Eos Typhoon scratched at her collar. She had always hated dress uniforms. They were always stuffy and scratchy, and without a doubt, this one was too tight. Still, considering the reason she’d been compelled to don it, she could manage the discomfort.
It was Armistice Day. The cease fire had lasted far longer than anypony had dared to hope, and now, hopes were becoming realized as a final end of the war was actually happening.
“Attention!” Clipper announced, prompting the entire group to stand straight as Commander Granite entered the room.
“As you were,” he said firmly. “As you all know, the armistice will be signed at noon today, and our unit is in the first group to stand down. Until then, we are to maintain our patrols as usual, with the exception that we are under orders to take no action that could result in triggering additional hostilities. This is just a formality, so don’t get overzealous. I’m looking at you, Lieutenant.”
The mare felt her remaining ear, the right one, fold back instinctively under the chiding. Her mane hung over the left side of her head, mostly obscuring the scar that had healed over the wound in the past year.
“Yes, sir,” she threw a salute at Commander Granite.
She may have been annoyed at him, but she had far too much respect for him and his position to step even an inch out of line.
“Any questions?”
“Sir!” a unicorn spoke up.
“Go ahead, Eminence.”
Typhoon always had thought that unicorn names were absurdly pompous.
“I heard from one of the other regiments that they are already permitting wine and other spirits to be served with meals. Would we be able to open one of our casks?”
Granite tilted his head thoughtfully for a brief moment, “Permission denied. We may only be on ceremonial duty, gods know we aren’t even armed at this point, but we are still a fighting unit, and until everything is final, we will maintain clear heads.”
“Yes, sir!”
Commander Granite gave out the assignments. As expected, most of their company was to maintain ceremonies in a small out of the way town of Rocky Crag. The real festivities were nearer the capitol, Alabaster Spire.
As for Typhoon, she would be in a wide patrol, as would the rest of the pegasi in the company. She and Clipper would get just near the southeastern area of the capitol, hardly close enough to see it, before turning east and making a wide arc back to Rocky Crag.
She didn’t mind the assignment in the least, but having to do it in a starched white dress uniform was the worst. She instinctively brushed her mane to keep it in place over her missing left ear as she and her brother prepared to depart.
Taking to the skies was always a favorite pastime for a pegasus. Granted, years of armed conflict had made the carefree frolic amongst the clouds a bygone memory, but even on alert or scouting for enemy positions, just being up in the air was like coming home for Eos Typhoon. On this day, she felt more at peace than she had for quite a long time.
“So, I see you talk to Alluvium a lot,” Clipper said nonchalantly.
His sister was instantly put on guard, “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing really, I was just noticing is all.”
“You talk to him a lot, so what?”
Clipper didn’t answer for a while as they continued a northerly course.
“Well,” he eventually broke the silence, “he’s solid, and you could do worse.”
Eos Typhoon couldn’t help but feel unsettled at her brother’s candor. She had become so accustomed to teasing from him that it caught her off guard.
“Where is this coming from?” she finally asked.
“The war is over, Sis. Our company is being disbanded, so we’re going to have to find other things to do. You know, live life, find jobs we hate, get a mortgage, maybe start our own families eventually.”
“Frack me, we’re not even discharged yet and you’re already getting more sentimental than an actress.”
He couldn’t help but smile, “Come on, under that gruff exterior, I know you’ve got a molten milk chocolate interior.”
“Not likely,” she snorted.
Still, now that it had been brought up, it did make the mare wonder how she felt about Alluvium. She’d been so focused on the war, and so afraid to get too close to anyone, that she hadn’t considered such things. All too suddenly the future came into focus in a way that it had not for quite a long time.
“What’s that?” Clipper pointed at a small cloud in the distance.
Eos Typhoon strained to see. It looked like an airship was behind the puff of cloud. The Storm used airships regularly, but what would one be doing in this area?
“Let’s take a look…” the mare felt herself hesitate. “Hey, we should… fly casually. We don’t want to be responsible for an incident, and besides that, we are not armed. So we should avoid a confrontation unless you think we can best them with only harsh language.”
Clipper laughed as they slowly altered their course to bring them into closer proximity to the mysterious cloud. They kept from aiming directly at it, but continually angled closer and closer until they were almost on top of it.
From their modest distance of perhaps fifty yards, they could just make out the airship that was within the cloud. Strangely, it almost seemed as if the cloud was emanating from the deck below the bag.
“Hello there!” Eos Typhoon called out as the two made their course parallel.
