//------------------------------// // Skyborn // Story: Skyborn // by That Avi Nerd //------------------------------// Storm sat in class the next morning glancing occasionally at the empty seat on the other side of the room. After the previous night he had gone home and laid in bed awake all night. His mind was on Aurora and her family, on what could have possibly happened last night that made Aries return to his home so distraught. It eventually came to his mind to pose the question of: "If not what, then who?" Had something happened to somepony? Given the conditions of last night's storm from that Navis 7 had flown through, then it was likely. Next to the empty seats he could see the friends of its occupant. He was aware that Rose had also looked towards him once or twice, so he decided that he would speak to them after this class was over. Sure enough the bell rang to dismiss them after another boring forty-five minute lesson. Buck and Rose were seated more towards the front of the class, and so they were able to escape before he could. Storm finally caught up to them in the cluttered hallway traffic. "Hey!" he called to them. The two ponies smiled when they saw it was him, and the group stepped off to the side out of the way of everypony else. "Hey there Storm," Buck greeted, "how was las—" "How was last night?!" Rose cut in, frustrated by how slow Buck was asking the question she was fidgeting all morning to hear. "It was great!" said Storm. "For the most part... Something happened though, so I was wondering if you two had seen Aurora this morning? Or maybe heard something from her at least?" "No, we were wondering the same about you, actually..." "We usually all meet in District 8 at a cafe for breakfast," Buck continued to explain. "Us and another friend. Aurora never showed up. We thought that maybe she was with you... until class started at least." "Why," asked Rose, "what happened?" Storm shook his head. "There's nothing I can say for certain. Aries was called out to go into the storm last night, and when he came back something was off about him." He explained to them about how Aurora's dad had gone to the dining room and sat down, seemingly crying, and how Aurora looked sullen when she told him to leave. He described how he thought he heard something break when he leave, and how the lights in the upstairs rooms had turned on and prompted his thought that everything would be handled and that he would only get in the way. Buck was trying to process everything he had heard while Rose gasped "Wow." "The only place I think she could possibly be is still at her home," Storm proposed. The ponies in front of him nodded, agreeing to his plan. Storm and Buck hid in the colts bathroom while Rose hid in the fillies' across from theirs. They trio waited until the second bell rung, signaling that everypony had to be in their respective classes and out of the halls. When the bell finished its toll, they counted to two hundred in their heads, then emerged. The hallways were completely empty of both students and faculty. If they were going to make a move they didn't have long, the teachers would be finishing roll call about now and would soon discover that they were missing from class. Storm nodded for the others to follow him as he ran down the hall. They came turn a corner to be confronted with the last hallway that stood between them and the main door of the school. However the office just so happened to be positioned there, with glass windows on all sides so the staff could see all around. The ponies stayed low, skirting against the wall below the windows so that they went by undetected. It only took them about a half hour to reach their friends house while galloping down the streets. The building looked alien to them. Whether it was just because it was an odd time of the day for them to be there or it was the lighting they didn't know. But regardless the warm home looked still. "So who wants to knock?" Rose asked, warranting a look from the two stallions that clearly said this wasn't the time. "Just trying to break the tension." Storm hoped up the stairs, pausing in front of the door before rapping on it three times. "Good morning miss," he said to Ariel, who answered it in a timely manner. "We were wondering—" "My goodness!" Ariel interrupted him, "what are you kids thinking?!" She used her magic to bring them inside the house, quickly closing the door behind them. "Somepony might see you! What are you doing out of school?" "Well we were looking for Aurora," said Rose, "is she here?" "No, she left this morning to go to school. Why? Wasn't she there?" Rose shook her head. Storm was honest, "We didn't see her. Quite frankly, we have no clue where she is, this was our best hope." "After last night I can't say I'm surprised she didn't show up for school... Here, I'll go look in her room and see if she snuck in through her window again." The