Teambuilding
It quickly became clear that an immediate return to Fellis was out of the question. With so much at stake, careful preparation would be needed: Summer Scribe would just have to sit tight for another day. Taking the doctor's advice to heart, Set Sail asked every expedition member with combat experience to accompany her, then lead them out into the meadow. An assortment of creatures followed behind, trotting two-abreast.
First came Azure Feather and Reef Skimmer, two creatures changed radically by the magic of this strange land and coincidentally their only active military officers. The former had the most combat experience by some margin, but was still unsure of both her Air powers and her pegasus form. The hippogriff had seen his share of sea battles and shore raids, but as a surgeon and field medic rather than a soldier.
A pair of griffons followed: Grenelda and Gustus. In a rare moment of charm, the hen had actually managed to convince Reef to loan her his ornate wing blades, on the understanding that he would dissolve her if she failed to return the family heirlooms in good condition. Then came two of the unsettling purple ponies: Clashing Gale with his charming smile and silky bat wings, alongside Cloud Cutter, her glowing white eyes as blank as ever.
Bringing up the rear were Blaze Trails and Nutmeg Inferno; on seeing the kirin trying to pull a cartful of strange gadgets, the earth pony had insisted on slipping into the yoke to assist. That left Nutmeg with no way to escape Blaze's stream of frontier anecdotes, but she didn't seem to mind, listening eagerly to the pony's tales of traversing the Everfree Forest.
It was a long trek to reach the old abandoned quarry, but certainly worth the effort. Ridged ledges stepped down to a central pit whose flat, stony floor would weather any attacks far better than the delectable grasses of the meadow - not to mention the lack of wooly inhabitants to spook. Rough-hewn cubes of rock were strewn about, cut from the cliffs then just left to lie there by whoever had abandoned the quarry. They served as handy platforms, but their ultimate purpose or destination remained unknown.
"Alright, now what we're doing is about practicing, but it's also about communication," Set Sail said, once they'd all assembled in a vague group at the bottom. "We need to know what each of us is capable of. So I suppose we could start with each of us demonstrating our abilities. Blaze, thanks for bringing all that stuff. Now I just need the dummy. Nutmeg?"
The kirin was quick to understand, reaching into the cart and pulling out a crude torso constructed of tightly-woven sticks and grass, with four branches standing in for legs. She flourished a hammer and chisel in her clear sparkling horn field, enlarging one of the cracks in the ground until she could jam the support pole into it. The training dummy was left standing there, just waiting to be attacked.
"Well, who wants to start?" Set Sail said, "I just want to see what you can do, if you needed to attack some creature." One brown wing shifted thoughtfully over something strapped to her side.
Azure Feather had declined Set Sail's invitation to lead the exercise: she'd never enjoyed drill, much less taken the lead. She had to admit though, having everypony trained and ready to work as a squad would make a huge difference. Even Reef - the hippogriff might be a fellow soldier, of sorts, but it was clear he wasn't used to working with ponies. His transformation had been harder than hers, but he'd apparently recovered well, more or less saving their hides in the pyramid.
She could only hope Clashing Gale would follow. The stallion had little idea of what his new form could do: like Cloud Cutter, he'd lost his weather working, but didn't seem to share her shadow-teleport or 'anti-life' ability. Perhaps they would learn more today - for now he just stood to one side, between herself and Cloud Cutter, waiting to see what combat abilities their squad-mates would demonstrate.
The two griffons nodded to each other, eager to show what they could do. Gustus had been giving Grenelda a crash-course in wing-blade usage; harder to use than claws to be sure, but with greater reach and cutting power. Reef's blades were a little long for her, but the gleaming metal still looked deadly strapped to her phalanges.
The tiercel strode forward, bobbing his head to the others. "For a griffon, fighting is as simple as unleashing that predatory instinct deep down inside..." Head cocked, he sized the training dummy up, marking it as his foe: feathers flaring up, leaning forward, legs tense, talons beckoning... Muscles tensed like a coiled spring, he leapt forward in an impressive burst of speed, tackling hard into the dummy. Talons razed through the wood while his sharp beak gouged and tore into it. The eagle-lion's weight pulled the support pole clear out of the crack, bearing the dummy down to the ground.
The griffon puffed proudly as he backed off: "Time your strike properly, connect with both claws, eheh, and your foe's done for." He shoved the pole back into the ground for his mate to take a turn.
Grenelda lined up, wings spread as she too sized up the dummy. Of course she could bring down prey as easily as Gustus, if not moreso... but today it was time for something different. "Now then... I'm finally ready to try out these babies - thank you for the generous loan, Reef! Claw and beak are one thing, but flourish a bit of steel as well - they'll think twice before they lay a claw on my crewmates!" she cackled.
A confident puff of her neck down and click of her beak, then she too was springing into the air, wings coming down in heavy beats as the hen climbed above the quarry and then banked hard, circling around into a power dive. The griffon was a blur as she swooped past the dummy, one wing flexed to slash the blade through it - just as Gustus had shown her. Dust and splinters were blown everywhere in her wake, as she gracefully corkscrewed around and came in to land. Grenelda's beak hung open in a grin; now she could create carnage without even landing. "...Damn, I should have tried this sooner," she chortled.
