Immortality's End

As Silver walked down the slopes of the Black Mountain, on hoofpaths carved from stone by his order over the last millennium, he could hear the ice and snow shifting around him in a rather unnerving manner. As a creak of ice turned into a sharp crack and a shower of snow dropped onto Silver's back, his hoof went to his sword out of instinct, but as he full well knew, a blade would have no effect against an avalanche. As Silver made his way further down the mountain- skirting a barren, bleached tree forcing itself out of the peak- Avelli suddenly spoke up inside Silver's head.

Do you feel that? A disturbance in the air, a faint sound of... Silver finished Avelli's sentence. Sounds like thunder. If I'm caught up here during a storm, the rain'll wash me off the mountain. I expect you know how bad it is; I do. As if to accentuate his point, Silver's hoof slipped in a patch of ice, and for a brief, horrible moment, Silver teetered on the edge of the sheer cliff before he threw himself backward onto the relative safety of the path.

As he lay on his side on the path, Silver took the opportunity to stare up at where the rumblings of thunder seemed to come from. "Strange," Silver mused, "there doesn't appear to be storm clouds..." Indeed, it was a remarkably clear day for the Black Summit, and the sky had brightened from dawn's fuzzy dimness, though thick white clouds still hung in the sky.  He stood and shaded his eyes from the sun, which glared off the snow in needles of light, and peered in the direction the rumbling appeared to come from. The noise grew steadily louder, and- barely- Silver could see a bladelike shadow in the clouds above him. Then, the rear end of the shadow flared with teal light, illuminating the inside of the cloud, and a sharp, wooden prow poked out of the cloud, looming over Silver below.

Steadily, the entire ship flew out of the clouds, and Silver froze with shock, only thinking at the last minute to throw himself behind a nearby rock formation. The ship was massive, larger than anything Silver had seen in his lifetime on the barren mountain peak (other than other mountains).  Silver gazed at it for a moment, keeping a running train of thoughts going in his head. It appears to be designed for speed and firepower, considering its massive deck armament, materials used in construction, and daggerlike shape. If I recall the Anthologis correctly, it's called an...

Avelli supplied the answer. An aerodynamic shape. That's what makes these things fly so well; though I don't believe any of the Keepers had much interest in aeronaval craft except one, and he surely wouldn't know about this... monstrosity. The ship held a sharp profile, melding smoothly from the scooped, bladelike prow, to the massive twin engine pods, to the semielliptic sailcloth rudder.  Silver didn't know what the guns did or how the engines worked, at least not precisely- the Keeper's Anthologis was hardly a up-to-date encyclopedia, more of a list of interesting and useful items- but he knew enough that whatever they did was bad, and slunk further into the rocks' shadows as the airship roared overhead, bound for the summit.

Its engines, themselves many times the size of a pony, left trails of blue flame through the air, the energy residue spreading like paint in a pond in the airship's wake. From what Silver could feel in his very bones, being a unicorn, was the intense flow of magic coursing around the airship and inside it. If I had to guess, I would say the engines burn some sort of form of magic fuel,  and the ship uses military-grade levitation spells to keep itself aloft. Perhaps they not only adjust the engines to fly, but the spells as well? Silver noted that down for later; information was always an advantage.

Inside Silver's head, even Avelli was speechless for a brief moment by how much Equestria had advanced during his exile. However, he quickly regained his composure, and with little more than a twinge of irritated wonderment left in his tone, spoke. Silver, move. When that ship disgorges the Royal Guards it doubtlessly is carrying, we should be far away from here. Let them investigate the Door; you are not there, and they cannot damage it by virtue of their own enchantments.

Silver responded with a brusque affirmative, still tracking the airship as it disappeared from view. Almost unconsciously, Silver committed the ship's name- written on the side in golden letters- to mind: Royal Equestrian Airship Empire, EC-001. He turned now, and ducked and wove between jagged outcroppings of rock and dangerous, degraded paths. He finally arrived at the original hoofpath after a good half-hour of evasive tactics to prevent himself from being seen by any patrols.

I expect we'll be seeing them again. Silver started at Avelli's sudden words in the silence, even though the Elder God's only presence in this dimension was technically in his head. Wryly, Silver said out loud "I certainly hope not. Even at top shape- which I'm not in, having just gone down half a bloody mountain-, I wouldn't be able to fight off all the Guards that ship could carry. Did you see the size of that thing?"