pegasus left the three others standing in the living room while she went up stairs to look for her daughter. To help relieve the awkward tension their eyes shifted around the room. "Hey guys," Rose whispered to the other two. The unicorn was staring at a nail that had been half buried into the wall. "I think I know where Aurora went." "Where?" Storm asked, taking a step towards the pink mare. "What goes on that hook?" A lone pegasus walked through the halls of the fore-deck, having been granted access by the bridge pass she now sported around her neck. She was careful to avoid members of the AIR Team, even though it was their hallways she was walking through. There was one member she had her eyes set on, the same one that she had been following since she had left her home earlier that morning. He turned to enter his office at the end of the corridor and she casually continued by as if she was supposed to have been in the hallway in the first place. Her destination was in the locker room, where she knew she could get hold of a flight suit to better disguise her self. The mare went to the first locker on her left, which had the name Aurora on the front of it. She pulled out the flight suit from inside, being sure to remove the velcro nametape that identified the owner from the front of it. Then she thought of an idea: If she brought the oxygen equipment with her, then she could cover her face with the mask. Though the mare had worn it only a couple of times it didn't take her long to don it and continue with her agenda. When her father returned home the previous night he bore a look that she had hoped to never see again. It was the same look he had the night he told her about her brother passing. Though this time he wasn't saying what it was. So in her mind she was going to do all she could to find out. Something happened last night and it was big. Carefully Aurora left the locker room, being sure to remove any trace evidence she may have left behind to tell somepony she was there. The pegasus pulled her hood up, placing her all weather goggles on top of her head in ready position to bring down to help cover her face. Her oxygen mask was half strapped so that it hung on to one side of her head in a place she could easily pull it up and hook it in a hurry. She walked back down the office towards her father's office. Passing a small group of cadets, she turned her head in the off chance they might have known her. Outside the office she waited with her ears at attention to pick up any noise that came from within the room. She was able to pick out her father's voice and another that she had never heard before. Though the latter was probably facing away from the door, and she couldn't hear what was being said. That didn't keep her from hearing part of what her dad was saying. "This isn't supposed to happen..." Aries said harshly. "This was never supposed to happen!" There was a force behind his voice that caused his daughter to flinch. "I know!" shouted the unknown voice. "Its all being..." the voice trailed off into a whisper that hid its words. "Fine. But so help you Celestia if this ever happens again..." Aurora heard hooffalls on the other side of the door that were growing louder. Somepony's coming... She looked around in a desperate place to go. The hall ways were too long for her to zip down, who ever was about to exit would have seen her fleeing regardless which one she chose. Then she looked up. The ceiling tiles were comprised of large squares that could be pushed up for maintenance access. She pushed herself off of the wall behind her and used her wings to angle to the nearest one, putting her hooves in front of her to push it up. The space above the ceiling was cramped and dark. The only way she could fit with the aluminium tank on her back was to lay on her side, but that prevented her from moving the tile back into place to cover the hole. The mare held her breath as the door opened, afraid that any movement what-so-ever would give away her position. It was several very long seconds after the door closed again for the hoof-steps to fade away down the hall. Aurora used her hooves to push her self out and back through the hole. She fell several feet and landed on the tank on her back, making a loud and metallic "thunk" sound. She got to her hooves before anypony saw her and took off down the hall, following the pony who had just left the office. She could see that he was a unicorn stallion, with a golden coat and a blue mane. He wore a blue suit similar to her dads, however there was a fancy gold trim around the seems and buttons, along with several gold hashmarks on the sleeves. Thought Aurora had never seen this pony in person before she knew by his uniform exactly who he was: Admiral Hawkins, the Overseer of Navis 7. So what did he of all ponies have to say to my father that would bring that side of him out... The hallway