Ungrounded

by Lucien Chance

Chapter 29: A Sudden, Sharp Turn

"Alright." Lucien snapped a pointing stick to the whiteboard he had conjured up. In front of him sat his loyal friend Twilight, who was ready to listen with rapt attention. Floating around her were numerous letters from the princesses, each containing valuable information on the target of their investigation, Ironwing, CEO of Skyline Incorporated.

"So what we know about this griffon," he began, moving his pointer to a sketch of Ironwing that had numerous lines drawn towards his various anatomical parts. "We know that he is proficient in many fighting styles, each linked to the creative and lethal use of his wings." He pointed to the drawing's wings. "But we don't really care about what he can do in a fight. What we really care about it what's going on up here," he said, circling the drawing's head.

"Ironwing has a mind like a steel trap. According to reports sent from the princesses, and accounts given so us so graciously by Bronze Gear herself, we know that he is a ruthless tactician, with skills of business and manipulation that far outclass any political or economic competitors in Cloudsdale." The pointer moved to a picture of Skyline's tower. "He's used this skill to take over most of the business of Cloudsdale, and go so far as to gain the alliance of the local government. In addition that that frightening fact, we also know that he controls most of the police regiments, and the hearts and minds of the citizens of Cloudsdale."

Lucien made a disgusted sound. "It's this kind of thing that I really hate. It's like a twisted form of Stockholm Syndrome. All the citizens of Cloudsdale are being manipulated by this guy, just so he can have control here. And they don't even realize why."

He snapped his pointer to a sketch of a gear. "And that why is precisely why we're here. We know for a fact that Ironwing is connected to the terrorist group known as the Engineers. It's ranks contain Bronze Gear," he pointed to a picture of the pony, "Ironwing," he returned to the drawing of the griffon, "and a third member that we still don't know the identity of." His pointer came to rest on the silhouette of a pony with a question mark on its flank.

"According to Bronze Gear, the Engineers have some connection to the pony known as 'Sandcroft,' whom I've met personally. It's still unknown as to what his relation to the Engineers is, or if he's had any contact with the other two members, but we do know that he factors in somewhere. Hell, he might even be the third member. Point is, we don't know yet. Moving on!"

His pointer snapped to some documents clipped onto the board. "We have some evidence here that brings into question the legality of Ironwing's methods of interacting with the various businesses that used to be in Cloudsdale. We have enough here to bring Ironwing into court, but not enough to convict him, especially not with the alliances he's built within the population. It would be impossible to get an unbiased jury in Cloudsdale, and he would delay the trial anyway, at least until whatever he's planning is ready."

His pointer moved to a copy of some schematics. "Now, right here I have the blueprints for Bronze Gear's magic-neutralizing bomb, something I'm sure you remember very fondly. Anyway, due to the letter left by Sandcroft at Bronze Gear's home, we have to expect that Ironwing has a copy of these same blueprints, and we need to anticipate that he has constructed one of these bombs himself."

He flipped the board over to reveal a large illustration of the bomb's anatomy. "Thanks to the unicorns in Canterlot that reverse-engineered the device, we know much more about it now, including," his pointer snapped to a small point at the base of the tesla coil inside the main compartment of the bomb, "it's weakness. There is one wire underneath a small plate at the base of the coil that, when severed, cuts the power to the bomb. Should we face this weapon, it would need to be our primary objective to keep it from going off. No magic: no cloudwalking, and that would be very messy."

He flipped the board back over. "Getting back on point, we don't know what technology Ironwing's come up with, but we do have some reports from the pegasi that work in the city's construction that there may be some hollow space in the clouds underneath Skyline's tower." He pointed to a copy of Skyline's blueprints. "It's my suspicion that whatever Ironwing is building, it's hidden down there."

"So." He snapped his pointer shut and tossed it in his backpack. "Since we can't nail him politically, we have to figure out what he's got hidden, and make sure it doesn't ever become operational. Any questions?"

Twilight clopped her hooves together enthusiastically. "Great lecture Lucien! You would make a really nice teacher!"

"Tried it once. Colleges on my planet didn't really appreciate me teaching Magic 101, especially since my style is more hands on than anything. Anyway, are we in agreement for what needs to be done next?" he asked.

