of rotors filled the air: one, two, then three of Second Chance's siblings were rising into the air. The menacing shape of the enemy cruiser was there as well, sheltered within the walls but no doubt soon to sally forth.
Grenelda quirked a brow at all the activity in the Drow fortifications on the main island; sure they'd taken down a copter before, but this time the drow would be out for blood, not slaves. Those clunky old cannons were probably out of range, but who knew what the enemy casters were capable of.
"We still goin' for it, Azure?" she shouted to the pegasus, struggling to keep up with the pony's superior speed while carrying the heavy weapon on her back. "Do we have enough time?" Those copters were fixing to make this an all-out brawl, and she needed to be ready for it.
Azure's wings were already glowing bluish-green with elemental power as she prepared her assault on the fourth tower. "We have to knock at least this one down." Hopefully Sunburn would have enough in the tank to knock out the fifth and last one... she hated relying on one fighter, no matter how much of a star he was, but she had little choice. By the time they'd got this one down, Reef should be catching up; they could regroup with Sunburn and retreat together.
Indeed keen eyes of the phoenix-dragon had spotted the two flapping dots across the kilometres of intervening air. The Skylander apparently agreed with Azure's assessment; the firey shape rose up from the tower he'd just slagged and headed towards the final target in the mission plan.
Azure's air blades sleeted into the metal latticework, smashing components and triggering malfunctions as before. "Come on, Grenelda... one more blast!" Azure yelled, as waves of uncontrolled gravity tried to yank her in every direction at once. "Take this down and we're out... we're doing a hell of a job here but we're no match for that cruiser!" Again she was struggling and tumbling, instinctively summoning the power of Air to push back against the traps.
"One more shot? You got it!" Grenelda cancelled out the turbulence by the simple tactic of flying straight at the nearest trap, feeling the rush of adrenaline as she risked everything on a single move. Seconds before impact, she flicked her wings, slewing the cannon around so the sights would pass over the tower. The timing had to be just right... BANG. Another fiery shot blazed out of the weapon and slammed into the tower, ripping the heart out of the mechanism.
A final dusting of air blades from Azure crackled into the tower and beat it down into scrap, but the destruction took precious time. Two of the twin-rotor copters headed straight for the Equestrians, flying in formation to cover each other with their bow guns, while the third looped north to investigate the other damage. A grey winged shape rose to meet it, presumably Reef Skimmer. Within the fortress a deep drone resonated between the ancient walls, engines chugging into life as the drow cruiser prepared to launch.
Azure Feather was pleased with their progress, but they were running out of time to make a clean getaway. Hovering here until they could regroup and retreat together was off the table; she could only hope Sunburn and Reef would be alright. It was time for phase two of the plan: they were now the bait for a trap of their own, one that would snap shut on these stupid drow. All they had to do was fly fast enough to avoid getting hit, but slow enough that the bipeds would keep up the chase. She could only imagine their rage at the destruction of their precious traps; all the better, if it blinded them to the danger ahead.
She could see the Leverage and Fortuitous heading their way, still dots in the distance but growing steadily larger. Azure gestured for Grenelda to take the lead; she'd distract the copter if she had to, cover for Reef and Sunburn. The hippogriff and the dragon were still out there, and Azure wasn't going to leave an ally behind.
Grenelda looked like she was lining up a shot at one of the copters, but she saw Azure's signal and broke off, spreading her wings wide to bank around and head away from the enemy island. The griffon peered back over her shoulder to check the position of her ally and the pursuing aircraft. "Damnit: I was about to take that one out, Azure! Not gonna disobey your orders though... hope they fall for this!"
Meanwhile Reef Skimmer was flying straight at the third copter, propelled by his water jets to speeds he'd never been able to reach with wings alone. Faced with an unrestrained thunderbird (or so they thought), the enemy pilot's nerve broke and the craft began to wheel around. But it was too late: the roc was seconds from collision. The bow gunner fired in desperation, launching an explosive tipped harpoon straight at the oncoming avian.
The shot flew straight and true, then somehow the enormous bird was just not there any more, replaced by a raging torrent that battered the copter's stern and flipped it completely over. The little craft tumbled wildly out of control as Reef blasted skyward, overflew the copter and barrelled on towards the rest of his group. He could see two more of the craft nipping at Grenelda's paws, and... yes, there was the enemy cruiser, slowly rising into view and bristling with guns. Not just that... a pair of flapping shapes the size of hippogriffs, flanking the enemy airship.
Far to the north, Cloud Cutter hovered more like a departed spirit than a pegasus, feeling the wind around her as nothing more than a breeze ruffling her fur, which was an unsettling feeling after a lifetime of being one with the skies. She was a glowing purple dot in a sea of blue and white, the only pony to be seen as the rest of the crew were still hidden in the artificial cloud, along with their ships.
It was the only way they’d be safe from her, she though, if she were just... a strangely animated corpse out here with nopony to look at her, and fear her, and shy away from her. They were already away. She wished they would stay away forever, even though they were the only thing she missed more than her weather sense. Isolation only made that loss keener.
She shook off the melancholy (at least for now) and lifted the thick brown binoculars dangling around her neck. Cloud Cutter was gratified to discover that her empty eyes could still see through them just fine. She'd verified that a week ago of course, since it would have been madness to do this unprepared. Now she watched through the familiar lenses as her friends attacked one tower after another, so far away as they risked their lives for the crew. Five targets had been on the plan; four had gone down, but the enemy copters were nearly on them and the capital ship was about to join the fight.
“Come on...” Cloud Cutter murmured, watching the strange bird-like dragon as he attacked the fifth tower, a glowing dot unleashing streams of star-hot plasma to melt and collapse the steel. She wondered if Fire felt anything like Undead; a strange light within her that forced her to love it even as it killed everything around her. Now she would finally be able to release it with not so much as a butterfly dying, a beacon for her allies.
“Yes!” Cloud Cutter declared as the last tower slumped and disintegrated, its foundations melted to slag. She watched the phoenix-dragon as he looked to Azure and the enemy copters then vanished in a flash of flame. She'd seen enough; the binoculars fell from her hooves, only their leather strap stopping them from tumbling into oblivion. She hoped the pirates weren’t looking this way - though even if they were, likely they'd be too busy now to worry about mysterious flashes - and she wasted precious seconds winging in a slow circle to make sure no creatures had approached from behind.
There was no-one; she was as alone as before. “Finally...” Cloud Cutter said, tilting her gaze to the sky, then exploding in a blinding flash of deadly eerie purple light. It was... over, and she felt somewhat more like a pony again.
The sound of engines came out of nowhere, the overlapping roars of rotary engines and the deep thrum of steam turbines. The cloud bank began to seethe and churn, as propellors spun into life and the pegasi who'd been maintaining it cast away their safety lines and returned to their ship. Then the sharp prow of the Exocosus sliced out of the cloud, turreted guns gleaming below her chin as she powered forward toward the shark island.
The EAS Harmony was second behind, streamers of condensed cloud sluicing off the great bulk of the pony ship as it abandoned its concealment and accelerated to flank speed. Below the ship the rotors of the Second Chance were beginning to turn, as Static Signal got the engines stared. In less than a minute Gustus had cut the line and the copter was flying free alongside their airship.
Cloud Cutter sighed as she adjusted course to let the Harmony pass beneath her, dropping onto the top of the balloon and digging her hooves into the netting there. A pair of gillmen in the crow's nest gave her a nervous wave, as they slewed one of Nutmeg's devices around, watching out for enemy fliers. She had to take her place in the strike force now, no doubt to cause as much chaos and death as she could manage. The Undead pegasus could only hope the drow saw reason before she had to extinguish every last one of them.
Frustration built in Azure Feather as she flew a wingspan behind the griffon. The copters were almost on top of them; she knew she could go faster, but Grenelda was weighed down by her weapons and might be tiring... in any case, she didn't want to get too far ahead of the enemy cruiser, in case it decided to give up the chase and retreat to the protective umbrella of the fortress guns. Her wings began to glow once more as she made her decision. With no further warning the pegasus spun around and took aim at the closest pursuer, aiming to give the rotors a solid dose of air blades. That should at least slow them down, if not disable the rickety aircraft entirely...
The volley of slicing energy swept over the drow copter. Many shots passed through the rotor disc without contacting, but it only took a couple of lucky strikes to cause serious damage. A sizable chunk was lopped off one blade and the rest of the port rotor instantly began to shake itself apart. The little craft skidded into a turn, trying desperately to make it back to base before it fell out of the air. That gave the rear gunner one good opportunity for a shot at Azure, loosing an explosive-tipped harpoon with a loud ka-klunk. Azure stared transfixed for a split second as the projectile rushed toward her, then the breath was knocked out of her by a sudden impact and the world dissolved into flame...
...Only to reappear a moment later as she emerged from the teleport to find herself in a feathery embrace. "You gotta fly less predictably," a beaked face above her said, then cocked to one side and added "Nice work though. One shot and they're out of it." Then Sunburn released her and they were flying free again.
Azure blinked in shock; one second she'd was cursing herself for taking stupid risks as she realised the harpoon was going to hit her, the next the blast had taken her breath away and she was sure she'd be opening her eyes in Celestia's skies... but then a flash of fiery red feathers and she was saved. That voice, like smouldering embers ready to burst back into flame... Azure shook her head, silently thanking the phoenix for saving her as she signalled the others to resume the retreat. She couldn't find the words to express herself just then, focusing instead on completing her mission.
