In the Burning Sun's Light

Chapters

Chapter I: The Wandering Star
Chapter II: The Emerald Path
Chapter III: Standoff
Chapter IV: Fight and Flight
Chapter V: The Plunge

Chapter I: The Wandering Star

“Are we still able to make it on time?”

“Barely, Captain. That malfunction in the drive core almost cost us.”

Captain Morning Sky frowned at that. Doing her best to maintain a severe, serious expression, she turned in her seat towards the stallion to her left, looking up from the charts in front of her. “What’s the status of the Starbright Core?”

“Last report shows everything functioning properly, Captain. We are at seventy percent of capacity.” The Pegasus turned to face her. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go down and make sure Iron Breaker doesn’t mess anything up; the last thing we need is more complications.”

“Go ahead,” the Earth Pony captain nodded once as the Pegasus deftly took off and flew over the chaos of the bridge room. Morning Sky hesitated for a moment longer and added “And Comet Trail, make sure Engineering is ready to get the engines running at full capacity. I’m not takin’ any chances here.”

The Pegasus turned, and nodded affirmatively. “Aye-aye, Captain,” he replied, before turning around crisply and zipping off the bridge. Morning Sky watched him go, before turning to the dull-red Earth Pony at her side. “Sand?” she spoke up.

“First Mate,” Copper Sand reminded her quietly.

“First Mate,” Morning corrected herself, absentmindedly brushing a strand of red hair away with her hoof. “We’re going to need the engines operating at full energy within a half hour. Any less than that and we risk missing our deadline. What’s your assessment?”

Copper Sand was quiet for a moment. The facts of the situation were fairly simple, and they likely shared the same conclusion, but the mare in front of him was asking his input regardless. Keeping his expression neutral, he responded to her. “With Comet back down there, I’d say they can probably get it done. We’ll have to dip pretty deep into the Starbright Core’s reserves, though; we’ll be at half capacity by the end of the trip. And we won’t be replenishing it very efficiently at top speed. Are you certain of this, Captain?”

Morning Sky frowned at the charts in front of her. “This ship has never missed a deadline in twenty years. I’m not going to risk screwing that up. We’ll make good time once we reach the Emerald Current. That’ll get us to the Harbor well within two days’ time yet. We’re not giving up now.” The young Earth Pony looked down towards a simple compass, held inside a covering made of pewter.

“…It’s what the Captain would’ve wanted, from us.”

Copper Sand’s eyes trailed down to the compass too, silent for a split second, before acknowledging the twelve-year-old Captain with a nod of his head. Both of them knew, all along, what the answer was, but sometimes a First Mate needed to question, and sometimes needed to reaffirm. The other ponies remained silent, but their faces spoke volumes. Copper Sand turned to the Earth Pony manning the intercom off to his right and cleared his throat. “Let Engineering know we need full speed ahead in a half hour. Concentrate our deflection screens to fore, wide spread.”

“And tell Nova to get his fancy flank up here and make himself useful!” Sky added. “If there are any stray currents we can ride, we’ll need them, and he won’t do a very good job findin’ ‘em asleep in his bunk!” Morning Sky turned back to the navigational charts on the low table in front of her chair, frowning over them and continuing to look for any better course that they missed. Some Navigator Nova Light was; she was three years younger and fairly confident she could still plot their route better. His only job was to see the flows of magic they depended on, and he wasn’t even awake for that. She quietly massaged her forehead with a hoof.

At her side, Copper Sand kept a quiet eye on the bridge, a trace of a sad smile playing on his face as he watched the young mare do her job. Once Morning Sky finished talking, he added in a low voice, “as soon as we’ve gone to full speed you should head down to the Mess for a bite, lass. It’s been more than half a day-cycle since you last ate; your father would kill me at this rate.”

The young mare began to make a retort at her First Mate’s words, but quickly calmed. With a slight show of hesitation, she nodded in assent. The next half hour passed uneventfully. Moon Crystal relayed her orders, reporting back every now and then with the Engineering crew’s progress. Nova Light finally stumbled onto the bridge and took his station, grumbling about needing his sleep. He went quiet, though, as soon as he took his seat and got to work. Soon, Crystal paused to listen to her communicator, then promptly turned back to face Morning Sky.

“Comet Trail reports that the main engines are ready to go to full, Captain.”

Morning Sky nodded affirmatively, getting out of her seat, moving the table aside and walking towards the steering wheel just a few hoofs ahead. Her hoof rested on the wheel for just a moment; her father always steered the ship himself, and she hadn’t seen any reason to do differently. Balancing up on her hind legs, for a moment she simply felt grateful for the hours of practice he insisted on. With a calm turn of the wheel she could feel the heavy freighter slowly come about to its new heading at precisely the right time.

“This is the strongest magical current I could sense,” Nova Light called out.

Another turn of the wheel, and the ship’s course straightened out. Morning’s hooves moved with a calm ease she had plenty of time to practice in the last few months. Locking the wheel into place, she rested her hand over a lever at the wheel’s side.

“Shifting engines to full speed; all hands, make ready.”

Moon Crystal relayed her orders, and those bridge crewponies who hadn’t already buckled themselves into their chairs. Sand took his seat in a chair off to her side, just out of sight. Morning Sky took a deep breath, and steadied her back legs against her chair, but did not sit just yet. A captain needed to stay at the helm.

“Full power to engines in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1.”

The lever came down, and the ship shuddered familiarly as it built up speed. Even with the ship’s shields dampening the change in momentum’s effects, they could still feel themselves being pushed back in their seats. Morning Sky tried to hold her ground like a proper captain, but eventually the young mare was forced to yield as well, locking the wheel into place and sitting down in her chair and resting against the back, feeling the acceleration push her backwards.

Moments later, just as dramatically as it began, the faint shuddering grew silent, and the bridge returned to normal. Morning Sky stood up by the helm, looking back as Sand came back up to her side.

“First Mate, you have the helm, I’ll be back in half an hour.”

“Aye, Captain,” Sand called out in reply, moving to take Morning’s position as she quietly trotted off to the back of the bridge, heading for the exit. “At ease, everyone,” he added as the Captain headed out and turned off to head down to the lower decks.

***************

It was a slow day for Golden Light. The Mess Hall was empty save for the cook, who was already busy getting some dish of unidentifiable vegetables ready for dinner, and a scattering of other crewmembers nearby who had nowhere else to be. Considering the Mess Hall was only built to hold a couple dozen packed in like canned asparagus, though, the place didn’t feel too empty. With the drive core out for a few hours, there’d been little for her to do as the Engineering staff went into overdrive; not that there was much for a security officer to do on a small, run-down freighter. What does a security officer even do on a freighter this small, anyway?

Sure, she knew a little about maintenance, but not enough to help Nova Light or Silver Song repair the Starbright Core’s circuitry or the interface with the ship’s engines. Comet Trail all but chased her out of the engine room the last time she tried to assist with the engines themselves. The stallion cared so much more for machinery than ponies she half expected he’d actually marry a robot. Golden Light’s mouth twisted into a slight smirk as she recalled telling him such. And twisted back into a frown when she recalled the wrench she only just dodged.

Holding her mug in her telekinesis, she calmly took stock of the Mess’ other current inhabitants. Off in the corner, Silver Vein was half asleep, idly humming what sounded vaguely like a drinking song. He’d stumbled tiredly into the Mess Hall an hour earlier, after Comet called him in to help realign the induction conduits. Aside from occasional maintenance, there wasn’t much for the thirty-something stallion to do until they got into port and needed to unload. At least he pulled his weight – literally – during that time, and then some.

A few chairs away, Sun Strike stared silently down at his record book, the vague half-scowl that always seemed to grace his face unmoving as he read. His horn lit up with a dull orange glow as he held his quill in his magic, the well-honed writing implement scratching across the page in tight patterns. His mane stood on end, the striped dull orange and golden yellow pattern causing it to stand out even more. His coat, less vibrant than the other ponies’, was covered in more stripes of that dull, almost reddish orange.

The half-Zebra had never bothered to change his manestyle, or anything else about himself, looking much the way he did when they’d picked him up on a pit stop near his home, four years back. Well, it was their closest guess to his home. He never explained that, other than to say it was definitely not the miserable rock in the Antuks where they found him. It was probably one of the Zebra colonies out in the Taurus expanse.

Golden Light quietly leaned back in her chair, her hind-legs resting against the table in front of her, and simply stared at the ceiling for a while. It was starting to get too quiet in here. Her relief at having nothing to do was quickly lapsing into boredom. She looked down at her mug with a growing feeling of dissatisfaction. Drinking wasn’t much fun when you had no one to drink with, or no one to make a fool of yourself in front of, and Silver and Sun wouldn’t even bat an eyelash at this point. She bit back a sigh; it was getting much too quiet in—

The unicorn mare’s eyes shot open when the door into the Mess Hall swung wide and a tired and all-too-familiar filly came through the door. Golden Light blinked a couple times, hoping for one last minute that it was maybe just the drink getting to her; a single mug could never do that to her, but she could hope. For a moment, Golden Light almost hoped Morning Flare would just walk by, but then the filly turned to her left, noticing her, and paused, like something odd caught her attention. The unicorn braced herself; things weren’t nearly quiet enough now.

“I thought we were out of grog?” Morning Sky asked, tilting her head. “Unless you keep some stashed for emergencies, Golden?” Morning Sky wouldn’t have been surprised to find that out, really.

“Erm. Not exactly, Captain,” Golden Light replied awkwardly.

“Then how else did you get…” Morning Sky paused a second. “You used the Conjuration Engine, didn’t you?” Her face gained a sort of severity a filly’s face shouldn’t be capable of.

“Yes.” There was little point in Golden Light denying it at this point.

“We’re already going to have to sacrifice a lot of power to get to Emerald Harbor on time; the Conjuration Engine can only be spared energy for essential items.” The filly’s tone was starting to nag at this point. “Is keeping you supplied with grog a vital use of the ship’s power supply?”

“Yes,” the other three inhabitants of the Mess Hall replied in unison.

Morning Sky facehoofed. “Great. Just great. A few months into bein’ a captain and I’ve already got a mutiny on my hooves. Over Golden Light’s alcohol.”

