//------------------------------// // Breakthrough // Story: Expedition to the Cloudbreak Islands // by Starglider //------------------------------// The two ponderous airships powered forward through the increasingly turbulent air, their screws fighting hard to drive them forwards through the darkening skies. Ahead the massive churning bulk of the storm wall was almost unreal, writhing tendrils of clouds lit from within by the occasional lightning flash, reaching up to the stratosphere and stretching to the horizon. Massive as they were, the Equestrian vessels seemed like toys against this unworldly backdrop. Below them, the pine forest had long since given way to windswept tundra and now barren jagged rock, an expanse of crags and canyons whistling with a cacophony of a thousand keening notes, as the endless gale battered the landscape. On the forward deck of the EAS Harmony, first mate Pearl Gleam kept a close eye on the Friendship, roughly a kilometre in front of them. She'd already used the signal lamp to confirm that their preparations for the crossing were complete, and now they were waiting for the final confirmation to proceed. "Captain!" the earth pony shouted, "There it is! Signal from the Friendship: they're starting the crossing." Some way behind her, Captain Polar Sky stood at the helm, practiced hooves firmly gripping the rudder wheel. Turning aside from the ominous view ahead, he spoke into one of several voice tubes projecting from the deck next to his station. "We're going through." he ordered, "Storm Piercer to full power!" At the bow, Clashing Gale was strapped into the control cage, one eye on the gauges and another on the storm wall ahead. The long-anticipated order had finally arrived, the captain's gravelly voice made tinny by the long brass tube. The pegasus pushed a group of levers forward to their stops and was rewarded by a mounting hum and crackle that soon challenged the howling storm for intensity. The strange spikes and antennae glowed brightly with corona discharge as the device reached full power. Beside him several more pegasi watched their own gauges, concentrated on their innate weather sense and adjusted further controls to ensure the massive device functioned smoothly. The bucking of the ship receded as the storm piercer did its work, creating a corridor of calm air for the Harmony to fly down. His control crew each gave a silent nod, signalling that all was well to proceed. Or at least, as well as it could be when their lives would depend on an experimental device that couldn't be tested to its limits anywhere but here. "Device at full power sir!" Clashing shouted into the horn, the tube relaying his words back to Captain Sky. "Everything is looking good." The old pegasus stallion muttered something, possibly a prayer to some pre-diarchy deity, before speaking firmly into a second voice tube. "Chief Engineer, all ahead full." In the engine room the overhead lights dimmed, as the device at the bow taxed the ship's electrical system. The whole engine crew were present and moving around quietly, eyes everywhere, everything moving like clockwork. A steady hum filled the room, as dials danced, gauges gauged, and ponies trotted to and fro swiftly and professionally. Little communication was needed as everypony and every creature knew their job and searched steadily for signs of trouble. "Full speed ahead, aye captain!" the red ruffed kirin replied curtly into the voice tube. She turned from it and announced "You heard him! Get that coal hot!" The sound of shovelling broke the silence, as the diggers fed the fires, while other ponies shifted gears and open vents. The hum rose into a roaring rumble as all propellers engaged, the ship surging forward with a noticeable acceleration, enough to give everypony pause topside, as the Harmony began to close the gap between them and the lead ship. Meanwhile Summer Scribe was holed up in the forward lounge, trembling with nervous excitement as the ship approached the storm wall, her face pressed up against the big bow windows to observe their progress. "Oh gosh! We're so close!" she squeed, her tail flicking back and forth. 'Aah, but there's nothing to do but watch!' she thought. 'Haaah: at this rate there'll be dry... FLOATING land under my hooves by the end of the day, and a whole new world to explore and uncover secrets in! This is amazing!' On the other side of the lounge, Azure Feather paced frenetically. Her reaction to seeing the storm wall involved far less excitement and far more concern. Hearing the distant thunder and rising roar of wind, she grumbled "I know a few Pegasi that would throw multiple fits at even hearing this thing, let alone seeing it... and a single machine's supposed to see us through this?" Her stride slowed significantly as she muttered to herself, but then sped up again after she fell silent; the unicorn paused only to give nervous glances every time the diffused flash of sheet lightning lit up the windows. Within minutes the two ships began to enter the storm itself, the swirling clouds closing around them and cutting off all view of the landscape below. The effects of their arcane devices were now very visible, the twin tunnels of relatively calm air glowing softly, constantly shedding tiny streamers of electricity from their edges. Even with full power the storm piercers couldn't completely calm the rushing wind, and the ships began to buck and roll gently. They could do nothing at all to keep out the rain, which pattered down on the deck and beat against the portholes in waves. "Convection supercell pushing us down, as expected." Polar Sky shouted, "Pearl, drop three tonnes water ballast." The first mate, a grey earth pony mare, was unsure "Three tonnes sir? "Keep us above two thousand metres!" the Captain confirmed. "We don't want to get anywhere near those rocks" "Dropping three tonnes aye!" Near the ship's wheel several sturdy handles dangled on chains; the first mate hooked a hoof into one and yanked downwards. On the ship's underside, torrents of water poured out of the ballast dump pipes, arresting the ship's descent. The twin ships slowly rose, the clouds around them changing as they plunged deeper into the storm wall, going from a swirling haze to massive banks broken by pockets of clearer air. Odd luminous balls and filaments began to fill the air, getting denser and denser as the ships progressed, adding their flickering rainbow light to the now continuous flashes of sheet lightning. In the saloon Summer Scribe sat up, attentive, not missing a single moment of the view. Admittedly, it was hard to make out any particular details: she experienced the crossing as a drowning rush of noise, an outpouring of unearthly visuals, a truly astonishing meteorological sight. Without any formal training to appreciate it properly, she gaped at the crashing of lightning, the pouring rain driven into the ship by the powerful winds, the dark and unearthly colours acting as a backdrop for shimmering patterns of sparks that might well be unknown to ponykind. 