A.K. Yearling embarks on an expedition to investigate reports of floating ruins over the Southern Sea.
A.K. Yearling is summoned to Canterlot to embark on an expedition to investigate reports of floating ruins over the Southern Sea, where she finds both ancient history and a villain who's been waiting for the perfect chance to strike.
Written as a birthday gift for PonyJosiah13, who also helped with proofreading and planning.
Inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Again, no, not a crossover.
Additional notes (spoilers):
Beelzebub, Azazel, and returning demons inspired by the game Helltaker.
Some airship designs inspired by the Super Mario Bros. games.
A.K. Yearling stared up at the opened front doors of Canterlot Castle like it was the giant maw of a monster she was walking into. She’d never received such an urgent, and important, summons before – and not one that asked her to make sure she packed all of her “essentials.”
The guards that flanked her on either side didn’t help in calming her nerves.
Other than an order to follow them when she had arrived in Canterlot by train, they hadn’t said a word otherwise. They led her through the winding corridors of the castle and through a set of doors opened by a pony that Yearling recognized as Celestia’s secretary, Raven Inkwell.
She found herself in the throne room itself, with Celestia on her dais with a neturtral expression bearing down on her.
They weren’t alone in the room – off to the side of the throne was a tall, anthropomorphic parrot. She had cream-colored feathers and pale green plumage and a green gemstone peg for her right leg. Judging by her garb, including the giant bicorn in her talon hands, she seemed to be some sort of pirate.
“Guards, you may leave us,” Celestia commanded.
The guards, posted at each entrance, gave a salute and stepped out. The ones by Yearling were the last to go, with Raven shutting the doors behind them.
“What we speak of may not leave this room,” was Celestia’s next command.
“Understood,” the parrot said quietly.
“Yes, Your highness,” Yearling said with a nod.
Celestia softly smiled. “Miss Yearling. Given your work in recovering the Kirinstone, I thought it best to summon you, seeing as you have expertise in archaeology.”
Yearling frowned. “What have you found?”
“Not us. The Hippogriffs reported this in – there’s a strange fogbank on the far Southern Sea, and they’ve reported there are floating islands above it, hidden among clouds,” Celestia explained.
“And you have no idea what it is?” Yearling asked.
Celestia shook her head. “I have scoured our records of the area, as much as there is. The only note was a passing mention of Somnambula and Flash Magnus seeking some sort of ruins down there, but they seemed unsuccessful.”
“So you want me to go explore and see what it’s all about,” Yearling surmised.
“Yes, and I want you, Captain Celaeno,” Celestia said, turning to the parrot, “to take her there and give her all the aid she requires.”
“Aye aye, Your Majesty,” Celaeno said, slipping on her hat. “Consider it done.”
Celestia smirked. “Do keep in mind, Captain, that success means a pardon for you and your crew.”
Yearling watched Celaeno’s cheeks heat up and she muttered another acknowledgement while averting her eyes.
Celestia turned back to Yearling. “I’ve acquired all the supplies you both might need. It’s imperative that you find out the nature of these islands and quickly. The lands beyond Equestria are an unknown place, with unknown danger.”
“Aye, like the Storm King,” Celaeno growled, tilting the brim of her hat lower. “Come on then, Miss Yearling. Let’s get you aboard.” She turned and headed for the door to the throne room, opened for her by Raven.
“I won’t let you down, Princess Celestia,” Yearling said with a salute, quickly following Celaeno out.
Celaeno’s airship was docked behind the palace, on a spacious balcony that served well for an airship dock.
A handful of parrots like Celaeno were working to carry crates and barrels down into the hold, while another figure stood watch at the helm. It was a purple changeling with yellow eyes, and golden wings, mane, and tail. She was dressed in similar garb as the rest of the crew. Upon spotting Celaeno, she gave a wave, which Celaeno returned.
“So, Captain Celaeno, what did Princess Celestia mean by giving you a pardon?” Yearling asked.
Celaeno gave a chuckle and crossed her arms, nodding towards the helm of her ship. “That’d be because of my newest crewmate. She has a real nose for gold, and that got us into a bit of trouble.”
“Uh oh…”
“Aye. An unmarked airship headed down towards Mount Aris. We raided it, with her saying it was full of gold. Well, it was – and being helmed by Princess Luna, on her way to some charity event,” Celaeno said with a light chuckle. “So this’ll be our apology.”
A bosun’s whistle sounded on board the airship and the purple changeling stepped down the gangplank, giving a salute to the captain. “The cargo has almost been fully loaded into the hold, captain. It won’t be much longer,” she reported.
“Good work, Elytra.” Celaeno gestured to Yearling. “This here’s Miss Yearling. We’re taking her down to the southern sea on an expedition. Miss Yearling, meet my navigator, Elytra.”
“Nice to meet you,” Yearling said, holding out a hood, which Elytra shook firmly.
“Charmed,” Elytra replied, before turning back to the captain. “My apologies again, Captain, for the mistake.”
“No harm done,” Celaeno said casually. “We’ll get this bit of community service done and be back to adventuring before you know it.”
Elytra nodded, gave another salute, and hurried back on board. Yearling watched her go, an uneasy feeling settling over her.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Celaeno patting her on the shoulder. “Let’s get you aboard. I’ll show you to your bunk, Miss Yearling,” she said.
“Daring Do is fine, too,” Yearling replied with a sheepish shrug. “I… sort of use that name in this line of work.”
Celaeno chuckled. “Well, Daring Do, let’s hope we can find something for you down south there. And who knows, there may even be treasure there.”
Yearling’s cabin was crudely outfitted with a single hammock and a table to use for a desk. Her equipment was stowed away in a corner of the room, along with some reading material for before they got to their destination—various books on the southern seas that she could find. Fortunately, it was tucked away from the rest of the crew.
She flopped into the hammock and stared up at the wooden ceiling. It was all so strange, floating islands in the middle of the ocean? She’d never heard of it occurring anywhere else in Equestria, so maybe it was some strange magic from some strange land. But was it what Somnambula and Flash Magnus had been looking for? If so, the islands were truly ancient.
And then there was Elytra. Yearling had settled on what had unsettled her about the changeling—she was too formal. The captain and her crew had the casual tongue of pirates, while Elytra was sophisticated, different. And a changeling with a nose for gold was unusual enough.
With a sigh, she looked out the porthole of her room where the darkened night sky and grey clouds passed by. They’d disembarked hours ago, and it’d be days before they arrived in the area.
Yearling could only wonder what waited for them, if anything waited for them at all.
“Ahoy, Daring!” Celaeno called from the helm. “Map says we’re at the coordinates! Our destination is around here somewhere!”
Yearling hurried up the stairs and ran to the closest edge of the deck. Two-hundred feet below was the sparkling waters of the Southern Sea. And all around them for miles in any direction was blue skies and the occasional cloud—save for straight ahead, where a dark fogbank loomed.
Elytra joined her at her side and scoured with her. “What are we looking for, exactly?” she asked.
“Reports of floating islands,” Yearling replied. “They said there was a fogbank too, but…” She trailed off, remembering the report. Her gaze turned slowly skywards.
“Captain! Above us!” she called.
The crew’s heads snapped upwards almost in unison, and there were mixed exclamations of shock and surprise.
There, behind some thick white clouds, was indeed the solid shape of a floating island. It seemed to be made of some sort of cut stone. The tapered bottom made it seem like it had been dug out of the ground and placed in the sky.
“We’re too low, mates!” Celaeno called. “Increase the heat to the balloon, we need altitude! Give me more engine power!”
Elytra abandoned her spot next to Yearling to assist with the rest of the crew. Yearling, meanwhile, wandered to the bow. She gripped the side of the ship as the stern pitched down and they began to ascend.