"Nope! I think you explained everything perfectly, aside from how we're getting under Skyline," Twilight replied.

"Tunneling!" Lucien responded enthusiastically.

"What?"

"We go up from underneath Cloudsdale!" Lucien conjured a little cloud in the air between them and pointed to the bottom of it. "It's simple, we go underneath using modified gravity spells and dig towards the surface. If we start in the right place, we'll hit the cavern in no time!"

Twilight blinked. "That's... not a bad plan. Getting the gravity spell to work with the cloudwalking spell won't be too easy though..." Twilight trailed off in thought.

"I'll leave you to it, then. There's something in the city that I need to do," Lucien grabbed his backpack, then kicked the whiteboard, causing it to disappear into the mana that he conjured it from. The now-ethereal substance flooded back into him, his body lighting up slightly green. He exited through the door, leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts and the little cloud he had conjured up.

He exited out to a main street. It was approaching late afternoon, and the sun was beginning turn the land orange. He felt like he needed to get outside. Since he got to Cloudsdale he'd felt somewhat on-edge, and the incident in Skyline's tower and talking with Twilight made him feel changed, somehow. He felt more powerful, in a way. More in control of himself, if that makes any sense.

He looked around at the strange architecture of the buildings in his area. Each towered into the sky at a different height, none shared any outstanding features, but they all had some sort of flat roof or balcony. Probably because they made good landing places for the flying populace in Cloudsdale.

Looking up at one in particular, he focused, then flashed to it mid-stride. He stopped moving, just looking around at the other buildings. With another thought, he flashed to another one, this time on a roof. Then he moved again, and again, and again. He went through the entire city like that, flashing from building to building without moving his legs.

A few minutes later he hit the edge of the flying city. Off in the distance he could see Canterlot, sitting proudly on its mountain. Down below it was Ponyville, already thrown into shade from the setting sun. He turned around and looked up to see the Skyline tower, casting a deep shadow across the city. He took a deep breath, inhaling the clean air and taking in the silence. There was hardly a breeze even, the air keeping still and lending to the serenity of the scene.

He twitched. Something was off in the peace. There was a disturbance of some sort. He focused his hearing and was able to pick up a slight whistling sound from far off. He looked down from the roof he was standing on and tried to see into the shade below Cloudsdale.

Just then something flew by him from below. Almost too fast for him to catch. He stumbled backward in surprise, wondering what it was that could move that fast. He crouched down slightly, not wanted to get knocked off balance again, and he peered over the ledge again.

Another thing flew by him. Then another. And another. They weren't small either, and there was a lot of them. Too many. He turned and ran a few steps back, to the center of the roof, then looked back.

A veritable tidal wave of creatures suddenly erupted into the air. The scene that was so peaceful one moment ago was now shattered by the screams and cries of whatever it was that just came up. More and more came, enough so that it completely covered up the sun's dying lights.

He leveled out his gaze and noticed one flying right for him. Reacting quickly, he held out his hands and caught it in a stasis bubble in front of him. His eyes narrowed as soon as he realized what it was that was swarming.

Wyverns. Bright blue in color, armless, but rather armed with a row of sharp teeth. The one he captured was about as long as he was, head to tail, but they could be bigger. He would need to be swift and brutal dealing with these. There was no easy way to get rid of a swarm of Wyverns, but there was a method.

Manipulating the magic of his stasis bubble, he grasped the wings of the Wyvern he had captured, then violently ripped them from its body. It let out a high-pitched screech, then Lucien unceremoniously dropped it onto the roof. He took a few steps forward and brutally crushed its throat with his heel. He tried but failed to suppress the shiver of satisfaction he got from snuffing the monstrosity's life.

Before him was the city of Cloudsdale. He could already hear the screams of pegasi as they flitted around, under attack from the equally mobile aerial threat. He didn't know how he would defend the city, or how it happened that Wyverns were in Equestria and attacking Cloudsdale, but he knew that he needed to stop it. Just like the incident with the Filth months ago, his world's creatures were his responsibility, and he wasn't going to let them destroy his second home.

He visualized his and Twilight's apartment and teleported directly to the front door. Not wasting any time, he threw the door open and immediately spotted who he was looking for.

