Expedition to the Cloudbreak Islands

by Starglider

Connection

“So... this must be what you wanted us to come take a look at?” the stallion known as Gearshift said, watching as Nutmeg poked around in the half-buried ancient machinery, the exposed components gleaming quietly in the afternoon sun.

"Yes indeed..." Summer replied, "but the best bit is over here! Follow me!" Brimming with excitement, the little unicorn over to the centre of the clearing, then waited for the others to join her.

“Ok... let’s see what you got?" Nutmeg said, wondering what else there was to see. She and Gearshift followed Summer over to stand near the flat golden disc, nestled in its socket in the ground.

"Now how did it go..." Summer mumbled, tapping her hooves for a moment, before the location of the pressure plate came back to her. "Yeah, you just put your hoof here, and... presto!" Once again the disc floated up to head height and the magical lettering flickered into existence above it, showing the same mysterious message as before.

"You can read that right? It was native runes to start with, but then it changed to that: 'System Error', in Ponish no less!" Summer stated. "It's clearly trying to communicate something, but I'm not qualified to know what this thing does or how it works!" She tilted her head, looking at Nutmeg imploringly.

Gearshift startled back as the artefact began to move, then stared at the magical display above it. “What... what is this?” he declared faintly, “I’ve never seen anything—”

“I’ve never seen anything like it!” Nutmeg declared with unbridled excitement, rushing up to rear up onto the plate and staring all over and under it, “How is it still active? How does it even work? Are there buttons? There must be an engine underground! What are these materials??” She barely gave the display a second glance before feeling around the disk, then the recess it had risen out of, searching for crevices, panels or controls. With a slight hesitation, Gearshift is right there with her, the two creatures utterly taken with a pillar that’s just sitting there being a pillar with an error message projected atop it. It looks like they might be at it for a while.

At the edge of the clearing, Reef sighed and began the long task of preening his flight feathers back into working order, glancing over every so often to watch the ponies (and kirin) fiddle with the artefact. On the plus side, there were plenty of specimens to study now: the mass of propeller birds still trapped under the net.

With her task of guarding her team complete for now, Azure took the opportunity to sit quietly and rest. Between the chompies and the birds she'd fired off more magic today than she had in the last month. Keeping a wary eye on the machine, she seemed at least somewhat pleased that every creature made it through the battle okay. Though she took a look at the preening hippogriff... well, mostly okay, anyway.

Summer Scribe looked amused by Nutmeg's antics, but at a loss to answer the flood of questions. "Afraid I don't have anything else to suggest: I've poked all over this place with everyone and it just looks like a bunch of mechanical stuff, to me. I can sense some sort of weird magic in there, but... I think this'll be your treat!" Smiling, she turned away and trotted over towards Azure Feather: Summer wouldn't mind a chance to cool off and breathe a little herself. "So... Azure!" Striking up conversation, no problem: "I saw that spinny-windy thing you did back there. Is that new for you?"

Azure stood at attention as Summer spoke to her and inquired about what she could only assume were the new air-based spells. Stretching her wings a little, the unicorn guard quickly responded, "I had to try something to get those birds away from... Melonwater, I think it was?" Something like that. She'd studied the crew roster, really, she had. "As for the 'windy nature' of the spells, it's true that the... highly-powered spells, as I'll refer to them..." She paused, shaking her head slowly before continuing. "They had shown distinct air-elemental properties, and since forcing my other spells to form from the same element, I haven't had any other casting mishaps... quite the opposite in fact. So I'd best just stick with that strategy, I think."

Reef paused his preening for a moment to listen in on the unicorns, cocking his head. 'Forcing spells to an element' was caster jargon he didn't understand, but he was glad to hear Azure's magic was working better: the horrible possibility of horn damage now seemed unlikely. Even as he watched them his claws continued to run nervously over his primaries: no griff liked to be grounded. Meanwhile Melonwater was mumbling about unidentified ceramics and poking at the tiled surface exposed in some areas of the clearing.

Summer Scribe nodded to Azure: "Oh, that's really interesting! Because Abby over here was telling me about how your blast from earlier looked like a 'windy thing'. Like, they seem to have a totally different system of magic around here, and whatever you do is wind-affine. So I think we're onto something with that... and it makes me wonder if it maps onto everycreature who come here, though..." she glanced at Melonwater, who seemed oblivious "...perhaps it takes longer for some than others."

"It's... entirely possible." Azure replied. "As far as who would align with which element, I really couldn't say... but if that temple we came across the other day is any indication, we may have a couple of creatures who have already shown some signs of elemental affinity other than myself... hmm. Now I wish I'd paid more attention to the carvings while we were there, instead of being on guard all the time..." Another of her soft sighs.

