Clear Skies
The two pegasi dropped off the top of the mountain, skimming down the side of it, their hooves almost touching the ground as it whistled past. They evened their flight path out as the skirted around an upthrust of rock and then flew into the desert itself again, flapping their way up the side of dunes and coasting down the other side, heading ever onwards towards the lights in the darkness.
As they got closer and closer, dark shapes resolved themselves into an actual machine. It was old and rusted, with metal struts jutting from a structure half-buried in the encroaching desert sand. Some of the struts still have glowing crystals atop them, some white, some red, and some blue. Still others had long-since failed, their ends dark, dead.
A main cabin lay half-filled with sand, and the gentle hum of motion was audible beneath the desert dunes as the giant machine kept going about its normal duties as intended, showing no signs of stopping.
The two pegasi alighted on the deck of the large ship. There were several large harpoon guns sitting on the railing that was still above the line of sand, with giant brass arrow-like objects stuffed in their muzzles.
“What was it that that griffin said was out here?” Raindrop asked nervously, looking around.
“Darkclaws,” Sentinel confirmed, looking about as well. “I guess the power source will be big and shiny.”
“Maybe we should have gotten more concise instructions,” Raindrop admitted, rubbing a hoof through her mane.
“Can’t be too hard,” Sentinel said, moving over to the cabin and nudging the door open. “C’mon, there’s steps in here.”
Raindrop trailed after Sentinel, pushing the cabin door further open, fighting the weight of the sand sitting against it. “We won’t have to dig it out, will we?”
Sentinel shook his head, peering down the stairs. “No, I don’t think so, there’s barely any sand in here.”
The mare gave a sigh of releif at that. “Did I mention I don’t like sand?”
“Not even at the beach?” Sentinel asked, staring back at her.
“It’s sand. It gets in everything,” Raindrop complained.
“Oh grow up,” Sentinel said with a roll of his eyes. “Quit acting like a filly and get down here.”
Raindrop huffed and stepped down the stairs after him, ducking her head and folding her wings.
Once down the stairs, the narrow corridors, lined with pipes, were lit by glowing white and blue crystals in the ceiling.
“You don’t have a problem with enclosed spaces, do you?” Sentinel asked suddenly, sounding worried.
“I’m not a claustrophobe, no,” Raindrop responded, with a touch of annoyance. “I rather like small, dark spaces.”
“I could definitely twist that into something sexual,” Sentinel replied immediately, giving her a rakish grin.
The pegasus snorted, and then pushed his rump with her hooves. “Shush, you. We’re here to get the power source, remember?”
Sentinel nodded. “Yeah, I remember, but this thing is a lot larger than it looks.”
“It looks small and cramped,” Raindrop pointed out with a faint snort.
“There are eight levels down here. It must be mostly buried,” Sentinel pointed out, lifting a hoof to point towards a map.
Raindrop pushed past him, and then stared at the map, squinting in the gloom. “There. Engine room, level 6. That’s gotta be the best place to find the power source, right?”
Sentinel leaned past her to look at the map, frowning. “I dunno. But if it’s a main power source, I’d say it’d be closest to the control centre and in the middle of this entire thing, on level four, or maybe five.”
Staring at him for a moment, Raindrop raised an eyebrow. “Well, which are we gonna check first?”
“Why not level four and five? They’re closer, and less likely to be washed with sand,” Sentinel reasoned.
“looks like there are staircases that way,” Raindrop murmured, pointing with a hoof. “How did the griffins fit in here? It’s tiny.”
“Practise?” Sentinel offered, shrugging his shoulders. “They’d be able to fit through here. It’d be a tight squeeze, but they’d manage.”
“Wouldn’t be very fun,” Raindrop said with a shake of her head, before heading down the long corridor towards the staircases.
“I kinda miss my armour right now,” Sentinel said with a shudder. “I feel exposed, walking into some place naked like this.”
“It does look good on you,” Raindrop conceded.
Sentinel blinked at that, head tilting to the side in confusion. “A compliment with no barbed jibe behind it? What the hell was that?”
Raindrop gave a soft giggle. “Just shut up and accept it.”
