//------------------------------//
// 4 - Stormbound 
// Story: Tales Above a Scorched Land - Sunfall 
// by gerandakis 
//------------------------------//


4.

Stormbound






"Who are you?! Where is the Princess?!"

The indignant shout that pierced the silence came from a light brown mare with a gray mane. From the party, they recognized her as the town's mayor.

"Why? Is my crown not regal enough for you? Has my name been forgotten. Have you not seen the signs?"

Stepping forward from the front of the crowd, followed by her sisters, Starlight spoke up, "WE have."

Sunset raised her voice next, "we know who you are, Daybreaker."

A small smile curled the alicorn's lips. "So somepony did remember. And tell me," As the only one of the three who hadn't spoken yet, her gaze focused on Twilight. "Do you also know why I am here?"

Twilight shuddered in spite of the heat coming from the alicorn before her. "To burn down the land."

Daybreaker seemed to stiffen at that, as if hesitating for a moment. "Yes, well. I might have to reconsider that plan. There is no fun to be had in ruling a barren wasteland... We'll see." She chuckled lightly.

The mayor clearly had enough. "Seize her! Only she knows where the princess is."

Four guards, both pegasi and thestrals, flew up to the stage to grab the alicorn. She spread her wings and, with a mighty flap, sent a wave of fire towards each pair of guards, knocking them back and scorching their armor.

"Foals! You think you can stop me?!" Daybreaker once more broke into hysterical laughter. "Oh, and, by the way, I don't know where my dear sister is. Perhaps she is hiding from me. Not that it matters. I will find her before long."

She burst into fire and flew off, over the edge of the island and down to the land below.

For a moment, there was silence, then one of the guards groaned and the crowd broke into fearful muttering. From behind the three, Fluttershy rushed forward towards one of the injured guards.

Sharing a glance, Twilight, Sunset and Starlight turned and galloped off towards the library.





More desperate than ever, they scoured the bookshelves for any indication on where to find the Elements of Harmony.

They had put their familiars to bed, seeing how, after a day and a night, they were at their limits.

"Come on!" Starlight groaned, "there has to be something here. We need to find the Elements."

"And what are these Elements? And how did you three know about Daybreaker, huh? Are you spies?!"

Rainbow Dash had come into the library after them, the other four mares close behind her. Applejack was about to reign her in when Starlight chuckled despite the situation.

"Spies? Yeah right. Hired by a pony sealed away in the sun how exactly?"

As Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, Applejack rolled her eyes and stepped up beside her. "Sorry 'bout Dash, her mouth gets ahead o’ her brain sometimes. But y’all do know what's goin' on. Don't ya?"

Sunset nodded and sighed. "To give you the short version: that was Daybreaker. She is the corrupted version of Princess Luna's older sister. A thousand years ago, Princess Luna banished her to the sun using the Elements of Harmony and we'll need them now to stop her. But we have no idea where they are or how to find them."

"The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide" All eyes turned to Pinkie Pie who stood next to one of the bookshelves, a thin book held in one hoof.

"How did you find that?" Twilight demanded as she rushed over to her, levitating the book over to her.

Pinkie bounced around the room with a wide smile. "It was under 'E'!"

"What?!" Sunset exclaimed, "but that was the first place I looked!"

"Really?" Pinkie turned to her, her head tilted slightly. "Huh, weird. And here I thought I was the only one who looks under the shelves."

Ignoring Sunset's sputters, Twilight cracked open the book and began to read aloud. "Let's see here: 'There are eight Elements of Harmony, but only seven are known: Kindness, Honesty, Laughter, Empathy, Generosity, Loyalty and Trust. The eighth is a complete mystery. It is said that the last known location of the seven Elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now ... Oh dear. That's not good."

Starlight turned to face her. "Why? Where is it?"

"I think I know where Daybreaker went. It's down in the Everfree Forest."

The reactions were immediate. All signs of bravado fell off Rainbow Dash's face and she landed with a worried expression. Applejack looked just as worried. And perhaps a touch fearful. Fluttershy gave a quiet 'Oh dear' and curled her wings around her with a soft whimper. Rarity dramatically fainted on a chaise lounge that definitely hadn't been in the room a moment earlier. Both Starlight and Sunset mirrored Twilight's nervous expression. Clearly they weren't looking forward to having to deal with the Everfree Forest on top of Daybreaker.

Only Pinkie seemed unfazed, merrily smiling around the silent room.

"Well," Twilight finally said, clapping the book shut, "no point dwelling. Let's go, girls."

She got up, only to freeze when not only Starlight and Sunset, but also the five others mimicked her motion. Twilight glanced to her sisters, then quirked an eyebrow up. "Uhh I didn't mean all of you."

"Well, Ah'm not gonna let three friends o' mine go inta that forest alone," Applejack explained. "If y'all are goin’ there ta save the day, then so am Ah."

"Me too!" Rainbow added with a confident smirk.

"Me three!"

"Uh, I'll be coming along too."