"It'd be nice if you knew someone who knew all about the elements," Abernathy suggested, walking over to (and towering above) the two unicorns. "You could just ask him."

Summer Scribe was all ready to pull out her notes and go over them with Azure... when the troll's approach made her chuckle. "Oh, of course! Well Abby, you've been around us for a bit, now: what are your thoughts? Could you assign us pretty confidently?"

Azure gave a curt nod. "Sorry... figured you'd be a little more... unfriendly towards somepony who destroyed your roof yesterday..." Her head lowered and her ears flattened at the thought. "I have to apologise again for that... but I admit I am curious, what could you tell us, having seen us in action now?"

Now that his wings were more or less flight capable, if still untidy, and with the adrenalin gone from his system, Reef Skimmer's sense of duty resurfaced. There had been no howls of pain or shouts for assistance, but there might still be minor injuries that needed his attention. Or... had anyone taken a headcount? Somecreature might have been knocked unconscious, unable to call for help. Rising quickly to his feet, the hippogriff trotted around the clearing.

Nearby were the unicorns and the troll, talking about magic, and over there were Nutmeg and Rear Shift, poking at an engraved panel, then Melonwater over by those gears, Grenelda reaching into a pipe pulling out a clawful of eggs... somepony was missing... the purple one? "Cloud Flutter?" Reef asked, thinking she might be sitting behind a bush or a rock. With no immediate response he flapped clumsily into the air for a better view. "Cloud Fl... Cutter?" he shouted, getting everyone's attention. Looking down at Summer, he said "Has anyone seen her?"

Summer Scribe perked up! "Cloud Cutter, umm..." She looked around. In all the confusion and excitement, she had to admit she hadn't exactly taken a head count! "Sorry, I can't say I know where she is. Do you need help looking?" she asked.

Azure was way ahead of her. "Ah, Cloud Cutter... you know, I haven't seen her either. I'll scout from above!" So much for rest, as she sprang to her feet and fluttered into the air again, ready to look for the purple pegasus...

Reef hovered over to Azure. "Then... she may have gone back to the ship... or she might be lying unconscious in the jungle! One does think a search is warranted." He turned away, moving to cover the opposite side of the clearing from Azure.

The search grew in numbers, area and urgency as the Equestrians combed the ruins then the surrounding forest, without any sight of Cloud Cutter. Flying carefully between the tree branches, Azure was the one who at last spied the very purple pegasus, just sitting there in the woods with her back against a tree. She wasn’t moving.

Azure drifted down to a landing nearby, looking quite alarmed. "Cloud Cutter, are you alright?" she asked, worried that the pegasus might be concealing a serious injury. Why had her ally run off? Did she fail in protecting a team member after all?

The purple mare was sprawled out vaguely on her haunches, with a foreleg resting on her knee. She didn’t have any visible injuries, and there was no blood to be found where she'd crashed through the foliage. “You know, I can’t even cry,” Cloud Cutter remarked without looking at Azure, just staring forward with those empty eyes, “I wonder if I’m even a pony anymore.”

To Azure Feather it was a rather unsettling sight, but she'd seen far worse in her years in the guard. Still... Cloud Cutter's wounds didn't seem nearly as physical as they are emotional... "You still are." Azure said, as reassuringly as she could. "Goodness, believe me, I've struggled with this place myself... all we can do at this point is keep going. Equestria needs all of us..." She thought over the last part, staring into the distance. It was only a week since they'd left Vanhoover, but Ponyville and Manehattan seemed like they were on a completely different planet than this place. But Cloud Cutter, even if they looked different, was still a pony, like her. That had to mean something, right?

Cloud Cutter closed those solid white eyes; at least that was something she could still do. A long pause, then she opened them again, standing up and preparing to return to the group. “Keep going...” she mused, looking through the trees at the golden glints from the ruins. “Yeah, you’re right. All we can do is keep going.” Azure felt a chill go up her spine, as the purple pegasus strode past her, and without another word, rejoined the expedition.

Summer Scribe perked up as the two ponies returned, waving a hoof in their general direction. "Oh, there she is! You found her, Azure! Thanks a bunch!" She trotted over, though her enthusiasm was muted as she saw Cloud Cutter's... well, 'neutral' expression. Even as stiff as the 'spooky' ponies were, you could still get a bit of a vibe off of them. Summer nodded her head solemnly, assuming Cloud would speak out if there was a problem.

Reef flew over next, looking concerned as he dropped to the ground. "Cloud Cutter! Good to see you whole and..." He quickly assessed the pegasus; no obvious cuts, moving unhindered if somewhat stiffly, didn't appear to be in pain "...uninjured, one hopes?". Cloud Cutter nodded back; she didn't seem eager to converse.

