//------------------------------//
// Doggy 
// Story: Expedition to the Cloudbreak Islands 
// by Starglider 
//------------------------------//

The copter whirred steadily across the sky; repaired, repainted (from black and red to electric cyan with purple highlights) and no longer the 'Wyvern's Sting'. It was now the 'Second Chance'; Nutmeg had proposed 'The Propeller Thingy', but Summer managed to overrule her before she could paint it on the hull. The weather was warm and dry again, although it seemed like it wouldn't be for much longer: the wind had picked up, intermittent gusts driving increasing numbers of clouds across the sky. It had been two days since the scouting party had visited Witchway Marsh and established contact with the gillman tribe there. Now the Equestrians were eager to return, each for a different reason.

Out on the front deck of the ship, manes tossing in the wind, were...



Summer Scribe, a young pale blue unicorn mare with a mane and tail in stripes of white and stronger blue, and a cutie mark of a stylus writing on a scroll. Originally a rising star in the Canterlot University history department, with her career only moderately encumbered by persistent rumours of risky and unprofessional methods behind the acquisition of the many new pieces she'd discovered. Since the crossing she'd been given a field promotion to both 'senior distinguished researcher' and 'senior diplomat', roles she was overjoyed to fill. Between mysterious ruined settlements, first contact with multiple new species, giant alien machines and whole new system of magic to investigate she was brimming with excitement and enthusiasm for their mission. Today she was focused on the promise of a ruined apothecary - what new magical secrets awaited them there? - though the notions of investigating the giant force field bubble and continuing to make friends among the fish creatures appealed as well.


Melonwater, an earth pony stallion in his late teens, with green fur and a pink mane and tail, and a cutie mark of a sliced open geode. An undergrad geology student, he didn't let his love of rock formations stop him from helping out in other areas, such as filling in as the expedition's cartographer. It had been a tough crossing for the research team, with the loss of several of their fellows and all of their leaders on the other airship still unaccounted for. Although initially horrified at the idea of Summer Scribe taking over, Melonwater had begun to warm to her leadership, even if it was still somewhat scatter-brained. His desire to see the impossible 'sky river' had trumped his fear of flying; he certainly wasn't taking the dangerous mission to impress a blue pegasus mare back at the ship, or so he told himself.


Set Sail, a brown pegasus mare with a blue and purple streaked mane and a cutie mark of three stylised hot-air balloons, usually found wearing a purple kerchief around her head. Formerly third mate and ballast engineer, Set Sail had found herself promoted to Captain after Polar Sky and the first mate Pearl Gleam were lost in the crossing, with the second mate still in the sickbay with multiple fractures. The sudden rise to command had been the last thing she'd wanted, but she was popular with the crew and had managed to struggle through despite the ponies finding the Cloudbreak Islands far from the peaceful deserted ruins they'd expected. After the drow incident she'd refused to send more creatures into harm's way without taking at least some risk herself, and had shared the negotiation with the fish creature's chieftess with Summer, at the cost of a panic attack afterwards. Content to leave the magical convent and its mysterious spirits to the unicorns, she would accompany Reef Skimmer and the engineers to continue improving relations with the gill men.


Crates of jungle apples, a recommendation for trade goods from the troll Abernathy, were stowed in the cargo well beneath their feet, along with some basic supplies. Sheltering in the enclosed cockpit amidships were...



Cloud Cutter, a purple pegasus mare with glowing white eyes and a cutie mark of a trisected cloud. This was her second time flying the commandeered craft, under more relaxed conditions this time than that first desperate escape from the pursuing drow. Originally a meteorological researcher, she'd become fascinated by the natural flow of magic through the land and skies of Equus, travelled to the badlands and beyond chasing her theories. She'd joined the Storm Piercer team as a way of getting on the Expedition, eager to find out if the Cloudbreak Islands were real and what kept them aloft and veiled behind an impossible permanent storm. She'd gotten more than she'd bargained for when the Harmony had hit the mysterious barrier at the centre of the storm wall: it still wasn't clear if she'd truly survived the incident. Now she had to grapple with the physical and metaphysical implications of being an unliving entity, while doing her best to help defend and support her fellow ponies. Today she would follow Summer Scribe to the 'haunted convent', and if she was lucky there might be answers there for her.


Azure Feather, a deep blue unicorn mare with a magenta mane and a cutie mark of a flying wand. As usual, she sported a double pair of butterfly wings, created by her signature spell. A member of the Twilight Guard, who'd served with distinction in the Lavender Blades, a unit well known for popping up in every corner of Equestria, ready to deal with unique threats and strange situations that the regular guard or local constabulary couldn't handle. Azure had worked her way up from private to sergeant before being quietly reassigned to the Cloudsbreak Expedition by Captain Gallus. Though a full squad of regular guards had been loaned to the expedition by Princess Twilight, the captain had reviewed the proposal and found it prudent to add some extra magical backup. Now with the lead airship gone, Azure found herself as the only representative of Equestria's military in the expedition, not to mention the first to demonstrate strange changes in her abilities due to the alien magic of the Cloudbreaks. She worried constantly about her ability to keep the crew safe; particularly on this latest mission with twice as many bodies to protect as before.

