Clockwork Alicorn: Steam and Steel

CLOCKWORK ALICORN: STEAM AND STEEL.

The Adventures of Ship’s Boy Thunder Clash and Ship’s Maid Sterling Slopes.

I - The First Chapter

Written by: Dr. Keiser Tangus von Nohugh and Silvertongue Overlord.

Canterlot. Grand spires of white marble and gold tipped towers dominate the lower streets of the city, bustling with activity. These ponies count on skyships to trade, ever since the trains were shut down due to their limited fuel source. The ships, by contrast, rely on everything from coal, petrol and gas, to wind, sunlight, and magic. With experienced captains to guide both them and their crews to safe skies, the airships are the world’s number one asset.

The Verdant Shore drifted softly through the mist thrown off by Canterlot's waterfalls, a grand brig painted with the colors of Celestia herself. Rainbow sails flowed elegantly on tall, chestnut colored masts, flapping in perfect rhythm with the pounding hearts of the crew. The white hull blended perfectly with the soft cloud cover that surrounded her, even this low in the atmosphere. Further along the docks, two young colts hurried through the bustling streets of the outer city, making a beeline for the Verdant Shore.

        “C’mon, Clash! We’re gonna get whupped if the captain finds out we’re late!” A pony in a wheelchair shouted to his companion, who was out of breath. She magicked her wheels to roll faster, quietly outrunning the pegasus.

        “Shut up! It’s not my fault you wanna sleep in all the time!” gasped the pegasus.

        A mare with a mane of smoke gray and a body of earth brown held Sterling Slopes in the air, guarding her from certain death from the plunge of thousands of yards. Her maple leaf cutie mark flickered in the gust kicked up by her wings.

        “You two are late,” She said with reprimand in her voice. “Again.” She set Slopes down on the deck gently, where she cautiously levitated himself back into her wheelchair, her face flushed red with embarrassment and fright. Autumn Breeze, the captain of the Verdant Shore, shook her head at the two ponies. She was slightly overweight, a side effect of the luxuriant life of a trade captain. She was a renowned as a kind mare, and wanted only the best for her crew and her ship. It spoke volumes about her life, and her personality.

        But at that instant, she was more than a little angry at the lax, and frankly dangerous behavior of the two. “This old ship is getting a mite dusty. Would you two be so kind as to swab the deck?” She spoke as if it was a question. Both Clash and Slopes knew it was an order, and followed through immediately, hiding their shamed faces with polite bows.

“Yes’m,” they chorused.

        ------

        Sterling Slopes had always felt appreciated aboard the Verdant Shore. She could tell by the way the other ponies acknowledged her, treating her no differently than the rest of the unicorns aboard, despite his handicap. She felt almost more at home here than she had felt even living with her own family.

        “This job blows.” Clash interrupted Slopes’ train of thought. She stared at her pegasus friend, waiting for him to finish the simplest job they could possibly have been assigned.

        “I’m not complaining. She could’a had us in the Rat’s nest for the night’s watch.” Slopes said in a small voice, finishing her last wipedown of the floor. Having the ability to fly, Clash had opted to clean the tarp that covered most of the lower deck, but he was neither flying nor working. Sloped gave a long-suffering sigh and gestured to her friend’s filthy jurisdiction.

        “C’mon, Clash, faster we finish this, faster we can go do something else.” Slopes announced, tossing her rag into a bucket. Clash groaned, flying back up to the ceiling and wiping the spots of food tossed up by the birds. In hardly any time at all, he was done, and he threw the rag forcefully into the bucket. Slopes was reading a book while she waited.

        “What’cha reading, Slip?” He hovered by her side. Slopes turned and smiled, a gleam in her eye.

        “The Advanced Properties of Unicorn Magic and Race-Specific Trait Splicing! It’s very well written, wanna see?” She offered the book to Clash.

        Clash put the book on the floor and read a page, carefully maintaining a look of interest. He read aloud.

“According to Archmage Twilight Sparkle (CD 1846), the adversity of pony magic is crucial to understand in order to integrate other spells natural to the other, non-unicorn races. An example of this would be the “Cloudwalking” spell, which, although naturally inherent to pegasi, could be cast by a unicorn who understands to proper spell... ‘matrickes’?... ugh...” Clash stopped and looked up.