“You haven’t seen Golden Light try to shoot straight without a drink, have you?” the cook spoke up.

“No one has; she hasn’t had anything to shoot in years, much less while sober,” Silver Vein remarked. “Still, Greenfield raises a valid point. I’d advise lettin’ this one go, Cap’n.”

“My estimations indicate that the security officer’s aforementioned habits should deplete no more than a percentage point of our Starbright Core’s magic reserves, Captain,” Sun Strike remarked. “Overall, this seems a small price to pay to ensure our security chief is at her best in the event of trouble. As long as the security chief does not make a habit of this,” he added, giving her a Look.

Golden Light still had enough dignity to sweat a bit underneath that look, while Morning Sky massaged the side of her head with a hoof, sighing in resignation. “Fine, I’ll make a note that Golden Light’s booze is, in fact, an essential part of this ship’s continued functioning and security. As long as the rest of the crew doesn’t start clamorin’ for it the next time we hit a dry spell,” she added, in a final effort to assert her authority.

“Glad to know you see things my way,” Golden Light remarked. “Though I don’t get what all the fuss is about with the ship’s security, or why we’re busting our flanks to make it to Emerald Harbor on time. No one’d expect a ship to arrive on time when their Drive Core failed like that.”

“We are ‘busting our flanks’ because this cargo will pay more than all our freight runs in the last six months, if we get it to the researchers in Emerald Harbor on time,” Sun Strike replied.

At that, Golden Light finally sat upright. And certainly did not almost fall out of her chair. “What? What could be that important? The stuff we loaded onto the ship that day was just enough to fill half the hold.”

“The scientists back at the research institute appear to have made a breakthrough regarding a recently discovered metal, or ‘metalloid,’ they’re calling it,” Sun Strike explained. “The name I have heard thrown around is ‘Silicon.’ I’m not a scientist, but I tried to do some research on the subject, just to know what we were getting into. It must’ve happened a couple years back, because they sent a team of their brightest to help that mining company back in Greyrock just that long ago.”

Morning Sky kept her attention on Sun Strike, although her bookkeeper had already made sure to keep her informed of this. Even Golden Light and Silver Vein seemed to be listening now. Sun Strike, meanwhile, carried on as before. “We’ve known about Silicon for a while now, the stuff’s so common you can find it in certain sands. Any sample scientists have found is mixed with other chemicals or full of impurities, though. My guess is the scientists from Emerald Harbor must have found a new way to purify it.”

“How do you know that?” Golden Light asked, tilting her head.

“I checked it myself,” he replied. Seeing Morning Sky turn to him out of the corner of his eye, he promptly headed off her question, “no, I didn’t touch it, just scanned it with my magic. The silicon in the crates is of the highest purity I’ve ever seen. I don’t think I sensed a single trace of other elements. I’m not certain of all the possible applications, but what I can think of off the top of my head is… interesting. The gentlecolts from the labs were certainly very eager to get their hands on the stuff.”

“Think it’s got something to do with the Aquarian Republic’s recent troubles with the Empire?”

“Perhaps. The Empire of the Undying Sun’s recent saber-rattling does appear to have everyone on edge. The Aquarians would doubtless appreciate the possibilities of a new technology in giving them a leg up on the Empire.”

“The Empire ‘rattles its saber’ all the time,” Morning Sky remarked. “The Solar Court comes out to tell the rest of us we should be kissing their flanks and bowin’ to them more than Silver Song gets space-sick. Even if the Goddess they think put their sorry flanks in charge of the Equus‘s been dead for… ever, if she ever existed at all.”

“Most of their pronouncements aren’t accompanied by ordering four hundred galleons added to their fleet,” Sun Strike countered. “It may be too early to tell exactly what will happen, but I have the worrying suspicion we are living in interesting times indeed.”

The group was quiet for a while, until Morning Sky finally broke the silence. “Anyway, Golden, that brings us to the last thing I had to say. This cargo is top priority. It’s valuable, an’ even if we’ve not had pirates trying to raid us for a solid hundred freight runs, we are not takin’ any chances here. We’re already down to half energy before the end of the trip; that may be easily more than enough to get into port, but our other systems won’t be at full power. If we get unlucky, we need you to be at your station. That is an order.”

Golden Light grunted unhappily, but couldn’t find any way to dispute it. “Aye, Captain,” she replied, finishing the last of her grog. “I’ll be down on the gun deck if you need me.”

Morning Sky nodded in understanding, exchanging a short salute before Golden Light left for the deck just below them.

***************

After leaving the bridge to go down to the Mess Hall, Morning Sky had nearly forgotten to actually grab the food she’d come down to get. The young mare had turned to head towards the door out when Greenfield called out to her. Her return to the bridge delayed while she wolfed down a plate of cabbage and finally remembered how long it’d been since she last ate, Morning Sky was heading back now at a brisk pace.

She wound through the ship’s narrow corridors with a practiced ease. This place was more than just her ship. For all real intents and purposes, it was her home. Her earliest memories were here. She grew up here. The crewponies around her were the only friends she’d had, really. Morning Sky allowed herself a vague hint of a smile; it probably wasn’t a typical childhood, but it was home.

She stopped as her path took her by an old, simple mirror, not far from the stairway leading up. She stared at the mirror for a moment, a vague look of annoyance crossing her face. Her jacket never fit quite right, and the shirt underneath was off-center, again. She sighed, trying to adjust her outfit; the last thing she needed was for the Captain to come on the bridge looking sloppy. The previous size would’ve looked sharper, but it was too tight on her withers, and restricted her movement every time she had to raise a foreleg. Considering Morning Sky was still growing, when they’d been to the tailor back in Cliff’s Port the decision was made to leave the jacket a bit looser, so the young captain could grow into it.

Looking back at the mirror, Morning Sky could see she still had a long way to go before she grew into the captain’s uniform she now wore. For a brief flicker she idly wondered if that was supposed to be some kind of metaphor or something; the thought caused her eyes to turn back down towards the floorboards, and her face to fall a bit more than it already had.

Three months into my Captaincy, and I’m still looking over my shoulder, wondering if the crew isn’t secretly laughing behind my back. The disagreement with Golden Light was just the latest case, and sometimes she wondered if it’d be much worse without Sand to help her along. The crew listened to her father because he’d been as bold and charismatic as any captain of a run-down freighter had a right to be. They looked up to him, and while Morning Sky might’ve been his only child by birthright, he’d been like a gruff yet fair-minded father to the entire crew. They called him Captain out of respect; they called her Captain because she was his daughter. Aside from that, the mare of only twelve years had just been another part of the crew.

My father always did tell me, if a Captain has to call down the fact he or she is Captain in order to keep the crew in line, then that Captain’s rule is already slipping. A Captain is the Prince or Princess of the vessel, but a title doesn’t mean anything without the respect of the person calling you by it. Morning Sky frowned quietly as she looked back up at the mirror, running one last check to ensure she was presentable. The crew had respected her because they respected her father, but how long would that really last? If they couldn’t get out of the red with this run, she might risk losing their confidence altogether.

The sound of hoofsteps down the hallway shook her out of her thoughts. Looking back up the stairs, she plodded up them, back on her way towards the bridge. Whatever was ahead, standing there agonizing over it wasn’t going to help her. She made the rest of the trip back to the bridge in silence, and soon found herself back on the bridge where she hoped she belonged.

Chapter II: The Emerald Path

The next day passed with little incident. Morning Sky spent most of the time on the bridge, yet with their ship on course, there was little need, beyond the occasional adjustment to make sure they stayed within the current that Nova Light set them on. On the viewscreen, one could even make out the slight distortion in the space around them that marked the arcane current’s passage through the cosmos, a river that was almost imperceptible without magic.

The storytellers would say that, long ago, space was quieter. The Astral Plane was comparatively still, like a pond on a clear day, and didn’t spill over into the Materium with the strength it did now. In the time of the Fall, though, the still pond turned into an ocean of crashing waves, that the barrier between the two could not keep out. The stars were filled with bursts, rivers and waves of raw magical energy that rocked the heavens. Some would say it lasted days, others would say it lasted months. A few bold ones would claim it lasted years. Morning Sky had always hoped they were simply exaggerating, but looking up at the stars, she wondered in silence.

In a sense, the storm still continued today, seven hundred years later; the effects could still be felt, when magical energy leaked over into the physical world and rippled across the stars. Without this, in fact, society might not have been able to rebuild, for the same currents aided those crossing the void who had the means to leverage them. Though the freighter’s specially-enchanted sails were out of sight from where she sat on the bridge, she could tell by the ship’s speed that they were doing their job, catching the arcane currents so they could push the craft onwards.

“Anything on the Scryer, Nova?” Morning Sky finally said aloud, “a ship? A void swimmer? A particularly interesting piece of rock?” Three hours of pure silence was finally starting to get to the mare.

“I’ve got nothing,” Nova Light called back, still staring absently at the crystal ball to one side of his station. He looked half asleep, and for once she didn’t even blame him. These long stretches of inactivity were the one part of the job no one looked forward to. Even Moon Crystal had run out of idle conversation about an hour ago. There was nothing left to do but keep within the flow until they reached the Emerald Current.

“Moon Crystal, remind Silver Song that her shift’s in fifteen minutes, I suppose,” Morning Sky said, managing to keep her tone professional despite her mounting boredom. “Anything from Engineering?” she added.

“Comet Trail reported in, to let us know he’s checked the Engines, the Drive Core and the Starbright Core again, as well as the interfacing,” Moon Crystal replied.

“That’s the fifth time he’s done that today,” Copper Sand remarked.

“I know,” Moon Crystal answered. “Honestly, it almost sounded like something is eating at him, though I guess he could just have nothing to do.”

“Well, whatever’s eating him should stop, that’s not a terribly nice thing to do,” Nova Light said aloud. He gazed about the room awkwardly as he felt every last eye in the room slowly bore into his skull; except for Moon Crystal, who quietly facehoofed. “Because, well, you know… it’s eating him…” The blank stares intensified. Silence reigned. “Eheh… I guess that one was funnier in my head,” Nova Light finally said aloud.