"Good show Grenelda! Took me months of practice to do that." Reef Skimmer shouted, "And, erm, you were fine too Gustus." A brief pause, then he stepped forward and stared around at the onlookers, looking embarrassed. A sigh before he let his body expand into that strange mutated form, his legs and tail becoming bunches of blue tentacles, while his head, torso and abdomen all slid apart, connected by more of the same. He raised one tentacle and released a blast of water, soaking the dummy and rocking it back on its stick. Then he charged forward and awkwardly pounced it, stopping a little short to avoid crushing it entirely.
Realising how lame this had looked, the big griff snorted and began to change, expanding and fusing back together until an enormous grey bird occupied the centre of the quarry, nearly as large as their commandeered drow copter. Torrents of pressurised water blasted downward as Reef rocketed up into the sky; rain splattered down as he banked around in a wide loop, taking aim at a dilapidated storage shed on the edge of the pit. With an ear-splitting screech the roc dropped out of the sky, arresting his descent at the last possible moment with a massive blast of water that smashed into the rotten structure. The shed exploded into a cloud of spray and flying splinters, leaving a tentacle-legged grey roc standing in a small, muddy pond. Reef looked exultant for a moment, before sheepishly reverting to his default form and loping back over to the others.
"That was awesome!" called out the little kirin over by the cart.
Grenelda cackled again, seeing Reef's frustrated yet total destruction of the aged shed. "Hey, don't look so down about it! You can destroy now. You hardly need those wing blades on you when you can hit like a tidal wave of acid!"
"Oh, one can't create acid, as such." Reef told the hen, sounding distracted. "One can, erm, dissolve matter, it seems, but strictly on contact. I suppose that might be useful if we run into another of those big stone-plated brutes; you know, the species that tried to eat Azure and Summer. In any case, wing blades do benefit from a certain grace, one that you possess in far greater quantity than I." The griff dipped his head in respect, drawing a fresh smile from Grenelda and conflicted looks from Set Sail and Gustus.
"Yeah... so, anypony want to finish this poor thing off?" the pegasus asked, looking at the torn, crushed and now waterlogged training dummy.
Azure nodded gently, smiling at the show the three griffs had put on. Grenelda was one of their best fighters to be sure, and Gustus no slouch either, though the hen was showing true potential now with those new weapons.
Clashing Gale was far more interested in the doctor's performance: he shivered as he watched the hippogriff's body transform, revealing the unnatural blue gel within. This land's magic was still new and unsettling to him - Reef's tentacles seemed particularly bizarre, though he would never say it to Reef's face. The... frankly sub-par initial attack didn't impress, but what followed was a different story. Having a big, mutant griffon clumsily pouncing was one thing. Having an elephant-sized angry raptor screaming toward you while blasting literal tonnes of water into your face? Now that was something else. The bat-pony simply stared at the shed's wreckage for several seconds before turning to Azure Feather, a stunned look on his face. "Tell me your Air element tricks doesn't involve anything like that," he muttered.
"Long story short?" she whispered back. "Take your whole squad of storm-piercer ponies, combine their weather powers into one pegasus, make the workings faster... I think that would be a fair description." Clashing could only shake his head in reply.
Seeing the winged folk whispering sweet nothings to each other instead of taking action, Blaze Trails felt it was time to step up. She cantered around the quarry in an easy lope, bounding between ledges and pillars and intermittently skidding to a stop to hide silently behind one of the huge blocks. Twice she somehow reappeared from behind an entirely different block, causing several onlookers to question their belief that only unicorns could teleport.
"Just a littl' misdirection!" she called out, chuckling before bounding over to the dummy. Her mouth went to a scabbard at her side - the smaller of the two strapped there - and emerged with a wicked-looking curved knife. Two quick passes drew long slashes down the flanks of the dummy, then with a final flourish Blaze wheeled about and bucked the dummy's head clean off, to sail in a long arc over to the wall of the quarry. "Yeah that maulwurf ain't gonna bother nopony again!" she called out happily.
Gustus's crest fell as he sees Blaze Trails' apparent teleportation trick. He tilts his head left and right as though trying to find the hidden mirrors and wires, but remains distraught. "Goodness, now there's a feat I'd love to pull off, eheh, maybe then I'd be fit for the front lines..."
"Nice job, Blaze!" Set Sail said happily, trotted into the centre. "Nice job, everyp—everyone! One sec." Seeing the dummy reduced to a handful of twigs clinging to the support stick, she bit down, uprooted it and tossed the remains away. Nutmeg disappeared into the cart again and pulled out another woven dummy, prancing over to hammer it into the crack. "Who's next?" the brown-and-blue mare asked, looking around, "Azure? Clashing?"
Clashing Gale just shook his head slowly. "Sorry, Captain, but I'm afraid I don't have anything to show any... creature here. Ugh... if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take my leave, something doesn't feel quite right..." He shuddered, then turned and trotted out of the quarry, slipping into the undergrowth before anypony could object. There was something he needed - and he didn't want any creature to see him getting it.
Azure Feather was left standing next to... she looked expectantly at Cloud Cutter, but the purple mare just stared into the jungle where Clashing had disappeared. Azure sighed: "Guess I've got to show what I can do, then." She nodded firmly and stepped forward, eyeing the pristine training dummy. "Thanks for giving me a fully-intact target, Captain... too bad it won't stay that way for long."
