Antecedent 6
#6 of Antecedent
The ocean far below was deceptively calm. A blue sheet stretched out in front of them, from horizon to horizon.
The two pegasi were riding thermals, conserving their energy as they crossed the eastern ocean and headed for Transavian. It was a journey that took upwards of a week in a large ship, but could be accomplished in a single day by a pegasus.
Raindrop and Sentinel both wore saddlebags and had a pair of goggles over their eyes. Usually, goggles were only needed by pegasi who were doing very fast manoeuvres, such as the Wonderbolts. But the goggles would be needed once they got to Transavian. The avian's desert homeland was well-known for its proclivities towards sandstorms.
Raindrop looked to her left, where Sentinel coasted along the thermals, barely even having to flap his wings to stay aloft. He looked different without his armour, somehow smaller. It was odd to see him outfitted like herself, like a normal pegasus. It was almost like his armour was part of his natural form.
Sentinel sensed her watching him, and turned to smile at her, raising a brow.
Raindrop rolled her eyes and turned to face the front again. She had the seeker stone in her saddlebag, and occasionally had to twist and pull it out to make sure they were on track. It was going to be a long flight.
The first sighting of landfall came as the sun was beginning to sink out of view behind them. A wide brown line of desert beach began to grow in front of the two pegasi, spreading from horizon to horizon. Like all deserts, it was very sparsely populated with the odd cactus or hardy bush that was too stubborn to grow anywhere else.
As they got closer and closer to the shoreline, Raindrop slipped to the side to fly closer to Sentinel. She had to shout to be heard over the roaring wind. "Which way is the town?"
Sentinel reached back into his saddlebag, and tugged out a small compass. A picture of a coastal town was engraved on its surface. "To our North!"
Raindrop nodded, and the two pegasi peeled off to the north, following the line of the shore towards the port town of Sandy Shores.
Night had fallen by the time the town came into view. The darkness of the ocean was superimposed on the brighter colours of the desert sand, with a line of white dividing them where the waves crashed on the shore, leaving whitewash.
Sandy Shore's lights shone bright in the darkness, a beacon in the darkness that the two pegasi glided towards.
The streets were largely deserted. Unlike Ponyville, or even Canterlot, the nightlife in Sandy Shores was very subdued. The sound of movement and muted voices echoed from the port itself, where griffin workers toiled the night to salt and prepare fish for transport to inland towns the next morning. Fish was one of Transavian's most valued commodities, as the entirety of the continent was surrounded by ocean, and the griffins themselves were quite fond of fish.
Raindrop and Sentinel headed for the local Inn, a large two-story building on the outskirts of town, built like most buildings in the desert, of weathered sandstone deliberately painted white to retard as much of the midday heat as possible. The windows all consisted of rough holes hewn through the sandstone, with wooden shutters over them. The shutters were all open at the moment, allowing a cooling breeze to drift in through the openings.
The two pegasi stepped through the front doors of the inn, and pushed their goggles up. It was deserted. Unlike the inns back in Ponyville or other more travelled areas, there just weren't many travellers here.
Sentinel knew what to do though, and stepped up to the bar, rapping his hoof on it for attention.
A few moments later, a griffin appeared from a back room. He was big and burly, and much larger than either of the pegasi.
Sentinel turned to look over his shoulder at Raindrop for a moment, and then back at the innkeeper. "A single room, please."
The innkeeper looked between them, sizing them up, before nodding accepting a small bag of coins Sentinel passed to him. "Room 3."
Sentinel nodded and then turned, ushering Raindrop up the stairs and to the room with the large '3' engraved on the front. There was no key required for the door, and Sentinel just pushed it open. Inside was a modestly sized bed, with a small dresser to one side, a table with a candle on it and a box of matches, and a window with a white curtain over it.
Closing the door behind them, Sentinel swung the large wooden beam down until it slid into the latch on the other side. It was a very old style of door latch, but effective.
Raindrop stepped over the bed, sliding her saddlebags off and placing them carefully on the table, giving a groan and sprawling herself across the bed.
"My wings hurt," Raindrop complained, the tips of her wings giving a little bit of a twitch.
"Your chest feels fine?" Sentinel asked, as he slid his own saddlebags off, and then curled up on the floor beside the bed.
"Surprisingly, yes," Raindrop said, brow furrowing as she lifted a hoof to rub at her chest where she had been stabbed. There was nothing to even indicate that she had been injured now, except for a small line under her fur that was invisible unless you looked for it. "What are you doing on the floor?"
Sentinel raised a brow up at her, and said matter-of-factly, "It's customary to give the female the bed and take the floor yourself."
Raindrop rolled her eyes at that, and then shook her head, before patting the bed with a hoof, "Stupid colt. Get up here."
"I am a stallion," Sentinel snorted, growling at her a moment, before harrumphing and pushing himself to his hooves. "You won't rest until I give in anyway, huh?"
"You know me so well," Raindrop said with a sarcastic smile, grabbing his mane and tugging at it. "Plus, you're kinda warm and all soft. You know, like a big, flabby pillow."
"And now insulting my physical abilities, jeeze, lady," Sentinel said with a shake of his head, pulling himself onto the bed and laying himself out besides the mare. "I was considering caving in to your constant sexual advances, but after that, nope. No sex for you."
"Not even if I ask nicely?" Raindrop simpered, wiggling in closer to him and wrapped her hooves around his middle.
"I am a rock. Can't even change my mind," Sentinel said with a single nod, nudging her with his nose.
Raindrop snorted with amusement. "I'll just have to settle for using you as a pillow then."
The next day saw the two pegasi crossing over the desert, following the direction of the augmented Seeker Stone. It was leading them towards the depths of the desert, where very few creatures ever strode. Endless shifting seas of sand dunes stretched out in front of them.
An entire day of riding thermals later, and they were close to where the Seeker Stone wanted them to be. Harsh desert dunes had given way to rocky, jagged peaks.
As the two pegasis coasted up the side of a rocky outcropping, and then dove down the other side, they came across what could only be described as a junkyard.
Endless piles of debris stretched from one end of a long canyon, to the other, heaped high with jagged remnants of war machines from Transavian's turbulent past.
Raindrop checked the Seeker Stone, but it no longer pointed in any specific direction. It pointed everywhere at once, like a kind of demented fractal. They were close. Motioning towards Sentinel, Raindrop dropped down to a path that had been made between the piles of rusted metal.
Sentinel dropped down beside her and then stretched his wings out a little bit, fluttering them and twisting them before folding them neatly to his back.
"Sore?" Raindrop asked.
"A little stiff," Sentinel admitted, shaking his head and then motioning for her to lead the way.
The two pegasi headed for the centre of the junkyard, passing failed inventions of the griffin military. There were giant gliders, intricate walking devices consisting of what seemed to be hundreds of cogs connected to long pipes with small gauges on their sides.
They rounded a large pile of debris, and a clearing in the junk opened in front of them. There, in all its glory, was an airship. A bright bronze hull was visible. It consisted of what seemed to be three giant bubbles made of metal, with long black cables tethering a giant basket-like cabin underneath it.
A small figure was darting here and there, humming to itself, no more than a brown-and-white shape against the backdrop of the airship that dwarfed it.
Raindrop and Sentinel both approached the seemingly non-functioning airship, until the figure saw them, and stopped.
Now that they were closer, Raindrop could make out features. It was a female griffin, but a much smaller one than any griffin Raindrop had ever seen. She was the same size as Raindrop, if not then a little bit smaller than herself. She wore a long red-and-yellow banded scarf around her neck, and a brown coat of some kind that covered her wings. A black eyepatch completed her ensemble, covering her right eye. A 'mane' of longer feathers created a line down her head and the back of her neck, almost looking like a mane with how the feathers were all pointed backwards. The tips of the feathers themselves were 'dipped' in brown, but were solid white otherwise. Her chest and part of her back were covered in the white feathers, while her hindquarters were all a solid brown. Her long tail was surmounted by a fluffy tuft of fur, while a red bow, tattered and dirty, had been tied around her tail just below the tuft.
Strangely, the griffin was very small, and not just in stature. Most of the griffins were large-chested and powerful. But this griffin was small, and lithe. She didn't give off an air of power at all.
"Hi!" called a high pitched voice, "Don't get many ponies out here!"
Raindrop took a step forwards. "Uhh... Hi! There aren't any ponies around here, are there?"
The griffin pondered on that for a moment, and then shook her head. "Plenty of rats, but no ponies!"
Raindrop strode over towards the diminutive griffin, looking her up and down for a moment, and then pausing, tilting her head. "Are you sure there's no ponies here?"
"Quite sure," the griffin replied with a nod.
Raindrop gave a faint sigh, shaking her head. "Well that's... That's not good."
"Whatcha need a pony for?" the griffin asked, tilting her head to the side in a very raptorial way.
Raindrop chewed her lower lip for a moment, pondering on how much to reveal of their mission. "Well... I'm searching for the bearer of the Element of Laughter."
