//------------------------------//
// Grand Skies 
// Story: White Sun 
// by The Psychopath 
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Shining Armor tapped the legrest on his side impatiently. So great was his fury that it seemed to singe his mane and burn the very air around him. Twilight had vanished a few days ago and the stallion's grief had not abated in the slightest. It took his guards and wife to hold him back to prevent him from slaughtering his own subjects that had gathered around the bubble Cadance had made. Well, slaughter whomever was left. The devastation that Spike caused had leveled almost forty houses and a few office buildings, not to mention the damages to the spire. Even though his wife was also in grief, she explained to the ponies what had happened and why everything led up to the point it had. Many spat at the idea of what they considered nepotism, but discussions with the other ponies who at least had a passing understanding of the situation calmed their hatred, at least by a bit.

Shining, however, did not consider such actions to be tolerable nor excusable with just a slap on the wrist. Instead of trusting their rulers and coming to them to voice their concerns, the idiots preferred instead to try and bring justice into their own hooves. Rather than try and learn as much as they could and pass judgment later, they let their baser instincts take over them like foals. Since they wanted to act like foals, Shining was going to treat them like foals. Because of the dangers they caused and the potential concept of 'treason' they could be forced into this scenario, the stallion passed a punishment for all those that were present. All monthly payments would see a taxation of fifty-five percent for three months. The ponies were obviously furious, having to pay such a high tax rate, but the even angrier Emperor reminded them, quite loudly, about what they had caused and how it all could have been avoided. The guards also didn't agree with the punishment, but they understood its purpose. The crowd, be they for or against Twilight, had caused tremendous damages, and they would help fund the repairs and reconstruction.  

A curfew had also been put into effect for the same amount of time. It was one thing that Cadance did not truly approve of and voiced her concern in public, but Shining ignored her council. It took many hours of discussion for him to agree to at least reduce the curfew to six weeks instead, but he still didn't want the ponies that took his sister away from him and potentially caused the deaths of innocent subjects to wander freely. Losing soldiers was one thing: They were there to fight and give their lives for the protection of their people. It was another to cause innocents to be caught in the crossfires.

And so the grieving stallion cogitated many ideas and concepts in his head in the, perhaps vain, attempt to find a solution to recovering his sister. She was still a necromancer, and he would still make good on his word to find her, but he wasn't going to execute her this time. He had multiple testimonies that indicated that the mare was more than willing to help contribute to the medical world, even if she was a bit too eager to work on corpses. Everything was going fine before they showed up!  

Shining rose from his throne and stepped down, concerning Cadance.

"What are you doing?" the mare asked.

"I'm going to form a small team to recover Twilight," he explained.

"A small team for what? Finding Twilight?" the mare asked.

"She was caught near the borders of Equestria. It means that she probably lives around there."

Cadance was perplexed. "She could have just traveled there."

The stallion shook his head. "I know her better than anypony save our parents. She doesn't like leaving anywhere that has books or all her scientific equipment." He started moving forward, gesturing to one of the guards to follow him. "If she travels around it's just to get some form of information and knowledge for her to read through for hours on end."

Cadance jumped off the throne, frustrated. "Shining! We can't go into Equestria! If you get caught it'll be seen as an insult to Equestria, or worse!" She exhaled loudly. "We don't have the means to defend ourselves yet against the Equestrians. We've only just started expanding into the tundra and weakening the blizzards here. It's only been two years that the farmers have managed to get strong food for us all."

Shining looked back at his wife, and for a moment his stern expression weakened. "Doesn't matter. They haven't been able to muster a proper military since the changeling invasion." He shook his head in disappointment. "It's already been a few years and they still haven't recovered."

The alicorn reached out to the stallion and was devastated when Shining recoiled from her touch. "I don't mean to harm you, Cadance, be it physically or emotionally, but this is something I must do." He took a deep breath to try and calm his anger. "We both saw what happened to Twilight's horn seal. It melted from all the magic she had. You remember the entrance exam?"

"I do," Cadance said.

"Then you'll remember what happened that day. She clearly has a tremendous amount of magic within her, and I'm afraid that whatever she's doing is making her stronger and stronger every day and she doesn't know it." He paced about a bit, much to the confusion of the guard who was meant to accompany him. "If she eventually succumbs to the temptations that necromancy brings...I'm terrified of what will happen. With the potential she wields, she could raise an entire legion of undead and flood the world with them. She needs a purpose when she fails at resurrecting Celestia, otherwise she will be consumed with her obsession." The stallion proceeded to the gates and opened them, revealing a large line of ponies that shrank away when they revealed who was in front of them. "And I have much planning and work to do to find her." He ignored the now-silent crowd and continued through the castle with purpose in every step. " I just hope the trauma she went through didn't break something in her or make her go even more deranged than she already was."





"Aaaaaah! Smell that fresh mountain air, Spike!" Twilight said with a smile. "They were right. I needed some space in the open away from ponies to feel much better." She looked at the undead, her weak smile unfazed. "What's that? Yes. Of course we're still going to the griffon aerial port. I'm not staying in Equestria if I can help it." She frowned at the silent dragon. "No, we're not going to charge through everypony there. They're more civilized than..." Her cocksure attitude dissipated almost instantly when her recent trauma resurfaced. Spike patted her on the head once, breaking her from her trance. "Oh, thank you, Spike."