He held the polished silver edge of his sword to the light and then sheathed it, satisfied. The other sword, the iron training blade Silver had used for most of his life, Silver planned to sell or barter at Lindise or perhaps Illirea, if his money held out. Coming out along a blind turn in the path, he ran straight into a golden-armored, white-furred backside. The Royal Guard he had slammed into turned to regard him puzzledly, and then jumped back from Silver, immediately unsheathing his sword and segueing into a dueling pose.

Behind him, Silver saw a Skyskipper air-carriage, doubtlessly taken down from the Empire, and let out a small string of expletives. Duel on the side of a cliff, with certain death for whoever falls off, where the Guard's standing between me and my ride to Lindise. Oh, no, this'll be perfect. Before Silver even had time to complete his train of thought, the Guard was already upon him.

Silver raised his sword just in time to block the guard's blow and then whirled, aiming a strike at the back of the guard's neck. The guard ducked down and raised his sword, the two blades clashing with a sound of metal on metal, which echoed off the stone. However, Silver was standing and had more leverage, so the guard's sword wavered closer and closer to dropping. If it did, all it would take is one strike and a life would end. Knowing this, the guard aimed a kick with one of his hind legs at Silver, who danced out of the way. However, this momentary distraction allowed the guard to push Silver's sword away, and now Silver was on the defensive instead of the guard.

The soldier pressed his assault with fast slashes, sword whistling through the air only to find itself against a shimmering web of silversteel as Silver blocked every attack the Guard made, sometimes barely scraping it away and requiring a careful dodge to avoid the strike. The battle held steady, the two ponies on equal areas of the cliff, but Silver was slowly pushing the guard back, as one had trained for a lifetime to kill, and the other for years. Silver watched the guard's defense carefully. He was skillful, Silver had to give him that, but he was tiring.

Soon enough, the guard's rear hooves nearly touching the edge of the cliff, Silver found an opening in the guard's defense. Barely a second, but that was all it took; the silvered sword slipped in between the guard's ribs to slice through his heart, and the guard seemed to look at Silver with wonderment and some sort of betrayal before his life finally slipped away beyond this earthly plane, along with the blood seeping out onto the black stone.

Silver withdrew his sword from the body with a sickening sound and a quickening in the well of blood, the sound a smooth shknnnnnnnk, but far more horrible because of the fact that it was a sword withdrawing from what used to be a sapient being. As the adrenaline steadily faded, Silver looked down at the body with some degree of horror. I didn't even know his name, Silver thought.

You had to do what you had to do, Silver. Would you rather it was your body in his place? You have an age-old mission, something no pony has been trusted with for millenia and never will be trusted with again if you fail. You are the fittest for this duty, and you will not let me down, Avelli replied.  Somewhere in a different dimension, the rest of Avelli's power and consciousness had a bit of a chuckle, and then added I trust you. With some degree of lingering feeling, Silver glanced back at the body once more before boarding the Skyskipper.

Glancing down at the controls, he found them surprisingly simple and well-labeled; a stick to control flight direction, and a... lever thing... which presumably controlled the engine. Taking a deep breath, Silver gripped the stick in his magic, holding the lever with one hoof. "Here we go." Silver yanked up the stick, and the engine roared to life behind him, propeller spinning faster and faster until it was but a blur. Mane blowing back in the wind and eyes narrowed, Silver pulled back the stick- and launched into the air, bound for the woods near the village far below.

Tears streamed from Silver's eyes at the speed of the descent, and too late, Silver remembered that the dead Guard was wearing pegasi flight goggles, despite being an Earth Pony. The water obscured his vision, and with a muttered curse, he lifted a hoof off the controls for just a second to wipe the tears from his eyes.

At that moment, the ship abruptly tilted to the side, and Silver's eyes opened wide. "Damn! Damn, damn..." His voice was abruptly cut off as his yanking on the stick snapped the ship in the opposite direction, throwing him into the other side of the open cockpit. Gritting his teeth against the wind, he flared his horn, wrapped his magic around the left wing, and pulled.

The ship righted itself, and Silver had just enough time to smile before the wing snapped off its bracers - and hit him side-on.