Grenelda looked back over her shoulder, cocking a beaky grin as Azure did her magic, squawking in delight as the copter took a hit and began spiralling away. Then her face turned to horror as she saw that drow gunner lining up the shot. "Shit... Azure!" she cried out, a moment before the fiery poof. The pegasus vanished, the harpoon sailing on into space; the griffon searched frantically for- there she was, in Sunburn's grap. It took a few seconds for the hen to process that she'd literally teleported out of the way.
"Damn!" Grenelda whooped and cawed out: "Way to save the day, Sunburn! Let's keep moving and teach those drow a lesson!" Back to retreating - with luck she'll be witness to a gratuitous ship battle any moment now! The remaining copter had pulled in for an attack of its own - as if she couldn't see something that big and noisy coming. The bow gunner launched a weighted net in Grenelda's general direction, but the hen just snorted contemptuously as she side-slipped out of the way.
Seeing the fate of its twin and having got a good look at the gun the griffon was toting, the pilot seemed to think discretion was the better part of valor and turned away to buzz over to the pirate cruiser, taking up station off one flank. A fourth copter soon arrived to join it, the whole force chasing the three flyers at the best speed the Ravager could manage. Reef Skimmer caught up a few minutes later, glad to give his water jets a rest for a moment and just flap along behind the others. "I say, that was quite the-"
"Reef Skimmer!" Sunburn bellowed. "Like I just told Azure, this ain't a pleasure flight! Start jinking, now!" The hippogriff's reply was cut off by a resounding boom from far behind them, followed by a supersonic crack that assaulted their ears even as the shockwave buffeted their bodies. "Main gun!" Sunburn shouted. "Now jink!" The four of them set to banking, dipping and diving as they slowly closed the distance to the oncoming friendly airships.
On the bow of the Fortuitous, Summer Sphinx was watching closely. She flinched at the sight of that enormous gun firing on her friends. Time to give the drow something else to shoot at; at her mental command a wave of ceramic flyers launched off the Fellissian ship. Four pegasi, four griffins and four sphinxes, golems ready to sacrifice themselves for the cause - and be near-instantly replaced by her magic. She grinned proudly as she watched her 'children' fly straight past her allies, then split apart and begin to harass the enemy copters.
The drow seemed to recoil from the seemingly suicidal aggression of these new foes. Lacking fear or emotions of any kind, they threw themselves at their targets, dive-bombing the gunners and throwing themselves at the machinery. Desperately the drow fired their guns and harpoon as the decoys, wasting their ammunition and completely forgetting about the strike team. Then streams of green energy burst out of emplacements on the cruiser, hosing down the nearby airspace and shattering the golems. Summer flinched at the impact, but in less than a minute she had another wave flying out to take their place.
'Holy crap', Azure thought as she watched the decoys feed themselves into the meat grinder. Those energy guns looked vicious; she was extremely grateful that they were tearing up Summer's golems rather than one of her allies. The allied ships were less than a minute away now, like deliverance sent by Celestia herself. All she had to do was keep up the evasive maneuvers for a little longer... This mission was almost unreal, surely Princess Twilight would never send her guard on something like this... yet, all her senses were wide open, and she felt so alive. Though in truth, if Sunburn hadn't been there, she would be quite the opposite...
High in alien skies, tiny dots in a vast ocean of air rushed towards each other, trailing smoke and spitting fire. At close range the dots resolved into mighty flying ships, powered by steam, magic and mixtures of the two. The ominous bulk of the Ravager, flagship of the drow's motley fleet, drove forward through the air, flanked by a pair of copters and the flapping shapes of enslaved griffons. The mighty main gun roared again, unleashing a shell that streaked past the strike force. The target was the vanguard of the opposing force: the squad armoured shape of the Leverage, the dirt shark battlewagon. The shell tore a massive gouge in the thick steel hull before bursting in a rain of shrapnel.
Following close behind the Leverage was the Fortuitous, dozens of magical oars thrashing to push the war galley onward. There the mystics of Fellis waited with staffs aglow and chants on their lips, preparing to unleash magical ruin as soon as the enemy got in range. Sphinxes crouched on the deck, arranged protectively around their Oracle, while cats adjusted the ballistae, waiting for the word to fire.
To the north the pony airship EAS Harmony was at flank speed, intending to approach the Ravager from behind and catch the enemy in a crossfire. However an unexpected complication had entered the picture; the impossible sight of an ocean-going galleon, lined with cannon and rigged with full sail, rising from the enemy base to head after the Ravager.
The sleek silhouette of the Exocosus sped ahead of the pony ship in a thunder of supercharged rotary engines, while the repurposed copter Second Chance stayed close, ready to aid its mothership. Almost lost in all this were the tiny shapes of the strike force, still flying for the relative safety of the Fortuitous, while Summer's latest flock of ceramic golems headed the other way: straight for the Ravager. For a single second the two groups intermixed and Azure Feather was treated to the bizarre sight of empty-eyed pony and sphinx statues flying along under their own power.
Grenelda winced, giving a reflexive squawk as the Ravager's shot seemed to split the sky. The shell was nowhere near this time - seemed like they'd found something else to shoot at, but the shockwave was still impressive. She saw the flash of it striking the Leverage, then the boom arriving a few seconds later - damn that shark ship was tough! The hen was honestly surprised a shot like that hadn't split it in half. "Shit! Azure, that thing packs a real punch... huh?"
She couldn't help staring as a dozen more blank-faced ceramic flyers swept past them; seemed like Summer sure could crank those things out. The copies headed straight for the enemy capital ship, keeping the enemy gunners and forcing them to sprayed green energy wildly at the incoming targets. "Guess that's our distraction," she called to Azure, "you ready to start causing havoc?" Her side-satchel clinked; tempting her to down the contents and cut loose.
Standing on the bow of the Harmony, her mane whipped by the slipstream, Captain Set Sail stared in horror at the flying galleon. With one quick flap she was on the main deck, facing her assembled deck crew. “Change of plans!" she called out. "There's no sign of weapons fire from the island, but there's a second enemy ship, one with no balloon, but with actual sails! We gotta stop it or it might do to us what we're planning to do to the Ravager!"
"We don’t know what they can do, or what weapons they got, so let's play this safe! If we start losing ponies, retreat to the Harmony and take cover! We need as strong a current as we can make, blowing south by southwest. They’ve got some kind of magic to fly that thing, so don’t hold back! Alright, let’s go blow them out of the sky!”
The pony airship continued driving forward as a small swarm of tiny colored dots rose off of its deck. The pegasi fell behind at first, flying in circles as they picked up speed, then streaked off in the direction of the galleon. Set Sail's plan was sound, but just there wasn't enough time or space; if the Harmony was going to arrive in time to aid the others with the Ravager, she'd have to pass within range of the second enemy.
The skeleton crew on the Harmony watched with bated breath as the enemy ships grew larger in their sights. Snug inside the turret, Clashing and Brightfin peered through the targeting periscopes, while strange energies were drawn from their bodies, powering up the device. Scalesbrook and Sliptail remained ready with the railguns to take out anything that started aiming their way. The other gillfolk had harpoon guns at ready, but the galleon would reduce the Harmony to splinters before they got close enough to board.
There was a brief moment of calm as the ships came together, enough that a few ponies dared to hope the second ship would stay neutral in this fight. Then a rippling roar of cannon fire dispelled that hopeless optimism. Every creature took cover as cannonballs flew into the ship, clanging on the armor plating and and blasting away the dense cloudcrete coating the ship’s balloon.
Railguns snapped in reply, piercing holes through thick oak walls and a few unlucky cannon operators. Another volley from the galleon, and everypony in the engine room panicked as the iron wall dented in with a groan of metal, ropes snapping and timbers shattering as the cannon balls crashed into them. Clashing and Brightfin let fly with the elemental cannon, peppering the enemy and tearing holes all through their sails, but unable to penetrate the hull. Even the dynamite guns were put into action, but in the bucking rolling chaos of the battle the makeshift projectiles went wide of their target, exploding with resounding booms in the sky beyond the enemy ship.
Then what might’ve been a cannonball shot past the galleon, seeming to come out of the blue, on a vector far different from the Harmony. It was followed by another, then another, then a whole cascade of swift projectiles passing above the ship, below the ship, all around the ship. Not one of them struck true, and the drow galleon was completely unharmed, until the gale force winds in their wake snapped the ship’s mast like a twig and shredded its damaged sails to ribbons. The force of the pegasi-summoned gale dragged it southwards into an out-of-control spin, the cannons firing once more, but no longer pointed towards anything but sky.
The mismatched flock of replicas headed straight for the drow battlewagon, without dodging or flinching as the enemy weapons opened up. Streams of bright green projectiles lanced out from under the bow of the Ravager, instantly shattering two of the griffons, while the copters buzzed around expending explosive harpoons on the distraction. The ensuing shockwaves fractured most of the constructs sufficiently that they broke apart in mid-air, with only a pony and a sphinx escaping the ceramic carnage. Drow could only stare in bemusement, wondering what trick the enemy was playing on them.
Summer Sphinx subtly winced at the feedback from each of her ceramic golems shattering. It was unpleasant and sharp in its suddenness, but she could power through it. She'd been watching the fight intently, concentrating on directing her creations. While their utter lack of fear was impressive in its own way, they'd be a lot more effective at tying up the drow gunners if she could make them dodge effectively.
