The Descent

As she opened her eyes, she saw the very same pilothouse she'd recently been in. Only this time, there were colours, and the room was occupied by a very worried and anxious-looking crew. She herself was still very groggy, and could barely hear what anyone was saying. Their words just sounded like distant echoes.

"She's awake! She's awake!"

Suddenly, the entire crew had gathered around the bed. All except one. Eswyn wasn't there. But, Ametrine didn't currently have the energy to think about why. The pain was overwhelming. Her limbs didn't quite respond when she attempted to move them, but she tried to sit up anyways.

"No no no, don't move! You need to rest." Said Sanguis, lightly pushing Ametrine's near helpless body back to bed.

"Where's... Eswyn?" She said. Well, said was a stretch, it was more a slur of words.

"She, umm..." Tidal Surge began, rubbing the back of his head. "She broke. We don't know what's wrong with her."

"Broken? she was fine yesterday..." She said, while the others looked back around at each other.

"Well, actually, you've been out for four days." Foulplay responded.

In a surprised hurry, she tried to sit up again, only to be pushed back down by Sanguis once more.

"I-I'm an engineer! I can... I can fix her!" She half-shouted, flailing and protesting against the mare holding her down.

"Tomorrow. Tomorrow." Said mare responded, with as calm of a voice as possible. "You need to sleep."

Ametrine's flailing went on for a few more minutes, though it didn't take much of an effort to keep her down. Soon, however, she felt the pain and drowse overtake. The others watched as Ametrine's eyes slowed to a stop and centered, before they eventually shut and her limbs softly fell back down.

While she was sleeping, she had another dream, significantly less pleasing than her previous one, before the storm. All she saw was herself, admist an empty void, standing on pure blackness. A few meters in front of her, was Burning Bridges. She tried to say his name, but it felt as if her lungs filled up with water. She tried to run to her friend, but the gap between them grew larger and larger. Burning Bridges didn't return the gesture. He looked at her, his unmoved and cold gaze piercing a hole in her heart. Eventually, the mare who had been the one to take him away faded in from seemingly nowhere. Without a word, she conjured chains around Ametrine, causing her to stumble over and fall, only to watch in helplessness as the two walked by, not even looking at her. As she laid there, she could feel the darkness creeping ever closer. She could barely see her hooves, and soon it all was shrouded by black.

"I will."

It was relatively dark in the moonlit cabin when she awoke. The cold light streaming in was the only thing allowing her to see. She stumbled to her hooves. There was no time to waste. Someone needed her help. She limped to the door as her mind swayed, ready to falter at any moment. But alas, even though she was able to walk, she still had no idea where Eswyn could be, and if another crew member spotted her she'd be dragged back to bed. But, as she walked out, she noticed how still the wind was. So was the ship. Had they anchored?

With moonlight as her sole guide, she peered out over the upper deck, but it was completely empty. She walked down the stairs to the floor underneath, where the cannons were. It was dark down there, but small cracks in the hastily boarded up hole in the wall allowed her to see just enough to notice a metal pile in the corner. She moved closer for a better look, and sure enough, it was Eswyn. Her limbs and movable parts were no longer entirely connected, hanging together with pistons and winches. It was clear that the machine couldn't stand up, and was too heavy to move. Immediately, Ametrine got to work as best she could. She looked around ever nook and cranny, searching for some kind of damage, but she didn't notice any. It wasn't clear how to start the thing, either. If only there was more light...

That's when she noticed it. The haphazard repairs on the wall weren't perfectly affixed. The boards could be torn down, and by the looks of it, with little effort. She stood up, stood up on her hind legs, and pulled at a loose board. It didn't take much for it to fall off. Gently, she put the board down. More of the faint light from outside was flowing into the room, it's calm rays now displaying a detachable piece of Eswyn's stomach. She dropped down to take a closer look. There was a tiny button that seemed to be the release mechanism. She pushed it, and the plate popped open, displaying a mess of gears and other mechanical machinery inside. From this point, troubleshooting shouldn't be much of an issue. You just had to follow the gears back to their origin point, and so she did. The still cogs trailed back, becoming gradually smaller and smaller until the last gear, at the rear of the clockwork spiderweb, around where the tail should be.

Ametrine stood back up and walked around Eswyn, to her tail. She couldn't lift it, but it didn't look like she had to. There was a similar release button next to it. She pushed it, but this time the part fell off entirely, hitting the floor with a loud crash. Ametrine panicked at the noise, assuming she had woken the crew up. She quickly scurried away to a shadowy corner of the room, sitting in pitch silence.

But no one came.

With a sigh of relief, she walked back over to the mechanical steed. The tail itself was follow, but on the machine itself was a kind of wind-up key. Could it be so simple as that she just needed to be wound up? She grabbed ahold of the key, and started twisting it, over and over again. At first, nothing happened. Eswyn was just as lifeless as before. But then, the segments of her legs and neck started sliding closer together, reattaching themselves with each other. Before long, the machine was reassembled, and her spotlight-like eyes lit up once more. Much to Ametrine's relief, Eswyn stood up and looked around, seemingly not noticing the mare who'd helped her. Obliviously, the mechanical pony wandered away, as if nothing had happened.

Ametrine, on the other hoof, was in too much pain to do much of anything. She dragged herself back to bed, and promptly fell back asleep.