Mountaineering had never been easier with Spike. Its claws, reinforced by Twilight's magic, were able to easily cut through stone and hold themselves in place, allowing for easy climbing. The mare expected to only find stone and snow, but she was pleasantly surprised to find grass, foliage, and even some thin flowers of white, gold, or crimson. Even on the steepest inclines they were able to grow. The mare had taken six days of traveling and eating what was given to her by the mountain. She didn't even need to dig into her supplies the whole time, and she enjoyed it.

When the rancid stench of roasted meat reached her nostrils, she couldn't help but pull back in horror. It meant the griffin aerial port was nearby, and it was proved by a small path the mare had found dug into the mountain itself. At its end was a small city of wood and stone whose architecture resembled spiraling huts. They twisted and turned with twirling pathways seemingly holding the interior building in place. The larger ones saw the twirling paths dig into the building itself before other paths emerged. It was a bizarreness to the mare that couldn't understand how anything seemed to work. Weren't they cold all the time?

The entrance wasn't walled up and no one was watching it. Instead, the usual griffin inhabitants wandered around and flew every so often either onto a perch or into the mountains. Most, however, were concentrated on the very large port that easily dwarfed the city itself. Where the city might have been able to house around three thousand inhabitants or more, the port itself was wide enough to be able to house ten thousand on a bad day. Such was the immensity of its size that warehouses were dotted about everywhere and goods were being exchanged, registered in a ledger, or very legally loaded onto one of the many ships waiting at one of the floating piers overlooking a very steep and sudden drop. A white mist flew up on many occasions from the dizzying depths, imitating the crash of waves against the bricks of a city's pier. It was easy to see everything, even from where Twilight stood when she observed the city from the outside.

Twilight noticed that while some griffins took note of Spike, most didn't seem to focus on it too deeply. They were too busy with their routines and enjoying the wealth the status of a trade port afforded. No one could attack them in the mountains, and the pathway was far too narrow to bring an army up. It wasn't a mystery to Twilight how they were even able to keep the peace where they were. She was followed very closely by several heavily armored griffins sporting leather armor beneath plate covering their heads, torso, and back. While they seemed aloof, Twilight could feel that it was all a lure to get the most rowdy of the city's visitors to let down their guard. They let out a disgusting atmosphere about them that made the mare realize what they were: Mercenaries.

If there was one thing all the books that Twilight knew about the military world, it was to never cross a mercenary unless you were one yourself or a well-trained soldier. Her brother's council on the matter was a fortuitous bit of foresight on his part. Worried that they might go after her, the mare ignored the main, large path cutting through the city and went down a side alley where griffins plied their trade or worked on the buildings. Scaffolding was dotted about here and there, but most annoying of all was all the abandoned crates and refuse hanging about everywhere. There were even bottles that had been emptied of their treasure days ago that were left to the rats and insects crawling about the streets.

Going through one alleyway avoided by the inhabitants saw Twilight stopped by a few ne'er do well griffins. They were unable to do anything after pulling out some clubs and poking the mare with one. The unicorn left the alleyway in a joyous gait, glad to be reaching the actual port itself. Confused, the inhabitants looked behind her and paled when they saw the bloody pulp the would-be-extortioners were left as. They were still alive, sure, but barely. No one came to their aid.

"Don't worry about them, Spike," Twilight said. "There's po-creatures like that in every city. You don't need to be scared anymore." She approached a griffin checking a clipboard and correcting some of its contents with a piece of coal stuck in a stick, the whole thing wrapped up with white string. "Excuse me," the mare called out.

The griffin turned around, a scowl on their face. "What is it?" she asked. "I'm busy with this manifest." Her eyes slowly trailed up the white shape standing behind the pony, and her mouth dropped. "A necromancer?"

"Y-yes," Twilight acknowledged nervously.

"You want out of Equestria, I take it."

"J-just temporarily," Twilight corrected.

The griffin scoffed at her. "You probably realized that none of us care much about what comes through here."

"As long as I keep to myself, yes," Twilight acknowledged. "I was told that I could take an airship here to Saddle Arabia."

She was met with suspicion. "You have money?"

"In a way," the mare trailed off.

The griffin shrugged and used the writing tool to point at a large, red ship sporting multiple red balloons wrapped in golden string floating above. They all seemed connected by strange pipes that dangled slightly when the balloons moved. A central chimney of black iron ran from the desk to the largest balloon in the middle, and Twilight could see the metal heating with a fire burning inside it. As the balloons inflated, several flaps were pulled open near the top of the chimney, revealing the orange light within and letting out hot air.

"That 'way' better be cash or you aren't going anywhere." Twilight gulped and made for the airship, but the griffin caught her shoulder and tightened her grip. "I feel I should warn you if you do get on: Do anything that annoys them and the sailors will toss you and your undead creature off the side of the deck into the vast emptiness below."

Twilight started to shake again and cursed under her breath. "I don't want to cause anypony any trouble. I just want to Saddle Arabia."

The griffin snickered. "The other necromancers that passed by here had similar ideas and words, but theirs was filled with more arrogance, and they ended up annoying the crews. Even with their power, there's no dead floating in the sky, so they were promptly chucked over." She pointed at Spike. "Even if that thing can take out everyone on the ship, you'll be left with a vessel you don't know how to pilot or land." She let go and gestured 'goodbye' with her claws. "Have fun," she mused.