Focusing her magic on the deck in front of her, she drew together the elemental power of Earth, reforming golem after golem: shaping them before everycat's very eyes, bolstering the ranks until all ten sacrificed constructs had been replaced, launching off the deck to once more harass the Ravager. She ordered the surviving pegasus and sphinx up ahead to split apart, flanking left and right - each one homing in on a copter to distract its attention.
"My ceramic creations have but a shade of the finesse and durability of the real thing," Summer mused to herself out loud, "But they are forced to deal with each and every one I create, for if they do not, then they will land and cause chaos until they are." Her tail swished with pride for her new found purpose. So long has she had to fight with only her quick wits and luck - going from that to this is like becoming the general of an unending army! Speaking of which... the cats around her were probably waiting for her orders.
"Fly the Fortuitous closer! Flank the Ravager, opposite the Leverage. Get ready to attack any enemy forces who get close. We will show them Felissians fight for what's ours!" she told the crew.
"Sharks are crossing, look!" shouted a feline voice. Indeed the Leverage was turning to port, right across the path of the Fortuitous, no doubt to hide the damaged plating from the enemy. Fortunately while the Fortuitous might not be the fastest ship in the skies, the dozens of oars gave it good maneuverability. The helmscat touched a rune and all the oars on one side briefly reversed, throwing the galley to starboard and executing a crossover to bring it onto the north east quarter of the Ravager.
The sudden turn was enough to evade the next shot from the enemy's main gun, which whistled past the Leverage's propellors. Now they were getting into range of the secondaries though; one armoured turret was tracking the Fortuitous, and it let fly with a lesser but still formidable boom. The opening shot blew off the ship's figurehead, raining splinters all over the deck. Summer grit her teeth at the near miss: seemed like that big mass of wood on the bow wasn't so ornamental after all. Jokes aside, she knew they were only a lucky shot away from being blown apart by that main gun. 'Come on Azure,' she thought, 'give us a miracle...'
In truth the blue pegasus was still shaken by her near-death experience, but she pushed that to the back of her mind. The enemy was pouring on the cannon fire and the battle would be won or lost in the next few minutes. "Time for phase three," she told her team, "and it's about time we pull out the ace. Storm and fire: that should cause some havoc for the deck crew, maybe even the ship itself." It honestly sounded a lot better in her mind than when she actively said it; she really had no idea whether this would work
Grenelda's beak gaped open in joy. "So you're gonna power up your tornados with Sunburn's fire? Been dreaming of that all day." She chortled in anticipation. "Show me what you're made of, then I won't stop wailin' on em until they're falling out of the sky!"
Azure nodded slightly, looking over to her recent savior as she replied vaguely: "That... was how my idea went, yes..." She couldn't do this without Sunburn, and she hadn't exactly had time to practice it... In the distance the latest wave of ceramic duplicates were being shattered by the green energy of the anti-flier guns. Nodding grimy, Azure said: "What do you think, Sunburn? Has Summer given us an opening?"
Sunburn was hovering nearby; he'd been watching the sacrificial golems carefully, scoping out the cruiser's fields of fire. The phoenix-dragon's head jerked over to focus on Azure as he wheeled around, heading back towards the enemy ship. "Fire and storm - just like old times. Let's do it, Azure. Get the vortex going, I'll cover then add some plasma - keep things toasty for those drow. Look: more golems incoming. We can go in behind them."
"Roger that." Azure replied, wheeling around to fall in behind the golems.. Her wings began to glow again as she said: "Let's get close enough, but not too close... Likely we'll only get one shot at this, so let's make it count." The drow probably thought they were safe behind their armoured hull, that air blades were all she had; if this worked, this would be absolute art.
A grey eagle the size of an elephant flapped closer to Azure, listening in: Reef Skimmer, still in roc shape. "Time to turn the tables then? Any specific orders, commander, or shall one just improvise?" he squawked.
Azure nearly jumped out of her skin; she'd been so focused on where to place the tornado, she hadn't expected a giant bird flying up next to her. Hearing Reef's voice just got a weak chuckle. "Alright, Reef... I was thinking just cover me, but if you've got a better idea, if there's one ally I can count on to exceed expectations... it's you. I trust your instincts."
"Sunburn and I will cause as much damage as we can... your best is all I can ask for." That left the final member of her squad: "Grenelda, after what I've seen today I respect your flying more than ever... but don't follow me in. You're a bigger target than me and this tornado won't discriminate; serious risk of friendly fire. We'll hammer the big ship... but I bet the copters aren't expecting a giant, fireball-spitting gryphon, right?" Azure grinned at the thought: "Think you can take 'em?"
In reply Grenelda swished a foreclaw into her satchel, pulling out the two MagiBubble-branded soda bottles. "Easy! Let's get to work." With the flick of a talon the caps were off and the fizzing contents were pouring into her beak. She grinned over to Reef: "You wanna take one of them?"
Reef shook his head. "Those devices spraying green magic are the greater threat; made short work of Summer's creations, no doubt murderous to any flyer who gets close. One will see what one can do about that! Good luck with the copters."
"Two copters it is - good luck, Reef! Drown 'em!" Grenelda crooned between gulps.
With that, they were off. Azure flew on alone, directly into the sights of the Ravager, though she didn't have to look back to know Sunburn wasn't far behind. "Alright... now we show 'em Skylanders are still a force you don't want to mess with..." The air blades were just a warmup; this would be the heavy hitter. Wind began to whip around her as she pushed her powers to the limit, magic flowing out to shape a tornado in the sky ahead of her. Timing was crucial; she had to get this fully formed before the enemy ship hit, but not give them time to evade.
The funnel cloud of the tornado began to form directly in the path of the Ravager; the armoured ship was ten seconds away from ploughing straight into it. Unfortunately that was enough for another volley of fire from the salvaged troll cannons. On the Fortuitous, Everdream led his fellow mystics in a rapid ritual, the cat-taurs releasing their energies just in time to bring up a wall of shimmering magic, hanging in mid air off the port flank of the ship.
The enemy shell slammed into it; the construct flickered and sparked but held for now, while the shockwave rocked the ship behind. "Another hit, maybe two, is all we can deflect!" the mystic shouted to Summer, "we can only hope that will be long enough!"
"Ballistae nearly in range, Oracle!" another cat called - Wild Draw, the warrior who'd met the ponies at the pig farm. "Give me half a tick and we'll have them in our sights!"
The Leverage was not so lucky. A shot from one of the secondary cannons glanced off the forward hull with a deafening clang, but the main gun was not so easily stopped. The shell punched into the rear of the ship, exploding inside and knocking out the port engine. The shark ironclad began to lose speed, while lifting gas seeped out of the shrapnel-damaged balloon.
To the west, the second shark ship was streaking to the rescue. Firesteel had the throttles jammed wide open and was out for blood. The twin cannon slung below the nose of the sleek air yacht fired simultaneously, striking the enemy ship on the port pontoon. One shell struck the base of a propellor shaft and severed it completely, the shattered assembly falling away into the void. The other was not so lucky, the relatively light shell clanging off one of the secondary turrets, leaving only a small dent in the armour.
Sunburn wasted no time congratulating Azure; with seconds to spare he disappeared in a flash and reappeared right in the heart of the tornado, his beak open and unleashing a continuous stream of fire that was instantly sucked into the vortex. Despite his best efforts he was soon spinning out of control as well, but with another flash of teleportation he was away and clear, leaving the giant whirling column of fire right in the path of the drow ship.
Meanwhile Reef Skimmer had unleashed his water jets and blasted straight up into the sky. In no time at all he was a kilometre up and nosing over to begin a power dive straight down toward the enemy ship. The mutant hippogriff unleashed his streams of water directly downward, freefalling with the stream so as to build up a huge glob of several tonnes of water - all of which was about to strike the crow's nest of the Ravager at terminal velocity.
Gesturing at the imminent chaos as though to prove her point, Summer yelled out to the cats, "Fire everything! Now! Destroy that ship!"
For a moment, the Ravager was still the most feared warship in the eastern fringe, invincible and relentless. Then the bow pierced right into the fire-swollen cyclone, gale-force winds and intense overpressure blasting open hatches and driving white-hote plasma into every porthole and gun-barrel. The entire front section of the ship burst into flame, while the wind battered the hull and sent the ship reeling into a flat spin, destroying any hope of precision aiming. Almost simultaneously five tonnes of gravity-accelerated water crashed into the crow's nest, obliterating the blaster cannon stationed there and the gun crew along with it.
The wounded Leverage was happy to take revenge, finally in position to unleash its full and formidable broadside. A dozen shells crashed into the drow ship's starboard flank, shattering armour plate and opening more holes for the fire to get in. A second later a pair of oversized bolts tipped with glowing crystals arced through the air: ballistae shots from the Fortuitous. The magic-enhanced projectiles struck the drow's port flank and unleashed detonations of unnatural energies that twisted, rent and dissolved the ship's very structure.
In the turret of the Harmony, Clashing Gale watched the whole show through his viewing periscope. "Holy Celestia..." he muttered, "she really pulled it off! I guess this is Skylander-level tactics... wait until the pegasi back home hear about this one." He smirked over at Brightfigh: "This is it, time to heat this thing up and finnish the job! We'll be in range in five... four.. three..."
The young gillfolk chieftain nodded and squeezed the triggers. The cannon hummed to life, unleashing a continuous volley of energy balls that pummelled the stern of the burning Ravager and obliterating all hope of escape. Purple shots aged and rusted metal to dust wherever they struck, while concussive blue bolts hammered machinery to pieces. In less than a minute Clashing and Brightfin had systematically destroyed all three remaining propellor shafts.