Morning Sky sighed, resting her head on her hoof. “Don’t worry; considering you’re being paid to plot courses and not standup routines, I don’t have cause to dump you off in the nearest port we find. Yet.” It was hard to tell whether the young mare was being serious or joking, going by her tone.

“And that’s a good thing! I think,” Nova Light replied. Well, ultimately, it definitely was a good thing, considering he hadn’t the slightest clue where else he’d find a job.

The small talk and occasional light jabs persisted for several more minutes. Morning Sky, for her own part, remained distant from it. She was the Captain; she needed to remain professional, even despite her own crew’s quirks. She watched the viewscreen, occasionally rolling around an orb on her chair’s right arm to turn the view to the ship’s side, or rear, or above or below, before giving up and quietly pressing a trigger to the orb’s right to return the screen to a forward view.

Eventually, Silver Song arrived for her shift, and Nova Light took his leave, heading off the bridge and likely to the Mess. More hours passed, and after the fourth, Morning Sky started watching the starry beyond a bit anxiously. She was about to call Nova back up when a sight far in the distance finally put her mind at ease.

It was just starting to grow distinct, hampered by the forward screen that blocked cosmic dust and aether from impacting the ship, and obscured by the arcane stream they were already in, but ahead space seemed to turn a distinct, green color. The vague, greenish tint in the void ahead finally started to come into focus. The rest of the bridge was more overtly enthusiastic, cheering in triumph and no small amount of relief. Minutes later, Morning Sky could already make out eddies and flows in the long, nebula-like expanse they were fast approaching.

From a distance, the Emerald Current looked almost like a green river, snaking its way through the vastness of space. But no water flowed through its boundaries. The Current was one of the three greatest, continuous flows of energy from the Astral Plane in the entirety of known space. Where most registered as a vague distortion of the light that passed through the flow, the magic here was so strong anypony could see it. As they drew closer, the green began to appear all the more vibrant, glimmering in the vastness of space.

Morning Sky watched it in silence, and for once, it wasn’t the fear of seeming unprofessional in front of her crew which kept her quiet. She’d seen the Current many times before; any traveler in this part of the Expanse knew of it, but the sight still filled her with awe every time. Waves and streams of magic dashed and swirled through the flow, stretching from right to left as far as the eye could see. They were hours from its borders, yet it already shined with a supernatural glow, curling and weaving through the aether. Looking into the streams, Morning Flare could almost swear each wave was made of the very gemstones it was named for.

Morning Sky sat in silence a moment longer, taking in a deep breath. Many ponies that traveled this area recounted how they felt all the more alive after leaving, as if the verdant flow of magic carried some restorative property. Reality itself felt almost… strange, for lack of a better term. Perhaps that should be expected, considering the sight before her did, technically, find its source somewhere in a crack between the material and immaterial. The Current had its own ghost stories, tales told by superstitious sailors to pass the hour. Some claimed to even hear voices if they traveled too close. Few ever actually went into the Current itself; traveling along its borders was easily enough to push even the heaviest craft to breakneck speeds.

To her right, she could hear Moon Crystal clearing her throat, snapping her out of her reverie. Morning Flare’s face flushed with embarrassment, although Moon Crystal offered an assuring smile in return. “Captain,” she finally spoke up, “it should be approximately three hours yet, until we reach the border. Should I put all hands on alert?”

Morning Sky looked towards the cosmic river in the distance. “Give the crew another hour and a half, I suppose. Let them know that we’re in the home stretch. I guess we’ll make it after all.”

***************

“How could our kinsmen not have found anything yet? That ship should have been dead in the water with a faulty drive core for days. That’s assuming her sabotage didn’t blow the freighter up outright! That unicorn was certain of it!”

“Be that as it may, Captain, it would seem our target is still at large. Even assuming Sunrise Flare’s part of the plan failed to work, we would still appear to have a contract to fulfill.”

“A contract for an employer who can’t even fulfill her part of the plan; this is ridiculous.”

“If we fail now, though, or give up the chase, you know who they’ll blame for this. They certainly aren’t going to find fault with one of their precious battlemages.”

Captain Albrecht grunted with annoyance, scanning the bridge for any officer who gave him an excuse to vent his mounting bad temper on them. Finding none for the time being, he turned towards his first officer. “We will have to resort to our backup plan, Eugen. Have our ships set a course for the Current. It is the most likely route they will take to reach the Harbor. Have our kinsmen keep an eye for any wake in the aether.”

Eugen offered a salute with a clawed hand, leftover habit from his military days, before heading over to the comm. station to make it so. Albrecht went back to staring at the viewscreen in front of him with irritation. Reiner was no fool; if there had been any trace of the freighter, he would have found it, even wreckage. They even knew the route it would likely take. That they hadn’t found it already was unbelievable. Albrecht idly looked down to his claws, making sure they were sharp, and took a moment to preen his feathers. Hopefully they’d get a chance to board the craft. He was looking forward to venting some of his frustration, for such a simple ship that’d eluded them for days.

The griffon captain’s head snapped to the side as Eugen came back towards his seat. “The Warscreech and Hell Talon are ready to move out, Captain,” Eugen calmly reported. “We await your orders.”

“You don’t have to wait for me,” he grumbled. He turned towards the front of the bridge, calling out as though he hoped the other two vessels would hear him, “all ships, move out!”

***************

The next two and a half hours had passed uneventfully on the Wandering Star’s bridge, little changing beyond the slight sense of relief, that the run was nearly over. Silver Song wrapped up her shift in the Navigator’s chair and trotted down towards the Mess Hall to grab dinner, and Nova Light even showed up to take over for her on time.

With the bulk of the trip over, even Morning Sky was showing signs of relaxing. She sat a bit more calmly in the Captain’s chair now, taking in the scene around her and occasionally issuing instructions. With a satisfied look, she turned back towards the viewscreen to take in their destination. In a way, it was a shame they couldn’t simply look out the window once in a while. The vastness of space was a bit lost when viewed through a magically summoned screen, like the one at the front of the bridge. In truth, most freighters simply had their bridge on the top observation deck, like the sailing ships in the legends surrounding ancient Equus.

The Wandering Star, though, was different. Her father had relocated the bridge deeper within the ship’s hull during a refit, before she was even born. Most freighters didn’t bother with such safety measures. The cost of connecting a bridge well inside the hull to the outside world was impractical if it wasn’t strictly necessary. Since freighters in civilized space were never expected to see combat, it was rarely worthwhile.

But the Star traveled further afield, surviving by taking jobs few freighters would, and windows were structural weaknesses. Travelers in wild space did not use them. Morning Sky inwardly grimaced as she recalled the stories of freighters that lost their bridge crew in a single shot, when an enterprising pirate made an easy target of that exposed design. Perhaps not appreciating the view before her in all its glory was a small price after all.

The thought prompted her to turn towards Nova Light as he got back to the business of observing his Scryer orb. “Nova,” she called out, “have we still not detected any other ships out here? The Current is usually a little busier than this. I would’ve expected to see at least another freighter or two passing through by now.”

“I’ve got nothing,” Nova Light replied. “I can try widening the search, but there’s only so much I can do.” In truth, the orb at his station was already a grand triumph of Unicorn magical engineering prowess. To detect objects fifty kilometers away with an array that could be easily mounted on a ship would have stunned the archmagi of the early days. It was a pity most ships could cross that in a minute.

“Do what you can,” Morning Sky called out, and went back to looking at the viewscreen. As the vast, green river drew close, the young mare left the Captain’s Chair and took a step forward; it was time for her to take the helm again. Steadying herself on her hind legs, she rested her front hooves on the steering wheel, deciding to wait a minute longer before disabling the lock that kept it in place. The Current took up the entire viewscreen by now. Morning knew it was many kilometers wide, although the vast distance it covered made it seem thin from afar.

“Two minutes from the border, Captain,” Copper Sand called out. “We should align our course with the Current soon.”

“Understood, First Mate,” Morning Sky replied, unlocking the wheel. The first, minor waves started to push the ship. Morning resisted the first few, correcting their course, but soon simply allowed the waves of magic to push them towards port, going with the flow. For the last minute, the ship cut an angle of about forty-five degrees; up until the waves were so close the ship looked like it might crash into them. Morning steeled herself, watching. When they were about to dive straight into the river of magic she gave the helm a steady turn, bringing the freighter hard to port. Everypony on the ship could feel the slight turbulence as the freighter skimmed just along the outer edge of the waves.

Perfect, Morning Sky thought to herself, finally allowing a satisfied smile. She held her position; from here until the Harbor, she would have to remain at the helm, to make sure they remained just on the constantly shifting boundary of the Emerald Current. The outside changed little, with nothing to provide a point of reference, but her instruments told Morning what she already knew from experience. Their speed had quadrupled in the half minute they’d been inside the Current, their sails catching the unstoppable flood of magic and propelling them along far faster than they could achieve under their own power.

“Captain,” Moon Crystal called out, “I’m picking up a signal from an Aquarian beacon, public frequency, standard travel safety advisory. Bursts have appeared here and there near the Current the last few days; nothing unusual, just have to stay alert.”

“Understood,” Morning Sky replied, keeping her eyes forward. That wasn’t much cause for alarm, really. The area was known to get Spellbursts once in a while – plumes of magic flooding into the material world. They reacted unpredictably when they hit the Current, but almost always they could be moved around with ease. It was unlikely to delay them at all-

“Captain?” Nova Light’s voice was halting.

“…Yeah, Nova?”

“I finally picked up something on the Scryer. I think it was a ship, but it turned around, slipped back out of the edge of my field before I could see clearly.”

The bridge crew went silent. Beforehand, Morning Sky was hoping to hear there were other freighters out here; it’d assure her that everything was normal. Why did they turn away, though? Morning’s eyes narrowed. Another freighter or a patrol craft would have maintained course once in the Current. Moving against it was counterproductive, even dangerous, sometimes. She hated how it sounded, but something wasn’t right.

As soon as the flow was on a straight path for a bit, Morning Sky pulled a small switch to her right up, overriding the viewscreen control back on her chair. At her side, an orb just like it held on a stand lit up, and Morning immediately started running her hoof over it. The view rotated to show her port, then to starboard, then astern, moving from left to right in hopes of seeing something. They were purchasing a secondary viewscreen as soon as they had gold again. Stopping the visual at about thirty degrees starboard from the stern, Morning Sky stopped for a moment.