'Now this is what we live for!', she thought. The assault of light and noise did absolutely nothing to calm Azure's nerves; she'd seen some nasty weather, but this... a part of her wondered if even Princess Twilight herself could muster conditions like these. Distracted and muttering under her breath, her pacing renewed in rhythm and vigour. She could only hope these... these devices, these blasted machines would hold on... Back on deck, everypony was near-transfixed by the dangerous beauty of the storm wall, the violent winds just barely kept at bay by their ship's devices. Crewponies hung in the rigging, staring at the patterns of light. At the helm, traces of foam were beginning to show on Polar Sky's coat, as the stress of keeping ship and crew safe rested on his withers. "Engine room, report!" he inquired, an audible tremor putting a crack in his mask of authority and competence. "Plasma's fluctuating, but the turbines are still going strong," came the swift reply through the voice tube, "What's going on out there?" He didn't answer, because how could he answer? How could anypony describe a phenomenon of this terrifying majesty. A beat, and Nutmeg said to her crew, "I'll go check it out. Just to see if it might affect the engine." Her swift stride out was interrupted by her second-in-command shouting, "Chief! I'll go instead! It might be dangerous." Nutmeg cringed back, hurt at that, but his face shone with nothing but compassion. "Fine," she grumbled resentfully, retreating back to the engines, "You go check it out, Gearshift." He didn't hear the last part as she drops to a mumble, "...but I bet it's something really cool." Nodding, the junior engineer headed outside instead. "Chief..." another of her crew said. "It's fine," the kirin replied curtly, checking the pressure reading again, "He's just looking out for me. What a nice guy." Down in the sickbay, Reef Skimmer's beak was almost touching the porthole, as he stared out at the wild display. Nothing in a decade of travel on sea and though air could compare with this. The rain splattering on the glass mixed with the creaking of the ship's timbers and the tinkling of hundreds of beakers and test tubes as they jostled within their containers. He was supposed to be here, in position in case any of the crew needed his attention, but perhaps a quick check around the ship would be prudent? At the bow, Clashing Gale was concentrating intensely on the twitching needles and flashing indicators of his console, every effort focused on keeping the vital cocoon of protection around the ship. "That's strange..." he said, in a near-whisper lost to the wind. "...it's never done that before..." Ahead, the streaming lights seemed to solidify into something like a sheer wall, a grid of flickering planes that constantly shattered and re-solidified. Visibility was down to less than a kilometre, just enough for the ships to see each other, and scant seconds after the phenomenon had become visible from the Harmony, Friendship's bow touched it. With an enormous bang, the lead ship was engulfed in swirling sparks and crackling arcs. The tunnel of safety in front of it collapsed and dissipated, the Storm Piercer and indeed the entire airship going dark. The vessel immediately began to heel and buck, the gale force winds taking full hold. Below deck, Summer Scribe's fascinated wonder dissolved into confusion, then panic, as the shockwave of the Friendship's encounter was felt as a tremor through the Harmony's decks. The little unicorn sprang to attention, on all four hooves, immediately alert. She looked ahead to see the lead ship start to tumble and descend, quickly lost in the spray of meteorological awe: it wasn't so beautiful now that it was life threatening! At the helm of the Harmony, Captain Sky was fighting desperately with the wheel, trying to avoid a similar fate. "We have to turn, right now!" he yelled as the ship, as if in slow motion, began to change course. Beside him, his first mate was already shouting into the voice tube "Engine Room! Reverse port airscrews!" The deck began to tilt as the ship yawed around, but glancing ahead, she could see it was already too late. "What?! What's going-" Nutmeg was cut off from talking into the tube, as Gearshift charged back through the hatch. "Reverse port screws! The lead ship hit something and lost power! We need to turn, now!" he shouted. The crew leapt into action with an enviable coordination, not even knowing they faced an impossible task. Steam burst out of valves, one of the great turbines turning the air screws groaning as the ponderous gears shift, bringing the propellers to a stop then beginning to turn in reverse with unbearable slowness. At the conn, the captain was staring straight ahead, transfixed by the impending disaster. Pearl Gleam did the last thing she could, going from tube to tube shouting "Brace! Brace! Everypony, BRACE FOR IM-" the rest was lost in a crashing wave of sound as the bow entered the phenomenon. Summer Scribe was already fearing the worst, and was proven right when Pearl's announcement blared out of the voice tube. She immediately took a defensive posture against the floor, curled low, pushing through her legs against the floor for support. The Harmony was still pulling around to port when it crossed over, penetrating the barrier at a roughly forty-five degree angle. The resulting fireworks were