As if that wasn't enough, from behind the slowly dissipating fire vortex a shrieking figure emerges: the griffon Grenelda, twice her usual size and blazing with the magic of the sodas swirling in her gut. Her formerly back-mounted cannon was now slung around a forelimb - though she hardly needed it to take down a flimsy drow copter. With a heavy beat of her wings she threw herself at the enemy, beak agape in a piercing warcry.
The impact was a fury of raking talons and snapping beak, lashing out and gouging at anyone and everything, her weight alone enough to crack the hull and twist the drive shafts of the doomed drow craft. Before the crew could even consider a meaningful counterattack, the griffon was gone, their bodies were torn and broken and their aircraft was reduced to a burning, disintegrating wreck.
The sole remaining drow copter made a run for it, desperately firing its rear harpoon at Grenelda as if to ward off pursuit. The native griffons that had accompanied the enemy ship lost no time in peeling away and heading back to the island, figuring that with the drow clearly on the path to destruction, it was high time to rescue their hostage chicks.
Set Sail was literally in her element as she streaked over the enemy galleon; though whether that meant the sky or the battle was a dilemma she'd wrestle with later. As she flew past she got a good look at the creatures manning the curious vessel: definitely not the slim forms of drow, these were much bigger and much heavier, thicker built than the sharks even, layers of blubber over solid muscle. Twin tusks bristed from their jaw and wide-set eyes squinted back - walruses, they looked like a weird cross between a minotaur and a walrus, dressed in piecemeal armour and brandishing muskets and cutlasses. A few of the crude firearms let fly at her crew as they passed overhead, but the pegasi were difficult targets with surprise on their side, and none of the shot came anywhere close to hitting.
The brown pegasus looped back around towards the Harmony; seeing the flapping shapes of the native griffons coming her way, she flew over to meet up with them. "Brawlruses!" the dark hen in the lead cawed, "Just what we didn't need. Crude but hard as nails and subtle as a brick to the face." She spat and growled out: "Prob'ly come to trade slaves - or for the games. We're gonna end them too, right?"
“They’re—their ship is damaged, and they’re not a threat anymore,” Set Sail told the very large and tough-looking griffon, “I saw those things... they could take three of us bare hooved! We’re not going to engage them directly. We’ll just blow them out of the way if they try to come back. It’s the Ravager we need to take out now. I was going to throw a tornado at it but uhm...” She stared into the distance, where the enemy ship had just run head-first into a roaring vortex of flame. As she watched projectiles pummelled the ship from every side, while water exploded out of the top of the balloon. “...uh... yeah. Looks like they've got it in hoof.”
She turned and called out, “Everypony! Looks like the galleon's disabled for now, so we're heading back to the Harmony. Keep an eye on it though; if it pulls some sort of... magical thingy, then we have to be ready to take it out. Let’s pull some lightning clouds together, in case they come at us again, but the Harmony took some hits and we have to make sure everypony’s alright!"
The griffon hen scowled back the pegasus: "Hey! They might already have griffs... any kinda slaves even, loaded on that thing! We can't just let 'em go!" Her eyes widened as she followed the mare's gaze to the fire tornado consuming the drow ship. "Leave 'em to stew for a bit though, yeah I could get on board with that..."
Grenelda was a ball of cackling, infernal glee, watching the destruction being wreaked all around her. The griffon was twice her usual size and wreathed in flames, thanks to the lingering magic of the long-defunct soda factory. Seeing the feared Ravager go from intimidating warship to pitiful wreck in a single beat filled her blazing heart with joy. The sight of the native griffons fleeing their bondage was just icing on the cake: be free, fellow flyers! Of course, it wasn't over yet; her allies were still fighting furiously, and she had her own role to play.
The remaining escort copter was trying to run, desperately firing its rear harpoon at her. With feline reflexes she twisted around and snapped her beak, plucking the projectile out of mid-air before cleanly biting it in half. "Think you can puncture me like some dumb cargo ship?" she screeched, pumping her wings to catch up with the drow craft. "I'm cooooming..." the hen crooned with malicious glee, leaning forward as she closed the distance, claws outstretched to shred the flimsy vehicle.
In the cramped space of the Harmony's gun turret, Brightscale had momentarily forgotten his fear of the Undead elemental crammed in next to him. The teenage gillman slapping the batpony's flank, whooping and hollering: "We sure did a number on 'em! Would you look at that... the mighty Ravager, the nightmare that destroys whole villages, crippled and burning and going DOWN!"
"It's... quite the sight, to be sure," Clashing Gale admitted, a little shocked by the scale of the forces on display here. He should've expected Azure and Sunburn to work together, but... the fire tornado still caught him by surprise. Grenelda had turned into some kind of blazing monster and even the Doctor could apparently drop house-smashing amounts of water on the enemy at will.
Said hippogriff (or roc, just now) was currently spiralling down to glide next to Azure and Sunburn, forming a little trio of flyers watching the burning ship and hunting griffon. "Good show all round," he chirped, "the blighters are good as done for! Although not actually done for quite yet," he noted. "What now, do we demand their surrender and render aid as possible? Or were you planning to continue fire until the ship breaks apart?"
Azure was smirking at their handiwork; Clashing had done a solid job with the elemental cannon, immobilising the enemy and eliminating any hope of escape. "It's like a dream... still amazed that actually worked. Couldn't have gone better..." Her eyes went to the damaged shark ironclad, trailing smoke from the smashed engine room, and the cat war galley with its missing figurehead. A pang of guilt flashed across her face, but she was still smiling: "...well, not much better, anyway."
Reef Skimmer was right though. The guns on the enemy ship had gone silent, probably because the crew were concentrating on damage control, but it was still a threat. "They've got no propulsion, fires all over, holes in the balloon... we could just pull back, let it go down on its own." As if to punctuate her suggestion a sudden explosion blew out the Ravager 's entire bow, as the flames reached the magazine holding shells for the main gun.
The great grey eagle didn't say anything, but from the stare he was giving her Azure could tell he wasn't happy. "Alright, how about this... we go alongside, demand their surrender. If they let us board, then we try to help... maybe the sharks can save that ship. Maybe even add another ship to our collection!" They won the fight; now they collect the spoils, right? Sure it was a burning hulk now, but between Nutmeg's ponies and those shark engineers, they could work miracles.
"If it can't be saved, we evacuate who we can. And if the drow are stupid enough to continue fighting, well... let's just say I've got a lot left in the tank." The mare stared into the distance, where a giant griffoness was reaching into holes she'd smashed in the copter's hull and dragging screaming drow out in her claws. "Between us and our allies we should be able to mop this up without further casualties."
"Well then," Reef squawked. "Suggest we pay the esteemed Oracle a quick visit, suggest she cease fire and lend some aid, ceramic or otherwise, to the boarding effort?" Despite all the damage the drow might still have some functional anti-air weapons, not to mention their spellcasters.
"You're taking them alive?" The low rumbling voice came from the fire-feathered, bird-like dragon hovering near Azure. Sunburn seemed surprised by her decision: "Alright. I'll tell the sharks to save their ammo." With that the Skylander was flying off towards the damaged Leverage.
"If they surrender," Azure muttered. "If they still want a fight, don't hesitate: finish them off. Understood? Then we're taking the fight to their island base. With the strength of our forces, their best case scenario is surrender - the Captain's got a plan for that. Worst case scenario is that they cease to exist." She didn't want to say it, but with all these carnivores around that probably meant ending up as meals for sharks and griffons. With the amount of hate the drow had earned over the years, extermination was a real possibility.
"Indeed," Reef conceded. The mismatched pair quickly flew to the Fellissian war-galley, Azure flapping lightly down to land near the blue ceramic avatar of Summer Sphinx, standing in the centre of the deck under the watchful eye of her attendant sphinxes. Reef Skimmer, still in roc form, perched on the damaged prow, drawing nervous stares as the entire ship tilted forward slightly under his weight. "Oracle, the enemy ship is thoroughly disabled. And on fire," he stated, "Now Azure Feather here favours a boarding action, which would rather require you to cease fire, and perhaps consider lending us a few sphinxes?" he finished hopefully.
Summer waved a reassuring paw to her allies, indicating that they shouldn't fear this strange monster of water. She stepped forward and nodded. In truth the excitement of the battle would have her hyperventilating with exhilaration - if she still needed to breathe - but she needed to maintain the facade of the calm and wise Oracle who had seen everything Skylands had to offer. A brief pause, then she said levelly: "A boarding action? If you think there is value to be found on that ship, then... Yes, it shall be."
Summer stared into the distance, ordering her remaining ceramic golems to form up and escort her allies. She concentrated for a second, then replacements for the shattered ones popped into existence on the deck. "Everything is happening so fast - what remarkable firepower..." she murmured to no one in particular.
"Oracle, I should accompany them," Ne'kuno said, the sphinx sizing up Azure Feather as if wondering how the pegasus accomplished the fire tornado. "No doubt there are mages on the drow ship - if they have survived our assault."
"Please do," Summer nodded in agreement. "Stay safe, and extract their decisive surrender."
With that they were in the air again, Azure and Reef in the lead followed by Ne'kuno, Te'kepan and a small flock of Summer's creations. The group approached the burning Ravager in time to see the magically enlarged Grenelda get bored of playing with the remaining drow copter. Her claws had torn numerous holes in the hull, exposing the engines: the hen jumped free and then finished the job with a shot from her arm-mounted cannon. The boiler exploded, shattering the craft into a cloud of falling wreckage. The hen was left to slowly shrink back to her normal size, beak gaping wide in a grin.