Aft of the ship, she could see the Great Bloom, far in the distance. One of a few magical phenomena to outshine the Current’s fame, it glowed magnificently. For a moment, it pulsed, as if it had a life of its own; the massive, endless bloom of magic seemed like a flower, its light filtering through the emerald energy before it. Morning Sky shook her head, like she was trying to get the cobwebs out of her skull. It was beautiful, of course, but this was no time to be sightseeing. She needed to find… something. For a moment, it was hard to concentrate, and all she could do right now was to stare at the sight.

She didn’t hear Copper Sand try to get her attention, or Moon Crystal call out, her voice obviously tinged with concern. Later, she’d recall feeling like something was scratching in her mind; uncomfortable, though not really painful. She’d remember it lasting until she could hear two words, clear as day:

Behind you!

Morning Sky’s eyes went wide. Her hoof slid along the orb at her side, and the screen ahead of her swerved to look astern of the ship. She looked into the current, the display panning and shifting about frantically.

“Captain! Morning Sky!”

Sand’s words finally snapped her back to reality. She tapped the orb hard, snapping back to the forward view, relieved to see they still had a minute before they’d need to adjust course again, and looked around at her crew. Everpony on the bridge, Copper Sand, Moon Crystal, and Nova Light, watched her with obvious concern.

“Captain, should we send out a hail, see if anyone responds?” Moon Crystal had never taken her eyes off the filly in front of her for a moment. She tried to keep her face unreadable as Morning Sky turned back towards her.

“Leave them be,” Morning Sky replied. “If someone sends out a signal, respond in kind, otherwise we’ll just leave them alone.”

“Yes, Captain.” Moon Crystal turned back to her station to receive a message from the lower decks, while Copper Sand moved from Morning Sky’s side to the console at her left. Save the occasional status report, they continued the journey in silence.

***************

“Captain, Reiner has just reported in. They’ve found the ship, it reached the Emerald Current two and a half hours upstream of our position, approximately ten minutes ago.”

“Finally,” Albrecht grumbled, his previous anger dying down to its usual low simmer. “Were they detected?”

“No, sir, Reiner reports they remained well outside the range of the Scryer for a ship that class.”

“Good. Let them know they are to maintain a safe following distance at all times. We will stop them here; they are to close the trap if necessary. With any luck, we’ll convince them to stand down and permit our boarding action without a chase.”

Eugen cocked his head to the side, tilting it quizzically at his captain. “Sunrise Flare made it very clear that we are not supposed to take chances with this ship. We’ve been told to blow it out of the stars as soon as it crosses into our sights. That was the deal.”

“I know what the deal says!” Albrecht snapped back. “I also know Sunrise isn’t paying us nearly enough for the trouble we’ve already gone through for her. She wants that ship destroyed, badly. That means that whatever is on it is valuable. So long as she has no reason to believe we did otherwise, I am not following some Unicorn’s orders to the letter just to make her happy. We will board the ship, and strip it of anything worth a copper piece. Once we are done, we kill the crew and scuttle the ship. Sunrise does not even have to know.”

Albrecht’s eyes narrowed at his First Mate, as if to reinforce that last point. Eugen straightened out quietly, ruffled his feathers, and gave Albrecht a silent nod.

“Hail the Warscreech and Hell Talon,” Albrecht instructed. “Inform them of our plans. They will lie in wait. We will flush the prey out.”

***************

They had traveled along the current for four hours now, and already the freighter had crossed more distance than it had since it left Greyrock. Morning Sky kept her eyes forward, carefully keeping their ship just at the point where the Current started to appear solid. A careful adjustment of their side thrusters to rotate the ship clockwise placed their topside sails just on its edge. Holding the sails so close to a magic current too long for too often could wear them down, but right now, they needed every minute. At current speed they would reach their destination with an hour to spare, but they would still need to handle docking, unloading and all the other hassles that came after a trip.

And even though Morning Sky kept her face stoic, the sooner they reached the safety of the Harbor, the better she would feel. The young mare kept her eyes forward still, watching the viewscreen in front of her, one hoof constantly on the lever steering the freighter up and down against the side of the current. Everypony on the bridge was still ever so slightly on edge since Nova Light’s warning four hours ago. The tension was palpable. But Morning still did not say a word. A Captain wasn’t supposed to be scared. It’d do her and her crew no good for them to see her scared.

Nova Light had gone back to paying rapt attention to his Scryer, unusually quiet as he stared into the crystal globe. Moon Crystal seemed the calmest pony on the bridge, or at least the best at hiding her unease. Copper Sand remained at the station to her left, rather than return to her side. He was trying to busy himself with whatever he could, it seemed.

“Comet reports that all systems down in engineering are operating at peak efficiency again,” Moon Crystal called out. She was silent again for a while, before her eyes narrowed. “He says he wants to talk to you as soon as possible, though. He says it’s a matter of great urgency.”

“We’re within an hour of the Harbor, I can speak to him as soon as we exit the Current,” Morning Sky replied. “Golden Light hasn’t said much today, she’s still at her post?”

Silence ensued as Moon Crystal relayed the Captain’s messages. “Golden Light is still on her deck, says she’s been calibrating the TACs,” Crystal finally replied. “Also, Comet Trail is insisting he needs to talk to you at once; it can’t wait.”

Morning Sky frowned at that. “What could be so important it can’t wait forty-five minutes? Why can’t he simply relay it to the bridge if it’s so urgent?”

Silence again. “He says he has to talk in private, and to get down there,” Moon Crystal finally replied.

“If he thinks it’s that big a deal, Comet should be taken at his word,” Copper Sand remarked, quickly noticing the look of irritation in Morning Sky’s eyes, which grew now that her First Mate took the side of the engineer trying to give an order to his Captain. “Don’t worry, Captain, I can take care of the helm while you—“

“Captain?” Nova Light suddenly interjected.

The discussion cut off for a second while every eye in the room snapped over to the unicorn, who shrank back a little, involuntarily. “I, er, I just noticed something unusual, maybe it’s just something wrong with the Scryer.”

Copper Sand was up out of his seat before Nova Light even finished his sentence. He’d crossed the bridge to Nova Light’s desk just as he finished, and promptly stared into the Scryer. His eyes narrowed as he tried to make out just what it was Nova Light noticed.

“Here, sir.” Nova Light zoomed in on a part of the Current’s border, where the ethereal winds began to tint the dark with their emerald light. “The flow of the Current looks normal for the most part, but I think I noticed an anomaly of sorts. Look at that trail right there.”

Copper Sand stared into the Scryer further. The winds of magic became all the more visible as the magical device attuned his eyes to see the energy. It was like a hundred rivers, all headed in one direction, uniting in a great flood. There were slight twists and turns here and there, yet all maintained the same general heading. All save for one trail, veering off in a wide arc towards the other end of the Current, where it was eventually lost.

“The path is a bit peculiar,” Nova Light remarked, trying not to appear nervous as he looked between Copper Sand and Morning Sky. “I guess it isn’t really a big deal, but, well, perhaps one of the research institutes back at the Harbor would find it interesting? I’ve rarely seen a weave like that; maybe they’d like to have the data.”

Copper Sand didn’t seem to be paying Nova Light any attention by now. Meanwhile, Morning Sky kept her eyes forward, eyeing the viewscreen tensely. She tried to draw no attention to it as she silently touched an activation rune to her left, causing a magically projected simulation of the Scryer’s most important data to light up at her side. It was a simple display, a hollow sphere composed of white dots, showing the Scryer’s range, a white dot in the center to mark the location of their ship, and lines showing the orientation and heading. Blue dots swam alongside them, showing the strong concentration of energy in the Current. She saw nothing else yet, but that uncomfortable feeling from before was back, now stronger than before.

Copper Sand, meanwhile, stared deep into the Scryer while Nova Light continued talking. The First Mate only half heard him as he stared at the unusual trail. Nova Light went on about the curve and direction, but the taciturn Earth Pony was focused only on one point, exactly where the curve began in the once largely straight trail. He seemed almost transfixed as he studied where the trail bent, so suddenly, like he could almost make out the point where it began to turn…

“…Really unusual, like I was saying; it could almost be the path of a ship—“

Copper Sand leapt back from the Scryer, cutting Nova Light off and nearly knocking him out of his chair in the process, as he bounded back towards his station. Morning Sky’s eyes went wide as saucers before he was even halfway there, and her hooves flew back to the controls, turning them hard away from the Current and on a sudden climb.

“Sand,” she shouted, “shields! NOW!”

The First Mate threw a switch the instant he reached his station. The Forcefield Generator he’d set to power up before checking on Nova Light came alive in seconds. He ran a hoof along a circle of runes right by the switch, sweeping over the right and bottom runes, allocating most of the energy to their starboard and aft. The crystal lighting up above the switch told him the shield was up.

A sudden impact rocked the ship not a second later. It jolted Morning Sky, but the mare managed to keep her hooves steady as she gave the helm another sharp turn to port, trying to take evasive action.

“Captain!” Moon Crystal called out, “I’ve put the crew on an emergency alert and sent out a distress call, but it’ll still take several minutes for it to reach the Harbor, and longer for them to arrive.”

“Tell Sun Strike and Silver Vein to join Golden Light on the tacs, they’re the best shots on the ship besides her.” She wasn’t sure that was saying much, but Morning Flare would take what she could get. “Tell everypony to brace themselves!”

“Nova, do we have a visual on our attacker?” Sand’s voice was uncharacteristically calm.

“The Scryer’s traced the path of that last shot,” he replied. “I have visual, putting it up now.”

Everypony’s eyes turned towards the screen for the briefest of moments as the view changed. It was definitely not a pony ship. Most equine vessels still resembled the sailing ships of antiquity in some way, thanks to the overpowering inertia of tradition. This one, it had a roughly wedge-shaped center, almost a bit beak-like. It had two wings, shaped like V’s, the bottom tip at the bow and the two upper tips at the stern. It had two wide sails, one dorsal and one ventral. And it looked old, battered.

Moon Crystal’s eyes narrowed. “I know that ship design. That’s griffon.”

