//------------------------------//
// Traveling Through The Tempest Turns Terribly Troubling 
// Story: My Little Pony: Magic is Everywhere 
// by ayh 
//------------------------------//

The assembled ponies, and one dragon, looked on with shock at the stallion before them. From his exposed head, they could see his light blue fur and messy green mane, but the rest of him was obscured by the thick diving-like suit that he wore. Thick canvas-textured material with spell arrays woven into the cloth covered his entire body, with hard steel bands wrapping around his legs and barrel. A heavy brass-colored metal collar encircled his neck where one could see the connecting groves for a helmet.

Looking from the stallion to the pile of garments he had tossed into the middle of the group, every being there could see that they were all similar suits to his own.

“If you need help suiting up, just let anypony know,” the crew member stated with a nod of his head. “But you better do it soon, the Captain will be going over everypony’s duties in 20 minutes.”

Gulping down her fear, Applejack took a deep breath and stood tall. Her years of looking after others driving down her growing panic at being told that she would be going out into an actual tempest. Stepping protectively in front of everypony else, she poked at the bulky pile and placed a hoof under one of the iron boot coverings to test its weight. “Won’t it be a bit hard to move around in these suits?” she frowned as the heavy boot dropped down with a thud. “Carrot and I could probably handle this, though I’d like to check out the helmets as well, but I doubt Twilight here could deal with the weight; no offense Twilight.” Applejack apologized to the small mare.

Shaking her head, Twilight agreed with Applejack’s assessment.

“And I don’t think you’ve got something that’ll fit Spike here either,” she continued shifting through the pile.

Looking over Spike, the crew member tilted his head as he considered the young dragon before him. “Yeah, I doubt he’d be able to fill out the minotaur suit we have. Captain Wind Speed will probably just have him working at the engines or someplace else inside, lucky bugger.”

Feeling a leg wrap around his shoulders, Spike looked to see Twilight smile supportively at him. Feeling some comfort knowing that he wouldn’t be in the actual tempest itself, he heaved a small sigh of relief.

“So you think maybe Twilight here could get a job inside as well?” Applejack asked hopefully.

“That’ll be up to the captain, but we don’t play favorites here on the Lollipop. Everypony wants the inside jobs and the crew has been working on this ship for years. Unless she absolutely can’t go outside or somehow has some amazing talent to keep this ship flying, she’s doing grunt work the same as the rest of you,” the crew member explained, his expression neutral.

“But she’d barely be able to move in one of these suits!” Applejack exclaimed. “Why’re they so heavy anyway? Don’t you have anything lighter?”

Grimacing, the crew member shook his head. “We weren’t expecting to have to get specialized pegasus suits until we reached Cloudsdale. Sorry, but this is all we have at the moment. But it’s nothing even an earth pony her size should have any trouble with.”

Blushing bright red even through her fur Twilight looked away as it was now Spike’s turn to support her and wrap an arm around her.

“Yeah, Twilight here is uh…” Applejack began as she awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. “The ancestors felt that she’d be better off with smarts more than strength and sort of just shifted about everything over in that direction for her.” Applejack supplied as she tried to explain as delicately as she could Twilight Sparkle’s lack of innate earth pony physical prowess in, well, EVERYTHING.

Seeing the incredulous look the crew pony was giving them, Applejack tried to change the subject. “Can’t we try to strip one of these suits down to and make it lighter?”

Scoffing, the crew member looked over Applejack before scanning the rest of the group. His expression dropping once again, he stared at her right in the eye. “You’re not joking, are you?”

Confused, Applejack shook her head no.

Sighing, the crew pony dragged his hoof down his face as he looked back at the group. “This really must be your first time dealing with a tempest. Listen well, you’ll see some really crazy things out there,” he began, Spike nodding his head to his statement. “But nothing will match what the tempest first does to a pony. Once a pony enters a tempest, unless they’re wearing a reinforced level 6 magical hazard suit, they’re not coming out a pony; and that is if they come out at all.”

Eyes widening in surprise, the group looked towards a shocked Spike before looking back at the crew pony. “What do you mean?!” Applejack shouted.

Shrugging, the stallion pointed to the pile of suits on the floor. “What I mean is that the tempests change a pony. I saw one poor soul tear his suit and the next thing you know his eyes turned into tarantulas and crawled out of his head before he could make it back inside. Every pony needs to wear a suit to work in the tempest.”

Looking everypony over, he huffed as he turned towards Applejack once more. “Look, last class or not, we’re all in this together so once you suit up, head to the mess hall. The Captain will have a rundown of what to do in a tempest, and then we’ll have a crew member assigned to stick with you at all times. Just do as we say and help us out and we’ll all make it to Cloudsdale with all our parts attached.”

Watching the stallion make his way back up the ship, Applejack turned back towards Spike while Twilight sat and rubbed her chin as she processed all the new information that she was given. Off to the side, Carrot Top patted Spike on his back as she made her way to the armored hazard suits.

“But your story didn’t cover anything about the tempest changing you,” a confused Applejack blurted out.

Shaking his head, Spike plopped down. “I’m just as confused as you,” he admitted.

“Maybe it’s due to a dragon’s natural resistance to magic,” Twilight murmured as she worked on this new puzzle. “But Spike’s magic resistance isn’t up to level 6 yet, so why would we need level 6 hazard suits? Unless they’re maybe for extraordinary circumstances though…” she trailed off as she continued to mumble to herself various explanations.

“I think Spike was meant to travel through the tempest,” Carrot Top added as she bent down to bite on a suit and pull it towards her. Separating it from the rest of the group she began turning it over to familiarize herself with it.

“What do you mean, Carrot?” Twilight asked as Applejack listened in.

“I’ve heard that once in a blue moon, a pony does get caught in a tempest and it changes them, but not in some horrific way. Maybe they grow a few millimeters, or they grow older by a few days.” Latching on to the zipper tab with her teeth, Carrot Top opened the back of the suit and stepped into it. “Perhaps your scales became a slightly different shade of purple,” she suggested as she looked towards Applejack, who immediately trotted over to help her pull up her suit.

Looking over his arms, Spike tried to find some truth to Carrot Top’s words, but everything looked the same to him.

“It may be something so small that no pony-uh, I mean no dragon, would even notice. But personally, I believe it was your destiny, Spike, to end up in the pony territories,” she said smiling towards Spike before glancing towards Twilight. “Or maybe it was your destiny, Twilight, that he joined you.”

Zipping up her back, Applejack flipped over a flap of heavy cloth over the zipper and pressed the edge of the flap into a long flexible segmented clamp along the suit’s back to seal it before moving onto another set of binding clamps and fasteners. Luckily for her, despite all the seals, everything was straightforward and simple enough.

While Applejack continued to work, Spike and Twilight looked towards each other.

“Nah,” they both replied in stereo.

“It has to be due to awesome dragon magic resistance,” Spike said nodding his head.

“I just don’t have enough to go on right now; maybe I can get a sample of some tempest magic to experiment with to see what really happened.”

“What!?” Spike yelled as he jumped up towards his companion. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard you say so far, and there’s been a lot!”

“Excuse me?!” Twilight yelped in offense.

Staring at the two arguing before her, Carrot Top just sighed as Applejack continued to seal her into her suit.

“Heh, don’t worry, those two are just being foolish, that’s all,” Applejack chuckled as she twisted another fastener into place.

“I know,” Carrot Top agreed, smiling wistfully at the bickering duo.





Three sets of heavy brass shoes clopped across the thick wooden deck of the airship as the three mares, and one dragon rider, made their way from their ‘room’ in cargo hold six to the mess hall. Or more accurately, two sets of heavy brass shoes clopped across the thick wooden deck as the final set dragged noisily across the floor as Applejack dragged a seemingly empty suit behind her. Only when she let go did the neck of the suit drop low enough to reveal the upper portion of the mane and face of the occupant inside.

Raising an eyebrow at the sight, Captain Wind Speed gave a small grunt before turning towards the rest of the crew. A veteran of many years, she and her crew had seen all sorts board her ship. A runt of a dragon and pintsized earth pony were far from the strangest guests she’d ever hosted.

Rough gray hairs coursed through her once red mane as leathered and cracked lips held onto a battered smoking pipe. As her eyes roamed over the crew, she made a silent prayer to the sun for each member to make it to their destination whole.

When the last few ponies shuffled into the room, Wind Speed wriggled her nose as she gave one last puff of her pipe before turning away and flipping the pipe over a ceramic pot, knocking the smoldering embers out and placing the warm pipe away in a drawer.

“We hit the tempest in three hours. Sunny Drops, you take Clay Pidgeon, Burn Out, and Flaming Wreck topside,” Captain Wind Speed’s order was met with some muttered grumbling with an ‘every freaking time’ coming from somepony’s mouth, but the members in question nodded their heads.

“Cross Hitch, you’re in charge of balloon duty. Take Sure Step, Lucky Ticket, Nose Cone, and Wind Breaker with you. You all know what to do, and luckily, we’ve got a full complement of spares. Don’t need to remind you, but I’ll do it anyway; we can get more balloons, skilled ponies are harder. Burn through as many as you think you have too to keep us up.”

Cross Hitch steeled her gaze as she gave a quick salute in response.

