//------------------------------// // Harder Better Faster Stronger (19) // Story: Embrace the Darkness, Carpe Noctem // by musicman722 //------------------------------// New Quest: Build your airship and take to the skies Challenges: Build the airship without direct help from ponies- +10 Magic Complete the ship in less than 5 hours - +10 Endurance Reward- 3000 XP Accept/Decline … Accept I stood at the lip of the hole and peered inside. Below was the pile of gems and ore of the Dragon's Den along with whatever we happened to dig up over the past week. Outside, sitting at the bottom of the slope was the broken remains of the ship. We had to break it apart to carry it all the way here as it was too heavy to take as a whole. Sitting next to it was some piles of fresh timber we retrieved from the forest and the dragon corpses. I'm still surprised at myself at how I was able to convince Magnus, despite his obvious dislike and distrust towards me. I recalled the event as I stared at the corpses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Are you going to bury your parent’s bodies?” I asked, preparing myself for the incoming argument. “No.” Magnus replied rather bluntly. I blinked in surprise. “Really? Not even a single funeral rite?” ‘This may be easier than I thought.’ “No.” he said, “Before they left, they transferred a portion of their power to us, should anything happen to them. As for burials, it doesn’t matter much. They will return to the earth one way or another.” He sounded like he was quoting a teaching. “Why?” ‘Interesting.’ I mused. “Well, as one who respects the dead, I was going to offer a suggestion on how they be honored.” Magnus said nothing but instead gave a suspicious look to me. I had to tread carefully now. There was no going back. “Instead of letting their bodies rot on the ground here, why not have them fly once again?” I said as smoothly as I could. Magnus narrowed his eyes at me, “What do you mean by that?” “I mean that I can, and want to, give them a grave that does them justice for their deaths.” I said, conviction flowing into my voice as I spoke, “Erebus has pissed on the both of us and I want to show him that I'm not taking his crap anymore. I want him to know that I'm coming for him with everything he's done to me.” “And how would you do that?” “I want to use them to help build my new airship.” I asked with a, hopefully, unfaltering smile, “It would give them a chance to fly again, in a way, and it would show Erebus that I won't be stepped on anymore from him.” Magnus’ eyes held their gaze on me, not giving away any emotion. He snorted, “Why can’t you just use the trees of this island? I’ll even give you some of the ores from my den. They should provide well enough for repairs.” He asked, avoiding the topic. “Because, Magnus,” I said in a controlled tone, “There might be a chance that Erebus will send another dragon, or worse, and we may not see it until it’s too late. All that work would go up in smoke and the others won’t be able to go home at all.” Magnus hummed to himself. “Then defend yourself like you did against my parents. You seem like you could do it.” I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult. I waved a hand in the direction of the ship, “I swore that I would take them home and I can’t do that if the ship they’re on crashes again. We were lucky enough to not have severe injuries. Next time we may not have that luck.” Magnus kept his steady gaze on me, his eyes piercing into mine. Seeing that he wasn't budging, I had to try a different approach. “If you would like, I can let you take part in the process. You can help create their shrine, give them honor after death.” I said smoothly. I think I saw his face twitch. “Also, after we're done building it, I extend the offer of letting you come along on my journey to hunt Erebus down.” I glance casually at our surroundings, “It's not like you have much going here for you anyways. If you kept living here, it wouldn't take too long until you ran out of food. “Dragons can go for long periods of time without food.” He protested “Then what? Both you and Pearl would both starve eventually and I doubt you know the way to find more food. Your parents left you with protecting your sister and you can’t do that if she dies of hunger.” Magnus seemed to falter a bit. I pressed my attack. “And what if a raiding party comes by? You would barely have the energy to fend them off and they could take Pearl away as a slave. Maybe even kill her for her scales. Would you want that for her? If you come with me, I can teach you how to better defend yourself so you can protect Pearl. Also, you would both be close to your parent’s grave at all times. Pearl would like that, wouldn’t she?” The Voice snickered. Physics and politics are more alike than they seem. Sometimes you need a bit of leverage. Magnus stared at me, working over the offer in his head. After a few moments, he raised a single claw, “One condition though, I want to be there when you fight Erebus.” I silently cheered as I bowed my head to him, “Of course.” Achievement Unlocked: A way with words- gained 100 XP Achievement Unlocked: Priceline Negotiator!