The blue pegasus spread her wings and began with a familiar trick, but with a twist: her wings glowed an odd shade of green, making three quick slicing motions that created a flurry of three wing blades. As they sliced into the dummy Azure leapt upwards, floating on motionless wings as if riding a sudden air current. The dummy was an easy target; she needed something sturdier, turning her attention to the cart-sized granite blocks scattered around the quarry. A few more flaps and she'd conjured a cyclone, a twisting funnel of air strong enough to shove a pair of blocks backwards. The sound of grinding stone was barely audible over the howling wind as they slid several metres.
Azure let the wind die - now it was time for something genuinely impressive. She flapped with a steady rhythm, concentrating as she forced moisture out of the air. Despite the clear sky, the quarry was suddenly covered in low-lying cloud, which quickly charged with energy. Azure thought back to the air temple - all she needed to do was gather the charge, lead it down to her target like so... A bolt of lightning crashed down, lighting up the quarry as thousands of amps flowed through the stone. White-hot sparks flew from the impact, then the block broke apart under the stress, collapsing into rubble.
The clouds dissolved away as fast as they'd appeared. "...I've a few more tricks, but for the sake of the scenery... I'll leave it there," Azure said calmly. "I expect to treat those pirates to my full repertoire."
Grenelda and Gustus look increasingly excited (and gobsmacked, respectively) as Azure Feather ramped up her combat demonstration, until finally a lightning bolt strong enough to obliterate stone strikes down from the heavens, leaving them both shocked (in the figurative sense). "Daaamn. You can do that now?" Gustus exclaimed.
"That is some serious voltage!" Grenelda crowed.
"That was stupendously awesome!" called a kirin way back in the peanut gallery, looking up much more excitedly, "You are SO good with the Air Element!"
"Bravo!" Reef called out. "What a show. Although... one can only assume that last trick only works outdoors?"
Gliding down to land by the group, Azure Feather seemed at least pleased with herself, bowing her head before replying. "Learned from the best, Nutmeg, Grenelda... really appreciated, thank you." Then a smile and nod to the hippogriff: "I would say so, Doctor - I need good-sized clouds to pull the charge from, for now at least."
Set Sail just stared in horror, wings outspread, not even seeing the halves of stone fall apart as she focused on the pegasus at her work. Finally tearing her eyes away, she muttered to herself under her foreleg. Finally she forced herself to put it down and look up at Azure with a fixed smile, saying: "Good... job, Azure! I guess a plain old... training dummy isn't enough for you. You'll... get those pirates, for sure!"
Azure looked concerned as she turned to face the captain. "I can hope so... those pirates, the drow... I get the feeling we haven't seen all of their tricks yet. If Sunburn's words are true, of which I have no doubt... I'll need those tricks. Especially that one trick I didn't use. One can only hope they'll be enough." With that she retreated to her previous spot, ready for the next squad-mate to show their own tricks.
"Thank you Azure, I... um..." Set Sail gave another very awkward smile until Azure gave up on trying to get a response from the poor mare.
Cloud Cutter had taken note of the lighting, to be sure, but was still looking worriedly after Clashing Gale. Or at least looking - she didn't really do 'worried' anymore. Realising that it was her turn, she said flatly: "I'm like Clashing. I don't have much I can do."
"Oh, go ahead, do what you can then!" Set Sail told her, glad for the distraction from... that, "This isn't a contest. I want to know what's stopping you, so we can work on it." With a wince she added, "Err... and I know the thing you do won't..."
Cloud Cutter seemed to just stare at the dummy for a few seconds, though creatures in the know would notice her shadow detaching and zipping over there. The pegasus appeared right next to her target in a purple flash, then a second and subtly different flash burst out of her - a small one this time. "It's dead," she said flatly.
"Can't you use your wing blades to...?" Set Sail asked, looking over at the purple pegasus.
Unfurling her wing, and hooking a foreleg around the dummy's middle, while wrapping her wing around its neck, blade pressed to it, Cloud Cutter said, "I might be able to take a hostage. But as Grenelda demonstrated, wing blades are designed to be used most effectively at high speeds. I won't be destroying any dummies like this."
"I see..." Set Sail said, rubbing a hoof on her chin. "Well, it's okay," she looked up happily, "That's exactly what we want to know. I want to see everypony else before we start working on it though."
"Everypony else?" Cloud Cutter asked in confusion, "Like whom?"
"Like me!" Set Sail declared hotly, "I'm going on the expedition too, y'know!"
Azure nodded, saying brightly: "Sounds good, Captain! Let's see what the leader can do!" Set Sail... Azure hadn't seen her in battle. Could it be that the Captain was an accomplished fighter herself and she'd just mistakenly judged a book by its cover? Reef Skimmer also watched the captain closely, beak open in what he hoped was an encouraging smile.
Set Sail smiled bashfully at Azure’s praise, saying, “Alright, so I don’t have any special Element abilities or anything like Reef and... Azure. But I did want to show off this axe I... found. It’s heavier than a sword, but uh, I’ve been trying out a few ideas.” With no further ado, the mare stuck her nose under her brown wing, pulling out her purloined battle axe from an improvised sheath on her flank. Set Sail looked at the dummy thoughtfully, axe in mouth. Then her wings spread and she charged at it.
