The group marched out of the town, looping around the side of the mountain where the town was located. No one spoke a word, all having grim looks on their faces. They kind of reminded Void of the royal guard back home. No, no, no! Equestria is NOT my home! They stabbed me in the back; they don't deserve a second thought! When she had finished mentally bashing herself, she looked up, and gasped. In front of her, was an airship.
Sure, she had seen zepplins before, but this was different. An airship was, while in theory, more primitive then a zepplin, it was much faster and more maneuverable. They were also smaller, and generally weren't powered by engines. In front of her was the first airship she had seen, and it was.....Actually not to shabby. It was quite small, only about the size of a tug boat she had seen once in Fillydelphia. However, it was much sleeker and and more angular, with even the balloon of gas that held it aloft being quite small. The whole thing was a light burgony, with a darker shade for the balloon, and a pure white underside. The balloon, unlike most pictures she had seen, was tucked into the underside of the hull, as opposed to the typical position, which was where the sails would be on a normal ship. This ship did appear to have sails, only much smaller and angled forward. A large structure was on the back part of the deck, in top of which was the wheel. At the front were a pair of what appeared to be sandbags, connected to the shop by rope. A figurehead of a hooded cobra hung to the bowspire, with word above it in white block, which Void assumed was the name of the ship. The Maelstrom Gambit.
Tempest, who had noticed her stop, bumped into her shoulder, knocking her out of her trance. As they continued to walk, tempest asked, "Something wrong? You just never seen an airship before?"
"Yeah. They aren't exactly common in equestria." She said.
At this statement, her eyes widened. They then narrowed to slits, and she hissed, "Your an equestrian!?"
"Yeah. Is that a problem?"
"No, to me anyway. But best not mention that around Cold bit. He hates them with a passion. I haven't been with them long, but I've be told that they once found an equestrian. Bit cut off his wings, eyes, and tounge, then scraped the flesh from his hooves and sent him off to die in the desert. Just, better safe then sorry."
Void nearly gagged at this news. Oh, great. If my new 'how's finds out where I'm from, I'll die a slow painful death. She now definitely didn't want to work with him. Well, what choice do I have? She soon was on board the airship, and a few minutes later, it began to rise into the air.
The deck was wide, with lots of open space. The whole thing was freshly scrubbed, having an almost white color finish to it. Ropes snaked across the whole ship, connecting rigging, as well as various positions on the deck and railing. A few fixed ballista were mounted on the deck, while the railing had smaller, swiveling versions. Cold bit turned to the assembled crew.
"Alrighty. Now, it will be a few hours before we reach the rendezvous point. I recommend you all get some rest, as we won't be having any sleep schedule. Now, go!" He barked. With that, most of the others went toward the structure , while Cold bit went up the stairs next to it, to the wheel. Not knowing what to do, void followed the others toward the stairs bellow decks.
Just below the main deck, stood a !omg hall. No rooms were on the sides, just a long room that ran across the length of the ship. The stairs did to down another level, but no one went down there. Barrels and crates took up most of the back of the room (the front of the ship), while the rest was filled with hammocks and sleeping rolls. Immediately realizing just how tired she was, she surged forward, knocking Gerald over in the process. She kept upon one of the hammocks, and practically melted into it. It was the most comfortable thing she had slept in in months! Her sleepiness swept in, and she was once more reminded of her tiredness. Ever since she had been forced out of equestria, she had never been able to make up her nap times. Always working or on the move. So many hours out of the serenity and peace of sleep. Her eyelids soon became like bricks, and she slipped into the black void.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
She was woken by somebody shaking her hammock, causing her to fall out. Looking up, she saw it was Tempest and Zabartha. They were wearing their armor, and the zebra stallion had his weapons at the ready. He said in a heavily accented voice, "Tempest and I are going to go spar. We want to see exactly what you can do. Get ready your equipment, then join us downstairs." With that, he and the armored unicorn walked off, heading toward the door to the lower level.
When they left, Void shot her tongue out at them. It wasn't like they woke her from a good dream of anything. For some reason, she hadn't had any dreams since the incident in the White Tail Woods. It was because she hadn't gotten the chance to catch up on her nap time, and because she was still a little used to it, it left her a little sluggish and groggy. However, if she was stuck with them, she might as well spar. Show them exactly what she could do, plus get some practice. She had only learned to fight in desperate situations, and was pretty sloppy. Some practice could do her good. So, she straightened her pith hat, grabbed her spear, and marched down the stairs.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she was greeted by a large hall, much like the above room. However, down here, the room was filled with few items. A bunch of boxes on areas of the walls like above, some metal beams that served as the landing gear, and a shute in the wall made of rusted steel that Void got the horrifying suspension was the toilet. (It was better then in pits or just on the ground in the farm or in the desert, but still.) The two equines were standing in the center of the room around a large white circle in the middle of the room. Tempest was wearing her armor, and no other weapon. Zabartha was wearing a loose fitting garb, and had his round buckler on his right forehoof, while his long, barbed dagger was clenched in his teeth. When they saw her come down the stairs, and that she had a spear, the zebra began to laugh.