More floating islands poked through the clouds, almost like a debris field. Some were barely large enough to hold a pony, some were ten times the size of Celaeno’s airship. All seemed to be made of the same cut stone and were just floating in place.
Then dead ahead, Yearling noticed the biggest island yet. Easily the size of a small nation, it was surrounded by pieces that seemed to have broken off of it. The surface was covered in ruins. In the very center was a perfectly round hole, with a smaller island floating in the middle. It had a large structure set on it, and four angled platform-like protrusions set on the four corners.
Each protrusion seemed to point at one of four large islands, each their uniquely-shaped and surrounded by some sort of weather pattern. Pulling out a compass, Yearling checked the directions. Each one seemed to be at an ordinal direction from the center island.
The one to the northwest had a thundering storm about it, the one to the northeast had flurries of snow, the one to the southeast had pouring rain, and the one to the southwest had billowing clouds, as if there were strong winds.
Yearling took one more look at the islands before hurrying back towards the helm. The crew had started to wander from their positions to gawk at the islands and murmur at what they might be.
“Captain, can the ship go any higher?” Yearling asked. “I think that central island and those four outer islands are going to be holding something important. I want to see if I can sketch a rough map for us.”
“I can try, Daring,” Celaeno replied. “We might be hitting our ceiling soon.” She turned to the crew. “Look alive mates! Give me some more altitude!”
The crew scrambled back to their positions—all save for Elytra. She wandered to the bow of the ship and seemed to sniff at the air. Yearling watched her with a frown, before going below decks for sketching materials.
As Yearling began her sketching on board the ship, another pair of eyes watched her through a pair of binoculars, hidden away on one of the numerous smaller islands and behind a cloudbank.
The figure grunted to another behind it, who nodded. The boat they were seated in—an odd craft with two propellers on poles and a third in the back to propel it—whirred to life and descended down into the fog bank below.
The figure in the front flicked a spotlight on the front of the boat three times, and a similar light repeated the flashes somewhere far below. The figure in the back angled the boat down towards it.
Floating in the ocean down below was a trio of ships, a large one and two smaller ones that flanked it on either side. Each was equipped like the small boat, only with grander propellers atop each of their masts and a trio near the rudder to propel them. Each was armed with cannons on the decks.
The figures docked their flying boat on the larger vessel and hurried down below.
They were large, furred beings wearing masks, and several more stood guard on the vessel at various entrances. They finally reached their destination—a long room, with a throne at the far end, bathed in purple light.
The figures bowed to a shadowy figure on the throne, and the first one saluted and made a report of grunts and growls to his superior.
A fanged mouth turned into a vengeful snarl as the figure on the throne clenched her fists in anger.
Celaeno’s airship descended down towards the island in the center of the biggest island. The wind whipped at the ropes holding the balloon to the ship, and Celaeno ordered a halt to the engines.
“This is as far down as we can go,” Celaeno said to Yearling as she fastened her saddlebags. “Any lower and the wind will force us into whatever’s on the island.”
“I think I can manage it, Captain,” Yearling said with a firm nod. She noticed Elytra approach, her own saddlebags strapped around her.
“I’ll come with you, too,” she said with a smile. “Two pairs of eyes is better than one.”
Yearling frowned, turning to Celaeno. “You sure you’ll be here when I get back?”
If Celaeno was offended at the question, she didn’t show it. “We never leave anyone behind. That’s a promise.”
Yearling nodded, glancing at Elytra, and huffed. She turned to the edge of the ship and took flight with a flap of her wings. Elytra took off after her, their course heading straight for the central island’s building.
“You don’t seem very trusting,” Elytra remarked.
“Not exactly used to working with pirates,” Yearling said. Her attention turned to the ruins around the island them. “On second thought, change of plans.”
She abruptly turned right, and Elytra struggled to follow after her. Yearling touched down on an old, paved pathway that networked across the island. Elytra landed next to her, her nose in the air.
Yearling glanced at her with a frown. “Let’s examine these buildings first and see what sort of creatures lived here before we tackle that structure in the middle,” she said. “Let’s split up.”
“Very well,” Elytra said, wings buzzing as she flew through the ruins.
Yearling cautiously flapped down the opposite way, poking her head into the open doorways of the various buildings.
Most were almost completely caved in, while some still had at least partial rooves and ceilings to keep out the elements. They all had the same architecture, made from the same pale marble and with ornate columns.
In one building were rusted pots and pans over kilns and long-cold furnaces. Adjacent to that room was a great hall, full of benches and tables made of rotting wood. Silverware and clay dishes could be seen strewn about.
Across the street sat a large building with rows and rows of wooden shelves. Some had pots or boxes still sitting on them, but many had collapsed. At the bottom of some of the shelves were the tattered remains of sacks or bags.
Down the path lay another building, larger than the first two. It was full of wooden bunks, most crumbled, and all devoid of any sort of mattresses or bedding. A few blankets lay on the floor, riddled with holes.
Continuing to the building next door, she found a room full of racks and more shelves. But it was the items strewn about that intrigued her more: rusted spears, dented helmets and chest plates, some worn shields, and a handful of rusty swords.
As Yearling went, those four types of buildings were repeated in various states of ruin and decay, leading to her confusion. She met up with Elytra on the opposite end of the street. The changeling seemed disappointed.
“No gold anywhere, just junk,” she huffed.
“Ancient junk. Looks like it’s been on this island for centuries,” Yearling remarked.
“Do you know what I didn’t see, though? Skeletons,” Elytra said.
“Me either. So either it’s been so long they turned to dust… or this place was abandoned by whoever lived here. Seems like they did so in a hurry,” Yearling said.
“So, what do you think this place was? Some sort of settlement?” Elytra inquired.
Yearling shook her head. “Too utilitarian for that. We’ve got kitchens and cafeterias, storerooms, sleeping quarters, and a few armories – this wasn’t a town, this was more like a fort.” She huffed, rubbing her chin. “And something about that stuff in the armory looked familiar…”
‘We should see what lies on the centermost island,” Elytra said. “If this was a fort, maybe that was the central command post or something.”
Yearling nodded, and the two took flight for the center.
It was a two-tiered building, the upper tier being smaller than the lower tier. A small platform sat on the front of the bottom tier, with a large, imposing stone door leading inside.
Yearling reached up and gently brushed her wing over the door, cleaning away years of dust. A circle symbol sat in the middle of the door, with four symbols in each quadrant: a lightning bolt, a snowflake, a raincloud, and a tornado. Yearling pulled out her sketched map of the islands.
“They’re the same symbols as those islands around this one. That’s hardly a coincidence,” she remarked.
“Perhaps that is where we can find the keys to this door, whatever they are.” Elytra reached up with a hoof. “And maybe that denotes the order.”
Yearling squinted at each of the symbols. Sure enough, there were tally marks next to each one: one mark by the lightning bolt, two by the snowflake, three by the raincloud, and four by the tornado.
“Then let’s visit each one in order, then, and see what we can find there,” Yearling said. “Let’s regroup at the ship and head out to the lightning bolt island.”
Elytra nodded, and flew back towards the airship, unaware that their progress was being monitored by two furry, masked figures.
Upon hearing of the inspection of the main island, the figure on the throne gave a wicked, toothy grin.
“Good. Let them do all the work for us,” she said.
As the first morning light crested over the horizon the next day, Celaeno’s airship made its way towards the ominous dark clouds to the northwest. The mass of thunderheads, illuminated occasionally by a flash of lightning, was surprisingly dry and lacked any sort of hard winds. The lightning bolt-shaped island was barely visible.
The ship anchored a half-mile from the thunderclouds and Yearling, Elytra, and Celaeno approached the starboard side of the ship
“Elytra will assist you with whatever is on this island,” Celaeno explained. “We’d join you, but… well, we have parachutes, not lifeboats. And these,” she gestured to her arms. “Aren’t meant for flying.”