“Well, in that case,” Sentinel began, before grinning at her innocently, “I like it when you walk in front of me.”
Raindrop rolled her eyes at that, and then turned to poke her tongue back at him. “Pervert.”
“Not my fault. You have very hypnotising hips,” Sentinel commented, lifting a hoof and making a side-to-side motion with it. “And that lovely tail. I do so love long tails.”
Giving a snort, Raindrop deliberately swished her tail back and forth. “And why is that?”
“I dunno. I had to shorten mine for the Royal Guard. Long tails don’t fit in our armour properly. Same as our mane. But lovely long tails and manes that you can just bury your hooves in are awesome,” Sentinel enthused with a grin.
Raindrop peered back at him again, and then furrowed her brows, before warning, “Don’t you dare fantasize about my mane and tail.”
“I won’t even think about it,” Sentinel replied, pausing to salute her seriously, before grinning, “At least, not again.”
“You’re horrible,” Raindrop stated, as she rounded a corner and found the staircases, beginning to descend down them.
It took them very little time to climb down the staircases to the lower levels. A collection of crystals, lit up blue, denoted which level they were on. They both got off at level four, and then perused the handy schematic beside the stairs.
“That way,” Sentinel said, pointing with a hoof. “Seems to be the headquarters, it’d be the most highly-guarded area of the thing.”
Raindrop nodded, and allowed Sentinel to lead the way through the enclosed corridors and to the central command area. A low humming energy greeted their ears the closer they got to the centre of the machine. They rounded a corner and came across a large wall-to-wall crystal wall. It was carved thin, and polished so it was transparent. A glowing white diamond-shaped metallic structure was visible inside some kind of large chamber, suspended between two large pipes.
Above and below the suspended metal structure were large tanks. The bottom tank appeared to be filled with water, and the top tank seemed to be filled with some kind of mist, or steam.
“I’ve seen these before,” Sentinel said, as he pushed open the crystal door and they both slipped inside. “First we have to isolate the reaction chamber.”
Sentinel reached up to close off the valves for the water tank first, and then waited several long moments before twisting closed the valve for the steam tank above.
“So... How’s this all work?” Raindrop asked curiously.
Sentinel lifted his hooves to grip the diamond-shaped reaction chamber, and then twisted and tugged it out of its slot, holding it up triumphantly. “This is where the magic happens. Literally.”
Raindrop raised a brow, staring at the strangely shaped metal chamber. “But how?”
“Well see, it’s a fire crystal in there. It’s a magical crystal that’s always hot. A group of unicorns can create one if they have the right materials and know-how. They’re pretty expensive for how complicated it is to make them. But because they never lose heat, you can put one in a reaction like this. If you place the crystal in water, it boils the water and creates steam,” Sentinel explained, shaking the reaction chamber slightly for emphasis. “It’s pretty damn dangerous though.”
“Why’s that?” Raindrop asked, honestly curious.
“Well it never loses heat. They need a special kind of chamber around them, and if that chamber breaks, they bleed heat into the surrounding area. If this reaction chamber was broken, then the crystal inside would turn this entire machine into a glorified, complicated oven,” Sentinel said with a grim smile. “Do you wanna hold it?”
“I’ll be fine,” Raindrop said, taking a step backward. “How do you know all this stuff?”
Sentinel gave a faint, half-amused sound. “Because the Royal Guard is trained to get into machines like this and destroy them from the inside-out. You know, if the griffins ever invaded.”
“How utterly reasurring,” Raindrop said with a shudder. “So... We’re not going to get eaten this time around?”
Sentinel paused and then cocked his head, listening closely. “Actually, I think we’re safe this time. No crazy monsters have even tried to eat us yet.”
“Well that’s boring,” Raindrop said with a huff, turning around and beginning to walk back the way they came.
The return to the junkyard was utterly anti-climatic. No darkclaws (that they saw), no monsters, no injuries. Just a quick climb to the surface and then they returned to the downed airship that Wisp was working on.
“You got it?!” Wisp squeaked when she saw that they had the reaction chamber with them, bouncing in place in excited glee.
“Right here,” Sentinel said with a grin, handing off the reaction chamber to the excited griffin.