“As for our guests,” Captain Wind Speed looked towards the group, the leathery skin around her mouth cracking as the corners of his lips struggled to lift in an attempt to smile before falling back into place, “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. I am Captain Good Wind Speed of the Trade Association ship Lollipop Skip, welcome aboard.”

Giving a collective bow, Applejack stepped forward and heartily bumped hooves with the Captain.

“Glad to make your acquaintance, Captain Wind Speed; you can call me Applejack, and these are my friends. That’s Golden Harvest over there, though we all call her Carrot Top.” The mare in question smiled warmly and curtsied as best she could in the bulky protective suit she was currently wearing.

“And this is Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike the Dragon; you won’t find a better pair of inventors or spell crafters this side of the earth pony lands,” AJ proudly proclaimed as Spike nervously waved while taking a glance in the direction of the tempest. Twilight, on the other hoof grunted, and strained for a moment, briefly wobbling in her suit before Spike picked up on her distress. Reaching down, he grabbed her front hoof and, with a heave, lifted it up to wave at the captain. A muffled noise came from the mare before she tilted her head back far enough for her muzzle to clear the collar of her suit. “Hello Captain.”

Captain Wind Speed gave a measured looked over to the crew member who had deposited the spare suits to the passengers.

“We never did replace the pegasus suits when Swift Wind left and Captain Anchors Away bought the rest of the spares from us back in Trader’s Falls, forgot about that,” the stallion answered rubbing the back of his head. “We were planning on grabbing some more once we made port in Cloudsdale.”

“Well the situation is what it is then,” Captain Wind Speed sighed as she remembered the deal with her fellow captain. Anchors Away had needed the suits and Wind Speed hadn’t had a pegasus crew member in over a month, and the possibility of picking one up in an earth pony town like Ponyville hadn’t seemed likely. So, acquiring one of the specialized, yet petite, flying suits had not seemed to be an urgent matter at the time. Still, no pony was getting off easy just because of a technicality, not on her ship. “Your friend said you were a spell crafter, that true?”

Squirming around in her suit a bit more, Twilight managed to shimmy her muzzle past the edge of her collar and pushed it down enough so she could talk and look at the Captain at the same time. “Um, yes sir-ma’am, affirmative your Captainship,” Twilight squawked out in what she probably meant to be an authoritative tone as Applejack planted her face into her hoof, with Carrot Top giggling lightly beside her.

“Sea Foam’s variant for fire suppression,” Captain Wind Speed pitched to Twilight.

Eyes lighting up, the small mare eagerly hit back the challenge, “Easy Breezy array with Perfume Dream and Lilac Sky’s arrays overlaid in the second and fifth circles respectively!”

Pleased at the response, Captain Wind Speed tossed out another. “Spell barrier, 100 meter radius, only two spell boards, power source is a 600 thaum quartz battery.”

Spike actually calmed a bit and a smile touched his lips while Twilight gave a toothy grin. “Set up Meadowbrook capacitor #8 at the E12, F18, and A5 positions while putting a #6 capacitor at C18, a #2 capacitor at D12, and #3 capacitors at C4 and G7. Place a Starswirl array in the upper left quadrant with Misty Day array overlaid in the third circle, Somnambula array in the upper right, Fast Strike array in the bottom left, and Miracle Maze array in the bottom right with Lilac Sky array overlaid in the second circle and Turner array in the fourth. Overlay the entire setup with a Shield Wall array on top and you’re good to go with just one spell board.”

Raising an eyebrow, the captain looked over to another crew member, the mare having sat up straighter half way through Twilight’s answer. Galloping over to table she quickly began pulling the materials out of her saddle bags and began constructing the spell array that Twilight had just described. The resulting spell board was a complicated mess of wires and jeweled capacitors but it did fit entirely on one board as Twilight had promised. Hooking it up to a much smaller battery than the one the captain had mentioned, she put on her helmet and pressed her hoof onto the activation plate.

A small perfectly spherical bubble of light-pink magic sprang to life around the spell board, protecting it from the mare’s tapping hoof. Pulling out another device from her saddle bags, the mare pointed a boxy contraption at the magical shield and watched as the main dial on the device jumped once but remained steady at its destination. Looking over the other dials, the mare gave a low whistle.

“Barrier is stable, Captain.”

Though Twilight couldn’t see it, to the rest of the crew the ever so slight relaxing of their Captain’s posture was as clear as a light house beacon of the Captain’s acknowledgement of Twilight. Still, there was one more test…

“Pony, female, advanced age. Lower half bitten in half by tempest hydra.”

Mouth gasping like a fish for a few seconds, Twilight’s mind raced through the scenario presented to her and came up with pitifully few answers. “Uh, uh, uh, uh, stop the bleeding with a Trauma’s Tourniquet…no, wait, that would take too long to set up from scratch… But! You could buy time with a Scarlet Bloom Fire Blossom to cauterize the wound couldn’t you? Unless that killed the pony first. Dammit! Hydra…so Hydra poison…so Posey Pollen’s Poison Purification Pattern with-with-with- ROPE! Poison Pattern with rope to manually tie off the bleeding…but, no, you can’t just tie a rope through a pony’s rib cage you’d need a-a-a-a-a-a …”

All while speaking Twilight’s voice cracked and strained as she pushed her mind harder and harder. Unable to move within her suit she began to first shake and then jostle as she attempted to frantically pace within her suit, mentally reaching for possible solutions. Not seeing any clear solution, her eyes began to water as frustration crept in and began to consume her. Her frantic stuttering was stopped though by a hoof on her shoulder.

“That’ll be all Ms. Sparkle. You did well enough,” Captain Wind Speed assured the younger mare.

“Huh? But-but, wait! I can get the last one, just give me more time!” Twilight pleaded.

Shaking her head Captain Wind Speed walked toward her crew member and the tiny shield spell still merrily humming along. “In a case like that, all you can do it offer a prayer for their safe passage to the Halcyon Fields.”

“Wha…” Twilight stammered, stunned. Off to the side, Carrot Top closed her eyes and gave a solemn nod in understanding while Applejack grimaced as she also realized the nature of the final question.

Tapping the shield with her armored hoof, Captain Wind Speed watched the shield rippled but held strong. “It’s important to see how ponies react when they fail.”

Face twisted in pained disbelief, Twilight grappled with this new information before blurting, “I-I didn’t fail yet! This isn’t fair!”

Shrugging her withers, Captain Wind Speed turned towards the crew member who had built and tested Twilight’s shield. “So what do you think, Lazy Daze?”

“I think I like her,” Lazy Daze replied with a cheeky grin. “Think I could keep her?”

Lightly nipping Lazy’s ear in a light reprimand, “Behave yourself.” Captain Wind Speed turned towards Twilight again. “I don’t care about fair. Fair doesn’t exist in a tempest,” she replied. “Instead, I can see now that when things happen outside your control, you lose your cool.”

“But-“

Hushing the mentally wounded mare, Captain Wind Speed continued. “But you also don’t give up. That’s a good a start as any. You’re still young Twilight Sparkle, but I see a mare who loves to learn, is bright as the sun, and sharp as a tack. Get some life experience under your saddle and I can see you going far.”

“But I don’t believe in unanswerable problems. I know that there’s a solution for something like this,” Twilight mumbled, though not as strongly as she would have just moments before.

“Who knows,” Captain Wind Speed answered, “But until then I’m partnering you and your dragon assistant with Lazy Daze at the mess hall lab. She will show you where everything is and train you in how to deal with tempest related emergencies.”

Watching as Lazy Daze and Spike dragged an unresisting and still suit-wrapped Twilight away, Captain Wind Speed turned towards the large orange earth mare who had introduced the group. “Do you have any experience with airships yourself, Ms. Applejack?”

“Yep, sure do. Did a few seasonal jobs for some smaller transport companies around Ponyville. I’m certified to work on the Clear Sky’s line of airship engines as well as a Dawn Light G470, H235, and J310 engines, as well as wheel-to-spell point piston controls, gauge maintenance, non-magical pressure systems, ship carpentry, rainwater collection and storage plumbing, metal work and forging, and welding. I’m a registered mess hall line cook, have a degree in food preservation and reconstitution, won the Filly Scouts best travel rations award 5 years in a row before retiring, and have clocked in more than 600 hours with a push broom, sweep, scoop, barnacle scrapper, mop, swab, bird shovel, brush, and whisk, related to airship maintenance,” Applejack simply stated.

“…”

“Oh, you probably want to see my knot work as well, let me get to that here,” Applejack continued as she nabbed a length of rope from a side compartment on her suit. Taking the length of rope into her mouth, her tongue and prehensile upper lip were soon at work and within seconds she opened her mouth to display a smartly tied bowline. Giving the length of rope a light toss to move the bowline out of the way she chomped down once again and proceeded to produce an alpine butterfly loop, estar stopper knot, midshipman’s hitch, and a trucker’s hitch. All without ever using her hooves or another pony’s help. “Just don’t ask me to do any sewing, I’m just an ordinary mare and have no head for anything that fancy or delicate.”

