//------------------------------//
// Chapter 38 
// Story: Words of Power 
// by Starscribe 
//------------------------------//

The next morning came and went with little fanfare. Iron Feather slipped away to return to his duties, while Lotus waited inside for a little while longer, before asking the marine in the hall to go with her to the showers. Living on the Svalinn wasn't bad—though she would probably enjoy it more if she didn't have a pony watching her at all times. 
The ponies didn't seem to expect much from her—Princess Luna didn't call her for an interview, and no soldiers asked to talk to her about kirin battle tactics. Part of it felt like she'd fallen into the background.
If she believed that were possible, she would have happily welcomed total irrelevancy. Equestria was a whole world unto itself, waiting for her to explore! If the nation suddenly became safe enough, she would.
Gus might have some objections, of course—but Gus would find his place in Equestria too. The ponies didn't seem half as afraid of him as they were of her, despite his greater size. Maybe he'd find a pretty bird and decide he'd rather not leave. 
But now wasn't the time to argue about whether they'd be going home. Not when Equestria might not survive. She might be lucky if the ponies didn't throw her in prison for aiding the evil sorceress.
Gus joined her in the mess hall for breakfast a little later. No escort followed him through the building, but he still found time to express his annoyance at the pony behind the serving counter. "It's Gus," he said, loud enough to make her look up from her plate.
He was still muttering about it all the way to his seat. "It doesn't even sound the same. I think they're doing it intentionally." 
“Might be something cultural,” Lotus said, her voice timid. Diffusing his frustration was always better than confronting it head-on, if she could. “Pony names seem taken from their conversational language.”
They sat down together at an empty corner table. Even if it wan’t empty before, the frightened glances from ponies all around the room suggested it soon would’ve been. Not fear of Gus, despite the claws and sharp beak.
“Language is either mutually comprehensible or it isn’t. They can say my real name, but they act like they don’t even hear it. Gutsy. Psh.”
“I’d be annoyed too,” she lied. “But try to see it from their perspective. It might be a sign of respect. Calling you that means they see you as one of the group.” Her ears folded flat, tail drooping under the table. “Better than the way they look at me.”
He gestured forcefully at her with a fork. "You caved and accepted a pony name before you knew what was going on. You wanted to hide who you used to be."
She braced for the usual embarrassment she felt when Eric was mentioned. There was a little of it there—but no teeth. "I still wanted to be me again when this was over. That's what I was trying to learn first, even when Iron told me not to." 
"Oh, I noticed." He held up one claw, flexing the strange, avian almost-fingers. "I'm more concerned that you've changed your mind. You're giving up on being human, just like that?"
She shrugged. "Didn't say I was giving up. Just that now I don't want it the way I used to. Instead of the most important thing in the world, it's..." She reached across the table, resting her hoof against his foreleg.
"We don't even have a life to go back to. What would I be losing?"
He was silent for a few seconds, eyeing the satchel on his shoulder. "Everything burned. Don't think I forgot that. I know the house was crap, but it was my crap. Doesn't mean I'm giving up two legs for good. What about your job?"
"That I hated?" she asked. "They fired me."
"Friends?"
"Everyone moved out of Livingston except you," she said. "If you go back, I'll have exactly as many friends in this place as I did on Earth. Maybe fewer... I think Iron should count."
The airship shifted and bumped under them. It wasn't the first time they'd encountered a bit of sky-turbulence. But this was heavy enough to rattle their cutlery. A few ponies scattered at other tables looked up, or even stood. How did a magical airship fly, anyway?
"I know the real reason." He prodded at his food for another few seconds. "You like that pony. You'd even give up the person you used to be!"
"I might,” she said. "I'd consider it. You can't tell me being a griffon isn't awesome either. You can fly. Now you're in a world where lots of people do it. Iron says pegasi have cities in the clouds. Don't you want to visit one?"
"Yes," he said flatly. "I do want to visit one. And then I'll fly back, take my videos with me, and make a documentary. I'll be so famous… Well, I'll be really famous. You could too, since you were part of this."