Below them, in the cramped and noisy engine bay in the centre of the hull, worked...


Nutmeg Inferno, a brown-furred, gold-scaled kirin mare. Chief Engineer of the EAS Harmony and leader of her own engineering company, it seemed she'd been somewhat surprised to find herself on an expedition to a near-mythical region in the furthest reaches of Equestria, rather than Klugetown. She'd been even more surprised to find herself venturing off the ship to repair fantastic, alien devices, and to be the subject of an attempted kidnapping by a purple dragoness that spewed lightning from her maw. The interloper had accused her of being a 'tech elemental', which might well have something to do with the torrent of new insights and ideas for inventions she'd been having recently, though the specifics remained elusive. For now Nutmeg was content to take the refurbished craft on its first real shakedown, after a quick test flight around Blissful Pastures. She'd heard that there were friendly creatures at their destination with a 'gun turret' that needed fixing, and that definitely sounded promising.


Gearshift, an earth pony stallion with a tan coat, a deep blue mane and a cutie mark of intermeshing gears. Second-in-command of the engineering team, he and Nutmeg went to school together, and he left his own job at a machine shop to join her when she set out to form her own company. He worries about her safety perhaps a little more than is called for, but ultimately respects her too much to hold back her free spirit. When Nutmeg was unable to back out of the contract to pony the expedition through the storm, he was more than happy to follow, and it helped that she insisted on hiring his sweethearts so they didn't have to leave each other. Standing at the side of his exotic friend, he had a nervous eye on the engines, still unsure about these burning crystals that powered the vessel, or the alien magic that flowed through them.


Lashed down on the fantail was the expedition's sole remaining two-pony cart, ready for use when they arrived. This left no room or payload allowance for a certain hippogriff, who was after all nearly twice Gearshift's height and about as heavy as the four mares combined, but he was content fly under his own power, pacing the ship fifty metres or so off the starboard bow:



Reef Skimmer, a chimeric combination of giant sea eagle and arabian horse, light grey save for his vivid pink crest and tail feathers. Junior surgeon in the hippogriff navy, on assignment to the Cloudsbreak Expedition via the officer exchange program. An amateur naturalist who was keen to study the unknown species of the floating archipelago, he's had to deal with mass injuries in the crossing, medically impossible purple pegasi, his oversize wings landing him the job of designated cart-pony and having to play equine psychiatrist despite being consistently baffled by pony body language. He was keen to return to Witchway Marsh, hopeful that he might have a treatment for the 'fin rot' the gill men all seemed to be suffering from.


Before them, the sky river slowly emerged from the drifting clouds, an impossible ribbon of water winding its way down from a floating mountain to end in a swamp-fringed lake, passing through two large islands and several smaller ones on the way. Cloud Cutter began to fly the copter in a sweeping arc around to the top of the third large island, hoping to avoid the notice of any gillmen below. From what they'd heard, the creatures rarely travelled to the third island save for when they had to hide from a drow raid in the 'water nexus'.





Down in the engine bay, a certain red-ruffed kirin said jovially to her partner in crime, “C’mon, we’ll be two seconds away from the engine,” poking his side with a golden yellow two toed hoof, “Don’t you wanna see what this place looks like already? I’m heading up top to take a looksee.” She stepped away from where they shared the one-pony monitoring station for the engine, crewed by two because good engineers never settle for merely adequate, and went trotting spryly away, her red tufted ropey tail the last thing to be seen as she climbed up the rickety steps and out into the sunlit sky.

As she exited onto the front deck she brushed up against Melonwater, who paid no notice, as he was staring transfixed at the scenery. "But that's impossible..." he mumbled, over and over "...the amount of mana it would take, just for this one river... uh gotta try that calculation again..."

Gearshift rubbed the back of his head with a nervous chuckle. "OK, ok. You're right, it won't blow up the moment I turn away from it." He just... wanted everything to go right on their maiden voyage! Well, okay, it was only a maiden voyage under the ship's new name. But he was still nervous and it was comforting to tend to the engine! He followed briskly in Nutmeg's wake, flincing and shielding his eyes briefly, before they adjusted to the outside light.

"You know, I still can't get over the fact that everything here flies. How much energy would you need just to defy the pull of gravity day in and day out? It keeps me up at night, you know..." He peered back over his shoulder - ok, engine still fine. whew! - and tried to keep himself distracted.

“I know... look how far away it is!” Nutmeg declared at the river flowing from the upper island, a glimmering ribbon of water high overhead, “And that’s a place where you can go? It’s like we’re looking up through the inside of a mountain, that a river was flowing around, except only the river and a few chunks of uh... mountain are left. You know?”