“I think we can manage,” Yearling said. She nodded to Elytra, and the two of them took flight towards the island.
The clouds seemed to darken as they approached the structure near the center of the island, and the flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder seemed to grow in intensity. Yearling’s hair stood on end from the ambient energy.
The structure they stumbled across was the only building on the island, which seemed riddled with long old scorch marks from all the lightning strikes. It was constructed in much the same way the locked building on the central island had been, only smaller.
And much like the central structure, this one also had a sealed door. Lacking any sort of mural on the door itself, instead there were a series of metal nodes with large, round tips sticking out of the wall around it. A stone overhang shielded them from the skies above.
Yearling flapped closer to the nodes and touched them. They seemed nearly pristine. “These aren’t corroded like the stuff on the center island,” she remarked.
Elytra flittered forward and sniffed. “Copper. A little discolored,” she reported.
“Highly conductive, too,” Yearling said, flapping backwards to eye the dark skies. “I think I have a way to open the door, but you’re going to need to stand back.”
“With pleasure,” Elytra said, uneasily watching the skies and flittering away until she was near the edge of the island’s southern tip.
Yearling took a steadying breath and flew up into the thunderheads above. She snatched a series of clumps as she flew, careful to avoid streaks of lightning as they darted between the clouds.
Taking the hooffuls of dark cloud puffs back down to the door, she set each one aside and smacked it with a hoof. A bolt of lightning shot out of each one, sometimes, widly askew, sometimes dead straight.
Carefully aligning the clouds toward the door’s nodes and angling them so their projected lightning bolts would make contact, Yearling rapidly smacked each one in succession.
She shielded her eyes as the nodes lit up in a brilliant, flashing display of arching electricity. She missed a lightning bolt symbol briefly glow on the door, but took notice when the door creaked open. The lightning display quickly dissipated.
Elytra flittered over, nodding at the gathered cloud puffs. “Let’s see if we can find our key,” she remarked as the duo entered.
It seemed to be some sort of simple temple, consisting of a wide pathway to an altar near the back. Glowing white orbs of light, crackling with electricity, illuminated the way. As Yearling examined the walls, she took notice of a plaque on the wall just inside the entrance.
“Hey, take a look at this,” she said to Elytra, whose attention snapped away from the altar in the back. The changeling tilted her head at the writing.
“Can you make out what it says?” she asked Yearling.
“Yeah, it’s… it’s Old Ponish,” Yearling said, blinking in surprise. “This might predate the Unification of Equestria, back to when the pony tribes first arrived. Let me translate it:
“We came to this land to escape the conflict from where we came, the constant bickering between the other pony tribes. We, the pegasi, soon claimed the clouds as our own, and found they reacted well to our magic. Though the other tribes were quick to follow, we stayed aloft, keeping the weather to ourselves, as it is our birthright."
“The Pegasi made this? These islands?” Elytra spluttered. “How? Since when have they been capable of levitating stone?”
“I… don’t know,” Yearling admitted, eyes growing distant in thought. “I know we have cloudwalking and control over the weather, but these islands are beyond that. I knew that armor was familiar! It looks just like the depictions of Flash Magnus, with his armor and Netitus!”
“Maybe there will be other plaques in the other islands,” Elytra said, turning back to the altar and flying over to it. “I think we found our key.” That caught Yearling’s attention, and she quickly followed Elytra over to the altar in the back.
A glow came from a teardrop-shaped gemstone on the altar itself. It was a brilliant, nearly-white yellow color, and a soft crackling noise could be heard coming from it.
Elytra reached out to touch the gemstone, only for a small jolt of electricity to shock her hoof. She snapped it away with a hiss, shaking the stinging sensation from it.
“Are you alright?” Yearling asked, walking up to the gemstone.
“Yeah, but maybe you’ll have better luck,” the changeling hissed.
Yearling gulped, slowly reaching out a hoof to touch the gemstone. When she received no shock from it, she gripped it and plucked it from its pedestal. She waited for a moment to ensure there were no traps, then turned the gemstone over in her hoof. A tingle coursed through her wings.
“You shouldn’t be so greedy,” Yearling chastised. “There could be traps on these things.”
“I’ll let you handle the other three then,” Elytra groused.
Yearling shook her head, carefully stowing away the gemstone in her saddlebag. “Let’s head back to the ship. We still have three more islands to visit – and I want to know the story behind these islands.”
Elytra nodded with a frown, and followed Yearling out of the temple and back towards the ship.
Unseen by them, another pair of masked, furry creatures watch them go from their hidden boat. The first made a move to start the engines, but the second stopped it.
“No,” it grunted. “We cannot go against the Queen’s orders. We wait.”
Yearling set the glowing yellow gemstone on the desk in her bunk before heading back above deck. “No one touch it,” she instructed. “It doesn’t seem to react well to anyone but me.”
“You reckon there are more of them?” Celaeno asked as the Pegasus readied to take flight.
“Most likely.” Yearling turned to Elytra. “Are you coming with me?”
Elytra shifted on her hooves before letting out a huff. It came out as a puff of steam. “Sure,” she said.
The two took flight for the northeastern island, an icy haze surrounding the interlaced stone that formed the snowflake-like island. Wind whipped and snapped at their face, and Yearling lowered a pair of goggles over her eyes.
“You doing alright back there?” she called to Elytra.
“I can manage,” Elytra called back. “I think the structure is right ahead of us.”
The temple loomed like an ominous shadow as they approached, the biting cold of the unending snow shrouding it in a fog. As they approached, they saw they had another shut door ahead of them.
Unlike the previous temple, there was nothing protecting this door from the elements. The entire temple was coated in frost, including most of the door. On the door was the marking of a snowflake, and as Yearling looked closer, she noted the symbol had a glint to it.
Reaching out to touch it, she realized the shape was an indent into the door, and covered with cracked, smudged glass. “See any way to open this?” Yearling called to Elytra.
Elytra buzzed around the entryway, wincing at the cold as she scanned the temple’s face, before returning to Yearling with a shake of her head.
“There’s frost all over this building, but no nodes or levers or anything else. Perhaps that symbol is the way in?” she offered, pointing to the snowflake.
Yearling tapped her chin, staring back into the snowstorm around them. “Everything on this place is covered in frost except this symbol, and what is snow but ice, so: what if we need ice to open this,” she said, flaying back into the clouds without another word.
Elytra soon lost sight of the golden mare, scanning around for any sign of her. She returned a moment later, her coat with a faint layer of frost on it, but carrying wisps of clouds in her forehooves.
“Cirrus clouds,” Yearling explained to the bewildered changeling. “We should get some good ice from them.”
Yearling held the cirrus wisps to the symbol and slowly dragged them across the surface, down each arm and to each point of the snowflake. A faint sheen of frost follow the cloud, clouding the glass.
After each inch was nearly completely covered in frost, the symbol flashed white and the door creaked open with the sound of stone grinding.
Elytra joined Yearling in the makeshift entryway as she tossed away the remaining cirrus wisps, dusting off her hooves. “Let’s hurry up and see what’s in here before the chill follows us in,” she remarked. Yearling nodded.
The pair floated inside, finding the layout identical to the first temple, right down to the glowing orbs on the walls. Yearling turned to the plaque that was in the same place the first one had been, while Elytra watched her scan it.
Yearling translated the Old Ponish: "Our magic was stronger than we could have possibly predicted. The earth ponies controlled the ground, and the unicorns the powers of the aether, but the skies are our domain. We found such a power here that it can bleed into the ground and make it light as a cloud. We have begun constructing large floating islands for what is to come next...”
“Bleed power into the ground?” Elytra asked.
“They made stone cloudwalk,” Yearling said with a laugh. “I can’t imagine how much magic it took to make these islands.”