"Well I couldn't just let all of you go without me, now could I?"

Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity joined the other two. The chaise lounge was nowhere to be seen.

Starlight shrugged. "Alright, come along then." She started to walk off towards the basement door.

"Uhh, not to interrupt, but the door is that way." Fluttershy was pointing a wing towards the exit.

Sunset smirked. "So it is. But the library's airship dock is that way." She went over to the basement door as well. The rest quickly followed.

"My goodness, that ship is gorgeous."

"Couldn't agree more, Rares. That's one heck of a ship. Ah'd love ta see what kinda engine core it has."

Starlight smirked at the farm mare. "Come, I'll show you." With a spark from her horn, she caused the entry hatch to spring open and walked inside, followed closely by her fellow engineer.

"Sweet Luna these engines are huge! This thing is fast!"

Twilight smirked. "One of the fastest in Equestria. Come in!"

As she led Rainbow to the upper deck, Sunset addressed the other three, "Come on in then. I'll show you around."

Down in the engine room, Applejack was staring at the drive core. Three large crystals floated, circling around a common center, inside a cage of brass tubes in the shape of an oblate spheroid. Larger tubes connected on it towards the front and to the back at either side, vanishing into the ring of flooring that marked the ceiling of the lower part of the engine room and the floor of the upper part.

Starlight smirked and let a spark from her horn jump into the control console next to the wall. It came to life, displaying an illusory screen with various readouts and controls. Tapping a few buttons, she sent a surge of magic through the drive core, causing it to fully activate from its current idle state.

The crystals lit up orange and started spinning faster, arcs of orange lightning jumped between them and the cage bars. With a low hum, the pumps in the tubing came to life and distributed the magical charge from the core along the underside of the ship. The magical conduits leading from the core to the engines lit up with the same orange aura, signaling that power was flowing through them.

Seeing that all systems were running as intended, Starlight tapped a few more buttons on her console to signal Twilight before turning to Applejack who was looking between her and the drive core with a wide grin.

"Now that there is an engine!"

While Starlight and Applejack were geeking out over the engine and Rainbow was drooling at the ship's power as Twilight gently steered it out of the dock and down towards the surface below, Sunset guided the other three mares into the lounge at the front of deck one.

Rarity rushed over to the panoramic view window that completely covered the front of the room, looking down at the surface below. The ship was gently angling downward until it hung in the air pointed down approximately thirty degrees. Pointed as such, the ship gently floated out beneath the islands that held Ponyville.

Rarity sighed contentedly. "Now this is what I call traveling in style."

Sunset stepped up beside her, enjoying the view just as much. "It is, but I'd recommend you sit down."

"Why is that?" Rarity asked even while she complied. Behind them Fluttershy and Pinkie had sat down as well.

"Because," Sunset explained with a smirk, "if I know Twilight at all she's about to-"

The entire ship shot forward as the helmsmare gunned the engine. The whine of the three large turbines filled the air.

"-do that," Sunset finished. "She just can't help having a bit of fun."





The ship descended towards the surface in a wide spiral. The panoramic view window in the forward observation lounge gave a fantastic view of the surface below. The wide expanse of dark green that marked the Everfree Forest formed a marked contrast to the pale brown of the desert that covered most of the surface elsewhere.

Several patches of bright orange, smoking ominously and leaving charred ground in their wake, marked the small patches of wildfires that had constantly roamed the Everfree for centuries. Not too far from the forest's edge, a canyon separated loosely circular a section of the forest. Sitting in it's center was the dark gray shape of an abandoned ruin.

"There," Sunset said, pointing her hoof at the ancient structure, "you see that? That's the Castle of the Two Sisters. That's where we're going."

Following her gaze, Rarity studied the ruin with a careful eye. "Oh dear, it looks quite dilapidated, doesn't it?"

Sunset frowned a little. "I don't know. Keep in mind that it’s within the Everfree and has been abandoned for a thousand years. Considering that, it's actually remarkably intact. I know plenty of ruins that are far younger and in much worse shape. Almost like there is something preserving it. Odd."

"Now that you mention it, that is odd. So we'll just fly there?"

Sunset's eyes widened at the suggestion. She gave Rarity a disbelieving stare, mirrored by Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. "Fly that far over the Everfree? Of course not. Twilight is good, but she's no miracle worker. Weather over the Everfree was always wild and uncontrollable, even back when the castle was still in use, though it was far more manageable at the time. With all the extra power from the harsh sun and the wildfires now? Even when there aren't any crazy storms brewing in the area, there are chaotic winds that are next to impossible to fly through.

"Twilight will probably fly us a good distance in and then set us down in a suitable clearing, but we can't go too far over the forest or we're more or less guaranteed to crash." She looked out of the window again, noting that they had now left their spiraling descent and were flying in a straight line for the forest. "Speaking of ..."

"Hold onto your hooves, ladies," Twilight's voice came through the intercom, "it's gonna be a bumpy ride." Moments later, the first tremors ran through the ship as it was shaken by the winds.