- gained 100 XP ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more than a week, I experimented with my working materials and designed the new ship as the others dragged the pieces to the volcano. Incidentally, I also found out that I don’t require as much sleep as I used to, running about three days on a four hour nap. I also took the time to show Magnus how to use the magic to make the ship, or at least to power me as I make the ship. “Remind me again, why are we here?” Storm cloud said. She stood next to a group of unicorns who proved to be the strongest out of the bunch. “Because I may need your magic if I want this thing to work.” I said. Not necessarily, since I was sure that the volcano's energy and my power were sufficient, but hey, better safe than sorry. I only have one shot at this and I'd rather not mess it up. “But for right now, you're going to be passing the energy down to me. Just be ready when I need you.” They nodded and went to their positions on the side of the volcano. We set this up carefully for today. The pegasi gathered all the nearby clouds and placed them above where I’m going to work, with a few making sure it didn’t disperse. I was currently in my Base form, not wanting to waste any energy on my other forms. Magnus stood at the top of the volcano where he could channel the heat energy down to me. It was a good thing that his scales were very resistant to heat, otherwise the entire procedure would become much more difficult and risky. The unicorns were strung out up and down the side of the volcano. Their job was to pass the energy from Magnus to me. Everyone else was on the far side of one of the other mountains in case my spell somehow back fired and caused the volcano to erupt. I tapped my gem communicator, “Magnus, everything ready on your end?” There was a bit of static but I could make out his voice, “It’s hot and ready to go.” “Alright then, light it up!” I raised my hand in the air and spun it in a circle, signaling the start of the process and causing a five hour countdown timer to appear in my HUD. The unicorns tensed up and started to activate their horns. I could hear Magnus’ shout over the communicator. “Extractum Therma!” I could almost see the wave of energy flow down the mountain, jumping from horn to horn like a frog. Finally, it reached me and calling that a power boost was a severe understatement. MOTHER OF GOD, THE POWER! IT FEELS AMAZING! I felt like I had upgraded from AA batteries to a nuclear generator! I had not expected such a rush of energy from the volcano. The power of heat itself! How much could be done with this? How much energy was wasted on fossil fuels when we could have used heat itself? If only we could have tapped into this source sooner. We would have had less energy and environmental problems to deal with every day. I was snapped out of my epiphany by the sound of Storm Cloud calling out my name to start the procedure. “Oh, right.” I said. I raised my hands and pointed them at both piles. “Trans Form Materia!” I shouted. I felt a pang of regret as the sweet, powerful energy trailed down my arms and jumped out of my hands with a tingle. The energy shot out and latched onto the lumber and the bodies. Instantly, they both started to change in to a liquid state of themselves and flowed into the air. The bones of the dragons came out first in a trail of white from their mouths. As they left, the bodies slowly collapsed like a bouncy house without the air turbine. I flicked my hands up and the glob of liquid bone rose into the air. I split the glob into two equal masses and started to craft my ship. As I did so, I hummed to myself. ‘Work it, Make it, Do it, Makes us.’ Using one blob, I reformed the spine and ribs of one dragon, and used the rest of the bone to add some extra ribs along the lower half. When that was done, I flipped it upside down, thus creating the bottom hull of the ship. I held that in place as I worked the other blob into a similar shape and placed it above the other, creating a sort of cage in midair. ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.’ “Keel and structure are set.” I said to myself, crossing the step off my mental checklist. That was the easy part. I glanced at the clock to see that it took half an hour to mold the bones. “Now I have to glue them together.” I grabbed at the timber and turned all of it into a gelatinous wooden mass. The organic matter rose up like a tree growing in fast forward and raced between the gaps in the ribs. Once it was all inside, I put all my concentration into the next step of the process. I molded the wood like play-doh, spreading it all around the inside to the cage, filling in all the gaps between the bones. I subconsciously bit my tongue as I tried to make sure every part had an even amount of wood material. Others may say I'm OCD. I prefer the term 'perfectionist'. ‘More than, hour, our, never.’ “Hmm, not too much here. Wouldn't want to disrupt the weight balance, now would I?” I thought aloud to myself as I worked, “I suppose I can take a bit off here. Just a little bit.” I worked meticulously, trying to set the bones in the wood just right. I knew I could adjust it later when I added the metals, but for now I wanted it to hold fast until then in case I can't finish. Four hours, ten minutes left. ‘Ever after, work is, over.’ Once the hull was set, I began working on the different decks from the blue prints I had ingrained into my memory. Starting from the bottom, I laid down the structural supports and then laid down the flooring and walls for the rooms. One the bottom deck was done, it was just a matter of fill, design and repeat. I tried not to look at the clock as I worked, knowing that it would only stress me out and stress was the last thing I needed now. About three quarters of the way through with the wood I heard Magnus' voice on the communicator. “Gunhaver, it's starting to get a bit difficult in pulling out all this heat. How much more do you have to do?” I glanced at the clock to see I had a little over two hours left for the challenge. I knew it was just a challenge, but challenges were my drive. I'll be damned if I lose to a simple challenge like this. “Almost done with the wood. I just need to set in the metals, scales and the propulsion system. Anything else is free game if I can get to them. Just keep going, It shouldn't be much longer until I'm done.” “Hurry, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up.” he said. I agreed as well, noticing my mana bar had dropped considerably despite the energy stimulus. I quickened my pace in my building as much as I could without sacrificing quality. Luckily, it wasn't much left, according to my mental blueprints, and I was able to finish with two hours to spare. ‘Work it harder, Make it better, Do it faster, Makes us stronger.’ Now came the hard part. The metals. Over the past week as I studied them, I had to design this part carefully. I had plenty of gold and gems, and there were some nice iron and carbon deposits I could use for steel work. However, my pride came from one ore in particular. It was unbelievably strong, not even an explosion made a scratch and the only way I could cut it was to use my spell. I showed it to Flamel and he confirmed that the ore was Adamantium, one of the extremely rare and strongest ores of the world. When I asked Magnus where his family got it, he said it was from a raid and said no more about it. There wasn't as much of the ore as I would have liked, so I had to use it carefully. ‘More than ever, hour after, our work is never over’ I spun what little of the precious metal I had into long, thin rods. When each rod was made, I then placed them in key areas of the bone structure. That way, I could be sure that it wouldn’t fall apart under its own weight or from external shocks. My hands flicked back and forth as the rods were set in place. One in the bow, one in the aft, two in the middle, repeat for the top half. Oh, I have some left over, well then one more right here, two in those joints there, move those over a bit. Another twenty five minutes gone. “Gunhaver!” Magnus yelled through the communicator. “Don’t rush me!” I yelled back, “Just hang in there. I’m almost done.” I gathered up the iron and carbon material and began to mix them like cake batter, taking care not to add too much carbon to the mix. Granted I was no expert on metallurgy and the only things I remember about chemistry were from the lectures back at college. Luckily I didn’t have to remember them by myself. “Flamehoof!” I shouted. The pepsi colored stallion popped out of a shallow ditch and trotted over to me. I held the metal mixture in the air with an outstretched hand and pure heat in the hand drawn back near my face. Flamehoof stopped next to me and stared at the sight before him. “Alright, now what you wanna do here is to heat that sucker up until it’s as hot as you can get it.” He said. I nodded and began to cram as much heat as I could into the mix, pushing my hands together. The orb started to glow a dull red, then quickly lit up to a bright orange yellow, and then finally a brilliant white. “Good,” Flamehoof said, “Now cool that bucker quick!” I started to draw out the heat by the kilojoules and soon enough, the orb was back to its cooled state. ‘Work it harder, Make it better, Do it faster, Makes us stronger.’ “Now light it up again, but this time, get it to a dull yellow.” He said. I did as he said and after it was reheated and cooled a few times, it was ready to use. “Should be workable now. I gotta say, this isn’t the way I expected to forge metals.” He said with awe, “Now if you need me, I’ll be in my little hole there.” ‘More than ever, hour after, our work is never over’ I had almost an hour left. I had to work harder now if I wanted to get that achievement. I immediately set to putting the tempered steel in the ship. I lined the hull, creating cross braces at the bones and strengthening the supports. I did this for every part of the ship I could reach. I worked frantically, every glance at the clock forcing me to work even faster. “I’m not sure if I can keep this up.” Magnus said, “The heat’s getting harder to drag out and I think the magma's almost cooled down and solidified.” “Dammit!” I swore, “Magnus, just keep digging for it. Heat should always rise to the top from the convection currents.” I had to finish this in time. I quickly wrapped up the steel works, leaving some for later use. I glanced at the clock once more. There was only thirty minutes left, and so much left to do. I growled my frustration as I was forced to switch to plan B and kick things into overdrive. I snatch up the scales in my magic and drag them onto the ship, having them overlap each other as I attached them to the hull with a quick “Insero” to each one. ‘Work it harder, Make it better, Do it faster, Makes us stronger.’ “Okay, last part. Just hang in there Magnus!” I shouted. I grabbed the two dragon bodies, or what was left of them and began to tear them apart. I clipped off the wings of both and attached the sets to the sides of the ship, each with ropes holding them in place. Then I took the rest of the skins and formed two fleshy balloons out of them. I quickly put them in their spot in the top part of the ship and attached it to the hull proper. When that was done, I pumped as much heat as I could into the bags of flesh, expanding the gasses inside them until they could support the ship. I glanced at the clock and sighed with relief as I barely had two minutes to spare. “Okay, Magnus. Let go of the spell, we're done here.” I could hear him sigh with relief as he let go of the heat and fell to his knees from exhaustion. The unicorns themselves were sweating up a storm from all the magic straining. One by one, their horns winked out and they too collapsed, most of them asleep before they hit the ground. Finally the ending wave reached me and I