Gearshift chuckled at that! "It's so, well... My mind can't make heads or tails of it. It's pretty , how inscrutable it is. Like it defies your understanding on purpose to make you feel humbled." He gives a bit sigh at that, chuckling lightly.

That snapped Melonwater out of his trance, albeit briefly. "Huh! Now there's a theory." he smiled at the kirin "...removal of the physical matter of the original terrain, yet leaving behind an electromagnetic field that... hmm..." and he was spaced out again.

“You’re way too modest, Gear,” Nutmeg said with a laugh, “I bet you could whip up one of these in no time flat. Just get your old... floaty riverifier, and your mountain disapperifier and bam!” Her bountiful ears went down though, as she concluded gazing upwards, “There’s so much we don’t know... things we just have to accept because they’re right there in front of us. But you know, maybe we don’t have to understand it. I think we should just... live with crazy floating rivers and focus on what we can understand. Like massively endothermic fire crystals.”

Gearshift laughed: okay, that's some good engineer humour. "Yep! If it's part of a closed system of energy, then I can reason about that all day long. Thanks, Nutmeg."

Azure was in the cockpit with Cloud Cutter, doing her best to help and relieved that the aircraft seemed to be functioning better than on their first desperate flight. "Tell you what, this is a heck of a better ship after Nutmeg's worked on it, hmm? Also helps a lot we've actually taken care of it and especially that I'm not driving..."

“It’s definitely something,” Cloud Cutter replied, her hooves on the controls, her glowing white eyes staring into the distance. “The copter feels like it handles better than before. We studied them in aeronautics of course, but I’ve never actually piloted one before. Honestly I am mystified why the others think I should be the one to pilot.”

Summer Scribe pumped a hoof in a response to Azure! "Isn't this super cool? Like, we can just have a mini-airship now!" She grinned broadly! "I don't know how long this would have taken to make from scratch! It's more than just a silver lining, it's practically glowing incandescent! My compliments to the chief engineer, for sure!" She chuckled as she peered between Cloud Cutter and Azure, feeling a bit relieved that she missed out on the whole commandeering an enemy ship adventure. Hmm!





The peanut-shaped island was about eight kilometres on the long axis, split into two levels separated by dramatic cliffs and rock screes with a combined drop of nearly a kilometre. Along one side flowed the river, cascading through a vast series of rapids and waterfalls, with a series of locks cut alongside to allow the gillman boats to navigate down. Through the cliffs themselves a narrow track wended its way through a dozen switchbacks to provide a land route between the two plateaus.

Both plateaus were covered in dense forest, the upper one broken by the regular forms of huge rectangular buildings placed in a tight group in the middle of the woods, while the lower was dominated by the shimmering surface of the bubble, over a kilometre in diameter. There were hints of smaller structures, in a group some way from the main complex, but they were barely visible through the branches.

In any case Cloud Cutter's target was clear; a substantial set of air docks build on the far edge of the upper plateau, out of sight of the rest of the sky river. The wooden piers that had once jutted out into the sky had rotted and crumbled away, but there was more than enough room on the stone quay for the relatively small copter. The purple pegasus brought the copter down with a moderate 'thump' and closed the throttle, leaving the rotors to slowly wind down. As the ponies began to disembark, Reef Skimmer the hippogriff glided down to hover over the stern and began unloading the cart, which would ferry Nutmeg and Gearshift to the gillman village.

Set Sail helped unload the cart, heaving it off the edge of the ship so Reef could drag it down to the ground. The wheels landed with a soft crump, begging the question why does this cart have wheels at all? She didn't concern herself much with it, conferring with Nutmeg to make sure they had everything as Gearshift tossed the tools they'd need into the cart, including a certain kirin's favourite six foot long adjustable wrench. “Yes I'm sure I remembered everything,” Nutmeg said with a roll of her eyes, “We won't know what supplies we're gonna need until we take a look at it.”

"Yes yes," Gearshift said absently as tools went flying in neat arcs, landing in a remarkably neat pile. "So that's why we need to take everything."

"One is certainly glad it's a short flight to the village." Reef said, eyeing the growing heap. "Nutmeg, is there something you can do to preclude the possibility of some random fish creature flying off with our ship? Jigger the engines in some way only we can unjigger, or some such." he suggested, making a vague gesture with one claw.

“Oh, good idea, I’ll go take care of that,” Nutmeg said, toppling Gearshift’s neat pile of stuff as she levitated her wrench out of it. Then she bounced down into the engine room.

Reef Skimmer stared at the pile, sighing. "Steady on there Steer Shift, not sure what's going to break first, my back or the cart. You do realise we can always make another trip if you find yourself missing something?" He began strapping himself into the harness with a resigned air.

Gearshift looked horrified as his perfectly organised pile was ruining: now they’d never find the number 37 hex driver, just when they need it most! He hung his head and groaned. He managed to ignore his instinct to reorganise it from scratch: he really needed accompany Nutmeg and make sure she didn't do anything too drastic.