somewhat slower and more drawn out than the Friendship's head on encounter, but no less calamitous for the vessel and her crew. Clashing Gale reached too late for the shutdown lever, as raw magic arced and sprayed across the control area. The cage protected against lightning, but it couldn't shield them from the stinging, burning raw magic that sprayed from the machine. The bodies of all four pegasi in the cage soon lay limp in their couches, fur smoking and heads lolling as the ship began to roll. The deafening series of cracks and bangs filled every space in the Harmony, and the moment the first shock hit her, Azure's eyes screwed shut for a moment. "...Last time I trust a machine over a pony..." she muttered. The engine room shook and groaned, as the conduits to the plasma generator burst open, sending sparks and ponies flying in every direction. As the magic went wild, the spherical quartz housing of the generator itself shattered, scattering sharp glittering fragments all over the deck. For one horrifying moment the thaumaturgically sustained ball of naked plasma could be seen with the naked eye, before it burst like a bubble, sending a shockwave that knocked everypony in the engine room off their hooves. All the lights faded out, leaving only the fireboxes casting their orange glow over the space. The groans and shouts of battered, bruised and shell-shocked ponies added to the hissing, crackling and constant pounding of the storm outside to create a cacophony of confusion. The whole vessel was rocking, hard, sending Summer toppling into an awkward fall, but she at least didn't go flying. With a bzzZZAPP, power wobbled through the ship... and died entirely, taking the lighting with it, leaving the eerie sky as unstable illumination through window panes now marred by snaking cracks. The airship stabilised for a moment; Azure opened her eyes again and noticed... 'Oh great, the power's already out. Not good.' "Bucking hay!" she said loudly, frustration evident in her voice as she grabbed onto the closest semi-solid thing around: a couch. Not the greatest thing, but something nonetheless. Poor life decisions? Check. "Shoot, shoot, I'm up..." Summer reassured herself as she wobbled to her feet; the deck had resumed its crazy tilting. "Is... The Storm Piercer must be failing!" she monologued. "I better get to the equipment room and see what's going on! I'm not going to just sit around if I can help in any way!" She raced off and out of the saloon while monologuing to herself, doing her best to gallop up the ramp to the tween deck and locate the relevant door despite the darkness, noise, pitching deck, sliding crates... all her obsessive memorisation was finally going to pay off! With the magical protection now gone, gale force winds swept across the deck of the Harmony, forcing everypony not strapped down to hang on for dear life lest they be tossed into the maelstrom. The ship slowly lost headway, lurching from side to side as full force of the storm battered the hull. With the airflow over the trim planes disrupted, the nose dipped down, beginning a slow descent into the depths of the unnatural storm. Back in the engine room, shouts and curses echoed in the darkness, as the crew picked themselves up and began to assess the damage. Nutmeg already knew what had to be done if they were to have any chance of saving the ship: "We've gotta get the power back, we need that Storm Piercer! Gearshift, cut the lines to that wreckage and splice the old generator into the main panel! Sparks, pull that charcoal out and get new fuses in, now! Divot, ready on the steam valves." The old steam-driven generator was a leftover from before the refit, when the ship was a cruiser in the Storm King's fleet. The fancy Canterlot engineers had deemed it crude, unreliable and underpowered and installed the magical plasma generator to replace it, but Nutmeg refused to let them toss out the old machine, no matter how much weight it would save. A single encounter with a blazing nirik had been enough to convince them, and now her instincts were paying off, as the clunky relic was they only hope of restoring power. In the saloon, Azure realised her bracing was futile. The couch started to tumble, forcing her to tuck her wings for a moment... but seeing Summer push through the panic and look for a way to help, it made her realise... hay, there were no mere passengers on this ship. Everyone had a job. A task to complete. The impact had been bad enough down in the hull, but surely the ponies up on the deck were faring even worse. Her thoughts went to the pegasi operating the Storm Piercer; they must be in rough shape, she thought. Pulling herself to her hooves, only a quick flap of her butterfly wings prevented the unicorn from toppling as the ship tilted yet again. Focusing her vision ahead, she pushed up the ramp towards the deck. Azure had spent a few hours trying to get used to the ship's layout; she wasn't as comfortable on board as Summer, but maybe just good enough? Summer herself had almost made it to the equipment bay. The violent turbulence and tossing deck weren't making her job any easier; she felt like hunkered down in a corner and bracing for the worst, but she wouldn't let herself get sucked out into the brilliant unknown without a fight! "Hnnnhh!" Too dazed to use her horn, the little unicorn grunted as she pushed herself against the heavy door, leaning in against it as the ship tilts, forcing it open and practically skidding into the compartment. Barely avoiding tumbling, she frantically assessed the scene. The space was packed with transformers, cables, spark gaps, rows of mysterious dials (many now cracked) and even stranger magical devices covered in runes and sigils. The smells of burned insulation and vomit competed with the tang of ozone to assault the sinuses. Blown fuses still smoked all over and residual magical charge pooled and sparked in the coils. The five pegasi here were in better shape than their comrades above, but they were still dazed and bruised, limping between the machinery and trying vainly to make sense of the readings. The sole unicorn seemed to be unconscious, smoke drifting from her horn; a young orange pegasus was cradling her