"That's a pretty big thing, huh?" the griffin asked with a giggle. "I haven't seen any happy ponies around here, sorry."
"So... What is this place?" Raindrop queried, watching the griffin.
"It's an old military base!" the griffin squeaked happily, bouncing excitedly in place. "There's so many cool things here that they just threw away. Can you believe they'd just throw all this stuff away?!"
"It is kinda wasteful," Raindrop appeased, nodding in understanding.
"I'm Wisp!" the griffin said with a happy smile, offering a clawed paw for Raindrop to shake.
"Raindrop," Raindrop replied with an incline of her head, "And that one back there is Sentinel."
Wisp looked past her to Sentinel standing in the background, and waved a paw happily. "Hi Sentinel!"
Sentinel waved back uncertainly, "Uhh, hi."
"Do you two like airships?!" Wisp enthused, bouncing in place happily.
"I've never seen one, honestly," Raindrop admitted, casting her gaze to the bronze monolith of an airship.
"I've almost got it working!" Wisp squeaked, bouncing happily from paw to paw. "Just need the power source... The military took them all with them."
Raindrop gave a sad nod. "That is a shame."
Sentinel took a step forward then. "Where can you find one of these power sources?"
"Oh? They can be found everywhere!" the griffin affirmed, nodding eagerly. "But they're pretty coveted. I know of a wreck that most likely has one. But no one goes near it because of the darkclaws."
"Darkclaws? That sounds fun," Raindrop said with a shake of her head.
"We'll help," Sentinel offered instantly.
"Oh you will, you will?!" Wisp enthused, bouncing in place excitedly. "I know where there's definitely a power source! I can see the lights from on top of the canyon! ...But it is kind of dangerous..."
"We're getting used to it," Sentinel stated with a slow shake of his head and a rueful smile.
"Well... If you really are going to help!" Wisp said with a happy grin. "Just head over that peak!"
The griffin pointed with an outstretched talon towards a peak to the east, silhouetted against the darkening sky. "And then follow the light!"
"And these darkclaws?" Raindrop asked uncertainly.
"They're giant creatures that live in the desert and they suck down anything that stands on top of them. They only need to eat once a month or so, and they hide around any part of the desert that has debris. They kinda learned that ponies and griffins go towards them, and other animals go there for shade. And then," Wisp made a horrible slurping and crunching sound, "No more ponies and griffins."
"But we'll be fine, since we can fly?" Raindrop asked hopefully.
"Should be!" Wisp assured with a happy nod. "I can't really do it myself... My wing is kinda... Broken."
Raindrop gave a cringe of sympathy.
"We'll get you your power source," Sentinel said with a firm nod. "You have my word."
"Oh thank you thank you thank you!" Wisp said gleefully, bouncing around the two of them in a circle.
The two pegasi alighted on the peak of the rocky mountain, looking down into the dark desert, where the muted lights of a strange contraption shone bright in the gathering darkness.
"So... Why are we doing this?" Raindrop asked, looking down at the stricken wreck.
Sentinel perked an ear at her, and then looked back down toward the junkyard, and then back at Raindrop. "I think she's the bearer of the Element of Laughter."
Raindrop blinked at that, her head tilting to the side in a quizzical way. "Really? But she's a griffin!"
Sentinel grinned at that, and the shrugged. "Who said that the bearers had to be ponies?"
"I... Celestia?" Raindrop offered weakly.
"Well the Seeker Stone is pointing towards the junkyard..." Sentinel trailed off, letting Raindrop make her own decision.
"I guess you're right. But why do I feel like we're going to have to fight a thousand and one darkclaws to get to the power source, end up horribly injured, and spend several days recovering from our horrific wounds?"
Sentinel grinned sideways at Raindrop. "Experience?"
The two pegasi dropped off the top of the mountain, skimming down the side of it, their hooves almost touching the ground as it whistled past. They evened their flight path out as the skirted around an upthrust of rock and then flew into the desert itself again, flapping their way up the side of dunes and coasting down the other side, heading ever onwards towards the lights in the darkness.
As they got closer and closer, dark shapes resolved themselves into an actual machine. It was old and rusted, with metal struts jutting from a structure half-buried in the encroaching desert sand. Some of the struts still have glowing crystals atop them, some white, some red, and some blue. Still others had long-since failed, their ends dark, dead.
A main cabin lay half-filled with sand, and the gentle hum of motion was audible beneath the desert dunes as the giant machine kept going about its normal duties as intended, showing no signs of stopping.
The two pegasi alighted on the deck of the large ship. There were several large harpoon guns sitting on the railing that was still above the line of sand, with giant brass arrow-like objects stuffed in their muzzles.
"What was it that that griffin said was out here?" Raindrop asked nervously, looking around.
"Darkclaws," Sentinel confirmed, looking about as well. "I guess the power source will be big and shiny."
"Maybe we should have gotten more concise instructions," Raindrop admitted, rubbing a hoof through her mane.
"Can't be too hard," Sentinel said, moving over to the cabin and nudging the door open. "C'mon, there's steps in here."
Raindrop trailed after Sentinel, pushing the cabin door further open, fighting the weight of the sand sitting against it. "We won't have to dig it out, will we?"
Sentinel shook his head, peering down the stairs. "No, I don't think so, there's barely any sand in here."
The mare gave a sigh of releif at that. "Did I mention I don't like sand?"
"Not even at the beach?" Sentinel asked, staring back at her.
"It's sand. It gets in everything," Raindrop complained.
"Oh grow up," Sentinel said with a roll of his eyes. "Quit acting like a filly and get down here."
Raindrop huffed and stepped down the stairs after him, ducking her head and folding her wings.
Once down the stairs, the narrow corridors, lined with pipes, were lit by glowing white and blue crystals in the ceiling.
"You don't have a problem with enclosed spaces, do you?" Sentinel asked suddenly, sounding worried.
"I'm not a claustrophobe, no," Raindrop responded, with a touch of annoyance. "I rather like small, dark spaces."
"I could definitely twist that into something sexual," Sentinel replied immediately, giving her a rakish grin.
The pegasus snorted, and then pushed his rump with her hooves. "Shush, you. We're here to get the power source, remember?"
Sentinel nodded. "Yeah, I remember, but this thing is a lot larger than it looks."
"It looks small and cramped," Raindrop pointed out with a faint snort.
"There are eight levels down here. It must be mostly buried," Sentinel pointed out, lifting a hoof to point towards a map.
Raindrop pushed past him, and then stared at the map, squinting in the gloom. "There. Engine room, level 6. That's gotta be the best place to find the power source, right?"
Sentinel leaned past her to look at the map, frowning. "I dunno. But if it's a main power source, I'd say it'd be closest to the control centre and in the middle of this entire thing, on level four, or maybe five."
Staring at him for a moment, Raindrop raised an eyebrow. "Well, which are we gonna check first?"
"Why not level four and five? They're closer, and less likely to be washed with sand," Sentinel reasoned.
"looks like there are staircases that way," Raindrop murmured, pointing with a hoof. "How did the griffins fit in here? It's tiny."
"Practise?" Sentinel offered, shrugging his shoulders. "They'd be able to fit through here. It'd be a tight squeeze, but they'd manage."
"Wouldn't be very fun," Raindrop said with a shake of her head, before heading down the long corridor towards the staircases.
"I kinda miss my armour right now," Sentinel said with a shudder. "I feel exposed, walking into some place naked like this."
"It does look good on you," Raindrop conceded.
Sentinel blinked at that, head tilting to the side in confusion. "A compliment with no barbed jibe behind it? What the hell was that?"
Raindrop gave a soft giggle. "Just shut up and accept it."
"Well, in that case," Sentinel began, before grinning at her innocently, "I like it when you walk in front of me."
Raindrop rolled her eyes at that, and then turned to poke her tongue back at him. "Pervert."
"Not my fault. You have very hypnotising hips," Sentinel commented, lifting a hoof and making a side-to-side motion with it. "And that lovely tail. I do so love long tails."
Giving a snort, Raindrop deliberately swished her tail back and forth. "And why is that?"
"I dunno. I had to shorten mine for the Royal Guard. Long tails don't fit in our armour properly. Same as our mane. But lovely long tails and manes that you can just bury your hooves in are awesome," Sentinel enthused with a grin.
Raindrop peered back at him again, and then furrowed her brows, before warning, "Don't you dare fantasize about my mane and tail."
"I won't even think about it," Sentinel replied, pausing to salute her seriously, before grinning, "At least, not again."
"You're horrible," Raindrop stated, as she rounded a corner and found the staircases, beginning to descend down them.
It took them very little time to climb down the staircases to the lower levels. A collection of crystals, lit up blue, denoted which level they were on. They both got off at level four, and then perused the handy schematic beside the stairs.
"That way," Sentinel said, pointing with a hoof. "Seems to be the headquarters, it'd be the most highly-guarded area of the thing."
