“No, no I’m fine. I just need to take a break. I take lots of breaks!” a certain red-ruffed kirin said, standing at the open door into the engine room of the EAS Harmony. “It’ll be fine. I just need a minute to think,” she told the unseen pony within. Traipsing out on deck under a sky covered in patterns of scattered fluffy wisps of cloud, nopony followed her out of the engine room so... success?
Nutmeg Inferno looked around, seeing that nopony else was headed her way, to ask her something or another. Her head sank as she said to herself, “They make it look so much easier in the manual.” Her spirits were not too dampened though, as she straightened up and gave a relieved sigh, happy at the chance for some solitude. The mare went poking around the deck, looking curiously at some unused rigging, then up overhead at the balloon. The clouds seemed to be turning... pink?
“Huh,” she said, striding along and following the clouds beyond the balloon and down toward the horizon, until the kirin reared up onto the ship’s railing, and realised, “Oh, it’s a sunset!”
She stared, captivated, as the sun peeked below the clouds just at the horizon, and the sky caught fire. Pinks and oranges played along the base of the cloud layer, tinting their fringes with the ruddy evening light. She couldn’t put it to words how it was so different from what she’d known before, actually being here, a little kirin on a big ship, enveloped in those reddened, dying rays.
Nutmeg watched until the light faded, and the stars began to come out. If anypony wanted her for something, they knew not to disturb a creature so lost in her thoughts. When Nutmeg turned around, there was nopony left on deck. The blue shadows of night were everywhere, and the sun was long gone. “Oh boy,” she despaired, ears going down, “I don’t usually stay out this long. I bet everypony’s gonna be worried about me now.”
Although the open deck of the airship was silent and empty, sound and motion were present in the grassy meadow beyond. Pony-sized creatures, white and extremely fluffy, were trotting about and bleating their objections to something. The source of their annoyance was a much larger and rather curious creature, composed of an avian head, winged torso and scaly abdomen joined by ropes of blue jelly-like substance, the whole supported by numerous tentacles extending from where knees and elbows had been.
Reef Skimmer the hippogriff, Nutmeg realised, looking as he had on that crazy evening after the accident at the water nexus. According to Sprocket, he'd been hiding in the cargo hold the whole time she was away, seen by nopony. At least he seemed to be mobile now, and willing to emerge from the ship if only under cover of darkness. He was definitely doing something out there to agitate the sheep, but in the low light it was hard to tell from so far away.
Nutmeg recalled well the incident where he'd transformed so terribly. She had no idea why he'd been so reclusive, other than that he seemed to think he was uglier now. It made socializing with him very convenient, but she was really curious what he might be doing out at this hour. Heading across the deck, down the gangplank, and through the quiet camp on the island's grassy meadow, Nutmeg peered, wide-eyed at the strange creature's activities.
She probably shouldn't approach him, but... as the curious kirin watched, realization dawned in her big, dilated eyes, as Reef Skimmer seemed to be hosing down sheep with a spray of water from one of the tentacles his forelegs terminated at. There definitely weren't many sheep left in hosing distance, now that they'd begun to wise up to the blasts accidentally awakening them in a most sodden fashion.
Reef Skimmer's ear tufts twitched as the kirin approached, but the sound of galloping, bleating sheep gave her cover, and he didn't glance in her direction until she was a mere wing-length away. The avian eyes went wide as he registered the spectator. "Nutmeg!" Reef shouted, leaping into the air and spreading his wings wide as if to take flight, before clumsily turning to face her, wiggling tentacles almost tying themselves in knots. "Erm, wonderful to see you... how long have you been... that is to say, erm, just give me a minute here..."
The hybrid creature's eyes closed and his form tensed, as he concentrated on trying to make himself more presentable. Painfully slowly, the quartet of tentacles standing in for his neck fused together, as did the ones standing in for legs and the thicker ones surrounding the void in the middle of his body. Nutmeg watched for a good minute as the blue goo coalesced and his proportions shrank to something close to his original form. True, he still had bands of blue goo around his neck and torso, his back legs ended in a child's play-doh approximation of hooves and his forelegs were still just splayed tentacles in the rough shape of eagle talons, but he was at least recognisable as a hippogriff.
