Sol-less Equus

Just like some cliched old story, it all began with a letter.

Gallus the gryphon let out a small huff and looked over the text on the paper, written in a delicate, yet official manner.

Dear Gallus,

Your presence is required in Crystal Empire. Attached to this letter are the Transfer and Summon requests to smoothen any bureaucratic issues, as well as the sum necessary to purchase the ticket for the express train from Gryphonstone to the Crystal Empire. Please arrive as soon as possible, there is a matter that requires private discussion.

Signed,
Her Royal Imperial Majesty, Sovereign of Love, Empress Mi Amore Cadenza
His Royal Imperial Majesty, Protector of the Empire, Emperor Shining Armor

Nothing new, nothing old, everything just as cryptic as it was when he first received it three days ago. Still, the letter had the genuine seal of the royal family, and has been delivered by an imperial courier, so probably this was important.

The gryphon sighed and looked out of the frost-covered window. The skies were of a beautiful azure shade, filled with shimmering dots, both above and below the train. Snow was flying by as the train steamed on ahead, towards the glimmering pink dot on the horizon. The gryphon shook his head and closed his eyes. He wanted to go back to a much simpler time, when he was just a fledgeling. Before the world was torn apart by the Disaster.

He felt a headache arise. With a sigh, he opened his eyes and stared blankly at the void behind the glass. Contrary to popular belief, it didn’t stare back at him.

He sat like that for the rest of the ride.

“Now arriving at Crystal Empire Rail Terminal. Please gather your luggage and proceed to the exit; the train has arrived to the final terminus”

Gallus opened his eyes and stood up from his seat. He heard the train wheels clang and screech as one by one when they touched down on the rails of the receiving line, as the engineers were applying brakes. He pondered how it looked from outside. Would the locomotive let off a lot of sparks as wheels grind on the rails? The gryphon smirked. Yes, perhaps that would be quite a spectacle that Silverstream would like to see.

He probably should write to his friends soon. After three years of isolation that followed the world shattering he was more than just relieved to get letters from them (and send his own letters!) and learn that while they were shaken, they were alive and well. Well, mostly well. But they were alive, and that was what was important.

Grabbing a suitcase with his simple belongings, and headed to the exit. He was glad to finally leave the confines of the train, seeing how he was the only creature on it going that far along the line.
Actually, he was pretty sure he was the only creature on that train, period. Gryphons were not too fond of going that far west. Despite west no longer existing in the usual sense of the world.

Either way, he got off the train and looked around the platform… And felt his beak open as he saw a group of five creatures.
An earth pony of that strange pale green-or-yellow color and teal mane.
An orange dragoness standing proud, arms crossed over her chest.
A large brown female yak with mane braided in two hoops on the sides of her head.
A pale blue changeling with soft red elytra and pink neck fin and tail.
And of course, the pale purple hippogryph who already noticed him and now was flying towards him at an alarming speed.

“Gallus!” Silvestream shrieked as she collided with the blue gryphon, and they both tumbled along the platform, “Oh I am so happy-happy-happy to see you!”

Yup, the Disaster didn’t change her one bit.

“Hey dude,” Sandbar welcomed Gallus by helping him up, “Long time no see”

“Yak missed gryphon friend!” Yona proclaimed. She grew up, perhaps even more than the rest of their group, the gryphon realized.

Gallus raised his paws up, “N-no hugging, please - or at least not right now”

Smolder huffed and offered a fist-bump. Gallus accepted.

Finally, he nodded towards Ocellus, who returned the gesture.

“Glad to finally see you again, guys,” the gryphon exhaled, “Been too long since our last meeting. Sure, letters are fine and all, but… I guess I was missing seeing you in person… Ah, whatever! Yona, forget what I said earlier,” he laughed as the group shared a warm, prolonged hug.

“Hey, Gallus,” Sandbar said afterwards, “A question. Are you here because you’ve got a letter too?”

“Wait, really?” the gryphon looked at the earth pony and blinked, “You guys did get one too?”

“Mhm”
“Yup”
“Yak got letter!”
“Yah”
“Yes”

The group went silent as they exchanged glances.

“Well, I guess we’ll hear an explanation soon,” Sandbar said, nodding to the side.

Everycreature turned to look in the direction Sandbar nodded to. There, they saw a group of ponies approaching them. Two of them were immediately recognizable as Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor, rulers of the Crystal Empire. Along with them was a group of four elite guards, vigorously guarding the ruling pair. And a bit to the side, under a watchful gaze of two more elite guards, walked another pony. A stallion of earth tribe, with dark gray coat, short, messy dark blonde mane and tail. He had three strong, pale-yellow hooves with unshorn fetlocks. The fourth hoof was made of steel, for the stallion had a prosthetic left hind leg from slightly above the knee. The stallion was wearing a bomber jacket - gryphon-made, as Gallus noted from the insignia on the shoulder - a pair of flight goggles on his neck, and a simple naval-styled cap. He seemed utterly disinterested in whatever was going on around him, and his eyes - left one swamp-green, right one almost gray - were half-closed.