Raindrop nodded, and allowed Sentinel to lead the way through the enclosed corridors and to the central command area. A low humming energy greeted their ears the closer they got to the centre of the machine. They rounded a corner and came across a large wall-to-wall crystal wall. It was carved thin, and polished so it was transparent. A glowing white diamond-shaped metallic structure was visible inside some kind of large chamber, suspended between two large pipes.
Above and below the suspended metal structure were large tanks. The bottom tank appeared to be filled with water, and the top tank seemed to be filled with some kind of mist, or steam.
"I've seen these before," Sentinel said, as he pushed open the crystal door and they both slipped inside. "First we have to isolate the reaction chamber."
Sentinel reached up to close off the valves for the water tank first, and then waited several long moments before twisting closed the valve for the steam tank above.
"So... How's this all work?" Raindrop asked curiously.
Sentinel lifted his hooves to grip the diamond-shaped reaction chamber, and then twisted and tugged it out of its slot, holding it up triumphantly. "This is where the magic happens. Literally."
Raindrop raised a brow, staring at the strangely shaped metal chamber. "But how?"
"Well see, it's a fire crystal in there. It's a magical crystal that's always hot. A group of unicorns can create one if they have the right materials and know-how. They're pretty expensive for how complicated it is to make them. But because they never lose heat, you can put one in a reaction like this. If you place the crystal in water, it boils the water and creates steam," Sentinel explained, shaking the reaction chamber slightly for emphasis. "It's pretty damn dangerous though."
"Why's that?" Raindrop asked, honestly curious.
"Well it never loses heat. They need a special kind of chamber around them, and if that chamber breaks, they bleed heat into the surrounding area. If this reaction chamber was broken, then the crystal inside would turn this entire machine into a glorified, complicated oven," Sentinel said with a grim smile. "Do you wanna hold it?"
"I'll be fine," Raindrop said, taking a step backward. "How do you know all this stuff?"
Sentinel gave a faint, half-amused sound. "Because the Royal Guard is trained to get into machines like this and destroy them from the inside-out. You know, if the griffins ever invaded."
"How utterly reasurring," Raindrop said with a shudder. "So... We're not going to get eaten this time around?"
Sentinel paused and then cocked his head, listening closely. "Actually, I think we're safe this time. No crazy monsters have even tried to eat us yet."
"Well that's boring," Raindrop said with a huff, turning around and beginning to walk back the way they came.
The return to the junkyard was utterly anti-climatic. No darkclaws (that they saw), no monsters, no injuries. Just a quick climb to the surface and then they returned to the downed airship that Wisp was working on.
"You got it?!" Wisp squeaked when she saw that they had the reaction chamber with them, bouncing in place in excited glee.
"Right here," Sentinel said with a grin, handing off the reaction chamber to the excited griffin.
"Oh boy oh boy oh boy!" Wisp squeaked, hefting the heavy chamber in both of her paws and then beginning to drag it towards the airship.
"Is it what you needed?" Sentinel queried, looking up at the airship. "Wouldn't want the pipes bursting if you ovepressure them."
Wisp paused at that, looking back over her shoulder. "You know about airships?"
Sentinel nodded. "I'm an enthusiast. I noticed that that reaction chamber is about two sizes too big for this airship."
"I've got limiters!" Wisp squeaked happily, returning to dragging the large chamber into the ship. Even though Sentinel had hefted it with one hoof, it seemed too heavy for the diminutive griffin to carry herself for any long period of time.
The two pegasi followed after her, and Sentinel moved ahead to help the small griffin carry the reaction chamber into the airship.
Raindrop trailed after them awkwardly, not able to help, and having no clue how to lend a hand.
The three of them moved into the airship proper, and Wisp lead them straight to the engine room, where a large walled off area waited, with two pipes sitting there for the reaction chamber to fit into.
The griffin began happily setting up the reaction chamber, twisting threaded valves open and closed to fit it all in neatly.
"So, tell me about yourself, Wisp," Sentiel asked.
"I'm a griffin! And I love these old airships," Wisp enthused, as she neatly threaded one of the valves into place atop the reaction chamber.
Sentinel helped her lift the reaction chamber onto the pipe, and held it still while she began to thread it into place. "And what of your parents?"
The griffin didn't respond immediately, instead focusing on matching the threads and getting them nice and tight.
"I... I don't really have any parents. They abandoned me in the desert when they learned I wouldn't be able to fly," the little griffin said sadly.
Sentinel's ears splayed back, and he frowned deeply at that, dropping his grasp from the now-secure reaction chamber, and then slipped forward to hug around the little griffin.
Wisp blinked several times, the eye that was visible wide and confused. "W-what are you doing?"
"I'm hugging you," Sentinel stated. "You need a hug."
The young griffin blinked again, and then looked down at her paws, wrapping them hesitantly around what amount of the guard's chest that she could. "Oh... I-It's kinda nice."
"You've never been hugged?" Sentinel asked as he pulled back, expression aghast.
"Well...My uncle took me in after my parents decided I wasn't worth raising. And he kinda... He wasn't the hugging type," Wisp said, shifting uncomfortably, her own ears splayed backwards.
"Well geeze. How'd you end up out here?" Sentinel asked, frowning at her slightly. "Is your uncle around?"
Wisp shook her head gently. "He's a long way away. Where he belongs."
"Did he do something wrong?" Sentinel asked flatly.
"He was mean," Wisp said simply, turning back to the reaction chamber and then opening the steam valve, and then the water valve.
Water flooded the reaction chamber, and immediately, it began to boil, and then evaporate, sending steam shooting up into the next chamber, where pressure began to build. Crystal lights began to glow all around them, and the floor beneath them shifted in a very unsteady way that reminded Raindrop of a ship on the open ocean.
"It's working!" Wisp said with an eager bounce, quickly barrelling out the door and down a corridor.
The two pegasi jogged after her down the long corridor, only to find her in what had to be the control centre, looking at different steam gauges. She was tapping one, looking a little worried. "The rear bubble isn't filling properly... Can you two watch these while I check on it? Thanks!"
Before the two of them could even reply, the young griffin had popped open a window on the side of the airship and clambered out, climbing up the side of the ship, completely uncaring of how far it was to the ground. Already, the airship was beginning to right itself as the first two bubbles filled, a magical reaction inside them beginning to take place, reducing the weight of the contents until it was a negative amount, causing lift.
Wisp crawled nimbly up a set of ropes, and to the third bubble, quickly twisting the valve into a closed position and looking around the bubble carefully. She crawled up the outside of it with a surprisingly tenacious grip. She popped open a hatch on the very top of the bubble, and crawled inside, closing the hatch behind her and then swapping the eyepatch to her other eye. She looked about, and then set to work.
Sentinel and Raindrop watched the young griffin disappear outside, and then turned to look at the dials and controls, surmounted by the metres reading the steam pressure.
"Any idea what any of this means?" Raindrop asked.
"Not really," Sentinel admitted, frowning down at the gauges. "We were only taught how to recognize the reaction chamber, some basics on their function, and how best to blow them up."
"Well that's helpful," Raindrop said with a huff, sitting down and staring at the gauges. "I'm guessing if they hit red, we die?"
"Well, the pipes will explode at their weakest point, showering the area with shrapnel. If it's inside this room, we'd be hit with deadly shards of magically strengthened metal and likely broiled alive by the steam," Sentinel explained, pointing up at one of the pipes lining the ceiling.
"Lovely." Raindrop just shook her head.
Wisp returned a few minutes later, panting faintly as she slithered in through the window, wiping muck out of her feathers, squeaking, "I forgot how dirty these things got!"
The two pegasi looked at her, ears perked.
"Oh, it was nothing though!" The diminutive griffin said with a happy grin and bounce. "One of the steam lines was tangled, and when it got pressure, it sheared right through another two. I had to reconfigure the steam lines to bypass them until I can really get a good look at them. The third bubble will only run at seventy percent of potential, but that's well within parametres!"
The two pegasi stared at her. Raindrop turned to Sentinel. "Did you catch any of that?"
"Something about steam lines," Sentinel replied, bewildered.
"You two are so slow," Wisp said with a giggle, bouncing over to the control console, and hovering a paw over the controls. "Can I test it? Pleasepleaseplease?!"
Sentinel and Raindrop exchanged a look, before Sentinel took a step forwards, and nodded. "I guess it'll be fine."
"Yipee!" the griffin squealed, quickly flicking a series of eight switches, and then shifting a large lever down to engage the main engines. Somewhere deep in the airship, a large, steam-powered turbine began to spin.
A low rumbling built in the depths of the airship, until it began to vibrate the floor beneath them. And then, gloriously, the large ship lifted off the ground. An odd sensation of weightlessness was imparted to the occupants of the large ship as it lifted off from the ground, beginning to power forward.
"So where are you going to head?" Sentinel asked of the young griffin.
"I dunno!" Wisp said with a joyous bounce. "I'm just happy that I got this working!"
"You must have had a destination in mind," Sentinel said, raising an ear at her.
"I guess... I kinda just wanted to explore?" Wisp said with a happy shrug, checking her instruments.