“Surplus military,” Copper Sand remarked. “That model fell out of use ten years ago; lots were ‘misplaced.’” He went silent a moment, and the next word out of his mouth was full of venom. “Pirates. Your orders, Captain?”

“We have a lead on them, we can still outmaneuver them. Keep our shields up!”

***************

“This is ridiculous!”

Albrecht shot the bridge crew a murderous look. “It’s a freighter, not a fighter! How many times have those idiots missed? I’ll tear their gizzards out with my bare claws!” His eyes were like pinpricks in a field of white as he stabbed his sword into the deck’s floor for emphasis. Eugen winced at his side. At least the Captain wasn’t trying to stab him, anyway.

“Their pilot is either quite skilled, or completely insane,” Eugen remarked, watching their path. “Even when taking evasive action, they are traveling dangerously close to the heart of the Current. A wrong turn could see them dive in and be largely at its mercy. We should modify our firing solution accordingly, and try to pen them in, or force them into it.”

“We’re not letting them dive in to be wrecked,” Albrecht snarled. “I’ve gone through enough trouble already; we are getting something out of this.” Part of Eugen’s mind wanted to point out how much wasted effort and increased risk they were dealing with in hopes of that payoff, but he knew better than to contest his Captain right now. Instead, he cleared his throat after another shot narrowly missed.

“We are closing in on the Warscreech and Hell Talon, Captain,” he reasoned. “Perhaps it is time for us to hail them, and convince them to surrender.”

Albrecht glared daggers at his First Mate for a few seconds. Eugen tensed as he wondered what Albrecht would object to now. “Very well,” Albrecht finally replied. “Open a channel, now!” he called out, glancing to the gryphon to his left. The young officer worked frantically to turn on a complex device, pillaged in one of their past raids. It took some time for it to work; with no similar communicator on their target, theirs was forced to override the freighter’s primary viewscreen so Albrecht could address his prey in person.

It took a moment for the projection to resolve itself. And when it did he saw that the Captain’s chair was empty. Just four ponies manned the bridge around it. Directly ahead of him, an Earth Pony filly with a shock of bright red and orange hair and a sky blue coat glared furiously at him. Albrecht looked down at her with a calm annoyance.

“Where is your Captain, filly? I won’t speak with some lowly crewman.”

“I am the Captain,” was her only reply before going back to glowering silently.

Albrecht looked down at her with an expression that jumped from surprise, to annoyance, to barely restrained fury, before finally settling down to a frustrated irritation. “Well, little girl, you’ve run a good race for long enough now, but you can’t evade us forever. You’re outgunned, we can outrun you, and you’re far from home. I wouldn’t like to do anything too drastic to you or your crew… but if you don’t surrender, now, I will.” He pulled his sword out of the deck and hefted it menacingly.

“We seem to be doing fine so far,” the filly remarked. “Anything else I should know before we leave you in the dust, or are you just here to trade insults?”

It was at that moment the Warscreech and Hell Talon came into view, screaming out from behind the far side of the Current. Albrecht’s furious expression twisted into a cruel smile.

“I should add that you are outnumbered, too,” he added casually. “You cannot evade all three of us forever. I will repeat my offer. If you surrender, we will only take your cargo. If you continue to defy us, I promise your ship and crew will not survive.”

Silence reigned over the four bridge crew. The two older ones, both Earth Ponies, were unreadable, looking back at him with hateful expressions but no movement, save the dull red-orange one tapping his hoof against his desk. The youngish unicorn was the only one who seemed truly terrified. The filly Captain, meanwhile, was dead silent for what felt like an eternity. Albrecht was ready to order a warning shot when she finally spoke up.

“Very well,” she grumbled. “We will come to a full stop, and permit your boarding action.”

Chapter III: Standoff

For the first time since this had started, Morning Sky had a good look at their attacker. He was an older gryphon, with a head of white feathers that were starting to grey. His steely eyes had a yellow color to their irises that looked a bit unhealthy. Brown feathers tipped in off-white filled out the plumage of his wings, although a few seemed to be missing here and there. However ill those aspects of his appearance were, though, his body was covered in plate armor bearing runes of shielding, and it made him cut an intimidating figure. His beak glinted in the poor lighting of his vessel’s bridge, looking sharp enough to cut something. And there was that heavy, inelegant but sharp-looking sword that Morning could guess wasn’t just for show.

“I will repeat my offer,” he rasped. “If you surrender, we will only take your cargo. If you continue to defy us, I promise your ship and your crew will not survive.”

Somehow, she managed to maintain her scowl. Inwardly, her mind raced. The griffons had them outnumbered, sure, but if they could keep ahead they could still evade them. They just had to keep ahead for another ten minutes, they were sure to run into the Harbor Guard’s patrols by then.

And you’re willing to risk the lives of your entire crew on that? Morning Sky fought to keep the grimace off her face. This was a freighter, not a warbird. She’d run their luck so far already it was a miracle Sand didn’t decide to throw her off the helm and take command. Now there were three ships ready to fire on them, and two were straight ahead. Their situation was untenable. They were trapped.

“Very well,” she finally said in a low voice. A moment’s hesitation and she raised her voice a little, to make sure he could hear, “we will come to a full stop, and permit your boarding action.”

The griffon’s face twisted into a malicious smile, and she suppressed a shudder. There was some almost manic quality to that smile that left Morning Sky even more on edge than before. The captain got up from his chair, brushing some papers at his side and sending them falling to the floor. A dark-feathered griffon in armor at his right moved forward silently to pick them up as the Captain walked closer to the viewscreen. His eyes fixed on her with an obvious contempt, and he finally spoke.

“Good. Now, stop your vessel, and we will make this quick, and let you run to the Harbor. See? I am quite generous. Now, prepare your vessel to be boarded, I do not have all day.”

Morning Sky looked to her right, opened a panel, and pulled a crystal out from where it was inset. The freighter shuddered almost imperceptibly as the engines below them died. At her side, Copper Sand ran his hoof along a set of runes, the controls for the sails. Outside the hull, the sails’ enchantments were retuned on command, no longer catching the currents outside for speed. The freighter was moving along solely on momentum now.

Guiding the ship along with the aid of the projection at her side—the griffon captain still had not relinquished use of their viewscreen—Morning Sky almost missed the faint tapping coming from Moon Crystal’s direction. It seemed random at first, and it was only while she gave the forward directional thrusters a light tap to slow their momentum that Morning realized there was a pattern to them. Her ears perked up as she listened, trying not to betray any other emotion.

Most equine ships outside of the Empire did not have the funds for an expensive, magically-engineered intercom system, capable of translating language, much less speech. Most had to make do with telegraphs instead, and all ship-dwelling ponies knew at least one code to translate the device’s pulses into letters and words. Haven Rock Standard was perhaps the most common—so ubiquitous it was often nicknamed “Horse Code” for its heavy use on equine ships—and Morning Sky knew it by heart, like everyone else on the ship. Morning Sky listened raptly, desperately hoping for any advice Moon Crystal could offer right now.

“I left the cannoli in the eggplant.”

“What.” She forgot to add the question mark, but it got the point across.

“Wha.” Nova Light forgot to finish, but he made himself heard.

Moon Crystal seemed oblivious to them, keeping her eye on the viewscreen with the same unreadable expression. A few seconds passed, while the freighter continued to slow. Morning Sky steered them to port, so their path would take them slightly away from the heart of the current. If they showed any confusion at all to the pirate Captain, it failed to register on his face as he continued to watch Morning Sky. Finally, Moon Crystal added, “either good actor, or can’t understand.”

“Now?” Red Sand replied, tapping his left forehoof against the side of his chair.

“Can’t win,” Morning Flare replied.

“Can’t let board,” Sand immediately responded. His tapping was almost feverish, drawing a glance from the griffon captain. The old Earth Pony struggled to keep his face neutral under the pirate’s gaze, while the pirate’s eyes bored through his skull for a minute.

“Kill if run,” Morning replied, trying to keep her tapping quiet.

“Kill if stop,” Moon Crystal retorted. Morning Sky knew there was a chance of that, but was about to argue the point when Moon Crystal kept going, tapping on the telegraph linked to the ship’s intercom. “Saw papers first mate picked up,” her words came so quick Morning Sky almost couldn’t follow it. “Contract. Someone hired.”

Morning Sky struggled to not appear worried as she started to pick up Moon Crystal’s line of reasoning. Getting a job from someone was one of the more likely reasons they’d have that contract. But still, did they know the contract specifically had to do with them?

“Why kill us?” Nova Light finally added.

“Our cargo,” Moon Crystal finally added, as the griffon took his eyes off the Earth Pony. “Saw seal. Solar.”

Morning Sky fought to keep the look of panic off her face as the pieces started to come together in her mind. The freighter was almost completely stopped by now. A contract from the Solar Court, targeting a ship carrying valuable cargo for an Aquarian research project; she fumbled trying to explain it in her head, but the circumstances were piling up. And if the Empire wanted to stop this shipment, then…

“No witnesses,” Sand added, deciding to finish Morning Flare’s thought for her. The words chewed at Morning’s mind as the freighter finally reached a stop, resting dead in the Aether. The mare struggled to remain calm as she looked back up towards the griffon captain.

“Good,” he called out. “Now, lower your force-fields and prepare for our boarding action. The Warscreech and Hell Talon are coming about to handle our transaction. Keep your engines and your shields off, and we will make this quick.”

“Comet Trail wants to talk. Says it has to do with the attack,” Moon Crystal added. “He’s coming up.”

Morning Sky pretended to not notice as she kept her eyes on the griffon dominating the viewscreen. “I will go below-deck to inform my crew and prepare for your boarding action. You will want me to ensure everything goes smoothly.”

“You have five minutes until my men are ready to board,” the griffon replied, annoyed that his prey was still trying to define the terms of engagement. “I hope, for your sake, your crew makes no attempt to resist.”

***************

Morning Sky met Comet Trail at the bottom of the stairs just outside the bridge, stumbling halfway before she nearly fell the rest of the way in her haste. She galloped over to him and skidded to a halt before staring up at her ship’s engineer with an apprehensive look.