head in his hooves and desperately asking her to wake up. On the deck above, Pearl Gleam was fighting to keep her footing as she pushed forward towards the bow: determined to help the pegasi there and get that blasted machine back on. Driven rain was soaking her coat and stinging her eyes; worse, it was slicking the deck enough that the earth pony was sliding back and forth even with her hooves planted. Somehow, she got to the bow, but before she could open the Storm Piercer's control cage, she glanced up and caught sight of something that made her blood chill. Movement below the ship... not just coloured phantasms, these were rocky shapes with ominous solidity. Desperately the grey mare whirled and tried to make it back to her captain, her shouts of warning inaudible in the storm. In the stern, the engineering crew fought with hornlight and head mounted lanterns to screw melted leads to new terminals, and divert steam away from the main engines, twisting open barely used, poorly oiled valves; when the ship wasn't tossing so hard that they were knocked right back off their hooves. Finally the old generator starts to chugg, hiss and whine, slowly coming to life; the overhead lights flickered and faded back on, light spreading throughout the ship as electrical power was restored. This was no end to the chaos though, because the propellers now fought with the turbines, starting and stopping as the powerful winds continued to toss the ship around like a toy. The whole frame creaked dangerously, audible even within the noisy, iron shielded engine room; Nutmeg had a sudden horrible vision of it becoming an iron shielded tomb, the only intact section after the ship was smashed against the jagged rocks below. Shaking her head to clear the grim image, she focused instead on the dials in front of her, which did nothing to improve her mood. "Why is the pressure building?!" Nutmeg demanded of the gauges, "The safety valves should have opened by now!" Rousing her crew once more, she shouted "Come on, we have to get those valves open or the boilers are gonna explode in our faces!" In the equipment bay things were slightly calmer but no less concerning. Summer Scribe's expression fell as she tried to make sense of the crazy mish-mash of unfamiliar devices. Just as she'd feared, the Storm Piercer had been hit hard and was in sorry shape. But what had happened, exactly...? She made her way over to one of the magical devices, closing her eyes and concentrating. Her horn tingled as she 'felt' out the layout of the spell, like it was a physical space to explore. The unicorn's nostrils twitched as she feels something uneasy, like a strange itch, a desire to sneeze. "Why would these runes form a short circuit? There's no reason to loop them back around..." she muttered to herself. "Oh, shoot, exactly! The spell got scrambled by the storm somehow!" She groped a little more intensively around that area, realising that the flow of magic is 'leaping' over the channels eroded and etched by the original enchanting. And it was like this all over! "What on Equus could make magic behave like this? Maybe... resetting it will restore the flow, set everything back the way it's meant to be?" Summer desperately hoped that would work, because if it didn't there was no way she could figure out how all of this worked before the ship was torn apart around her. Suddenly, something tapped her shoulder, causing her to spin around in fright. It was one the pegasi, a tan stallion with a bleeding gash across his muzzle and one wing hanging limp. "Miss, you said... you think you can fix this?" he asked, with the expression of a drowning pony grabbing at a life preserver. "Uh... maybe?" Summer responded, trying to push aside the queasy feeling of dread welling up in her. Was she really their only hope of fixing this thing? "I mean, sure! I'll try..." "Good! Great!" he replied "Give me a moment, I'll isolate the power and replace the fuses. You just... deal with the weird magic, somehow?" "Right! Let's do it!" Summer said, some of her enthusiasm starting to return now that she had an ally. The stallion limped over to the thickest patch of wiring, his muzzle dipping to grab spilled replacement fuses off the floor as he went. Summer turned back to the runes and with a supreme mental effort she blanked out the roaring wind, the tilting deck, the cries of the injured crew. Her horn lit and she focused on the flow of the magic, tracking back to the central nexus where all the spells were balanced and controlled. If she could channel this power into her own horn and then dissipate it, like a rudimentary countermagic, the whole thing should bottom out and re-settle... It felt electric and hot and her instincts fought against doing something she knew would entail intense pain. Meanwhile Azure Feather had made it onto the upper deck and was briefly stunned by the increase in noise and light, not to mention the stinging rain. She hadn't gotten everypony's name on the ship; everpony had been too busy preparing for the crossing for further introductions. But seeing one pony struggling to make it to the ship's captain made her decide: this was her cue. Spreading her wings for an extra push, she tried to dash over to Pearl Gleam, but her instincts betrayed her: the wild gusts grabbed at her wings and tossed her to the deck. In these wild atmospheric conditions they were doing more harm than good. Gritting her teeth, she folded them tightly against her back and pushed her way through the wind: head low, keeping three hooves on the deck at all times. At last she made it, but by the time her attention was back on Pearl... the other mare wasn't there, instead all she saw was a pair of dark grey hooves barely holding on to the railing! Azure's coat was soaked already, but now... no, as much as she wanted to, leaping off the ship to try and save the earth pony, while it would be heroic if she succeeded, would almost certainly end up stupid and leave them both dead. She wasn't a full Pegasus: these magical wings just weren't strong enough. All she could do was cry out "Mare overboard, mid-port side!!", hoping someone else could save the earth pony. She couldn't, anyway... At the helm, Polar Sky heard the