The Armada Trilogy III: Unicorn's Horn

by TheMysteryMuffin

2 - The Desert

The crackling of the fire, that glowed against the metal framework of the wrecked skiff, was the only sound that could be heard for miles throughout the desert. Its emptiness and blanket-covered mounds of sand stretched out as far as any eye could see. As the wind blew, the tiny grains hovered over the mountainous sand dunes and were flown into the air, creating swirling movements and looked like dancers performing elegantly. The tiny flakes of burnt wood made their way up towards the dark blue sky. They spun in continuous circles until their orange light burnt out. Other than the silver glow of the stars that shone across the night sky, the fire provided the only source of light for miles on end. What logs that could be sourced from dead bushes and the remains for the skiff's framework were laid into a firepit, surrounded by large grey stones that encircled them. The sand underneath was once a golden yellow, was now covered in white and black ash, with burning flakes of wood dropping below and their light slowly dying out.

Five travelers sat around the fire in a circle, all wrapped up in blown cloaks and their heads mostly concealed by a large hood that draped over the top of their eyes. One of the travelers had her lavender hooves wrapped around her chest as she sat in front of the fire, leaning forwards to gather as much heat as she could. Her eyes shined as the light reflected in them, staring deeply into the fire, her concentration was fixed on the logs slowly collapsing to the bottom of the ash-filled pit. The lavender alicorn shivered from the freezing temperature of the desert in the nighttime. Suffering from the scorching hot heat of the sun during the day and shivering from the cold winds at night, the desert was not the most ideal location to camp. But alas, the alicorn and her companions had no choice.

The alicorn had a dark purple mane and tail, with a raspberry pink stripe running through both. Her eyelashes that were once straight and regularly straightened back in her castle, were now bent with tiny grains of sand stuck in them. Her hooves were sore, scratches all over them, but thankfully not bleeding. On her flank was a large rose-pink star, with a smaller white one hiding behind it, and five tinier stars dotted around. Her flank was sitting on the back of her brown cloak, as it was the only comfortable alternative to just sitting on the sand. Large flat rocks were simply too uncomfortable to sit on.

"I hope what you know what you're doing, Fizzlepop."

A small pinkish-purple dragon with green scales running down from the top of his head, down his back, to the tip of his tail, and tiny wings was sitting next to the alicorn. He pushed the logs in the pit with a stick from the pile of collected dead bushes they had collected during the day, specifically for the long nights. A pile sat next to him, along with some rocks and whatever they could salvage from the wreckage of the skiff.

"Twi... do... do you think she'll be alright out there? All alone? In the desert? It would take her days to walk by hoof. Does she know what she's doing or even know how to get back to her home?"

Twilight Sparkle, the alicorn, kept staring into the orange flames that erupted before her eyes. Her gaze did not leave the fire. It was like the fire had hypnotized her. It wasn't until Twilight felt Spike's claw reach out to her lavender hoof, gently stroking over the smooth hard surface. He noticed the chipped edge of her hooves, worn from the miles Twilight had walked. Twilight couldn't fly continuously through the desert; the heat was far too unbearable and the wind was strong, not to mention the grains of sand that were picked up and managed to get into her eyes and blur her vision.

"I don't know, Spike. I can't believe she managed to walk through this desert all those years ago. She was only just a filly. I can't imagine what was going through her mind. All alone for days on end, walking away from the safety of her home. Into the claws of the Storm King and going through battles, capturing civilians and causing mayhem and destruction behind everywhere they went. I am only pleased that the Armada has been eliminated. We cannot afford Equestria to undergo as much chaos as there was back then."

The situation that Twilight and her friends underwent in the invasion of the Armada left Equestria in a rather unstable condition. The balance of peace between civilisations such as Kludgetown, the skies, Seaquestria, and Mount Aris had been left on a knife-edge ever since the rise of power for the Storm King and his almost-unbeatable Armada.

"The experience of which Temp- I mean Fizzlepop underwent as a filly is certainly one of the traits that led her down the path she chose into working for the Storm King. Just a small filly, before being made to fight as a soldier in war after war. So traumatising and unimaginable."

Celestia spoke softly under her hood, her white muzzle reflecting in the light of the fire and her technicolor mane seeping down her shoulder, floating gently in the dark blue of the desert night. Her horn illuminated her magic aurora as her magic wrapped her white and golden cloak tighter around her body. Celestia's wings slithered underneath the cloak, draping down her hind legs, the feathers so soft against her fur. Even alicorns can feel the cold in the dead of night. The fire did provide some heat, but alas freezing air would breeze through the camp occasionally.

Spike shuddered and edged closer to Twilight, his claws grasping tightly onto her cloak. He closed his eyes and a tear trickled down his purple cheek and over his lips, tasting its saltiness. As he grabbed tighter, he felt Twilight's lavender hoof carefully stroke down from the top to the back of his head. Twilight pulled Spike in, wrapping her cloak over him and resting her head on top of his.

"Spike... hey, it's alright, Spike," Twilight whispered to her friend. "We will fix this and find Fizzlepop, I promise. She's the bravest and toughest pony I've known."

Ever since saving her from being sucked away in the ferocious tornado summoned by the Storm King, Fizzlepop had developed a strong friendship with Twilight and Spike from her occasional visits to her castle in Ponyville. Sure, Fizzlepop did manage to take time to spend the day with Twilight's other closest friends; Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Starlight Glimmer in their usual places of work, but it was always Twilight whom Fizzlepop would go to for advice and guidance. This was particularly evident with the residents of Canterlot who still had rather ill opinions of her since the invasion of the Armada whilst the Mane Six left Equestria to seek help from the hippogriffs.