Azure had been following just behind, still looking concerned as she returned to the rest of the squad without a single word herself. She'd been thinking things over, and it was clear that this place had given some ponies wounds other than physical: she had seen that first-hoof now. The winged unicorn returned to Abernathy's side, quietly hoping the troll would explain this... elemental puzzle. That would have to wait for another time though, as now that the group was reassembled, Nutmeg took the opportunity to call them all to the central hollow.

“Alright, I think I can fix it,” the kirin informed everyone, as she paced back and forth in front of the quiescent console. “That’s the good news. The bad news is I have no idea how it works, no idea how it’s powered, and it doesn’t channel magic in any way I’ve ever seen before. Almost as if there are conduits... but the point is this is a machine. A broken machine, but if we put all the parts back into place, it should work again.”

“T-the facility is mostly composed of some sort of ceramic,” Melonwater said, stepping forward, “The outer casings at least. There are some stainless gold alloy parts to it, but most of it we can’t get at, because...” The green and pink earth pony stallion held up one of the tiles in his hoof, saying, “I managed to pull up one of the tiles from the floor, but it’s tougher than any ceramic I’ve seen before. I can’t break it at least, so that makes it a little harder to get inside these things.”

“The question is if we should fix it,” Gearshift said grimly, “We don’t know anything about what it does." the orange stallion stated bluntly. "It could be a weapon.”

“If we can repair it, then we’ll know,” Nutmeg said encouragingly, “We’ll find out in the process of fixing it, I just know it.”

“Yeah, I suppose... if it is a weapon, we don’t want somepony else fixing it, without us even knowing what it does,” Gearshift reluctantly admitted. “So... that’s what we’re going to tell the captain.”

“Sound like a plan?” Nutmeg asked hopefully.

Summer Scribe had been sitting politely, but she was positively giddy at the thought of reproducing some who-knows-how-ancient-or-important native machine! "Absolutely!" She gave a little whinny of elation. "Just let me know if there's anything any of us can help with... just think of what an incredible discover this will end up being, Nutmeg!"

Reef Skimmer, on the other claw, looked confused. "Fix it? I must say I assumed this was a ruin. Are you saying all the pieces are still here? Just... disassembled?" He suddenly thought of the innards of the radio, taken apart and reassembled into a clock on Sprocket's table.

“These other pillar thingies are jammed in their sockets, but the mechanism to lift them is still working underneath,” the red-ruffed kirin says, “There’s no sign of internal damage. The thing has a freaking magical projector screen that’s been functional for who knows how long. Why not the rest of it? It looks partially complete even. Some of the pieces are just piled up around here. I need to get a look under the surface, to see how this stuff works. But... yeah, basically?” She seemed more focused on the details of the repair than what an incredible discovery the whole thing was.

"Well, erm, that does sound exciting then!" Reef said jovially, beak-gape smiling at Nutmeg, glad to see her engaged and enthusiastic. Then he leaned his head down to Summer Scribe, and whispered in a more concerned tone "Any leads on the subject of who built the thing, why, or where they might be now?"

Summer Scribe paused, squinted... then shook her head. "With all due respect, I don't know if this is troll stuff." She tried to keep her voice to a whisper: this was sensitive! "But we already know there's at least two civilized species in the Cloudbreak Islands: who's to say we won't find a third or more later?"

"Indeed; one certainly hopes the native griffons are civilised." Reef whispered back to Summer, glancing over at Grenelda, who was having one of the bird she'd caught as a late lunch. Looking back to Nutmeg (and ignoring the stallion next to her), the hippogriff cleared his throat and asked "Shall we return to the ship then, and see what Sails, I mean, Set Sail, err, the Captain! ...has to say?"

Azure Feather was still focused on Cloud Cutter, concerned but not sure how to help. She'd just started to come to terms with her own air-elemental nature; the pegasus had been aligned longer, having been transformed by the crossing, but whether she'd truly figured out her element... Azure didn't know, and the purple mare didn't seem inclined to talk about it right now. Keeping her own counsel for now, she listened in to the other creatures talking happily about the alien machine, but to her... it's not like it meant all that much. After all, she was just here to keep them safe, then it would be back to the Lavender Blades... assuming any of them made it back to Equestria.

As for Cloud Cutter, she was pensive as ever. Who knew what her fate would be, after the expedition? Who knew much about her at all, in fact? Who she is, who she was. She wore wing-blades, but had yet to use them. Was she unskilled, or was she just restrained? Or... something else?

In any case it was getting late, and the Equestrians would soon return to their ship, where the captain was delighted to hear she hasn’t been kept out of the loop this time. Nutmeg and Gearshift would be back first thing the next morning to resume their studies of the mechanical anomaly, bringing more of their engineering crew to come and fiddle with it.