“I’m more concerned about the ‘next’ part myself,” Elytra said, clearing her throat and turning to the altar towards the back. “Our gemstone awaits. I’ll let you get it this time.”
Yearling nodded, flapping over to the altar. This gemstone was a glowing gemstone, pale blue in color and also shaped like a teardrop like the first one. A frosty sheen seemed to cloud the crystal, or whatever it was made of.
As Yearling carefully lifted them gemstone up, she felt another tingle course through her wings. The gemstone was incredibly cold to the touch, as if it were made of glacial ice. She hurriedly stuffed it into her saddlebag and shook some feeling into her hooves.
“Let’s hurry up and get the last two,” Yearling said.
Elytra merely nodded, and the two flew back out into the snowstorm, hopefully aimed for their airship.
All the while, a pair of masked, furry figures watched their progress.
Yearling carefully picked up the two gemstones and set them in a small, empty treasure chest on her desk. She waited a minute, and when the gemstones didn’t seem to react to one another, she shut the lid. Fortunately, the pirates had plenty of such containers to spare.
Yearling nodded to the captain as she and Elytra departed the ship yet again, heading for the southeastern island.
Much like the first island, dark clouds hung about the raincloud-shaped island. They seemed even darker, especially without the occasional flashes of light. Once they entered the clouds, a steady patter of rain fought against them.
They arrived at the structure on the island, set above the angled streams that made it seem like the island was raining from above. A stone awning hung over the door, and what appeared to be a small fountain was set into the door itself, yet no water poured from its spouts and its basin was dry.
“Shielded, just like the other doors,” Elytra remarked. Somehow, her wings remained sturdy enough to fly in the ongoing downpour.
“Guess we need to fill the fountain,” Yearling replied. “Be right back.”
She soared skyward, her goggles keeping the rain from her eyes as she looked around for a suitable nimbus cloud. Finally settling on one, she took up a large puff of the cloud and carried it back to the door.
Holding it just above the fountain, Yearling gave it a smack with her hoof. The cloud rumbled, and a steady stream of rainwater flowed from it, down the fountain’s spouts, and into the basin.
The fountain, in turn, gurgled to life, as streams of water sprouted from the various spouts like growing stems. A raincloud symbol flashed white just below the fountain after a few seconds of water action, and the door ground open.
Yearling waved away the nimbus cloud as she and Elytra flew inside. Their eyes settled on yet another plaque just inside the entrance, which Yearling translated:
"This land is a land of monsters, and the dragons are a constant threat from the west. We pushed out magic to its limits to find a way to protect our home, but then, a miracle happened. Four gemstones, born from the clouds like drops of rain, condensed and fell into our hooves. We call them thusly, the Tears of the Clouds. They hold power over lightning, snow, rain, and wind. They will be sufficient in keeping our homes safe, and, though we do not like to think of it, they could be a means to repel the other tribes."
“I suppose this was all a fort then,” Elytra remarked. “The Pegasi felt the need to defend themselves.”
“But how did they make the gemstones appear?” Yearling pondered aloud. “They feel like Pegasi magic when I touch them, surely they had to have made them.”
“Perhaps they didn’t want it to be replicated,” Elytra said, turning towards the altar in the back. “We have one more of these temples to go. Hopefully we’ll have our questions answered inside it.”
Yearling reluctantly nodded, and flapped to the altar in the back with her thoughts racing. Setting on this altar was another teardrop-shaped gemstone, blueish-gray in color. As Yearling picked it up, the surface felt damp to the touch, though there was no water on the surface of the gem. A tingle spread through her wings.
“Let’s hurry and set these with the rest,” Yearling said, stowing it away.
Elytra nodded, and followed Yearling as she flew from the temple. A glint of something caught her eye and she squinted into the gloomy skies.
“Daring!” she called, pointing to some nearby floating debris. “I think I see something moving over there!”
Yearling halted, and followed her point to the debris. After a few moments of squinting at it, she frowned.
“You’re probably seeing things in this rain,” she called. “There’s nothing on these islands. Let’s just hurry up and get to the last temple.”
As Yearling continued on, Elytra frowned at the debris before following on again.
An ominous wind whipped at the ropes and rigging of the airship as they approached the final island to the southwest. Yearling gripped her pith helmet as she disembarked, followed closely behind by Elytra.
The air was clear around the last island. The clouds billowed about in gusts of wind what whistled through various floating stone rings about the tornado-shaped island. Ahead was the temple and its stone door—and from a distance, Yearling could see the way in.
There were four small windmills surrounding the door, each resembling a child’s pinwheel. Two were vertical, and lay flush against the stone of the door, while two others were vertical, and extended out on either side of the door on metal struts. Despite the howling winds, their coppery blades didn’t so much as budge.
“The currents funnel around the door,” Yearling said, looking around. “We’ll need to guide them to those windmills. I’ll need some help.”
“I’ll try,” Elytra said. “What do you want me to do?”
“It’s possible to shape currents by guiding them with your wings. If you used Pegasi wings, we could work together to angle them towards the door,” Yearling explained.
Elytra nibbled her bottom lip. “Show me how to do it, I’ll get a pair of wings,” she said.
Yearling nodded, flying upwards. She reached out with her hoof until she felt a gust against it, then rolled into it. Straining with her wings partially curved, she angled towards the door and rolled out of the current. One of the windmills on a metal strut began spinning in the wind.
Elytra flapped over, now sporting a feathery pair of purple wings. “I’ll see what I can do,” she said, flying up in search of her own current. She rolled into one and tried to guide it towards one of the windmills on the door, but missed it.
“Focus on where you want it to go, then roll out of it,” Yearling said. “Watch.”
She flapped up into another current of wind, and Elytra watched carefully as she curved her wings and angled the gust towards the door, causing the second windmill on a strut to start spinning.
Elytra huffed, flying up until she felt a particularly strong wind. She rolled into it and curved her wings, grunting with effort. She didn’t roll out of the current until she was pointed perpendicular to the door.
Both of the windmills against the door started spinning in tandem. A tornado symbol flashed white on the door, and it groaned open.
Yearling nodded in approval as Elytra flapped down next to her. “Great work.”
“Wherever did you learn something like this?” the changeling asked her.
“Flying school,” Yearling said, flapping inside. Elytra changed her wings back and quickly joined her.
They both stopped at the plaque inside the final temple, much larger than the rest. Yearling quickly started translating it:
"This final tablet we inscribe is a plea. The leaders of the earth ponies and unicorns have agreed to unify with us, to form a kingdom called Equestria. Their leader, an alicorn, has promised she has found a prison for the monsters, and with their power of friendship, we will have no need for the Tears of the Clouds, and we fear what might happen if they're discovered.
"We are sending these floating islands south over an uncharted ocean, and the Tears of the Clouds with them. We hope our magic will give out eventually and send them crashing into the depths never to be seen again. Should you be reading this now, it means we were not entirely successful. Our plea is thus: free our Sister in the centermost island. We sent her as a safeguard, in the scant chance that we would need the Tears again. She holds the key to wielding them.
"Please, if you find her, and if there is a chance she is alive, I beg you to free her, and finish what we started - send the Tears into an abyss, so that they may never be used for evil."
“So they abandoned these islands and sent them shortly before the Unification of Equestria,” Yearling explained. “But who is this ‘Sister’?”
“A failsafe, and probably the last Pegasus who knows how to use those gemstones,” Elytra surmised. “Which means we need to find her as soon as possible. Let’s get that gemstone.”
Yearling nodded, flying quickly to the back of the temple to the altar. The last gemstone was pale grey in color, and its glow flickered like a candle’s flame in the breeze. As Yearling picked it up, she felt a tingle in her wings, and the coolness of a breeze against her hooves.
As she tucked it away into her saddlebags, she nodded to Elytra, and the two of them flew out of the temple.