"Twilight. There's trouble," he said flatly.

She looked up from her spot on the bed, her eyes breaking view with the miniature cloud Lucien had left behind. "What's wrong?" she asked, confused. Just then, as if in response to her question, the sounds of the Wyverns filled the air around them. They were advancing across the city quickly.

Twilight removed her hooves from her ears cautiously. "What is that?!" she shouted over the cries and shrieks filling the air.

"Wyverns!" Lucien shouted back. "From my world!" he dashed inside and grabbed his sword from his bed. He slid it firmly into its position on his back and looked at Twilight.

She was standing up, her jaw firmly set, a fire in her eyes. A far cry from what she was like when Lucien first arrived. "When I first came around..." The thought stopped him cold. He looked over her stance, her steely face. It didn't seem like an expression something so gentle should ever have. "I brought this here... She's like this because of me." The thought stung, almost.

But he was shaken from his thoughts by something unexpected. The ground started to rumble, the floor shook beneath his feet. Something was wrong with the floating city.

"Lucien, do you feel that?" Twilight asked, a look of concentration on her face.

He didn't need to extend his senses to feel that something other than the ground was rumbling. There was a magical force in the air, vibrating throughout the city like a colossal foghorn. It was coming from the center of the city, and Lucien had a feeling he knew exactly where.

"Let's get outside!" he shouted to her before running out and jumping up to the roof. He extended a spherical shield to protect them from any attacks from above.

He turned his gaze directly to Skyline's tower, knowing full well that was the source of the anomaly. But what he saw wasn't something that he had ever anticipated.

Buildings around Skyline's plaza were collapsing from the sheer force of what was emerging from beneath the clouds. The bow of a ship, completely vertical, was steadily climbing into the sky. It was golden-bronze in color, and absolutely massive. It was still rising up from below, though now it had begun to level out. Wyverns were swarming all around it, and, even from where he was, he could see the flashes of light coming from cannon-fire and spells being cast from the surface of the ship.

"What is that?!" Twilight yelled from beside Lucien.

"Right now, it's our best hope to keep the Wyverns off of Cloudsdale." Lucien said, his mind thinking fast. He slung around his backpack and pulled out his journal. He flipped it open and thumbed over pages until he found the one he was looking for: the page on Wyverns. "They attack in swarms! Their arms are part of their wings, barbed tail, sharp teeth! Keep your distance and use area-of-effect attack spells!" he shouted to Twilight. As he closed the journal, he noticed his sticky note at the top with his kill-count. The note was filled up with crossed out numbers, some with as many as six digits. The entire bottom half just had three bolded question marks.

He turned around to look at Twilight again. Her eyes were fixed on the ship in the distance, flicking around constantly to track the flashes of magic as they struck at the Wyverns. His heart was struck with pain again as he saw nothing but himself in her. Guilt clouded his mind as he made the connection again that her state was his fault. He shook it off, there were more important things to do. "You can take care of yourself, right?" he asked, now kneeling by her side.

"I'm confident," was her simple reply, her eyes hard.

Lucien nodded and stood up. "Then let's get to the ship. I'll explain on the way."

He looked around outside their bubble. Wyverns were crawling all over the translucent surface at this point, blocking out any view they could have of their target. That wouldn't do. With a simple thought and a narrowing of his eyebrows, the surface of the shield suddenly became electrified. The Wyverns screamed in pain, then all collapsed from their perches, falling to the roof, dead.

He turned his head to see Twilight's re—

"No. She can take care of herself. You need to stop worrying."

"Come on!" he shouted to her over the other cries in the air. He ran forward and leapt off the edge of the building. He let himself fall for a moment, then charged up and released a spell. He rotated his head to see a mana construct form over his back: a translucent pair of wings. They quickly caught the wind and he was no longer falling, but gliding across the chaotic city.

Pegasi were flitting back and forth around him, most being pursued by Wyverns. Some of them were putting up excellent fights, using weapons such as bats and iron clubs. Royal guards were arranged in phalanxes in the sky, shields raised and spears poking out from gaps in the protective barrier.

He helped out with whatever he could, firing bursts of mana out occasionally to knock pursuing Wyverns out of the sky, but there were so many he couldn't do anything substantial.