“I don’t get any of this, Slip. Can you help?” He asked with a sheepish grin.

        Slopes swiped the book up with her magic, a dull ochre field surrounding the thick leather tome, and read to Clash.

        “...Could be cast by a unicorn who understands the proper spell matrices, in coordination with the ethereal nature of the medium and the integral interweaving of cross-species Inherent Magic coordination. The casting of such spells may take on a corporeal embodiment; to use the prior example, wings. Some such cases have been recorded as average pegasus wings, occasionally upon the hooves, dragon wings, or even butterfly wings. The manifestation of the spell is often a direct result of the caster’s subconscious lateral mana manipulations, and can cause certain mana flux effects, side spells including but not limited to glamours, fortune hexes, aural somnolence... aaaand now I’ve lost you.”

        Clash looked lost, and his eyes were glazed. “Huh? Oh, no! I heard that!”

The unicorn chuckled. “Sure you did. You’re lucky your career doesn’t rely on this stuff to get by.”

        “Spells can be put in stuff and spread around by unicorns. As long as a unicorn understands what she needs to do, she can do it. Right?” he hazarded, tapping his hooves together.

“Well you’ve gotten the basics of it, yeah. Though on a deeper level, it means that in order to cast a racially transcendent spell, the caster would need to have a seriously in-depth knowledge of the races involved.”

“Alright...” Clash turned away. “Sounds... complicated...” Clash turned back to Slopes, curiosity written across his muzzle.

“Can you do a cloudwalking spell?” He asked, showing his hooves to Slopes.

The unicorn raised an eyebrow. “First of all, I’ve never tried that particular school of magic, and if i get it wrong you could end up having one hoof that sticks to the floor and another that attracts metal... and second, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re kind of already a pegasus. You can walk on clouds at any time you want, per your race’s ability.”

“I mean for you. Can you make your wheels ride on clouds?”

Slopes blinked. “Huh... you know, I’m not sure. I mean, it should be possible, since the weather factories use metal instruments and all, but... I’ll have to get back to you on that one. But it’s definitely worth looking into.” Her eyes lit up like they did whenever she had an idea to work out, and the means to put a plan into action.

“Cool! See, I had an idea...” The door to the cabin smashing into the wall interrupted his thought. The chestnut brown mare strode in and stopped next to Slopes, inspecting the floor and walls.

“Good job cleaning up down here, you two. Now take the bucket and go swab the upper deck.” she said, striding out of the room as abruptly as she walked in.

Celestia’s sun shone brightly on the open deck. The duo were busily wiping the deck with half-rotted mops. The crew referred to them as “Punishment Sticks”, because, as most of the crew were pegasi, they had to touch the splintering, moldy wood. More often than not, they’d have to replace the mops with their rags. Slopes carefully wiped backwards, hitting each spot of filth that needed to be cleaned. Clash spat out the splinters of the old mop. “Finally. You done yet?” He looked at Slopes, who was carefully setting the rag and bucket down.

Slopes nodded, rolling over to Clash. “How much do you want to bet we’re going to swab the barracks next?”

“Five bits.”

“You have a deal.” She rolled to the stairs, opening the door. An older, gruff looking pony came out and bumped into Slopes, pushing past Clash and snorting. “Watch yerself, Ponnlets. I ain’t got the patience for ya right here.” he grumbled as he passed, and the two nearly jumped as his normally pink eyes flashed bright green.

Clash looked at Slopes, double-taking at the older yellow pony.

“Did you just see that?” They said simultaneously.

“See what? The casino ship?” Captain Autumn Breeze said, suddenly appearing behind the two. Clash spun around, while Slopes turned calmly to look. Off the starboard bow, there was a monolith of a ship, totally dwarfing the brig. It was massive, big enough to house a small town, which was exactly what it did.

“I’ve always wanted to see what happened on one of those,” Slopes said. Clash looked again at the massive crate-shaped casino. It slowly pushed through the clouds, a monolith of pink and brass. He noticed several black shapes flying fast from the arbitrary “Front” of the ship almost at the same time as he heard “Hooves to deck! We got Boarders!” from the captain.