Reef Skimmer had shifted back into his mutant hippogriff (or to be honest, hippogriff-themed tentacle monster) form, which was much more practical for hovering particularly if he needed fine control of his water jets. He drew up to the Ravager and began hosing down the hull, trying to stop the flames progressing all the way to the back of the ship. A few incredulous drow gathered on deck, pointing bows and magical staves like smaller, cruder versions of the ones the mystics carried.
Azure wasn't far behind, calling out to Reef: "Looks like they still have some fight left in them. One shot and they'll regret it..." Maybe that would be warning enough; she watching the bipeds intently, waiting to see if she'd have another fight on her hooves or they would see sense and submit.
Most of the drow did seem reluctant to pick a fight with these creatures that had virtually destroyed both their gravity traps and their warship, but presently one skittish archer let fly with an arrow that embedded itself up to the fletching in Reef Skimmer's chest. The gooey hippogriff just gave the creature a scornful look and turned his water gets on it, blasting the drow off their feet and across the deck. Naturally this triggered a commotion, which paused only when a bright red beam of magic lanced out from Ne'kuno's golden mask, immolating a drow sorceress a moment before she released her spell.
Seeing her allies under attack, Azure Feather shook her head slowly. When she raised her voice it would be blunt and to the point: "I'm only going to offer you surrender this once. Cease your fire and we'll let you retreat." The voice was tinged with anger: these idiot creatures had lost, that much was clear. Without their flagship, the drow left on the island were ruined and soon to be routed. Why were they still trying to fight? Her offer of surrender was their only hope.
"Choose wisely and choose immediately," she concluded. Azure thought back to a moment with her old Lieutenant... "some creatures just don't want friendship," her commander had said, "not even the slightest hint of it". She hadn't believed it at the time, but now she was starting to appreciate the Lieutenant's point of view. Still, they might surprise her...
The drow were concealing themselves as best they could inside hatchways and behind machinery, dozens of white eyes glaring back at their tormenters. "Retreat!?" a female voice called out, sounding on the edge of hysteria. "You smashed all the propellors... we got ten minutes 'til we fall out of the air, at best. You expect us to sprout wings?!"
As if in answer to that question, the sleek sharp shape of the Exocosus roared into view, its many engines going full tilt. The gleaming air yacht slewed around in mid air until it was flying backwards, engine thrust braking it to a stop just in time to avoid colliding Azure and the other flyers. A burly figure stepped out of the cockpit onto the jacuzzi deck, the sun glinting on his gold chains and oiled pecs.
"Pony!" Firesteel called out, "..and Sphinx and, uh, Water-bird-guy. You got them drow suppressed? 'Cause we're gonna tow this hulk over to the island before she drops like a stone. Leverage is limping over there too, 'cause she's losing gas and we ain't sure she can make it home. Hell, we were gonna crash their party anyway, now we just got a little more ugency to it."
Yet another sphinx flapped up to join the group; Te'summi twirled the Staff of Logoros around in a paw, the tip gleaming with magic. "Do you require additional suppression? Some of the secrets of this staff have revealed themselves to me, so... I can provide covering fire." The young sphinx was fired up by her people actually doing something, not just guarding a dusty pyramid every day: showing Skylands their real power, and being a part of something bigger. All thanks to the new Oracle!
Azure smirked and nodded to Te'summi, then to Firesteel, eager to start his 'salvage' operation. "Sure thing," she shouted, as loudly as she could. "Drow not suppressed as of right now, but they've got about ten seconds..." a little pause, putting emphasis on those two words "...before I give the order to suppress." The cannons on the Exocosus swung around to point at the drow, eliminating any doubt as to what would happen if they said no.
It was too much for the shell-shocked dark elves. They were used to raiding villages and pillaging merchant ships. Occasionally some prey would fight off a copter or a strike team but no one had ever stood up to the Ravager. Staring death in the face, survival instinct finally trumped pride and they threw down their weapons, staring fearfully at the monsters that had overwhelmed them.
Azure shook her head. This hadn't gone exactly how she'd pictured it, but they'd surrendered, and time was of the essence... "You can count your lucky stars that we got to you before the griffons... or the gillfolk. Now act like good little fillies and colts while we get you home - unless you actually want to fall out of the sky." She wasn't kidding; Reef might be keen on the obeying the laws of war, but she wasn't going to accept even one allied casualty. Any further hostile action from these bipeds would sign their death warrants.
The drow just stared back incredulously, amazed that these strange creatures would all but destroy their ship... then tow them home. It sounded too good to be true, but for now they went along, creeping back inside and focusing on trying to save their ship. Reef Skimmer's efforts had dealt with all the visible flames, though smoke still poured from the bow and the whole vessel was listing badly and tilting nose-down in the air.
"Permission to board and treat the wounded?" the mutated hippogriff asked Azure. Staring into the distance, he said: "One does hope Winter Hope has any casualties on the Harmony well in hand; at least, from here it seems like they've got that galleon on the run."
With a sigh, Azure gave the hippogriff a conflicted look before nodding. "Granted: you can go ahead, Reef..." She knew she was supposed to show all creatures mercy, but part of her still wanted to blow the drow's ship out from under them and be done with it.
At the helm of the EAS Harmony, Set Sail watched her allies fly up to the smoking hulk of the enemy battleship. After a brief pause they went aboard; she could only hope that meant the drow had surrendered. She could hardly believe it; instead of a long and punishing gun battle, there had been a few shots exchanged and then one decisive elemental assault.
Her reverie was broken by a certain red-maned pegasus stallion trotting up to her and declaring: “Captain, the brawlruses are moving!”
The brown mare switched her gaze to the west, where the magically-levitating sailing ship did indeed have sails back up. Tattered sails strung on masts that had been hastily lashed back together, but that was enough for the air galleon to slowly pick up speed, heading south-west in an effort to leave the battle behind.
“They’re running,” Set Sail said thoughtfully, “We can’t let them leave though." In truth she wanted to do just that; the other ship was crewed by very tough-looking creatures, and it was surely no coincidence they had the word 'brawl' in their very name. Still, "That black griffon said there might be slaves on board.”
Another look at the smoking Ravager, then her eyes went to her crewpony and friend. Set Sail gave Crimson Sky a reassuring smile, saying “Don’t worry, we won’t pick a fight we can’t win.” With that she sprang into action, charging down the deck and shouting: “Set a course southeast. Full speed ahead - we need to catch that galleon!”
As the propellers whirred faster and the ship changed course, a blank-eyed purple pegasus flew up to Set Sail, calling out “Captain!” as she approached so as not to startle yet another pony.
“Oh Cloud Cutter, good,” Set Sail said, “That galleon may have captives onboard, to be sold as slaves, so we need to stop it from retreating. Bring the Second Chance along and tell Gustus to be ready to use that 'Puckle gun' of his. We have some particularly tough creatures to... negotiate with.”
“Right,” Cloud Cutter said, turning tail and flying back to the pony's copter. Gustus was at the controls, keeping the little craft close to its mothership; he was happy to let the pegasus take over, but when she mentioned they were going into combat his expression was grim.
"Yeah... alright, let's get this over with, safe as we can under the circumstances." He was thankful they hadn't gotten into a gun duel with the battleship - the galleon had been bad enough and he didn't share his mate's near-suicidal confidence about charging into battle. He crawled out of the cockpit and took the mounted gun in his claws, cranking the cylinder and checking all the chambers were loaded. He'd fired off a dozen shots practicing - the thing looked clumsy but he'd take it over a harpoon any day. "Alright Cloud Cutter, we're ready for.. 'negotiations'," he called back, chuckling and clicking his beak.
Back on the deck of the Harmony, Set Sail was calling out: "The rest of you pegasi come with me! We need to keep these Brawlruses from turning their broadside cannons on us again! Keep your distance and just maintain a strong cross wind, just enough to blow the ship around; keep those cannons pointed the way we want them, which is away from our ship!”
A minute later she was leading a chevron of pegasi toward the galleon; most of her feathered flying crew, save a few that were needed to run the ship. Even Static Signal was there; the engine-mare had no training in weather work, but when push came to shove most every pegasus had some innate ability. Set Sail eyed the galleon warily, feeling uncomfortable about the heavy axe slung at her side, wondering how they could save any captives trapped therein without those walrus creatures getting their hooves on anypony.
The enemy ship was not under the best of circumstances. Sails ruined by judicious application of Air in the wrong places, a more powerful ship in hot pursuit, along with a buzzing copter that couldn’t possibly belong to the drow, because what dark elf would paint pink hearts and flowers on their hull? If that wasn't enough their were the winged animals, flying around and battering the ship with further blasts of air, keeping them from aiming their cannons at their tormenters.
Wild shots had no hope of hitting the animals, not with the distance and the punishing cross breeze, but it didn’t stop the brawlruses from trying. Hurling crude insults along with their bullets, both lost in the wind. Then one of the beasts started flying closer, gaining the attention and the aim of every member of the crew on deck. Muskets roared one after the other as they cheered at the prospect of blowing at least one of the infuriating things out of the sky, but it was just a little bit too far away.
The beast looked like a brown sheep with feathery wings, circling the ship at a dangerously close distance, but deftly dodging any shots aimed its way. Finally the first mate realised what it was playing at and shouted out: “It’s drawing our fire! Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!”