Reef's eyes opened, embarrassed at both the obvious imperfections of his form and the time it had taken to get even that close. Ducking his head, he said "So, I trust... you are well?" Finally making eye contact, he continued "Winter Hope mentioned you'd met some of the native dragons? Went on a trip of some sort? I confess I didn't quite... catch the specifics, but..." He trailed off, staring back at the wide-eyed kirin.
"O-of course I'm well!" Nutmeg said, looking with amazement at Reef's transmorphation. "Yes there were some dragons, who were actually The Skylanders. We totally fixed their machine, so now they can defend against extradimensional incursions. Did you know you're not as um... separated as you were a minute ago?"
She stepped forward to look at the former hippogriff's bodily alterations, having a hard time making out specifics in the low light, but recalling clearly what he looked like before.
"Extradimensional incursions? ...good grief." Reef replied, stunned. "And I thought a bunch of murderous little bipeds were the worst of our problems. Still... you repaired another alien device, this one involving other dimensions? Truly Nutmeg, you are a remarkable talent... or tapping into the 'elements' of this place, like Azure. Likely both!" His beak gaped open a little in an avian smile. "Friend to legendary heroic dragons now eh? No need to court silly old griffs any more!" He ducked his head again. "Though truly, I may have been a little... unprepared, just now, but I do appreciate your company."
"Yeah, they said I'm a Tech Elemental, and it's really been helping me figure stuff out," Nutmeg replies happily, "They say it's like tapping into the collective unconscious of all the great inventors passed. It's not as glamorous as being a Water Elemental like you, but it helped me fix their machine, and I'm sure I could fix others. So you've been practicing your Water moves? It's hard to see in this light. I guess you're doing it at night because you don't want ponies to know about your secret techniques? I totally promise I won't tell."
Reef sighed, his cheer evaporating. "The sum total of my 'techniques' amounts to imitating a garden hose or making myself look marginally less monstrous. The captain, she... ah, perhaps you were there? She just 'wished' a book into existence, in hope of helping me! Yet even with that miracle..." He hung his head, continuing sadly. "Like a fool I imagined a cure, a way to reverse the transformation, but... no. Merely the tales of past heroes of this land... and past villains."
"Indeed, it described the fate of the previous being transformed by that cursed factory; reduced to an amorphous monstrosity, turning to a life of crime and conquest, repeatedly incarcerated in a magical prison. No hint of any way, any effort to turn this 'Gulper' back into the 'Mabu' he'd once been." The not-quite-hippogriff looked on the point of tears. "I'm not a... hero, champion, 'elemental', whatever you call it. Not like Azure, yourself or even..." he snorted "...Cloud Cut. As the book described it; I'm just 'animate magical waste' now."
“Nah, don't give up hope yet,” Nutmeg assured him confidently, “Cloud Cracker Prison was only for the worst of villains, not because of what they were, but because of who they were: total jerks, who got too much power. All records of dialog with The Gulper are just him bragging about eating more stuff. He didn't want to turn back, but that doesn't mean he couldn't have done something."
Holding up her hoof and peering at its mysteries, Nutmeg said, "I don't have techniques either, just formulas and charts. But it is nice to be what I am without having to concentrate on it." Sitting on her haunches and looking up at Reef in puzzlement, Nutmeg added, "So... I still don't get why you're practicing out here in the dark. The Water Element isn't affected by light levels, but it's hard to target sheep if you can't see them."
Reef gave Nutmeg a confused look, before comprehension dawned. "How do you... oh of course, the dragons were 'Skylanders'. Likely with personal experience of this 'Cloud Cracker' business, if their lifespans are anything like the dragons we know. One imagines they were proud to tell you of their heroics." He sighed. "Practicing... well, I confess to some... frustration, when it turned out 'Legends of the Endless Waves' was all history and philosophy and no actionable medical advice." He didn't mention that said frustration had resulted in some fresh holes melted in the deck of the hold.
“Oh yeah of—of course I asked them about you. They’re hundreds of years old, so they had access to information we don’t,” Nutmeg replied, blushing at her omission of that, “They didn’t have any way to cure you of course. But I learned a lot about the um, incident.”