"Except no one will believe you. It doesn't matter if the facts all line up, it sounds crazier than those alien abduction stories. Hell, give me a few years and I could even tell one of those. ‘My secret alien family.’”
"We don't have blurry photos and stupid sketches. We'll have terabytes of HD video. We might have artifacts, maybe even some ponies with us." He gripped her leg again, more forcefully than before. Gus yanked her closer, tugging her over the table. "You promised you'd change me back. You promised I could go home. Is all this your way of getting me ready to go back on your word?"
"No!" She squirmed, tugging on her leg. But the griffon didn't let go. She couldn't move too forcefully, or else those sharp claws would cut right into her flesh. "I'm not going back on anything. I'll still ask Luna to send you back if that's what you want. I'm just... trying to be honest with you. I might not want to go with you."



Gus opened his beak to reply, but she never heard it. Metal groaned and buckled, and the Svalinn tilted sharply to one side, as though shoved by a gigantic arm. Lotus slammed forward onto the table, splattering food and scattering dishes. 
Gus was worse off—he flew backward, flat onto his back on the floor. Glass shattered, ponies screamed, and the ship began to tilt sideways. 
A distant voice shook the ship, rumbling through Lotus's entire body. She recognized the speaker of course—this was one mare she'd never forget.
Searing Gale. "The Equestrian princess thinks that my power was stolen from me! She is mistaken!"
Every overhead light went abruptly dark. Lotus groaned, sitting up in her seat. Her horn lit up, and she wasn’t the only one—a dozen unicorns did the same. 
Some righted themselves in seconds, while others had landed more painfully, and could do little more than roll over and groan. Not all responded to the stress of attack the same way.
"General quarters!" An alarm blared overhead, almost as loud as the voice. The captain, though Lotus had only heard him once. "All hooves to stations! General quarters!"
"Gus, are you okay?" Lotus shook herself out, dislodging bits of scrambled eggs from her mane. Only her ego was damaged—the same couldn't be said for everyone here.
Her friend rolled onto his legs, then stood. "I'll be feeling that tomorrow, but..." 
The ship rocked sharply in the other direction, dumping every plate and cup that hadn't already fallen onto the floor to shatter. This time Lotus was ready—she flicked away several bits of shrapnel with her magic, holding herself forcefully to the ground. Only one unicorn had the same thought—everypony else scattered for a second time.
"I burn for what you did to me, Equestria! I will spread that fire to you until nothing remains!"
More metal groaning echoed from the Svalinn. The floor sloped sharply to one side, sending a landslide of shrapnel and debris down against the door. Ponies slid, though Gus wasn't among them. He reached sharply down, digging his claws into the metal and holding himself there.
Ponies took off running—fleeing several directions through the airship. But for every guard who took decisive action, there were another two ponies who just cowered in terror, ducking under their tables or fleeing in a seemingly random direction.
"The window!" She gestured in that direction, before taking several deliberate steps that way. "We need to see..."
Gus beat her there, forcing her to squeeze past him on one side to get a good view. 
As soon as she had one, she wished she hadn't. 
A beast of flame and smoke circled around the huge airship, several times larger than any pony. It resembled a Nirik only in the most basic ways—with four limbs, a horn, and a whiplike tail. It also had a set of mighty wings made from flame, and claws of heat.
It soared past the airship, extending those mighty claws as it went. Huge chunks of metal armor tumbled away as it did, raining down half molten to the distant ground.
The beast didn’t seem focused on any specific adversary—it just wanted to destroy, as energetically and vigorously as possible.



"Equestria doesn't have any defenses against this thing?" she asked no one in particular. Not that Gus was going to have an answer. He knew less about magic than she did.
"We should get closer to an exit. If the ship starts burning, we don't want to be stuck inside."
"Yeah." She let him tug her leg, dragging her through the mess. Whatever pony had been watching her was long gone now, leaving no one to stop her from going wherever she chose. 
I hope Iron isn't anywhere near that thing. 
She followed him through the packed halls, letting the griffon lead them. But with each step, she had more time to think.