"Greetings, Your Majesties!" the six creatures bowed to the approaching royalty.

"Hello, friends of the Empire," Cadance replied with a small nod, "And welcome. I hope your journey here was good?"

"Yes!" Silverstream nodded vigorously, "Even if there weren't many creatures on the train, it was still enjoyable!"

"Yak no like new train," Yona grumbled, "Old train on rail. New train fly. Yak no like flying"

"Alas, such are the times we live in," Shining said, "Without them, we'd remain isolated from one another"

"Yak still no like them"

"Ahem!" everycreature turned their heads towards the gray stallion, who spoke in a raspy voice, "Could we please hurry up? I don't have all day"

"Yes, I think that would be for the better," Cadance nodded. Shining nodded in agreement, "I have summoned you here for a reason"

"We've figured that much," Gallus rolled his eyes, "Why though?"

"Please, come with us," Shining Armor nodded, "It would be better if we show and tell"

The group went through the busy railyard, through the platforms, passages, bridges and arches, moving past departing, arriving, and awaiting trains.
Trains, giants of steel. But those were not ordinary trains, no; those were trains in the name only. Each and every one was a much more complex machine now, at least twice as big as locomotives of the pre-Disaster era; they were sturdier, heavier, and much, much more powerful than the engines of old. No longer were they made for rails, no. They were made to soar through Äther, the great void that was surrounding the shattered continents of the world of Equus, broken by the Disaster.

'Ride on the wheels of steel, fly on the wings of steam,' was the slogan of modern society.

And, to everyone's surprise, the sight of trains excited not only Silverstream, but Ocellus as well.

"...that large one that just departed, was the Steelgrad Bellus-oh-eight engine. There are rumors that the previous model, oh-seven, had experienced a disastrous failure in the prototype stage and was scrapped immediately afterwards. And that one, with dual chimneys, is Root&Joy Co. Rail Yards Horo Hauler; it has folding wings and tail fins for improved stability and maneuverability. Oh and see this one, with scratched hull and a mountain emblem on its boilerplate? I think it's one from the Griffin's war a few years ago…" the changeling spoke to the hippogryph, who was looking at metal behemoths around them with a glee.

After all, there never was much traffic through mt.Aries station. Not before, nor after the Disaster.

About thirty minutes later, the group arrived at the 'technical' side of the station, where the depots and service stations of all kinds were located. There, ten or so more minutes of walking, they stood before a heavily guarded hangar.

"So what are we doing here?" Gallus asked, looking at the massive doors.

"Well… Tin, will you do the honors?" Cadance glanced at gray stallion.

"Joy," the gray stallion, Tin, huffed, "Never thought you'd ask," he walked to the smaller door in the gates. The guards stepped aside, as the stallion pulled out a keyring and, after some fiddling to find the right key, opened the lock, "Thought you'd keep parading me around like some sort of trophy prisoner. Come on in"
The elite guards at his sides rolled their eyes in judgemental silence.

With that, he opened the door and stepped inside. The six creatures exchanged confused looks, and followed him inside.

"I don't know who you are and why am I even supposed to do that, but you don't just say 'no' to an empress," Tin continued inside the hangar. Most of it was engulfed in the darkness, barring the catwalk the group climbed on. They could see a silhouette of a locomotive in the darkness, faint glimmer of something shiny on the hull, "So I'll tell you what I told her"

"We were on a salvage-and-slash-or-mining operation deep within the Outer Verge. Perhaps I went further than we had to," the stallion stopped near a large control panel, "And our engine got hit by an Äther-storm. We endured, and when everything cleared up, we saw… This"

Tin turned on the lights in the hangar, momentarily blinding everycreature inside.

"It was just… There"

‘It’ turned out to be a battered äther locomotive. Its once white hull was covered in dents and rust, the brass ornaments green with corrosion, bridge-cab windows shattered. Here and there, splinters of green glass were sticking from the hull.

And on the side of the cylindrical hull was a nameplate, with large, intricate letters spelling the word ‘HHML Harmony’, right next to something no creature seen for the last twenty years.

A purple six-point star, surrounded with five smaller white stars.

A replica of the cutie mark of Twilight Sparkle, the now presumed dead ruler of Equestria.