Leaping at the last second, her wings buffeted the thing in the wind of their beating, as she took the axe in her foreleg mid-leap and spun, sinking it deeply into the dummy with all her weight and momentum, landing hard. The dummy sagged under her attack, while Set Sail bit the handle, tearing it out of the dummy with bits of grass pouring out the side, Set Sail used that momentum to swing it around and sink the axe into the other side of the dummy. Then biting the handle again, the axe was torn from the dummy when Set Sail shot vertically up into the air in one powerful flap of her wings. She soared around in a circle, until with the axe cradled in both her forelegs, she accelerated forward in a steep dive.
It seemed like a collision course, until Set Sail turned her entire body sideways, holding the axe before her and even bracing a hind leg on its heft, the moment it cleaved through the dummy like butter. The training dummy exploded in a spray of twigs, sending its upper half spiralling into the air. Already far beyond it, Set Sail frantically back-winged in a total fluster, losing her forward momentum and stumbling her hooves to a halt behind it.
Dropping the axe, she charged back saying, “Oh, sorry! I didn’t think it would...” With tiny little shallow beats of her wings, the blue and brown mare corralled the sharp bits of straw and dust into a cloud around the dummy, until it settled into a neat pile around the cracked base. “Uh...” Set Sail said, looking back with a blush, “Next dummy, Nutmeg?”
The sudden and final destruction of the training dummy is like a release of tension for Grenelda, watching avidly and chortling with such bloodlust and delight. "Set Sail, that was brutal, I loved it! You really rock that thing! Whew, I'm just imagining it splitting drow heads and I'm in heaven!"
Azure couldn't help but smile. For a pegasus without horn magic or earth pony strength, wielding an axe like that was no easy thing - yet the Captain showed she's got solid fighting ability! "Looking really good there, Captain!"
"Indeed, excellent technique there Sails." Reef said warmly. "Demonstrating that pegasi have a finer grasp of mass-momentum adjustment than griffs, more than makes up for the higher wing loading I'd say."
“I just figured if I went fast, the axe would hit harder,” Set Sail said, giving Reef a puzzled look. “You don't need fancy mass-momentum magic or whatever, just to take advantage of all this...” she waved a hoof vaguely around, "...space to breathe. Didn't think it would go all the way through though. Hope I didn't damage my axe!" As the captain trotted over to fuss worriedly over her weapon, Nutmeg headed up with another training dummy balanced on her back.
"Oh but you see pegasi fly by... erm... you know, never mind." Reef said, frowning. "So, just Nutmeg and Crashing Gale... hmmm, where did that fellow get to?" He looked around the quarry to no avail. "Stepped out to relieve himself, perhaps?"
Gustus shrugged his wings; "Well, err, he did have a bit of a look in his eyes when he hurriedly excused himself. Hungry, maybe...?"
"He said something didn't feel quite right," Cloud Cutter reported, "And then took his leave. I hope he's okay."
"Indeed. One imagines he can handle himself, but... what if there's another of those chompy-spawning monstrosities about?" Reef said. "Perhaps we could practice search-and-rescue... oh, erm, after your turn of course, Nutmeg."
Finished affixing the new dummy in place, Nutmeg looked Reef's way saying, "Oh, me? No I can strike creatures with my wrench, but I am more of a support class than anything. Just like how the griffons were ineffective against the dummy, but against innumerable smaller foes they'd tear through them like a wood chipper. My strength is in um..." The kirin hurried over to her cart and began to rifle through it.
Grenelda huffed at being called 'ineffective', then eyed the kirin warily as she approached bearing a peculiar apparatus. It looked like a long pipe, attached to an assembly of gears and a container full of pebbles. “Grenelda, could you try this on?” Nutmeg said - the bulky thing clearly did have a harness at the centre of it. “Don’t worry I’ve tested it, but I think you’ll like it best.”
"Hmm, you aren't going to, erm... catch fire?" Reef wondered. "Not even a little bit? I mean, the way you lit that campfire at the lake, surely if you did that while bucking an opponent..." he suggested.
Grenelda raised an eyebrow, still trying to figure out if she'd been slighted or not. But sure, fine, she decided: it's true enough that she's most effective against flesh, and nothing to be embarrassed about when it's one's calling. "Oh? Err, sure. What is it exactly?" She slips limb after limb through the contraption, looking quizzical, standing there as though awaiting further orders.
Nutmeg fish-mouthed at Reef for a moment, then said nervously, "Uh well that... only happens when I... lose my temper, and it's... not very... um..." At Grenelda's query, Nutmeg turned to her in relief, saying, "Oh it's a matter accelerator using a bit of fire crystal to accelerate a flywheel since the Skylanders didn't have any energy cells to spare. The flywheel is half the weight of course, dimensionally rotated for safety. But um... just point that barrel in the direction of the dummy, and pull... this trigger." Her cloven hoof pointed at a handle with a trigger, which Grenelda could pretty easily grab in her claw.
Azure stayed quiet as the contraption was strapped onto the griffon's back. 'It's a rock thrower,' she thought. 'Nothing to it... right?'