Melonwater was, as expected, wandering around examining the construction of the docks, staying as far away from the edge and the yawning drop into the sky as he could. They were a grander affair than the one back on Abernathy's island; rectangles of stone outlined where small warehouses might have stood, though the structures themselves had long since gone.

Summer Scribe trotted over to accompany the earth pony while they waited to set off, curious as to his observations. "It sure looks like everything here's built on ancient history, doesn't it? Like different folks used the islands over the years. Do you think maybe the positions island shift in comparison to each other over time?"

Melonwater jumped up and stared wildly around before realising that it was just Summer; it seemed the long trip in the noisy copter had left him on edge. "Oh, Summer, uh... yeah! Yeah that seems likely doesn't it, do you think they ever collide? I suppose we could ask the natives..." he said, his expression implying that it would be best if somepony else did the asking. 

Summer Scribe chuckled lightly. "Yeah, sure, when I get time! It is a bit more esoteric, and we have more pressing concerns right now: like making good on our promises to the gillmen! If we can't make friends with them, then it's a poor tiding!"

Nutmeg and Gearshift eventually re-emerged, and Gearshift assured Set Sail that the ship was most certainly not rigged to explode. Then with Reef Skimmer hitched to the cart loaded up with Nutmeg, Gearshift, and way too many tools for the job, they went soaring off into the sky, heading for the gillman village on the second island. They could only assume repairing the 'turret' would put the fishy bipeds in a better defensive position against the drow, and win them some favour in the process.

Watching them flap away, Cloud Cutter remarked unappreciatively, "They don't have a ghost of a chance." Then she looked back at the four ponies remaining, saying, "Fortunately, we do."

Azure chuckles a little at Cloud Cutter's attempts at levity - it was good to see her lighten up a bit. "With Summer and Melonwater here, yeah, we'll be fine. Not to mention we're pretty good in a fight, you and I."





The way forwards was obvious; a wide avenue paved with worn stone flags, leading away from the dock and winding lazily through the forest. The weeds poking up through the cracks between the stones made it clear it no longer saw traffic, but something had prevented nature from completely reclaiming the road despite supposedly being abandoned for centuries. This was emphasised when, perhaps half way from the dock to the main compound, Summer spotted a stone archway to one side of the road.

Beyond was a side path leading away into the woods, thoroughly overgrown and barely visible in the undergrowth, while the arch itself was crowned with a petrified wooden sign carved with several native runes. Summer couldn't translate them, but it very much reminded her of the entrance to the ruined mabu village, back on Blissful Pastures. On the opposite side another trail lead off towards the cliffs and presumably the water nexus, marked only by a couple of fossilised wooden posts.

Summer Scribe perked up, waving the party over. "This looks like it's worth a quick check-out!" She sweatdropped, having big ambitions as always, but admitting: "Obviously not a full archaeological dig right now. But I'd love to get the lay of the land and figure out if it's worth a second look later!"

"It's strange though," Cloud Cutter said, peering at the wooden sign with even less understanding than Summer. "They didn't say anything about this. Only that there had been a potion operation of some sort, up on the high cliffs. I assume said cliffs would be that way," She briefly pointed one purple wing at the trail heading toward the drop off, then looked at the archway again. "I wonder what this place could be. Could it be part of the convent, somehow? Or maybe this is one of the warning signs he talked about."

Melonwater tapped one of the causway's flagstones with a hoof. "Must be a solid sub-base on this, to resist subsidence for so long." Glancing over to the spooky pegasus and trying not to shiver, he said "Somepony built this road to move heavy things from the big buildings to the docks, no other reason to go to all the trouble. Those side trails, they look like they've only seen hoof traffic."

"One thing's for darn sure up here." Azure remarked, giving a wary look at the sign. "Short of that drow island? This is probably the most hostile place we've been yet. Keep your guard up."

Summer Scribe nodded in agreement to Azure: "I hope we don't get attacked here, but the possibility's on the table." She looked at Cloud Cutter. "Hmm, can you clear the foilage out? Path's a bit overgrown."

“Stay clear of me, just in case,” Cloud Cutter said with worry at Azure’s warning, taking a few steps from the others, “I don’t know what happens exactly, but the last time I was attacked I... just don’t get close to me.”

"Understood, Cloud Cutter... as far as clearing the foliage, leave that to me... air blades should care of this stuff in quick order." Azure nodded, stepping up. "So the village first, then the cliffs?" she confirmed, not wanting to spend more of her magic than she immediately had to. A tired mage in a fight, not so much use...

Summer Scribe, for her part, was very ready to give Cloud Cutter all the space she needed. "You got it!"

Azure nodded, trying to go a step further with her casting... could she maybe create a solid blade of wind to use multiple times instead of just casting the same spell over and over again? Seemed like it would be a heck of a lot more efficient...