"Indeed?" Reef Skimmer looked thoughtful. "Well, in any case... one could hardly let that the Captain's miracle go to waste! So, I attempted some of the exercises suggested and... you understand, most ponies find griffs unsettling enough as it is?" Nutmeg tried to imagine why a herbivore facing a bird of prey that towered over them would be unsettling. "Best they not see me in this state." He clicked his beak. "So, as you can see... I suppose it's better than nothing. I'm still a ground-bound cripple, but... a somewhat less frightening one, at least as long as I can hold the form. As for the 'water techniques'... I suppose I could be of some use should the ship catch fire again." Reef finished wryly.
At his mention about unsettling griffs, Nutmeg protested, “But you’re not a hippogriff anymore. You’re ‘animate magical waste.’ If ponies were afraid of you before, they’d be less afraid now. Well, except the ones who encountered the magical waste. But Set Sail told me that you aren’t dangerous to touch like those things were. So if I'm not afraid, then to other ponies you're just a... hippogriff connected by gooey blue tendrils."
Reef stared at the kirin for a moment, then cocked his head. "Nutmeg, I grant that you've spent a great deal more time with ponies than I have, but... I fear you're underestimating the difference in mindset. You kirin are omnivores, predators even, with a supernatural defence mechanism that no doubt gives you substantial leeway in confronting other predators. Ponies, on the other hand... well in all honestly they seem rather skittish. Even the Captain, it seems. She was scared enough of Cloud Cut - her paramour, apparently! - despite the physical changes being limited to glowing eyes and a change in coat colour." He sighed.
“The Skylanders said that the Undead Element is unsettling to any living creature,” Nutmeg told Reef seriously, “So even if Cloud Cutter looks safe, she doesn’t feel safe. You’ve felt it, haven’t you?”
"Yes." Reef stated flatly. "I wasn't close enough at the ruins, or with her at the factory, but... she came to visit me, you know, in the hold. Shrouded in violet energy, promising the touch of the void." He shuddered. "My impression was she was ready to fight to the death... or to destruction at least... but seemed to think better of it. In any case, it certainly felt... wrong.
Nutmeg nodded at his description of Cloud Cutter: “I sure have seen her feeling unsettling before, myself. You just have to ignore it since she’s harmless when she wants to be."
"When she wants to be..." Reef echoed. "Hmm. Honestly since my transformation, everything feels strange. Inside and out. The grass, the sheep... one can sense the life force out here, or something of that manner." He gave Nutmeg a curious look; he could feel something from the kirin, something different from the surroundings or anypony he'd met since the accident, but... well, he had no idea what a tech elemental or a creature that could transform into a firey version of itself was supposed to feel like.
At his curious look, Nutmeg took a step back shyly, saying, “Oh, I... didn't know that. They didn’t say The Gulper could sense life forces. S-so you can sense my life force, huh?”
"In all honesty I can only guess as to where these new sensations might be coming from." Reef said, looking at the ground again. "I believe it has something to do with these..." He gestured at his head with a wiggly claw-substitute, indicating the blue pearls attached to spines that floated near his crest like antennae. "The only component of my amulet that survived. I'm no expert on such things, but I do know the smaller pearls are there to reduce the recharge time for the shard of the Great Pearl - the part that does the actual transformation... or did until it was destroyed." he said sadly. "As such they must absorb magic from the environment, and I suppose that is something I can feel now."
He cocked his head at Nutmeg. "It seems 'tech' is rather more straightforward. Formulae and charts you say? Just popping into your mind unbidden?"
“I wouldn’t say straightforward,” Nutmeg said, looking down and toeing the ground, “Tech Elementals just... are really good with technology. They can do things with machines that should never work, but do. Repair the irreparable, build the unbuildable. It’s the Gear that Turns Itself, as the saying goes.”
She looked up at him with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes then, saying, “Good thing I’m well on my way to aligning, right? We might not even need propellors if I can retrofit the ship with turbines, and... well, that means we need turbines but... you know. So I'm not quite there yet.”
"Ah, my dear Nutmeg... you do seem to making the best of this 'elemental' business, out of all of us!" The griff's beak cracked open in an attempt at an encouraging smile. "Azure seems happy with her new abilities, and those wings are rather fetching... I assume you saw, she's a pegasus now? Hard for a unicorn to lose her horn though, no matter what the compensation. And of course Cloud Cutter: apparently immortality is insufficient recompense for being unable to push clouds around."