Meanwhile with earth ponies to harvest, pegasi to lift, and unicorns to bind together, the rest of the crew had enough ponypower to repair Abernathy’s cottage in a single day, much to his delight. He had not yet been invited to the ship of course, but any bad blood between him and the little ponyzandas seemed to be smoothed out. That night everycreature slept easily for the first time in a long while.

---

It seemed like the whole engineering team had come to take apart the mysterious device. Ponies levitating, lifting, and prying at the various inner workings. The chief engineer, a red-ruffed brown and gold kirin named Nutmeg Inferno, kept disappearing underground and then popping out again from various access points shouting things like, “The left conduit still has power! This is incredible! Oh wow, look at that! You gotta see the tooling on this! I just found a squiggly thing that makes a whomp noise! Where’s my wrench?”

She wasn't the only one plying the machine’s inner workings, but she was certainly the most enthusiastic. A team of ponies carried the golden fluted pipes, to crudely but carefully weld them back into place, forming a sort of symmetrical bow shape. Other ponies cleaned and oiled gears, connected cables, realigned crystals and reassembled linkages. It took several days, but the work went surprisingly swiftly, with Nutmeg's almost supernatural insights into what needs to be done. Finally the machine was rendered functional, and the engineers were ready to report back to the Captain.

---

Once again the crew were gathered on the upper deck of the EAS Harmony, this time just as sunset was casting a warm glow over Blissful Pastures and the sky beyond. The acting captain was presiding as usual, but it was Nutmeg who stepped forward and announced seriously: "I think we’ve figured out the purpose of this mechanical anomaly. It’s some out of this world stuff, but from what we can tell, it seems to be some sort of long range transmitter.”

“That’s... oh, so not a weapon?” Set Sail replied, looking genuinely caught off guard by the kirin’s words. “Even though it makes a sorta bow shape?”

“That's just the focusing system,” the orange stallion named Gearshift said, stepping up to Nutmeg’s side, “The beam itself isn't even powerful enough to give you a sunburn.”

With a small smile to the earth pony, Nutmeg added, “We’re thinking of... turning it on. Just to see if it can pick up anything. It uses some—”

“Super cool gears that turn themselves!” declared a cream-furred unicorn, pulling a few interlocking metal gears out of her saddlebag and holding them on an upstretched hoof: they quietly sat there, spinning away. “See? No magic!”

“It’s gotta be some kind of magic, but nothing anypony has ever seen,” Nutmeg said, gazing with fascination at the smoothly twirling gears, “I wonder who built all this stuff?”

“So anyway, we’re asking uh, the captain, and now the whole crew I guess,” Gearshift said, looking around at the ponies and other creatures Set Sail had insisted on assembling for the meeting. “Because maybe whoever’s on the other end could come assist us... or destroy us. But we’re already good as wrecked if we can’t make real repairs to the Harmony. So we want to make sure that it’s... okay.”

He backed off then, as Set Sail replied, “Sounds fine to me. We were trying to transmit a signal anyway, to try to locate the Friendship." She turned to the crew "But I don’t want to just tell everypony what to do. What do you all think of the idea?”

Summer Scribe had been having a blast since they found the device! While it wasn't exactly in her wheelhouse to figure out that kind of techno-contraption, she'd been taking notes all day, translating the various runes they'd found, sketching things out and trying to fit together the puzzle pieces for herself. After all, this was just the first island; if they were going to keep finding devices like this, then it was just preparing for the future! She'd been starting to suspect it was build to shoot some sort of beam, and was surprised to find out it was actually a communication device.

The little unicorn smiled from ear to ear. "Well, we can hardly say no to turning it on! Not only are we here to explore and learn, we're also stuck here unless we get a LOT of help with our ship, so why not try to get the attention of the more technologically advanced natives and see what we're dealing with here?"

Azure frowned; she was one of the few ponies not terribly enthused by the entire idea of turning on an alien machine, so she focused on the raw facts of the matter. "So this is a communication device, and if we don't turn it on, we're stuck here with little hope of fixing the ship, and if we do turn it on, there's a chance we might draw hostile attention, but a much better chance of finding a way to go home. The question answers itself."

After a few days of casual zoology, and no more wildlife attacks, Reef Skimmer was looking more rested than he'd been since the crossing. He stared at the gears for a while, transfixed as the unicorn fiddled with them, making them mesh together then separate again. He winked at Sprocket before turning to Nutmeg. "Did you say 'beam'? That sounds like... something along the lines of a very bright signal lamp? Now with a lamp, standard issue I mean with the lens and shutters and so on, you have to aim them at the other ship... Do you know where to aim? Or am I barking down the wrong tunnel and it is more in the manner of a radio transmission?"

“It’s more like some sort of virtual dish-shaped etheric projection,” Nutmeg explains easily for Reef's benefit, “We should be able to tell where the signal is stronger, if there is one. It does make a, uh, beam though, but collects parabolically, so we should be able to align it.”

