//------------------------------//
// Some Rain Must Fall 
// Story: A Norseman Raids Equestria 
// by Timemaster 
//------------------------------//


Alrik?


Alrik fell off the swimming boat... or,  in actuality, it was more like he was blasted off. The force met his frail bones as he put his skeletal hand to the shattered part of his skull. He tumbled, and he quickly made his trusted axe swim to him, his vision blurry and colorful. After grasping the pink axe, embalmed in honey texture, in his skeletal fingers, Alrik stopped tumbling through the purple sky full of heart-shaped clouds. Alrik moved his skull to point at where the blast had come from, only to see a strange, shiny, pony, clad in iron. It had both horns and wings like that beast, but its appearance was obscured by its jet-black colored suit and red goggles. Looking in the direction it must have flown in from, Alrik saw forestland that was set ablaze. This was definitely not one of this nation's citizens, Alrik determined, swimming a jarid between his lightly clothed leg-bones. Like some Englishman's mythological character, Alrik swam his jarid (and himself) to the iron-clad creature... which had not moved an inch since hitting Alrik.
Alrik got up close, and watched as the creature's eyes seemed to get brighter. Circling and inspecting the still creature, Alrik saw an odd extrusion on the private area that seemed like a button. Curious, Alrik haphazardly pressed the button. Smoke came out after he pressed it, and the creature began to plummet a little, but Alrik grabbed it.  Alrik was somewhat convinced of what his may be, since from his old, dead, English friend, Alrik learned of some old myths from ancient cultures. His brain tingling and his skeletal face squishing itself, Alrik used his limited knowledge to come with a  single conclusion.

 'Perhaps this thing is like that metal owl of that legend?' then Alrik gasped in a little fear as his brain tingled again, his face contorted to look as if his skull's jaw was smashed, and  'Are their Cyclopes, too?'...

His brain tingled once more, his face contorted to look as if his skull's jaw was smashed, and then waited a few minutes before he calmly said, "No," he sighed, "but even if their were, they would probably just be giant, one eyed, horses."

Alrik exhaled, relieved by his own deduction, and then sent a jarid to retrieve the boat that had plummeted earlier. When it returned, Alrik laid the metal-owl-like-horse onto his boat, using his shield to swim in the air.

'If I can find the owner,' Alrik thought, 'could I be richer?'

Alrik smiled gleefully, his skeletal eyes igniting into a proud, blue, flame. Although he was not as comfortable on his shield, it seemed to not fling him off when he decided to fly towards the smoke-filled city in pursuit of the owner.

But, when he landed upon the place the smoke came from, his vision fizzed out for a second. When it returned, all he saw was a forest. Climbing back into his shield, he looked at his boat...

And the robot was not there either. Alrik climbed into his boat, confused, and flew back into the great, blue, sky...


?


The blue princess rubbed the slightly cracked horn on her head, cringing. She never used it, but it was something symbolic, so she felt pretty upset at whatever ran into her. She lifted her head, only to see a strange slab in the sky, a strange red light emanating from the top of it's black husk. She readied her wings, and within a second, she went faster than what she thought any being on Eque could. She flew quickly to the slab, but a second before she hit whatever carried it off, the slab disappeared. She looked left, which had nothing but clear sky, then looked right, and saw something that made all the hairs on her back nearly jump out of her. It looked akin to what she makes for the inhabitants of her land daily while they train for war, but gray and lifeless. She would have flew to the source of this boom, but...

[Cackling] 

"That thing does not scare me," she said, "I just gotta go," she thought for a second, "I gotta go report this to the Head sisters," her face lightened up from the horror, "Yeah, I gotta report this to the heads!"

She then, enthusiastically, flew the capital, which is in the opposite direction as the flying slab that cackled faster than she ever could laugh.