He felt a fluttering of wings by his side and he looked over to see Twilight wobbly gliding alongside him, similarly diverting some of her attention to shooting shots of mana as attacks.

"So, the plan!" Lucien shouted to her.

She looked at him for a split second and nodded, firing off another shot in the process.

"We board the ship, ignore anything attacking us on board, if they even notice us, then get to the control room!" He pointed to the ship. It had just finished cresting over the clouds, and it was steadily rising into the sky, thrusters in the back were putting out neon-blue magical energy as propulsion. The sheer size of it stunned him for a moment. It was easily as large as some aircraft carriers back on earth, only this thing was completely outfitted with weapons and spellcasters. Lights were flashing constantly from all across the ship's surface and from openings in the interior. "At the back end of it! Those towers!" There were several small towers extending from the ship's flat surface, clearly where the control room would be.

"We need to get control of it from Ironwing, then I can get down to the engine room and use the magical energy to get rid of all the Wyverns, just like Aiden and I did back in Ponyville!"

"Alright, let's do it!" Twilight yelled in response.

---

Lucien tucked his body into a tight roll as he came into contact with the bronze surface of the aircraft. His wings flashed out as he killed his momentum by rolling a few feet forward then standing back up and sliding on his feet. A pony nearby screamed in surprise and fear by his sudden landing, and tried to shoot at him with a bolt of magic. Lucien reacted quickly and raised a reflective shield that sent the bolt flying back into the unicorn, knocking him off the side of the ship.

He brushed himself off as Twilight landed next to him. She folded in her wings as Lucien removed his backpack.

"What are you doing?" she asked when she looked over at him.

"Getting a little more reassurance," Lucien replied. He found what he was looking for and grabbed it.

Lucien loaded a fresh magazine into the pistol and pulled the slide back, making sure a bullet was loaded. "We can't afford to be slowed down by a bunch of unicorns that don't know what the real enemy is. Bullets are enchanted. Shield-piercing. Lethal to mages." "Also very illegal, according to the Trireme Council back on Earth, but what they don't know won't hurt them."

"Let's get moving then," said Twilight.

Lucien slung his backpack back on and picked up his sword. He held it in front of him in a more defensive way, given that his off hand was now occupied.

They made their way across the deck of the ship with relative ease. Their opposition was extremely light, given that all hands on board were focused entirely on the skyborne enemies that were attacking their city. Any pony or griffin that attempted to challenge them were quickly incapacitated, either by Twilight's stunning bolts or by Lucien's swift shooting arm. He aimed to be non-lethal with his targeting, but he wasn't about to cry over the loss of an Equestrian life. There were going to be many deaths in this attack, and another one or two that tried to stop him weren't going to earn his sympathy. Or his pity.

Eventually they made it to the bottom of the tower, only to realize that it was much, much taller than they expected it to be when they first saw it. "Oh god not the stairs," Lucien said when he kicked open the door leading in.

Twilight backed up a few hoofsteps and looked up, silently gauging something as Lucien looked upward at all the flights of stairs they would have to run up.

"I've got a faster way, grab on!" Twilight shouted, fluttering above him. She held out her hoof.

"Great! No more stairs!" Lucien exclaimed excitedly, sheathing his sword and grabbing her outstretched hoof.

She grunted at the sudden increase of weight, but manged to haul him up into the air. He noticed the effort she was using to move him, so he magically manipulated the air to give them an updraft. Twilight looked down and mouthed thank you before stretching her wings out wide to ride the current upward.

It was a short trip. They reached the top of the tower, the wall facing them made out of floor-to-ceiling windows. They looked inside only to see the terrified and bewildered faces of several ponies sitting at various control stations around the room. "Move back from the window!" Lucien shouted up to Twilight. "When I shoot, ram the window!"

"Got it!" Twilight shouted back, her voice strained.

Lucien raised his pistol and fired two quick shots into the window pane directly in front of him. "Go go go!" he yelled.

"Rrgah!" Twilight steeply angled her wings and flew straight into the transparent solid. As Lucien planned, it shattered with the impact, causing shards to fly everywhere inside, and rain down upon them as they hid their faces against the ground. When the tinkling of glass stopped, Lucien lifted his head up to look around. All of the ponies manning the stations had fled, causing the ship to level out in its flight and the deck to suddenly become much more stable. He directed his attention to Twilight.