"It's a what now?" Grenelda tilts her head, patiently listening. "Point the barrel and pull the trigger? Oh, a fancy techy crossbow kinda thing. Okay, let's try it out!" She was curious to see it in action, wasting no time in lining up on the dummy then grabbing and squeezing the trigger. A snap-flash of fire crystal energy flaring, the whirr of the flywheel spinning up, then a chunk of metal was accelerated out the barrel with a thump, leaving a wisp of smoke behind as it hurtled towards the target dummy and... snap. The dummy shattered, the shell tearing through and hurtling onward to embeds itself in the opposite side of the quarry.
Even as she recovered from the sudden shove of recoil, Grenelda's beak was gaping open! "Hooh, damn, Nutmeg!" As if contaminated by the source of its acceleration, the shell had left a crimson red trail of energy lingering in the air, especially around the shattered remnants of the dummy.
Azure seemed more confused than anything by the display... but from past experience with griffon crossbows she knew that sending something sharp and dense flying that fast into a target would do serious damage. Blaze Trails was a lot more vocal, whistling and saying, "That's one mighty impressive slingshot you're toting there Grenelda! Heh, not sure you'd wanna let loose with that thing while you're flapping about - might send ya tumblin'," she chuckled.
"Oh, that's the best part," Nutmeg said eagerly, "I had this cool idea, why not use a flywheel like a gyroscope? So as long as it's charged, all it'll do is push you backwards, if you're flying in the air, correcting for any spin! I was trying to make something that could be fired while flying, so that you could stay at a distance, and have an easier time aiming. Static Signal tested the pony model, and it worked great!"
"Ingenious." Reef murmured, not quite getting the mechanics of it but assuming it had something to do with precession.
Grenelda looked sceptical, but Nutmeg knew her stuff, so finally she admitted, "Damn, I need to try that, if I can borrow your accelerator a little longer?"
"It's yours, far as I'm concerned," Nutmeg said, swaying on her hooves unsurely, "I haven't figured out how to keep it from running out though, but I'll set up some kind of charging station. If it stops uhm... shooting and you can't get back to me, just drop it. It's not any more sophisticated than troll tech riflery, I just had to make it weird because of we don't have the chemicals for cordite. So it won't give our enemies any forbidden technological secrets or anything."
"Alright, that's... that's a lot better. I probably missed... well, everything..." It was Clashing Gale, who'd rejoined the group when nopony was looking. He smiled weakly as he looked around at the destruction: scattered grass and twigs, the shattered stone block, remnants of red energy... "Yup. Everything."
Set Sail was happy to see the bat pony return - safe and sound of course, no doubt he could take care of himself. Though that did remind her... "Nutmeg, do you think you could... alter Cloud Cutter's wing blades, to work on the edges of Clashing Gale's wings?" she asked, trotting over to the kirin.
Cloud Cutter's ears went down at that, but Set Sail assured her, "We'll find something for you. There's no need to have those on you, if they don't work with your abilities at all."
"I hate my abilities," Cloud Cutter said evenly, "But you're right. They were expensive, but... I suppose I can't be a privileged little rich filly anymore. They're not heirlooms or anything. I can probably show Clashing what little I know of how to use them."
"Sure, I sort of made a little forge to shape all this metal anyway," Nutmeg said, with an uneasy look between Set Sail and Cloud Cutter, "Depends on its composition, but... yeah basically."
"One is happy to assist, of course," Reef said stuffily. "In fact I believe I have the Royal Navy Wing-Sword Duelling Manual stowed in a locker back on the ship. Likely under my sea urchin collection," he mused.
Clashing looked a little sad to be take an ally's weapons away, but if they were truly no longer useful for Cloud Cutter... the decision was clear. "They'll- they'll be of good use, Cloud Cutter... I'm sorry." He sighed; she'd been on the Storm Piercer team from the beginning, and he hated to see one of his ponies so down.
And so the training continued. Set Sail managed to destroy another dummy with her other trick: flying around it quickly, delivering a tiny little cyclone of kicks from all directions. Nothing martial or calculated about it: it was just how she learned to fight as a foal on the docks, mostly facing earth ponies. When her final buck broke the dummy off at the base, it went spiralling upwards in the updraft - the pegasus squeaked in alarm, flapping up there to grab it before it could land on somepony's head. She then reassured everyone (or in truth, herself) that there was at least one more dummy apiece for all of them, and they could totally destroy it if they wanted to.
Blaze Trails was sure most of their problems stemmed from wandering about in the open, without a care as to who or what saw them coming. If they could just be a bit more discreet, why, it would be easy to avoid trouble. To that end she took two creatures at a time into the woods and told them to get as close to the quarry as they could before they were spotted by the others. Scores varied wildly, to say the least. Reef was spotted almost immediately, with Nutmeg not doing much better despite her considerable size advantage.
Gustus did better, matching Set Sail's progress, though Grenelda still chided him on his lack of stalking technique, saying she'd never have taken him on a job, back in the day. Clashing did quite well, almost keeping up with the griffon hen despite lack of training. Blaze herself was the best of course, save for... Reef found himself squawking in alarm again as Cloud Cutter had somehow made it all the way behind him before the inevitable 'boo'. Unfortunately she was unable to explain her technique, but Blaze Trails was happy to, giving everycreature a few pointers as they each had a few more tries.