A gust of strong wind halted their progress, and blew away from lazily floating clouds nearby—revealing a chunk of floating debris that was currently occupied.
“Look!” Elytra cried, pointing to them.
The masked, furry creatures, realizing they had been spotted, started up their small airboat. Elytra and Yearling watched them disappear into the dense fogbank that hung on the ocean far below.
Elytra started to fly after them, but Yearling stopped her with a hoof. “We’re not alone. We need to get to that center island come first light and get out of here,” she said.
Frowning, Elytra nodded, and the two made a break back for the airship.
“Bring in the ship as close as you can,” Yearling said to Celaeno. “I want to get in and out as quickly as possible.”
“Aye aye!” Celaeno said, angling the ship towards the center island. The winds whipped at the ropes and rigging, but the ship continued on until it halted just outside of the central island’s structure’s door.
Yearling secured the four Tears in her saddlebags before departing from the ship with Elytra close behind. The changeling scanned the surrounding landscape as Yearling approached the door.
Pulling out the Tear of Lightning, Yearling held it up to its symbol on the door. The symbol glowed white in response, and when Yearling pulled the gemstone away, the glow remained. Systematically, she pulled out the Tear of Ice, Tear of Rain, and Tear of Wind, holding them to their corresponding symbol and stowing them away when the symbols glowed.
With a great rumbling that shifted dust from the structure, the stone door ground open. A rush of icy wind met Yearling and Elytra as it opened, followed by snow flurries and wispy clouds that dissipated once the door was fully open.
The air inside was frigid, much colder than the snowflake island had been, and even Yearling felt the chill through her Pegasus magic. The room was much smaller than the other temples, though taller in size. Towards the back was a great mass of ice.
As Yearling and Elytra slowly approached it, they recognized that there was a figure deep inside the ice, their form too blurry to make out. The general shape of the figure seemed to indicate it was a pony – and something above what would’ve been their head was casting light throughout the chamber.
“We’ve got to thaw this somehow,” Yearling said. “We don’t know if this Sister is still alive or—”
She was cut off when Elytra, in a burst of red fire, changed into a purple dragon and breathed a jet of flame on the mass of ice. Yearling blinked in surprise at the color of her transformation.
Slowly, the ice began to thaw and flow under them as a steady stream of water and around them as a cloud of steam. The figure came more and more into focus. She was a white Pegasus, with black primaries along her wings and a short black mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a spotlight of light. Floating above her head, curiously, was a large ring of crystalized ice with four round slots in it.
Elytra snuffed out her flames once the Pegasus was free, and Yearling rushed forward to catch her as Elytra changed back. Yearling checked for a pulse, and the Pegasus gave a groan, stirring in Yearling’s forehooves.
“She’s alive,” Yearling said. “We need to get her back to the ship.”
“I’ll carry her,” Elytra said quickly, gently grabbing the Pegasus around the barrel and flittering out with her. Yearling followed, noting that the strange ring followed the unconscious Pegasus as she went.
Celaeno was at the side of the ship to greet them, taking the Pegasus from Elytra and calling to her crew for a blanket. Yearling and Elytra touched down as one of the crew wrapped a blanket around the Pegasus, and she blinked open her pale grey eyes.
“Wha… Who… Are… You?” she asked, her voice croaking as her now wide eyes darted between the figures around her. “Can… You… Understand… Me?”
“Hey, calm down,” Yearling said gently, walking forward and setting a hoof on the Pegasus’s. “You’re among friends. What’s your name?”
“My name… is Sister Azazel.” The Pegasus swallowed and glanced between them again. “What… do you know of the Tears?”
“Just what I’ve read on the plaques on the islands,” Yearling said. “And I know the Tears and the islands are supposed to be at the bottom of the ocean by now and they’re not, but that’s it.”
Azazel frowned, nodding as her mind wandered. “Have… Have you found the Control Rod yet?”
Elytra and Yearling looked at one another, confused, before Yearling turned back to Azazel. “What do you mean ‘Control Rod’?”
There was a sudden roar from the side of the ship, and then another and another. Masked, furry creatures landed on the ship as a shadow fell over them all. One by one, Celaeno and the crew were grabbed.
The last thing Yearling saw was two of the figures reaching for Azazel and Elytra before she was knocked out by a blow to the head.
Yearling groaned awake, slowly blinking her eyes open. The world around her swam, and a cold wind buffeted her face. As she slowly regained her senses, she realized her wings and legs were bound, and a solid weight behind her prevented her from moving. She was at the bottom of Celaeno’s ship, near the loading bay.
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Elytra, tied up in a similar way as her. “Glad you’re awake,” she muttered bitterly, glaring past Yearling.
Yearling turned to see Azazel tied up across from her. She struggled in her bounds, her ring casting a soft glow around her. An imposing, cloaked figure stood next to her, grinning between the Pegasi.
“Who are you?” Yearling demanded, shrugging at her bonds.
The figure drew back the cloak, revealing she was much like a large monkey with ash grey fur. She wore dark armor, with a familiar cyan, pronged symbol made of two lines. Atop her head was a horned crown. She glared down at Yearling sky blue eyes.
“I am the Storm Queen,” she sneered. “And I have been waiting a long time for someone to finally find these islands.”
“Where are the others?” Elytra demanded, struggling against her bonds. Yearling swore she heard ropes start to fray from her struggle.
“The good captain is in her cabin, along with the rest of her crew,” the Queen purred. “And they’ll remain alive as long as you remain a good little bug.” Elytra snorted angrily, but stilled herself.
Yearling growled. “What do you want from us?”
“It’s a bit of a lengthy explanation. You see, my beloved King found these islands a long time ago. It’s where he got his staff, I’m sure you’ve seen it.” She growled. “The one that could contain the power of alicorns, four of them to be precise. We could never open those stupid temples because we weren’t Pegasi. But he thought the staff would be enough if he could get those accursed princesses…”
As she trailed off, Azazel gasped. “That staff… the Control Rod—!”
“Silence!” barked the queen, sending the Pegasus cowering away from her, before turning back to Yearling. “He took most of our forces with him to conquer Equestria. It took too long for me to learn what we became of him.” She clenched her fists. “And I have been waiting, so, so long for my revenge.
“Now that I have those gemstones, those Tears of the Clouds, I’ll do more than what he started. I don’t want to rule that accursed land—I want it wiped from the map!” Her roaring voice echoed around the hollow ship. “And it will be sweet irony that the Pegasi’s ancient power is what will make you ponies pay. Especially that hornless traitor.”
Yearling scoffed. “As if you can use them. Those things could only be touched by a Pegasus.”
The Queen chuckled, a smug smirk crossing her face to replace her snarl. “You’re quite right. Which means I’ll need this.” And with that, she snatched the floating ring from Azazel’s head, the Pegasus’s head jerking to follow it, before the Queen set it over her own head.
“I must thank you, before you go,” the Queen purred as she stalked over to her. “I couldn’t have gotten this far without you. I owe Equestria’s undoing to you.”
She slammed a fist aside Yearling’s head, knocking her out and sending her crashing to the floor. With a snarling laugh, she kicked the unconscious Pegasus out of the loading bay, taking the tied up Elytra along with her.
Elytra struggled against the ropes as the wind buffeted around them, nudging at Yearling. “Wake up, Daring!” she pleaded. “We need to get out of this.”
The Pegasus only groaned in response. Looking at her with wide eyes, elytra gave a soft, pensive sigh. “Guess I have no choice…”
Crimson fire burned away her wings and tail, revealing great leathery wings like those of a dragon and a thin tail with a barbed tip. The ropes snapped away with ease, and the changeling raced down to catch the Pegasus by the barrel. Halting their descent, Elytra scanned the skies before picking out a nearby floating island.
Yearling started to come to as they landed, grumbling at the feeling of yet another headache. Her vision slowly came into focus on the purple blob in front of her. “E-Elytra?” she mumbled.