cry and immediately sprang into action; he'd be damned if he was going to lose another crew member to this storm. Unfortunately just as he released the wheel, a particularly violent gust hit the Harmony, causing the airship to roll near thirty degrees to port before the heavy keel could pull it back level. On the rain-swept upper deck, the first mate's precarious grip on the railing gave way, and the grey earth pony was flung sideways into the storm. PEARL!" bellowed the captain, throwing caution to the literal wind as he dived off the deck. Before his wings were even half spread they caught the fierce wind, hurtling him forward over the railing. Both ponies were quickly lost to sight below the ship, their fate a mystery to those that remained. Mere seconds later an avian head poked out of the hatch, ear tufts flattened against his skull as the force of the storm hit him. The hippogriff stared wildly at the unmanned helm, the unconscious pegasi at the bow, and the... unicorn? Alicorn princess of butterflies? Changeling-pony hybrid? Whatever she was she was desperately clinging to some rigging and clearly in trouble. Blinking to dismiss the instinctive zoological curiosity, not to mention the water dripping into his eyes, Reef Skimmer dug his eagle talons into the wooden deck and made his way towards the unknown blue mare. In the engine room, Nutmeg Inferno was wielding her favourite tool: a giant wrench. Throwing her weight behind it, the stuck valve squealed and gave way, finally releasing the steam and briefly turning the engine room into a sauna. She backed up from the blasting valve wet, but none worse for wear. The kirin quickly shook herself out and cantering back to the main control console, wrench trailing behind in an orange magical glow. Once she reached the array of gauges she swung it around and leaned on it like a crutch, watching intently as the dials climbed and fall. "This doesn't make any sense..." she frowned. "It's just water and air. There's no power in it." "Chief!" one of her crew called out, an unlucky mare with an eyepatch, "Boiler temperature is climbing!" Divot announced, to which Nutmeg yelped "What?!", before leaping over to look at it. Falling hard on her side as the ship suddenly listed crazily to port, she struggled back to her hooves and kept going, until she reached the port boiler. Her brief hope for a broken gauge was dashed; the iron sides of the firebox were glowing a dangerous dull orange, and a quick glance at the starboard boiler confirmed that it was following close behind. "What in Equestria?" she remarked in disbelief, before ordering "C-cut off the vents!" "We can't let the engine die!" the stallion named Gearshift protested. "We just need to calibrate it." Nutmeg shouted back in what she hoped was a reassured tone. "But we can't get close-" he complained. Nutmeg cut him off "Right, got it."; they didn't have time for this. Wincing a little at the blistering heat, the kirin approached the firebox and used her wrench as a lever against the red-hot vent controls, the metal groaning as intake slits slide closed. She placed a cheek against the rivetted iron hull of the boiler, feeling the temperature, then closed another set of vents. Then she backed up, saying more quietly, "The temperature's dropping." The chief engineer didn't sound entirely confident that the situation was under control, but the alternative was the heart of the engine collapsing into a puddle of molten iron, so Nutmeg headed off to the starboard boiler to administer the same treatment there. Down in the equipment bay, Summer Scribe was fighting both the recalcitrant, alien magic and the bucking, rolling ship. If this went badly it could easily shatter her horn and leave her bereft of magic; if she even survived. Feeling the uncomfortable burning sensation build up and up in her horn, she kept herself at the task, knowing that the whole ship depended on her success. There was a hot magical HUMmm-vvv-zzzzzZAP that leapt to her horn as she broke the circuit for a split second, squealing in terror as her horn vibrated and her head swam. After what seemed like an eternity but couldn't have been more than a couple of seconds, the energy was gone, and she awkwardly folded back onto her rump. The runes flickered, dimmed and went out; the magic was purged. "There... Did it..." she shook her head, struggling against the smothering urge to pass out against the floor. "Erm, miss... should I turn it back on?" a distant voice asked. Summer started awake as she realised the job was still incomplete. "Yes! Please, yes, it has to work now! It has to!" she cried as her blurry vision tried to resolve the brown pegasus-shaped blob. Switches were thrown, the lights dimmed and flickered again... and then a constellation of glowing runes surged back to life, resuming their original vibrance. It was at that moment Summer realised she couldn't see because tears were streaming from her eyes; pain, exhausion, relief, joy; maybe all of the above? On the deck, the grey hippogriff had nearly reached Azure, body low to the deck, his claws scoring deep gashes in the planks. Talons were definitely helpful when it came to grip strength, Azure couldn't help but agree to that, but seeing the avian form energe from the hatch was something she hadn't expected at all! But while she still struggled to maintain her own grip, this griff likely had no idea what was going on. "Captain and an earth mare just went overboard..." she shouted, still struggling to be heard over the storm, "...can you handle the ship?" Her wings were still trying to provide assistance, instinctively, but it was a futile struggle, as she grunted "and... a little help here?" Reef Skimmer tilted his head, fixing the new mare with an aquiline stare. "One will... certainly do one's best." he yelled back, looking at the rigging behind her. The hippogriff was already struggling to hold himself steady on the deck with both claws, using one to grab the strange pony would make forward progress impossible without risking both of them getting blown away. Unless... there, that one would do. Naval training kicking in, he lunged past Azure and bit down on a loose rope, his sharp beak slicing through it after