“…”

“From the sound of your ship’s engines it’s not anything I’m immediately familiar with,” AJ added as her ears swiveled to the rear of the ship listening to the deep base hum of the engines. “I suppose you’d need something a lot more heavy duty to travel through a tempest than what I’m familiar with. Oh well, just put me anywhere and I’d be glad to listen to what the crew has to say, I’m always up for learning a new skill!”

“… Would you be looking for a more permanent career in the lucrative field of tempest travelers?” Captain Wind Speed finally asked.

Applejack grinned good naturedly, “Nah, I appreciate the offer Captain, but I just can’t bear the thought of being away from my family for any significant amount of time.”

“Pity,” Wind Speed murmured as she thought of where to best place the mare.

“Begging the Captain’s permission, but we’ll take her,” Sunny Drops piped in as he and the rest of the ponies behind him eagerly nodded their heads in agreement.

Shrugging, Captain Wind Speed pointed Applejack towards Sunny’s team. “If you don’t mind the hard work, we could always use another set of reliable hooves dealing with whatever a tempest throws at us.”

Turning to the last member of the group, Captain Wind Speed raised an eyebrow as she awaited Carrot Top’s oral resume.

Her light titter was like the tinkling of silver bells as she waved a hoof at the Captain. “Oh, I might have helped out on an airship before, but it feels like a lifetime ago. I’ve practically forgotten anything that could be of any use. I’m a gardener now and proud of it, so just give me something that needs a steady set of hooves and I’ll do my part to help out.”

“Fair enough,” Captain Wind Speed replied. “Help out Smooth Operator as she relays messages and requests between Sunny Drops team and Lazy Daze. Smooth will have the details of what you’ll need to do.”

With all the crew assignments complete, the ponies on board split off to prepare for their upcoming engagement with the tempest.





The airship glided through the sky with gentle ease. By all appearances things were going smoothly. After Applejack had met up with Sunny Drops and his team, they showed her what her duties were; primarily staying close to Sunny and doing everything he told her to. Soon the rest of the crew had put on their helmets and were waiting for their journey through the tempest.

But as the airship continued on, Applejack’s new companions began to show signs of trepidation. Peering out of the open view port of her helmet into the skies around her, Applejack laid eyes upon the distant tempest. An imposing wall of supernatural storm clouds and lightning. The air itself within the tempest seemed to suck in any light, and the land below it was only briefly illuminated by flashes of lightning, showing brief flickers of scorched earth and ruin. Any other details were still too small to make out from their position.

Making her way behind her, Clay Pidgeon looked over the railing to the ground below. It was an odd blasted and mangled bit of earth that had definitely seen better days as odd pools of bright red water dotted some area and deep blackened scars pitted the terrain. Slowly backing away and shaking her head, Clay Pidgeon galloped to Sunny Drops and, after a brief exchange of words, was soon galloping back into the ship. Flaming Wreck and Burn Out also came to look over the side of the ship and peer at the tempest. 

Applejack’s confusion and worry began to grow. As an earth pony, she had lived her entire life alongside and working with others, picking up on their feelings, both spoken and unspoken. A feeling of mounting dread began to build within her as she unconsciously began to synchronize with the crew around her. She had learned of the dangers of the tempest, but her faith in the crew’s experience had helped her deal with the knowledge that she would soon be traveling through one herself. But seeing the crew pace about confused was putting her on edge.

“What’s the matter? Are we in trouble already? We haven’t even hit the tempest yet, right?”

“This isn’t right,” Sunny Drops muttered, coming up from behind Applejack. “We should have hit the tempest by now. We’ve already past all the known land marks already, so why is the tempest still so far out?”

“So… maybe we got blown off course somehow?” Applejack nervously suggested.

Shaking his head, Sunny Drops looked over the barren wasteland they were currently flying over. Spotting a giant purple worm with a pink head and red collar-like frill as it burst from the ground, he frowned. “We’ve been flying in a straight line, and we know all the lands surrounding the earth pony territories. This…this is something completely new. I’ve never seen or heard of this place and I can’t recognize anything below us.”

“SUNNY!” Galloping towards them, Clay Pidgeon stopped in front of the group. “Sunny, Captain’s been going over all the maps and even she says that we should have hit the tempest by now! Nopony can make heads or tails of it.”

As the rest of the group joined in the discussion, Applejack took a step back, her mind going towards the strange artifact tucked away in her saddle bags below deck. It was odd; she could remember with crystal clarity the light and magic infusing her. Her mind opening up, not to power, but to a singular purpose. To dispel falsehood and lies and clear away anything that wasn’t the honest truth of the world. Yet for all she remembered, she could not for the life of her remember anything else beyond that. It had been Twilight and Spike who had filled her in when she had met with them later on how the explosion of magic from her had done more than just knock the wind out of Starlight Glimmer, but had continued on. Through the forest and to the edges of the earth pony lands, and how it had hit the far-off tempests.

Looking at the barren ground below the ship and how it was unfamiliar and twisted, she looked out to the still far off tempests and the wall of clouds that stretched out to either horizons. The magical zone that encircled all of the lands of Equestria, isolating them like scattered islands in an ocean of madness. Only in the Everfree did the tempests ever seem to ebb and flow as it battled the ancient magics of the twisted forest. But now it seemed that overnight one of those islands had done the impossible; it had outright seized territory from the tempest. A strip of land kilometers deep and stretching as far as the eye could see.

Gazing at the vast expanse of barren land, Applejack started to feel faint as the enormity of what she was looking at her slowly began to set in.

New land.

Applejack was from a stable, and old family. She had grown up hearing stories of the bygone days, of heroes and monsters, of magic and miracles, and of the alicorns and the single united land in which all the ponies had originally lived. Such tales had been wonderful bedtime stories for the young Apple family member, but they were just that, stories. Every pony knew that the lands had always been surrounded by the mighty tempests. They were a steady and even reliable, if not terrifying, fixture of everyday life in Equestria. There were the Earth Pony Lands, the Pegasus Fields, the Unicorn Mountains, and all the other lands where creatures of all shapes and sizes dwelt.

And between them all were the ever-present tempests.

It was just how the world was shaped, the very nature of their existence.

And now part of the tempests had been blown away, revealing new lands right in the earth pony realms. In one night, she, Applejack Apple, professional part-timer and local handymare, had claimed what looked to be hundreds of thousands of acres of new land waiting to be tamed and cultivated by fellow earth ponies. And all of it made possible by a little trinket that she had been carrying around and left unattended like an old pocket watch in her saddle bags.

Last week her greatest worry had been about what food to serve at her Granny’s roof-top garden party. Two days ago, her world had been rocked when a mysterious mare had ponynapped said granny. This morning she was ready to set off on the biggest adventure of her life; to stop that mysterious unicorn mare from doing the same thing to another pony, and looking out for her new friends. And right now, she was looking at the results of what was apparently her single hoofedly reshaping the face of the known world.

“Sweet sunshine,” she muttered in numb awe, dropping to her haunches. “What have I gotten myself into?”





The rest of the crew, sans Spike, had come topside to marvel at the new landscape. The captain, with a suit-free Twilight, had taken meticulous notes and measurements of the new tempest positions, along with weather and ground observations. Twilight had wanted to briefly land to gather samples but caution won over curiosity as the captain kept course.

Soon the time for gawking came to an end as the airship did near the tempest. It had taken nearly an hour and a half longer to finally reach it, but now it loomed before them in all its power.

Helmet in place, Applejack triple checked the ports and the moorings keeping the balloon attached to the ship.

Trotting up to Applejack, Sunny Drops touched his helmet to her own. Sunny’s voice came through loud and clear, with only a slight echo as his voice transferred through the solid metal of the touching helmets. “Stay close to me, we just need to keep the deck secure and help out Clay, Flaming, or Burn when they need it. Our job is just to lend a hoof. If you have any problems, just let any of us know and we’ll have you transferred to Cross Hitch’s team for balloon duty and stand by. You understand?”

“Yes sir, I understand sir,” Applejack replied. The scope of what she was involved with had been too much for her to wrap her head around, so instead she focused on doing her best with what was in front of her.

“Good, stay behind me,” Sunny responded before moving his helmet away and moving off, Applejack following close behind. Over the centuries, pony minds had tried to improve the safety of traveling through the tempests, with the sealed suits the crew were wearing now a culmination of generations of effort and ingenuity. But the one brick wall that every engineer and spell crafter had come across was communication. Magic signal casters, long hollow tubes, even a pack loaded with mechanical semaphore flags had been tried and abandoned. The chaotic magics of the tempests tore through any magics cast or signals sent, and tormented oddities focusing on the bright lights and colorful flags that others tried to use to pass along messages between crew members. In one case, a prototype arcane communications relay stopped broadcasting or receiving crew pony voices and instead began flooding the ears of the testers with the anguished cries of centuries of ponies lost in the tempests, still trapped within its grip.

Tempest travelers and other explorers had learned to make do with the reliable but limited communication provided by physically touching the metal domes of their helmets to each other. Each helmet was casted to protect the occupant from the might of the tempest, and any sound waves traveling through one could be picked up and amplified for the receiver by another if they touched. With no distance between helmets ponies had found a way to communicate to each other, albeit limited.

Looking over to Carrot Top, Applejack watched as she followed the mare named Smooth Operator as she made her rounds and marched up to Sunny Drops to get any last-minute updates before turning back to relay any messages to the captain.