“Not quite, Miss Yearling,” came the sheepish response.
Yearling quickly blinked her eyes into focus, scrutinizing the changeling from head to tail. “Wait a minute… I know those wings and tail…”
With a sheepish smile, crimson fire burned away at the rest of Elytra’s form. She grew in height, and her regal appearance vaguely reminded Yearling of Queen Chrysalis. Her body was whole and sleek, chitin red and eyes crimson. Her membrane mane was ivory, along with a pair of white, curved horns. A pearl necklace with an ornate fly pendant emerged around her neck.
“Yes, I’m a demon,” she admitted, her voice no different. “My name is Beelzebub.”
Yearling blinked. “Another one, huh? Have you told the crew? Captain Celaeno?”
Beelzebub shook her head. “Not yet. Honestly, I felt bad enough for raiding Princess Luna’s ship that I… hesitate to do so.”
She turned back towards Celaeno’s airship. It was flanked on either side by the smaller Storm Queen ships, their propellers whirring. The larger ship floated ahead of the bow, its broadside pointing at the pirates’ airship.
“What do we do now?” Beelzebub asked Yearling.
“We need to get back onboard for starters,” Yearling said. “Then we can plan our course of action with the others.”
Beelzebub nodded. “Are you alright to fly?”
Yearling nodded, taking one step forward—and promptly wobbling on her hooves. Beelzebub reached forward and caught her, shaking her head.
“I suppose I’m flying then,” she said, grabbing her around the barrel and taking flight with a flap of her great wings. Yearling grumbled, but protested no further as they made their way towards the stern of Celaeno’s airship.
Yearling and Beelzebub touched down lightly on the stern of the airship, just outside the windows of the captain’s cabin on a balcony that ran around it. Beelzebub reached up and checked each window before finding one that was unlocked and opened it.
The two stepped inside, to the startled gasps of the crew and Captain Celaeno inside.
“Yearling!” she hissed, glancing towards the door. “And…” She frowned at the crimson changeling. “Elytra, is that you?”
Beelzebub flashed a sheepish smile. “Elytra was a cover, Captain. My real name is Beelzebub, and I’m a demon, not a changeling,” she explained.
“What?” Celaeno blinked in confusion.
“Captain, there’s more pressing matters at hoof.” Yearling looked between her and her crew. “Why aren’t any of you tied up?”
“Door’s being guarded. I suppose they thought it a waste of rope, seeing as we can’t fly the coop,” Celaeno explained. She frowned at Beelzebub. “We’ll discuss this later.”
Beelzebub nodded, though she averted her gaze from her and the crew. Yearling did a once over of the captives.
“Where’s Azazel?” she asked. “Have you seen her?”
“No, I haven’t. She wasn’t brought in here at all,” Celaeno huffed. “I hope she’s alright.”
“She’s probably still in the hold where we were then,” Yearling speculated. “She’s the one with knowledge of the Tears and these islands – if anyone knows how to end all of this, it’s her.”
“When we find her, I can take her place,” Beelzebub spoke up. “I can distract the Storm Queen so you two can put a stop to all of this.”
“You sure? When she find out you’re a fake, she has the Tears at her disposal,” Yearling said.
“We demons are stronger than we look,” Beelzebub said with a confident smirk. “Now, we best be off before the guards outside get suspicious.”
Yearling nodded, turning to Celaeno. “We’ll get back to you as soon as we can, I promise.”
“Take care, Yearling. You too, Beelzebub,” Celaeno said with a firm nod.
Yearling nodded back as she and Beelzebub crept out the window and shut it behind them. No sooner were they away than the door opened and one of the Storm Queen’s creatures grunted loudly at the prisoners.
“Keep it down in here!” It promptly slammed the door behind itself.
Yearling poked her head into the hold, and was relieved to find it empty, save for the still bound Pegasus in the corner, cowering and sobbing. She motioned for Beelzebub to follow her as she flew to Azazel’s side.
The ancient Pegasus gasped, sniffling. “I thought you were dead!” she exclaimed.
“Keep it down,” Beelzebub hissed. She looked around in confusion. “Why do you suppose there’s no guards?”
“Short staffed, probably. The Storm Queen needs all hands on deck,” Yearling replied, working on the ropes binding Azazel’s hooves and wings. When she finally untied them, Azazel hugged her tightly.
“Thank you!” Azazel whispered.
“You’re welcome. Now, how do we stop the Storm Queen and maybe sink these islands?” Yearling asked, pulling away from her.
Azazel tapped her chin as she thought, looking about the hold as her mind wandered. “I could make another Control Ring, like the one the Storm Queen took from me, but with only my magic, it would only be able to steal one of the Tears from her.”
Yearling sighed. “Well, I suppose one is better than nothing.”
Beside them, there was a flash of red, and a second Azazel sat down where the original had been cowering. The original Azazel gasped, eyes wide and sparkling with fascination.
“An incredible ruse!” she gasped.
“Tie my hooves and wings up,” Beelzebub said, her voice shifting to match Azazel’s. “If she asks me anything, I’ll stall for as long as I can.”
Yearling grimly nodded, taking the ropes and rebinding her wings and hooves. She was partially comforted that they couldn’t hold the disguised demon, but only partially.
“We’ll be back as soon as we can,” Yearling said firmly. “I promise.”
Beelzebub nodded, flashing her a confident smile before taking on Azazel’s previous look of fear and despair.
Yearling nodded in satisfaction before turning to Azazel. “Lead the way to where we need to go, and keep it low. We can’t be spotted.”
Azazel nodded, flaring her wings and diving out of the hold with Yearling in close pursuit. They glided away from the ships, making sure to keep clouds between them and the ships for cover.
“Where to first?” Yearling asked.
“The Central Temple would be the safest place to make the Control Ring. After that, I will tell you what must be done,” Azazel said, an unusual authority entering her voice.
Dark clouds had started to spread around the islands as Azazel and Yearling glided down towards the Central Temple. Ominous thunder rumbled in the distance as the wind started to kick up.
“We do not have much time,” Azazel said upon landing, frowning up at the skies outside.
“What do I need to do?” Yearling asked, her eyes focused on the distant airships.
“Go to the temples where you found the Tears and gather clouds from each one,” Azazel said. “I need time to gather my magic for the ritual.”
Yearling nodded, slipping her goggles back on and taking flight.
She fought a strong headwind coming from the first temple, the thunderheads rumbling restlessly. The constant stormfront over the temple lit up like a flashing neon sign with lightning activity. Yearling snatched a large puff of dark clouds and returned it to the Central Temple.
She found Azazel chanting something to herself, eyes shut and wings outstretched. Yearling thought it might’ve been Old Ponish, but she didn’t stop to listen.
A gale of snow and hail met Yearling upon approach to the second temple. The thick snowfall made it hard to find any cirrus clouds until she was over the temple itself – like the eye of a hurricane, the temple seemed exempt from the snow. Snatching as many wisps as she could carry, she made for the Central Temple.
In the distance, she could see lightning arc out from the main decks of the Storm Queen’s ship, and evil laughter carried across the strong winds. Yearling set her jaw, deposited her clouds, and set off again.
The wind blew the rain around the third temple as if it were light as air itself. Much like the second temple, the third temple set in the eye of its own hurricane, allowing Yearling to find some damp cumulonimbus clouds to take back.
Returning to Azazel, Yearling noticed that her wings were starting to glow, and little sparks like static electricity danced along the feathers. Yearling stopped to gawk for only a second before making a beeline for the last temple.
The winds howled like wolves around the fourth temple. Several chunks of floating rock from the island spun in whirlwinds, and spiraling funnel clouds danced around the temple itself. The winds blew Yearling off course, causing her to crash into some cirrocumulus clouds. Scooping some of the puffs up, she fought the winds back towards the Central Temple.