a couple of bites. There was no time for proper knots; lashing one end of the cut rope around his foreleg, he held the other end in front of the unicorn's face and shouted "Now grab this in your mouth and DON'T... LET... GO!" She complied, and the pair slowly made their way across the deck to the helm, where there are at least more railings and rigging to keep them in place. In the engine room, a strained conference was underway. "The backup gauge must have gotten skewed somehow," Gearshift shouted, squinting with Nutmeg at the console, "There's no way we'd be getting that much pressure with the valves open." "But that doesn't explain the firebox," Nutmeg replied, "It was like somepony was in there blowing on the coals." The stallion frowned. "And what's the deal with the electrical output?" he asked, gesturing a hoof at a dial that was dancing crazily. "That's... wait," Nutmeg began, then she looked up to the old piston generator with alarm, saying, "How much power are we putting through that thing?" "Not THAT much," Gearshift retorted. Nutmeg and her crew immediately converged on the backup generator. The poorly fastened leads still crackled with energy. "Pressure's normal!" Wild Spark yelled, watching the dials on the generator itself. Nutmeg joined her, peering at the apparatus and confirming, "The condensers aren't busted or the power would be lower." Just then the eyepatched mare comes charging up shouting, "Chief! Both fireboxes went out!" "Went out?!" Nutmeg exclaimed in utter consernation, "They were running hot!" "It just stopped!" Divot protested, "The walls were cool to the touch, like something sucked the fire right out of it!" "Oh, no..." Nutmeg said, stepping back from the old generator, and looking back at the giant boilers that supplied steam to everything in the room. Even as they all ran over there as if Hell was on their heels, the great turbines sang a descending note as they whined to a stop, leaving the ship's propellers to the mercy of the storm. Even worse, as the flow of steam to the generator ceased, the lights faded away and the power went out again. The only things that can be heard are the howling wind, the sound of crazily flapping canvas and rope, and ponies crying at each other in the distance, their words swallowed by the storm, as the ship drifted along in total darkness. At the helm, Reef Skimmer was struggling to read the instruments: the airspeed swung wildly and the needle of the altimeter was trembling with pressure fluctuations. "We're definitely losing altitude! I'll hold her steady, you dump the ballast!" he shouted back. The hippogriff grabbed the freely spinning wheel and tried to stop the ship's prow slewing about, but with the engines out the rudders were ineffective. Seeing Azure's blank look, he clarified "Those levers, to your left! Don't touch the chains... they're for the gas valves... I think." Azure followed orders without argument. This 'griff definitely knew what he was doing, as opposed to what she was doing. And with his guidance, goodness... part of her couldn't help but think, if he would have been at the helm, would things have been different? Better, she wondered? Turning to find the levers for the ballast valves, she tried to work them manually, but her physical strength wasn't much to speak of. Using the controls with telekinesis? That was another story. That is, until several impacts connected on the starboard and bow of the ship, disrupting her concentration mid-way through. "Bucking... we've got rocks impacting to starboard, near the bow I think! Take us out of here and I'll get the rest of the ballast!" Refocusing, she tried to just do her job... surely this griff could do the rest! Reef's eyes widened. "Rocks?!" He glanced back at the altimeter. "We're low, but we're not that low... wait, do you mean-" Whatever he might have said next was lost as a deafening splintering crash sounded from below. The ship bucked and shuddered again, the ship seeming to tremble with agony. "The debris zone! In the briefing, the captain said..." Another, smaller THUMP-crack-hiss sounded from below. The wheel jerked with each impacts and Reef almost lost his footing. Despite his efforts it didn't seem like he had any control over the ship; after another scan of the instruments, he finally realised the problem. The airscrews were showing zero revolutions, and without power the rudder was useless. Turning back to the unicorn, he shouted "Pony, we've lost all headway. The only way out is to lighten the ship, do you understand? If we don't climb, we'll be smashed to splinters! We've got to drop cargo, dump anything that we can heave overboard!" Looking at the scared, confused unicorn staring back at him, some vestige of his attempts at 'beside manner' returned. "Look, we can do this. You're... a powerful unicorn, I'm sure. I'll dump the rest of the ballast and stay on the helm: someone has to keep her steady if the engines come back. You... get down to the hold and toss the cargo. Are you with me?" Azure Feather leaned in close to the hippogriff and stated "If I'm not with you right this moment, we aren't even making it to the islands. You bet I'm with you." The tone in her voice was clear: she knew there was only one way through this. She ran for the hatch, ducking inside and spreading her wings as soon as she was clear of the gale. It wasn't hard to know where the darn cargo hold was: at the bottom, right where the crew had stowed her gear before her ill-timed outing with Summer Scribe. Flapping through the rolling corridors with not-quite-Pegasus skill (not quite a hippogriff's either), Azure went to start on her new mission... and at this point that was nothing less than saving the bloody ship. A brief, mad dash through the pitching corridors, dodging shifting crates and panicking ponies, and she'd arrived at the cargo hold. Now it was time for another round of magical exercise, but this time, there wasn't any resistance from machines, there wasn't anything but her and the cargo. Cargo that had to get off this ship to save lives. Crate after crate was taken with her purple aura, tossing them into the stormy skies; she knew that without most of this stuff, the best-case scenario was to be