Then Grenelda gathered them for an impromptu lesson on the basics of hunting wild game. Ponies, being the not-exactly-bloodthirsty creatures that they were, didn't have the knack for where to strike exactly - so Grenelda demonstrated using Gustus as a (stammering, but compliant enough) dummy. You went for the eyes and jugular, she explained, diving out of the sun so the opponent would be blinded if they tried to watch your approach, slamming hard enough that the head gets whiplash, and how to sink in your claws ('or weapons', she corrected) such that you're on top with the momentum advantage and your opponent's pinned in place.
One by one everyone was encouraged to feign opening blow attempts against her, Grenelda proudly giving feedback, or counter-pinning anypony who wasn't sufficiently bold and brave with their initial attack. Then Set Sail took her best shot at improving the griffon's speed-based power attacks, but they didn't make a lot of progress in that regard, especially with their larger wingspan making quick turns and rolls more difficult. She... tried to show Azure, but suddenly had to rest due to a mysterious headache, which somehow made her ears drop guiltily.
Cloud Cutter told Clashing the basics about wing blades at least, reassuring him that she'd hardly miss them. She was more worried about killing things by feeling weird, than mundane changes in her life. Nutmeg showed Grenelda more about how to shoot and aim the improvised backpack-rifle, and even managed to get some of the others to try her contraptions. The armour plates made of something she called 'spider tricks' even managed to resist the rifle shot, though the dummy was still knocked back by the force of the ricochet. The kirin had to explain the concept behind a signal flare, but it was pretty obvious after she fired one up and it burned with a bright red light as it drifted back slowly down.
Azure took the chance to teach the standard and less standard combat terms used by the Royal Guard. In the heat of battle you had to get your point across in two words rather than ten - and the less ambiguity the better. This was an area where being a bookworm actually helped. Even Reef Skimmer benefited from the lesson - while he knew the basic principles, terminology in the hippogriff navy was quite different from the pony royal guard.
When they took a break to relax and dig into the snacks, Reef seized the opportunity to lecture them on formations and manoeuvres. He began with simple concepts such as feints and flanking, grabbing clawfuls of rocks and laying them out to represent opposing forces. Then things progressed into mutual support, wedges, covering fire, enfilade and ways to combine air and ground forces. Things got steadily more abstract as he worked through pike phalanxes and flight formations. Eventually Set Sail had to point out that perhaps the details of 100-ship naval battles and logistic trains supporting armies of thousands of griffs might not be relevant to their current situation. The hippogriff conceded the point - after all, the sandwiches were now all consumed - and concluded his lecture.
Blue Type shivered; their little space on the tween deck felt empty, bereft of Summer Scribe's endless cheer and enthusiasm. Not that she was alone: the strange little ape-creature had been chattering away for hours now. With her green skin and pointed ears, the spindly drow might have been a child of Abernathy's species, except that her ears were even longer and her nose much flatter.
Silent Arrow had been with them for a couple of weeks now, and the drow had been looking for ways to help the ponies the whole time. Always in return for something though - better food, information about Equestria, walks in the meadow - and several times she'd been caught sneaking away to rifle through the chart room or spy on the engineers. Not enough to merit punishment, but the crew was still wary enough to keep her guarded at all times. Blue Type was grateful of the presence of Crimson Skies, both in case their prisoner decided to take her hostage, and because the pegasus stallion was a real charmer.
They'd been going through the bundles of documents recovered from the MagiBubble factory again, this time looking for any information on Fellis, the island of sphinxes and assorted felines where Summer was trapped. Silent Arrow clearly lacked any sort of formal education, but Blue Type was grateful for the few facts she could provide, as the documents were two centuries out of date and confirmed little other than that the city on Fellis once imported a lot of magical soda.
“Oh, hey there, captain!” said the informal guard: a blue pegasus stallion with a shock of red hair on his head and butt.
The chocolate-brown pegasus mare paced in on four sturdy hooves, saying “Hey there, Crimson. Am I interrupting anything?” Following after came the tall grey-feathered shape of the airship's doctor: the hippogriff Reef Skimmer.
Blue Type and the elf-like creature (that certainly was not an elf) sat at a table covered in mysterious scrolls (that were mostly just sales figures). The former lay on her belly with lavender hooves folded neatly beneath her, while the other perched on a step stool, the closest thing ponies had on hoof to an actual stool.
"Oh, Set Sail!" Blue Type said brightly. "I heard you and the others spent the whole day training, so you can rescue Summer tomorrow!"
“I'll be honest with you Blue Type, it would be an absolute disaster if we rescued her tomorrow,” ostensibly captain Set Sail said glumly, “A last minute, last ditch effort after everything else has failed, the whole island is after us, and we have no choice but to make enemies out of them all. I know it’s Summer Scribe so that’s probably exactly what’s going to happen, but what we’re trying to do is check on her, to make sure she’s safe and aware that we’re working on getting her out of there."
She sighed. "We will get her out of there, but I hope it won’t have to be tomorrow. What we need from the next trip is enough know-how about that island to travel around without getting chased off soon as we touch ground. Apologise to the creatures there for a lot of stuff that... well, mostly stuff Summer has done.”