The silence fell as the six creatures stood there, looking at the battered locomotive in front of them, pondering on the possibilities.

"There. Can I go now?"

And just like that, Tin broke the spell.

"Just a little longer, Tin," Cadance said, making the stallion groan in frustration. He mumbled something akin to 'This was a mistake', pulled a flask from a pocket on his jacket and took a swig from it.

"So, wait a moment," Sandbar said, turning towards Cadance, "You called us here to show this… thing, but… why exactly?"

"Yak wonder that too!" Yona nodded vigorously.

"Well, we wanted to show you this engine," Shining explained, "More specifically, the emblem on it. And then there is this," his horn lit up as he pulled a book - or, to be more specific, a large, leather-clad journal, from one of the guard's saddlebag, and levitated it over to the Sandbar.

The journal was then rather quickly snatched by Silversream who shouted in excitement, "Hey, look, it has Twilight's cutie mark as well!"

"We believe it is her research journal and logbook of sorts, looking at what is written there," Cadance said, "We didn't read much, but we suspect that this journal might have some clues on what Twilight was working on before… well, what happened happened"

Tin huffed and took another swig from his flask, earning a disapproving glance from 'his' guards.

"So, uh, you want us to figure out what happened with Twilight by reading her journal?" Ocellus asked, pulling said journal from Silverstream.

"No. We want you to find her," said Shining Armor.

This caused the gray stallion to spit another sip from his flask and guffaw, loudly, and the six gawked at the crystal empress and her spouse.

"Uh, not to sound disrespectful, Your Majesty, but isn't a bit far-fetched?" Smolder crossed her arms over her chest, “I mean, it’s been a while since she disappeared… Along with others”

“About twenty years, to be precise,” Tin said through his wheezing, “And it ain’t been long enough”

Shining shot an angry glare at Tin. The earther stallion didn’t seem to care though.

“We know it’s been a long time, yes,” Cadance said somberly, “But this,” she gestured at the battered ‘Harmony’ with her wing, “Could be a sign”

“Okay, princezz, hold on for a second!” Tin flashed, “Why am I still here? What do I have to do with any of this?!”

“Yeah,” huffed Smolder, snorting out two thin streams of smoke from her nose, “I mean, he told us what we needed, and now he’s just being annoying and distracting”

“See?” the gray stallion gestured towards Smolder, “She understands!”

Cadance rolled her eyes.

“You are here, Tin, because we want to hire you to take this locomotive to-”

“Nuh-uh! Wait a minute!” Tin raised his hoof and scowled, “I ain’t doing that! I don’t know how things are in the palace, but the skies have their own rules. Written and unwritten,” the stallion stopped for another swig from his flask, but Shining grunted in annoyance and tugged it away from him, earning a glare from Tin. So the stallion let out an annoyed whinny, and continued, “And unwritten rule number one is: under no circumstances any sky-captain would commandeer a derelict vessel, lest the wreck’s bad luck be contagious”

"Superstitions," one of the guards grumbled, earning a small glare from others.

"Superstitions? Yes, maybe," Tin agreed, "But there are stories upon stories of how captains who dared to take a derelict as a vessel of their own suffer from streaks of bad luck that eventually led them to their death or madness. By the way, unwritten rule number two," the stallion reached his hoof towards Shining, "Never stand between sky-captain and their booze. Give it back. Now"

Shining shook his head, "No. For Celestia's sake, show some respect, captain Tin, you are acting unprofessional and shame your fellow captains..."

"Pffft. As if I care," the stallion made a dismissive gesture, "And if you want to go all rank and file, first, it's Kapitänleutnant Tin, and second… I don't give a crap!" He shrugged, "I sail the skies under Equestria's banner, yes, but I ain't nopony's lap dog," he took a step to Shining and prodded his chest, "We free sky-captains are ones who pulled the world together after your sister ruined everything!"

Shining sucked air through his teeth, and was about to say something rather offensive, but got interrupted.

"Shiny, just... Give him his booze back," Cadance sighed. The crystal emperor rolled his eyes and gave the flask back to its rightful owner.

"Thanks, your Majesty," Tin bowed mockingly to Cadance before taking another sip.

"Wow. Attitude much?" Smolder snorted.

"Well excuse me, princess!" Tin snorted, "And, speaking of which, another reason I won't touch that derelict: we found it completely empty, adrift, but it was loaded, stocked and stoked. Stoked! Fire in the firebox, boiler hot. Hel', when we got to the mess hall, we found food on the table! Sure it was cold, but it was fresh. As if the crew sat down for a meal in the middle of a trip, and disappeared," Tin swung his hoof abruptly, "So, no, I am not taking that thing anywhere but to the scrapyard…"
He made another pause, and added, "Besides, it is, in Ashes' words, 'amorally morally outdated'. Inefficient boiler, inefficient steam distribution, aluminum buswork…"

"Who's Ashes?" Silverstream interjected.