The “boarders” turned out to be a demonstration from the Casino, gratis as ordered by its captain, an admittedly terrifying clown-pony named Chucklehead. Around fifty ponies dressed to the teeth in fancy suits and hats landed with great ostentation, to much applause from the crew of the Verdant Shore. Those dressed in the flashiest clothes introduced themselves as the Party Professionals, handing out vouchers and various cheap gifts.

Autumn allowed them to throw the party, calling up all of the crew from the below decks and retiring with Captain Chucklehead to the foredeck.

        The casino ship ponies turned out to be from the Happy Ending, and voiced in raucous song that they were there to bring the crew of the Verdant Shores a taste of Pinkie Pie’s hospitality. The whole crew practically split the deck with their hooves stomping in approval, such was the reception of the visitor’s performance. After the initial song and dance routine, the casino ponies dispersed, mingling with the crew as a band struck up a jaunty tune and half a dozen banquet tables were levitated aboard.

        Slopes and Clash each found a comfortable spot between the hay sandwiches and the oat bars.

        “Well I sort of wanted to go in... but this is still pretty good. You want to keep at this? Or you gonna give up?” She said, slapping a card down. It showed a Timber Wolf which was set on fire by a chainmail clad pony warrior.  “Get rid of... that Minotaur Demolition Team there.” He flicked a hoof at the card and looked back at his set.

A voice rang out behind Slopes. “Ooh, is that Hexes and Hydras? I didn’t know airship ponies played! Mind if I watch?”

A gold and sapphire filly peered interestedly over their shoulders, scanning the playing field covered in assorted, artistic cards depicting different monsters, both realistic and fantasy.

“Sure, miss.” Clash spread his hoof to indicate the chair next to Slopes, which the filly quickly occupied. Slopes gripped the slain card in crimson magic, carelessly flinging it to the pile next to the deck.

 “He’s using a dragon and magma beast deck, and I’m using Phoenix and The Horsen,” He explained. “Most of his cards are warriors and ethereals, which is tearing my frontline up. But...” He placed two cards down with a smug smile, flipping the recently destroyed card back into the field. “He’s left his flanks open to my Necromancers.”

        Clash gripped his face as hard as he could, groaning. Once he’d gained his composure, he placed his whole set on the field, six cards. “Try to flank this, Slip.” He moved his cards to their respective positions.

        The unicorn bit his lip as she tossed several of her cards into a pile. “Well... That’s pretty good strategy. You’re definitely improving... uh... only... one thing.” She slapped down a single card, deep within her opponent’s territory. “My Plague Wraith’s spawn ability. Sorry, but I think this is over.”

        “Daaaaaamn!” He rose into the air, standing on his hind legs, head up to the clouds. He picked ten bits out of his saddlebags and pushed them to Slopes. “Good game, Slip.”

The new pony put a hoof on Clash’s, forestalling his motion. “Wait... Do you have any Insurgents?”

        “I don’t have a card left in my hoof, miss.”

        “On the field, dummy.”

        “Yeah, but...”

        “Well, you can shift the viewpoint, can’t you?”

        “Sure. I’ll... do that.” He sat back down, keeping his bits next to him.

        “Now draw a card for the turn, and hope it’s a good one.”

        “Alright. Charcoal Wyvern. Any good, miss?”

        She clapped her hooves gleefully. “Perfect! His ability lets you amplify that Red Dragon, right?”

        “I’m... not really good at this game, miss. Does it?”

        “Oh, don’t worry, you’re doing great. Yes, it does, since you have that Draconic Resonance card active. Now move the Red Dragon here, and the wyvern here...”

Slopes watched, dumbfounded, as her cards were outmaneuvered and overpowered. “I... I don’t believe it. There’s absolutely nothing left for me to do... I guess you win, Clash.” She grinned up at them both. “That was fantastic! I’ve never seen anypony recover from a beating like that!”

        “Bits.” Clash motioned his hoof and grinned.

        “Oh. Uh. Right.” She hoofed over the money, shaking his head and smiling. “Almost worth the cash to finally lose to you, even if you did have help.”

        “I guess?” He hooved five bits to the nameless filly. “Here. Thanks for the help, miss.”

She smiled brightly. “No problem. I’m Melody, by the way. And I guess that makes you two Clash, and... Slips? Is that right?”