"Shit, you're hurt," he said, noticing a slight trickle of blood down her face.

"What?" she asked, looking at him. She followed his gaze up and put a hoof on her forehead, looking slightly surprised when it came back bloody. "Oh. I guess I am."

"I'll get it," Lucien said, scrambling over to her. He got down on his knees and held out his palm to the wound. A faint green light showed from his hands and a fine mist issued forth, closing the cut and evaporating all the blood that had accumulated.

"Thanks," Twilight said, running her hoof over the now-closed wound.

"Yeah, let's just not do that again," Lucien said, worry on his face. "I'd prefer to get out of this with you unscathed. Anyway," he stood up, "I guess this is phase one of my plan complete. Now all I have to do is get down to the engine—"

The door to the control room slammed open suddenly, cutting Lucien off. "HE'S BIGGER!"

A violent gust of wind swept in from the door, almost sending Lucien and Twilight back off the edge of the room. They took cover behind one of the consoles and watched as the other windows shattered from pieces of equipment getting hurtled through them. "HE'S BETTER!"

The wind picked up even more speed, whipping Lucien and Twilight's hair around in violent gusts. They tucked into each other and held on for life as the gales threatened to pick them up and out. "HE'S BADDER!"

Lucien slipped and felt himself flying out. Thinking quickly, he threw a dome shield around him that cut off the wind. He looked back up just in time to see Twilight achieving liftoff, phasing through his shield, and slamming into him. They both grunted with the impact and the shield broke. Lucien recovered quickly and made another one, then layered another over that one. "HE'S TOO MUCH FOR THEM TO HANDLE!"

A concussive force swept out suddenly, shattering Lucien's outer shield. He recoiled in pain, but tried to recover. Without warning, the inner shield broke as well, and he and Twilight were swept out into the sky by the force of the wind. They tumbled around in the air confused and dazed, but Twilight recovered before he did. She grabbed his body with all four legs and hugged him to her barrel. Her wings stretched out wide and fought the wind, but it suddenly slammed them both down to the deck.

Lucien tumbled onto the cold metal surface harshly. He rolled a few times on his side and then stopped, one hand dangling over the edge. The wind had forced them to the other side of the ship. He turned his head to see Twilight in a battle stance just in front of his prone body. Her horn was lit and she was scanning for aggressors, but the Wyverns weren't paying them attention and the crew members were nowhere to be seen.

Lucien blinked and suddenly a blue unicorn was in front of them. A very dapper blue unicorn. With a tacky top hat.

"Thank you, Gold Mist for that lovely introduction. It was very... fitting."

"The pleasure was all mine," a golden pegasus said, flying down to land next to the unicorn.

"It was quite a show," rumbled another voice. From the side of the ship came Ironwing, landing next on the other side of the unicorn.

"Sandcroft," Twilight growled.

"Ah, Miss Twilight, a pleasure to finally miss you face to face." He took off his hat and bowed low, revealing a slightly shaggy spiked head of hair. He bent his body back up and replaced his hat. "I wish the circumstances were better," he said, gesturing to the chaos around them, "but you just have to roll with the punches I suppose."

"Why are you here?" Twilight asked, taking a defensive step backward.

"I was just checking on my compatriot here, Ironwing." He put a hoof on the graying griffon's shoulder. "We do go very far back, I'm sure you know. That idiot Bronze told you all about my connection to him after all."

"She did," Twilight said, her voice cautious. "But why are you here now? Fighting us when there's all these Wyverns attacking Cloudsdale?"

"Oh that's simple," Sandcroft remarked, a hard glint in his eyes. "It's because I brought them here."

Lucien flinched, then finally sat up uneasily, his body protesting the movement. His mind went back to what happened during Winter. The Filth. The Polymorphus. The Revenant. Monsters from his world that were not supposed to exist in Equestria. But he thought it was him crossing the border between their worlds that started a leak, not some random pony. So then—

"How?" Twilight asked for him.

Sandcroft's eyes shifted to look directly into Lucien's. "'I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.' That's a phrase I'm sure you're familiar with, Magician."