Cloud Cutter seemed unusually enthusiastic as she stepped forward from the tight group of purple pegasi assembled at the edge of the deck. “If there’s any chance that they would know what happened to our storm piercers back there, it’s really ...important!” she said.

“This really affected you four more than any of us,” Set Sail replied with a sympathetic look her way. “Clashing hasn’t woken up yet, then?”

Glancing down, the purple mare replied wanly, “N-no. His condition is stable at least.”

Azure listened with concern, tilting her head: much as she was happy that relations with Abernathy had been smoothed out, Cloud Cutter's situation still worried her.

“Anypony at all have any objections then?” Set Sail asks, looking around.

“Just turn it on already!” the two griffons among the crew declared simultaneously. Then blush, and look at each other, quietly cooing giggles.

“Okay then, how’s it gonna work, Nutmeg?” Set Sail asked, “You just turn it on?”

“Well, everything’s pretty much together, but it could just fizzle out for all I know. But basically, yeah,” the kirin replied.

“If it works though, I think we the crew should have a chance to be present,” Set Sail says hopefully, “So, anyone up for a trip over there? I hear the path has been totally cleared of monsters, so it should be safe.”

---

Reef Skimmer flew Nutmeg and Gearshift ahead to set up, accompanied by Azure and the griffons, while the rest of the group make the trek on foot. Crossing the chompy pit is simple thanks to the sturdy wooden bridge, assembled by the crew both for their own convenience and as an extra thank-you to Abernathy. By the time they make it past the docks and up the newly-cleared path to the artefact, the sunlight had all but faded away. Oil-fuelled lanterns and magical light sources glowed softly, scattered over the various parts of the machine.

“Okay, here goes,” Nutmeg says, “you two on the pressure plates, it has to be both at once.”

Two engineer ponies stepped onto the plates as one, and the lights on the structure grew brighter as it began to emit a low hum. A swirling, sparkling light converged between the golden arms of the bow-shaped collimator, and a translucent purple dish shimmered into existence. For a moment, its energy hung serenely over the bow, until the growing ball of brilliant white light at the centre erupted into a shining beam, firing out into the heavens.

Summer Scribe was a ball of curious energy, eager to see this unprecedented alien machine in action! The lights flashing, the machinery thrumming... and it seems to be working! She watched in tense anticipation for a response to their transmission.

Nothing happened at first, then as she watched the control console, Nutmeg declared triumphantly “We’re getting a signal! Rotate the aligners three degrees left! One more... just a little to the right... there! We’re getting... it.”

The pronounced dip in her enthusiasm was due to the change in the holographic message above the central control plate, which had changed from red to yellow, now proclaiming “HUB CONNECTION FAILED. MALFORMED SIGNAL. PLEASE DISPATCH A MAINTENANCE TEAM IMMEDIATELY.”

Summer Scribe squinted at the disappointing message. "Hub connection failed... Malformed signal?" The unicorn rubbed at her forehead with a hoof, frustration replacing her earlier enthusiasm. "Does it mean the signal we sent? Did we get it wrong?" 'Do we have any options here? Can we send something more specific?' she thought, looking around for more controls to adjust. As for a maintenance team... - well, it seemed they were the maintenance team, with the machinery abandoned for so long. Summer bit her lip; they had to figure something out!

Reef Skimmer sat back on his haunches, impressed by the light show. It sounded like the machine found... something? Somewhere? It seemed there's still some sort of technical problem though, so the hippogriff waited patiently for the unicorns to fix it, or failing that, explain what just happened.

The display of technology did catch Azure's attention: for all the times she's read magic books, machines like this weren't exactly common in Equestria. When the beam shot skyward, she looked as interested as any other creature there... until Summer's reaction said it all. Given time the engineers might be able to fix this, but in the mean time Azure occupied herself making a quiet sweep of the perimeter, checking for the hundredth time that no creatures are sneaking up to ambush the team. Sure, the captain told everypony it would be a safe trip, but she couldn't be absolutely certain. Especially since half the crew had turned out, and Azure knew many of them were no use in a fight...

The night wasn’t entirely quiet, with hoots and chirps coming from the surrounding jungle, but thankfully the propeller birds seemed to be staying well away since their involuntary relocation. If any creature out there was of a mind to mess with the Equestrians, it’s was keeping well away for now. In fact the greatest threat out here that night seemed to be the ponies themselves.

“No we’re signalling right." Nutmeg said softly to Summer. "That..." she gestured at the display, her features illuminated by its glow "...is a signal coming from the other side. The machine must be broken over there too. Wherever that is. See, they want us to dispatch a maintenance team...”

Summer Scribe tilted her head and ooohed. "Okay, thanks for the clarification..." she began, before being pushed out of the way by... Set Sail? She stumbled and huffed, wondering why the captain felt the need to push in.