Giving one last look at the shielded outer door of the decontamination passage back to the interior of the ship, Applejack stood close by Sunny as the Lollipop Skip finally plunged into the depths of the tempest.

Passing through the dark purple and black clouds of the tempest was as different as day and night. One moment, the ship was traveling at a steady pace in the still air of the new earth pony border, and the next moment, the entire ship lurched as it was slammed off the starboard bow by a massive blast of wind.

Lightning didn’t flash but instead tore through the sky before twisting and writhing in the air, whipping out and incinerating anything in its path like a burning chain whip for minutes at a time before finally disappearing. Only to be replaced by half a dozen more.

Bracing against the deck, Applejack shrieked within her suit as ghostly phantasms of screaming ponies ripped across the ship carried by the tempest winds. Their flailing hooves passed harmlessly through the deck of the ship as well as the ponies on board. An armored hoof waving in front of her helmet tried to distract Applejack’s as she saw Sunny Drops trying to grab her attention before knocking his helmet into hers.

“Don’t let the tempest distract you, keep hold of the deck!”

“B-b-b-but ghosts!” came the mare’s panicked response.

“They’re not damaging the ship and there’s nothing we can do about them. Just focus on the job and we can get back inside!”

Already feeling overwhelmed at the howling vortex of souls surrounding her, Applejack desperately hung onto the ship as she watched Sunny Drops point a hoof over the rail. Placing the other hoof over a valve in his suit’s foreleg, he gave a sharp twist and a small burning flare shot out of a socket and flew into the depths below.

Ducking low to put as much distance between herself and the damned souls shrieking around her as possible, Applejack was transfixed by the writhing apparitions when a deep rumble and low moan powerful enough to rattle the entire airship broke her gaze. Peering over the side of the rail, Applejack caught sight of the bright pink flare as it dropped further down into the tempest’s abyss, illuminating a massive, squat, tear drop-shaped beast. Flat, but wide and thick, it bellowed once again as another flare was shot at it, and Applejack could see pitted leathery flesh covered in black scales. The creature’s gaping maw, as wide as its entire head, opened in irritation. A forest of needle-like razor-sharp teeth illuminated briefly by the falling flares. Six leathery bat like wings protruded from its sides as they flapped slowly, keeping a steady beat. From its back, Applejack caught the sight of dozens of broken pimple-like orifices billowing a white vapor into the air. With one last bellow, the beast, bigger than the entire airship itself, banked left and drifted away, with the screaming mob of pony souls being pulled behind it as they too departed the airship.

A satisfied look showing through the port hole of his helmet, Sunny Drops helped Applejack back up to her hooves and made a pass over the rest ship to ensure the moorings were still secure and that the tempest had not wounded the ship itself in its initial blow. Completing their rounds, the duo opened the outer hatch to the antechamber, where Burn Out and Flaming Wreck were already waiting. Touching their helmets together, Sunny relayed his report to them before they gave a quick salute to Sunny Drops and Applejack, trotting away to do their rounds.

With a push to ensure Applejack made it into the vestibule first, Sunny then stepped in and secured the hatch behind them. Metal ports above and below them opened and within seconds the contaminated magics of the tempest were purged and the inner hatch opened.

Stepping inside the airship proper, Sunny Drops stood still while Clay Pidgeon trotted up and helped remove his helmet. With that done, Sunny turned to keep an eye on Applejack while Clay helped her with her helmet. Gasping in surprise at the difference in temperature from the muggy interior of the suit to the cool air of the interior of the ship, the shock helped break her out of her initial panic as she tried to process what she had just seen.

“What in Tartarus was that?” she yelled.

Coming up and stroking the mare, Sunny Drops nickered lightly to help calm her down. To her other side, Clay Pidgeon leaned in close to help support her.

“You never know what a tempest will throw at you,” Sunny gently explained. “From the looks of it we were fortunate that it was only a dream huffer and not actual vengeful spirits. Keep a cool head and focus on the task on hoof and we’ll all make it out of this just fine.” Slowly leading Applejack forward, Sunny Drops smoothed out her mane as she guided her to a cushion around a small table bolted to the floor off to the side of the room. Seeing that while still spooked the large earth mare wouldn’t bolt any time soon, Sunny took a step back and sat himself down. Clay Pidgeon though remained pressed against AJ’s side to continue to reassure the mare.

“Dream huffer?” Applejack asked as Sunny placed a warm mug of something herbal in front of her.

“Hmm, yeah, that big scaly thing, looks like what would happen if a dragon and a monk fish had a whelp, and then that whelp grew to about half the size of a hoofball field. They put out a cloud of mist from these pores it’s got all over the top its head and body that take on different forms.”

If Applejack had not just seen such a creature she would have had a hard time believing such a thing actually existed. Opening and closing her jaw a few times as her mind tried to catch up to her body and actually put words into her flapping gums, she finally stuttered out, “Wha-wha-what for!? Does it just like going around scaring ponies?!”

“No, sadly, it’s not so whimsical,” Sunny chuckled, Clay stifling a giggle. “That’s how they hunt. While everypony is distracted by the images of dead spirits, ancient cloud dragons, or any other sort of weird illusions it makes out of its mists,” Sunny explained moving his hoof high above the surface of the table, “they rush up from below,” Sunny’s other hoof suddenly popped up from under the table and raced towards the first one, “and they snap up entire ships whole,” he finished with a clang as one armored hoof hit the other.

“Luckily for us, they’re also opportunistic hunters and giant cowards as well,” Clay Pidgeon added from Applejack’s side. “As long as you let them know that you’re on to them then they’ll leave you alone and look for easier prey.”

“Dear ground, why do you ponies do this sort of thing?” Applejack asked as she slowly brought the herbal tea to her mouth.

“Beats working in an office,” Sunny Drops replied with a smile. Seeing the orange earth mare’s leveled gaze at him, he chuckled. “Hey now, a life of adventure, seeing distant lands, meeting new ponies, and waking up every day knowing that today will be different from yesterday, just as there’ll be something new tomorrow, isn’t that bad of a way to live. Plus, you can’t argue that the pay isn’t a big incentive as well.”

“Eh, not like I can go back home after murdering my husband,” Clay Pidgeon shrugged from Applejack’s side.

“WHAT?!”

Laughing out loud, the two crew members slapped each other’s backs as they raised their mugs high into the air and clinked them together. “True that Clay!” Sunny Drops cheered towards the other mare.

“Ah, ha, ha, ha, yeah have some fun at the new filly’s expense why don’t you,” Applejack sulked as she watched the two laugh away.

The ringing of a bell interrupted anything else as Clay Pidgeon slipped on her helmet and trotted out of the cabin. Within a minute Flaming Wreck made his way back to the table.

Standing up, Sunny Drops made his way to a cabinet to grab some hay to snack on while Applejack leaned over to Flaming Wreck.

“Say, Clay Pidgeon really didn’t murder her husband, did she?”

Startled, Flaming Wreck turned towards the large orange mare, “Well, considering I’m still alive I should think she didn’t.”

“Oh, heh, of course. Haha, I figured as much.”

“Unless you meant her first husband,” Flaming Wreck added.

Hearing Sunny bark out a laugh, Applejack just rolled her eyes as she watched Flaming Wreck struggle to keep a straight face. Watching the easy-going comradery of the group and their quick acceptance of her had Applejack smiling as she sipped her tea and readied herself to go back out into the tempest.





“Just keep the mana battery on standby. Crystal’s only got an hour of charge on it.” Lazy Daze instructed from the counter, her head lackadaisically resting on one hoof.

“Roger,” Twilight replied as she mounted the magical battery for the airship’s shield. Spike held on to her back, taking steady breaths as he tried to shut out the sound of the tempest outside.

“Engine room stocked, supplies triple checked, and all systems are ready and waiting. What’s next?” Finally out of the restrictive suit, Twilight was eagerly learning everything she could about the airship from her new mentor.

Lazy Daze, on the other hoof, was happy to have such an eager intern doing all the physical labor for her. Other than casually touring through the ship and pointing out the various inner workings, she hadn’t had to lift or build anything for nearly an hour. Keeping an ear pointed towards the hull of the ship, Lazy Daze slowly closed her eyes and savored a deep breath.

“Uh, Mrs. Or is it Ms. Daze, ma’am?” Twilight asked as she waved a hoof at her tutor.

“Shhhhh, you’ll jinx it,” Lazy Daze lightly murmured, a small smile on her lips as she lowered her head onto the table and stretched her hooves out, relishing the feel of the wood of the counter top.

Looking around the enclosed room that also served as the ship’s galley Twilight tried to puzzle out what she wasn’t supposed to ‘jinx’. “You know, the entire premise of jinxes and bad luck are mere superstitions holding pony society back in fear of being punished for transgressing ill-defined rules and vague misunderstood traditions. Even if it seems scary, I believe that we can’t allow ourselves to hold ourselves back because of-“

*BANG!* “It’s raining fire outside!” Carrot Top yelled through the open portal of her helmet as she burst through the door to the galley causing Twilight to jump and yelp as Spike gripped her back tighter.