The winged unicorn lowered her head, pointing her horn at the space beyond the stone archway. Energy swirled around her horn, surrounding her with gusts that stir up leaves from the path, before shooting forward as a now-familiar blade of air elemental magic. This time though it flew 10 metres forward then froze in mid air, shifting and shimmering, twisting in Azure's magical grip. She was trying to hold the thing as if it was a conventional blade she would wield telekinetically, but the phantom construct felt insubstantial and slippery in her grasp. Furrowing her brows in concentration, she was able to slash it once, twice, three times up and down the path, scything down ferns and bracken, before with a loud pop the wind blade shattered, creating a tiny tornado amongst the trees for a few seconds before the energy dissipated. 

Summer Scribe gaped, as her mane flowed around from the incidental breeze, watching that wind cutter just... freeze in mid air, like it was held telekinetically. "Cooool..." She gawked, wide eyed and open mouthed, as it gets wielded as though a melee weapon in a dance of destruction. "I hope that wasn't too much effort for you, Azure, but that was awesome! Have you been practicing?"

Unlike the previous times she'd used the 'wind blade' spell as an attack, this seemed to actually take significant effort, to the point that after that first cast, she shook her head. "Okay... no idea how far we're going here, but there's no way that I can keep that up for miles. I'll go standard from here." Taking a few seconds to regain her composure, she continued at a slower pace, firing off the lightest blasts she could that would still clear the way. "My old Lieutenant would have loved that wind sword, though..." she mused.

Not to say Cloud Cutter was envious or anything, but she watched enviously at the unicorn's skilful mastery of magic. If only. "You know what you're doing," she said following placidly along behind, "Just lead the way. Unless Summer knows better spells for clearing a path."

Melonwater trotted along behind the unicorn, flinching only slightly each time she fired off a blast to clear the next section of path. "That's so cool, Azure! This is gonna go so much faster than last time."





Indeed, it was only ten minutes and two dozen air blades before the four ponies reached their destination: what had once been a large clearing in the woods, now just a less dense section dotted with the tumbled down remains of small buildings. The settlement was of a similar size to its twin on Blissful Pastures, but in even worse shape. The houses had used more wood and less stone in their construction, and in many cases just the outline of the foundations remained.

In one corner stood a stone plinth or altar, smaller and simpler than the shrine Summer had seen before, but carved with the same ten elemental symbols around its perimeter. The tiled roof over the little structure was bowed and splintered and looked ready to collapse any moment.

By the end of the trail, though, Azure looked a little fatigued, chuckling as she looked to Summer. "I haven't really practiced outside of the fights with the chompies and the drow. I really should though if my skill's going to keep up with my creativity... oof, that first spell wasn't a good idea in retrospect." she muttered. "Best if Cloud Cutter or somepony else takes the next clearing. Gotta be ready for a fight."

“Just another ruined village, it figures,” Cloud Cutter said dismissively, her fluffy ears expressing irritation. “With another one of those strange altars in it. Does anything jump out at you, Summer? If not, we probably should get on our way. You’ll want to gather a team to go over the site more carefully later, I assume.”

Summer Scribe peered around: as the stone altar was the most sturdy thing around, it got her initial attention. "Looks like another shrine to the ten elements," she nodded her head. "Seems to have about the same stuff as the last village, but let me do a quick check first..." She closed her eyes, her horn shimmering before releasing a wave of magical energy, searching for the tingle of any latent magic nearby, or just the way metals interact with magical fields when pinged.

Tiny chiming tones emanated from several places around the ruins, as the blue unicorn's arcane pulse reveals... something, small and buried in the dirt amidst the remains of the houses.

"Uh, Summer, you know I heard that spell can set off any unstable magic-leaking artefacts that somepony might've left lying around? You know that, right?" Melonwater said nervously, before wandering over to one of the houses and poking at the dirt with a hoof.

That one didn't sit too well with Azure, who looked to Summer. "Um... you have any idea what you're finding there? I know a scanning spell when I see one, but uh..." she glanced at Melonwater. If there was any proof to what was just said...

Summer Scribe nodded her head. "Yeah, I know! This is my area of expertise! You gotta give it the long, medium and short range scans first to see if it's about to blow up before unearthing it." She summarily trotted over to a house, like she knew what she was doing. Scanning again: ping. Stepping to the doorway of the house: ping. Then delicately pulling the dirt aside to unearth...

It was a small, rectangular brass plaque, the size of a library card, embossed with a line of native runes. A faint magic clung to the metal, but there was no immediate clue as to its function. Melonwater's find was similar, hidden under a rotten wooden ladle, and a quick trot round the village turned up several more of the artefacts, along with a fair amount of loose change.

Cloud Cutter found herself distinctly out of place here. She did however stand aside and smile a bit at the enthusiastic archaeology ponies going about their trade.

Azure looked quite impressed at the description of the scans and their nature, even more so with the finds! "Goodness, I'll sleep less stupid tonight after learning this..." She looked even happier as she noticed some currency among the finds. "You three are pretty darn good ponies to be around, you know that?"