Reef snorted. "In any case... I suppose getting the old Harmony going again is my only hope for getting off this island now. I doubt the Captain wants to devote the Second Chance's entire payload capacity to lugging my sorry rump around, not when I have so little to offer at the destination." The ear tufts were gone, but the little fishy fins in their place drooped just as well.
Rolling her eyes irritably, Nutmeg said, “First off: Cloud Cutter isn’t immortal. You remember how badly those worms beat her up, right? Secondly, the Undead Element can actually change your alignment, to itself of course. There are many records of how hard it is on creatures who get their alignment changed to Undead. And thirdly, Air is a lot more than just pushing clouds around. Cloud Cutter can still fly, but it’s not the same. Heck, you could probably fly too, with your level of Water alignment, but it’s not the same as being Air aligned.”
"Those dragons really gave you the whole lecture, eh? I admit, I may have been a little harsh on... wait, what was that? What has the 'Water' element got to do with flight?" Reef spread one wing and looked at his pinions; they were several times the size of a pegasus's, but still thoroughly unable to support the weight of a horse-sized creature without magical assistance. "Normally when one is ready to take off, one simply feels... lighter. An instinctive magic, reducing the mass of the creature and typically anything they're holding or hitched to... common to all large Equestrian flyers."
"It can't be merely a matter of 'elements'? As you say, Cloud Cutter hasn't lost her flight, merely her weather-working." He looked at Nutmeg, surprised that she'd even memorised all this non-technical detail. "As I told Winter, it must be a consequence of replacement of one's normal body mass with this 'magical waste'." he flicked a blue tentacle, looking at it in disgust.
“Well... yeah things get lighter when you add Air to them, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use water-based propulsion,” Nutmeg said in confusion, “Why don’t you use that?”
"Water-based... propulsion?" Reef echoed, confused. "Are you implying it is possible to merely swim through the air?"
"No, you use your Element," Nutmeg said emphatically, "Like how Cloud Cutter flies around all silently like a spectre. You just need to... you know, use Water to... propulse yourself?"
Reef took a step back, trying to make sense of this. "In the manner of... a squid, perhaps? Wait, are you seriously suggesting... I could create a jet of water with, oh... call it four hundred kilos of thrust?" He stared at a tentacle. "That is to say, the process does seem to generate recoil, and I suppose I have only been using one appendage at once..." The transformed griff looked dubious about the prospect.
Nutmeg smiled eagerly at that, rearing up to lean on Reef Skimmer's side, saying in delight, "You don't know about water-based propulsion, do you? Yes! Like a squid, or a geyser. If you propel enough water downward, you'll always fly upward in the recoil. The faster you propel it, the more recoil. Oh, you gotta try it. I'm sure you can! You know Bernoulli's Equation, right?"
"I know of it..." Reef said vaguely, still staring at his tentacles. "Worth a shot, I suppose. Better stand back." He spread his wings wide and let his body revert to its disconnected, tentacle-festooned default; he'd had no luck trying to produce a stream of water while also squeezing himself into a different form. He waited for Nutmeg to spring back a few steps, then concentrated on releasing the water... from all sixteen tentacle tips at once.
The ground underneath the griff immediately dissolved into mud, which churned and splashed as the jets of water cut into it. The loose circle of sheep that had formed around the pair (in all honesty, mostly around Nutmeg) immediately scattered in every direction, bleating their objections to this new affront to piece and quiet.
Reef frowned and clenched his beak with the effort as he abandoned prudent experimentation and pushed as hard as he could. Slowly he began to lift off, suspended on jets of clear water, before all of a sudden he was moving upwards and sideways rather quickly, tumbling and flailing with wings and tentacles alike as he lurched through the air. Reef screeched and released the thrust, only to plummet as his desperately flapping wings failed to carry him, blasting more water out just before he hit the ground. The griff landed hard and lost his balance, collapsing pile of grey feathers and wiggling blue tentacles.
"Sorry! I tried to catch you but I can't see very well in the dark!" Nutmeg called out, aghast, bounding over to him, "Are you okay, Reef?"
"Fine!" Reef called out. "Not that one didn't feel it but... hmm, no apparent injuries, other than a few bent feathers." He struggled to a standing position and exhaled sharply. "Invigorating! Though my, erm, tentacles are tingling a bit. Nutmeg, old girl, I do believe we're onto something! Just a moment..." The second attempt went better, in the sense that the griff stayed up for over a minute before crashing back to earth. The third attempt could reasonably be called controlled flight, right up to the point where it intersected with the tree. By the seventh launch, Reef was able to make several circuits around the meadow.
