//------------------------------//
// Air 
// Story: White Sun 
// by The Psychopath 
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A large griffin wearing a black coat with a white, buttoned undershirt and a red fore-and-aft bicorne with golden trim.  There was a strange pattern on its left side that Twilight didn't recognize and whose meaning eluded her. It looked like two picks with the edge of their blades at the base of each other's handle. His head feathers were black but the ones around his eyes created a sky-blue mask of sorts. The same blue coloration could be found around the feathers above his claws and at the tip of his tail.

"What about the canned goods? Last time we ended up having to leave the ship and hunt in the forests," the griffin said. "Not eating those things again," he murmured while rubbing his belly.

The sailor he spoke to groaned. "Yes, captain. We've taken enough supplies this time to last four whole months, and plenty of fresh water and silt. We'll be drunk and fed at any moment."

The gaudy griffin pointed to a thinner member of their species aggressively. "Everything loaded up? I don't want to end up at a dock and learn that we're missing a shipment."

"They...Uh, captain." The griffin pointed behind him.

"What is it?" The captain turned around and came face-to-face with an undead dragon. "An undead dragon? That's new." He looked down and saw a smiling pony. "And you must be the necromancer," he concluded.

"Yes." Twilight fumbled in her saddlebags and pulled out the letter she was given. "I was told you were going to Saddle Arabia."

"Aye? And what's it to you?"

"Would you be willing to take me there?" she asked.

The captain folded his wings. "Depends if you have money or not." He stopped Twilight before she could extend the letter. "And no bits. We don't use Equestrian money." The mare extended her hoof and passed the letter regardless. Seeing its contents, the griffin looked up briefly at Twilight with wide eyes and tucked the letter into a pocket. "Got friends in high places, it seems. Odd for a necromancer. Very well."

"What? But captain--"

The sailor was interrupted with a claw. "I take it you were told what happens if you annoy us."

"Yes, sir," Twilight responded.

"Well, just because everything is paid for," the captain said as he patted his pocket. "doesn't mean that you can just sit underneath the deck and do nothing for the whole trip."

"Oh, of course!" She looked at Spike whose eyes glowed. "I can have Spike help you out with whatever you might need," the mare said. "Well, anything regarding lifting, of course."

The captain grabbed the tip of Twilight's horn and hummed pensively. "You can use your magic powers as well to help as well, but no necromancy."

The unicorn tilted her head to the side, curious. "Okay? I wasn't going to use any on any of you anyways. You aren't dead, and I need all my magic for my research."

Whispers came from the two skeptical sailors, but the captain smiled, ignoring their concerns. "Welcome aboard the ship of Captain Killikle, miss pony."

"Oh, my name is--"

"Not important," Killikle interjected. "You're just goods being transported on our way to Saddle Arabia." He leaned in, a scowl on his face. "It'll take us at least a month to get there. Still faster than by boat, but we aren't being pushed by magic," he mused. "You'll be sleeping in one of the passenger cabins below deck." He put a claw to his beak and shot out a plug in his nostril. "Sorry about that. Anyways, the cabins haven't been used for a long time since we have only ever acted as a goods transport. Are you alright with that?"

"Of course!" Twilight responded. "I didn't expect this to work anyway, so I'm glad I can at least have a cabin."

"Then we set sail when everything is in order!" Killikle announced.

The deck of the airship was a polished, brown-orange metal that Twilight assumed was copper. Unfortunately, she couldn't be sure or look closer because the sailor guiding her forced the mare below deck where a strange stink resided. She passed several sailors transporting barrels and crates to and fro, many giving her and Spike vitriolic glares. The small cabin, located near the aft of the ship, was decorated with a table, a chair, and a bed hanging off the wall. It was held up by two chains under stress from the weight. It wasn't very big and could barely house Twilight and her undead, but it did its job perfectly. No one would be able to get through the door while Spike was there, and none of the griffins would dare try and attack them.

Tired from her mountaineering, Twilight dropped her saddlebags, yawned, and started dusting everything with her magic. There were cobwebs and thick sheets of dust everywhere. As she worked, the mare took in the natural 'fragrance' of the vessel and furrowed her brows in an attempt to understand what it was. A toxic, pungent odor that burned her nostrils, but it felt like she knew it from somewhere. It wasn't a rotting corpse nor was it a toxic product. It was a mystery that gnawed at the confines of Twilight's already damaged mind, but the effects were minor. It was a minor annoyance, trying to identify the smell. She only knew that the odor reminded her of 'height' for some reason. Something from very very high in the sky.

Using the same spells to clean her own home, the mare was able to teleport small mounds of dust and detritus outside the hull of the ship to be taken by the winds and annoy someone else after they just cleaned their home. Feeling satisfied with her work, the mare checked the pillow and sheets on the thin mattress and sighed in relief: There were no bugs or hidden 'surprises' that she didn't want to see. She was quick to tuck herself into bed and drift off to sleep. When she woke up, she would have to contend with the sailors and the captain and would have to walk on eggshells around them. They might look for any excuse to throw her overboard, and while she could easily just teleport her and Spike back home using the medallions, it would be tedious to go all the way back through the mountains just to find the city again.