If there was anything else of interest to find in the ruined houses, it would require a full-on dig site. Summer decided to give the little shrine another quick look before moving on. She was trotting over to it when, from somewhere not too far away, came a loud, canine "Arroooo!" followed by barking, panting and the distinctive sound of undergrowth being smashed to splinters as something large and heavy barrelled through the forest. Melonwater leapt clear off the ground, staring into the trees and shouting "What... what's that?!"

His question was answered seconds later when a huge bulky creature burst into view, a clumsy lump of grey and green as big as a grizzly bear. The creature had a vaguely canine body-plan, but its flesh was green and smooth like a chompy, in the few places where it showed between the thick stone plates covering the beast's body. Tufts of grass poked out of its head and neck, giving the impression of a mane, while a single flower grew out of the top of its head. The thing skidded to a stop, boulder-like paws digging furrows in the earth, and stared at the ponies. Then it opened its oversized jaws, slobber dripping out between its thorn-like teeth, and let out a low growl.

"Alright, nice find! We'll have to figure out what these are for later..." Summer had stowed the plaque in her saddlebag, before freezing at the howls and the heavy movements. One look at the monster and she was dashing for cover, quick as she could... which meant Azure! "Umm, help!" the little unicorn pleaded, turning back to gawk at what, to her, looked like an advanced cousin of the regular Chompy! "Ugh, they come in extra large too!"

For her part, Azure stumbled back seeing the massive creature before them. "Big, canine, and covered in stone plates... oof, this is not a good fight for me..." she muttered, before looking over to Cloud Cutter. "Best I can do is a distraction, fly around and hope this thing is as stupid as it looks. Think you can take this thing?" she asked, looking quite concerned.

Cloud Cutter had leapt back into the air the moment the huge creature... thing charged into the cleared area. Then she noticed Azure's more level-headed response and replies, a little shaken: "I really don't know. There isn't enough room to pick up speed under the trees here. My blade instructor said never get in close if you can't get enough speed. That thing could eat me in one bite!"

"Mine!" bellowed the creature. "Mine!" It looked at the startled Summer, then at Cloud Cutter hovering above, rocky brows furrowing as if confused. "Deer? Bird?" Focusing on the unicorn, it shouted "Tasty tasty!" in a gleeful tone before lumbering forward, mouth open.

"Mine? WHAT'S yours? And we are NOT food!" Summer yelled back. That's pretty much all it took for her to not be on good terms, of course! She backed off, turning to flee and reaching a full gallop in no time. The moment she slowed down she was chompy chow, but she could at least be a distraction for the two better fighters - if she didn't come up with anything herself!

Azure nodded to the purple pegasus, then looked up... only to hear the creature actually speak. Oh, hay: it wasn't quite as dumb as it looked. "You've got the sky... and you've got... your other powers! I still don't know exactly what they are, but they gotta do something...! We'll distract the thing - you do what you have to!" Significantly less confidence and calmness there. Uh oh.

The creature had the agility of a rolling boulder, but its stumpy legs carried it surprisingly quickly, and it just crashed through bushes and wreckage that Summer had to twist around. With no clear space to gallop in, it seemed like only a matter of time before the snapping jaws of the beast caught up with the little mare.

"A little help, here!" Summer Scribe called out nervously! The way it crashed through anything in its path, there was nothing to put between her and her pursuer to gain ground with, so it was just a matter of time! Gulp...

"They— they— alright!" Cloud Cutter called out, watching helplessly as the unicorn fled the savage beast. Why wasn’t she doing the... whatever it is she does? For a few seconds all she could do was hover in place, as if she was frozen with fear. Then she dove at the creature, taking advantage of its fixation in the unicorn to land on its back. The beast reared up as the pegasus squeezed her eyes shut and a little flash of purple light just burst out from her in all directions. It was enough to get the beast to roar in pain and devote all its attention to the pegasus pony, who crashed to the ground on her side, trying to rise quickly enough to spread her wings as the thing opened its yawning maw and lunged at her.

Azure Feather recalled all those times Cloud Cutter had told the squad about staying clear when it came time for her to attack... but seeing her ally injured, seconds away from being monster-chow, she had to act. She took aim at the creature's face and let fly with another wind blade: anything she could do to just distract the darn thing from its prey!

Summer Scribe was thinking along the same lines; she probably couldn't do much to really hurt the beast, but now that she'd escaped mortal peril (however temporarily), she could at least aspire to being annoying! The unicorn levitated a nice chunk of rock from the ground and lobbed it at the super-chompy! "Take that, you brute!" Without waiting to gauge its reaction, she went right back to galloping away as fast as she could.

The wind blade sprang from Azure's horn and nailed the plant beast right in the snout. It yelped and recoiled, head swinging around as it searched for the source of the attack, ignoring its prey for a moment. That left it unprepared for the rock that clouted it in the side of the head, resounding with a sharp crack against the creature's own sandstone plating. Unfortunately it seemed more enraged and confused than injured. 