Sentinel stepped up closer to the griffon. "Why don't you come back to Ponyville with us? We think you're... Well, to be perfectly honest. We think you're the bearer for the Element of Laughter."
"Element of Laughter?" Wisp asked, blinking and canting her head in confusion. "Wind, water, fire... They're elements. Laughter is just laughter!"
Sentinel shook his head for a moment, giving a laugh. "I guess you really don't know, do you?"
"Don't know about what?" Wisp asked, confused.
"About the Elements," Sentinel pointed out.
"I just told you about elements!" Wisp whined, pushing at him with a paw.
Sentinel laughed again. "Why don't you come back to Ponyville, and we'll see if you're one of them, okay?"
"Ooookay," Wisp conceded, spinning a small dial on the console and then throwing a lever. The entire airship began to turn. "But if you're thinking that laughter is an element, then you're pretty dumb."
"How long will this thing take to get to Ponyville?" Sentinel asked.
"Uhm... I don't know!" Wisp admitted, bouncing in place in annoyance. "I've got bearings for it but no distance."
"Oh well. Is there anywhere where Raindrop and I can rest?" Sentinel queried, looking back down the passage they had come from.
"Sure!" Wisp squeaked, bounding down one of the corridors, motioning for the two of them to follow.
Raindrop and Sentinel fell into step behind her, trailing after her to a large room with a pair of old, ragged beds in it.
"Thank you." Sentinel rubbed a hoof against the griffin's crest affectionately.
Raindrop yawned and stalked over to the bed, dropping down onto it. The blankets were moth-eaten and patchy, obviously old. But Raindrop didn't even care at that moment.
Sentinel made to move toward the unoccupied bed, and Raindrop raised a brow at him.
"If you intend on sleeping on that bed, then I'm going to be dragging you over here by that shortened tail," Raindrop stated calmly.
"Affection through threats of violence, huh?" Sentinel asked, an ear perking at her as he swapped direction to pull himself up onto the bed with her.
"Something like that," Raindrop stated, wrapping her hooves around him and pulling him close. "Plus, I'm lonely."
Sentinel nodded gently at that, and then nuzzled her once with his nose. Raindrop hummed happily, nuzzling him in return.
"Now lay down properly, pillow. I wish to sleep." Raindrop fluffed him gently with a hoof, like she would a pillow.
Sentinel chuckled faintly and the wormed into position beside her, pulling her against him properly and closing his eyes.
Raindrop woke up with a gasp in the middle of the night, holding a hoof against her chest, panting faintly, sweating. It was the nightmare again. Green flames, changelings, and Chrysalis. with a faint groan, she laid herself back down, closing her eyes to sleep again, trying to ignore the image of vivid green eyes.
"Uhm, uhm! You two!" a small voice squeaked near their ears. "Wakeupwakeupwakeup!"
There was a sense of urgency in the voice that got them both awake instantly.
"Something wrong?" Sentinel asked groggily.
Wisp whined softly, and then nodded vigorously, bolting to the hatch window on the side of the room, pointing with a paw. "Big big problem!"
Sentinel groaned faintly and crawled out of bed, pulling himself over to the window and peering out.
The ocean whipped by beneath them at an incredible speed. But more noteworthy was the building storm on the horizon.
"Can this thing weather a storm like that?" Sentinel asked, sounding worried.
"Storms are fine, look at them!" Wisp squeaked, pointing with a paw urgently.
It took Sentinel a long moment to recognize them, picking out the dark shapes against the backdrop of the darkening stormclouds.
A collection of maybe two dozen figures, flying in formation. Sentinel narrowed his eyes, squinting. "They're griffins..."
Wisp nodded urgently. "And they're going to catch up to us! I think they're going to attack us!"
"Let me guess. Monsters?" Raindrop asked, with a long-suffering sigh.
"Nope, griffins. Maybe two dozen." Sentinel pointed with a hoof out the window. "They'll be on us in about five, maybe ten minutes."
"Great. Once. Just once, I'd like to be able to do something for Celestia without the end result being massive injuries," Raindrop said with a shake of her head.
Sentinel turned to Wisp. "What are the weakest points on the ship, structurally? Where would they likely attack first?"
"There's heaps of them!" Wisp declared, looking out the window herself, ignoring the question.
"Yes, but where will they attack?" Sentinel asked, tapping the griffin to try and get her attention.
"Everywhere!" Wisp complained, bouncy in agitation. "They'll attack everywhere and ruin my beautiful new ship!"
"We can defend against them," Sentinel tried to assure the young griffin. "But I need to know where we need to defend."
"But... I... The reaction chamber, I guess. And the control room. So long as we keep both of those I guess they'd have to sever the lines connecting us to the balloons to bring us down... But even then, that would take a fair while," Wisp said, frowning thoughtfully. "And I'd be able to close the main valves, so long as they don't get at the reaction chamber itself and remove it."
"So they'll attack the reaction chamber and the control room first?" Sentinel asked, ears perking at her.
"Yup!" Wisp said confidently.
"Can't we just... Outrun them?" Raindrop asked wearily. "I really don't want to get pecked to pieces. It just seems really unnecessary."
"Do you think we can outrun them and get over the border to Equestria before they reach us?" Sentinel asked of the young griffin.
"I... Don't know how far Equestria is. If I push the engine any further, I'd be risking breaching the tubes, and then we'd be dead in the air," Wisp complained, bouncing again in annoyance.
Sentinel frowned a moment, and then looked at the young griffin seriously. "If you run the engine at full, we'll still retain our speed, right? Even if the pipes burst?"
"I... Guess so. But my airship will be ruined!" Wisp whined, pushing at him with her paws.
"I'll help you get another one," Sentinel promised. "But first, I need to know if you can overload the pipes deliberately, all at once."
Wisp's eyes went wide. "But that'd cause steam to vent into the interior of the airship!"
"Yes, but if you closed the valves leading into the control room, and then overloaded the piping from the control room itself..."
Wisp's eyes went even wider, and she began to bounce. "Yes yes yes! That'll work! That'll work!"
And with that, Wisp was off, bolting into the hallway and disappearing.
"Why do I get the feeling that something bad is going to happen?" Raindrop asked, her ears splaying back a little bit.
"Trust that feeling," Sentinel said, as he followed Wisp out into the corridor.
Everything was set.
Raindrop, Sentinel, and Wisp all sat in front of the consoles in the control room, waiting.
Several thuds echoed from overhead, and then came the screeching of claws on metal, as griffins began to grimly claw their way along to access hatches that lined the airship.
"This is going to end badly and we're all going to die horribly," Raindrop stated flatly.
"We'll be taking a lot of griffins with us," Sentinel reasoned with a wry grin.
Raindrop huffed a moment, and then turned sideways, pulling Sentinel around to face her, and then kissing him passionately, wrapping her hooves around him to stop him from getting away.
Sentinel allowed the kiss, giving a hum of pleased surprise.
Raindrop drew back from the kiss, and then glowered at him, and then stating darkly. "I swear, if we live through this, I am dragging you to the inn."
"If we live through this, I'll let you," Sentinel said grimly, casting a wary glance at the pipes overhead.
"You two are such a cute couple," Wisp said with a wry grin, looking back and forth between them, bouncing happily in place. "I mean, you totally have that tsundere thing going to a 't', and it's really, really cu-"
The young griffin was cut off by Raindrop's hoof over her beak. "Save it for when we survive. There's lots of angry griffins about to tear us to pieces."
Several more thumps echoed from above, and the first of the hatches lining the airship were thrown open. From their angle, the trio couldn't see the corridors, but it was assumed that griffins would be entering about now.
"Do we really have a tsundere thing going on?" Sentinel asked of Raindrop, raising an eyebrow.
"I... Guess? Raindrop answered conversationally. "I mean, I do tend to hit you a lot."
"But you haven't hit me in ages. I don't even think I have any bruises from the last time you hit me," Sentinel said, humming thoughtfully to himself.
"So... It's not tsundere then?" Raindrop gave an exasperated sound, shaking her head.
Sentinel nodded once, before quipping, "I don't think so. Not any more. It's more like you're just a dominatrix."
"I'm giving you a black eye if we get out of this," Raindrop stated flatly.
"Annnd back to tsundere," Sentinel teased, beaming.
"Can we focus?" Raindrop asked, and Wisp leaned past her to point.
"Look!" the young griffin pointed, to the corridors.
In front of the corridors, they had erected makeshift barricades, consisting of metal beams supporting the cut crystal doors that usually protected the main reaction chamber area. They were placed in such a way that getting a grip on them and pulling was out of the question, so the griffins would have to smash through them. A difficult prospect at best.
And a griffin was standing behind one of these barricades, watching them.
Wisp reached for a lever, but Sentinel stopped her with a hoof.
"Wait," Sentinel cautioned. "We want as many to be inside as possible before we throw the lever."
Wisp nodded tentatively, her ears pinning backwards. "I want to throw the lever though! I'm not letting anyone else kill my baby!"