Admiral Hawkins walked through intersected with three more, and he chose to go down the left one. This was a section of the ship that Aurora hadn't been on before. The Admiral was unknowingly leading her towards the bridge of the ship. At the intersection he was joined by a couple of other ponies who startled Aurora. She hung back while they continued on with Admiral Hawkins, giving herself room to breath so she would remain undetected. "Sir," one of the ponies said, "about—" Hawkins stopped, quickly sending the pony a vicious glare that cut his sentence. "Not here you idiot." After staring for a second more Admiral Hawkins continued down his path. Aurora waited till she couldn't hear them any more before moving to the next intersection. She was sure to move both ways so that she wasn't seen. The group was just ahead her in the next hallway segment. When Aurora saw that they turned a corner, she briskly walked to the same corner, leaning around it to see where they had went. "What are you doing?" the entrance of an unexpected voice nearly caused the pegasus to jump out of her flight suit. Aurora turned to see a pair of bridge security guards scrutinizing her. She turned so that they couldn't see her missing name tape. "Uh-Uh-Uh..." Her mouth was moving, but words failed to be vocalized. "I-I I'm here to see Admiral Hawkins," she quickly regained her composer, standing tall. "Could you tell me where his office would be?" "Ah, yes," the other guard nodded. "This must be about the storm last night." "Ye-Yes... The storm... I just came from outside, I have damage reports for him." "Nothing too severe I hope?" "Nope! Everything's A-Okay!"" Even though the second guard seemed to lighten up, the original continued to judge Aurora while they waited in silence. "Alright," he said, causing the pegasus to breath a sigh of relief internally. "Its down the hall on the right. Can't possibly miss it." "Thank you." Aurora was quick to turn around and walk away, putting as much distance between the guards and her as she could. By now she had lost the ponies she was following, though she did have a good idea of where they would be. Aurora followed the directions given to her by the guards and came across a door that seemed to be made of bronze with a plaque on it that read Admiral Hawkins, Navis 7 Overseer. This guy's worse than I thought... she thought to herself. Aurora could hear the same voices coming from inside the room but yet again found herself in a position where she could make out exactly what. This time she meant to resolve the situation. The idea felt like a light bulb turned on in her head, instantly warming her with happiness and joy! She looked to the ceiling above her. Sure enough it was comprised of the same tiles as in the other hallway. It only made sense that the space above them would be the same as well. Aurora looked to her left and then to her right. With the hallway clean she opened her wings, hovering into the air. She steadied herself just below the ceiling and carefully push the tile up and slid it to the side, mindful of making any unnecessary noise. Confident that she wouldn't be caught the pegasus took cover in the dark space, being sure to leave herself with room to move around so she didn't nearly get stuck like last time. There was barely any room for the mare to squeeze into the space, the top of the tank scraping against the bottom of the floor above her. She crawled on all fours in the direction she thought the office was. In front of her she could see the housings for the room's lights with wires leading from them in a tangled mess to their power source. Aurora guided herself through the web-like maze, being sure not to get caught up in anything, and centered herself in the middle of them, hoping that that would be the middle of the room. It puzzled Aurora for a minute or two as to how to remove the tile in front of her from this side of it. The tops of the tiles were raised an inch or two, while the sides were flush with the frame of the roof. She put her hooves on either side, grabbing hold of what precious inches she could of the tile. Very carefully Aurora did what she could to pull it up. She could feel it lift off the frame beneath it just as it slipped from her right hoof, slamming back down into place. Please tell me nopony heard that... she prayed silently. The voices below her didn't seem to change, so she tried again. This time her plan was successful. She moved the tile an inch or two forward just so that she could see partly inside the room. The group of ponies she had been following earlier were in a half circle around the front of a dark wooden desk. Sitting behind it in a black chair was Admiral Hawkins, leaning forward on his hooves demanding information from those before him. His words were sharp and crisp, while the replies he received were shakey and full of fear. "How is this possible?" Admiral