Sighing as she pulled herself up, Lazy Daze already had an open cylindrical canister ready and began pulling ingredients onto the counter top she had been resting on. “I blame you for jinxing it Twiggy,” Lazy joked as she pulled open another drawer. “Chemical, radioactive, magical, metal; what sort of fire we looking at here, sexy?”

“Right, sorry, standard non-magical. Light shower, three canisters please,” the orange mare relayed the request from Sunny Drops.

“Com’on filly, time to work,” Lazy Daze nodded to Twilight even as her hooves moved over to the correct components and began dumping them into the canister beside her.

“R-r-r-right!,” Twilight stuttered before running up to the other mare and reaching beneath the counter and pulled out another canister. She placed it upon the counter and was pulling out the second when she felt Spike slip off her back and, with a shaky claw, grab the canister lip as well. Looking over to her assistant, Twilight gave a grateful smile, and soon the two were copying Lazy Daze movements and following her instructions in unison.

Lazy Daze gabbed another piece, like the top of a mason jar but thicker, with a hose built into the top of it and a large handle ring in the middle of it, and began screwing it onto the container. Snorting, she gripped the handle ring in the crook of her hoof and yanked up, extending the built-in hoof pump before flexing her foreleg. Muscles like steel cord bulged and strained as she furiously pumped the container, pressurizing it. Giving the handle ring a twist to lock it in place, she tossed it to Carrot Top before turning to Twilight and Spike.

“Come on, we can do this!” Spike cried out as he and Twilight strained to push the plunger down on their canister.

*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*PUMP*

“YaaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAA!” The duo screamed and they were jerked up and down by the power of Lazy Daze’s pump action.

“Is the other canister already filled?” Lazy asked as she locked and tossed the second canister to Carrot Top, who caught it and placed it on her back.

Picking herself off the floor and shaking her head to clear her mind, Twilight nodded to Lazy Daze. “Uh, right! It’s already filled with the standard fire-retardant mixture!”

Screwing on the top and pressurizing the canister, Lazy Daze soon had Carrot Top rushing off to deliver the needed supplies.

“Sorry fellas, looks like break time is over. Got to keep on the tip of your hooves if we’re going to stay on top of a tempest.”





When Applejack and first heard of the tempests from Spike, she had been terrified. Her mind had become filled with the terrible monstrosities that lurked within the violet clouds. Creatures similar yet alien to the ones she was familiar with in the Everfree Forest. Yet despite all of that, it hadn’t sunken into her that the worst thing within the tempest, was the tempest itself.

Flailing her hooves as she floated off of the ship deck, Applejack lit an emergency beacon near her head, the bright strobe light catching the attention of Sunny Drops as he slammed his shoes into the deck of the ship, small cleats digging into the wood. Wrenching his foreleg free, he threw the end of a rope towards the scrambling mare before she drifted right into the open maw of the tempest.

Applejack snagged a hold of the rope with her own foreleg and began pulling herself back towards the ship. One moment the duo had been battling literal burning rain, the next moment, Applejack had lost her footing as gravity had decided to suddenly depart.

The ship suddenly tilted upwards and rolled to its side as the winds now tossed the now weightless ship around, its once solid mass no longer able to push back against even the slightest breeze.

“YAAAAAAHHHHHH!” Applejack yelled within her helmet as she lost grip of the rope and tumbled about, soaring straight into the empty sky.

Screaming in terror, Applejack frantically tried to ‘swim’ back to the ship as it became smaller and smaller in the port hole of her helmet. Seeing the ship tossed about like a leaf in a hurricane, she bit down hard on her lip, focusing her mind to a single point of her own pain, banishing all other thoughts as she focused on one goal, getting back to the ship. She could have her mental breakdown later.

Grabbing the strap to the fire extinguisher she had been using earlier, Applejack gripped the nozzle in her hoof and pointed it away from her, releasing the pressurized stream of fire retardant and propelling herself back towards the ship.

Rocketing towards her destination, she weighed her options in the span of a few seconds. The ship was moving too wildly to try to land safely and she was basically just shooting herself with no way to slow down. Should she aim for the balloon? She could hit it, and with it being the biggest part of the ship it would be easy to aim for and infinitely easier on her body to hit that than the hard oak of the ship. But if she hit it and punctured it, what would happen then? Nothing? Now that the ship was weightless was it even doing anything other than acting as a giant wind catcher? Or would the ship still drop because the tempest was just cruel like that and decide that a ship without a balloon should drop regardless because it just hated ponies that much? Would she be caught in the rigging of the massive structure and entangled? Left helpless as the wind tossed the ship about with her now bound in the deflated cloth tomb?

Gritting her teeth, Applejack hissed as she saw the tumbling ship growing as she quickly got closer to it. She didn’t have much time left.

The balloon was too much of a wild card for her to bet on, so what did that leave? The hatches had been shut and secured, and bursting right into the ship and allowing the tempest in was not an option. With grim acceptance, she knew what she had to aim for. Angling her extinguisher one last time she shot for the side of the ship.

Sunny Drops could do little else than hold onto the ship rails as the vessel dropped and was yanked out from under him. He needed to hold on as the ship dropped and then came slamming back up into him. He regretted losing the passenger, but he needed to keep a level head if the rest were to make it through. He grit his teeth as the world was jerked to the left from another mighty gust, and then Sunny could feel something impact hard into the side of the ship even through the thick material of his suit. Looking overboard, he cried out in joy as he saw Applejack clinging to the side of the ship, striking it so hard as to drive the extendable cleats within her own shoes to dig deep into the wood and hold her in place.

Raising a foreleg, Applejack slammed her hoof into the wood just above her head before repeating the process with her other hoof. Bit by bit, the determined mare climbed up the side of the ship even as it was tossed about by the tempest.

Reaching back up to the deck, Applejack grunted as gravity suddenly reasserted itself and the weight of the heavy, rain-soaked suit suddenly tried to pull her back down into the tempest. Giving one last heave, Applejack tumbled over the rail of the ship and landed back onto the deck. Her relief was taken from her though, as a ripple of force traveled up through her hooves. Looking over to Sunny Drops, the two galloped to the other side of the ship to see what had hit it.

Peering over the edge, the two saw a wide swath of darkness coating the lower half of the ship. Before she could make out what had hit them, another sheet of dense black droplets hit the ship, coating much of the side of the balloon, deck, and the two ponies on deck.

Trying to wipe the black ooze from her view port, Applejack only succeeded in moving it around. It took several more rubbings before she could make out anything again, and the first thing she saw was Carrot Top racing towards them. Despite the thick liquid coating, Applejack was able to quickly tap her helmet against Sunny Drops and Carrot Top to make out a muffled report.

“-ith boiling tar, get chemical solvents now!”

No sooner had Sunny ordered Carrot Top then a cloud next to the air ship exploded, a wave of orange flame washing over the ship and igniting the tar.

“Update! Get more extinguishers. Chemical fires. Tell Lazy and Cross to get ready to do a balloon swap. Go!”

Carrot saluted and immediately fell as she tried to turn to leave, only for her hooves to remain firmly in place. The entire deck, balloon, and side of the ship erupted into flames as Applejack tried to rear back from the inferno surrounding her, only to be jerked back down as her hooves refused to leave the deck as well. The sticky thick tar had glued them to the deck, and it was only because of the fires raging around them that the tar was still soft enough for Sunny and Applejack to yank their hooves out one at a time and move forward, lifting Carrot Top up.

Runes across the suit lit up as the ponies made their way across the deck. The internal magic and dense material of the suits kept the heat and fire at bay as the trio moved as fast as they could through the thick clouds of almost solid black smoke the burning tar released. Reaching the outer hatch of the ship, Carrot Top slipped inside as Sunny Drops tapped his helmet against Applejack’s.

“Stay here while I alert Cross Hitch’s team.”

“I thought I was supposed to stick to you like glue,” Applejack replied, yelling as if she needed to shout above the flames even though the roar of the fire was dampened by the helmets.

“Heh, after that stunt you pulled getting back to the ship, I think I can trust you to wait for the extinguishers here without me.”

Giving a cocky smile, Sunny Drops fought through the flames, one hoof pulling up after the other in the still sticky burning tar as he made his way to closest balloon mooring.





Below deck, Twilight and Spike tried to peer through the black sludge splashed across the porthole to figure out what was going on. Spike clung shivering to Twilight and she held him equally tight as her mind struggled to figure out what was going on.

Lazy, though, was beginning to pull some bottles and canisters out onto the table when Carrot Top barged in, her suit pitch black from the tar and charred soot covering it. Yanking open the face porthole, Carrot Top yelled out, “Chemical fires! Extinguishers, as many as you can! Prepare for a balloon exchange!” And with that she collapsed as she struggled to catch her breath.

Tsk-ing in annoyance at the supplies for a powerful chemical cleanser she had been prepping, Lazy Daze shoved most of the materials into a lockable cabinet and set to work grabbing the right materials that she would need. “So much for trying to predict the next crisis,” she quietly mumbled as she grabbed more empty extinguisher canisters while Twilight and Spike raced over to help.

“Spike, get the mono-ammonium phosphate, the silver container over there,” Twilight pointed with her hoof. Working together, the two soon had four extinguishers filled and ready, with Lazy Daze pressurizing each one and strapping them onto Carrot Top’s sides.