“What’s happened, Comet?” After everything today, the panic was finally starting to show through in the young mare’s voice. For his own part, the Pegasus didn’t exactly look calm either. And behind him stood just about every other member of the crew, save the three still on the bridge. Apparently, whatever he’d found, it was important enough for everypony to know.

“Captain, I discovered what caused the malfunction moments before the pirate attack began.” He probably noticed Morning Sky quirk an eyebrow at that and headed off any further question, “and Moon Crystal’s been telegraphing what’s going on up there, I think it’s related. You need to see this.”

He produced a very simple-looking device, a crystal encased in a copper shell, with several prongs on either end, holding it out for the others to see. The others studied it with a mixture of confusion and worry; Golden Light sucked in her breath and Sun Strike took a step back. Morning Sky stepped forward to take a closer look. She couldn’t understand the carvings on the dull crystal fully, but the gears were turning in her head regardless. “This crystal,” she spoke finally, “it held a charge?”

“That’s correct. I’d say a very powerful charge. And at the juncture in the engines where I found it, such a charge could’ve disrupted the circuitry, exactly like what happened. If I hadn’t vented all that excess energy so soon, there would’ve been a chain reaction that would’ve blown this entire freighter straight to Tartarus.”

“That device,” Golden Light spoke up, her tone unsteady, “I know that design. It’s Solar.”

“I had a feeling; the magic must have been very powerful and complex, but the technology is almost primitive. The last time we were in port was Greyrock; someone’s been trying to kill us ever since this trip began.”

The group’s silence was deafening. A few eyes turned towards Morning Sky; she tried not to notice them, keeping her eyes on the device so she didn’t have to meet their gazes. They were probably blaming her even now for taking this job.

“Why use pirates? You’d think they’d consider that beneath them,” Silver Song looked towards her Captain with obvious confusion, while Sun Strike busied himself with finding the nearest telegraph to relay the situation back to the bridge.

“If they sent one of their own warships this far into Aquarian territory, that’d provoke a war for sure,” Silver Vein remarked. “I don’ think they’re ready for that quite yet; I’d play odds they hired the pirates to handle the dirty work for them. Who knows how many more ships might be in danger out ‘ere?”

“The clues all add up; the Empire of the Undying Sun wants us dead for the cargo we’re transporting to the Aquarians. They must be using the pirates as a proxy.” Morning Sky finally looked her crew in the eyes as she regained her voice. “They’ll want no witnesses, knowing how they usually operate, and the pirates don’t take prisoners anyway. Getting us to stop was only a trap; we have to fight.”

“We need a plan, and quickly,” Comet Trail added. “They will be here in a couple minutes, and they’ll know something is up the instant we start moving or put our force-fields back up.”

“Comet Trail,” Morning Sky’s voice sounded authoritative once again, “get back down to Engineering and get the engines ready for a jump-start, you four, listen closely…”

***************

“I just want to say, for the record,” Golden Light called out, “’shoot at them and run away’ is not really that much of a plan!”

“No one said it’d be a very complex one,” Sun Strike responded as he readied the cannon directly behind her, on the opposite end of the maintenance deck. The Wandering Star was a freighter, not a warship. It had no proper gun deck. They’d mounted the four new light TACs here instead, jury-rigging their mountings into the poorly-lit corridors just above the main cargo hold. The ceiling was low for this work and the quarters were a bit tight, but it was the best place they could find. “Start charging the tacs now, we’ll only have a very narrow window before they figure out we’re armed.”

“Isn’t this, you know, against the rules?” Silver Song’s voice was a little wavering. “You know, shooting after you’ve surrendered?”

“Yes, Silver Song, it is.” Sun Strike’s voice was completely level as he called back to her.

“Isn’t that, well, bad?” Silver Song wasn’t the image of a good markspony, but they’d needed one pony to man the last cannon, and her levitation made her aim the steadiest among those left, not like it was saying much.

“What’re they going to do,” Golden replied, “complain to the Harbor Guard? Besides, we’ve already reached the conclusion they’re probably planning to kill us anyway.”

“Get ready, Sand will keep him busy,” Moon Crystal’s warning was quick and efficient. Golden turned her attention back to the cannon in front of her. The platform it was mounted on took much of the space; a door in front of the cannon remained closed for now. The force-field inside the door was up, though, so at least she wouldn’t get sucked into the Aether when it opened.

Compared to the platform that held it, allowing its rotation and keeping it stabilized, the cannon itself looked simple. A tube a couple ponies in length, with lines up and down the barrel. Golden Light pushed a crystal to her right back down into its conduit, completing the circuit with the weapon’s capacitor, and at once those lines began to fill up with light. It was a bright, red light, the ship’s magic reserves flowing into the cannon like blood through an artery. She could see the others’ cannons light up in the dark as she fished for a slug to load in.

TACs—Telekinetic Accelerator Cannons—were probably the most common armament in the entire Expanse; even the Solars had them, although Golden was sure they probably had some fancy, poetic term they used. The concept, though, was the same everywhere, and almost painfully simple. The rings inside the cannon each powered a levitation spell that would push the load inside forward. The early spacefaring ponies essentially weaponized unicorn telekinesis. Well, if memory served it was originally conceived as a way to move cargo, but after a griffon raiding party attacked a mining colony out in the Cheilos, its alternative application soon became obvious.

The one in front of her could propel a standard iron slug fast enough to go through an unshielded brick house, and probably knock it down from the impact. It even sounded impressive, until you remembered that even the surplus light raider craft outside had bigger cannons, and probably more of them. A proper galleon or battleship would have at least a hundred per side, and they’d likely have twice the strength. Fighting out in space, the cannon in front of her was practically a pea shooter.

A pea shooter I’m about to fire into the eye of an angry griffon. Golden Light levitated her flask to her lips and scowled when she remembered it was empty. Sun Strike insisted on cutting her off after the second shot. He asked her why she thought it was a good idea to be drunk right now. She asked him why he thought it was a good idea to be sober right now. Sadly, he didn’t see her reasoning. And now she could almost feel her anxiety coming back again. Merciful Sun Goddess—Celestia, can I just call you Celestia? Please, sweet Celestia, don’t let me die sober.

“Golden Light? Golden Light! Equus to Golden Light! Thirty seconds until contact!” Sun Strike’s voice broke her out of her reverie and she looked frantically down towards the heavy iron slug that somehow found its way into her hooves. The cannon in front of her was fully charged; the bright red lines running the length of it lit up the dark. Immediately she opened a panel at the back of the cannon and fed the slug into it, closing the door and locking it shut. The holographic display lit up, showing her field of fire, targets, and present line of fire, and she knelt down to prepare herself.

***************

“Twenty seconds!” Golden Light called out.

Silver Song huddled in front of the loaded TAC, the red light casting an eerie glow over her form. She handled spell circuits. She was also the ship’s nurse. In a pinch she navigated. The others knew she’d never fired a gun in her life. And yet she was still down here, hunched behind a cannon, aiming it at another ship. She was able to make sense of the interface, thank the stars, but she was still nearly shaking as she used her magic to aim the device. She was used to fine control over her telekinesis, but concentration felt impossible.

The pirates were getting close enough that they would have little to no time to react when the freighter opened fire. That was, in fact, the idea. Their force-fields were still down in order to allow boarding. A shot would reach their ships before they could be reactivated. But that also went for—

“Silver, aim for the engines, I’ll target the sails.”

Golden Light’s voice snapped her out of her thought processes again. She took one last deep breath. The red line showing her line of fire wavered over the Raider’s aft section. Her angle was a better one than Golden Light would’ve had—that logic was clear—but she could still only just make out the engine behind the Raider’s left wing. Her aim would have to be precise. The unicorn tried to breathe slowly as she struggled to keep the cannon steady in her magic. That was when she noticed it.

“Eight, seven…”

“Wait,” Sun Strike’s voice broke the countdown, “they’re changing their heading, that course won’t bring them about to our airlock. That’ll bring them—horseapples, the engines!”

Silver Song heard them peripherally, but her eyes were on the Raider’s left wing, now. Rather, the cannon on the wing that was just starting to glow. Sun Strike’s voice cut Golden off.

“No time, just shoot!”

Her hoof was on the activation rune before she even heard the words, her eyes fixated on that glow as she focused her aim, choking back a cry of alarm as the roar of unleashed magic filled her ears.

Chapter IV: Fight and Flight

Silver Song’s ears rang. Lightning flashed across her vision and the ceiling above shook from the sound of the blast. Outside, lightning arced across the wing of the raider in front of her. The sight was blinding, and she fought to clear the static from her mind. Fighting to keep her calm, she looked out to try and survey the damage.

The cannon on the right wing was gone. Something had caused it to rupture, right as it was supposed to fire. Lightning arced all over the wing, spreading from the wrecked weapon wildly. The raider lurched on its side. Had she really managed to do that?

All at once her hooves nearly gave way as the ship lurched forward, jumping into motion from a cold start as fast as it could. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see another shot from somewhere behind her fly past the rear of the ship, sailing clear off, deeper into the Current; the other raider must have just barely missed.

“Horsefeathers! Shot wide!” Silver Song just made out Golden Light’s words, off to her left. “Morning Sky, give us a little warning next time before you change course!”

“Nothing over here either. We moved just as I was about to fire. Did anyone hit anything?” A nervous frustration was finally showing through in Sun Strike’s voice.

“Not a danged…” Golden Light stopped mid-sentence and stared at the raider’s crippled wing. “Wait, how did that…?”

Silver Song meekly raised a hoof while trying to load another iron shot into the chamber. Golden Light stared blankly at her, and back at the damage caused by the only person on the gun deck to have never fired cannon.

“…Huh. O-“

If she had any more to say, it was cut off when the ship took a hard dive, sending her tumbling further down the deck.

“MORNING SKY!”

****************

The last few moments were a blur up on the bridge. Morning Sky dimly recalled staring down the griffon captain while waiting for the raiders to draw near. She’d kept silent while she waited for them to pull up alongside the vessel. Behind her, Moon Crystal stood, waiting to relay instructions down to the gun deck. Three, short taps, that was what the signal was supposed to be.