        “She’s Sterling Slopes, the smartest pony in the skies, I’m Thunder Clash, and you’re very beautiful, miss Melody.” He said, posing midair with a hoof out.

        The gold earth pony raised an eyebrow. “You mean you’re a deckhand, and I’m interesting, right? I have met airshippers before, you know,” she said with a cheeky grin.

        “Yes, ma’am. We are deckhands of the glorious Verdant Shore, proud to serve our Captain Autumn Breeze.” He put a hoof to his chest and landed.

“I’ve heard better lines,” she said, appearing to mull it over, “But not many of them that sincere, so I guess you get points for that.” She chuckled, scooting closer to Slopes’ wheelchair. “But if you don’t mind, I think I’ll chum up with the one who I know is too helpless to try anything before I make nice to the other kids. Know what I mean?”

        Sterling Slopes squawked in protest. “Hey, who’s helpless? I am perfectly capable of assaulting another pony, thank you very much! I just... you know, choose not to.”

        Clash just sputtered, however, his chest deflating. “...huh?”

        Melody flipped her mane, rubbing Slope’s head much harder than necessary with a hoof. “Oh, don’t take it so hard. I’m only teasing you both.” She stood up suddenly, putting her hooves on the back of Slope’s chair, ready to push. “So! Am I getting a tour of the ship, captain?” She asked, winking at Clash.

        “I’m not the captain, milady. I don’t have the authority to give a tour.” He said, folding his forehooves across his chest.

The filly rolled her eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a pony who was too boring to bend a few rules in order to escort a beautiful mare around the ship he crewed.”

        Clash simply pointed a hoof to Slopes.

“I’m boring,” supplied the unicorn. “Boring is safe.”

“Alright, one who had a choice in the matter,” chuckled Melody. Clash shrugged.

“We don’t have a choice in the matter.” He sighed, pausing for a second. “I certainly wouldn’t want to see you get flogged for trespassing, milady.”

        “Of course not,” She said, tossing her mane playfully. “Which is why we’re going to be very careful, right?”

        “Uh...” Clash tapped his hooves together. “I can’t. Truly, terribly sorry.”

        “Look, I had to beg Captain Chucklehead to let me come along with the entertainment, and he only let me because I’m so very charming and wonderful and good at looking sad. Now, shall we?” she said, completely ignoring him and already halfway down the metal steps to the belowdecks, the unfortunate Sterling Slopes bumping down in front of her.

        “Cla-a-ash...” She called apprehensively, nervously scanning the interior of the ship for signs of a superior officer.

        He put his hooves to his head. “Wait. I’ll lead. Since you’re so insistent...” He pried open the door and looked around. “Just a quick tour, agreed?”

Melody fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Why thank you, Clash. That’s all I was asking for, anyway.”

        “Nothin’ but trouble...” he said under his breath.

“All the pretty ones are, I’m told.” muttered Slopes in reply.

Melody chuckled. “I’ll take that as a compliment. So, where’s the navigation room? I want to see the star charts! I love that sort of thing. Captain Chucklehead even lets me help out the Engineers with navigation sometimes, so-”

        She was cut off by Clash. “Through here. Please do try to keep it down,” He said, leading the two through the narrow hallway. They passed by a few open doors, each one a pause in their tour to check for ranking officers. It covered mostly everypony on the ship. Once, a pony walked by with a well dressed mare to one of the personal quarters, and Clash almost had to physically restrain himself from running back on deck and telling Melody the tour was over. Slopes, on the other hand, went along quietly, nary a word in protest. When they did finally manage to get to the charthouse, the gold earth pony practically stampeded in, forgetting her attempts at stealth.

        “Oh my gosh! This equipment is top of the line!” she said excitedly, flipping through maps and carefully handling various pieces of equipment.

        Clash watched her practically drooling over an enchanted sextant, and had to ward off her overenthusiastic gesticulations. “Quiet down, Melody, there’s enough room to swing a cat in here.” he said, wincing and putting a hoof down on the pile maps. He sighed.

        “I don’t think she’ll flog us, Clash. She’ll probably just make us do a fortnight of watch in the crow’s nest,” Slopes said in a rather calm voice. She looked collected enough to roll her chair over and talk reason to Melody, who sat and watched with a star chart in her hooves.