Sentinel gave a soothing nod, "I'll let you throw the lever, promise."
A second griffin joined the first, and then a third, and fourth. And then they began to push on the crystal, using their considerable strength to try and force the barricade to cave in.
"Now?" Wisp asked urgently.
Sentinel paused a moment, letting the seconds tick by, before nodding grimly. "Throw the switch."
Raindrop and Sentinel both ducked and covered, and Wisp reached for the lever, gripping it tight and tugging it down, all the way. She grabbed a control panel connected to the console by a length of wires, and then threw herself between the two pegasi. Both Raindrop and Sentinel huddled close, protecting the griffin with their bodies.
Several things happened with the throwing of the lever. Firstly, the pressure building in the tank above the reaction chamber was released. The tank was built to handle stresses far higher than the pipes were, and with the released pressure, it sent a great amount of steam powering into the pipes.
Simultaneously, the limiters placed on the reaction chamber were opened fully, letting the too-large crystal burn to its full power. Almost instantly, the pressure became too much for the pipes. Steam just continued to explode through the open valves, deliberately over-stressing the system.
And then the breaches came. First in one spot, and then another, and another.
Great, loud bangs heralded the failing of the pipes. Screams of agony echoed from the corridors as shards of magically strengthened metal exploded into the corridors and rooms lining the airship, followed by waves of steam. After a few bangs, the corridors were completely filled with steam.
Wisp stared down at her control console, and the lights on it, before twisting dials, closing valves leading to broken pipes. It wasn't a measure designed to save the ship, it was a plan to cause more breaches by not allowing the steam pressure to diminish by escaping through the breaches.
More bangs echoed throughout the airship, and more steam was released. Wisp continued to fiddle with the dials, closing valve after valve, increasing the pressure as the overall amount of water, and steam, left in the system began to drop dangerously low.
The two pipes outside the control room burst with a surprisingly powerful pressure wave, cracking both of the crystal dividers, peppering their smooth surfaces with shrapnel and covering them in spider webs.
Wisp dropped the console then, covering her ears. "We're out of pressure! It's all gone!"
Underneath them, the main turbine was slowing, losing speed. The airship was suddenly an oversized glider with a buoyant set of balloons atop it.
And then, everything was quiet. Eerily quiet.
"Do you think we got them all?" Wisp asked, rubbing her forehead with a paw. It was getting hot inside the cabin.
"I hope so," Sentinel said grimly, climbing to his hooves. Raindrop followed him.
Past the cracked crystal dividers, the corridors were all wreathed in steam. "Closest hatch is just over there, right?"
Sentinel pointed with a hoof, raising a brow back at Wisp.
Wisp nodded in response. "They opened it already."
"Good, we're leaving. We need to get outside of this room. Hopefully we caused enough confusion, and that storm is coming up fast," Sentinel said, turning and then kicking the crystal divider with both hooves.
Normally, he wouldn't have been strong enough to even mar the surface of the crystal, but with it already under sever stress from the pipe explosion, it caved in easily, sending crystal shards clattering across the floor. Steam began to billow into the cabin. "Let's go!"
Sentinel, Raindrop, and Wisp all fled the cabin, and headed for the first hatch, finding it with blind groping and pulling themselves outside, getting in a good breath of fresh air after the clammy, swirling steam of the interior.
Raindrop was barely outside for a moment, with Wisp climbing up the side of the airship, and Sentinel below her, when she felt a hot rush across her cheek. Blood suddenly covered her eye, and she cried out in pain, a hoof lifting to her struck cheek.
A griffin war cry echoed, and a second attack came from the other side, slicing into her back, just above her folded wings. Raindrop roared in pain, feeling blood start to seep down over her wings.
Another war cry was called, but Raindrop was ready this time, flattening herself to the side of the airship. The whoosh of a talon passed close by, almost nicking her fur. The wind was too strong for Raindrop to open her wings, or she'd be plucked right off the side of the airship. It was howling, assaulting her form. Her eyes watered with the force of it. They were going fast.
There was a push at her rump as Sentinel urged her to move, and Raindrop began to climb upwards. She had to dodge again as another griffin tried to attack her.
And then, she was on the deck, pulling herself up onto stable ground.
She caught sight of Wisp, disappearing into what appeared to be a tiny cargo hold on the deck, so that she could hide. Raindrop didn't blame her one bit.
Several thuds were heard as three griffins landed on the deck, all of them moving to surround the pegasus.
"We're taking you back," one of the hissed.
"Don't like the desert, myself," Raindrop said conversationally, stepping backwards.
The three griffins followed after her, "You belong with us."
There was a screech as one of the griffins was dragged off the side of the airship and thrown into the howling winds below.
"She belongs with me!" Sentinel said, as he grimly crawled up onto the side of the airship, moving to stand beside Raindrop.
Raindrop gave Sentinel a wry smile. "That was kinda corny."
"Shut up, I'm being a hero!" Sentinel said urgently to her over the wind, shaking his head.
The two griffins snorted, stepping closer, one of them lifting a paw to swipe at Sentinel.
Sentinel burst forwards. One moment, he was standing beside Raindrop, the next, he was at the griffin's throat. his hoof hit the raised paw, blocking it, while his other hoof caught the griffin in the throat with a surprisingly strong blow. The griffin's beak gaped, and it gasped a moment, giving a breathy hiss of seeming surprise. Sentinel pushed it sideways with his forehooves, causing it to tumble off the side of the airship, caught in the howling wind.
Sentinel then turned to the griffin.
The griffin stared for a long moment, and then took a step backwards. It looked the guard up and down, and then snorted, before turning and launching itself off the side of the ship, wings spreading to catch the wind and carry it to safety.
"Wow, even griffins don't wanna mess with you," Raindrop said over the wind, sounding impressed.
Sentinel turned to look behind himself, his eyes widening.
"Jump," Sentinel squeaked.
"What?!" Raindrop called over the wind.
"Jump!" Sentinel reiterated, louder and more urgently.
Raindrop twisted to look over her shoulder, and her eyes widened as well. The side of a mountain was rushing at them with stunning speed. Turning back to face the front, Raindrop danced across the deck of the airship, reached into where Wisp was hiding, and tugged her out bodily, tossing her over the side of the ship without explanation.
And then both pegasi leaped off after her.
Their wings spread, catching the air. Raindrop snarled at the strain it put on the cut on her back that she had completely forgotten about until that moment. Both pegasi went into a steep dive, catching Wisp as she was tumbling, one hoof each on her coat, supporting her weight between them.
They backwinged to a gentle landing on a mountainside as the airship smashed into the side of the mountain not too far away. The entire front half of it just crumpled under the impact, compressing like an accordion, before it began to slowly fall and tumble its way down the mountainside.
"That can still be salvaged," Sentinel said reasonably, watching it fall.
Wisp gave a nod, "As long as the reaction chamber wasn't breached or the crystal wasn't damaged."
All three of them ducked, wincing, as a massive explosion ripped through the centre of the airship, lighting up the night sky with a ferociously intense fireball. They even felt the heat where they sat, hundreds of metres away.
"I guess the crystal was ruptured..." Sentinel said softly, shaking his head. He turned to Wisp, who was watching the burning fireball with wide eyes. "I'm sorry about your airship, Wisp."
Wisp blinked once, and then turned to look at him, her expression blank. "Are you freaking kidding me?! That was the coolest thing I ever saw! It exploded! And it was so big! And I felt it from here! Oh please can we do it again?!"
Wisp bounced in place, pointing excitedly towards the rising fireball. Sentinel chuckled, and Raindrop joined in with a giggle of her own, wiping the blood from her eye.
It was perhaps because they were so focused on the explosion that the three of them forgot that they were being pursued by the griffins. Or perhaps they thought they would safe on Equestrian soil?
The last thing Raindrop saw before being knocked unconscious was Wisp pausing mid-bounce, staring somewhere behind behind the mare.
Raindrop groaned, stirring faintly. The first thing she noticed was that her hooves were bound in place.
Blinking her good eye open, the other being encrusted with blood, she cast her gaze around. She could see the form of Sentinel next to her, and Wisp further out. Both of them seemed to be unconscious.
"Oh, I see you're awake," a familiar voice said, a low laugh tinging it.
Raindrop raised her head and peered with one eye at Discord, blinking slowly, trying to process what was going on. He was surrounded by a small group of diamond dogs, griffins, and even a dark guard.
"It was very nimble of you to escape my assassin here. He's never failed, you know," Discord said conversationally, looking Raindrop up and down. "I had intended to just be rid of you, and those nuisance Elements of Harmony. They're about the only thing that can stop me, now."
Raindrop worked her mouth for a moment, swallowing thickly and trying to lift her head properly.
"You're probably wondering why you're not dead yet. Well, I figured I'd give you a choice to join your true family. If you choose to turn your back on your family, you will be killed," Discord said calmly.
Raindrop muttered something, blinking slowly.
"Speak up, child," Discord stated flatly.