"My stoker/engineer," Tin answered curtly.

"How about we hire your engine then?" Cadance asked suddenly.

Tin choked on the air.

"What?!"

"We want to hire you, your crew, and your engine to mount a search expedition for Twilight Sparkle," the empress repeated in more detail.

Tin frowned, and swung both his hooves in a protesting motion, "No! Nuh-uh! I refuse! Ya hear? Whatever happened to Twilight, and that locomotive, I ain't want to be a part of it! No! Nein! Nada! Zilch! I'd rather haul cargo from port to port for the rest of my life!"

"We'll pay you," Cadance made emphasis on the word 'pay'.

"Yeah? What worth of money is it that I'm going to risk my life in an insane chase of the thing that might not even be?" Tin sat down and crossed his forehooves over his chest.

"Enough for you to retire in a newly built governor manor," Shining said. Tin's ear flicked and turned towards the white stallion.
"And never ever lift a hoof to do anything ever again," he continued.

Tin slowly turned his head towards the crystal emperor. He raised his hoof and began asking something, but Cadance interrupted him, "Of course, your crew will be rewarded as well… not as much as you, but still enough for them to live a prosperous life"

Tin snorted.

"One question," he asked, before pressing both hooves to his chest, "Why me?!"

"Because you were the one who found this," Cadance gestured at 'Harmony' again, "You remember the place where you found her..."

"Äther is ever-changing, Your Majesty," Tin replied, "Especially out in the Verge. What lies beyond is unknown. No creature dares to venture too far out there…"

He looked at the battered locomotive once more, "...Alright, your Majesties. You got a deal," the stallion nodded, stood up and raised his hoof, "But! On two conditions"

"Nothing too crazy," Shining said sternly.

"First," Tin gestured at the exit from the hangar, "I want you to perform repairs and refits on Glacies Perfuro, my locomotive. By that I mean you pay expenses," Tin clarified when he saw confusion on Shining's face, "Consult Ashes. She knows about Glacies' systems more than I do"

For some reason, the locomotive name sounded familiar to Gallus.

"And what is the second one?" Cadance asked.

"I'm going to need an advance payment," Tin replied as he took a sip from his flask, before frowning and turning it upside-down. Nothing came out.

"How much?"

"Either Wild Pega whisky, or Steelgrad Becherovka, or Blacksteed Brandy. Three crates," The stallion exhaled, "Darkness knows, I'm going to need that…"

"Sodding alcoholic…" Shining muttered to himself.

"Royal colt-toy," Tin muttered in response.

Whatever Shining wanted to reply was lost in two yelps - his and Tin's - as Cadance's horn lit up, and her magic aura tugged at both stallions' ears.

"That's enough, both of you," the empress told sternly, "You two are grown-up steeds, and you act like foals right now! Do I have to discipline you two?"

"No, ma'am," both stallions replied in unison.

"Good," she then released them, "Now, Tin, please lead us to your locomotive so we could finalize the contract"

"Uh-huh," the gray stallion nodded, flicking his ear a few times, "Just one more thing," he gestured towards Gallus and Co, "What's the matter with them?"

"As I've said, I want them to find whereabouts of Twilight Sparkle," Cadance said, "And I am hiring you to assist them"

"Wha-" Tin's jaw dropped as he stared at the six creatures, before facehooving, "...Oooh, good one, Your Majesties. Good one. Played the tired old stallion like a fiddle now, did ya?" He shook his head, "Should've asked what you were hiring me for…” he made a pause and facehooved again, “Oh, wait, right. You did mention it… And their involvelvement… So, my bad, but, well… Wealth!" He glanced aside and mumbled, "Umbra, please let it be worth it…"

"I have a feeling you're not mentioning something, sky-captain?" Cadance inquired with a smile.

"...Ah, squall. Make it five crates," the stallion replied, "Alright, are we going to move or not? If memory serves, you two have a state to run, and I have a group suicide to plan"

"Such optimism," Smolder huffed.

"Yeah, dude needs to brighten up a little bit," Sandbar nodded.

Yona scratched her chin, "Yak not understand. If pony hate job, why pony take job?"

"Because, my dear yak, as I've said before," Tin cleared his throat, "Pony not say no to empress"

And so, they left the hangar, departing towards Tin's locomotive. When the lights inside the hangar were turned off, the only remaining sound was a faint ticking of the clock on the bridge of 'Harmony', despite the clock's gears being perfectly still.