//------------------------------// // XIII - Shipbuilding // Story: Pony Fantasy V: Exodus of the Void // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// XIII - Shipbuilding As the Celestia disappeared over the horizon, Lyra cracked her hooves. “Let’s get busy!” Twilight nodded. “We are going to need a lot of wood and large quantities of blueprint paper…” “I bet the Minister has it!” Lyra offered. “I suppose he does have access to the secondary storehouses… They would have survived the explosion.” “Great! Let’s go ask him!” The Minister was… less than thrilled about their request. “You want me to hand over a large quantity of wood and blueprint paper? Why?” “Well, we need to cross the Desert of Shifting Sands and we think we have a way to do it.” Twilight said. The Minister’s jaw dropped. “What? Cross the Desert of Shifting Sands? Is that a good use of royal resources? We’re in the middle of a crisis! All our mills aren’t working! The wood in our storehouses is all we have left and you’re asking for enough to build an entire house out of!” “But…” Lyra said, tapping her hooves together. “We have to go save the Earth Crystal…” The Minister glared at her. “Okay… Maybe I also want to go see the Lost City and find proof that humans actually existed…” Twilight facehooved. “I can assure you Minister that the Fire Crystal itself instructed us to go to Cadenza, I am not simply trying to help my daughter substantiate her ridiculous theories.” “HEY! They’re legitimate theories! The library of ancients had mention of humans-“ “It also had mention of a ‘Crystal of Light and Aether.” Twilight pointed out. “And we know those don’t exist.” “But…” Twilight sighed. “Okay, maybe humans did exist in ancient times. That still has nothing to do with why we need to cross the desert. Minister, surely you can-“ “No.” “What?” “I said no.” The Minister repeated, frowning. “We need these resources too much in this time of crisis.” “Don’t you understand that if the Earth Crystal is destroyed there won’t be any planet left to live on?” The Minister glared. “I find that hard to believe. Fire, Water, and Air still still exist - just without their substance. I expect that if the Earth Crystal shatters all that will happen is that the ground will get less solid-“ “And turn into nothing but sand!” “An unfounded theory for someone who calls themselves a scientist.” The Minister noted. Twilight twitched. “Fine then, we’ll go find our wood elsewhere.” She stormed off in a huff, Lyra trotting close behind her. “So… when are we going to bust into the warehouse and steal it?” Twilight stopped dead in her tracks. “Lyra? What on earth are you thinking?” “Well we need the wood-“ “I can chop trees down with my magic and I can purchase some blueprint paper. It will just take a lot longer…” She frowned. “Though I suppose this means we could work on the edge of the desert, saving us the problem of dragging the sandship across several miles of regular land… I thought I was going to have to create a tread system…” Lyra frowned. “Oh come on… I was kinda getting used to the idea of stealing some wood!” — The next day mother and daughter were hard at work in the sweltering heat of the Shifting Sand delta. Lyra hammered a nail into a plank of wood with her magic. “So… I hear that Pinkie knows water magic… Do you think you could…” “No.” Twilight said, levitating another plank into place. “I’m not a blue mage - nor do I know any water magic…” “Anyway to cure thirst?” Lyra said, downing the last of her canteen and frowning. “Not unless you can get me a bucket of ice cold water, then I could do something.” Lyra eagerly stood up and wagged her tail. “I shall venture forth into the woods and find you a bucket of ice cold water!” She galloped off before Twilight could say anything, leaving a trail of dust. Twilight rolled her eyes. Sometimes Lyra was so scatterbrained… Already Lyra was out of the desert, running through the grasslands to the mountainside river. Normally this might have been slightly concerning, a mountain river being so close to an arid desert, but the rapid scenery change was standard for the land of Cadenza. And it just so happened that as she came to the river she noticed that she had elected not to bring a bucket. “Aw, peev.” Lyra swore, looking around for something to carry the water with. Then she realized she could just dunk her head underwater and probably get the same cooling effect. Lyra discovered that mountain rivers were really cold. She jerked her head out of the babbling waters and shivered. That was most effective… She turned, ready to trot back to the desert, but something caught her eye. There was a cave entrance to her right, it’s darkness calling ominously to her. Lyra grinned. “Adventure awaits!” She lit her horn to give