stranded on an uncharted piece of land, but that was still better than the current 'we're gonna crash into jagged rocks and die in a few minutes'. In the bow, despite the crashing impacts and shuddering deck, Summer Scribe still had to fight the urge to give into slumber. She shook her head and swallowed to clear the pressure-pain created by the ship's descent from her ears. "Rrrhh! C'mon, Scribe! We're still... drifting! Falling?" The magic seemed to be fixed, what else could she do? Did the pegasi controlling the machine realise what she'd done? Or maybe they were in bad shape like the crew here? "What am I even doing... Forget it! Figure it out on the way!" After that rousing pep-talk, Summer Scribe vigorously shook her head again and snorted, turning tail and feeling her way out of the equipment space. Time to make it above-deck and brave the elements! She couldn't rest now, not when there still might be something she could do! She'd barely made it into the tween deck corridor when a red-hot flying boulder burst through a porthole, bounced through a cabin and smashed into the corridor mere metres in front of her. "Arrgghh!" A scream ripped from the unicorn's throat and she instinctively curled into a defensive posture as she was blasted by splinters. Wincing hard, only the adrenalin kept her from wailing and collapsing into a heap. Shoot, the corridor in front of her's wasn't BLOCKED as such, a good leap could get over it, but it was boiling something fierce! She could see the wood already beginning to smoulder around the glowing rock; if only... Oh! Her eyes darted to a supply room beside her... "No way!" She leapt in and rummaged around... telekinetically pulling out a hose linked to a keg, she turned the valve, and sprayed sarsparilla all over the molten rock in front of her! Steam HISSED, making a hot clouds that carried away the heat, the rock finally cooling enough to stop glowing after she'd dumped an entire keg all on it. "HAH! I knew this would work as a fire extinguisher on an ACTUAL fire!" the little mare huffed and laughed. As soon as the passage was safe, she resumed her desperate ascent. In the dim light of the emergency lanterns, with shadows dancing all around the engine room, Nutmeg continued to struggle with the heart of the engine. With her and Gearshift both pulling, they managed to tear off a lever, opening the intake vents on the port firebox. "Great, just great," he griped, throwing away the useless lever. "I found the problem!" somepony else called out from over by the vents. As Nutmeg hurried over the pony explained, "See? The vents melted shut! You thought you were only closing half of them, but..." "You know what?" Nutmeg shouted over the noise with a forced smile, "This is fine. This is just great. Listen help me tear open these vents. We've gotta get airflow in there." Another pony was already there with some impressive looking pliers and a chisel. "You two, check the starboard side," the kirin barked, "probably needs the same treatment." The crew tore off the useless vent covers one after the other until Nutmeg growled, "Great! That's fine!". Save for Gearshift, her crew hurriedly backed away from the boilers. "Are you gonna...?" the stallion asked, worry covering his face. "Of course I'm gonna!" Nutmeg snapped at him, "And if you don't want a face full of it, then get outta my way!" He stumbled back too, and Nutmeg furiously stormed her way around the firebox, the door open to the piles of smouldering coal and ash inside. "You all know what to do!" the kirin shouted to her crew. With that she climbed in and pulled the door shut behind her. The firebox lit up with a purple glow, and soon hissing and pinging announced the boiler was making steam again. The great engines squealed and thrummed into life, while in the corner the old generator chugged and thumped, bringing light back to the ship. Outside, Reef Skimmer was still struggling to get some kind of control over the ship. Yes he knew the theory, he'd even taken the helm of an airship a few times before; in calm weather, on a normal ship, with an experienced captain ready to step in if he screwed up. At last the altimeter began to creep upwards again; Azure's efforts had dumped enough weight that even the new tears in the lifting gas envelope would not stop the ship from rising. The wheel seemed to be doing something now, as the propellers started turning and airflow returned to the control surfaces. Summer Scribe noticed the lights flickering back on as she makes her way up the last ramp, emerging onto the chaos of the top deck. 'Whew, great!' she thought, 'now if the power can STAY on this time, we might stand a chance!'. Rain-swept and staggered by the wind, she stumbled and struggled to adjust her stride in the soaking gale, before charging bravely ahead. The Storm Piercer controls were just up those steps; with any luck she'd be able to figure out what to do! Reaching the control cage, Summer looked over the quartet of unconscious pegasi with a frown. 'Out cold, figures...' A certain blue and cyan maned pegasus she'd met earlier was passed out in front of the densest cluster of controls. The unicorn placed hooves on his side and shook firmly! "C'mon, get up, Clashing! We need your help to make it through this!" Clashing Gale's eyes blinked open. "Who... what... what hap-happened" he mumbled as he struggled to stay lucid. His eyes closed for a few seconds, then with a supreme effort the stallion managed to speak loud enough for Summer Scribe to hear over the storm. His body shifted as he tried to get up, but he didn't have the strength. "Summer? I dont'... ugh, hurts so bad... not sure I'm gonna make it. What... what are you doing here?" "Doing my best to not crash the ship!" Summer tersely responded. She looked over the numerous controls: she knew ACADEMICALLY how it functioned, yes, but she wasn't licensed to operate this thing, and obviously hadn't had a chance to familiarise herself. "Just stay awake; tell me what to push and I'll push it! You can do it, Clashing Gale!" She looked over to the pegasus for guidance. "There, pull that to... charge the... that button will start..." His vision swimming, Clashing could see a fuzzy pony-like shape