        “Melody, we-” All of her confidence was breath in the wind as she heard a pair of ponies out in the hallway, approaching quickly.

        “Hide!” she hissed. The young ponies dove into a supply closet, Melody rolling Slopes behind Clash.

        The two worst possible ponies to enter, indeed, did. Autumn Breeze stepped in first, followed by a bright pink dyed pony with clown make-up ostensibly tattooed to his bare face. Not one of the younger ponies made a sound, not even to draw breath.

        “...but I don’t see why we should sell you our cargo. We’re only a day out of port, and we only stocked enough for us and the Skysisters for our trip to Las Pegasus and back.” she continued, casting her gaze around the room.

        Chucklehead, as it turned out, did not live up to his namesake. He blandly tapped a crate. “I see. But you’re willing to give your charts to us?” he said, his cold eyes glinting a sickly green. Autumn chuckled a little. “What?”

        “I never agreed to that. I only offered a copy of our map to you. Come to think of it, I don’t think I saw your casino smoking. Nor burnt, nor full of holes, or really in any notable distress that would legalize you seizing my property!” She swished her blade in the air, Clash just now noticing the shiny, sharp steel.

        “Just what are you trying to pull, captain?” She asked, narrowing her eyes.

        “Nothing.” He held his hooves in mock defeat. “I just wanted to see how smart you were.”

        “Smarter than you could know, Chucklehead.” she growled. “Or whatever your name is.”

        “Ooh, a tough one. I like tough mares.” He pulled his face closer, his eyes glinting sickly green. Meanwhile, a clatter on deck rang out across the sky. Muffled enough that the two captains either ignored it, or didn’t hear it.

        “Come with me, Autumn. I’ll make you a princess,” he said, a billow of  fog emanating from his cracked lips, across his sharp fangs. The clown makeup and the pink fur was almost gone, receding into the thick black carapace of an insectoid body.

        “Do I look like a foal?” she said, brandishing the sword and settling into a fencing stance. “Go to Tartarus. This conversation is over, and I want you to get off my ship. Now.”

        “Shame.” He said, voice buzzing as if with static. In a flash of lime green fire, his foreleg was buried deep in her chest, blood soaking her vest. “You would have made a fascinating Changeling.” He slid his leg from the wound, revealing a glistening black blade where the hoof should have been.

        Captain Autumn Breeze coughed once, her eyes rolling to the ceiling as she collapsed to the floor in a pool of blood.

        Melody gasped right beside Clash and Slopes, making them jump. Clash’s wings spread hard and fast. hitting Slopes in the face, who couldn’t suppress a cry of “Ow!” cueing Melody and Clash to put a hoof each to her mouth.

        Too late. Captain Chucklehead whirled on the closet, his hoof-blade tearing the door open. “What have we here? Little spies, I see!” Chucklehead yelled, voice rising in volume with each word.

        He slashed, hoof embedding in the thick oak of the doorframe. Melody narrowly avoided it as she rolled from underneath and grabbed Slopes, who was wheeling out as fast as she could. While Chucklehead’s attention was turned to freeing his limb, Clash darted out from beneath the table, grabbing Autumn’s engraved sword in his mouth and standing tall, though inwardly he was shaking like a filly. Chucklehead pulled his appendage from the door frame, turning back to Clash and chuckling softly.

        “What do you think you’re going to do, little pony?” Chucklehead extended another hoof blade and hovered in the air, suspended by translucent insect wings that hadn’t been there before. He was easily a meter taller than Clash.

        “Hmm Gnna Ruuh,” he said around the blade. Chucklehead cocked his head to the side, hoof blades at the ready.

        “What?”

        Clash swung his head, letting the sword fly at Chucklehead. He dodged it with a hiss, but that scant second gave Clash enough time to pick the sword up a second time from where it had landed and fly out of the room at top speed. Chucklehead gave chase immediately.

        “Cowardly foal! Come back here and fight!” he yelled, slowly gaining speed. Clash turned into a room and took a second to shove the sword between his saddlebags, where it was secure enough for the time being. The changeling cut through the door effortlessly, just in time to be bowled over by the speeding pegasus as he flew up the stairs and rendezvoused with his companions, slamming the door to belowdecks behind him. They all stood there, panting from panic and exertion, the door to belowdecks being battered by Chucklehead, who spat curses through the heavy metal.