That gave Cloud Cutter a moment to get away at least; she launched back into the air and flew up out of its reach; assuming the beast didn't have projectile attacks. "I'm so sorry!" she called down, looking between her two saviours, once again wracked with uncertainty.

The slobbering plant-canine let out another blood-curdling howl. "Hurt! Not Fair! Bad Food!" it shouted, turning clumsily in place until it spotted Melonwater, who'd frozen in horror as he watched Cloud Cutter nearly being devoured. 

"Do what you can!" Azure called out to her ally before casting another wind blade at the creature's face, trying to blind it, before looking to Summer Scribe. "Are you alright Summer?" she shouted, before noticing the stunned Melonwater... oh goodness... "Move!!"

“Just a sec!” Cloud Cutter called back in frustration, staring forward intently with those blank white eyes, "It... it takes a while!”

"Yeah, no problem..." Summer reassured her, looking back to see... "Oh, shoot! Melonwater, look out!" The little unicorn changed course, looping around to rush past Melonwater, giving him a little bump to help coax him onto his feet! "Hurry, follow me!"

Melonwater stared, wide-eyed, at Azure for just a second before Summer literally knocked some sense into him. He turned tail and galloped after Summer, his short legs and lower agility making it hard to keep up with her.

Azure facehooved. The chompy-dog-thing was after them again, and there was no way Melonwater would escape... wait... of course. Her favourite spell wasn't just for her... he'd never tried it before, but there was no choice. Trusting her friend could keep running at least for a short time, she soon focused on the stallion... "Time to greet the skies, Melonwater!" She cried out, trying to give her ally wings... that would get him into the clear, right?

"What?" yelled Melonwater hysterically, looking over his shoulder just in time to see a burst of light from Azure's horn form into swirling ribbons that leap to his back and solidify into butterfly wings. In an utter, bleating panic, the stallion buzzed his new appendages in an uncoordinated frenzy. With the slobber beast only a body length away from chomping him, the earth pony lifted off into the air and went tumbling wildly across the clearing, veering drunkenly through the trees before crashing into the branches overhead. His wings immediately popped into twinkling motes of light, leaving the green earth pony clinging desperately to one of the sturdier branches, high above the ground.



The plant creature stared at its prey's strange transformation, fascinated even as it kept running blindly ahead. "Uh? Fly? What? Come down!" Distracted, it didn't see the oncoming tree; it slammed head first into the trunk, coming to a halt and dropping to its haunches, a dazed expression on its face. The impact was too much for the tree, which cracked, creaked and split, falling down in a crash of broken branches.

Summer Scribe gawked as Melonwater took flight! "Yeah! Nice save, Azure - wait, look out for that tree!" - Crash, wince, "Oh no, Melonwater!" Her eyes widened as the big dog-Chompy crashed nearby! "Oh no, Melonwater!!" Deep in concern, she rushed over: he probably needed rescuing! ... Again!

Overhead, Cloud Cutter wasn't just flying now. Eerie white motes swirled around her as her form began to glow with a foreboding violet light, crawling over her body like tongues of ethereal flame. Her eyes had transformed into gateways to the everlasting nothing.

Azure had already charged up another Skyborn spell for Summer Scribe which she soon released, but she couldn't keep her eyes away from Cloud Cutter and her strange magic. By Celestia... that must be her element, and it was unlike anything she'd seen before. Spooky pony? Right in this second, yeah, Cloud Cutter was looking like quite the threat to anything that lived.

Concern for her friend overriding all other concerns, Azure Feather cast the magic wings spell again; the first time she'd ever tried to cast it three times in one morning. The ribbons of light appeared again, this time homing in on Summer Scribe and granting her the gift of flight for the first time since their mad dash to catch up with the departing Harmony, back in Vanhoover. Azure smiled at the success of her spell, before immediately grimacing. Her horn felt like it was ice cold and burning hot at the same time, while her brain pounded in her skull as the magic drain gave her a splitting headache.

Meanwhile the slobbering plant beast had struggled back to its feet. The plating on its snout was cracked and its eyes stared in random directions as its tiny confused brain tried to work out what was going on. 

Summer Scribe perked up as she's bewinged. "Thanks, Azure!" she called out... but she was concerned for Azure's magical wellbeing. She thought the other unicorn would know her limits! But there was no time to check on that right now. Summer floated up, as gracefully as she could given her panicked state, and grabbed Melonwater, ready to descend as soon as the beast was dealt with.

Even the sight Cloud Cutter's lightshow made her eyes hurt. Grunting in pain, Azure nodded weakly to Summer before trying to ignore the pain and pay close attention to Cloud Cutter's strike. She'd definitely overdone it with the magic this time.