I can't burn, but I can't fly. If the ship went down, she'd be crushed to death long before the heat killed her. She didn't think a Nirik would die from smoke inhalation either—only powerful enough suffocation to smother a flame would extinguish her.
But somehow, she didn’t think that durability would help her very much if the ship crashed. Depending on how fast they fell...
The Svalinn had already started to descend. So far that flight was controlled, a steep but managed downward angle. She had no way of judging exactly how high up they already were, or how much further they could fall. Miles or a few hundred feet, the narrow portholes weren't exactly clear.
At least ponies started firing back. Not with conventional cannons, there was no loud bang and rocking of the ship. Instead, she felt each shot pass through her like a wave of static, drifting briefly over her horn before fading again.
Without a clear view, she couldn't see how much good the guns were doing. Were those roars from the monster outside suggesting they were winning, or were they mocking laughter?
She knew when the ship started burning, though. Thick black smoke began to flow upward, making all the ponies around her cough and splutter.
Gus reacted quickly, snatching an Equestrian flag from the wall and wrapping it around his beak. He offered a piece to her, but she shoved it away. "No!"
Ponies screamed from below, voices strangled by the distance and battle. How many were still down there?
"All hooves, prepare to abandon ship! This is not a drill!" The alarm changed, and flashing red lights became blue—at least where they hadn't already failed from the damage. "All hooves to deck one! This is not a drill!"
Ponies pressed up the hallway behind them. Many seemed to know what they were doing, crouched low to avoid the smoke. At least Equestria knew how to train its sky-navy.
They moved with the group, though Lotus didn't bother retreating from the smoke. It felt only mildly warm, but not hot enough to force a transformation. Not yet.
They stepped into a stairwell, and the smoke and heat abruptly vanished. A faint barrier held it back, shimmering at the edges with unicorn magic. An officer waited inside, holding the steps to let ponies through. 
"Cargo hold is empty," explained another pony, standing just out of the flow of traffic. "But I'm not sure about the engines. Think maybe I heard voices before it sealed."
The unicorn swore, barely audible over the pounding hooves. Gus moved past them both with the crowd, but Lotus shifted to the side, letting others take her place. 
"Not much we can do if they didn’t get out. Princess is out engaging the beast. Anypony who goes down there is dead. Check the passenger deck, there's—" Then he stopped, eyeing Lotus. "Oh. VIP is right here. Nevermind."
Lotus moved closer, brushing her wild mane from her face. She heard Gus shouting for her up the steps, but his voice barely reached her. His words were lost in the numberless other screams. She ignored him.
"Sir," she said, speaking clearly. "Where is this... engine room. I can look for survivors."
He shook his head sharply, waving the other pony up the steps. Already the flow of traffic had begun to slow, and the smoke outside thickened. "Not an option, ma'am. Princess Luna was very clear about protecting you. Nopony could survive those conditions for long."
Her tail whipped back and forth behind her, growing quicker as she became more annoyed. "And I'm not a pony! The heat's fine, and the smoke..." She shook her head. "If you could draw a copy of that spell you're using for the smoke, that would be great. No point finding your crew if they'll just suffocate anyway."
The unicorn shifted nervously back and forth, glancing back down the steps. The screams were fainter now, more distant and hopeless. But there were definitely ponies trapped back there. "I'm disobeying the princess's instructions," he muttered. "You promise me you won't die down there?"
"Not from the burning ship!" she yelled, growing more urgent. She watched Gus on the steps. He met her eyes, finally seeming to realize what she was doing. I've been through fire before, remember? I can do this.
He turned away, joining the others on the top deck. Whatever they were doing was out of her hooves now, just like the rampaging monster.
"Take this." The unicorn shattered a little glass case on the wall, exposing the crystal within. She felt a second wave of pressure instantly, radiating out from that exact spot. "It feeds on your magic, so you need to hold it. Produces air, pushes away everything else. It can put out a little fire inside the bubble, but a big one will suck you dry." 
It was the same spell he was already using, she realized. There was a second crystal just like it in the air, only a few inches beside his face. He wasn't casting this, someone else already had. And stored it in stone for future use... apparently magic could do that. 