A sudden whirr of intermeshing rotors drew everyone's gaze: the copter was almost on top of them, drawing up to pace the galleon, a dozen metres from the aftcastle. That gave the flying sheep an opening to move in close, hovering just above the deck. Apparently it was a female, as it called out in clear language: “Now that I have your attention, who’s the one running this ship?”
Of course they all ignored her, frantically reloaded their muskets until their best gunrus got it together and took aim at the creature. A single shot from the copter knocked him flat on the deck, as Gustus the griffon peered about with steely eyes, cranking a fresh round into his weapon and looking for the next brawlrus to aim her way.
“Anypony else feel like doing something stupid?” Set Sail called out in aggravation. Because she knew they were going to do that and she couldn’t afford to deal with what happened just now. He’d be fine, surely. Probably. Maybe.
"Lucky shot, but ye can't keep this up!" one of the walrus-creatured roared back at Set Sail. "You'll get tired a'fore we run out of ammo. Should save yerselves the trouble and fly home. Ye can have the drow."
"You better hope I don’t get tired!” Set Sail called back, “Because if I get tired, then my friends in the big ship behind me are gonna blow you out of the sky! We can keep your cannons pointed away from us, you can’t match our speed. The drow went down in one solid volley. Now... there’s only one way you’re gonna get out of this alive: you talk to me and we come to an agreement! Now who’s the one running this ship?!”
The blubbery biped stomped out onto the open deck, pride overcoming any fear of the enemy guns. "Ye be talkin' to Captain Dreadtusk," he said, laying on the stereotypical pirate accent as if it was mandatory for a creature in his position. He did indeed have a bigger and more impressive hat than the others, which seemingly made him the captain. The Brawlrus's squinty eyes somehow narrowed even further as he yelled: "Now just what kind 'o agreement did ye be thinking of?"
Set Sail didn’t land just yet, calling down to him, “A little bird told me you had some precious cargo you were trying to make off with. Now I don’t care about gold or jewels, but the reason absolutely everyone back there is wrecking the drow is because everyone's family is in that cargo. Give us any slaves you got from the drow, and you can all leave, no questions asked.”
The brawlrus just crossed his arms, yelling back: "What do you take me for?! We don't take no slaves on old King Plunderbay! Each and every crew and passenger aboard me ship was a willing participant to the voyage!"
This was too much for a certain creature who'd been hiding below deck, watching through the latticework hatch. With a sudden blur of electric blue feathers the young griffon burst out of the ship and flew for all he was worth toward Set Sail. "That ain't exactly true!" he squawked, "not when it was a choice between being your cabin boy and dying in the arena!"
"Get back here bird!" Dreadtusk roared, then when the griffon paid him no heed he followed up with: "Bring that deserter down!" Several brawlruses took aim with their muskets, only to duck back down as Gustus unleashed a hail of suppressive fire. Shot after shot hammered the pirate ship, the griffon working the Puckle gun's crank as fast as he could.
Set Sail took a moment to look over the young griffon rushing up to her: he looked flustered and bedraggled but not on his last legs. “Head for the copter!” she shouted over the blasts of the mounted gun, “We’ll get you home!”
With that dealt with, the brown-furred mare spun up a little tornado herself: just a dust devil really, since she knew Gustus would have to stop and load a fresh cylinder into his weapon. She sent the twister blasting off over the deck, disorienting the crew and taking quite a few of their precious hats away, then announced: “Now that I have your attention again, are there any other unwilling participants below deck? And I’m sure that blue fellow would let me know, if you decide to lie about it.”
Set Sail inwardly winced, hoping Gustus was all reloaded. The brawlruses certainly would have to assume that. She had to look tough and strong before them, and puff out her chest more!
"They got two Mabu girls they was gonna ransom!" the griff called out. He stared at the copter, initially apprehensive of the drow-built craft but reassured by the sight of a griffon operating the forward gun. "And, uh, thanks... miss." With that he was winging off to join Cloud Cutter in the little ship's cockpit.
The flock of native griffons had been circling lazily some distance away, staying out of range and content to let the pegasi do their weather thing, but at the sight of one of their own escaping the galleon they were heading towards Set Sail at a rapid clip.
Set Sail trailed a forehoof along the axe at her side, hardly noticing as the griffons flew up. “Ransom, huh,” she called down to the pirates, “And how’s their family paying for that ransom? With their freedom? That’s how slavery starts y’know! And then the only thing that can free you is pain.”
Dreadtusk (if that really was his name) stomped furiously around the deck, splintering crates and sending his crew backing nervously out of the way. He picked up a barrel and for a second looked like he was going to hurl it at the pegasus, hovering frustratingly out of reach, but then he caught sight of the incoming war flock and thought better of it.
"Gold!" he shouted back. "So that be it, you want a cut of the profits? Could be seeing to pay up a tidy sum right now, for an assurance to stop troubling me ship. How does five hundred gold Imperials grab ye?"
“Gold?! Gold is just metal! Why do you all like gold so much?" Set Sail shouted angrily, "The only profits I want are the creatures in your hold, who don’t want to be there! So either let them go, or I’ll toss every single one of you overboard myself! How’s that for an agreement?” She actually kind of wished he would throw the barrel, just so that she could kick it right back at him.
"You'll what?" The bulky creature slapped his thighs and roared with laughter, his crew following suit with somewhat less enthusiasm (most of them were still searching for their hats). "Missy you might have an impressive ship over there but you ain't winning no brawls with us!" There was a sudden gleam in his eye as he stared up at his unlikely tormenter "'Less you wanna come down here and prove otherwise."
By this point all six of the native griffons had swooped in to hover near Set Sail. "How 'bout we gut these bloated lard-tubs?" Ebony Hail called to the pegasus.
Set Sail gave a single panicked glance at the griffon hen before shouting angrily down to the captain, “You want a brawl, you got it! You and me, one-on-one, no tricks, no flying and...” the furious mare hurled her axe, spinning into the wooden deck of the galleon with a hearty thunk, “No weapons!”
“Are you insane?!” the much larger griffoness called back in complete exasperation, “He’ll wipe the floor with you!”
“He won’t even be able to touch me!” Set Sail called back.
“If you think you can beat me, you’re welcome to try!” the powerful, bulky beast of a captain roared, casually removing his cutlass, and handing it off to a loyal crewmate. Then he added with a cunning squint, “But if I’m gonna wager the Rizzo girls for your taking, then what’re you gonna wager on the unlikely event that I (ahem) manage to defeat such a fearsome creature as you?”
“Who said anything about wagering?” Set Sail belted out furiously, “I just wanna kick your ass!”
She was ruining everything by doing this and she didn’t care, and it felt great. Landing solidly on deck beside her axe, Set Sail felt slightly less like this was a horrible idea when instead of just grabbing her, the rest of the crew spread away into an informal circle around her and the captain. She didn’t have time to think about herself or her crew anymore, only the fight, and all she knew is it felt right, and she was so sick of these creatures and their wagers.
The terrible bipedal brawlrus towered over her in his arrogant tricornered hat, and Set Sail wouldn’t let running away be an option. Hope lost, wings spread, the blue and brown pegasus mare had only one option. She leaped at the epitome of her hatred and kicked him in the face. He tried to catch her in an uppercut, turning his cheek before her hoof impacted, but Set Sail used the rebound of her kick to skitter away to a safe distance.
A mutter went through the whole crew as Captain Dreadtusk stumbled back at the force of the blow. Lifting a hand to his cheek he said, “Yer fast I’ll admit, but it’s gonna take more than a tickle to defeat me, lass. And what was that about ‘no flyin?’”
“No flying out of range. Haven’t you ever fought a winged creature before?” Set Sail corrected him, eyeing the big brawlrus warily, “It’s the rules of altercation! I’ll bind my wings, if you’re willing to fight me with your arms tied behind your back?”
“There’ll be no need for such frivolities,” Dreadtusk drawled, “I’ll make this quick and easy, so why don’t you just lay down and play dead like a nice little sheep-bird?”
He charged at her with frightening speed then, his right hook impacting with a tremendous force, but Set Sail was faster, so he impacted only the air where she used to be as she darted around him, giving him a solid kick in his side as the creature turned belying his great size, and swung at her again. She jumped over his arm, and he shouted in pain when she kicked him in the face again, as Set Sail danced to a safe distance again. She didn’t want to—
He rushed at her with roar and a series of blows that would each down an ox, but his fists only met feathers as Set Sail leaped forward, battering him with her wings and climbing over his torso. She had to knock off that ridiculous hat of his and he grabbed for her but her tail slipped from his grasp, as all he got was a kick in the pants for it, Set Sail powering away from him and turning to face him again as she skidded to a halt.
“You got a bit of fight in you, I see!” Dreadtusk said, beady eyes glimmering in excitement as he faced his foe, “Let’s see how you deal with this!”
He rushed her again, and Set Sail had to struggle to get behind him, trading blow after blow as she held the wind in her wings and shot around him. He was tough, but he wouldn’t last forever, and as soon as she could get him in a good cyclone this would all be over. She could actually win this! She could—oops.
His fist impacted her this time, catching her in mid-air and sending out a shockwave through her body as her side exploded in pain and she bounced on the deck, sliding all the way up to their improptu audience, now composed of pretty much the entire crew.
“Well, that was all fun and games,” Captain Dreadtusk said, turning away and brushing off his hands, “Now we’ll—”
“Captain!” the nearest crewmate shouted out as Set Sail struggled to her hooves, panting from the pain. She’d... she’d felt worse, actually. She charged him this time, and their violent dance resumed, with Set Sail landing all the blows until a lucky left hook caught her upside the jaw and sent her spiralling away to land again in a dishevelled heap.