He didn't stray far from the ground, but he did pick up a great deal of speed on the straights, going faster than Nutmeg had ever seen him fly before his transformation. "Capital idea, Nutmeg!" he said happily, as he landed in a spray of water and mud just in front of the kirin. "Alas, I doubt I will ever be able to keep this up long enough for island hopping... but any flight is certainly a huge improvement on being landbound!" he enthused, before it occured to him how a kirin might take that. "I-if you're used to flying, I mean, not to imply that non-flyers are in any way, erm... no offence intended."
Nutmeg now dripping in mud from head to toe in the cold night air, said grumpily, “Well good, but I’m starting to wonder if it was a great idea to do this in the dead of night, where you wouldn’t be able to see the ground before you ran right into it.”
"Ah, I confess the moonlight seems quite adequate, it's more that I feel like a chick with fireworks tied to my claws. One's instinct is to use one's wings of course, but they just aren't catching enough air, not unless I go full throttle forwards. You see the dilemma, either I exhaust myself thrusting up to stay airborne, or backwards to go fast enough that... oh." Reef realised he was talking to a mud sculpture of a kirin. "I don't suppose I could offer you a, erm... warm shower?"
Nutmeg thought a moment in puzzlement, before declaring in wide-eyed muddy astonishment, "We have warm showers??"
"Well, erm, not as such, but this water does appear to manifest at body temperature..." Reef said, embarrassed expression returning as he realised he was threatening Nutmeg with a tentacle. "One will certainly understand if you decline! Though it could hardly go worse than that first time, ha!" He chuckled, remembering that first meeting with Nutmeg that had ended with a disinfectant hose-down in the surgery room.
"Oh! Um... yes, I would appreciate a good cleaning off," Nutmeg said hopefully, standing before Reef with little hesitation, "I didn't realize your water jets were warm."
Reef Skimmer proceeded to gently power-wash the kirin, circling around her to get a clean shot at all the mud. Soon she was thoroughly cleaned and standing in a puddle of lukewarm water. "Alas, if you require a blow-dry you'll have to wake up Azure Feather." he grinned.
Nutmeg shook off powerfully, cascading water everywhere, looking damp, but not soaked at least. "No, it's fine," she said, with a friendly nuzzle to the former hippogriff's chest, "Your water felt super good, and I dry off quickly anyway. They didn't have blow-driers in my village, just warm showers, so it kind of stuck with me over the years."
Reef looked shocked that any creature was willing to nuzzle him, looking the way he did. "You are quite welcome!" He was still reluctant to touch anygriff with his tentacles, so settled for giving the kirin an awkward wing-hug, before looking around at the meadow. The numerous fresh ruts and craters, full of water glimmering in the moonlight, made it look like a target range for an artillery regiment, or perhaps a horn-laser duel between alicorns. Sheep huddled around the edges, staring back at the pair sullenly. "I should probably avoid trying that trick indoors."
"Yeah, um..." Nutmeg too surveyed the damage, her ears slowly going down, "I think we might be in a little trouble..."
"Ah, well, one hopes Abernathy will understand... I take full responsibility, of course." Reef said, frowning.
"I think we could clean it up?" Nutmeg said uneasily, dipping a hoof into the trough of water from one of his strong blasts, "We wouldn't be able to get the grass back though. The ponies and sheep both need this grass for food!"
"Oh, I wouldn't worry," Reef said airily, "it looks bad but in terms of surface area... it could only have lost a few percent. Besides, grass grows at a ridiculous rate... that's what grasslands are really: areas where grazers prevent any plant that lacks supreme regenerative powers from taking hold."
"Y-yeah I... I guess it's no big deal," Nutmeg said, blushing nervously, "Just don't want to get in trouble or anything. Is there somewhere less... grassy and close to the camp that you could practice in?"
Reef frowned again. "No doubt. The lake would be best, one could probably manage a short hop from the quarry..."
"Yeah, let's do that," Nutmeg replied, glancing nervously over her shoulder at the moored airship, floating quietly there in the moonlight.