Cloud Cutter was not even flapping her wings anymore. She descended to the earth in front the creature, tendrils of purple light licking up her hooves as they touched the soil. The slobbering beast faced her, and... did not charge. Its tiny brain tried to understand what it was feeling, this desire to somehow run backwards. Cloud Cutter scraped a hoof, then charged, galloping at the big bulky creature which just stared at her with dull eyes. Its assumption that its armour would never fail left it an easy target; it opened its mouth to devour her, the only thing it knew, as she leaped directly to her doom and then-

A flash. Not so much a flash: a break. As if the world around her itself was shattering into a coursing violet light. Hard to watch, hard to even see, it burst out from her almost faster than the eye could follow, and then the pegasus was gone. Well, half gone. The front half of her was entirely in the creature’s gullet. It didn’t chomp her though. It didn’t do anything anymore. The red and yellow flower atop its head had shriveled, the verdant greenery brown and dead. It looked more like a pile of packed mud in the shape of a creature, cracked and ready to crumble away.

Cloud Cutter wiggled her hind legs ineffectually.

Seeing the threat neutralised, Summer was finally able to bring her research assistant back to the earth. Melonwater's eyes were screwed tight shut as he clung to the branch, all four legs wrapped around it, body quivering. Summer had to touch a hoof gently to his shoulder and spend some time reassuring him before he'd consider letting go. "How... how... do you... make that... look so... easy?" he asked, still hyperventilating.

"Presence of mind. Gotta be ready to do anything on the spot; even if it's use limbs you didn't know you had." She clutches Melonwater comfortingly, trying to take her down to the ground below in a gentle descent. The 'lowering gently' part proved a little harder than she expected, as Melonwater was surprisingly heavy. Fortunately her frantic fluttering mostly arrested their descent and neither of them were seriously injured in the ensuing crash, which left the bewinged Summer sprawled on top of the collapsed form of the young stallion, both panting and shaking with exhaustion as the adrenalin drained away.

"Geez, what in Celestia's name just happened? It's like everything around Cloud Cutter just... decided being alive wasn't such a good idea." Summer Scribe comfortingly cuddled with Melonwater after that near crash landing, lungs heavy in a sigh of exasperation and relief. It looked like the threat was gone; they were all exhausted, but no one was seriously injured! As long as Cloud Cutter wasn't, like... doubly spooky after doing that.

'The light just happens and... Cloud Cutter kills things' Azure thought. Something that looked so fearsome and... deadly and the purple pegasus just... literally took its life energy. Azure was left just shaking her head slowly after seeing that display, nodding at Summer's words. "I don't know about you, but that... that was special, what we just saw. That... now I understand why Cloud Cutter said to get away... I think... I think that energy doesn't care who it hits... come on, we gotta get her out of there..."

Cloud Cutter once again wiggled her hind legs, but didn't seem to be able to get enough purchase to pull herself out, then went limp again.

"Uh, wow... that was... that was terrifying." Melonwater said, still trembling. "I thought the chompies were bad, but.... I'm sorry, Summer. I should've stayed behind."

Summer Scribe huuuuged Melonwater. "It's scary for all of us. But ponies can do anything together!" She smiled... and peered over at Cloud Cutter. "...I think she needs help. Hang on." Summer was still feeling a bit exhausted, but she managed to trot over and brace herself against the ground, grabbing around Cloud Cutter's hindlegs and... yank!

Azure was darn well worn out too, judging from her slow pace as she headed over to the remains of the creature, but if Summer was taking care of getting Cloud Cutter out... then Azure would do what she could to help her friend afterwards...

As soon as Summer Scribe came into contact with Cloud Cutter's purple hind legs, absolutely nothing special or supernatural happened: they felt pretty much like ordinary pony hind legs. There wasn't much resistance to pulling her out, as it was more an issue of leverage than anything, and soon the pegasus was sliding out of the maw, while crumbling bits of... monster sifted off her. “Thank you,” she said, standing by the creature and shaking the dust out of her mane and wings. Regarding the crumbled shell of a creature, she said uncertainly, “Well, that... worked.”

"Sure did!" Summer Scribe nervously chuckled. "What exactly was... all that?" She tilted her head, puzzled. "Was that a... Spooky Element thing you can do?"

Azure was soon looking right at Cloud Cutter, and clearly is stopping herself from saying a few things. Awesome job, you saved us? No. Comments about her powers? No... hay, Summer Scribe's done that one. No... all Azure could do was to nod her approval and let the pegasus know that she'll stand by her no matter what.

"I don't know," the pegasus replied, looking at Summer inscrutably, then turning her nose down, repeating, "I don't know. It must be the Undead element they have here, but I don't know why it... happens that way for me. None of the others have... things happening to them." She gave Summer and Azure a hollow smile, before continuing, "Anyway the point is: it's dead, and you pulled me out, so we're all okay." Lifting a hoof to her chin to frown in thought, she added, "Though I suppose you could have left me in there. It would have saved a lot on funeral costs."