"I said 'I'll never join you, Discord'," Raindrop said louder, her head lolling slightly as she tried to shake the drowziness from her form.
"Ohohoho... You still haven't figured it out yet, have you?" Discord asked, standing up and beginning to pace back and forth. "I must say, I found it hard to fathom why Chrysalis chose to reveal herself to the ponies at large. But now that I am in the same position, I will admit that there is a certain excited smugness I feel in knowing that I can reveal myself completely. So long have I hid in the shadows. Waiting. Watching. Biding my time."
"Celestia already knows you're free," Raindrop said, with as much smugness as she could.
"Ohohohoho. I think Celestia suspects the truth, but has no evidence," Discord said calmly, before making a motion towards the corner of the room.
Raindrop followed the motion, blinking a few times with her good eye. A statue stood there, looking scared and out of place.
It was Discord.
Raindrop turned back the Discord in front of her, frowning, not quite comprehending.
Discord made a motion with a paw, and the griffins, the diamond dogs, and even the dark guard assassin all changed in front of her eyes.
The faux-Discord leaned close, and his eyes flashed demonic green. A toothy grin stretched his muzzle as his form twisted and changed. Suddenly, it was no longer Discord.
The dark queen lifted her head, giving a fanged grin.
Raindrop stared up at her, stunned. Speechless.
The dark queen waved a hoof at her changed subjects. Her 'Children'
"My name is Chitin. And I am the Queen of the Changelings."
Raindrop could only stare, mouth slightly parted, speechless. Changelings. At least a half dozen. And the Queen of Changelings herself. Right in front of her. And this wasn't a dream.
"I do so love that look of utter stupefaction upon your muzzle," Queen Chitin said smugly, watching her. "Now, do you intend to join us, or are we going to kill you?"
"B-but... H-how?" Raindrop asked weakly, bewildered. None of it added up. Some things made sense, surely. Discord using subterfuge. The diamond dogs behaving as they did. The griffins. But Sentinel was trained to sense changelings, and he had sensed it in Raindrop immediately. How could he have failed to sense it in these changelings?
Chitin gave a soft 'psh' noise, and leaned down to put her nose next to Raindrop's. "Are you expecting me to ramble on about my conquests? Are you expecting a glorious exposition where I reveal my plans for world domination and my entire life history to you?"
"It would be nice," Raindrop admitted weakly, blinking her good eye repeatedly.
"I'm afraid that real life does not quite work the same way as a fairy tale," Chitin chided, turning away.
"You know you want to," Raindrop cajoled. "It'll feel good to tell someone. I bet nopony has heard your story..."
Chitin growled low in the back of her throat. "Why do I feel as though I am being manipulated? Very well."
Chitin turned around to face Raindrop again, sitting down on her haunches, her delicate wings giving a little flutter.
"When the love bomb from Cadance and Shining Armor hit us, we were scattered. But moreover, we were damaged. The intrinsic bond we share as changelings was severed. Perhaps you have felt it yourself? The little tug you feel when another changeling in close... Either way, that bond was no longer permeable to changelings. We were forced to find each other through subterfuge rather than our link. I believe that a large amount of changelings took shelter in the Everfree forest, along with Chrysalis, while many more of us were blasted in the other direction.
"Those of us that managed to survive the horrific magical injuries inflicted upon our forms, wished to rally again with Chrysalis, and resume our plans of dominion. One changeling, I believe he was nicknamed 'Messenger' by Chrysalis herself, found the group of changelings I had saved and rounded up. I gave them the love I stole from different targets, to keep them alive. But when I came across Chrysalis, she seemed... Different. She had changed. I convinced Messenger and the other changelings to not speak of our existence. I was convinced that Chrysalis was unfit to lead us, and installed myself as queen of my own brood.
"And then Chrysalis murdered her brood. She did not condemn to death, she destroyed them, with her own magic." Chitin paused then, scowling deeply, giving an agitated twitch. "And so I lead my changelings in secret. That is my story, and that is your glorious exposition."
Raindrop stared at her for a long moment, her good eye lowering. "...I'm sorry that you had to go through that."
"Do not pity me, whelp!" Chitin snarled, lifting a hoof as though to strike her. Raindrop winced and tried to brace herself against the coming blow.
The blow never landed, the queen instead beginning to pace back and forth. "I have made the changelings greater than they ever were. I have lifted them higher than they have ever gotten."
"But why?" Raindrop asked, still confused. "And how have you avoided detection?"
"I will not answer your first question. A gazelle does not presume to ask a lion why it must eat. But how did we avoid detection?" Chitin gave a soft, mirthful laugh. "Princess Celestia is not quite as adroit as she tries to appear. I unraveled the mysteries of the Elements of Harmony, and we used them to shield ourselves from her guard's senses. Why, I was on the stage beside this young guard here, and he didn't even sense that I was not truly Discord. It was the first real success my kind has seen from this shielding magic."
"And... What of Spike?" Raindrop asked uncertainly. "What did you do to him?"
"The dragon?" A low, mirthful laugh rumbling from Chitin's throat. "I have done naught to the dragon. He divined my purpose the first time I approached him. He knew I was a changeling. But rather than be distrustful, he sought from us a service. I have feasted on his love for a long, long time. It is quite delicious. And being a dragon, it has done naught but stunt his growth."
Raindrop shook her head slowly, trying to clear her head. "But why me? Why attack me? I have enough problems without having to deal with this."
"Because, Raindrop. You are a threat. Your powers and abilities are unknown. And already, your mind has tried to join with the collective. You would have discovered us sooner or later," Chitin stared into her eyes, watching her closely.
Raindrop felt it. Felt the minds of the changelings. Now that she knew what she looking for, it was obvious. It was like when one's eyes adjusted to darkness and shapes just suddenly appeared in the darkness. Her eyes were opened.
"Now, are your questions answered?" Chitin asked with a simpering smile.
"So many more questions..." Raindrop murmured, shaking her head slowly.
"I'm afraid they will have to wait. Actually, no they will not. You're going to die very soon, Raindrop. And then your questions can be answered past the gate of tartarus," Chitin corrected herself, an eerie smile on her muzzle.
"Heard all of that?" Raindrop asked of Sentinel as they were ushered along by a trio of changelings, towards the mouth of the cave.
"I did," Sentinel murmured back.
Their hooves were still bound, and so walking was difficult. They were forced to take tiny, quick steps. Running was out of the question. Wisp trailed between them, her own paws bound.
"How many do you think there are?" Raindrop asked urgently.
"Does it even matter?" Sentinel asked, his tone strange. "We can't sense them... There could be hundreds, and we're going to die."
"Sure looks that way," Raindrop said with a sour note in her tone.
Sunlight assaulted their eyes, and the trio were lead towards a clearing, where they were evidently going to be killed.
One of the guards produced a dagger, looking at the three of them, trying to decide which to finish first.
Raindrop turned to look at Sentinel, and then said, with a heavy sigh, "...I love you."
"Really?" Sentinel asked, perking his ears upwards.
"Nah, not really," Raindrop admitted, shaking her head. "I mean, sure, I like you and all, and I'd totally let you have your way with me if it came down to it. But the 'L' word is a pretty strong thing."
"I admit, it would have been fun," Sentinel said with a nod, watching the dagger being swapped from hoof to hoof. "But sweet Celestia, lady, if I married you, your in-laws suck."
"I'm not very fond of them myself," Raindrop admitted, pursing her lips.
The changeling moved over closer to them, his eyes narrowing as he lifted the dagger above Sentinel's form.
"I'm sorry I never dragged you into bed and let you have your way with me..." Raindrop whispered to Sentinel, her eyes sad.
Sentinel nodded mutely.
There was a clatter, and suddenly, the changeling wasn't there anymore.
A small boulder caught the changeling in the face with a surprisingly powerful blow, knocking him sideways and sending the dagger clattering away across the ground. It had come seemingly from nowhere, with no warning other than the sound of it bouncing against the ground.
"Duck and cover!" Wisp squeaked, covering her ears and face with her bound paws.
Sentinel and Raindrop had barely enough time to cover their ears and faces before a massively powerful bang and flash of light happened before them. Sentinel was closest to it, and wore the blow the worst. The pressure wave alone gave him a black eye and stunned him, rocking him back on his haunches and deafening him for several long seconds.
The changelings were likewise affected.
Raindrop was already in motion, twisting her hooves. Her eyes flashed green, and her muscles rippled, and suddenly, her bonds snapped under her newfound strength. The pegasus dove forwards, smashing her hooves down on top of the two stunned guards, smashing their heads into the ground with her new augmented strength, and then turning to smash the already-injured changeling across the brow with her hoof, sending him reeling.
Wisp had already moved closer to Sentinel, and was working on undoing his bindings with her little claws, scything through them with surprisingly sharp talons. Raindrop moved over to Wisp, and literally tore her ropes off, snapping them with her hooves. Raindrop and Wisp then began to lead the barely responsive Sentinel away from the clearing and into the trees.