whined in protest as the wonderful, blissful energy left my body. What I would give to feel that power again. I fell as well, not feeling the impact through my Base form. My eyes flickered to see that my mana bar was drained completely and ate away into my health bar to almost dangerously low levels. “Damn, this spell took a helluva bite out of me.” I huffed, “Good thing I brought a snack.” I wearily dragged myself up and crawled over to the pit I had some of the dogs dig earlier. I pulled myself up to the edge and peered over at my food. Inside was the rest of the Diamond Dog prisoners I had left alive. I already got what I needed from them, so why did I keep them alive? Because you get hungry some times. Oh, right. “Well then, eenie meanie mineie you.” I grabbed one of the dogs by his tail and bodily pulled him up. I was a bit surprised at my current strength, pulling up a hundred twenty pound weight with a single arm alone like it was a sack of apples. My only disappointment was that I had no muscles to show it off. I would be so ripped right now. Smiling at my mental image of my muscular self, I bit into the dog's tail and drained the energy out of him. It felt so refreshing to have a nice cool drink of chocolate milk after lots of hard work like that. Once I was done with that one, I picked out another and drained him. I repeated this process until all of them were nothing but mummified corpses. I descended into the pit and began to dismantle the bones out of their bodies, leaving the furs for later. Maybe I should make a rug or a blanket out of them? Would go for some nice coin to the right buyer. I pondered these thoughts as I ripped the bone from the cartilage and put it in my satchel. I made a mental note to repair or replace the worn out bag when I could. 'Heh, maybe I could use the dog skins as replacement leather.' When I was done and all the pieces of the dogs that I wanted were in my satchel, I climbed out of the pit and sat on the edge, where I could get a good look at my creation hovering in the air. It was as long as the previous ship and a bit wider than before. Staying true to my promise to Magnus, I made the ship look like two dragons in embrace, one with their back to the sky the other to the ground. The wings were a nice touch to it too. The red scales glinted off the setting sunlight in a spectacular manner. I could see the small gap between the two dragons where the main deck was. The posts attaching the bottom to the top looked a lot like the arms and legs of the dragons. Sadly there was no tail as I needed the spot for the steering mechanisms, but I could fix that later. I sat there, taking in every aspect I could of the new ship. “She’s a beaut, ain’t she?” I looked over to see Flamehoof sitting next to me. “That she is, Flame. That she is.” I said. “I see you went with plan B.” he pointed to the wings, “Not enough energy?” “Something like that.” I grumbled. Flamehoof laughed, “You really wanted to build those engines didn’t you?” I had showed him my original designs during some planning sessions. “Are you kidding?” I said, turning to him, “I spent a week working on that design and I can’t even use it yet! Makes me feel like a government worker.” I pounded the ground, “I would have been the fastest bastard in the skies!” “Really? Even faster than Rainbow Dash?” he raised an eyebrow at me. “Who?” I was curious now. Was this supposed to be some hot shot racer? “This mare who claims herself to be the fastest flyer in Equestria. I’m surprised she hasn’t joined the Wonderbolts yet.” “I see.” I lied. I was very curious now. If I could find this Dash mare, maybe I could get a race from her. “Anyways, I suggest you go and get the others over here now. Should be safe since we practically used up all the heat in this volcano.” Flamehoof nodded and took off to the mountain where the others were. I laid back on the ground and kept admiring my work as my HUD flashed notifications. Quest Complete: Gained- 3000 XP Gained- Custom Airship 2/2 Bonus Challenges Complete Gained +10 Magic Gained +10 Endurance Achievement Unlocked: Full Matter Alchemist- instant level up Achievement Unlocked: If you want something done right…- gained 500 XP Achievement Unlocked: Last Rites- gained 250 XP Total XP earned – 3750 XP You are now at level twenty seven -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It took a while but soon enough, everyone was gathered under the new airship, many of them staring at it in awe. I stood next to Magnus and whispered to him, “Told you I could do it.” He kept his eyes on the ship. “It’s…amazing.” he said breathlessly. “I know.” I said with content. I stepped away from him and whistled loudly to get everyone’s attention. When all eyes were on me, I spoke, “As promised, I've rebuilt the ship and a way off of this island.” I pointed to the ship, “I intend to keep my word and take you all back to the mainland.” Everyone cheered at the news. I swiftly silenced them with my next words, “But this is MY ship now and as its owner, I’d like to make a deal with you.” I put my hands together, only making contact with my claws, and spoke in a dead serious tone, “As it is, I am in need of a crew, a proper crew. You all are just passengers working off your stay. Now, I recently discovered that the dogs who captured who came from Ruby Hollow in Gem Fido. I will take you home after I make a quick detour there to thank them for giving me a ride off my island. You have until we reach Canterlot to decide if you want to be part of the crew. I promise food, shelter and protection. If you don't wish to stay, then so be it.” I returned to a more cheerful voice, “Now, welcome aboard the Spirit of Vengeance.”