trying to comply with his instructions. "NO not that one... got to.. got to let it build slowly... then just... just keep those two needles in the grief... grease... green..." he slipped back into unconsciousness. Back in the engine room, Gearshift was now Acting Chief Engineer, as his boss had decided to be a bonfire for a while. "Oh fussbudgets!" he exclaimed, Nutmeg's wrench on his back now as he watched the pressure dropping again, "This time we DO have a leak. I just know it!" "Are you sure?" his cohort asked over his withers. "Chief Nutmeg is not gonna let that fire go out," Gearshift stated confidently, "There must be a leak in the pipes." The conversation was interrupted by the resounding clang of a rock slamming into the side of the metal bulwark around them. The ponies staggered on their feet, fighting to stay standing, as a one-eyed mare looked up at the noise and shouted sarcastically "Gee, I wonder why." And so a short search began: very short in fact because a burst pipe spraying forth burning hot steam is a very visible and noisy target. The engine room ponies crowded up near the leak, standing in the metal passage through the fuel bunkers, getting bathed in steam and coal dust. Behind Gearshift, somepony spoke up: "How are we gonna get close to it without the chief? The rest of us can't shrug off scalding steam!" "There's a shutoff valve on the other side," the stallion replied, "Hold on!" Then the earth pony charged forward, leaping through the hot steam, doing his best to avoid the blast, but crying out as his side is scalded in passing. "I'm okay!" he shouted back through the mist, before trapping the whole spigot in his wrench and making small slow turns, until the spray of steam died away. The crew moved forward then, and the hammering and emergency welding began. Down in the hold, Azure's efforts would continue until she was literally told otherwise! Cargo crate after crate... goodness, she would at least put a few boxes that held cans and jars aside... surely every creature deserved some kind of meal after this insanity...! She knew she did, at least... As far as everything else went, though... into Twilight's skies it went. By the time she was done, the only things left in the cargo hold were... edible. As best she could tell at least, she didn't exactly have time to unpack each crate before tossing it overboard. Everything else was now scattered to the wind... The butterfly-winged unicorn nodded and flew up, satisfied with her work. After all, stranded with food was one thing. Stranded without food? Entirely another... With a crackling hum the Storm Piercer sprung back into life, blasting away the wind and rain and cutting a channel of still air into the roiling chaos. Summer Scribe allowed herself a sigh of relief as the roar of the storm began to subside. Pulling levers, twisting dials, pressing buttons, harnessing all of the remaining willpower in her hammered shell to play a rousing game of 'Keep Talking And Nobody Crashes' with Clashing Gale. "OK, keep maintaining these dials, then... Hello? Oh no, that better have been it... c'mon... c'mon!" She focused intently on the needles, thinking 'green, come on, stay green'! The battered but intact EAS Harmony began to pick up speed, moving forward into the tunnel of safety. The bucking and rolling quickly subsided as the ship settled, much to the relief of its crew. Which is not to say things were smooth sailing; here the tunnel would flicker and threaten to collapse as the young unicorn desperately searched for the right control to correct it, there the ship came dangerously close to breaching the wall of the tunnel as its inexpert helmsgriff fought to get it back under control. These difficulties were trifles though, compared to the crisis had been met and surpassed. Nutmeg in the meantime was getting some kind of meal, as she bellowed out from the firebox, "MOAR COAL! FEED MY RAGE!", her exhausted crew doing their best to comply. Less than an hour later, the ship broke through the last grey cloud bank into the warm, clear skies on the other side of the storm wall. Arrayed ahead, as far as the eye could see, was an impossible floating archipelago. Floating islands as big as mountains, mixed with smaller cousins the size of towns, ringed by tiny islets that bobbed gently in the breeze, all half-veiled in wisps of soft white cloud. It was a riot of colour and texture in three dimensions, the climate and vegetation seeming to vary wildly between island groups. Summer Scribe let out a massive sigh of relief. It worked! They'd really done it! Realising there was nothing pressing left for her do, she let her magic flicker out. The blue unicorn took one last moment to absorb the view as Harmony left the storm behind, then her body caught up with her. "Made it..." she whispered, as the last of her adrenalin left her system. She wobbled to the side and collapsed into a heap, quickly losing consciousness. Azure had also returned to the upper deck, tired but still standing. With a sigh, she announced to nopony in particular "I... I really hope some creature finds us in this... this place. We made it... but unless we find something to fix the ship here... we're unlikely to make it back with all the cargo I had to toss. It was that... or we weren't making it at all, but..." She trailed off. Did she really do the right thing? And what about Pearl Gleam and the captain?" The beauteous visions of the Cloudbreak Islands were lost in the battered, smoking engine room. Forces beyond pony ken were at work there. As Nutmeg's angry screaming turned into angry pacing, then growling, she slowly, painfully ripped herself out of that rage. The nirik climbed out of the firebox at last, that dark fire flaring from her fitfully as her inky black hide returned to a soft brown and gold. She didn't usually have to hold it that long. Herself again at last, Nutmeg declared flatly, "Fireboxes are... lit." With that she sank to her belly, sobbing into her hooves, and her crew at last closed around her. Surrounding her, they held her and helped her up, with that same steady efficiency that indicated: maybe this wasn't the first time this happened. She was okay though. It didn't get... out of control.