“Oh boy oh boy oh boy!” Wisp squeaked, hefting the heavy chamber in both of her paws and then beginning to drag it towards the airship.
“Is it what you needed?” Sentinel queried, looking up at the airship. “Wouldn’t want the pipes bursting if you ovepressure them.”
Wisp paused at that, looking back over her shoulder. “You know about airships?”
Sentinel nodded. “I’m an enthusiast. I noticed that that reaction chamber is about two sizes too big for this airship.”
“I’ve got limiters!” Wisp squeaked happily, returning to dragging the large chamber into the ship. Even though Sentinel had hefted it with one hoof, it seemed too heavy for the diminutive griffin to carry herself for any long period of time.
The two pegasi followed after her, and Sentinel moved ahead to help the small griffin carry the reaction chamber into the airship.
Raindrop trailed after them awkwardly, not able to help, and having no clue how to lend a hand.
The three of them moved into the airship proper, and Wisp lead them straight to the engine room, where a large walled off area waited, with two pipes sitting there for the reaction chamber to fit into.
The griffin began happily setting up the reaction chamber, twisting threaded valves open and closed to fit it all in neatly.
“So, tell me about yourself, Wisp,” Sentiel asked.
“I’m a griffin! And I love these old airships,” Wisp enthused, as she neatly threaded one of the valves into place atop the reaction chamber.
Sentinel helped her lift the reaction chamber onto the pipe, and held it still while she began to thread it into place. “And what of your parents?”
The griffin didn’t respond immediately, instead focusing on matching the threads and getting them nice and tight.
“I... I don’t really have any parents. They abandoned me in the desert when they learned I wouldn’t be able to fly,” the little griffin said sadly.
Sentinel’s ears splayed back, and he frowned deeply at that, dropping his grasp from the now-secure reaction chamber, and then slipped forward to hug around the little griffin.
Wisp blinked several times, the eye that was visible wide and confused. “W-what are you doing?”
“I’m hugging you,” Sentinel stated. “You need a hug.”
The young griffin blinked again, and then looked down at her paws, wrapping them hesitantly around what amount of the guard’s chest that she could. “Oh... I-It’s kinda nice.”
“You’ve never been hugged?” Sentinel asked as he pulled back, expression aghast.
“Well...My uncle took me in after my parents decided I wasn’t worth raising. And he kinda... He wasn’t the hugging type,” Wisp said, shifting uncomfortably, her own ears splayed backwards.
“Well geeze. How’d you end up out here?” Sentinel asked, frowning at her slightly. “Is your uncle around?”
Wisp shook her head gently. “He’s a long way away. Where he belongs.”
“Did he do something wrong?” Sentinel asked flatly.
“He was mean,” Wisp said simply, turning back to the reaction chamber and then opening the steam valve, and then the water valve.
Water flooded the reaction chamber, and immediately, it began to boil, and then evaporate, sending steam shooting up into the next chamber, where pressure began to build. Crystal lights began to glow all around them, and the floor beneath them shifted in a very unsteady way that reminded Raindrop of a ship on the open ocean.
“It’s working!” Wisp said with an eager bounce, quickly barelling out the door and down a corridor.
The two pegasi jogged after her down the long corridor, only to find her in what had to be the control centre, looking at different steam gauges. She was tapping one, looking a little worried. “The rear bubble isn’t filling properly... Can you two watch these while I check on it? Thanks!”
Before the two of them could even reply, the young griffin had popped open a window on the side of the airship and clambered out, climbing up the side of the ship, completely uncaring of how far it was to the ground. Already, the airship was beginning to right itself as the first two bubbles filled, a magical reaction inside them beginning to take place, reducing the weight of the contents until it was a negative amount, causing lift.
Wisp crawled nimbly up a set of ropes, and to the third bubble, quickly twisting the valve into a closed position and looking around the bubble carefully. She crawled up the outside of it with a surprisingly tenacious grip. She popped open a hatch on the very top of the bubble, and crawled inside, closing the hatch behind her and then swapping the eyepatch to her other eye. She looked about, and then set to work.
Sentinel and Raindrop watched the young griffin disappear outside, and then turned to look at the dials and controls, surmounted by the metres reading the steam pressure.