Raindrop thought they were in the Everfree forest, but she couldn't be sure. She just began to urge Wisp to help her push Sentinel to the north, away from the cave where Chitin was.
Raindrop was fading fast. It had started with the hunger pangs, and then the weakness. And now, the mind-numbingly intense sensation of having run a marathon. All her muscles felt like jello and she was barely able to walk.
Thankfully, Sentinel had managed to regain his senses and was walking under his own power. He seemed to be slightly stunned still though, and was having trouble hearing.
"What the hell was that?" Sentinel asked, a groan present in his tone. A brilliant black eye was building around his right eye socket.
"Darkclaw deterrent," Wisp said proudly. "I always carry one or two on me. Or well, I used to. I found a stash of those tiny reaction chambers in a hidden compartment on my airship. Someone musta been hoarding them. But anyhow, I figured out how to make them overload with a reverse-feedback loop. Takes a few seconds, but they explode so bright and loud that it just stuns you. Aren't they awesome?!"
"And the boulder?" Raindrop queried tiredly, limping along behind the guard and the griffon.
"I dunno what happened there... It just came out of nowhere. Extreme luck?" Wisp offered helplessly.
Raindrop snorted at that. "No such thing as luck."
"I'm actually going to agree there," Sentinel stated, lifting a hoof to rub tentatively at his cheek. "And geeze, that deterrent really works. Gave me a shiner."
"Sor-ree," Wisp sing-songed, happily tossing her scarf over her shoulder to get it away from her forepaws. "I kinda hid it in my beak and spat it on to the ground. Didn't spit it far enough."
"You put a makeshift explosive device in your beak?" Sentinel asked, seeming impressed.
Wisp gave a sage nod, grinning.
"You crazy," Sentinel pointed out, ruffling her crest affectionately.
"And proud of it!" Wisp squeaked, grinning up at the guard.
"I need to rest," Raindrop groaned, pulling herself to a conveniently chest-high rock and just splaying herself atop it tiredly.
Sentinel moved over to sit beside her, gently pulling her up against him, touching at her sides gently. "Do you feel okay?"
"Change magic. Weak." Raindrop gave a faint shudder, limp in Sentinel's hooves.
Sentinel nodded and held the pegasus close, gently, soothingly stroking a hoof down her wing slowly. "Did you really mean what you said?"
Raindrop looked up at him, giving a mute nod, and then resting her head against his shoulder, murmuring, "I'd totally let you do me."
"It means so much to me that you'd say that," Sentinel said with a wry smile, licking her cheek once.
"You two have no chance of ever being normal," Wisp said with a shake of her head.
As it turned out, Ponyville wasn't far away at all.
Raindrop barely heard Sentinel when he told her that they were close to Ponyville, and by the time they reached the town, she was unresponsive.
Raindrop's vision was blurry when she opened her eyes. It was a ceiling she remembered though, even blurry as it was. The hospital.
"-managed to fight off two dozen changeling griffons, crashed an airship into the side of a mountain resulting in that explosion you all saw, and then managed to get a 'darkclaw deterrent' go off in my face," Sentinel was saying to a nurse, who was carefully inspecting his brand new black eye.
"Slow day, huh?" the nurse asked, as she began to apply ointment to his eye.
Sentinel gave a snort of laughter, which morphed into a wince and whine at the sensation of pressure on his swollen eye.
"Oh shush, big baby," the nurse said with a shake of her head, applying more ointment. "So... Did you screw her yet?"
Sentinel spluttered at the matter-of-fact way the nurse asked. "Well, no!"
"Shame. She wants you," the nurse said with a half-shrug.
"She keeps saying that, but I think she's being utterly sarcastic," Sentinel said with a gentle nod.
The nurse chortled a moment, shaking her head. "I know her type. She uses sarcasm to proffer her advances so she can hide behind the sarcasm if she's turned down."
"And if you're wrong?" Sentinel asked flatly.
"Then you'll be the one getting injured, not me," the nurse said with a soft, evil laugh. "Celestia knows I could use some entertainment."
"Talks of creepy violent voyeurism aside, what's my eye look like?" Sentinel queried. "And is Wisp okay?"
"Your swelling is going down," the nurse said with a gentle nod, inspecting his eye closely, "And after what happened out there in the Everfree, Celestia has taken Wisp under her wing, so to speak. Wisp was escorted to the castle by a fully armed contingent of royal guards."
"Good," Sentinel nodded, and then lifted a hoof to touch at his eye.
Raindrop groaned and stirred properly, rolling over onto her side.
"Hungry," the pegasus groaned weakly.
A moment later, Sentinel was offering her a banana, having peeled it for her.
Raindrop groaned faintly again, and then shook her head. "Of all the shapes of fruit you could possibly get. Pervert."
Sentinel rolled his eyes, but Raindrop barely noticed. She basically inhaled the banana, downing it in three neat bites. She even eyed the skin of it as though it might be edible.
next up was a mango, which Sentinel skinned neatly and then offered to her. Raindrop devoured the mango down, reducing it to a seed in record time. Grapes were next, and then apples. And then finally, the pegasus was sated.
"Sleepy," Raindrop whined, laying her head down and closing her eyes. In seconds, she was snoring.
"A very proper lady," the nurse said, blinking once.
Sentinel gave a faint laugh, wiping at the corner of Raindrop's mouth with a towel. "She used her changeling powers. Last time she tried, it almost killed her. I think ravenous hunger and sleepiness are quite adequate."
The nurse gave a nod, and then waved a hoof. "Well, there's a bed in the next room over set out for you. I'd like to monitor you in case you suffered any more serious head trauma from that 'deterrent'."
"Are you kidding me?" Sentinel asked with a shake of his head, crawling up onto the bed with Raindrop and stretching out besides her, laying a hoof over her gently. "If Raindrop found out I was sleeping in another bed she'd kill me."
The nurse just shook her head, pulling the door closed behind her as she left, with a parting comment of, "Grow some balls and screw her."
Raindrop stirred weakly, giving a low moan and arching faintly. The warm weight of Sentinel was pressed close against her back, spooning with her.
"You're learning," Raindrop said with a weak smile, not bothering to open her eyes.
"I have a persistent teacher," Sentinel said with a slight grin.
"Back in the hospital again," Raindrop murmured.
Sentinel nodded against the back of her neck, "It's almost like a second home."
"Even the nurse is telling you to man up and screw me," Raindrop said with a weak nudge of her shoulders back against him.
"I know, right? It's really creepy." Sentinel gave a faint shudder, and licked the back of one of Raindrop's ears affectionately.
"And if I told you the same thing?" Raindrop queried.
Sentinel pondered on that for a moment, "I would attribute it to you being in the grips of post-change-magic euphoria."
"I want to be euphoric for something other than being alive," Raindrop said flatly.
The guard nudged her once with his nose, and Raindrop rolled over to face him, eyes blinking open, staring into his own.
"I can think of over a dozen reasons to have sex and 'we just faced down two dozen griffon changelings, blew up an airship and narrowly escaped execution' beats them all." Raindrop nodded to affirm her point, nudging his nose once with her own. "And star above, I am so sick of hinting. You don't understand anything more subtle than a brick to the face."
"My duty as a guard, really," Sentinel teased, grinning and leaning in to kiss her nose. "I still don't think the time is right."
Raindrop stared at him for a long, long moment, and then sniffed once, "'Dont' think the time is right'? What the hell was that? Are you trying to be a female? I swear to Celestia, if you deny me again, I'm going to ensure you stay in this hospital bed for at least a week."
"Is that a promise?" Sentinel teased, pulling the pegasus closer to himself, and kissing her gently. "I think it'd be quite fun if you were here with me."
Raindrop growled at him, and then returned the kiss with a fiery passion, her eyes narrowing. As she pulled back, she stated, "Me. You. Now."
"And how exactly do you want me?" Sentinel asked with a sly grin, nudging his nose against Raindrop's own gently.
"In me!" Raindrop hissed in return, pressing herself close to him and grinding her form up against his own, quite deliberately pressing their hips together.
"I get the feeling we should both sign waivers excusing the other for blame of injury or depression when we wake up next to eachother tomorrow morning," Sentinel said with a sage nod.
"Sentinel, if you don't stuff your hoof between my legs and kiss me in the next five seconds, I'm going to tie you to the bed with medical tubin-" Raindrop was cut off as Sentinel leaned in and kissed her fully, and she gave an eager sound into the kiss. A hoof pressed down past her stomach and slithered between her legs, pressing against the heated area between them.
"Yessss..." Raindrop groaned, her ears splaying back as she began to grind herself heatedly into the rubbing of the hoof, trying to get extra stimulation. Her own hooves descended down Sentinel's form, one of them pressing between his legs, finding his thick sheath and squeezing it suddenly.
The stallion stiffened against her and gasped faintly, and Raindrop grinned, kissing him all the more eagerly.
"Show me what I got to work with," Raindrop murmured heatedly into the kiss, beginning to knead her hooves against him all the more eagerly, trying to coax out the flesh she knew was hiding there.