With a grunt, the farm mare stood back up, and closing her helmet porthole, raced back towards Applejack and Sunny Drops.

“What was that second thing she mentioned? The balloon exchange?” Twilight asked turning towards Lazy Daze.

Pulling open the lockable cabinet she had shoved the other supplies in earlier, Lazy Daze’s teeth clamped down on a container as she set to work putting everything back in place for the next crisis. “The airship balloons can only take so much before they rupture. Plus, they get too heavy if you try to reinforce them like you do the suits, so they’re bound to be weaker as well. So, if you can’t have one really strong airship balloon, you just make a couple of ‘em. When one gets too beaten up to keep going, you set it free before it completely fails and swap it out with another.”

Rearing back as her eyes rapidly blinked, her mind processing what it had just heard, Twilight Sparkle looked incredulously at the mare before her. “Wait, you release the damaged balloon…”

“Yeah,” Lazy Daze replied, putting away another container.

“Then you attach and inflate a new balloon…” Twilight continued.

“Yep,” another canister went back to its proper location in the upper shelves.

“AND YOU DO ALL THIS WHILE STILL IN MID-AIR!?” Twilight reasonably asked in the appropriate volume one would deem necessary for just such a situation.

“Yeah, you and your little buddy had better get ready to grab onto something,” Lazy Daze chuckled as she put away the last container and pulled a saddle out of a storage cabinet and promptly began squeezing into it. Pushing the thick harness around her barrel, Lazy Daze then opened the side pocket to the saddle and pulled out a slip hook that was attached via a thick cord. Raising her head, she brought the slip hook down onto a guard rail surrounding the work table, securing herself to the ship before wrapping her legs around the table.

Seeing her temporary mentor brace for impact, Twilight was suddenly tackled by a small dragon as Spike slapped a similar saddle onto her and began harnessing his friend.





On the deck, Cross Hitch and her team emerged from the top cargo door and raced to each mooring point. The boots of each member were already coated over with thick grease to keep each pony from getting bogged down in the tar. But even with all four hooves on the deck, there was some slipping from several ponies. Attaching a cable onto an anchor point next to each existing mooring post, each pony on the team soon had all five points secured and were back below decks in 23 seconds, the eight extra seconds it took them to perform their jobs being a testament to the poor conditions up top.

Sealing the outer hatch behind him, Sunny Drops stared out of the porthole while gripping tight onto a pole next to him. Around the room, the rest of his team and Applejack all similarly braced for the balloon switch. Looking out, he could see the still smoking and burning balloon above them, far out of reach of their fire extinguishers. It wouldn’t be much longer until it finally succumbed to the flames.





Below them, Lazy Daze stared at a small crystal light on the wall in nonchalant expectation. Across from her, Twilight hugged Spike to herself while she also watched the crystal, though in much more agitated anticipation.

The crystal suddenly flashed red and bells began to ring across the ship.

And then the world dropped from under them.

Outside, anchor points connecting the old balloon to the ship blew open and released the still smoking old balloon just as the top of a new one was ejected out of the main cargo doors. Cross Hitch and her team were running the blowers at full output as they began inflating the new balloon with precious enchanted vapors and lighter-than-air gasses. But inflating a balloon large enough to carry a ship took time, even with the best equipment bits could buy. And so the ship dropped.

Before it stopped and bobbed back up like a cork pushed slightly under water.

Ports under the ship spewed cloud vapor from front to back. The thick wood of the hull, grown from trees raised on a mixture of water and cloud walking potions and then further enchanted, immediately hit the exhausts and floated above them, cutting through the artificial clouds like a ship through the waves, leaving a swirling wake of water vapor behind them.

Twilight looked out of a side porthole at the cloud mass being generated beneath them, Spike having passed out and now resting comfortably on the floor behind her.

“And why didn’t you tell me about the cloud making machine?” she asked Lazy Daze, who seemed to have left out a few things in her explanation on balloon exchanges.

Grinning playfully at the purple mare, Lazy Daze just rolled her hoof in the air in a dismissive manner. “Oh, you know. Mostly for the laughs.”

“Grr,” Twilight growled. Looking back towards the crystal light, still red, indicating that the new balloon was still being inflated she thought for a moment. “Wait, then why not just turn on the cloud makers first before ejecting the old balloon? Why did we have to free fall at all?”

Shrugging her shoulders, Lazy Daze sat down again and rested her head on her forehooves once more. “The old balloon was covered in sticky tar, want to make sure it blows clear of us first. Don’t want a burning blob of tar and canvas stuck to us after all.”

Frowning at Lazy Daze’s lax attitude, Twilight still couldn’t help but be impressed at the thought of all that went into air travel. She’d definitely no longer complain at the cost of shipping books in from Unitopia.

Well, at least not as much anyway.

Looking out of the porthole, she watched as bluish white mists blew past. Peering further, she could see a faint blue glow to the side of the ship giving the artificial clouds an almost ethereal feel to them. “It sort of reminds me of winter mornings back with mom and dad, when the sun was just beginning to shine over the peaks of the Conclave Mountains.”

Lazy Daze’s head snapping up with a look of terror, while her hoof simultaneously swung down towards the shield activation button, was the only warning Twilight had before the ship was rent open.





Applejack bit down as she was thrown to the side of the inner hatch. She and Sunny Drops had been ready to head back out to do their rounds and check on the new balloon, when the ship slammed back as if it had hit something and the sound of crushing wood filled the air even through their helmets. Grabbing Applejack and pulling her the rest of the way into the hatch, Sunny Drops closed the inner hatch door and threw open the outer door, running out to assess the damage.

All around the ship, a horizontal column of swirling air, like the eye of a tornado but turned on its side, stretched out ahead of them. Traveling down the length of this cylindrical tube of winds, the Lollipop Skip was bathed in a soft blue light even as giant claws of ice sprang from the vortex around them. One dragon-like claw the size of a house suddenly sprang into existence and swung at the ship.

Sweeping across, it hit a yellow barrier of light as the ship’s shields sprang to life. All around the ship other claws formed out of the misty air and attacked, sparks of blue ice and purple light cascading around them.

Rushing starboard, Sunny Drops and Applejack looked over the edge and saw a massive gouge tearing across the ship from bow to aft. Port revealed much of the same. Soon Carrot Top joined them and within moments was running back to inform the relay team with the damage report. Several ponies were now running through the ship alerting others.

The Lollipop Skip was dying.

Touching his helmet to Applejack’s, Sunny Drops gave his orders. “Get below decks; you said you had ship carpentry experience, right? Get below and do what you can!”

Saluting, Applejack raced back into the ship.





“Water tanks one through everything busted! We’ve got about 50 seconds of liquid sloshing around in them and another 45 in the system before the cloud makers are done. Cross Hitch has a little over a minute and a half to finish getting the new balloon up. Engine still secured and sealed in time, no contamination, no ponies lost. Cargo holds 1 through 3 torn open, cargo holds 7 through 9 torn open. Cargo holds 4 through 6 are a little shook up. If we can’t reinforce what’s left of the walls in 4 we may need to just seal it off as well.”

Twilight carried a now awake Spike as she tried to keep up with an animated Lazy Daze. The normally laid-back mare was sprinting through the lower decks relaying messages and damage reports to Smooth Operator and her team as she assessed the condition of the ship.

“Lazy! Captain wants to know the chances of the tempest breaching any of the remaining cargo holds!” Smooth Operator called out.

“Tell her that holds 5 and 6 secure. It’s hold number 4 that’s dicey,” Lazy replied. Blowing out a deep breath, she tapped her hoof in nervous contemplation before turning back to Smooth Operator. “I’m going to try to reinforce it for now. I’ll get back to you if we should just seal it and cut our losses.”

Lazy Daze then turned to address Twilight. “I’ll need you to head on back and monitor the shield array, okay? Keep watch and let your buddy Carrot Top know if anything starts to happen. Captain Wind Speed can let you know through her what you need to do next.”

Reaching out towards the retreating Lazy Daze, Twilight called out, “Wait! I can still help you!”

“Can you move around in a suit by yourself?” Lazy Daze simply asked, not turning around.

Twilight’s silence was answer enough for the both of them.

Both mares’ ears swiveled at the sound of the pounding of hooves behind them, and looked up just as the proud figure of Applejack came into view.

After a brief run down of the situation, Twilight found herself looking over her shoulder in quiet remorse as she watched Lazy Daze and Applejack head down to cargo hold 4, while she and Spike headed back to the safety of the mess hall lab.

Twilight and Spike had returned to the lab in gloomy silence, falling to their seats as they reached the worktable. Hanging her head, Twilight sat in silence as Spike absent mindedly rubbed her back. Sniffling, she had wiped her muzzle as her mind failed to come up with any solution on how to get her suit working under her own strength. Her mind wandering, the words of Captain Wind Speed returned back to her, ‘-when things happen outside your control you lose your cool’.

Twilight felt her helplessness build within her. To her side, Spike felt the muscles on her back tense. With a cry of anger, she raised her hoof and brought it down on the floor beneath her, pounding the hard wood over and over as she vented her frustration on the ship.

“Hey! Whoa, whoa Twilight, what are you doing?” Spike asked, alarmed at his companion’s actions.