Three other creatures sat next to one another on a large rock also looking aimlessly into the crackling fire. The first - Capper - sat as still as a statue on the edge of the rock in a red trenchcoat with golden buttons on his cuffs and down his lapels, reflecting the fire and shining a proud golden colour. His fur was a moderate gamboge - besides his back and front paws, the end of his fluffy long tail, the tips of his large and pointy ears, and his strickenly attractive face - matched with a pair of extended whiskers coming out from under his red nose. Two light green eyes stood out from the shadows of the feline's silhouetted head, with a curl of his indigo hair draping over his enigma expression.

The second - Celaeno - was an anthropomorphic parrot, towering over the feline and was by far the tallest of the travelling party. Mainly covered in cream coloured feathers, the parrot was decorated in a maroon pirate getup with golden earings - which she stole as a youngster - a maroon pirate captain's hat with a large feather gently flying in the wind, her emerald tail hanging over the back of the rock she sat upon and the green pegleg she acquired during her swashbuckling adventures. A strand of long, thin emerald feathers poked out from under her maroon pirate hat, hanging over her sparkling raspberry eyes, addressed with eyeliner and emerald coloured eyeshadow. Much like Capper, Celaeno was also subject to the strict and unpleasant occupation of the Armada, and her crew under specific orders by the Storm King to transport goods across the Sea of Clouds to locations all over the Armada outside of Equestria.

The third - Skystar - was the princess and heir to the throne of hippogriffs at Mount Aris. Young, ambitious, and bubbly, Princess Skystar had been hiding along with her mother and the remainder of the hippogriffs underwater in their new kingdom, Seaquestria, disguised as seaponies, since she was young. So much like any excited young teenage princess locked away in her quarters throughout her childhood, Skystar loved exploring the world above, feeling the ground through her claws once she had transformed back into her hippogriff form. Her feathers were a greyish yellow and covered all over her body; from her bright, gentle face to the top of her orange claws. The mane which hung from the side of her head was an artic blue shade, as well as her majestic tail, and her yellow wings which were normally outstretched with uncontrollable adrenaline were tucked into the sides of her body. Skystar's cyan eyes sparkled in the darkness, with light freckles dotted around between them, and her small greyish-orange beak still and inaudible. A necklace of colourful shells hung from her long neck, each colour representing the pony friends she met back when they asked for her help to save Equestria from the Storm King; pink for Pinkie Pie, the pony who encouraged Skystar to go ahead and assist the Mane Six in their fight against the Armada, light blue for Rainbow Dash, white for Rarity, yellow for Fluttershy, orange for Applejack and lavender for Twilight Sparkle. A pinkish-purple flower sat adjacent on her head, representing a crown to declare her authority as the heir to the throne of Mount Aris.

Spike sighed. "You'd think she'd leave a note to tell us which way she's going at least." He shivered, his claws tightening around his arms. "I hate this place. At night it's too cold and during the day it's boiling."

Twilight nodded in agreement. However, she still had a tiny fragment of hope inside of her on getting to Tempest's hometown. From a regular unicorn from Canterlot who had no interest in friends whatsoever to an alicorn princess who had saved Equestria countless times with her friends by her side on each occasion, this was not a task too big to handle. Twilight, Spike and the rest of the Mane Six had travelled by hoof all the way to Kludgetown before, so tackling more of the desert wasn't too much of a challenge, surely? But hitch-hiking on Captain Celaeno's skiff to Mount Aris had cut the journey drastically. Plus the fact that she and her friends never went further than Mount Aris, which was now miles back from where they were.

"I agree, Spike... at first light, we leave this instance. We must find Fizzlepop and ensure that she's safe. I believe it's time for us to rest. We have a long journey tomorrow."

Soon, one by one, every creature laid down on the soft sand under warm blankets and closed their eyes as they drifted to sleep. All but one were now sleeping under the white, glinting stars over the neverending terrain of the desert. Celestia sat on the edge of the sand dune, staring into the distance. She couldn't help but notice the faint hoof prints embedded in the sand, leading towards the horizon. Still there; fresh and not blown over. Fizzlepop was not that far ahead. Her home must be just over those sand dunes. But alas, Celestia was not the princess of night, but of day, and even she could not see all the way to Fizzlepop's hometown. After placing a protective shield around her companions, Celestia laid down next to the fire and closed her eyes, hearing the last of the wood crackling and floating up into the night sky.

Author's Note:

I'm really really sorry that this chapter took over a year to be published. I have been focused on other things that have happened over the course of the last year or so, plus I've had the odd thought at the back of my mind that this story may not come out as well as my readers would have expected from this trilogy. However, I hope to complete this fic once and for all with an ending I hope you lot will enjoy. I still have no plans to cancel Unicorn's Horn.

Comments

[Bronycommander]

nice to see this updated!

[Zekrom117]

Its completely understandable Muffin, no need to rush, im loving the entire series and chapters, awesome work and keep it up

[Great White Prime]

Great to see you finally being able to upload the new chapter. I'm not going anywhere, so you don't worry.

Also, is there going to be a villain in this story?

[huntar21]

I can't wait for the finale it will be epic

[TheMysteryMuffin]

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I'm writing the next chapter as we speak.