Almost immediately, a thick swelling began to take place under Raindrop's working hooves, and she ground her hips into the hoof between her own legs all the more eagerly, feeling slick moistness building against the surfaces rubbing against her.
"I swear, I'm going to rape you if you attempt to stop this," Raindrop growled, rolling over atop him and pinning him on his back beneath her. She glanced down to find the swelling length of his cock with her gaze, an eager rumble building in her throat.
Sentinel looked up at her hesitantly, ears perking slightly as he watched her.
Raindrop gave a lusty growl in the back of her throat, and immediately sank down his form, eagerly licking a trail down his chest towards his stomach, soft pink tongue trailing through his fur. Sentinel squirmed slightly, watching with wide eyes. She paused as her chin bumped against the growing length of eager pony flesh, and then she looked up at him, narrowing her eyes lustfully.
Sentinel swallowed hard, and then stared, form quivering slightly as Raindrop immediately tilted her head and opened her mouth, capturing the tip of his growing member and closing her lips over it, suckling firmly. Her tongue brushed and swirled over the tip of it again and again, circling over the swelling tip.
The guard arched under the suckling and the friction of her soft tongue against the sensitive flesh of his cock, his ears pinning back and muzzle parting in a low groan.
"Oh shush!" Raindrop hissed as she pulled off of his member, shaking her head with a huff. "Anyone would think you were a virgin!"
Sentinel flushed at that, and Raindrop stared up at him for a long moment, slowly shaking her head, a soft laugh beginning to rumble from her throat.
"You are a virgin, aren't you?" she teased, looking up at him, leaning in to give the now-stiff tip of his maleness an eager lick.
Sentinel didn't respond, but the look in his eyes told her her answer.
"Fine, but be quiet, sick people are sleeping," Raindrop whispered huskily, quickly turning herself around on the bed, moving to stand over Sentinel's face, hindlegs on either side of his neck.
For the first time, Sentinel got a view under her tail. Her sex was covered in soft blue fur, with the faintest hints of pink inside the outer lips, with a small 'blush' visible from the mares arousal.
Wasting no time, Sentinel threw his hooves up over Raindrop's back, and pulled her rump down to greet his muzzle, eagerly working his tongue up against her. The hot taste and scent of an aroused female pegasus flooded his senses as Raindrop cooed and rolled her hips eagerly, grinding herself towards the delicate touch of his tongue against such an intimate place.
With a low growl, Raindrop leaned forwards and engulfed the tip of the stallions cock again, shoving her maw down it until the bulbous tip was stretching her jaws as wide as they could go. She almost gagged on it. He was so much bigger than Shine.
Raindrop groaned around the tip of Sentinel's stiffened member, stroking her hooves down the length of it and lapping furiously over the tip, tasting hot, musky dripples of the stallion's precum drooling across her tongue. It was such a primal, exciting taste to her. It just made her work him all the harder.
A soft groan left the stallion, and his hips bucked slightly, his hot exhalations brushing across the moist outer lips of her sex as he distractedly tongued at her, driving her need upwards but bringing her no closer to release with his clumsy mouth work.
"Oh you had better be a better screw than you are when you go down on somepony," she breathed against his member, giving the tip another firm lick and then crawling off of him, panting faintly.
"I'm new at this!" Sentinel protested.
"Off the bed!" Raindrop demanded.
Sentinel obeyed without question, slipping off the bed and standing there, watching her, tail giving a slow, eager flick.
Raindrop rumbled in the back of her throat, and then threw her forehooves over the bed, arching her back and lifting her tail upwards, swishing it to the side, presenting to him. She spread her stance, and then looked over her shoulder, narrowing her eyes seductively at Sentinel. "Fuck me."
Sentinel swallowed hard, staring, his eyes wide, his wings stiffened and standing straight up, just like the length of flesh between his legs.
"Do you want a clearer invitation?!" Raindrop growl, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
Sentinel swallowed once, and then pounced on her, finding her eager sex with the stiffened tip of his cock with a surprisingly accurate thrust of his hips, shoving deep inside her without warning.
Raindrop's eyes widened, and she hiccuped faintly, going rigid, a low groan spilling from quivering lips at just how much he filled her. Definitely bigger than Shine. A lot bigger.
"O-Oh sweet stars above... Y-you're huge!" Raindrop protested, her upper body sagging onto the bed and her legs quivering weakly, a slick dribble of her liquids spilling down to the floor below.
Sentinel gave a heated exhale against the side of her neck, gripping around her middle and heaving his hips against her on reflex, sinking himself even deeper into her, making the mare shudder and collapse onto the bed, stuffing her hooves into her maw to stifle the squeal that left her as her depths squeezed around him tightly, cinching down tight and rippling around him.
The guard groaned faintly into her mane, burying his face in against her neck and beginning to slowly work his hips, sliding the long length pony flesh from inside her, and then driving it deep inside.
Raindrop's mouth opened in a heated display of delight, her eyes clenching closed and hips beginning to push back at him. her hooves tightened on the bed, and she shuddered, gasping as she shakily whispered, "F-fuck me hard! Don't hold back! Fuck me like a stallion, not some young colt!"
Sentinel growled faintly at the jibe, his eyes narrowing down at the mare, gripping around her all the tighter and beginning to shove himself into her over and over again, deliberately crushing his hips against her own with each thrust, rocking her entire form and making the bed squeak just faintly.
"H-harder!" Raindrop demanded, pushing her hips back against him insistently, grinding her rump back and forth to entice him to take her harder.
A low hiss left the guard as he shifted his stance and began to shove himself into the mare as hard and as fast as he could, biting down on her mane in reflex, his brows furrowing as he tried his best to hold back. He didn't want to just finish inside her without her permission, but it was quickly growing out of hoof. He wouldn't have a choice in the matter in a few seconds.
Raindrop cried out, stifling her sounds into the mattress as she arched and quivered in delight, a slick dribble of her moisture spilling from her sex as Sentinel took her so hard, her insides cinching down on him again, clenching and rippling rapidly, milking him with the maddening friction of soft, moist squeezing flesh.
Sentinel tried to hold back, but it was already too late for him, as his motions got jerky and his hips shoved up against her. The thick flare of his cock deep inside her set Raindrop off again, and she groaned weakly, trying to push back at him as sudden repeated bursts of pegasus spunk began to splatter and spurt across her deepest barrier. It dashed up against her inner walls, coating them in the sticky white substance, beginning to dribble and spurt in fitful bursts from around the embedded cock, drooling to the floor with wet splats.
Raindrop arched and shuddered, quivering in delight and then slowly slumping, supporting entirely by Sentinel's hooves, cock, and her upper body on the bed. She went completely limp, giving an incoherent groan, her eyes unfocused and distant, fucked senseless.
Sentinel drew back slowly, gasping and wincing as his flare was pulled from inside her depths, their muscles squeezing at him, unwilling to relinquish their prize. The male could only stare, watching with fascination as a slow trickle of his white mess mixed with Raindrop's own liquid drooled from the sated mares well-used cunt, dripping to the floor.
The guard caught Raindrop before she fell into the puddle of their mixed liquids, and then tugged her up onto the bed, rolling them both into a more comfortable position, holding her closer and licking her forehead.
Raindrop gave a low moan as she awoke, pleasantly sore from what had transpired from the night before.
Sentinel yawned softly, stretching and arching, and then licking the back of one of her ears gently. "Morning."
"Morning," Raindrop murmured faintly. "You have no idea how much I needed that."
Sentinel gave a faint laugh, nuzzling through her mane gently. "Any time, I can help..."
Raindrop gave a soft nod. "I figured. So, how's it feel to be a stallion?"
Sentinel chortled and nosed at the back of her neck gently, "I dunno, ask me in a few years?"
"Foal," Raindrop teased, rolling over to face him, and then wrapping her hooves around his neck, pulling him close to kiss him eagerly. "Last night was not a one-night-stand. So if I find you eyeing other mares, I'm going to use the feathers of your wings to make a nice new headress, understood?"
Sentinel nodded gently, kissing her in return. "Yes Ma'am."
The door to their room opened, and the nurse paused, looking at them, making a 'daaaaw' sound and smiling. And then her gaze fell on the floor beneath the bed.
"Oh Lordy!" she squealed, turning around instantly and walking back out of the door.
Sentinel and Raindrop exchanged a glance, trying to contain their laughter.
The nurse returned not two minutes later, holding a bottle in her mouth and dragging a mop and bucket in her hoof. She stalked over to the bed and offered Raindrop the bottle of pills. Morning-after pills.
The nurse then turned to Sentinel, eyes narrowing. She pushed the broomstick handle towards him.
"There is no way I am cleaning that up," the nurse said with a shake of her head, turning around and stalking out of the room.
Sentinel looked at Raindrop, stifling a laugh. Raindrop just shrugged and smiled at him, popping one of the pills into her mouth and swallowing it, watching him all the while.