        “What in Tartarus was that thing?!” cried Melody, staring in horror at the door.

“A Changeling,” panted Slopes between breaths, shaking her head. “I read about them in one of my history books, but I thought they had all vanished. I guess there’s a few left.”

“More than a few,” came Clash’s voice, unusually soft. The other two turned towards the deck to see what he was looking at.

        It was a slaughter. The unarmed Earth ponies were all rounded up and either thrown overboard, or impaled on Changeling spines. The pegasi and gryphons still fought the innumerable horde in the sky, getting slaughtered by sheer force of numbers. The unicorns, however, were taken captive wherever possible and put into glowing green and black pods. Clash felt a sudden pain around his neck as a black tendril whipped through the keyhole of the door, leaving a shallow cut across his muzzle and throat. He jumped back from the door, and the Changeling captain forced his way through, snarling. In his hooves was the box captain Autumn had in her saddlebags.

Slopes was about to cast a spell at the creature, but was interrupted when strong hooves pulled her out of the chair and over the side of the ship. Clash screamed in her ear, something about a spell and clouds, but was drowned out by the explosion in the hull and the thunder crack of the cannons being fired at both theVerdant Shore and the new, massive changeling ship.

The droning buzz of the horde was the first thing she heard, the next was the panicked screech from the two other ponies to “Cast the damned spell!” Clash was no weakling, but keeping two other ponies aloft was too much for most any pegasus, and the exertion was only making the gash in his neck bleed more. Slopes racked her mind, thinking of all the pegasi she knew, everything she had learned about clouds, spells, and magic. Her horn glowed an intense crimson and heated up to the point of singeing her mane. She landed hard on soft, puffy cloud cover. Clash and Melody lay next to her.

Melody stood, initially panicking about standing on the cloud and not letting go of Clash. Clash stood and shook her off as politely as he could. She didn’t let go of either pony, but she walked on her hinds.

“You did it...” Clash said solemnly, looking at the slowly descending wreck of wood, metal and cotton that he called his home.

He turned around when he heard somepony crying, and saw Melody, still with a terrified expression on her face, sobbing openly. Slopes was nearby, struggling to keep her withered hind legs above the cloud cover, her chair left behind on the ship. For her part, the crippled pony had her eyes locked firmly on the clouds beneath her forehooves, her expression grim.

        “Your ship...” Melody muttered. She looked down at a torn piece of a star chart she still held on the flat of her hoof. “All those ponies... I’m so sorry...” she said, trembling.

        Slopes crawled over to her, putting a hoof on her chin and turning her head. “Hey, listen. It’s alright. It’s not your fault, okay?” She, too, had tears in her eyes. They slowly embraced.

        “So... we’re allowed in the casino, right?” Clash said, turning away from the two of them. “You two can walk on clouds, so I can make a cloud bridge for you two, provided your patience doesn’t wear too thin.”

        Slopes nodded, looking around. Melody spoke up, a catch in her voice making her a little difficult to understand.

        “You should be allowed aboard. I don’t know, now, though... with the captain being one of those... monsters...”

        “They’re called Changelings.” Slopes piped up uncharacteristically. “They have a magic much like an Earth pony’s ground and farming magic, in that it’s inherent and every single one of them can do it. It extends to both voice and physical appearance, and is very hard to detect without the proper training or spell.”

        Clash swooped a cloud up and put it down on the little cove next to them. “Mind?” he said, lifting Slopes up and holding him over Melody. She nodded, and Clash carelessly dropped her on her, making her writhe a little.

        “Terribly sorry, Slip. My mistake.” He sounded flat. He raced off to find the next cloud. Slopes rubbed her legs, small and twisted from birth, and wondered why Clash was acting like he was. Not far from this thinking, Melody wondered why Slopes was the only one talking to her.

-----------------------------------------------[END]-----------------------------------------------

 Clash is referring to the Cat ‘o Nine Tails, a cruel, many-pronged whip often used in nautical disciplinary action. He means there is a good chance of their being flogged.