The Steam Age

“Twilight! Wake up!” Rarity shook her violently, fear spread on her face, she stopped when she saw Twilight’s eyes open and made an attempt to collect herself.

“Sorry, it’s just that, you are here now, after three years, and you were shaking and screaming, I thought you were having a seizure…”She sobbed, tears dripping down onto her uniform. Twilight wiped off the tears and helped her off the floor.

“No, I’m sorry I didn’t come back sooner. We better clean up my bed and go, Commander Sky told me we were going to see Rainbow Dash today.” Rarity jumped up and fixed the bed with her magic.

“We must hurry then! Rainbow Dash hates it when ponies are late!” She grabbed Twilight with her magic and raced toward the dining quarters. When they reached the dining quarters, Rarity grabbed two cups of coffee and some muffins and dragged all of that plus Twilight to the Dressing Hall. When they reached it, Rarity rushed her breakfast down and urged Twilight to do the same.

“If we don’t hurry and find you a good outfit to wear, oh, the chaos.”Rarity said while pulling out racks of clothes and tossing them onto her.

“Rarity, calm down, I don’t think Dash is going to flip over an outfit.” Twilight reassured, tossing off a way too poofy dress off of her. She quickly grimaced at it and turned back to Rarity.

“Oh, no no no! She is very picky when it comes to detail. Now dress up in this and let’s go to the bow.” Rarity then threw her a simple outfit which Twilight put on and they galloped (carefully as so not to get sweaty or ruin the dresses of course) to the bow. When they reached it, Twilight was happy to see that the Commander was there along with some other  ponies.

“Do you see it? She’s right over there, glinting in the morning sun.” Sky whispered pointing with a hoof towards what Twilight believed was the Airship Sunset. Then she heard a collection of gasps as ponies turned to look at her.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle!” a pony shouted and pointed at her, soon everypony was looking at her in awe. They crowded around her, muttering the strangest things that Twilight couldn’t hear.

“All right ponies! Give the girl some room the breathe!” Electric Sky yelled, walking in front of her and opening her wings wide open as to guard Twilight. The ponies backed off and after some time of the commander staring at them, going back to work. Rarity stared in awe.

“Wow, you are so brave!” Rarity gushed at Sky, who ignored the comment. She was looking on the horizon, until she ran up to the glass and shouted,

“The enemy is nearby! Hard to port!” She shouted, turning to the captain, a gruff stallion with a scratch over his eye. He spun the wheel and they did a steep turn. Twilight slid across the ground, wings wide open flapping madly.

“Get the guns ready!” Sky yelled again, standing firm, oblivious to a flailing Twilight flying all over the room. Rarity grabbed her with her magic and set her down.

“Thank you.” Twilight said and brushed herself off. Sky ran over to her, tossing her an aviator jacket.

“You might want to join me for this part.” Sky grinned, but Rarity intercepted her and replied sternly,

“No! You’ll risk putting her in danger and ruining her outfit.” She said, pointing to Twilight’s already ruined outfit that consisted of a large hat, a skirt, and a lace shirt, all of which were already ruined thanks to her flailing. Rarity then noticed this and grimaced.

“You can take her along, just make sure she doesn’t get killed.” She said as she pulled the outfit off of Twilight. Sky grinned again and gave her the jacket and a pair of goggles.

“Alright, now lets go shoot some Darkhorse flank!” Sky yelled, and called towards a group of unicorns huddleing around a table nearby.

“Alright, you know your stations! Go and Get Some!” She yelled and they all galloped to a door, leading outside. Twilight reluctantly followed, trying to put on her jacket, but kept getting tangled, Rarity quickly fixed it for her and left. Sky then turned back to her and briefly explained to her.

“Ok, we are going to use a special spell I made to keep the enemy away from us long enough to make a getaway, when you get outside, climb the ladder to the top, and enter the same pod as me, I’ll explain further when-” The ship groaned and did another sharp turn.

“I’m wasting time, see you in the pod!” Sky yelled as she exited the ship and disappeared from Twilight’s view. She took a deep breath and walked out the door, and a dark shadow whipped right past her, striking her muzzle. She jumped back, but quickly started climbing the ladder as soon as it left her. After several minutes of climbing, she reached the top and saw little pods dotting the top of the ship. In each of the pods were two unicorns, shooting the black shadows above them, which were screeching.  She then spotted Electric Sky on her own, fighting off five of the shadows, but Twilight knew she would be needing help very soon. Twilight ran against the wind, dodging all the shadows and spell being fired. When she reached the pod she jumped into it and fired off a powerful fire spell.

“Thanks, I needed that.” Sky gasped, looking slightly exhausted.

“Now to explain, You aim a special spell at them, I call it a HARP spell. Now make sure you aim right at the tip of the thing, got it ?” Sky explained, and handed her a scroll, which Twilight quickly read and nodded.

“Here come some more!” A unicorn yelled over the wind and shot at one, and soon all the ponies were firing spells at the shadows. Twilight managed to hit a few while, Sky kept firing and almost always managed to hit them. Finally, after several minutes, or possibly hours, all of the shadows were long gone. But nopony stopped to celebrated but instead kept watching the horizon. Nopony spoke, only watched the area around them for any remainders of the enemy.

“We’re good!” Sky yelled to the rest and started to exit the pod. Twilight unsteadily walked out, her legs shaking badly.

“Woah there! We’ll get you something to eat once we get down.” Sky held her steady with a wing. All the ponies were walking back to the ladders when suddenly, fwoosh! A shadow whizzed right past them and struck one of the unicorns. He shrieked and a gruesome transformation happened, the skin around the area he was struck turned black and bubbled, and it started to spread, his eyes went inside his head and he started thrashing madly. Twilight and the others could only watch in horror as he became a wobbling, black,  bubbling mass that faintly resembled a pony until it collapsed to the floor and turned into a shadow, which Sky shot and they all ran back. Nopony bothered to climb the ladders down but instead slid down them, racing back inside.

“Full speed to Airship Sunset!” Sky yelled at the captain once the re-entered the bow. He nodded and they sped along to the airship port. Twilight and Sky then went to the dining area for a more filling breakfast. They had oatmeal and oranges. But Sky hardly touched her meal, and had her head buried beneath her hooves,

“Poor Lightning Strike, he was such a good pony.” She sighed, and gloomily peeled an orange. Without a conversation, twilight just ate and went back to her room, where Rarity was waiting for her.

“Are you alright?” She asked. Twilight nodded and sat down next to her on the bed. Rarity pulled out the outfit for her, this time it was cleaned and mended. They sat in silence and waited. Until the ship made a sudden stop. Twilight and Rarity were flung from the bed and onto the floor. After getting up and checking for any injuries, they left for the bow. Twilight looked towards Sky who was talking to the captain. This is it She thought I’m going to go see Rainbow Dash.