“Well that proves it!” Set Sail declared earnestly, ignoring Summer in her eagerness to approach the kirin. “The expedition team DOES need an engineer! There could be dozens of these, all over the place! Or even more things for you to fix! You don’t have to keep moping around the ship all the time. We’re gonna need your help!”

Nutmeg looked at Set Sail like a drowning pony in the ocean, who'd seen a life preserver hurled her way. She opened her mouth to speak, but then Gearshift stepped forward, saying firmly “I’ll do it.”

“What?” the kirin and the captain both squeaked in surprise, turning to the junior engineer.

Summer was still grumpy about the shove, but it seemed it was for a good cause: Nutmeg was gonna get to come along on their field trips! "Yeah, that's right! Your expertise is going to be invaluable..." she began, trailing off as she realised what Gearshift had said. "Okay, sure, but... This isn't to say Nutmeg ISN'T going, right?" she asked the stallion.

“No. Just... just me.” he said with tortured determination, “I’ll fix whatever it is, and find parts for the engine. The chief needs to stay on the ship, where it’s safe.”

“But why?” Set Sail protested, facing off against the unmoving stallion, “She can make her own decisions! Why are you so worried about her?”

"Yeah!" said Summer, confused. She tilted her head; didn't Gearshift understand how upset Nutmeg was, stuck in the engine room? How could she convince him? "Sure, it's dangerous out here... but ponyfolk are resilient, versatile and we lean on each other! Nutmeg's got us all, she won't be going it alone!"

Battered by the torrent of enthusiasm, Gearshift took a step back. “I-it’s complicated,” he stammered, “Look... it’s not my place to say. I have to be the one to go, though.”

Hearing the raised voices, Reef Skimmer rose to his feet and trotted up to the conversation, head tilted down and wide wings half spread. He glared at the stallion for a few seconds before asking coldly "And where do you imagine you'll be going, exactly?"

Gearshift found himself staring up into the hard eyes and sharp beak of the hippogriff, and took another step back. “On the expedition team!” came his angry reply, “To the other islands, with probably have monsters, and booby traps, and... and worse!”

Azure had quietly joined the group at the central hollow; her expression showed some enthusiasm over the idea of the Chief Engineer joining the field party, then became a frown as Gearshift started to argue. It was time for her to step in: "Sure, somepony needs to watch the engines, but... I really don't see how the Chief staying back is going to help anypony... those on the ship, or us out here. What happens if we need her expertise with another of these machines? You're skilled, Gearshift, but you and the Chief together? I think it'd be the best course of action... but that's just my opinion." Azure ended her contribution to the argument rather lamely as she took a step back.

As more of the crew piled onto him, Gearshift only got more desperate: his legs began to shake and flecks of foam began to form on his flanks. “And what happens if the... if the ship has a problem or, you know, they need her back there! What good is the engineering team without our chief?” His eyes darted around to see if anypony was buying this, as he desperately tried to think of some way to convince them.

“Look, we can’t both come, because... it’s just too dangerous,” he said, looking unhappily from Summer to Set Sail, avoiding eye contact with the frightening griff. “The chief is a one of a kind... there aren’t any other kirin here! She’s... I’m sorry but she needs to...”

Nutmeg suddenly spoke up. “Please Gearshift, don’t do this to me,” she begged, her voice hollow, staring at Gearshift with fear for the first time. “Please, I need this! Just this once! It’ll be fine I–I promise! I need to know what’s out there!”

The earth pony locked eyes with Nutmeg Inferno for a few solid seconds, before turning tail and galloping away.

In the ensuing silence, Nutmeg tried to reassure the group: “I swear it’s... it’s fine. I don’t know what got into him. He knows how I feel about this. M-maybe he could fix those machines. But doesn’t it mean anything if I just really... want to? I just... feel so useless.” She stomped a hoof in frustration, but not even a hint of flame danced up her fetlocks.

Reef Skimmer placed a claw on Nutmeg, saying in a soothing tone "Nutmeg Inferno, you are the chief engineer, and you enjoy the full support of the Captain..." The griff gave a little deferential nod to Set Sail, beak opening in a smile "...and you fellow officers." He removed the claw, gesturing to himself then Summer and Azure. "You can tell Gear Grift you've taken his opinion under advisement, which is to say, he can button his beak and do what he's told." he finished, frowning.

Summer Scribe sighed; the griff was always so formal. She trotted up to Nutmeg and nuzzled gently against her chocolate-coloured flank. "You don't have to go along with Gearshift's wishes! You're you, and you get your own say. It's not like he's right, you know: there really isn't much for you to do on the ship. It's grounded, so that kind of goes without saying, you know?" A little chuckle escaped the unicorn's muzzle. "You need to be out here with us: you need to help us figure this place out! This is where you belong, not just because you've got the skills we need, but because your heart yearns for it, and who can deny you that?"