"Perfect!" She took a torn satchel from the floor, dumping its contents out at their hooves. Maps and papers, no doubt highly valuable strategic information. She slipped the crystal inside it, where she wouldn’t have to hold it in her magic. "Engine room, where is it?"
"Go down these steps instead of up. Second from the bottom. I don't know how many ponies are missing, but I have to hold the door up here. My only fire team is on this floor getting ponies out."
"How long do I have?"
He glanced out the porthole, then back to her. "Hard landing... I don't want to be on the bottom floor. If you're still inside, the Shining Armor Shield should be strong enough! Do you know that one?"
She didn't stop to answer, hurrying past him down the steps. Only a short distance in and the stairs were already dark, packed with a solid cloud of smoke that had nowhere else to go.
Resistant or not, Lotus began to hack and splutter, straining for breath that wouldn't come.
So much for saving magic.
 She levitated the crystal she'd been carrying up in the air as the pony above instructed. She felt it then, the steady drain of magic through her body. A little like she was carrying something much heavier. It might be too much for her, if she hadn't spent weeks building up the power to cross worlds. She could make a little air.
Another flight of steps already brought her to her first discovery—a pair of ponies in white uniforms, collapsed just outside a locked door.
"Hello?" She nudged them both in turn with a hoof, rough and urgent. "Are either of you..." The earth pony opened one eye, groaning. Their pegasus companion didn't react, not even a twitch.
"Right." No chance she had the physical strength to carry an earth pony on her back. But she didn't have to.
Lotus took one last deep breath, then hefted the earth pony into the air. She didn't have far to go, just two flights of steps kept magically clear of smoke. Even that distance strained her, with painful pressure on her temples. She'd felt a similar magical strain during the portal casting, albeit much faster. I can do this.
She dropped him at the steps without a word, nodding towards the unicorn before hurrying back the way she'd come. She tried to rouse the pegasus again, with little success. She could carry her out on the last trip, if she was still strong enough.
Another deck down and she found the doors to the engine room, along with incredible warmth. Not hot enough to burn flesh, but warmer than even the hottest day of summer. Bright orange flickered beyond, as machines that once sustained the Svalinn now consumed her from within.
The heat didn't frighten her—it called out. In the death of one thing came the strength of another, enough to sustain all the magic she wanted. If she joined the flame, she could carry ponies in her magic.
And burn them alive while I'm doing it? 
"Is anypony here?" she yelled, hurrying inside. She released the crystal, letting the flame and smoke wash over her. 
 It didn't hurt. At worst, the heat was an invitation, urging her to join it. Ponies could build airships out of metal all they wanted, but so much of it would still burn. All that strength could be ours, Lotus. All that can burn should burn and fill you with the captive magic. Take it all.
That voice—how could she still be hearing it? She couldn't hear the spellbook's invitations for weeks without learning to recognize them. It seemed much smaller somehow, weaker. But its urgings were the same.
"Hello?" someone asked, in a voice barely audible over the roaring fire. "We're... in here!"
Fuel for the flame. When they burn, we will share their strength.
Lotus hurried forward through the smoke. She didn't have to follow the sound anymore—there were other senses. The same voice that urged her had also taught her that wisdom. She felt their souls, the captive magic waiting to be released. All hers, with a little heat.
I don't have to do what you say. Searing destroyed you!
 She reached the source of the noise—a storage closet, with only faint light glowing out from inside. She felt it brush against her as she got close—another air spell!
Of course, ponies would keep one down here, in the place most likely to burn!
No. I'm not a murderer.
"There's no way out!" said another voice. "The fire spread too far!"
"If you didn't have me!" She rapped on the door, more urgent. I'm going to get you all out! There's a way through! You're gonna get a little scorched, but you're dead if you stay!" 
The door opened a crack, and several terrified ponies poked out from inside.
"Kirin?" one of them asked. "Why are you helping us?"
She rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Because I can? Wrap your hooves in something, the deck out here is scorching. Then we move."