Silence reigned for a long moment. The mare wasn’t sure what to do next. If there was some trouble, and the crew were incapacitated in some way, they may have needed help but been unable to respond.
Clipper tried next, “Can anybody hear me?”
Again, no response came as the two took up a position near the bow of the airship, still obscured by a cloud. Granite’s warning still hung heavy in Eos Typhoon’s mind. Even so, the bizarre situation had to be investigated. Either the crew was in trouble, or they were up to something.
“Come on,” the mare said as she began moving toward the deck. “If you can hear us, we are coming aboard! We come in peace! I say agin, we mean no harm!”
The two closed the distance, entering cloud and landing on the deck. An icy chill met their hooves as they touched down. The foggy nature of the area made an eerie experience. Even from within, they could not see the entire ship for the density of the mist.
“Is anybody here?” Clipper called out again.
They waited for a reply that didn’t come.
Eos felt herself shiver, instinctively reaching for a weapon that was nowhere to be found, “This is just weird.”
“Brr, why is the deck so cold?”
“No idea, but that explains the fog.”
“Hmm,” Clipper mused.
“Let’s… work our way aft and see if we can find a hatch, or any of the crew.”
The pair walked slowly, eyes searching for anything that might give them a clue as to what was happening.
“Hey, look at this,” Clipper stopped suddenly.
Eos Typhoon directed her attention to where he had indicated. There were blocks of solid white ice lining the deck that the two hadn’t seen when they initially boarded. It was definitely the source of the fog.
“That doesn’t look quite like ice to me,” he noted.
“I think it’s carbon ice. But if it’s not being used to keep something cold, why is it here?”
“What if the fog is the reason it is here?”
A sinking feeling in the mare’s stomach told her that the two needed to leave. No sooner had that thought crossed her mind that everything went white as a sharp pain cracked through the side of her head. Eos Typhoon was driven down to her knees, though she hardly felt it. Muffled sounds of a struggle played in her ears, but she was too dazed to react.
As her sight came back, a small circle that widened in the whiteness, Clipper bucked a large white ape over the side of the airship, just to be immediately harassed by another. As feeling returned, Eos discovered that she was being dragged away from him.
Move!
She needed to move. Eos shook, a feeble attempt to free herself. For her trouble, she felt her head snatched up by her mane and something sharp pressed into her throat. Clipper was still busy, but managed to glance her way as her assailant spoke.
“Stop, or I slice her!”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Clipper spun and vaulted right at Eos. She flinched as the knife pressed tight before falling away. Clipper’s hooves caught the ape that was holding her directly in the face. She was then lifted, struggling to move as Clipper shouted.
“We have to go!”
They made for the edge, surrounded and being hit, just trying to force their way through. They were being smothered under a rain of fists that pummeled them toward the deck.
The next thing she knew, Eos Typhoon felt the rush of wind on her face as she tumbled through the air, falling freely. It took a moment for her to get her bearings and arrest the spin. Her head pounded with each beat of her heart.
Clipper.
Where was he? She opened her wings and began to slow her fall, and as she did, something fell past her. Looking back, she saw Clipper and an ape, both stained with red. The pegasus was unmoving, but the ape thrashed and flailed as he fell.
The mare turned and went into a dive, trying to close the distance with her brother. The ground was coming up fast. He was in no way attempting to slow his fall, his limp form speeding carelessly downward. She worked the air with her wings, trying to pick up speed. It was working, but not fast enough.
The ground was close. If she didn’t break now, or in the next few seconds, she wouldn’t be able to pull up in time. He was too far away. No! It wasn’t going to end this way. Clipper was not going to die here. Eos Typhoon would save him.
Instinct pushed her wings open, turning her falling energy into lift. She pulled up, away from the ground and helplessly watched her brother smash into the rocks below.
Hot tears burned in her eyes as Eos got her bearings and made her course straight back to her base. She had to make sense of what had just happened. She had to understand. The war was over; they were signing an armistice. What was an airship doing there? Why had they been attacked?
She pumped her wings hard to pick up speed. She could not stop until she got back. Her head felt like it was going to split itself open from the pressure, pounding, pounding, hammers on anvils against her skull.
There was only one conclusion she could come to for a covert ship that would attack unarmed scouts on sight. A military operation was underway. The enemy was making a move, and they didn’t want it noticed.
With a little luck, maybe they’d think she had also been killed in the fall. She had to get back to base, had to raise the alarm.