“Will you stay down already?!” Dreadtusk shouted, stomping up to her more wary this time. Her ears were ringing, and her jaw was sore, but she didn’t think her vision was darkening, so that was probably a good sign. He had to turn away to say, “Someone get a harness for this creature, we—” but that was enough for Set Sail to hook his leg in her wing. She had no hope of toppling his short legged sturdy frame, but with a powerful flap she yanked herself behind him and kicked him in the rump to shove herself away.
There was no hope of defeating him of course. He was three times her size and just had too much endurance. She could absorb a lot of shock, but those blows were desperately punishing whenever he managed to land them. At last, Set Sail struggled to stand, but she was hurting too much to keep up her vital speed anymore, and he stood over her even as she tried. It’d only be a matter of time before he did some permanent damage. She slumped back down to her side, defeated, but the captain was breathing hard and nursing a black eye already from her efforts. His hat remained discarded on the deck behind him.
“Do you accept defeat then??” Dreadtusk asked her suspiciously.
“C-Captain,” Set Sail wheezed, lifting her head to meet his eyes, “These creatures, they’re out for blood. I can’t hold ‘em back any... longer. You need to get... get out of here. If you give up the girls, then... then they’ll let you go. I’ll... kick their asses if they don’t. I’m sorry, that...that’s all I can do.”
She slumped down again, as the captain regarded her with an unnerving amount of quietude. He straightened then, shouting out, “These creatures want the Rizzo girls so much, they can have ‘em! We got plenty of booty and we’re getting out with the most precious booty of all, our lives! Bring ‘em forth and set ‘em free! It’s the uh...” He cooly regarded Set Sail one more time, concluding stoically, “Right thing to do.”
The interior of the drow cruiser was a dark, smoky mess; the walls cracked and bent, with smashed equipment and broken bodies strewn everywhere. Azure Feather used her Air abilities to blow most of the smoke out, while Reef Skimmer began triaging the enemy wounded. The shell-shocked drow seemed amazed that any creature would try to heal their opponents, shrinking back and watching with wide eyes as the mutant hippogriff did his grim work. He seemed to have it in hand, so Azure left him with a pair of sphinx bodyguards, making her way back out into the sky.
The many engines of the Exocosus were still going full blast, hauling the crippled Ravager towards the far end of the central island, as far as possible from the enemy citadel. As they came in for the final approach the sharks cut their tow line, leaving the enemy airship on a collision course for the island. "Brace for impact!" yelled Azure, before flapping clear of the inevitable crash. The keel of the cruiser dug into the mud, bringing the still-smoking vessel to a shuddering and likely permanent halt.
Looking around, she could see the other two shark ships not far behind. The beaten-up cargo airship towed their warship down to a somewhat gentler landing nearby, the ironclad's flat bottom allowing it to settle with minimal damage. The cargo ship pulled away to hover by the island's edge, sheltering from the inevitable artillery fire from the fortress. Fortunately Fortuitous, the cat's magical floating galley, had followed the shark ships to the enemy base. No sooner did a drow cannon open fire on the landing site, than a magically enhanced ballistae bolt streaked out to silence it.
The enemy infantry were harder to root out. Soon enough the sharks had unloaded their armoured trucks, spewing columns of black smoke as they revved their coal-slurry engines, slowly advancing toward the southern gate of the ancient, scarred fortress. Soon the Harmony arrived to join the fight, having let the brawlrus ship flee the scene.
Griffons carried gillfolk down to join the sharks, the whole force creeping forward until they began to exchange fire with the defenders. Spells and magically-enhanced arrows flew from the battlements and murder-holes of the sprawling castle, while the allies answered with rifle and harpoon fire. At this range nocreature was hitting much, but that was sure to change if the infantry had to charge the enemy position.
"Azure Feather!" A stallion's voice caught her attention: the pegasus Crimson Sky, swooping up to hover nearby. "The Captain's down; no don't worry, it's not too bad, black eye and some bruises. She convinced the captain of that galleon to give up their hostages without a fight." He gestured with a wing at the retreating vessel, sailing away into the distance as fast as their tattered sails and jurry-rigged mast could carry them. "Without any more of a fight, anyway."
He stared at the brewing conflict below, then looked back to Azure. "So what do we do?"
Crimson Sky's report took a little of the wind from Azure's sails. "The Captain... oh, geez." She sighed, shaking her head. It didn't sound too serious, at least. She had to focus on the final step of her battle plan: taking out the drow fortress. Taking down an airship was one thing, but this place was vast and ancient. She had no doubt it had seen many battles and held off entire armies.
Another feathered shape approached, a big black one with sharp talons and a murderous beak. "Oh yeah, we're ready for some action," Ebony Hail said, "but those drow are dug in pretty good there. Gonna take casualties rushing them. Looks like you got their guns suppressed, why not sit back and wait for them to break cover?"
"We're trying to avoid casualties here, no sense sacrificing anypony," Azure replied. "Trying to get as many of you to enjoy life without those..." Her wings started to glow that tell-tale green as clouds began to gather a little quicker over the fortress. "Those insects," she concluded, as the magical glow steadily brightened. "It's all fine and dandy that they're trying to protect from a frontal and even aerial assault, but there's one thing they can't and won't be able to defend from."
“Those brawlruses were using a sailing ship, can you believe it,” Crimson Sky explained. “The captain had us blowing them around like a toy boat, to keep their cannons pointed out of our way, but now they’re out of the picture. I don’t know exactly what you’re doing with your wings there, but the rest of us are free to help.”
Thunder rumbled overhead and fur and feathers began to stand on end as the air charged with electricity. "Lightning." Azure said simply. "Never tried it on this scale, so not sure exactly what's going to happen... but it should be a rude wakeup call for their defences." Suddenly she realised she didn't have to do this alone; pegasi weather working was a team effort, how had she forgotten that? “Have any of you tried your wing at storm management?”
“Well sure I have, at least,” Crimson Sky admitted, the stallion still peering curiously at her wings, “Is that what you’re trying to do there? C’mon, Miss Feather... we need to get higher, and get the rest of us up to help.”
In truth the pegasi were tired from their efforts against the galleon, but still willing to help as much as they could. They flew in pairs around the island, pulling in all the clouds they could find to join the gathering storm. Azure watched from above; for her guiding the weather was as easy now as breathing. The darkening clouds were packed tighter and tighter as the pegasi drew in their orbits.
The rifle fire and spell bolts tailed off as the creatures below stared up at the ominous clouds, hunkering down behind their cover in anticipation. 'Good', Azure thought, 'with the other pegasi helping, that took half the time I was expecting'. It was time. With a dramatic sweep of her wings she unleashed the rain: the sudden downpour fell in torrents on the enemy castle, soaking any drow caught in the open. That was just the appetiser though; Azure could feel the charge waiting to be unleashed. It was just a matter of picking targets and...
A white-hot bolt of lightning seared down from the cloud, striking the muzzle of an emplaced cannon. The nearby powder charges instantly exploded, blasting a hole in the curtain wall. The lightning struck again and again, dancing over the castle, shattering stone where it struck and making it clear that to walk in the open was instant suicide. After a few minutes the charge in the cloud layer was exhausted, giving the drow a brief respite while the pegasi worked to build it up again.
Or so they thought; in truth there would be no respite. With a sixteen-cylinder roar that was audible even over the storm, a shape burst out of the landed Exocosus. It was the Executive Monster Truck Megalodon, repaired and ready for battle. The enormous vehicle streaked toward the castle, heedless of any danger. Mounted on the roll bar was a six-barrelled monstrosity of a machine gun, gold plated and gleaming in the sun.
A squeal of feedback, then the dirt shark CEO's voice boomed out from the hood-mounted PA system. "That was the shock!" he bellowed, "Now prepare to feel awe!" The barrels of the Gatling gun began to spin, then with an ear-splitting deep bass hum, it spewed a continuous stream of high-calibre shells at the drow fortress. Standing in the back of his truck, Firesteel sprayed bullets at the enemy fortification with the carefree manner of a pony watering his garden, while his driver threw the monstrous vehicle about, power-sliding through the mud the rain had just created.
On the deck of the pony airship, a watching kirin shed a single tear of joy.
The golden gun's rate of fire was so high it might as well have been a continuous beam, chewing a deep gouge into the walls wherever it hit. Firesteel didn't seem to be aiming for the drow in particular, so most of them just got cuts from flying shrapnel, though one unlucky behemoth stood up at the wrong moment and was cut neatly in half.
Not wanting to be left out, the mystics on the Fortuitous joined in: Everdream fired off the same spell he'd used against the surprise roc attack, creating explosions of colourful (and burning-hot) sparks all over the castle. Even Clashing and Brightscale joined the party, letting fly with the Harmony's elemental cannon and creating even more chaos below.
Of course all good things come to an end and in this case it was Firesteel's ammo supply. Naturally there was more back in the ship, but the ponies had some idea about the drow surrendering, and he had to admit that would save some cash on consumables and next-of-kin-payouts. Taking the mic of the PA system in hand again, he blared out: "You want some more of that? Or are you knuckleheads gonna see reason and bow to market forces?"
A pegasus soared up to the open cabin atop Firesteel’s magnificent vehicle, not from those gathering the storm above, but directly from the Harmony. She struggled to a halt with a pained wince, and gingerly landed on the soft leather seat next to him. She was clearly favouring one hoof, with her warm brown fur and feathers covering up her growing bruises. She did have a bandage wrapped around her side now, and one around her head, though the utility of them was questionable at best.