Hawkins yelled. "It isn't sir!" stumbled one of the ponies. "We were sure it wasn't!" "Well it's pretty obvious that it is, isn't it! So who can explain to me what happened last night?" "We quite frankly don't know sir," said another. "The reconnaissance aircraft were designed so that they couldn't reach anything near the altitude of the Navis 7, let alone enough to where it could dock..." "Did you see to it yourself?" "Yes sir, I—" "Well because of your failure I have to keep a thousand ponies from finding out about this little incident. If they did it would be something akin to a mutiny! And I've already got enough who know." "Captain Aries will not pose a problem," the last follower said. "He will obey your instructions like everypony else." "No... he's too spirited for that. Even know he's battling his conscious as to what to do: Tell everypony or not. He's too much of a good guy to not risk. If anything he'll be the one to lead the mutiny..." "So what do you want us to do?" Admiral Hawkins paused. "I'll send him an order to have the AIR Team deploy and check for any damage from last night's little 'storm'. I want you to ensure that he goes out on the assignment, but doesn't come back." Aurora held her breath, eyes widening in shock. She started to pusher herself back in a desperate gambit to get away from the whole situation. Little did she realize the cracks forming on the tile beneath her. "And do a better job at this than you idiots did with the recon aircraft!" "Yes sir!" The three ponies began to leave. Just as they did, the tiles above them could no longer hold Aurora's combined weight. First chips of the tile fell first, a few even landing on one of them, enticing him to look up just in time to see the rest of the tile give way. He jumped to the side out of the way. Aurora landed hard in the center of the room, the breath being knocked out of her. She struggled to regain it and look around at the same time. It was clear to her that none of the ponies had expected to see her, let alone see her enter in such a fashion. "Well well, who might we have here?" Admiral Hawkins asked, standing from his chair and walking around his desk. "I have one question for you pegasus, and your answer will determine everything that happens next..." He stopped in front of Aurora as she got to her knees, leaning in close to her. "How much of our conversation did you hear, exactly?" The pegasus could sense the other ponies closing in around her. She knew exactly what the admiral had meant with his question. Defiant as ever, Aurora answered, "Everything." He sighed. "That's unfortunate. Get rid of her, please." As the admiral moved back behind his desk, the ponies he had been meeting with closed in on Aurora. They tried to tackle her to the ground but she jumped up and away in time so that they only tackled each other. Aurora landed on the pile they had created and used it as a point to push herself off of, through the doorway, and into the hallway. There she came face to face with the two guards she previously ran into. "I told you there was something about her." The first guard shot at his partner. Before they could react Aurora had taken flight in the opposite direction, praying that it wasn't a dead end. Although she was faster than the ponies chasing her, she was at an disadvantage not knowing where she was or where specifically she was going. Gotta find somepony... she said to herself, desperately looking through open doors as she flew by. All she saw were guards and bridge personnel; all ponies directly beneath Admiral Hawkins' influence. She needed to find somepony who she knew she could trust. I need to find somepony on the AIR Team... A few rights and a left later Aurora found herself at the end of an observation hallway, cornered. She slid to a halt along the ground while turning around to face her pursuers. Her oxygen tank made a "tink" sound as it bumped the glass behind her. Without realizing it, a spider-web crack in the glass formed where the two objects met. Aurora fought desperately to devise of an escape plan. Every path she thought of was covered by the ponies in front of her. "What is going on here?" a voice demanded to know from behind the group of gathering ponies. They parted ways so that it's owner could come before them. "Quick Wing!" Aurora gasped as the fellow pegasus came into view. "Look, you gotta help, Admiral Hawkins is up to something and—" "Shut it," he interrupted, glaring at the mare harshly. Quick Wing turned to the others with an equal gaze. "Somepony explain to me why this is taking so long?" His challenge was met with silence, to which he rolled his eyes. "For Celestia's sake she's not even out of high school!" He turned to approach the younger pegasus. Aurora tried to step back, but was stopped by the glass yet again. "Quick Wing..." the only place she could go was down. "What are you doing?" The