Looking down, the blue-and-lavender earth mare said forlornly, "I wish I could do more to help. All we really know is that there used to be a sizable town there, with air docks and wholesalers. The Abyssinians... or Fellisians, as they're called here, were apparently quite loyal customers. Oh and also the 'molekin', another species we haven't encountered yet."
"Miners like the sharks, but timid, heh." Silent Arrow explained. "Hide in their holes at the first sign of trouble!" she jeered, before catching herself and adding "s-so I heard, uh. Yeah." Nervously glancing at the pony chieftess and the weird griffon following behind, she bit her lip and ventured "So, uh, you ponies got the attention of some sphinxes, huh? That's bad luck, that is."
With a surprised laugh, Set Sail said, “Oh come on, they’re just a bunch of dusty old sphinxes. What bad luck could they possibly bring on us?”
"You kiddin'?" Silent Arrow said in shock. "Sphinxes are full of secrets, ancient nasty secrets, each of 'em knows fifteen ways to curse a creature with as much as a look! Tough as griffons and canny as witches, know everything you did and everything you're gonna do, that's what my, uh, that's what... I heard."
"Curses?" Blue Type said nervously. "Is that what happened to Summer, she fell under a curse? Oh... I do hope you're right Set Sail, that you can make them see reason. If they're interested in history and magical theory, surely we could have a fruitful academic exchange?"
“There was a sphinx where we come from, centuries ago,” Set Sail said, gazing off, “Said to be the size of a house, with the power to take away a pegasus's flight, brought a whole nation to their bellies. The story goes that even with all that power, the sphinx was beaten just by answering her riddle.” She looked back at her concerned companion, saying, “From what Reef here said, the sphinxes on Fellis are... smaller than that, and seem like they could be decent people.”
Looking to Blue Type, the captain said with a regretful smile, “What happened to Summer was no more than a terrible accident. I don’t know how liable sphinxes are to curse a pony, but in this case, the only thing they did was warn her.”
Turning back to the drow, Set Sail concluded: “Anyway, if sphinxes are tough and canny as all that, seems like they’d be better to have as allies than enemies. Who uh... who was it that taught you about them, if I might ask?”
The drow looked away as she mumbled "Just some old sister." Then with a forced smile she told the pegasus: "Stories we tell 'round the fire, you know? Things that keep you alive... most of the time."
"Indeed, she regaled Azure and myself with quite a few tales," Reef Skimmer spoke up, staring intently at the drow. "Hard to say what's fact and what's fiction, though what once seemed fanciful must now be taken seriously, given the things we've seen here. Even chimeras of drow and spider, it seems."
Silent Arrow's eyes went wide. "Spi- Spidrow? You've seen the Blessed? What were, uh... so how did that go." she asked, failing to hide her curiosity.
"Could have gone better." Reef Skimmer said with uncharacteristic brevity, eyeing at Set Sail to see how the captain wanted to play this.
“Stories are valuable for keeping you alive it’s true,” Set Sail continued to tell the drow, disregarding Reef’s comment for now, “They also show that someone cares about you enough to tell you them. I didn’t have any sisters, just two brothers, but my grandma had some tales... well that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I know a... little bit about pirates, and the creatures we’ve spoken with say your people have been pirates for a... very long time.”
"Pirates? We're free drow!" Silent retorted. "We're not conscripts like the rest, we don't serve and die at the whim of some self-styled overlord who don't even know our names!" The little biped bit her lip again, looking around at the equine faces (and one large beak). "I-I mean sure, yeah we're pirates, the best pirates you know, storied and successful and feared by all," she said, almost convincingly.
“That's just what my great-grandma said, and she was right,” Set Sail replied, “She became a pirate when some bad ponies had taken power, and breaking the law was her way of fighting back. Her crew had a lot of support at first, but they were pirates too long, too afraid to stop. Once her pirates destroyed all the evil traders, there was no more support, no more easy targets."
"They started losing ponies, and ships... and my grandma was born a pirate. She didn’t know how to farm, or build ships, or fish, or anything like that. Eventually the pirates threw their own leaders overboard and gave themselves up, because it was all they could do."
"I told you this story, because we’re going to let you go. As freely as we can risk. But I don’t think you should go back to your clan. You’re already out of easy targets, you’re already losing ships and... drow. We’ve met some creatures who are very mad with your clan, and it might not be safe there pretty soon. I’d like to reach a peaceful solution, but... I’m not gonna let you wipe us out."
"The deal is, I need your help. You might’ve noticed we’re walking around on all fours and different colors... too easy to mistake us for the sphinxes those 'Blessed' you speak of are fighting. You look like they do though, from the waist forward at least, and they might not see you as a threat. I’ll let you go free as a bird, if you deliver a gift to them, a peace offering I guess. I’d do it myself but..."
Spreading her brown wings, Set Sail struck a pose, concluding, “Rarr, evil sphinx. Y’know? So is that a bad idea? I’m not gonna send you to your death. Do you think the spidrow might shelter you until this all blows over?”