She screeched to a halt just outside the temple. The airships were moving, turning away from the islands and, from Yearlings guess, heading north.
Towards Equestria.
She flew into the temple and set her cloud haul with the others. “Azazel, we need to hurry! The ships are on the move!”
Azazel opened her eyes, and Yearling recoiled. They glowed a bright white, and an audible crackling danced along her wings and hooves.
The ancient Pegasus curved her wings towards the gathered clouds. As if they were magnetized, the clouds were drawn towards Azazel’s wings. Her wings weaved the clouds together as if they were silk, working quickly and smoothly as a spider spinning a web. Yearling watched on with fascination.
Slowly, the mass of clouds decreased in size, and with one bright flash of light, the clouds were no more. As Yearling’s blinked her eyes back into focus, she could see a band of bright grey crystal, much like Azazel’s ring, only the size of a bracelet.
The glow in Azazel’s eyes was long gone, and it was dead silent within the temple. She gave Yearling a tired smile and offered the bracelet to Yearling. “Here,” she rasped.
Yearling carefully took the band and turned it over in her hoof. Unlike Azazel’s ring, there was only one round slot in the bracelet. Yearling slipped it on and turned back to Azazel.
The ancient Pegasus took a step forward, and nearly crashed to the ground if not for Yearling catching her.
“What’s wrong?” Yearling asked, panic in her voice.
“My magic… it will take time for it to come back. I cannot fly.” Azazel sat back on her haunches with a sigh. She smiled at Yearling and nodded. “Go and stop them. I will be fine.”
Yearling frowned, but nodded. “What do I have to do?” she asked.
“Get close to the Control Ring, reach out with your magic. One of the Tears will surely respond,” Azazel slowly explained. “The Storm Queen does not possess… our magic.”
Yearling nodded again, slowly letting go of Azazel. As she took flight once more, she cast one more glance back at the Pegasus, who waved to her with a tired smile, before flying on.
Toward the fleeing airships, and the ominous rumbling seeming to follow the ships.
Yearling headed straight for the Storm Queen’s vessel, eyes focused towards the bow. The source of the lightning was the Storm Queen herself – or rather the Control Ring floating over her head. She seemed preoccupied with the horizon ahead, as if awaiting the first sight of land. Behind her, still bound, was “Azazel,” who had taken on a defiant look.
“Storm Queen!” Yearling bellowed, flying before her.
The Storm Queen’s eyes nearly popped from her head. “What? How are you still alive?” With a snarl, she grit her teeth. “No matter – you won’t be for long!”
Yearling rolled out of the way of a blast of wind that ruffled her shirt and whipped at her tail. She dove as a flash of light filled her vision and a bolt of lightning roared over her head. She flew along the port side, dodging blasts of wind.
“Beelzebub, now! Grab her!” Yearling called, ducking another lightning bolt.
The ropes snapped in a burst of red fire as Beelzebub pounced with a hissing snarl. The Storm Queen was taken completely by surprise as the changeling, now twice her normal size, pinned her down. The surprise didn’t last, as the Storm Queen fought to be freed.
“Guards!” she howled.
Yearling swooped in and took a steadying breath. She closed her eyes and focused on her magic like Azazel had said. A tingling sensation spread from her wings down to her forehooves, and she reached out with her bracelet hoof.
She felt a little tug in the tingling, and there was a soft clink. She opened her eyes to find one of the Tears had lodged into her bracelet’s slot. She grinned in triumph.
At that time, the Storm Queen had finally thrown Beelzebub aside and looked up in horror. It quickly turned into rage as she let out a bellowing howl. “You insolent little thief!” she bellowed, firing a lightning bolt at her.
Yearling arched backwards, shutting her eyes against the blinding light as it narrowly missed her. The close contact made her hair stand on end as she flew backwards.
“Beelzebub! Go free Celaeno’s airship!” Yearling called over the roaring thunder as she ducked and dodged more bolts.
Beelzebub rolled to her hooves and gave a nod, flittering across the deck towards the stern. A few of the Storm Queen’s creatures finally made it above deck and stood in her way, but she dodged their grabbing claws and flew past them.
Yearling finally got a respite from the lightning to check which of the Tears she had managed to snatch. Her face fell a little when she realized it was pale blue with a frosty sheen over it.
“How am I going to use snow?” she thought to herself.
Her ears perked up and she rolled out of the way of another gust of wind. She gained altitude, looking for more space to evade.
Beelzeub smacked some of the beasts aside as she landed onto the airship’s deck. Some fell overboard, others stumbled back onto their own ships. She raced to the door to the captain’s quarters and threw it open. “All hands on deck!” she called.
Celeano burst forward, her cutlass in hand as she charged onto the deck and scanned her surroundings. The rest of her crew was close behind, some brandishing weapons of their own.
“Captain, Yearling’s fighting the Storm Queen on her ship. She’s got one of the Tears, but we’re headed for Equestria – the Queen plans on razing it,” Beelzebub hurriedly explained.
Celaeno frowned as she surveyed her ship. “Well, we can’t sit idly by…” Her eyes fell onto the stern. “The aft towing harpoons! We could at least slow her ship down with them, but we need to be free first.”
“I’ll see if Yearling can help with that,” Beelzebub said with a nod, hurriedly flittering back to the battle.
“Avast, you landlubbers!” Celaeno called as more of the Storm Queen’s beasts emerged from below decks on their ships. “Protect our ship! Keep ‘em off!”
The crew gave a hearty reply and charged the enemy, and their captain was quick to join them.
Yearling surged some of her magic into the Tear, trying to get some sort of response. All she got were wispy puffs of clouds that dissipated as quickly as she conjured them. She huffed, nearly getting buffeted by a gust of wind and dropping out of the way.
“Come on… come on…” she panted, her wings aching as she ducked and dove around the Storm Queen’s assault.
The Tear glowed a little brighter, and a small burst of ice crystals shot out like pellets from a shotgun. Yearling blinked in surprise.
She cringed as a stray lightning bolt licked at one of the masts, narrowly missing her.
“Hold still!” the Storm Queen roared. “Pesky bug!”
“I take offense to that,” Beelzebub panted as she caught up with Yearling. “Captain Celaeno can use her aft harpoon guns on this ship to slow it down, but she needs help getting the other ships off first.”
“Let’s trade places then,” Yearling huffed with a nod. “Keep her busy.”
Beelzebub nodded, and smirked as she turned her attention below. Yearling flew off towards Celaeno’s ship as the demon stuck her tongue out at the Storm Queen.
“I bet you couldn’t hurt a fly with those things!” she taunted.
She vanished in a burst of crimson fire as a lightning bolt roared past, buzzing around as a tiny fly before turning back to normal.
Yearling left the angered shouts of the Storm Queen behind her as she approached the enemy airships. Below, she could see Celaeno and her crew dueling with the Storm Queen’s beasts, doing their best to toss them back onto their own ships.
She flew just short of one of the enemy ship’s vertical propellers keeping it aloft and concentrated on the Tear yet again. Wispy, cloud-like magic spun from the Tear and onto the propeller, coating it in a thick layer of ice and locking it up.
Smirking, Yearling deftly flew to the other propellers and iced them over one by one. She looked down to Celaeno’s airship and noticed it seemed to only be connected to the other ships by mooring lines tied to its railings.
“Cut your ship loose, Captain!” Yearling called as she enemy ships began to lose altitude.
“Gladly! You heard her, mates!” Celaeno said with a salute to Yearling, slashing one of the lines with her cutlass.
One by one, the other lines were cut and snapped, just as the two airships plummeted out of sight with their crews.
Yearling gave a wave to Celaeno before turning back to the last remaining airship – and the sounds of the infuriated Storm Queen.