lieutenant used a hoof to grab onto her by the neck, lifting her off of the ground and against the pane. Aurora kicked her legs in a desperate gambit to either gain traction on the floor or to kick the pegasus that was now choking the air out of her. "Stop... please..." she begged through quiet gasps. "See?" Quick Wing turned to look at the ponies behind him. "Not that hard." Facing Aurora again, she could see what she thought was pure evil behind his eyes. "Not that hard at all." Aurora became more desperate as the color of the world around her began to fade. Her hoof hit the glass. She could feel the vibrations it created as the cracks on the glass grew. What came to mind wasn't a good idea, but it was her only option. She kicked it again and again. It was clear that Quick Wing was too focused on her to notice. With one final kick the glass gave way in a shower of sparkling shards. Quick Wing had been pushing her against it, and with nothing to push back, his balance was thrown off. The two were pulled out of the hall by the change in pressure. Quick Wing still managed to hold onto her, but only until they hit the side of Navis 7's envelope. The two pegasi slid along it for a good distance. Aurora grabbed hold of an antenna as it passed by, clinging to it with all of her strength. Quick Wing lost his grip for a moment and let go of her, but managed to catch her leg. Though he was no longer choking her Aurora still couldn't breath. With her free hoof she tried desperately to put her mask on, all the while Quick Wing was climbing up her side. She clipped it onto the other side of her hoof and at once color returned to her world. She was again able to think, to react. Aurora looked back at Quick Wing, using her free hoof to kick him in the top of the head. That did work, so she changed targets to his hooves. The first one let go and he feel back a few inches. Then the next one slipped off as he let go completely. The wind mercilessly took him in its grasp, carrying him into a swirling vortexe created in front of one of the ship's main engines. Aurora adverted her eyes in time to not see the engine combust into a ball of fire, rocking the entire ship, jolting her free of the antenna. Now she was trapped in the wind's grasp. She fell end over end as Navis 7 turned away from her. Shrapnel and other pieces of fiery fell with her. Aurora stabilized herself so that she was no longer spinning out of control. Instead she staid with her back towards the ground, looking up at her home that grew smaller and smaller, a trail of black smoke coming from one side. Damage that she had caused to it... Her entire world seemed to shift as the realization settled in her mind. I'm trapped out side of the ship... she lamented to herself. Though she wanted to be free of it, she didn't want it to happen in anyway like this. Then another though occurred. I'm falling! The pegasus turned to face the rapidly approaching ground. It was so much bigger and expanded for so much farther than she could ever have imagined. The closer she got the more details she could pick out: individual patches of tress and fields, hills, not mountains, hills! From Navis 7 she could only see some of the larger features, now she could see all of the smaller ones! Aurora fell below another layer of clouds, the lowest she had ever seen the white puffy objects. Below her was a mountain that rose from the ground, the top quarter of it seemed to be covered in a white powder. The pegasus flared her wings out to bring herself into a downwards glide. She purposefully moved closer to the mountain's slope. Extending a hoof, she was close enough that it ran through the soft powder, which even through the insulation of her suit she could tell was cold. The powder faded away into what she knew was grass as the slope became more and more gradual. Though this grass was unlike anything she had ever seen in the farms aboard Navis 7. It was taller, greener, and it flowed with the gentle breezes that pushed it. Aurora slowed herself down so she too could feel the soft wind. On her wings she could feel it's warmth. All entirely knew and foreign sensations to her. Ahead of her the soft slope ended in a sharp and rocky cliff. Aurora flared her wings and landed at the pentacle of it. She took off her mask and pulled down her hoof, taking in a deep breath of the freshest air she had ever breathed. The wind relaxed her as it blew through her mane. She looked out on the world in front of her and all its beauty: as far as she could see there were trees and grass and plants that ended in a mountain range on the far horizon. The ground beneath her felt warm and alive. Closing her eyes and taking in another deep breath, she held it in thought before slowly releasing it back to the wind. Her ears twitched to pick up a noise from behind her. "Don't move, skyborn." The next breath Aurora took was very sharp and short.