“Losing my ‘cool’ just as Captain Wind Speed said I would,” Twilight bitterly hissed as she slammed her hoof down one last time.

It took a moment but Spike soon realized what Twilight meant. Reaching up, he wrapped his arms around the mare and gently brushed her mane. “Hey, remember, she also said all that other stuff about you being really smart, and that you don’t give up. She thought that you could go really far,” Spike quietly spoke, as he calmed the small earth pony down. “And you know what,” he said as he pulled back, his green eyes meeting her violet eyes, “I think so too.”

Dipping her head down, Twilight wiped her muzzle once more as she pulled herself back together. “Thanks Spike, I really needed to hear that.” Standing up, Twilight made her way to the shield array. “If this is my job now, then I’m going to do the best that I can.” Pausing to take another look at humming array, Twilight rubbed her chin in thought before turning back towards Spike. “I’ve got a few ideas…”

Within moments the two of them were at work, Twilight directing with Spike following, as they focused on keeping the shields up for as long as possible.

Twilight’s determination had even banished much of Spike’s fears, the two soon falling into a comfortable rhythm of work. “Spike take the #5 Meadowbrook capacitor and complete the relay on this board. If we can just alternate the current a bit more, we can stretch out the battery for just a bit longer.”

“Aye aye ma’am!” Spike eagerly saluted as he carried out his task.





The cargo hold was a tight and normally dark place. The air was filled with the smells of a hundred goods, old and new, mixing together in a confusing blend, but remaining clear of any tempest’s contamination. As the two suited ponies entered the hold, they could immediately tell that something had gone wrong within the hold. The flickering flashes and strange violet ambient light infusing the room alerted them that cargo hold 4 had been damaged in some way. Around her, Lazy Daze could see gaps in the wood, split seams open to the outside. Yet despite the tears in the ship, the magics engraved into the wood held still. A translucent glow of film covered the tiny openings and kept the raging tempest from entering.

Lazy braced at the doorway, with Applejack doing the same. The orange mare had no idea what Lazy was waiting for but she followed her lead without question. As the seconds ticked away, Lazy did not move from her position, the two mares stock still in crash positions waiting for some timer to run out. Trusting in the experienced mare, AJ kept hold until she saw Lazy Daze nod her head and squeeze the door from harder.

The ship jolted but returned to steady flight a moment later.

“Looks like Cross Hitch did it; we won’t die by plummeting today,” Lazy Daze joked as she pressed her helmet to Applejack’s. Reaching back into her saddle bags, the magnetic lock on her hoof boot connected with a rectangular device. Switching it on, two antennae slowly spread open a touch, but remained mostly closed. Sweeping the room once over, Lazy Daze kept one eye on the device and the other on her surroundings.

Once she had returned to her starting point, she breathed a slight sigh of relief and touched her helmet to Applejack’s.

“Alright big mare, no contamination, so everything’s holding so far. I’ve got boards, nails, and sealant. We’ll look for cracks and seal them. Hopefully we’ll get this done before the charge wears out on the shield generator. After that it’ll be up to lady luck.”

Nodding her head, Applejack followed the other earth pony around the hold as she pulled out a large syringe. Lazy held it over a small crack while Applejack gently pressed down on the plunger. Angling the nozzle around the crack, Lazy Daze put the syringe back and took out a board. Snatching up some nails with the small magnet on the tip of her own hoof boot, Applejack then tapped them into place before stomping hard, driving the nails into the wood and sealing the crack.

This routine repeated, though several times Applejack would need to pull out a saw or knife to trim the wooden boards to fit tightly against seams and against the ribs of the ship. Bit by bit, the walls of the ship were patched as well as they could be. Many times, Applejack needed to unsecure the tied down crates to reach breaches that hid behind the cargo itself, before then restacking the crates.

Still, even with Applejack’s strength and skill, the process was slow going, and all too soon the hour was up. But even as Lazy Daze braced herself, no noticeable change happened around the room and the remaining ambient light still remained the light violet hue of the ship’s shields. Glancing at Applejack, the two shared a slight knowing smile and went back to work.

But even with the shield holding, the tempest was not done with them yet.

Outside, howls of rage carried through the sky as a clan of winged badgers tore and bit against the shields of the ship. Tooth and claw attacked, seeking some weakness against the shields, only to be cut short as the tempest thundered. Arcs of lightning struck, scattering the sky badgers as the ship was knocked side to side from the force of the impacts.

The shields held against the barrage, but that mattered little when the world flipped upside down. Suddenly finding the Lollipop the wrong side up, Captain Wind Speed bit her lip as she blasted air straight out of the port cloud maker nozzles. The mighty burst of air knocked the ship to its side as it rolled off of the balloon rather than impacting it straight on. They couldn’t afford losing this one as well now that the cloud makers were exhausted of water. Luckily, they could still be used as maneuvering thrusters in a pinch.

“WHHAAAAAAAAAA!” Back in the hold, Applejack fell towards the ceiling before tumbling across the walls, unsecured crates from a pile she had been moving smashing into her thick suit as they broke open and shattered across the room.

With the world right side up again, Applejack got back up on shaking and unsteady hooves. Gasping for breath, the work mare quickly looked around the room for her new partner. Only to see Lazy Daze casually letting go of some cargo straps holding another cargo stack in place and picking up where the duo had left off.

‘I’ve got to figure out how she does that,’ Applejack promised herself before she turned away and took in the damage. Scattered around her were the remains of five broken crates, the very cargo the rest of the crew were risking their lives traveling through the tempest to deliver.

Before her were puddles of white liquid, while open tins leaked golden yellow soft paste, warmed by the room temperature air around them. Seeing the broken bottles of milk and tins of butter spilt across the floor brought Applejack to a stop. Ponies were risking their sanity and souls for half a bit’s worth of groceries.

Mouth agog at the sight, Applejack looked around herself at the rows and rows of stacked crates. Surely they all couldn’t be carrying the same things, right?

Shaking her head and deciding to think about it later, the mare proceeded to place the unbroken bottles and jars into a crate that only had its top break open while she quickly sweep up the broken glass into the crates that were still somewhat in shape to get them out of the way while she and Lazy Daze continued to work.

The pounding of hooves caused her to look up as a helmet practically smashed into her own.

“Keep the butter separate from the broken glass! We can still sell it!”

Applejack looked over to the crate containing all of the still usable goods before waving her hoof towards the open and spilt tins of butter, their semi-liquid room temperature contents already spilling across the dirty floor.

Grabbing an intact jar and using its lid to scoop the butter off the floor and back into the tin, Lazy Daze shoved another jar into Applejack’s hooves as she proceeded to scoop up more of the golden mass off the floor, flicking larger glass shards out of the butter when she could. Reaching down, she also quickly righted some of the larger broken bottles and, with a rag, soaked up as much as she could off of the floor. Plopping down, Lazy Daze squeezed the rag between her forehooves, a dirty stream of milk filling a broken but mostly intact bottle.

Flabbergasted at the display, Applejack stomped up to the other mare and knocked her helmet to hers. “Now see here, this is just plain unsanitary! It’s not worth the pocket change if some pony gets sick or hurt from this.”

Rolling her eyes, Lazy Daze continued scooping. “Not like we won’t tell them where this has been,” she replied to Applejack’s confusion.

“But then why-“

“A little heat to sterilize it and some straining for the glass and gunk and it’s still usable. Pegasus ponies will still pay top bits for this stuff, so it’s our duty to save as much of it as we can.”

A sharp knock to the side caused both mares of hit a stack of crates before Lazy Daze hurried up her reclamation of the cargo.

Still disbelieving of the sight, but in too much of a hurry to get the job done and back to patching the sides, Applejack shut her mouth tight and did as she was told. Within moments the two were done and were back to reinforcing the weakened hold.

Nailing the last board into place, Applejack stood back while Lazy Daze took out her thaumatic meter again to do another scan. Once that was done though, she took out another device, a circular copper gauge, and pressed it against the wood of the ship itself. Sliding it across the room and floor, she kept her eye on the needle before nodding and placing that device away. But following that came yet another device that she placed in the center of the room, a stout square box with wire leads coming out of it. After attaching each wire to various sections around the room, she took out yet another device.

In total, the mare took over half an hour to run seven different tests before looking at the read out of the last device, her shoulders finally relaxed, and sinking down onto her haunches. Popping locks on her helmet, Lazy Daze breathed a sigh of relief as she slumped up against a stack of cargo crates.

Taking off her own helmet and looking around the room, Applejack began restacking the last pile of cargo back into place.

“You sure you don’t want to take the captain up on her offer?” Lazy Daze playfully asked as she smirked at the working mare.

“Nope,” Applejack replied as she tilted a crate over a bit so she could angle her head under it. With a grunt she lifted the crate, and, balancing it on her head, placed it on top of the stack in front of her before biting down on a rope to begin securing the stack. “To be honest, I think what you all do is crazy. I really couldn’t imagine myself living a life where I’d be battling monsters or risking my life week after week.”

“Eh, not like we do this every week,” Lazy replied. “Most of the time we’re just doing normal deliveries inside a territory, or odd jobs around town when we have to,” she added, earning a slight pique of interest and a rise of an eye brow from Applejack as she set about working on the next stack of cargo.