“Yeah, I just... I’ll have a talk with him,” Nutmeg said, looking folornly at the newly cleared path the stallion had disappeared down. “He’s gotta understand that you can’t just be sheltered all the time. A little risk is just part of life.” She leaned into Summer's cuddle, snuggling her with with a very soft and fluffy ruff, laughing with the unicorn and saying, “Yeah, you get it!”

Azure was all set to continue the argument, but after the stallion's rapid departure... she just sighed softly. "I'll keep her safe..." she vowed quietly, beneath her breath, before she turned to the kirin. "She has quite the point," Azure said, gesturing to Summer, "The ship is grounded, and to have our best minds stuck in there instead of working out here... would be less than optimal. The fact that you've so eager for this, by the sounds of things... is only going to help us further." Certain of her argument, the winged unicorn nodded for emphasis.

Quirking an eyebrow at Azure’s choice of words, Nutmeg replied, “You’re right, you know. And Gearshift totally underselling himself as well. If we had the parts, my team could get that ship running at three times the speed of awesome, without my help at all. Just keeping it afloat? Easy peasy.”

“So... you’ll do it then?” Set Sail asks hopefully, glancing apologetically at Summer before meekly creeping up to the kirin, “You won’t be moping around the ship all day? The rest of us can see how much it hurts you to deny yourself, and that hurts us too.”

“Yeah, I’ll do it,” Nutmeg confirmed, flashing a sheepish smile. “Can’t pass up an opportunity like this. I’m just glad I’m so... weirdly appropriate for this sort of adventure thing. Or else you all might not have tried so hard to keep me from getting left... behind.”

Summer Scribe nod-nodded! "You can't live life without raiding a few ancient tombs and triggering a curse or two. That's just what makes you feel alive!" She laughed; it seemed like her personal philosophy worked for the kirin as well! Pulling back from Nutmeg, she smiled and said "Ok, go sort your differences out with Gearshift. Welcome to the adventure, in an official capacity this time!"

Azure Feather nodded slowly, happy that the issue was resolved. She wasn't sure if she'd helped or hindered; in her opinion, her social skills were... well, less than adequate it seemed. Her wings drooped slightly; maybe she'd overdone it as far as guard training went? Either way... staying quiet and only speaking when addressed was starting to look like an option... She drifted away from the group and began a fresh sweep of the perimeter, falling into her comfortable role of keeping watch for hostiles.

Relaxing now the obnoxious stallion had fled the field, Reef Skimmer had a question for the kirin before she retired: "Speaking of this 'hub'... It seems you have a bearing, but do we know how far away? At least, is it somewhere we could take a quick cart trip to or clear across the other side of the archipelago?"

“Hmm... as for how far to the other side, well I can’t tell you for sure, but I'm pretty sure there can't be any islands in the way, or we wouldn't get a response” Nutmeg said. She turned back to the control console, tapping an unseen pressure plate with her hind leg to switch it to some sort of complicated diagram. “We could roughly measure the round-trip time it took a signal to get there and back, if we had a kind of photographic shadow-exposure-thingy propelled at high speeds. So... maybe?”

Summer Scribe squinted at the new display. "Sorry, do a what, now?... Techy stuff! I got it. Something you can handle, if we need to do it, I guess!" She bashfully rubbed around the base of her horn with a hoof. "But we can't exactly GET there if it's too far to fly, right? Are we gonna have to find what islands lead where and explore on hoof?"

Reef was staring out into the twilight sky. "We can certainly do a little scouting, survey flights along the general axis, assess the terrain and make camp as necessary." He turned to Set Sail, "If you agree, Captain. One assumes moving the ship is still out of the question."

“It's as good a direction to start as any,” Set Sail said, shrugging. “It’s away from the storm wall, so it’s pretty much the direction we’d be going anyway.”

Nutmeg grimaced at Reef’s casual assumption. “Yeah. The ship’s not moving,” she told him him flatly, “Not until we get, or make the parts that got bent, melted, or blown up.” She looked down, scratching at the ground with a hoof. “I still don’t know much about this weird machine...” she continued cautiously, “But I do know that I’d like to see if there’s still any actual industry in these islands. If we could get our horns on some decent-sized propellers, that’d do a world of good for getting the ship moving again."

"And... if anyone messes with us, I’ll just whack ‘em with my wrench.” she finished brightly, before blushing. Looking Azure’s way, the kirin added loudly, “Or y’know, let the actual guard deal with it.”

Azure shrugged as she looked back. "It's what I'm here for. This place, as we've already seen, does have its share of hostiles, and I'm pretty sure they'll get worse than the garden variety of teeth we've seen so far." Never mind the fact that she'd already been put on the injured list by their first encounter with hostile wildlife. "I'll do what I can."