Void was both curious and angry. "What's so funny, cump?"
"Hahahaha! Sorry, just, well..... " he started, but tempest cut him off.
"Ponies and pope weapons don't mix. We don't have the proper biology to use them while standing normally, and standing on our back hooves gets tiring very quickly. We just can't use it as well as other races."
Void pondered this. It was rather clumsy feeling, and the one time she used it to kill, it required her to stand on her back hooves. But then another thought came to her. "But wait. What about the equestrian royal guard? They use spears."
Tempest just chuckled. "Oh, right. Your a soft northerner. *sigh*. The royal guard have them because it looks good. They can probably use it for crowd control-using the shaft to push ponies back in riots-but other then that, they're useless. Shameful, if you ask me."
Zabartha said, "Well, your a 'soft northerner ' too. Now, just shut up, and let's get ready. You got anything other then that spear." Well, tempest was from equestria too. Void wondered why she left. She was still a little hesitant, but maybe, just maybe, she could get a friend out here. But, she's getting distracted. What had Zabartha said? Did she have another weapon?
"Yeah, I do." She tossed the spear to the side, and pulled out her knife. The blade had some leftover bloodsplatter from the right with the diamond dogs, but was otherwise in good shape. She had cleaned it a little with the rag she found on the dog leader, and had sharpened it a little. It was also a decent knife in general. A large blade, sturdy handle that could be gripped with both hoof and mouth, and a certain charm to it. It was designed to chop through thin wood, the thick knots on the date bags, but she had used it to kill two creatures. She then showed it to the two others, and received their opinions.
"Huh, not bad. I've seen worse. Alright, put the sheath back on, and let's see if you can fight." She was given her knife back, and Tempest stood across from her, in a crouching position, ready to pounce. Void got in her own position, knife clutched in her hoof, while her wing was raised to either pull her out of a fight or forward into it. The two began to circle each other, waiting to see who would make the first move.
That move was made by tempest, who fired a blast of wild electricity from it before rushing her. Void tried to dodge, using her one wing to move to the side, but the blast was too wide. An arc of it struck her in the side, and she fell to that direction. Her guard was down, so when tempest was on her, she had no defence. The deep purple mare bucked her in the chest, then went higher, her horseshoe shodden hooves hitting like locomotives. She was on the ground just like that, the scars on her back screaming in agony as she hit the hard deck.
Tempest snorted. "Sloppy. Get up, let's go again." Now, void was angry. She did get up, rushing tempest, knife held high. The armored mare sidestepped,but Void used the trick that raider at the farm used. When tempest kept back, she quickly changed her grip, and swung the knife like a sword across the throat of tempest. If she had her blade out, tempest may have been killed, or worse. However, Tempest didn't stop to recognize the move; she just went back to wailing on her.
They went back and forth, the advantage changing from the unicorn to the pegasi constantly. Tempest, having much more experience, often would force her to go on the defensive. She would often step out of the way, or dodge or parry the blows, before resuming her attack. The broken horn was very difficult to get past, as tempest used it to keep her at a distance. However, void realized that tempest could only use it sparingly, so after each use of the horn, she would get in fast and hard.
Finally, she had tempest on the ropes again. She had managed to use the pommel to knock her in the head, and now went in for the kill. Suddenly, a knife blocked hers; Zabarthas blade! The zebra then used his buckler like a club, swinging the flat front part. At the same time, tempest recovered and whirled on her hooves, bucking her in the knees. Void fell literally head over heels, landing on her back with a thud and a dry of pain as she hit her scars.
Tempest said, "Geez, I know it hurts, but not that much."She
Void growled out in response," Scars...on back.....cheaters! "
Zabartha said, "Well, out here, no such thing as cheating, but, do they hurt? Do you want me to look?"
"No, no, it's fine. The creatures that patched me up did a great job. Point is, it only hurts if a lot of pressure or force is applied to them. I'm fine."
" If you insist. Now, let's -"
They were interrupted by a loud help sound coursing through the ship. They all looked up at the ceiling, before tempest and void asked at the same time, "What was that?".
Zabartha said," The bosses signal bell. That either means we're at the rendezvous point, entering a storm, or under attack. Come, let's go find out. " With that, then gathered up there equipment, and went up stairs.