“Any idea what any of this means?” Raindrop asked.
“Not really,” Sentinel admitted, frowning down at the gauges. “We were only taught how to recognize the reaction chamber, some basics on their function, and how best to blow them up.”
“Well that’s helpful,” Raindrop said with a huff, sitting down and staring at the gauges. “I’m guessing if they hit red, we die?”
“Well, the pipes will explode at their weakest point, showering the area with shrapnel. If it’s inside this room, we’d be hit with deadly shards of magically strengthened metal and likely broiled alive by the steam,” Sentinel explained, pointing up at one of the pipes lining the ceiling.
“Lovely.” Raindrop just shook her head.
Wisp returned a few minutes later, panting faintly as she slithered in through the window, wiping muck out of her feathers, squeaking, “I forgot how dirty these things got!”
The two pegasi looked at her, ears perked.
“Oh, it was nothing though!” The diminutive griffin said with a happy grin and bounce. “One of the steam lines was tangled, and when it got pressure, it sheared right through another two. I had to reconfigure the steam lines to bypass them until I can really get a good look at them. The third bubble will only run at seventy percent of potential, but that’s well within parametres!”
The two pegasi stared at her. Raindrop turned to Sentinel. “Did you catch any of that?”
“Something about steam lines,” Sentinel replied, bewildered.
“You two are so slow,” Wisp said with a giggle, bouncing over to the control console, and hovering a paw over the controls. “Can I test it? Pleasepleaseplease?!”
Sentinel and Raindrop exchanged a look, before Sentinel took a step forwards, and nodded. “I guess it’ll be fine.”
“Yipee!” the griffin squealed, quickly flicking a series of eight switches, and then shifting a large lever down to engage the main engines. Somewhere deep in the airship, a large, steam-powered turbine began to spin.
A low rumbling built in the depths of the airship, until it began to vibrate the floor beneath them. And then, gloriously, the large ship lifted off the ground. An odd sensation of weightlessness was imparted to the occupants of the large ship as it lifted off from the ground, beginning to power forward.
“So where are you going to head?” Sentinel asked of the young griffin.
“I dunno!” Wisp said with a joyous bounce. “I’m just happy that I got this working!”
“You must have had a destination in mind,” Sentinel said, raising an ear at her.
“I guess... I kinda just wanted to explore?” Wisp said with a happy shrug, checking her instruments.
Sentinel stepped up closer to the griffon. “Why don’t you come back to Ponyville with us? We think you’re... Well, to be perfectly honest. We think you’re the bearer for the Element of Laughter.”
“Element of Laughter?” Wisp asked, blinking and canting her head in confusion. “Wind, water, fire... They’re elements. Laughter is just laughter!”
Sentinel shook his head for a moment, giving a laugh. “I guess you really don’t know, do you?”
“Don’t know about what?” Wisp asked, confused.
“About the Elements,” Sentinel pointed out.
“I just told you about elements!” Wisp whined, pushing at him with a paw.
Sentinel laughed again. “Why don’t you come back to Ponyville, and we’ll see if you’re one of them, okay?”
“Ooookay,” Wisp conceded, spinning a small dial on the console and then throwing a lever. The entire airship began to turn. “But if you’re thinking that laughter is an element, then you’re pretty dumb.”
“How long will this thing take to get to Ponyville?” Sentinel asked.
“Uhm... I don’t know!” Wisp admitted, bouncing in place in annoyance. “I’ve got bearings for it but no distance.”
“Oh well. Is there anywhere where Raindrop and I can rest?” Sentinel queried, looking back down the passage they had come from.
“Sure!” Wisp squeaked, bounding down one of the corridors, motioning for the two of them to follow.
Raindrop and Sentinel fell into step behind her, trailing after her to a large room with a pair of old, ragged beds in it.
“Thank you.” Sentinel rubbed a hoof against the griffin’s crest affectionately.
Raindrop yawned and stalked over to the bed, dropping down onto it. The blankets were moth-eaten and patchy, obviously old. But Raindrop didn’t even care at that moment.