Lucien's eyes snapped wide open and he forgot about the pain in his body. He stood up, his limbs now strong. "Why do you know that?" Lucien asked, but he already knew the answer.

"Earth is a very similar place to Equis. It's very easy to look on one from the other. Or borrow some ideas, or maybe even borrow some people," Sandcroft said, smiling maliciously.

Lucien's mind shot back into his past. What he was doing when he first came into Equestria. Does that mean—

As if reading his thoughts Sandcroft spoke again. "You were dumb enough to think your cat altered your summoning spell and it transported you here. Honestly, I expected more from a veteran magician like you. All that time spent training and you didn't even notice that your circle had been tampered with."

"So it was—"

"—I've been watching you a long time, Mage," Sandcroft spat out. His tone of voice changed to something much more venomous. "By the time you actually began catching on, it was far too late. You were already here, and you still couldn't make the full connection to me." There was a flash and Lucien's notebook appeared between the two groups. Its pages fluttered open to the sketches of the visions of the future he had. In each picture, a spade somewhere was highlighted by gold magic, and Lucien was reminded of the revelation he had months ago.

The notebook disappeared in another flash. But this time, Lucien was prepared. He used the brief moment to draw his sword and leap at the unicorn.

"DO NOT INTERRUPT ME!" he shouted, and another concussive wave of force rebuffed him back into Twilight. They tumbled backwards and almost fell off the edge. "Hmm." He straightened his clothes out and righted his top hat.

"Anyway, I'll follow along with the usual practice and give a little explanation. After all, I'm sure you're dying to know why I chose to focus on you instead of someone more powerful." He checked the cuffs of his sleeves as he began talking. "You see, I'm not your normal sort of pony. I'm not actually a pony at all, you see. But as this is the dominant lifeform on this planet, it's the form I take."

He took a few steps backward. "I suppose I'll give this explanation in the easiest way you can understand. I'm what the local mythology refers to as a Gatekeeper. Of course, I'm sure the name is all but forgotten about by this point, but that's what thousands of years of neglect does to you." He took a deep breath. "Anyway! Each world has a Gatekeeper, and they are the power that patrols the boundary between that world and any neighboring ones."

Lucien was beginning to see where he was going with this. He sat up again, and helped Twilight into a similar position, but both had their attention completely focused on Sandcroft.

"About three years ago, however, the Gatekeeper before me was slain by, coincidentally, me. I gained his powers and the ownership of this planet. But I wasn't going to guard it, no that wouldn't be fun at all. I looked over to the next world and saw only what could be. So I let in a few little things from Earth, here and there, and then, once the boundary had destabilized more, I brought you through. That opened up some more rifts between the worlds, and the rest I suppose is history."

"Why? You'll destroy both worlds if the boundary collapses," Lucien croaked. His body, damaged by the force wave, shuddered as he took a breath.

"Does there have to be a reason? Your Joker didn't have a reason. He wanted to watch the world burn, and that's exactly what he did," Sandcroft said with a sinister smile. "Only here there is no Batman to stop me."

"I'll stop you," Lucien said, raising his sword from his position on the ground. He looked at Twilight and saw she was in a similar state of damage, but still had fire in her eyes.

"Unfortunately, no. You won't. And neither will the Elements of Harmony," Sandcroft said, his horn glowing.

Lucien's arm lowered a bit. He thought rapidly of escape options, but they all would put Twilight in jeopardy, and he couldn't let that happen.

"I hoped you enjoyed your stay, because I'm kicking you out!" A beam of light shot up from his horn, then crashed down on Lucien and Twilight, engulfing them completely. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the devious looks of the three enemies as they watch his body fade away.

Comments

[LostArchivist]

I have to say this before even reading the new chapter:
YES! It's back!

[LostArchivist]

Okay, now having read it... uh oh. But now we know what's going on. Sorta!

pegasi that work in the city's constructing

construction?

[Wellwater]

And thus I learned my reluctance to unfavorite the story paid off!

[More Dakka]

That is what's dead may never die. But rises again.

[Lucien Chance]

9144626
Fixed.

[Hairy Rainbowish Thingy]

woah, i remember wanting to read this back in..what? 2015 or something, and seeing it being cancelled. Nice to see it going back on track, might just jump in there afterall