She still wasn’t yet sure what seized her. It started as a growing anxiety in the back of her mind. She hadn’t seen the perplexed expression on Nova Light’s face as he discreetly observed the raider craft through his Scryer. Sand remained at his station, his face stony and quiet, and Moon Crystal struggled to keep the tension off her face. But that nervous feeling crept on through her consciousness.

And then, out of nowhere, a single, frantic command filled her whole mind. A single word, but the imperative was so strong it seemed to come from everywhere at once.

MOVE!

She’d slammed her hoof on the crystal embedded into the captain’s chair. She bolted upright, and went straight for the wheel. Copper Sand only just registered what was happening in time to raise the forward screens. Her left hoof was on the wheel and her right hoof on the lever nearby not a second after she got up. She ignored the confused, then furious words coming from the griffon on the viewscreen, and slammed the lever down fast as she could, turning the wheel towards the right.

The ship’s engines roared to life behind her and the entire cabin shook as the ship lunged forward. She swung the wheel right, and the ship turned hard to starboard, just as they heard a crackling of electricity just behind them.

“The port raider just fired!” Sand called out. “The shot was just barely wide, passed just behind us, would’ve taken out our engines!”

“What are you doing? Hold still!” The griffon captain stumbled over his words. “I… I mean, how dare you, to try and trick us! Raiders, blow them out of the stars!”

“Moon Crystal, shut him up!” Morning Sky brought the ship hard to port and set the engines to full burn without breaking stride. The viewscreen returned to normal just in time to show them roaring past the two raiders. A quick turn narrowly dodged another shot from the leader raider’s cannons, as it raced overhead, overshooting them. Morning Sky looked down frantically at the globe at her side, to see where it was heading. The red dot representing the lead craft was coming around fast to take another shot. The young mare took an uneasy last look at the viewscreen and closed her eyes, pushing down on the lever nearest to her left.

The freighter plunged hard, diving so quickly Sky could hear the hull start to strain around her. The lead raider came about and leveled off to fire on them, only to pass uselessly overhead. Peripherally, she heard Nova Light yelp as he banged his head, and even Moon Crystal’s calm façade broke as she was nearly thrown out of her chair.

“Morning Sky!” the cry rang out. They could just barely hear Golden Light’s voice through the floorboards. Two floors’ distance didn’t deter her when she felt like it. Morning Sky ignored it for now and kept her eyes on the displays.

Another hard turn towards starboard and they narrowly avoided another shot from the raiders overhead. They had to get back to the Current. The added speed was the only way they’d be able to evade them. The same raider that shot at them roared down towards them and fired again. She turned the ship hard to port and the craft came screaming down towards their right, just avoiding clipping the freighter’s sails. A shot from one of the cannons below glanced the engines but seemed to do little to slow the ship down.

“Tell them to aim for the sails! If we can damage those, they won’t be able to keep up in the streams.”

Moon Crystal relayed her orders while Morning Sky tried to bring them back towards starboard. The griffons were starting to wise up. They were trying to keep the freighter from reaching the flow of energy below them, out in normal space where their faster engines would leave the ship at their mercy sooner or later. The raider that just blazed past them was playing more cautiously now, flying near the Current, ready to intercept if they got closer. There was no logical chance they’d enter the Emerald Current without them getting a shot in.

Morning Sky had barely any time to think. Another one of the raiders was already closing in from behind; a glance on the viewscreen showed that it was the same one that had its right cannon totaled. Upwards on the port side, the lead craft was already coming about for another pass. If they continued on their current path, they’d be caught between both. Moving up would drive them further away from their best chance of survival. Moving down would probably let all three close in. They were running out of ways to move forward.

“Sand?”

“Captain?”

“I’m about to try something stupid.”

Before he could reply, the whole ship lurched again as it began to slow, even as Morning Sky turned hard to starboard. The freighter swung straight into the damaged raider’s line of fire, and Morning Sky held her breath while it charged up its remaining wing cannon. But it never fired.

The Wandering Star almost stopped its engines entirely, moving along on momentum alone. And now the raider was hurtling straight towards the freighter at dangerous speeds. Morning Sky grinned dangerously as Sand shunted the force field’s energy straight into the raider’s path, causing it to frantically swerve hard to port to avoid them. The bridge crew tensed as the raider just narrowly missed tearing off a sail.

The craft’s damaged side was facing them now. For a few moments, they were practically at point blank range, and the damaged raider was stuck between them and the lead craft.

“Tell Sun Strike to fire! Make it count!”

****************

Sun Strike didn’t even need to hear the command. He stood by his cannon, staring out the viewport, and hardly flinched when the other three shouted in alarm when Silver Song looked out her viewport and saw the raider barreling fast towards them. Now that it swerved, he could guess what was going on.

“Silver Vein, pull yourself together and get ready!”

It worked as well as Sun Strike could hope for. The stallion recovered his wits upon seeing the raider bank hard to avoid them. Sun Strike knelt behind his cannon and stared down the sights. The Star was still at an angle, banking towards starboard, as the raider corrected its course, bringing it straight into Sun Strike’s line of fire. The large dorsal sail was right in front of him.

And Sun Strike fired. And he fired again, and again.

He moved his telekinesis with almost mechanical precision, loading another slug in almost the instant the last one was fired. The energy in the cannon struggled to keep up, and lost some of its force, but he kept firing. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a few slugs from Silver Vein’s cannon strike home as well. The lightning shield around the raider craft flickered with each impact, wavering bit by bit, until Sun Strike could see his fifth shot finally make it through.

He watched as the shot struck the length of the sail, and reared up as it tore a great gash on its path through.

“YES!”

The raider tried to swerve to avoid the fire, but the important damage was done. The two stallions kept firing at the craft until their attention was drawn to the lead vessel, soaring over the damaged ship.

The floor beneath them lurched forward again as the ship picked up speed and went into a dive. Sun Strike heard the lead craft’s cannons go at full roar as it passed overhead. He braced himself for impact, but nothing came. They must have dodged it. His gaze snapped over to the opposite side of the deck, where the two other unicorns stayed close by their stations.

“Your turn, get ready!”

On the opposite side of the room, Silver Song crouched behind her cannon, her fur damp with sweat. Golden Light was already aiming down her sights; her cannon had been left to charge energy for minutes now, and it glowed in the dark of the gun deck, as did hers. Silver Song had no idea how she could be so calm right now. She sat up, and stared down the sights of the weapon in front of her.

With an ear splitting scream from its engines, the lead craft swooped down into their field of vision. Silver Song felt herself lurch forward a bit as the Star angled itself to get a better shot, and the griffon ship swung back up into the center of her vision. Silver Song felt like she could lose her lunch from one more turn.

“Fire! Fire quick!”

Golden Light’s cannon bathed the whole deck in red light as it fired, the iron shot glowed like a beacon as it flew straight down. The griffon ship’s lightning shield flared brightly, but it was too close to dodge.

A bright burst of red light filled the space between the two ships. For a moment, the lightning shield flickered and wavered. To her side, she could hear Golden Light yell for her to fire, even as she prepared another round, but Silver Song only watched the ship below her. The lightning shield flickered unsteadily, wavering in and out of existence in an almost predictable pattern. But that wasn’t what Silver Song was staring at.

She gazed down at the mess of conduits behind the main engines. Without a single further word, she reached towards the cannon in front of her, waited for the lightning to flicker again, and fired.

Her aim was true. Her timing was just right. She watched as the blindingly bright shot passed through the lightning shield and impacted the craft behind it in a burst of red light.

***************

Sparks flew overhead as the conduit to the bridge ruptured. The entire ship rocked forward, and Albrecht was thrown to the floor before he could even shout a command. Warning klaxons sounded, on the bridge and in the hallway behind him. Off to his left, in his dazed state he could see a bridge crewman try to halt the crackling flow of electricity above them all.

“Fix it, you fool, fix it!” he shouted in his stupor.

The griffon stopped at the sight of the conduit. Power faded in and out all across the bridge, but the anxiety on his face was clear. The griffon clearly had no equipment to repair the power line, nor any clear idea how to even do so, but grabbed the pipe and pulled himself forward to get a better look. He was awarded with an arc of electricity arcing out of the exposed conduit to hit him squarely in the face; the young griffon yelped in pain before another’s hand struck out towards the lightning.

Eugen coolly surveyed the pipe and thrust his hand into the lightning’s path. The raw energy arced towards the palm of the First Mate’s hand and the younger griffon looked on in fright. Yet, the energy did not even seem to bother the grizzled, dark-feathered reaver. Eugen closed his hands around the lightning, the loose lightning gathering into a ball in his talons before he carefully pressed it back towards the exposed pipe. None who watched said a word as the First Mate pushed the lightning back into the conduit, and with a few careful movements of his talons, the energy played around the edges of the hole, turning the metal red-hot before it melted back into place and hardened again. Only when the conduit looked as though nothing had happened did Eugen fly back down to check on the injured crewman, who had landed back on the floor.

“You, report to the medical officer for lightning injuries, third priority,” his voice was quick and almost mechanical. “Dismissed,” he finished, motioning for the griffon to leave as he turned and helped Albrecht to his feet.

Albrecht let out a cough, and turned towards his officers. “Damage report!”

“Captain, engines are completely offline. That shot triggered a power surge throughout the power distribution system. We have damage reports from every sector of the ship!”

“Tell the engineer to get the engines back online, you idiot! What do I pay you fools for?”

“Captain, the engineering officer and his staff are working to repair the damage to the generator. We aren’t going anywhere until it’s fixed.” The crewman looked up looked up to meet Albrecht’s unhinged gaze and wavered. “I… I mean, sir, we can’t go anywhere until it’s fixed. Engineering reports that it’s not stable. It’d probably destroy the ship if we tried to go at full speed.”

“Where is the Hell Talon?”

“The equine ship did further damage to their starboard side, captain. They are maneuvering to engage the freighter again, but the freighter has a considerable head start.”

“This is ridiculous! It’s a freighter. It’s not even supposed to have guns!” Albrecht turned to look at his bridge crew. “Are you imbeciles trying to tell me that a single equine freighter is too much for you?”

“Communications officer,” Eugen interrupted. “What is the status of the Warscreech?”

“The Warscreech is maintaining its current heading, First Officer. They have yet to suffer battle damage.”