herself light and she entered the cavern. She searched around, looking for treasures. She found… nothing. Nothing at all. After about fifteen minutes of searching she decided to give up - the cavern was just a cavern. She turned around to the entrance, taking the first step out when she heard a noise behind her. Rotating back towards the cave, she saw the most adorable grey squirrel she had ever seen. “Aw…. aren’t you so cute!” She said, cuddling the squirrel up. “I could just…” Before she could finish the thought, she noticed that the ‘cuddly squirrel’ was as metallic as a sword. The fur was cutting into her flesh. She dropped the creature suddenly, just as it bore it’s gigantic teeth. “AAA! Monster!” Lyra shouted, blasting it with a rather pathetic missile spell. The creature fell backwards. Lyra felt very proud of herself for vanquishing the horrible beast. Then she watched as the creature stood back up and began to shudder. A smaller grey fluffy thing began to form on its back, growing ever larger right before her eyes. Within seconds, it turned into another grey squirrel and popped off the first. Lyra didn’t stay around when those two creatures started generating lumps on them as well. She ran straight out of the cavern, over the grasslands, and back to the desert. “You forgot the bucket.” Twilight observed as she came back. “I AM NOT GOING BACK YOU GO THIS TIME.” Lyra shouted. Twilight was a bit taken aback. “Okaythen… see you in a few minutes…” She slowly walked away. Lyra was extremely annoyed when Twilight came back with roasted metallic squirrel for dinner. — “I. HATE. CRESCENT.” Rainbow Dash roared, punching her hooves into the pub counter. “THIS LITTLE CRAPSACK OF A TOWN DOESN’T GIVE TWO FLYING FEATHERS ABOUT US!” A random stallion behind her lit up. “Oh that’s right! You’re the mares’ whose ship got sucked through the whirlpool! HA! Comedy gold!” “Can I bolt him? Please?” Rainbow Dash asked Applejack. “Go right ahead.” The orange mare muttered, not really paying attention to the question for there was a piano standing in the room before her. And she couldn’t tear her gaze off it. “Darling just play it already!” Rarity urged. “Yeah!” Pinkie said. “How can you get better if you don’t play when the scene is on us for the only time this chapter?” Applejack took a deep breath and put a front hoof down on the piano… — Days later, Twilight hammered the last piece of wood into place. “Here we are! The sandship is ready for sand sailing!” “I’m going to call it Frank.” Lyra said. “Lyra… Why Frank?” Lyra looked nervous. “I just think it sounds like a good ship name, that’s all…” “It’s the name of a legendary human you read about in your ‘studies’ isn’t it?” “Er… Yes?” “We’re not calling it Frank.” “Oh come on!” Lyra pleaded. “Let me name the ship after a human! Frank! Gerald! Sammy! Sun Tzu! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASEEEEEEEEE” “No.” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. “Let’s call it… the Sandwinder.” “That’s… overly literal.” “We’re ponies Lyra.” Twilight responded. “It’s how we name things.” Lyra muttered under her breath as Twilight stepped back and examined the Sandwinder. It was essentially a boat with a large corkscrew in the back designed to push ponies across the nearly-liquid sands of the Desert of Shifting Sands. There was no sail, because the only wind on the Desert consisted of the ground-produced sand torrents that made flying over the Desert such a tricky proposition. Twilight could see one in the distance, a swirling mess of sand that would shred almost anything that came in contact with hit. The Sandwinder was designed to protect against this - the occupants would hide inside the ship safe from the sand while the thick wood walls would absorb the damage. At least in theory, Twilight didn’t really have much information to work with. She hoped that it’d work. The two mares suddenly felt a large presence besides them. They turned their heads to see a large black alicorn with a mane of stars standing beside them. “Queen Luna?” Twilight said, jaw dropping. “W-What are you doing here?” Luna didn’t turn her helmeted head, nor make any response suggesting that she’d even heard twilight. She simply stared right over the Desert of Shifting Sands, apparently in deep thought. “Queen…?” Twilight asked again. This time Luna did respond, but she didn’t even glance Twilight’s direction. She spread her great wings and leapt into the air, summoning her magic around herself. In a flash, she became one with the stars and bolted across the Desert of Shifting Sands, leaving a trail of cosmic dust behind her. “Oh come on!” Lyra said. “How come we don’t get fancy flying warp magic?” Twilight didn’t respond to this. “Something’s wrong…” She said. “Something’s very wrong…”