A long silence as everyone present absorbed what the pegasus had said. Finally Silent Arrow piped up: "I saw you talking with those dragons. You think we can't handle a dragon or two?" She straightened her shoulders and raised her head in a gesture of defiance, but her voice was more uncertain than ever. "Spidrow... I got no magic so I guess they won't stick me in a cocoon, but... probably never see sky again, after they put me to work. Unless they got a copter and no pilots," the little drow said sadly. The only time the strange creature had seemed genuinely happy was when she'd spoken of flying the Wyvern's Sting, before it became the Second Chance.
"What d'ya want with them anyway, sending a bribe- uh, 'gift' like that?" The drow's eyes lit up as the pieces fell into place "Oh, you wanna hire them, don't you? Think they'll be mercs, help you take down the sphinxes maybe? Sure, I can be your, uh, agent." Silent Arrow seemed to be warming to the idea. "You gotta make the right offer though, I ain't going up to a band of Blessed with a- a bag of oats or something like that, they'd... uh, they'd get real angry."
Set Sail opened her mouth to reply, about to call the whole thing off, but Reef Skimmer broke in first. "Cocoon?" he asked, unable to contain his curiosity. "Why would they cocoon mages, specifically?" The notion put him in mind of the pods changelings used to place creatures in, before their reformation.
"Oh, uh, guess you never heard 'bout the Blessed then." Silent said, glancing warily at the big hippogriff. "Don't you even know the legend of the Chaos Mother?"
"No, but it sounds fascinating!" Blue Type said eagerly, picking up her quill in her mouth. "Plees du continu!"
The drow rocked back on her stool, thinking back to the traditions that had been drilled into her when she was a girl. "Uh, well, she was the matriarch of the dark legions, long long time ago, before the Lord of Chaos or the breaking of the sky. They said she tried everything to take down the Skylanders, 'specially doing stuff to her minions... changing 'em, trying to make 'em stronger. Make us stronger, I guess. That's where goliaths came from - her magic, still in our veins, passed down the years. Did stuff to the trolls and the 'clops as well, and made pets of monsters too fierce and too many to recall."
Seeing the scholar pony lapping this up, the drow paused and asked "So you're gonna show me round the engine room right? Officially, like." She'd barely gotten a look at the strange devices the ponies were building before a particularly paranoid brown stallion caught her sneaking.
"Oh of course, of course!" Blue Type nodded eagerly, too engrossed in the tale to even look to the captain for confirmation.
"Uh, great! So yeah the Chaos Mother made all kinds of creatures but the Blessed were the best of 'em. 'Cause drow make great witches, great warriors, but we, uh, kinda run outta juice pretty quick? But the Mother knew of a kind of spider that fed on all kinds of Elemental power, soaked it up and stored it in their fat spider butts, heh. So she thought, join them up with drow and you got power and finesse, you got unstoppable fighters!" Silent enthused. "But... only so long as they got Elements to feed on. Without that, they just wither and die. And... I think that stuff's a lot harder to find now, than in the olden days."
“Huh, that explains a lot about our trouble with them,” Set Sail said, folding her wings and pondering. “Oh well, it was worth a shot. If I need anything else from you Miss Arrow, I’ll let you know, but I suppose for now we’re gonna have to be the ones putting you to work. I’ll talk to Nutmeg about seeing if you can help out in the engine room. And... Reef,” she turned to her strange hippogriff friend, saying solemnly, “...you had no way of knowing.”
Heading out of the room, the brown pegasus turned and said, “Oh uh, go ahead doing what you were doing, you two. One of the engineers’ll let you know when they’re ready for you.”
"Wait, uh, Captain!" Silent Arrow shouted, jumping to her feet. "What- What's gonna happen? To my clan? You gonna swoop in with those dragons, try an' take the Hand? 'Cause dragons or no, we- they ain't going down without a fight!"
"What's gonna happen is they're going to stop being pirates, one way or the other!" Set Sail called out over her shoulder, "All I know is I'll do whatever it takes to keep my little ponies safe." And then she's gone.
Reef Skimmer watched the captain go, face unreadable (at least to the ponies) as ever. Then the hippogriff dipped his head down to Crimson Skies' ear and whispered "My dear fellow, would you mind keeping an eye on the Captain? One imagines she'll be off to the clouds again, and... erm, perhaps you could just... follow behind and make sure she stays safe? Alas one finds oneself the proverbial minotaur in the crockery shop."
"Well I would, if you can keep an eye on the little miss here," the red and blue pegasus said, indicating where Blue Type and Silent Arrow were sitting, "But Set Sail does this sort of thing now and then, you might not know. I can understand if she needs some time alone to let off some steam."
"Oh I can imagine, but you must understand, the Captain is under unprecedented stress just now. One has reason to believe she might..." Reef snorted in frustration. "Look, could you just make sure she doesn't fall off the cloud? Worry not, I'll take custody of our guest here."
"Can do, but don't doubt her too much," he said with a salute, She's a lot stronger than she puts on." Heading to the top deck and spreading his wings, Crimson leapt up into the sky, because of course that's where Set Sail had gone.
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For the purposes of this story, Skylands is shaped roughly like a galaxy. Eon's Redoubt is somewhere in the 'core', whereas the ponies have arrived on the 'fringe'. Initially they just draw their own maps of what they can see, but later in the story they find a proper world map.