Albrecht looked towards the communications officer with just-restrained fury. “Then that is our only option. Order the Warscreech to pursue that freighter. This is up to Reiner and his crew now; they are our only option. Pray for your own sakes that they succeed.”

The griffon communications went back to work while Albrecht returned to the captain’s chair. “This whole contract is quickly becoming far more than it’s worth,” he grumbled. “I hope, for Sunrise Flare’s sake, this all turns out to be worth it.”

***************

Two down, that leaves one to go. Morning Sky’s eyes narrowed uneasily as she considered their options. The lead ship was dead in the water, but the second raider would catch up soon, despite the battle damage. The third ship was still in front of them, guarding the pathway to the Current. Far behind her, the second raider kept firing its one still-functioning cannon, but right now they were so far away as to be just simply annoying.

The Wandering Star maintained its heading towards the Current’s boundaries, and the third raider remained on course. They weren’t moving to engage, but Morning Sky could gauge their speed well enough. Their current path would place them just behind the Star. Morning moved to adjust their heading, their speed, but each time the third raider adjusted its own as well. Even without its sail, the second raider could move fast enough with just its engines to catch up if they couldn’t take advantage of the Current, and the third raider’s captain knew it. He simply had to wait them out for a few minutes. For a moment, it perplexed her as to why they hadn’t at least fired a warning shot, but on closer inspection she could see why. The cannons on either wing were bristling with lightning. They were conserving, waiting for a good shot.

Either one of those cannons could punch straight through our force field. Morning Sky looked about with an increasingly frantic expression. There had to be some way around this, something they could…

Her attention was taken away for a second by a bright flash, up ahead. The center of it was blinding, and a great plume of blue energy cascaded out from it on all sides. The energies clashed chaotically as they reached the Current, sparking off unpredictable spells and raw, chaotic magic.

It was a Spellburst, an eruption of magical energy. They reacted unpredictably towards the energies in the Emerald Current. Everyone knew that. And yet, something felt different. She could feel that unfamiliar sense again, like something scratching in the back of her mind.

“Moon Crystal.”

“Captain?”

“Signal Silver Song and Golden Light. Have they let their cannons build up power?”

There was a pause as Moon Crystal relayed the question. “Yes, Captain.”

What are you thinking of? She shook the thought from her mind as she looked Moon Crystal in the eye.

“Tell them to shoot the Current. Aim for right in front of them.”

A dead silence reigned on the bridge as the three others simply stared at her.

“You heard me! Shoot!”

Moon Crystal relayed the order, her work almost clumsy from surprise. Morning Sky watched, doing nothing yet. Are you crazy? The thought came unbidden to her mind as she watched the viewscreen tensely. Hopefully, yes. Otherwise I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t work.

The cannons fired. The cannons on their port side had charged for minutes now. The two shots flew across the aether like blindingly-bright rubies. Morning Sky let the engines roar for all they were worth as she fought to race ahead of the final raider. Far off the port side of the ship, the ship finally noticed the danger it was in, and banked hard and to the left as the shots from the Wandering Star struck deep into the streams of the Emerald Current.

The flash was blinding. Red and green light shot off in every direction. A great plume of green from a ruptured stream of the Current combusted and turned to fire, sending jets and fireballs off in wild abandon. Morning Sky had to send the freighter into a steep climb to avoid a massive, misshapen hunk of stone created by the magic below them. She cleared as much of the chaos as she could, and dived as fast as she dared, back towards the nearest stable part of the Current she could find.

Chapter V: The Plunge

“Captain, it’s working! We’re leaving the other two ships in the dust!” Copper Sand’s voice was filled with equal measures of anxiety and elation.

A part of Morning Sky understood that entirely. Spellbursts hit the Current all the time, and didn’t affect the Current permanently. They didn’t do lasting harm, far as anyone knew. No one really had any idea, though, what would happen when the energies collided. Sometimes, it’d form asteroids, or other matter, sometimes it’d create energy, like an explosion that could be seen for miles. She knew it’d been reckless. Then again, they hadn’t had any better options.

That didn’t make it any less crazy. She looked tensely towards the aetherscape behind them. The third raider wasn’t to be seen, but it was still definitely out there, she was sure of that much. She rode the ship as close to the streams of green below her as she dared. They needed all the speed they could get. They were close enough now that the occasional, errant plume of magic coming up from the Current threatened to throw them off course, and already Morning Sky had needed to dodge a few.

And yet, that wasn’t what worried her most, right now. She couldn’t place a hoof on it, but there was something different, and it threatened her concentration even with a ship full of bloodthirsty griffon pirates right behind them.

She could feel it, in her head, feeling about in her mind. It worried her. It made her feel threatened, even more than the griffons chasing after her right now. What could be more threatening than someone trying to kill you?

The fact that last thought wasn’t even my own.

She expected a sensation of awkwardness, from whatever was trying to worm its way inside her mind. Instead, she just felt an overwhelming sense of disbelief. And not even the sort of shocked, surprised disbelief she’d hoped for.

You’re telling me you just figured out that I’m someone else’s voice in your head. The tone was, if anything, deadpan.

You didn’t exactly bother to make a proper introduction, you know. And I think I have a right to ask WHAT THE HAY ARE YOU DOING INSIDE MY HEAD.

Look, this isn’t exactly the time for formalities. You’re still in danger! I was trying to warn you earlier about the griffons, but you were too far from the Current for me to form any kind of real connection. You’ve got to keep moving, you’re almost to the Harbor. I’m trying to help, honest!

Morning Sky swerved to avoid another plume of emerald magic. Alright, alright, okay! Can you at least give me any idea where the third one is by now?

My connection is with you, everything else is a blur, indistinct. I’m trying to find them, but it’s all hazy.

“Captain,” Nova Light spoke up. “I’m picking up more wakes in the current. They’re out there, somewhere.”

Does that help any?

Wait… The Current, if they’re in what you call the Emerald Current, then…

That uneasy silence told Morning Sky all she needed to know. She brought them even lower, the underside of the ship scraping against the streams below as she tried to go even faster, solid magic lashing against their sails.

“Captain, there’s something on the starboard—“

Morning Sky turned hard to port before Nova Light even began his sentence. The ship groaned from the maneuver and she struggled to keep it from being caught in the waves of magic below. It was just seconds later that the raider burst from a stream off their port side, the front of the craft sweeping upward like a wicked-looking blade. The griffon ship shot straight upward, leaving a glistening trail of emerald magic behind it. It’d meant to smash right through them.

The Current… He’s so good or so insane he’s willing to fly INSIDE the Emerald Current itself? If the voice in her mind hadn’t warned her even as Nova Light was talking, odds are it would have worked, too.

“I’m picking up some… Captain!” Nova Light’s voice turned panicked again. “The raider’s cannons are still fully charged!”

Morning Sky started to begin evasive maneuvers once again before the full implication of what Nova Light just said. She started to search for the raider on the viewscreen before the voice confirmed just what she was thinking.

Go! Go! Hurry!

Morning Sky banked hard to port and kept the Wandering Star so close to the Emerald Current the freighter was almost swimming in it.

“They’re not aiming for us!” Copper Sand called out. “Diverting power to engines!”

Out of the corner of her eye, Morning Sky could see the twin cannon shots fire, so charged with lightning that lashed out in great, long arcs, screaming down towards the same trajectory they’d taken before Morning Sky turned the ship. They weren’t aiming for the Wandering Star, though.

Morning Sky worked the engines for all she could. And at the last moment, she angled the freighter at another sharp turn, up and out of the Current as fast as she could manage.

The twin shots impacted the surface of the Current. And all at once, the sea of green magic below them erupted into chaos. Lightning surged through the magic. Raw energy kicked up by the blow exploded from the turbulent stream.

Left! Right! Right! The voice was frantically calling out directions as Morning Sky swerved to avoid the geysers of raw magic shooting up from below. I see them too! I promise! Her eyes widened as she just narrowly dodged another blast. Okay, maybe not all of them. Nova Light was frantically calling out reports at this point, but they were almost background noise by now. Down below, Sun Strike, Silver Vein, Golden Light and Silver Song were trying to return fire, but the raider stayed too far out of their firing arc for it to do any good. The shots from the raider were coming more quickly, now, and the Current below them was not calming yet. He was trying to narrow their options, use the geysers of energy to box them in and finish them off.

We have to do something. Even if we get clear he’s going to get lucky eventually.

Left! The voice’s warning rang out before she stopped to reply. We just need to hold out a bit longer, we don’t have any better options right now that I can see. The Harbor Watch has to have picked up the distress signal by now; they’ll respond soon, you’re getting closer.

Morning Sky swerved to dodge another shot from above and made another hard turn to avoid another plume of chaotic energy rising from the surface. He was gaining. They were out of time. Straining her eyes for anything that could help, she finally saw what she was looking for.

“The edge of the hot zone is just up ahead!” Copper Sand called out. “We’re almost free.”

“Until he charges up another shot like the last one,” Nova Light pointed out in a tone that just barely managed to be calm.

“We need a solution fast, he’s trying to gain on us,” Morning Sky replied, looking behind them. The griffon craft had come down to their level, to take full advantage of the Current’s energies again. They were moving fast out here, but ultimately, he would catch up again. And his shots were getting closer. It was like he was adapting to Morning Sky’s maneuvers.

We won’t survive like this. It’s time to consider all our options.

What, exactly, are ‘all our options’?

Morning Sky passed between another pair of geysers, and swerved only just in time to avoid the raider’s next shot tearing through the main sail. The edge of the disruption was just ahead. Morning Sky weaved past another pillar of magic and braced herself for what was coming.

The voice in the back of her mind finally seemed to grasp the situation too.

You… You can’t possibly be serious. There’s no way.

If you can read my mind, you know I’m dead serious.

Are you kidding? This is the worst plain I could think of—wait!

They cleared the disruption, the flows of magic beneath them growing calm once again, a churning sea, flowing onward, and a steadily gaining ship right behind them, trying to fill the air with shots. The streams were predictable once more, and Morning Sky looked down at them with the smallest hint of trepidation.

It faded as she reached for the lever by her left foot and sent the freighter into a steep plunge, straight down into the river of magic below.