It had only been a few hours when someone started knocking on Twilight's door. The mare moved groggily to the door, her eyes still stinging from slumber. A sailor was waiting for her.

"Captain wants to see you," he said. "Follow me."

The mare did as told and moved onto the deck where Captain Killikle waited for her with baited breath.

"What's wrong?" Twilight asked.

"I need help getting coal into the coal pit next to the furnace," the captain explained. He pointed to the tremendous chimney sitting in the middle of the ship and linked to the balloons above. The mouth of the machine was devouring shovels of coal gluttonously, its appetite seemingly never sated. The sailors feeding it shut its 'mouth' using a long hook and wiped themselves of coal dust. "Get at least three crates from below up here."

Twilight looked around nervously. "But...we don't know where the crates are," she said.

"And that's why you have my sailors here to help you," the griffin mused.

He jerked his head to the side, forcing the sailor to show them where to go.

"I don't understand why we don't just throw you overboard," the sailor said. "Necromancers are always loaded and get on everyone's nerves." He smirked. "I wonder how long you'll last until you annoy everyone enough. A month can be a long time." The unicorn ignored his comments, annoying the mariner and boring him. The trio found themselves a second deck lower where all the cargo was stored. "They're there," he said.

There was a pile of around twenty crates each marked with several black circles and sporting the logo of a 'Mark's Coal Mines" on the wood. Each crate was large and wide enough to hold three ponies atop each other when lying down. Before she could even be told, Twilight directed Spike to grab one of the boxes which it did easily. It grabbed another, placing both on its shoulders while Twilight levitated the last one with her magic and followed her assistant to the deck where one haughty captain and irritated sailors looked in awe as the boxes were carried with surprising ease by both passengers. They landed with a violent thud next to the furnace, causing the ship to shift slightly before righting itself. The silence following the shocking display was broken when Twilight asked what she could help with next. Several of the griffins rushed forward, asking her to help them clean which she did with relative ease. She couldn't conjure up soap out of nowhere, so she used a similar spell she used at home and wiped everything clean of grime. Of course, she didn't think the consequences through and, while the ship was shiny on the outside, it also became very slippery. If it wasn't for the natural railing, the griffins would have likely fallen overboard. Twilight quickly corrected the mistake and smiled sheepishly at the partially annoyed crew.

"That's enough, sailors," the captain chastised. "You'll become lazy and complacent if we rely on magic too much, now get to work," he ordered them. Killikle shook his head in disappointment. "I really didn't think that you were going to be helping us at all, but seeing your undead somehow carry two of those heavy creates and seeing you casually levitate one alongside it was...a stunning surprise."

"How so? It's just levitation magic," Twilight said. "Any unicorn can do it."

"Exactly!" the griffin said. "But the necromancers many of us have freighted were hardly capable of even levitating a barrel. Most of the time they depend on their undead for anything and everything and use their magics to create or summon more."

Twilight repeated the words silently to herself while trying to make out what the captain had said before coming to a sudden realization. "Ooooh. That's how you're able to throw the others overboard even when they're using their magic."

"I didn't say all of them," the captain corrected. He looked up at Spike and circled the undead, taking everything in. "This creature of yours is quite imposing. An undead dragon." He tilted his head to the side, his mind stuck in full contemplation. "Wouldn't it have been better to summon a full-grown dragon? The power must be spectacular."

Twilight shrugged. "Yes, but I'm not strong enough to have them listen to me, and they're too big to be an assistant." Killikle looked at Twilight suddenly then burst into laughter. "What?!" Twilight shouted.

"You're the funniest necromancer I've ever come across. An undead dragon as an assistant. That's the best thing ever," he continued. "Oh, I wish the trips were always like this. It becomes tedious to always see the same landscapes and do the same things over and over again, believe me."

"Pirates!" the sailor in the crow's nest announced.

The captain groaned and pulled out two armored gloves that ended in bladed claws from his coat. "And then there's moments like these that break the tedium but aren't wanted."





Shining and ten guards wandered through the snow of the Crystal Kingdom, the natural magic of the Crystal Heart protecting them from the worst of the weather. Shining made sure to walk behind everypony until they reached the border of Equestria. He was the most used to the weather and was the most protected by the Crystal Heart and so used both his training regiment and the benefits of his position to watch and aid his soldiers when needed. It took several days to get through the thick, snowy tundra and tall mountains that shook themselves to cover everything in their freezing tears. The stallion was determined to get his sister back, but he wasn't foolish enough to believe he could find her on his own. It was always beneficial to have more eyes and weapons at your side.

"I'll find you, Twilight," Shining thought to himself. "You need help, and your BBBFF is here to give it."