“Hard about, mates!” Celaeno called. “And ready the aft harpoons!”
The Storm Queen heard the commotion of her ships’ crews and peered over the side back at them. She snarled as they vanished through the clouds below, turning her anger towards Beelzebub as Yearling rejoined her.
A smirk crossed the Queen’s face. “Looks like the pirates are betraying you like they betrayed me!” she called smugly.
“Not quite,” Yearling replied.
Just then, the Storm Queen’s ship lurched, nearly throwing her to the deck. A pair of harpoons jammed into her ship’s stern, connected to Celaeno’s by sturdy chains. The pirates let out a whoop of victory.
Vibrating with rage, the Storm Queen let out a bellow of rage and stormed to the stern, the Tears in her Control Ring glowing brightly.
Beelzebub quickly figured out what she was aiming for. “NO!” she cried, racing downwards.
The Storm Queen howled and launched a lightning bolt directly at the balloon of Celaeno’s airship – which instead struck Beelzebub directly in the chest.
There was a brief flash of light, and a smoldering, crimson form limply fell from the sky.
“No!” Yearling called after her, before turning her sights on the Storm Queen, who was smugly watching her first victim plummet.
Gritting her teeth with a snarl, Yearling dove for the Storm Queen. Ice encased her hoof, but she barely felt the biting cold. The Storm Queen took notice of the golden missile aimed at her, and fired off two more lightning bolts.
Yearling angled her wings vertically, narrowly missing both bolts with only the faintest notion of the static effect it had on her hair. The bolts instead struck the two propeller-bearing masts, snapping them like twigs.
Yearling’s momentum carried her straight to the Storm Queen, and her ice-encased punches, shielded from the lightning of the Control Ring, knocked it from the Storm Queen’s head and sent the Storm Queen to the ground.
Continuing, Yearling rolled to her hooves upon landing and grabbed the Control Ring, now defunct without a master. With a flap of her tired wings, she was airborne again as the Queen’s ship began to sink.
“Cut the lines!” Yearling heard Celaeno call, followed by the rattling of chains going limp.
The Queen groaned as she got to her feet, wobbling as her ship began to dip towards the bow. “Curse you, Daring Do!” she bellowed, shaking her fist. “Curse you!”
And with that, the Storm Queen and her ship vanished out of sight below the cloud sea.
Yearling stared at the ship-shaped holes in the clouds before her ear flicked towards the sound of someone calling her name.
“Y-Yearling!”
She whirred around to see Beelzebub, a scorched mark across her chest, but somehow weakly keeping aloft with a smirk.
“Beelzebub!” Yearling called, flying to her. “How are you alive? You took a bolt of lightning directly!”
“Well, I’m tougher than I look,” Beelzebub wheezed with a weak chuckle. “But let’s not push out luck and get back to the ship, shall we?”
“Let’s, we need to get back to the islands,” Yearling said, looping one of Beelzebub’s legs around her own shoulders to help fly her back.
Flying just above and south of the central island, Yearling stepped up to the starboard railing of Celaeno’s ship, clutching the Control Ring, her bracelet, and the Tears slotted into each of them. With a sigh, she cast them overboard, watching their glints vanish towards the sea below.
“Well, that’s the Tears taken care of,” Yearling remarked to Celaeno and Beelzebub beside her. “But how in Celestia’s name are we sinking those islands?”
Before anyone could offer a solution, there was a bright flash of light from somewhere far below. As the trio peered over the side of the ship, a whirling vortex of clouds, like a raging hurricane, swirled up from below.
Lightning, fierce winds, hail, and rain launched from the vortex like lashing tentacles, striking at the underside of the floating islands. Rock crumbled from the onslaught, and one by one, the islands began to break apart and sink.
“What in the seven seas?” Celaeno gasped.
“Azazel is still in the Central Temple!” Yearling exclaimed over the deafening roar of a hundred storms.
Beelzebub grunted and flitted into the air, rocking away towards the Central Island before either of them could protest. Celaeno ordered her ship as close as they could get, but the crewmate at the helm struggled against the fierce winds.
Yearling focused on the crimson dot as it disappeared into the maelstrom near the sinking Central Temple. Slowly, the temple, and the rest of the islands, vanished into the raging clouds below.
After a tense moment, Beelzebub reemerged, struggling with carrying a white form in her forehooves. Celaeno reached out as far as she could and helped them both aboard. Beelzebub sprawled out on the deck, panting and wheezing, while Azazel looked back where at the islands with amazement in her eyes.
“Thank you,” Azazel said with a grateful, if sad, smile towards Yearling. “For doing what your ancestors could not.”
“What was that?” Celaeno exclaimed.
“We threw the Tears overboard,” Yearling said.
Azazel nodded. “The sea water most likely made them overload, too much material to work with. They are likely no more after that outburst.”
Yearling hummed. “I guess since the islands were cloudwalking, the Tears knocked the hooves out from under them by striking their bottom.”
“Most likely.” Azazel sighed, sitting back on her haunches. “It has been countless years since I flew in Equestria. I am not sure what I should do now.”
Yearling walked over and set her hoof on her shoulder. “I happen to know there’s some other ancient ponies in Equestria, so you’re not alone, that’s for sure.”
Azazel smiled and nodded, setting a hoof on Yearling’s. “I never got your name. We were ambushed before I could find out.”
“A.K. Yearling, though some know me as Daring Do,” Yearling said with a smirk.
“You are a brave warrior, Daring Do,” Azazel said, rising to her hooves.
Celaeno huffed as she set her hands on her hips. “Well, Miss Yearling, I certainly hope this expedition covers my community service.”
Yearling laughed as Azazel moved on to watch the crew worked. Among them was Beelzebub, who assisted in retying some ropes. Celaeno nodded in approval.
“Not to worry, Captain,” Yearling said. “I’m more than sure Princess Celestia will forgive you.” She huffed as she looked back out on the horizon. “The real problem is: how in Tartarus do I write this into a story?”
It was Celaeno’s turn to laugh, and she gave the Pegasus a hearty pat on the back as they flew back towards home, the sun setting off in the distance.
Bits of stone levitated in blood red magic as a white unicorn with a curved horn examined a broken statue under a set up magnifying lens. She’d check among the levitating fragments before applying it to the correct place on the statue with a burst of red magic.
The statue was that of some sort of monkey, wearing a horned helmet and dark armor. A look of anger and surprise was plastered permanently on his visage, and the unicorn smirked at it often.
“Working are we, Lucy?” a familiar voice asked from the doorway.
Lucifer looked up to see Beelzebub leaning against it, her chitin chest bandaged up and a bemused smirk on her face.
“Just tidying up. Figured I’d get some more work done on this one,” Lucifer replied. She shot her own bemused smirk at Beelzebub. “Thought you were off on a pirate adventure, Beel?”
“Shore leave, needed some rest.” Beelzebub walked over and chuckled at the statue. “Funny coincidence, I do believe I ran into his mate recently.”
“Oh really? I suppose for every creature there must be a mate,” Lucifer said, examining more pieces.
“He’ll be really happy to know she’s down here now when he wakes up,” Beelzebub said with a dark grin.
“Oh?” Lucifer asked. “I haven’t seen any souls like this one down here.”
“What?” Beelzebub looked at her. “What do you mean you haven’t? You know the arrangement as well as I.”
“Yes, yes. We get Equestria’s most wicked souls when they pass, and in return, the princesses can use our attic for their little zoo,” Lucifer replied. “I’m aware. What department would she be under?”
“Wrath, maybe Pride?” Beelzebub offered.
Lucifer shook her head. “Zdrada and Justice haven’t reported any new souls, nor anyone else, and you know how scarce wicked souls are in a place like this.” She glanced at Beelzebub. “Are you sure she’s perished?”
Beelzebub frowned at the statue. “Well, now I’m not…”