“Well if you ever have trouble in a fight, I won’t hesitate to fix it for you through blunt force trauma,” Nutmeg replied with a smile, “You seem pretty good though. From what I heard, those chompers could get just about anyone if they caught you by surprise.”

Summer Scribe was nod-nodding in agreement again. "We do know airships exist here - the docks made that pretty obvious - so it's just a matter of time before we see something like that sitting around, yeah?" She grinned, before adding "...and raid it for parts, I guess? Well. Hopefully we can find a workshop or wreckage or something. Thriving industry, here we come!"

Nutmeg smiled back, her enthusiasm returning: “Yeah, those docks wouldn’t be there if they didn’t have any ships to dock at them! I’m just so curious what we’ll be looking at.”

Summer Scribe trotted over and snuggled the kirin some more (to be fair, that mane was irresistibly soft and fluffy). "I can't wait to find out either! I wonder if they'll be like ours or totally new - all we know right now is that they DO dock."

Backing off from the emotional ponies, who seemed dangerously close to collapsing into a pile of hugs and friendship, Reef Skimmer made his way over to Grenelda and Gustus: the two griffons were sitting together near the edge of the island. "Some serious flying ahead, it seems." he said conversationally. "Ponies have a notion to head that way but no idea how far or what we'll find on the route. I do like a good flap about, not so keen on that bloody cart but at least it's a real workout for the wing muscles!"

The hen and tiercel both looked at him in puzzlement, before Grenelda asked curiously, "At night?"

"Oh no need, I imagine it'll be a few more hours of hugs and apologies and friendship bracelets at the very least!" the hippogriff said jokingly, before frowning "In all seriousness, this will be a tricky business what with our vessel immobilised and half the crew non-flyers. It'll be days if not weeks, we'll have to take it carefully, no telling what other dangerous creatures are out there. At least, not until we catch them and dissect them." Reef's beak smile faded as he realises that might not have come out right.

A bit more silence, then it was Gustus who spoke up, saying "You know what? You're okay, doc."

Meanwhile Azure Feather was looking curiously at the oversized wrench strapped to Nutmeg's back. "Sometimes you just have to use whatever weapon you've got on hoof... a wrench suits quite well, I'd say." She chuckles at that, but her mirth died away as she thought back to the chompy encounter. "First contact on the island... I hate to say I wasn't appropriately prepared, but there it is." Everypony's had their share of mistakes... admitting to them wasn't exactly a bad thing. Goodness knows she'd made more tactical mistakes than she could count.

“This... oh, it’s actually custom made. I forged it myself!” Nutmeg said, levitating the giant tool out of its holster and over her head, to float in front of her and Azure. “Best tool I ever had. See? It’s adjustable!” Nutmeg twirled it once before planting it on the ground and leaning on it like a cane.

Azure had seen her share of crazy stuff: after all, she was part of the Twilight Guard, and Ponyville had more than its fair share of weirdness. The chompers? New, unsettling, but she's handled it. A kirin casually swinging around a freakin' wrench as long as a pony?! Azure instinctively took a couple of steps back at the sight of the monstrosity of a weapon, before muttering under her breath "The buck did this thing come from..." Regaining her composure... well mostly... she said "Remind me not to anger the engineers then... angry kirin plus giant wrench equals bad day..." Now she was looking at the details of the weapon, which did seem to have mechanisms built into it... hmm, the Princess would find this one interesting...

Summer Scribe couldn't help but stare at the huge wrench, gaping while Nutmeg flourished it. "Yeah, that looks like a hell of a bruiser... Making me wonder if I've not been going underequipped in comparison!" She gave a nervous, though impressed, chuckle.

"Well, I can't shoot explodey beams out of my horn like you unicorns, so it's like the mare said, I use what I've got," Nutmeg replied, with a playful roll of her eyes.

Summer grinned back, sharing the mood: "What, you can't just set yourself on fire or something like that? Weird!"

"Fire has this nasty way of getting out of control," Nutmeg replied uneasily, "It's kind of... weird feeling. Anyway this wrench isn't just a weapon it's a tool. See, if you turn it like this, it's got a blade on the side I can saw stuff with, for instance. Good for cutting through pipes... amongst other things..."

Author's Note:

This story is a collaboration between myself (playing Reef Skimmer), Ferret (playing Nutmeg Inferno), Patashu (playing Summer Scribe) and Spearmint (playing Azure Feather), based on an online RP.

This chapter is based on the second half of the fourteenth session and the entire fifteenth session (which started with the now-customary Set Sail meeting). These were the last ones narrated / GMed by Ferret (for now), completing an eleven-session run and the introduction to the 'main plot' of the campaign.