The Dead Kingdom

by Red and Black Alicorn OC

The Yearchai

Hua was very pleased with herself. She had managed persuade Saeret to join the crew of the ship Yearchai.

The Yearchai was a large ship that had a balloon made from a thick layer of red silk to keep it afloat in the sky. The rims of the boat was outlined with the most prodigious metal, platinum. The silver and gold coloured material made the sky look mundane. But the most unique his large vessel was made out of a special material called beltower.

Hua had learnt of beltower when she was five and she was and still is intrigued by this natural wonder. Once beltower is stripped of it's bark and is cut into long sleek planks they would then be packaged and delivered to those you wish to own such materials. The owner could then, if they had the money, pay money to a experienced unicorn mage and in exchange the spell wielder would cast a spell on the black wood to enchant it with a rune of the owner's choice.

There are many runes that could be carved into the onyx coloured wood. There are runes when the wood could become reflect images like a mirror or become translucent like a sheet of glass.

The Yearchai however is owned by the Deachrai, so what do you expect a object possessed by the organisation to be like? Lavish. Pricey. Fancy. Or my new favourite words used by the 'snobbish foke', swank. That describes the wood, right? Anyway.

Only the bestest of unicorns that studied beltower were paid to enchant the wood. The runes used on the wood were the runes Lys, Haizea and Gogorra.

The rune Lys can make beltower unthinkably light. This means that the raven shaded wood would not be a burden to the crimson silk balloon that has to lug the wood.

The second rune, Haizea, makes the wood immune to most wind. The rune is tricky to conjour up and cannot live up to any wind that proves to be too forcefull but despite that the rune has proved to have saved many lives.

Gogorra was the final enchantment to be placed onto the exquisite wood. With this rune the wood would prove to be stronger and more resiliant to any threats like rockfalls or cliff sides. This spell requires the most effort and time to prepare for and unfortunately even the few great unicorns that study beltower runes can't produce the spell.

The great vessel drifted through the sky like a tender cloud. Hua walked over to the rear of the ship and walked up to Kuati. He was extremely lucky to be here, especially since he's not apart of the high council. But since he had helped Hua discover the evidence they decided to accept the unicorn's pleading.

Kuati was looking at the engines.

"Hi Kuati, what are you doing?"

Kuati looked up to Hua and smiled.

"Hey there most exquisite one, how is the lady today?"

Oh god. Ever since Hua became a member of the high council he always called her that.

"Shut up, why are you looking at those?"

Hua cocked her head towards the engines. Kuati looked back at them.

"Don't you just love the design, I mean look at it, it can go on and on and can never stop! Well, it can last seven months nonstop!"

Hua smiled.

"I suppose so, I think the wood is pretty cool though."

Kuati looked at Hua.

"What is it made out of? I've never seen anything like it."

"It's called beltower, it can have any rune cast upon it."

"Ah, that's pretty sweet, supose we need 'em if we're trying to search for something."

Saeret walked towards both of the ponies.

"Hello guys, we're having a meeting up down in the dining area, care to join us?"

Hua and Kuati nodded and followed Saeret down the small flight of stairs leading to the inside of the ship. They walked across a narrow hallway and entered through the door leading to the dining area.

Inside there was six other ponies. Hua had already acquainted herself with Blue Tulip, a blue earth pony with a purple mane.

There was also Timber Mane, the captain of the ship, she had met him and Timber had told her about the beltower wood. He had a scruffy brown mane and a light grey coat.

Then there was Mreco Reaver, another member of the high council who was leading the search. He had a large, spiked up ash tinted mane and crimson fur.

There were three others but she didn't know who they were.

Mreco smiled at the trio and beckoned to them.

"Take a seat friends, we have plans to discuss."

The trio took a seat at the table and looked at Mreco.

Hope you had a fine night everypony."

Hua shook her head.

"Could've been better."

Hua was never good with sleeping in a bed other then her own one.

Timber laughed.

"Well, this ain't a five star hotel honey."

Kuati chuckled with Timber.

"She's never able to sleep in any bed other then her bed."

"Aye, well you'll need to learn to get your buety sleep here 'cos you're gonna be on this 'ere vessel for a while."

Mreco butted in.

"We aren't here to speak of sleep, we are here to discuss our plans on Equestria."

Saeret rolled out a copy of the map of Equestria. The original one was locked away safely. Timber looked over the map.

"Hmm... Well, this 'ere Equestria is definatley in the empty land, those mountains up north are definatley recognisable. We could go to the mountains and then estimate roughly how far north, south, east or west we nee' to go before we land."

Then the blue mare next to her piped up.

"Indeed uncle, but where should we go once we're at the mountains? What village or town?"

"Well Chipper, I think that i' be wiser to go to this Crystal Empire, it be the closest place to the mountain, but only do we go if Mreco agrees."

He turned his head to Mreco. Mreco was in deep thought for a moment and came nodded.

"Agreed, we shall go to the Crystal Empire once we reach the mountains."

A green colt then spoke up.

"So, do we all agree?"

Everyone nodded, except Chipper, who was trotting out through the door.

"I better help mah little brother, knowing him if you left him on the deck for too long he'll fall righ' off!"

Everyone waved goodbye and Saeret looked towards Mreco.

"Is the meeting going to be dismissed this soon?"

"Yes unfortunately, we can't do much until we get to the Crystal Empire."

Everyone was dismissed and Hua and Tulip were left in the dining room by themselves.

"So Hua, what do you think about all this Equestria business?"

"I don't know really."

"How do you think everypony in Equestria well, died?"

This was a tough question. Hua never really thought about how they became extinced.

"Well, probably just died out, or some sort of volcano might have erupted."

Tulip had a sly grin on her face.

"Don't lie to me, I know what you're thinking."

Hua sighed.

"Well, okay, something big could of happened, but we're not sure."

Tulip sighed with impatience.

"Look, this map is still in good shape, so it couldn't of been made a million years ago. So our race must've existed just after these Equestrians were born. Perhaps a century or two. So we should've noticed them, there bodies. I mean there have been people snooping around the empty lands, only finding a few buildings, buildings that could've belonged to a clan. Wouldn't you have thought that they would've found a body, at least one?"

That made Hua silent. She never thought of that. No one ever thought of that.

"So, what your saying is, is that something big happened. Something, well... Magic?"

Tulip nodded.

"Yes."

Hua then heard Kuati shout from the deck.

"Guys! You gotta get up here! You gotta see this!"

Hua and Tulip shook there heads.

"He's a butter."

"I know."

Nevertheless they walked up the to the deck and walked over to Kuati. Hua spoke.

"What is it?"

But she didn't need an answer. As she looked over the horizon she saw a large coat of clouds spread over the landscape.

It was, enchanting. It was a sight to behold.

This was Equestria.

Author's Note:

Hello! The cover for this story, is, well.... Boring. If any of you are willing to make a cover for this story, then please do so. Oh,and if you do, use the clouds covering the empty land as inspiration!

Comments

[Red and Black Alicorn OC]

Hope you enjoyed! The story will start to go down a darker, more tragic path later on in the next few chapters.

[Dream Seeker]

Good! I'd add a little more detail, and a little better wording, but this was a good chapter overall.

[Red and Black Alicorn OC]

Guys, my charger for my android has been dead. So I had to buy a new one on ebay and that took a long time to come through the post.