On the upper deck, Twilight had started to use two spells to safely guide the ship through the gusts. The first one was a powerful adhesive charm to keep her hooves firmly secured to the deck. The second was an enchantment for her eyes, visualizing the chaotic air flows around her and giving her a few moment's notice before she had to compensate for a sudden change in the wind blowing the ship this way and that.

It also allowed her to see how the storm only got harsher the further away they got from the forest's edge.

Flying alongside she ship, Rainbow Dash was having the time of her life. Her innate magic allowed her to sense the sudden changes in wind speed and direction even more accurately than Twilight's charm, enabling her to work with the winds in many places, rather than fight them. She soared above and behind the ship in one moment, then ahead of it and below the next, casually waving to the four mares watching her stunts from the observation lounge, desperately seeking a measure of stability within the quaking vessel.

Well aware of the constant danger, Rainbow was flooded with adrenaline, pushing her strength, agility and awareness to their natural limits and enabling her of aeronautical feats even she could usually only dream of. While Twilight had to keep the Lumiere firmly above the treeline, Dash could, if needed, momentarily escape the gusts by diving through the canopy and weaving between the trees before emerging again and flying alongside the ship once more.

If there was one difference between the two mares that were soaring through the storm above the forest, one piloting a ship, the other on her own, it was that Twilight had a far more realistic understanding of her skills and the limits thereof. She was easily able to see that the winds would soon get too strong for her to safely maneuver the ship through and slightly adjusted their heading to point them at a nearby clearing rather than directly at the castle.

A sudden gust from below lifted ship and pegasus alike upwards, higher above the forest where the winds were even harsher, then an equally sudden downdraft sent them careening towards the middle of the clearing below.

In the last possible moment, Twilight used one fore hoof to pull back the throttle and cut the engines while slamming the other onto a large red button on her console. Only a few meters above the ground, the ship's rapid descent came to a sudden halt, the entire vessel engulfed in a pale blue, almost white aura for a moment. Twilight had activated the ship's emergency stasis field.

The experimental safety feature was designed to arrest the momentum of the ship as well as that of anything and anypony within it. Unfortunately for her, she was not within the ship. She grunted in pain as her hooves, still affixed to the deck, took the entirety of her inertia and directed it into the ship which stubbornly refused to move within the stasis field.

A sudden tearing noise behind her and to her right, followed by a cry of pain and a resounding 'crash' announced that Rainbow Dash was also solidly grounded once more.

Recovering from the sudden halt, Twilight took hold of the helm once more, ready for the stasis field to release a few seconds later. She gently brought the ship into a fully horizontal alignment, a short distance above the ground and hit another button on her console.

Around the ship, four crystals lit up before shooting chains of orange light, tipped with magical constructs similar in shape to harpoons, down at the ground beneath. A slight adjustment to the gravity spell of the ship pulled them taut and secured the vessel in position. A few more button presses shut down the turbines and advised Starlight and AJ in the engine room below to set the drive core into a low power mode, enough to sustain the slight lift keeping the ship in place against its anchors, but little more than necessary.

Once the ship was secure, she turned her attention to the still slightly twitching pegasus beside her. A quick diagnostic spell revealed that she was mostly fine. All her bones were still intact and she didn't seem to have suffered a concussion or some sort of other internal injury either. A few healing spells took care of the mare's numerous bruises and a quick electric jolt brought her back to the present and back to her feet.

"Ow! What gives? Why did you stop so suddenly?"

"Well sorry if I didn't want the ship to crash."

Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. "Right. Sorry. Thanks for patching me up."

"Don't worry about it."

"And sorry about your sunroof."

Twilight turned her gaze to the Rainbow-Dash-shaped hole in the roof above them. "Oh yeah. No problem. It's just fabric. We can get it fixed later."





The door opened on the side of the ship and revealed the immediate issue. The exit hatch was several meters up in the air. A few more button presses on Sunset's part opened a smaller hatch right beneath the larger door and caused a series of elaborately carved wooden panels to float out of it, forming a staircase to the ground.

With a smile, she led the way down to the ground. Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy followed her. All three of them seemed quite glad to once more have solid ground under their hooves. Applejack and Starlight followed not long after and Twilight and Rainbow brought up the rear. Lighting her horn, Twilight prompted the hatch to close, sealing the ship, but leaving the staircase in place.

As she hopped down the last step and joined the group a short distance away, Rarity turned her attention to Sunset. "I think now would be an ideal time for those cooling charms you mentioned. It's dreadfully warm down here."

"Oh right. One moment." Sunset lit her horn, quickly followed by Starlight and Twilight, and the three of them began applying powerful cooling charms to the group and themselves. "There. These should last us a good few hours. We can refresh them later if need be."

"Just out of curiosity," Starlight piped in, "is this anypony else's first time on the surface." Everypony raised a hoof. "Ah good to know."

Rolling her eyes, Twilight moved ahead of the group. "Let's go then. The sooner we find the Elements, the sooner we can leave this forest."