Sentinel made to move toward the unoccupied bed, and Raindrop raised a brow at him.
“If you intend on sleeping on that bed, then I’m going to be dragging you over here by that shortened tail,” Raindrop stated calmly.
“Affection through threats of violence, huh?” Sentinel asked, an ear perking at her as he swapped direction to pull himself up onto the bed with her.
“Something like that,” Raindrop stated, wrapping her hooves around him and pulling him close. “Plus, I’m lonely.”
Sentinel nodded gently at that, and then nuzzled her once with his nose. Raindrop hummed happily, nuzzling him in return.
“Now lay down properly, pillow. I wish to sleep.” Raindrop fluffed him gently with a hoof, like she would a pillow.
Sentinel chuckled faintly and the wormed into position beside her, pulling her against him properly and closing his eyes.
Raindrop woke up with a gasp in the middle of the night, holding a hoof against her chest, panting faintly, sweating. It was the nightmare again. Green flames, changelings, and Chrysalis. with a faint groan, she laid herself back down, closing her eyes to sleep again, trying to ignore the image of vivid green eyes.
“Uhm, uhm! You two!” a small voice squeaked near their ears. “Wakeupwakeupwakeup!”
There was a sense of urgency in the voice that got them both awake instantly.
“Something wrong?” Sentinel asked groggily.
Wisp whined softly, and then nodded vigorously, bolting to the hatch window on the side of the room, pointing with a paw. “Big big problem!”
Sentinel groaned faintly and crawled out of bed, pulling himself over to the window and peering out.
The ocean whipped by beneath them at an incredible speed. But more noteworthy was the building storm on the horizon.
“Can this thing weather a storm like that?” Sentinel asked, sounding worried.
“Storms are fine, look at them!” Wisp squeaked, pointing with a paw urgently.
It took Sentinel a long moment to recognize them, picking out the dark shapes against the backdrop of the darkening stormclouds.
A collection of maybe two dozen figures, flying in formation. Sentinel narrowed his eyes, squinting. “They’re griffins...”
Wisp nodded urgently. “And they’re going to catch up to us! I think they’re going to attack us!”
Sentinel cast his gaze over to Raindrop, and then gave a wry smile. "Remember how you mentioned something about getting the reaction chamber being far too easy?"
Raindrop gave a tired nod, rubbing her eyes.
Sentinel's smile turned grim, as he looked out at the advancing forms of the griffins. "You were right."
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Wow i love this story so much. The only thing that could make it better would be if the chapters were a couple thousand words longer but hey it doesnt matter i fucking love the story anyway!
Was i really first?
coming to claim what's theirs, or is there something more than what Wisp is saying about herself?
Just a suggestion:
If you're planning on one ending, I suggest not doing that. Make a few endings; one where Raindrop gets healed by the elements, one where she succumbs to her changeling nature, etc. You know what I mean, right?
Of course, it's your story, and I won't criticize you for choosing one ending.
1034614 Please, hold off comments on the ending until the Revelations chapter. Trust me, it's a complete game changer.
1034634 Forgive me, I just only found out about this story.
Looks like someone's caught a bad case of Murphy's Law.....
1034634 Have you ever played Star Wars Knights Of the Old Republic II: Rise of the Sith Lords? Well, in it, there's this guy, named Atton Rand. He always says "I've got a bad feeling about this..." And he's usually right. The way he says it is amusing. But right now. I've got a bad feeling about that chapter of which you speak. Like, hair raising on the back of my neck bad o.o
1034802 ...
It's gonna be awesome.
KEEP IT GOING MATE!
I will laugh if Raindrop and Sentinel are elements. And why are the griffins so mad? It's not like that was there power core. One last thing: I imagine the ships to look like the Astral Ships from 'Allods' for some reason.
The mane and tail discussion was very funny. Can't wait for someone to call Raindrops and Sentinel on how much they flirt with each other.
Ok Wisp is an an engineer and Element of Laughter she NEEDS to eventually "spy check " ponies at random.
Wisp really bothers me in this--not because of her 'Element of Laughter' personality so much as because there's no justification for it. Why is she so bubbly after being kicked away from her parents and (apparently) murdering her abusive uncle?