“Captain Set Sail,” Firesteel said cautiously, eyeing the mare, “What in the blue hell happened to you?”
“Picked a fight with a brawlrus,” Set Sail said flatly, “Nutmeg told me about this thing, but she didn’t say you had a megaphone on it. Lemme borrow it for a sec.”
She swiped the microphone out of his hand in a surprisingly strong grip with her wing, then turned to her allies and said over the loudspeaker, “The war is over. We won! We’ve destroyed their sky traps, wrecked their only battleship, routed their allies, and their fortress stands no chance against us. The Drow are defeated! They have no power left. The only thing they’re doing now is fighting for their lives.”
Another pegasus had been following close behind, flapping down to fuss over Set Sail. The captain waved the blue mare off with a foreleg, turning away from the microphone to insist: “I’m fine! I’ll rest later. This’s important! Go get Silent Arrow!”
Turning back to the mic, Set Sail said, “They won’t ever raid your villages again, or take away your children, or sell you to some jerks in tricornered hats. All they have is a lot of gold and no options left. They don’t have any farms on this rock, no food growing, no way to get more supplies. They have no choice but to surrender, all we need to do is wait them out, and they won’t last long. We don’t have to kill any more creatures today, but if we attack, there are innocent prisoners, slaves who would die by our hoof."
She paused to take a deep breath, then explained: "You think all these drow want to live like this? Maybe they just think they have no other choice? So we’re gonna wait for their surrender, and anyone who’s got a problem with that is going to have to answer to me, nhh,” she shifted her shoulder with a wince of pain, “And my crew. I’m sorry if you wanted something to... hunt down and kill, but we’ll do everything we can to make sure it’s only the ones who deserve it, so we’re all going to take a moment to think things over and wait.”
The land shark gave her a sceptical look. "Look missy, if you can sweet talk those scavs into laying down arms, I'm all for it," Firesteel said. "No profit in fighting to the death. But a siege - now that's expensive as well. Gotta keep troops on station, keep on top of any escape attempts. Those kitties aren't gonna hang around for weeks, not those griffs neither."
"Longer it goes on, more likely some fool might come try and bail the drow out - or take over their operation. So... sure, give 'em a chance to see reason. But mark my words, we all want to see this finished today. 'Specially that statue sphinx chick, she wants a dramatic victory to cement her position."
Making sure the microphone was turned off, Set Sail said to Firesteel, “I know it’s a longshot, but I do have one more trick in my feathers. If I can’t stop that... sphinx chick from wrecking the place, it’s fine. But I have to try. And the Drow heard me too, so now they know that surrender is... on the table. ”
Still flying in lazy circles high overhead, Azure Feather instantly recognised the new voice blaring out from the speakers. "Captain... just hoping you're alright," she muttered, listening in appreciation as her commander showed all the assembled predators who was in charge. Wait the drow out? She had to admit, she was looking forward to finishing this here and now; but at the mention of slaves, she understood.
Lives were at stake, and as much as Azure wanted to see the Drow wiped out, there were still so many prisoners who the drow might kill out of spite - no doubt her allies were even more eager to see their safe return. "Alright ponies," she called to the other pegasi, "you heard the captain: return to the Harmony and catch your breath. We'll wait and see what their next move is." Same as before though, she thought: if the drow wouldn't see reason, they weren't getting out of this alive.
A fire-feathered shape appeared off Azure's flank in a flash of flame: Sunburn, the Skylander dragon. "You really think they're gonna give up?" he asked Azure, "'cause in two hundred and fourteen encounters with the drow, I've only seen 'em surrender six times. Every other time - they fought to the last dark elf."
If anyone here was an expert on Drow tactics, Azure thought, it was Sunburn. Sure, those 1-in-36 odds didn't sound great, but... she had to be honest with him. "Ponies don't like to eradicate their enemies. We always, well, almost always give them a chance at redemption. Also, the Captain has a point. There are slaves in there, creatures our allies would much rather see alive - the reason the griffons are even here. But mark my words: if they don't listen, I'm going straight down there and won't stop until every last one of these vermin are gone..."
There was a short lull as drow picked themselves up and tended to their wounded, while sharks reloaded their rifles and griffons sat in the clouds, preparing to stoop on their prey. That gave a certain blue pegasus time to return from the Harmony, carrying a small passenger in her forelegs: a mysterious figure was wrapped in a concealing cloak. The cook and part-time nurse swooped to a halt just above Firesteel's self-propelled carriage, releasing her cargo to land lightly next to Set Sail.
“You want me to say something?” the sharp-voiced little female said to Set Sail, who was still sitting there looking somewhat the worse for wear. “Why do you think any of them would listen to me? I’m just a—”
“Just tell them the plan,” Set Sail said, winging her the microphone, “And just... tell them you’re okay. I don’t know, but they’ll at least listen to you, even if they refuse. Just... try, please?”
“If you’re lying about this I’ll kill everyone you love,” the girl growled, snatching the microphone, and sweeping off her concealing cloak.
“Hey! It’s me, Silent Arrow!” the green-skinned drow unnecessarily shouted into the PA system, “Most of you probably don’t even remember me but you really want to hear this. These ponies are total pushovers; they’ll do anything you like, as long as you’re on their good side. You know what they did after they destroyed my crew and stole our chopper? They actually took me prisoner, me and Jagged Blade, yeah you remember her."
The drow girl sucked her teeth, then explained: "Jagged got on their bad side so she isn’t around anymore, but when they hunted me down after she set fire to their ship, they didn’t even think I was an enemy! They been letting me walk around free as a bird and the only reason I didn’t come back is that that asshole Bloodrain would have just thrown me in the arena to die."
"Yeah that’s right he is a total asshole and I’m going to say it because this pirate thing is stupid. We can’t keep it up. This pony lady’s right, we’re beat and we had it coming a long time. And you know what she’s gonna do if we surrender?” Silent Arrow was sweating, but it’s not like she had anything to lose, and if these 'ponies' were really what they seemed to be...
“You know that old troll island? The one that's all jungle now?” she asked the citadel, “Yeah the one over by the storm wall. Turns out there ain't no trolls or mabu living there, 'cept this one guy with a bridge! And you know their rules there. So you got a choice. You can all die, ‘cause if these creatures don’t kill you, and our good friends don’t come to collect now that our battleship is toast, then you’ll die anyway because there’s nothing that grows on this rock besides chompies! Your other choice is to fuck Bloodrain and his 'never stand down' bullshit, and surrender."
Hopping up onto the roll bar of the monster truck, Silent Arrow declared emphatically, “Set Sail isn’t kidding. These ponies will turn around and fight everyone here to keep us alive, as long as we’re not gonna hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve it. And then they’re gonna let us live on that island, where half of it’s covered in jungle fruit and the other half’s covered in sheep. That’s what they’re gonna do if we surrender!"
"I can’t even believe it myself, and I’ve been living with them for weeks, but what do we have to lose, our pride? There’s nothing proud about being a fucking pirate. The Kaosians are long gone, the troll fleet doesn’t even remember us, and I’m tired of everyone hating us just ‘cause we’re beating them and taking their stuff. So just fucking surrender already!”
Her plea was greeted by silence. Set Sail could only imagine the disbelief on the drow faces, yet... 'come on, come on' she thought 'see sense or these predators are gonna have you all for dinner'. She could see green shapes scurrying around in the broken stone of the fortifications, but there was no reply. Nothing, except...
A solitary drow stood up. His eyes were closed as he threw away his bow. After a few seconds he opened them and stared around in shock, seeming surprised that none of the sharks had shot him. Then he stumbled forward, heading toward enemy lines as if in a daze.
Their comrade's survival emboldened the other drow. Another emerged, then another, discarding their weapons and making their way cautiously out onto the field. A hoarse, unbelieving shout went up from the battlements: "No! It's a trick, you idiots, it must be!" A huge male drow emerged from behind the ramparts. "Traitors, all of you! No drow surrenders on my watch! Sorcerers, put them down! Put them- ugh-"
The behemoth's rant was silenced by a bolt of magic that burned all the way through his chest. Behind him, an elderly drow spellcaster stood with staff outstretched. "Yeah. Guess we all had enough of yer crap, Bloodrain," she told her mortally wounded former leader, as he sank to his knees and keeled over to sprawl on the ground. "I ain't dying just so you don't have to admitt ye're a failure."
The sorceress stepped over the corpse and called down to the others: "Clanmates! You heard Silent. It's over! We're gonna give this surrendering a try. Mayhap it's a trick and maybe it isn't, but we ain't got nothing to lose. Pride?" A harsh laugh. "That got shot out of the sky, right 'n front of our eyes." With that she hurled something into the air; trigger fingers tensed on shark rifles, but it wasn't a javalin... just her staff, falling to clatter on the causeway below.
"They surrendered," Set Sail whispered, "...it's over. It's over!" She grabbed the microphone back from Silent Arrow and called out joyously: "It's over! The drow surrender! We won!" She was laughing and crying at the same time. Her words blared out over the PA one last time: "No more creatures are dying today! We won, and we did it together! Thank you all so much!"
A raucous cheer went up from all around, sharks and gillfolk whooping and hollering, cougars and sphinxes roaring, griffons screeching in delight and ponies drumming their hooves on the deck. The allies had prevailed: the Isle of Misery was no more, and the Hand of Eon was theirs.