Reef didn't seem to pay attention: he'd unfolded his wing again and was staring at it. "You know... I'd assumed that since feathers are just keratin, they wouldn't be affected by the foreign material, but... I'd swear that my pinions are a bit longer now, and shrink when I try to be a hippogriff. What do you think?" As Nutmeg watched, he squeezed his tentacles together and shrunk slightly, taking on the proportions (if not the details) of a normal hippogriff.
"Well that sure seems to be the case," she replied thoughtfully, "So I guess you can change your size a little. I wonder what else about yourself you can change..."
"Perhaps if I can make them smaller, I could make them larger?" Reef said hopefully. "Then they'd catch more air, reducing the thrust requirement? Hmm.." He closed his eyes, concentrating again. For several seconds, nothing happened. Then the creature in front of Nutmeg began to transform again, the gooey material in the middle swelling and binding together while his forelegs shrank away to nothing.
Reef's eyes snapped open and a surprised squawk escaped his beak, turning into a long screech as his whole form contorted and expanded. Feathers marched backwards replacing scales and fur, blue scaly feet replaced hooves, and soon enough Nutmeg found herself facing an enormous eagle, nearly the size of the Second Chance All sign of the tentacles were gone, save for the blue colouration of the scales on the roc's feet.
Staring at him like a deer in headlights, Nutmeg said faintly, "...yep, that'll do it."
It was still undeniably Reef Skimmer - the bright pink crest and tail bars were a giveaway, and he still had those little pearls on his head - though his voice sounded somewhat different, like an impression of himself rendered by a double-bass parrot. "Amazing! I may actually be... perhaps not a roc exactly, but a smaller cousin... hmm." He walked awkwardly over to the edge of the island, unused to the bipedal gait. "Wish me luck!" the enormous beak gape-grinned back at the kirin, before the sail-sized wings spread out and he launched himself into the dark void beyond.
"Good luck not dying!" Nutmeg shouted, charging after the beast but stopping short of any risk of even seeing over the edge.
The sound of massive wingbeats interspersed with high-pressure jets of water could be heard from below, until the newly transformed roc shot back into view. His claws had reverted back into clusters of tentacles as he alternated between flapping, thrusting and combinations of the two, climbing higher and higher over the meadow until the spray fell like bursts of warm rain on the creatures below. After a few close calls he seemed to get the hang of it; despite his joy at being back in the air Reef Skimmer had to restrain himself from attempting anything too ambitious until he'd had more practice.
After fifteen minutes or so he swooped down to find Nutmeg still watching from below; he flared for a landing, stalled early and ended up using another blast of water to avoid crashing, causing Nutmeg to flinch again. "Sorry! Sorry. Won't happen next time... I say, that was just the ticket. Worked like a charm!" The kirin assumed the extremely loud cooing sound was the bird equivalent of laughter. "It seems hippogriff airways is back in action, with no cart stowage concerns this time!" Indeed, his back could easily fit three ponies. "Care for a test flight?" he said playfully, eager to share the sensation of being airborne again with the friend who'd told him how to accomplish it.
"On your back?" Nutmeg asked with concern, taking a step backwards, "What if I fall off?"
"I'll catch you!" Reef Skimmer grinned. "In all seriousness, I might be able to just, erm, perhaps if you try... sort of pushing your feet into my back?" he asked, caution about being touched apparently forgotten after a good flap around the neighbourhood. "It feels like I should be able to just, erm, suck them in, to to speak?" He just hoped he wouldn't dissolve them by accident.
"Oh, well if that's the case then sure!" the kirin called back, her face brightening as she climbing up onto the creature's back without hesitation.
It did seem that confidence went a long way when it came to elemental abilities, as the procedure went more or less as planned. Nutmeg didn't seem at all perturbed by lying down on the grey roc's broad feathery back and having all four feet sucked into the creature's flesh, to be held in a tight conformal grip. "Hmm, that feels... hard to describe exactly, hmm, does everything seem ok back there?" the roc asked, looking back over his shoulder and hoping that he wouldn't accidentally dissolve his friend's hooves.
"Seems secure!" she called forward struggling experimentally, "I can't move even a single inch!"
"Excellent. Hold tight then!" With that the hippo-roc charged towards the edge of the island again, eagle head stretched out in front and giant wings spread wide.