Slumping over to her side, Lazy Daze laid out across the floor, savoring the fleeting feeling of calm before the tempest hit them with another distortion of space and time. “Though this is probably it for the good ship Lollipop here.”

Turning to look as she continued to work, Applejack stacked another crate. “What do you mean? Ship seems to be holding up pretty well now. Once we get to port can’t the captain start on repairs?”

“We lost six out of nine cargo holds,” Lazy replied lackadaisically, almost as if she were simply commenting on different plate colors. “And the center hold, hold 5, is for spare balloons and ship parts, so really we’ve only got two holds left. Nope, six busted holds, all four water tanks for the cloud machine, and nearly every rib and support beam from stern to aft on both the port and starboard sides of the ship… Yeah, this is probably the last flight for this old gal.”





Twilight and Spike stared in agony at the flickering mana crystal powering the shield array. As if they could will more power into the crystal by staring at it hard enough, the two silently whimpered as the crystal quietly dimmed.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything else we can do Twi?” Spike asked as the best but last defense of the ship began to flicker out.

Twilight Sparkle didn’t have anything left to say. She had already tried every idea, every energy-saving measure she could use. Feeling a sick nausea well up from the pit of her stomach, all she could do now was hope that what they had done would be enough.

And with that, the crystal went out and the ship was once again hit by the full fury of the tempest.

The ship rocked once more as gale force winds slammed into it from the starboard side. Lightning and thunder crackled in full violent cacophony. Outside the port window, bloated leeches slapped against the enchanted glass and wood of the ship before, writhing in pain, they gave one last horrific shriek and exploded. The thick viscous acid within them coated the outside of the ship and beginning to eat through the outer hull.

“Spike!” Twilight yelled as she turned and galloped towards the galley table/lab work bench they had been using. Pulling out various base powders and solutions, the young genius began preparing an acidic neutralizing mixture with Spike scampering after to help her.

The pounding of hooves revealed Carrot Top as she raced down to them. “Twilight, we need –“

“Something to neutralize the acid, on it! But Spike and I will need some help loading them into the canisters.” Twilight cut in as she and Spike began tipping the large bowl she had been working with.

The sound of two more sets of hooves announced the return of Applejack and Lazy Daze. With four ponies and a dragon working together they quickly made short work of the task and Applejack was once again galloping as fast as she could up top with three full canisters.





“Sunny!”

Looking over his shoulder at the galloping earth mare, Sunny Drops smiled beneath his helmet as he gratefully took one of the canisters from Applejack and passed the other to an already suited Clay Pidgeon. Pointing to Applejack, he pointed to his helmet before pointing again to the hatch door. Nodding her head, Applejack quickly affixed her own helmet back on before heading out with the other two outside.

The deck of ship was covered in thick green slime that smoked as it slowly devoured the ship. Staring up, Applejack cursed as she saw the new balloon the other team had so painstakingly put up was already being eaten through. With no cloud machines, any other balloon would need to be launched while in freefall. And nopony there was looking forward to seeing which was faster: Cross Hitch and her team, or the ground as it rushed up to meet them.

The three ponies worked quickly, with Applejack racing ahead to start at the tip of the balloon, Clay Pidgeon running to the back, and Sunny Drops immediately starting at the center. There was no time to think as all the assembled ponies quickly hosed down the entire starboard length of the balloon.

The high pressure within the canisters shot a white foam high into the air, the wind actually helping them for once as it pushed every last drop back onto the ship, and pushing along the contours of the balloon and across the top of it.

Keeping an eye on both the balloon and her surroundings, Applejack was the first to see it; a greenish mist directly in front of the ship. As the winds tore around them and flashes of lightning illuminated dark shadows being tossed about the tempest, this cloud stood still. A gently floating mist in the middle of a hurricane.

Keeping her spray pointed towards the balloon, Applejack ran towards Sunny. Tugging at his suit, she pointed directly towards the cloud. She could not hear a word he said without touching their helmets together, but from her view portal she could see his lips mouth a very unflattering word. Pulling her close, he clanked his helmet against hers. “Spray what you can and then run!”

“But if we miss even one spot on the balloon-“

“No time to explain! Just spray and run!”

Keeping his own sprayer on the balloon, Sunny Drops galloped off to warn Clay Pidgeon. Heart racing, Applejack looked up to see large sections of the balloon still smoking, the thick material holding for now, but not knowing when it would finally give out. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she raced back to complete her job. Everypony on the ship was counting on them to get this done. She could not fail them now. Keeping a steady hoof on the nozzle of her sprayer, Applejack meticulously covered every square meter of the front of the balloon and made her way back towards Sunny Drops. She could see Sunny and Clay had almost finished up with their own sections and soon the two would be able to help her.

‘Just a little more,’ Applejack thought as she neutralized the acid on the balloon. Glancing over, she could see the ship turning to avoid the cloud, only for the cloud to split in two. One part drifted directly in front of the ship and blocked its path again, while the other finally decided to acknowledge the winds blowing against them and was pushed away.

Applejack could imagine the loud curse the captain must have given as the ship then jerked in the other direction, the cloud keeping course and moving against the wind.

‘No time to sightsee! Keep working!’ Turning back to the balloon, Applejack could see that only a little strip of balloon remained to be coated. Already, Clay Pidgeon and Sunny Drops were working their way towards her, the two covering the bottom and upper portions of the balloon in tandem.

She wasn’t sure what the sudden chill down her spine was, or what made the hairs on her back suddenly raise, but Applejack spun around to look at the green cloud that had tried to block their way when the ship had jerked port to avoid it.

Staring back at her, a dozen set of eyes within the cloud looked back.

A clang of metal-on-metal and the shout of “Run!” echoed through her helmet as Sunny Drops struck his helmet against hers and pulled her towards the ship hatch. Behind them the cloud rode the cross wind and sped towards the trio.

Clay Pidgeon was already moving, but looking up, Applejack could see a large spot they had not hit with the foam.

A single spot.

Planting her hooves against the deck, Applejack stood firm against Sunny Drops, pulling at her and continuing to spray. ‘Ancestors, six seconds, just give me six damn seconds more!’ she prayed as she finally finished her work.

Letting herself fall against Sunny Drops, the two tumbled towards the hatch as the cloud hit the ship. Bouncing onto their hooves despite the heavy suits, they sprinted towards Clay Pidgeon as she held the hatch open and the ship was enveloped. Flowing over the sides of the ship and across the deck, the cloud and its eyes focused on the two retreating figures.

Galloping at full speed, Applejack could already see the cloud begin to cut off their path to the hatch. Ducking her head, the large mare yelled as her desperation pushed her forward. Running to the side of Sunny Drops, Applejack swung her head under his barrel, and, with a heave of all of her earth pony strength, tossed Sunny Drops right into the hatch, hitting Clay Pidgeon and sealing the hatch behind them just as the cloud over took it.

‘At least they’re safe,’ Applejack thought as she slammed into the outside of the hatch. Hunkering down, the large mare tensed her body in preparation of what this new horror could bring. With any luck it would pass over the ship before it could do much to her suit and to-

“YEEEEEEAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!” Applejack screamed as searing hot knives of green energy tore right through her level 6 protective suit as if it were tissue paper. Her vision filled with green as the cloud rushed into the compromised suit and filled her helmet. An immense crushing grip snapped her spine in half immediately, while her skull was pushed back into her shoulders as her body was forced to collapse in on itself by overwhelming brute force.

Below decks, an orange light burst into life from the confines of a saddle bag before disappearing.

Appearing within a bloody suit on deck, the light exploded out, the green cloud within the suit burning away instantly as an orange gem in the shape of an apple set in a golden gorget touched the tortured flesh of the pony within.

Applejack wasn’t aware of much at the moment except for the feeling of warmth. A friendly warmth that filled her to her bones. It spread through her body and gave strength to weakened limbs. And through it all, it carried one honest truth.

She was going to be alright.

The swirling maelstrom of the tempest fell away as the ship passed through its borders and wall of white pillars greeted them. Beyond them, fields of white clouds stretch out into the distance where, framed by the golden sun, a city of white and rainbows stood proudly.

Standing back up on her hooves, the orange light around her faded away as Applejack’s helmet fell off and she beheld the Pegasus Fields for the first time.

*BANG!*

“Applejack!”

Almost flying out of the hatch, Twilight Sparkle and Carrot Top embraced the mare as she stood dumbfounded. Her body healthy and whole, but her mind still stunned at everything happening around her.

“We made it out of the tempest, AJ! You’re not hurt are you?” Twilight cheered as she looked over the orange mare wearing the tatters of a protective suit.

Coming up behind them, Sunny Drops and the rest of his team looked in awe of her. Circling the large orange mare, Sunny could only shake his head in disbelief at the sight before him.

“You have to be the luckiest mare I’ve ever seen! We must have passed right out of the tempest at the same moment the smooze-cloud tore your suit!”

Looking at the element of honesty now hanging from her neck, Twilight and Carrot Top shared a look of realization.

Slowly, mechanically, Applejack’s head turned towards Sunny Drops before looking beyond him at the horizon-spanning wall of dark purple clouds that defined the tempest they had just flown through. Bringing a hoof up to touch the gorget around her neck, Applejack finally let her eyes roll back as she collapsed, completely out cold.