Nutmeg Inferno didn't have to hold on tight because she was stuck fast, her four legs held within this peculiar substance that her friend had become. It seemed like this was a great idea with absolutely no drawbacks and nothing that could go wrong, right up until the overexcited mutant hippogriff flung himself and his helpless passenger over the edge, plummeting into the abyss with his enormous pinions coursing through the night air and every inch of Nutmeg's body began screaming at her that they were in freefall and going to die. Reef Skimmer got his first hint of this when her excited screaming didn't cease after he levelled out into a smooth glide. It was only after several long seconds of utter panic that the struggling kirin managed to calm down from screaming to merely hyperventilating.
"Having fun back there Nutmeg? Lovely night for a flap about isn't it." Reef said jovially, in his deeper, extra-squawky roc voice. His wings thrummed as they began to gain altitude again, though the island was still a black shape blotting out the stars far above them. "Marvellous, like this one can fly to a quite reasonable degree without using the squid-propulsion! One wonders if the amulets could be convinced to permit normal hippogriffs the experience..."
"What...what...what... you just... I couldn't..." Nutmeg replied from way back on his back, still completely out of sorts from what just happened. Too moved for words, it seemed, not that he'd have picked up on her look of wide-eyed terror, even if he could see her pony-like face.
Reef tried to think what this meant. She'd seemed fine on the previous flight, travelling in the cart. Perhaps the engineer found vehicles inherently reassuring, even if they were just a few bits of wood nailed together? Or maybe it was just the dark? "In all honesty you do appear a little discombobulated. Not thinking of, erm, catching fire, I trust? Perhaps I'd best just... bring us back to the ship."
"Y-Yes p-please could we... go back to the ship?" the little red, brown and gold kirin in his back managed to ask, now in a state of only shaking fear, "I don't know why I'm so... you just dropped a-and my heart—is that my heart?! I'm just a little..." she looked in panic at the sailing birdlike being below her, squeaking, "A little frazzled! Must be just t-the weather? I-it's no big deal I do this all the t-time, right? It just caught me off... off guard a little. N-nothing to worry about! This really is f-fun, really!"
"Oh well that's all right then." Reef said, reassured by this. "Almost indulgent isn't it, just dropping off the cliff and letting gravity get you up to speed? You know for bats that's the only way they can get into the air? Though fortunately Slashing Gale doesn't seem to be so constrained." He made a loop under the island, peering up at the spiky rocks and crevices wondering if any creatures were roosting within. If so it was too dark to see; they flew back out into the open and spiralled upwards.
A minute or two later and they were rising above the edge of the island. Reef stopped beating his wings for a moment and fell into a quiet glide over the meadow. "Oh... oh by the Maker..." Nutmeg panted, her heart still racing even after relative calm had returned. She wasn't used to this much excitement. She shouldn't have wanted to, but all she wanted right now was to feel solid ground under her hooves. "I... I think I'm... okay. Just get us to land and we can c-call it a day. Night..."
It was then that her ear twitched, picking up the faint but familiar sound of intermeshing rotors. She immediately glanced over to the meadow, but no... the Second Chance was still there, dark and silent. The sound came from another source, somewhere to the north. Oh no. She shouldn't, but if she didn't... "Reef, can you hear that?" she asked shakily, still tightly embedded up to her belly in the giant bird thing's back.
"Hear what?" he replied distractedly, wondering if he could land without resorting to squid-propulsion and damaging the meadow further.
"Helicopter rotors, multiple," Nutmeg reported, turning her head to follow her ears until she was facing the sound, "Approaching fast, at 10 o'clock, heading 5.24 radians. It's not the Second Chance. I think the drow are... are coming this way."
"Drow?" Reef's voice was like a muffled screech. "Can't say I hear anything, but your ears are doubtless more sensitive... 10 o'clock you say?" And some radians apparently... it was a little amusing how Nutmeg resorted to engineer-speak when excited. "Hmm... hold tight." Strangely the transformed hippogriff turned south, away from the sound. What was he doing... oh. Reef relaxed his feet, letting them turn back into bundles of tentacles. Distasteful as the whole business was, it did allow him to push in some strange metaphysical sense, summoning blasts of pressurised water that thrust them forward, quickly attaining speeds rivalling the Second Chance at full tilt.
They climbed rapidly, tilting back so much that Nutmeg would have slipped off had she not been held fast in his body. The ascent continued for a thousand metres or so before levelling off, presenting them with a roc's-eye view of the whole island. "If they are here, one can only hope they have a ground-dweller's propensity for ignoring the sky..." Reef's head jerked back and forth as he scanned the sky.
"Ah! There, approaching the lake!" he cawed back to the kirin. "Hmm, only one, thank Novo for small mercies." Nutmeg strained to follow his gaze; perhaps there was a flicker of motion, but she couldn't quite resolve it... until it crossed the water, silhouetted against the glints of moonlight on the water below. An aircraft similar to their own commandeered copter, heading in their general direction but at a much lower altitude.
Reef Skimmer's beak slipped open a little at the kirin's apparent notion that they, as predators (or at least omnivores), had to protect their peaceful herbivorous pony friends. He was well aware the ponies were better fighters than they looked, and surely Nutmeg was as well, though perhaps it was easy to forget that in the heat of the moment. Certainly plenty of would-be conquerors of Equestria had, only to lose to friendship lasers or even well-placed bucks. He shook his head, focusing on the matter at hand.
"One appreciates the sentiment, but steady on there. If the enemy spots our ship, either they'll land and prepare to infiltrate... or they'll head straight back to base for reinforcements. In the former case... one hopes there will be time to muster a defence. In the latter..." He clicked his beak. "...it's down to us. If we take the time to muster our allies, likely that ship will escape into the night, and the Harmony will be facing the full might of the drow come morning."
The two waited in anxiety and dour resignation respectively, circling above as the drow craft slowed and descended, settling into a rocky depression west of the lake. "They're... landing in the quarry?" Reef Skimmer stated, puzzled, "That must be... three kilometres away from the Harmony? One wonders... are they already aware of our presence and intend a stealth assault? Are they really so bold as to assume a clawful of drow can overwhelm the whole ship?"
"Less wondering, more pony warning!" Nutmeg urged, "They landed, so we can't do anything about it anymore! Let's go warn the otherrrRRRS—!"
On the contrary, Reef thought it was the perfect time to swoop down and disable the enemy ship, but... that would leave them with enemies hiding on the island and likely more soon to come. In any case, the kirin was right; they couldn't hold off any longer. He wheeled away from the infiltrators and kicked in the water jets;
Nutmeg once again had no choice but to sit tight as they descended towards the ship... and the meadow. Nutmeg tried to avoid it but she was soon screaming again, her voice quickly lost in the wind. Just a primal, visceral response to this kind of speed that could not be denied. It was too overwhelming to even feel fear, as she tried to reconcile what she remembered of going fast together with the experience on this beast. The trees flashed past as they dipped low to skim over the jungle; every change in direction yielding another surprised shriek.
Then they were past the treeline and over the meadow. A meadow full of sheep experiencing a terror like they'd never felt before, as an impossibly large bird of prey that could surely snap them up in a single bite materialised out of the darkness, plummeting towards them at frightening speed. The forest was too far... no doubt the winged menace would gobble them up before they got half way to the treeline. Instead the bleating stampede headed for the one place that seemed to offer some cover: the weird wooden island with its tethered cloud, just across that fallen log.
"Blast those brainless ungulates!" Reef shouted as he swooped down for a landing next to the gangplank, before realising who we was carrying. "Erm, that is to say.... no offence intended." Chaos was unfolding below as the herd of sheep milled about the deck in a bleating mass and cries of alarm went up from the crew. "Well... I suppose the crew needed to wake up anyway." he added philosophically, watching ponies tumble out onto the deck, ready to repel the wolly invaders pouring into their sanctuary.
The giant eagle head turned to regard Nutmeg as he flattened his body to the ground and released her hooves from the gooey confines of his back. "Now make sure you brief the Captain first, one drow copter spotted, landed in the quarry, unknown number disembarked, unclear if they've spotted the ship already or mean to complete their aborted search. I'm heading back up to keep an eye on them... oh and do let Sails know about my, erm, transformation. The last thing we want is Cloud Cutter flapping out here and deciding we have to fight to the death again."
Wide-eyed, Nutmeg nodded very quickly, a little too quickly, her hooves finally sinking into solid ground. Then she went scampering across the deck of the EAS Harmony, bouncing off bleating sheep left and right until she bounded down into the ship's underbelly.