Aura didn't wait for her brother. The young filly galloped across the top of the cliff, her silver mane flowing behind her, the afternoon sun reflecting off her sky blue coat, and her wings folded against her sides.
Her newly acquired cutie mark, a compass, sat on her flank. She was so excited to show her brother and dad yesterday, and she was going to show her brother where she had gotten it. Or rather, she was trying to, her brother wasn't exactly a fast runner.
“Hurry up Quill.” She called back to her brother, without bothering to slow down for him.
“S-Slow down…. Sis.” Quill said between breaths.
The dark orange earth pony, with a jet black mane, was far less adventurous then his younger sister. He preferred staying indoors and writing stories, hence his cutie mark of a notebook and quill. But Aura had promised this would be worth his time, so he agreed to come with her.
She slowed down enough for him to catch up, and then began galloping again.
After 20 more minutes of traveling along the cliff, Aura stopped and held her wing out. Quill stopped behind her a moment later.
“Check it out.” Aura said, pointing with her hoof to the base of the cliff.
Quill followed her hoof. At the bottom of the cliff was a beach that wrapped around the southern coast of Hoofling island. Just below them however, the beach suddenly turned inwards towards the cliff, almost as if….
“Is there a cave down there?” Quill asked.
“There sure is, and wait till you see what's in it.” Aura said excitedly.
Without warning she leapt off the cliff, landing on a ledge a few feet below.
“Aura what are you doing? Get back here before you get hurt.” Quill ordered.
“Relax bro, this is how I got down yesterday.” Aura said dismissively, jumping to another ledge a few feet lower. “Come on, you've got to see this.”
Quill did not like the idea of climbing down a sheer cliff, he also didn't understand why his pegasi sister insisted on climbing. But now that he knew what was down there, the colt decided he'd rather climb down a cliff than let his sister go cave exploring alone. So he bit his tongue, and leapt down to the first ledge.
The pair continued their descent, slowly making their way to the bottom. At one point Aura jumped to an unstable ledge, which quickly collapsed under her.
Quill started to panic but a moment later she caught herself with her wings and flew up into the air.
“Good thing I've got these.” She said as she hovered alongside her brother.
“Yeah but what about me?” Quill asked. “I can't fly and there is no way I can climb back up.
Aura put a hoof to her chin thoughtfully, and then flew above and dropped down onto his back. She wrapped all four legs around his body, and despite his protests, she flapped her wings and pulled him off the ledge, where his weight instantly began dragging them both down.
Aura flapped her wings as hard as she could manage while keeping her grip on her brother. She managed to slow their descent enough that they weren't injured, instead crashing lightly onto the sand and laying on the ground for a minute to catch their breath.
“One day….. you're gonna….. break a wing doing that.” Quill said between gasps.
“If that ever happens…. I'll give you a hundred bits.” Aura replied, get breath equally shaky.
“I’ll hold you to that.” Quill said as he stood up, Aura doing the same. “Now how do we get back up?”
“Don't need to.” Aura said, pointing her hoof down the beach in the direction the came from along the cliff. “We just head that way and we'll reach the village.”
Quill processed her words, then lifted a hoof and smacked her upside the head.
“Ow, what was that for?” Aura asked, rubbing the back of her head.
“Why did you make us climb down a cliff when we could've just walked along the beach?” Quill demanded.
“There's a word for that, boring.” Aura replied before walking towards the cave, which now stood menacingly behind them, water flowing in through the center with sandbanks on each side. “Now come on, you gotta see what's in there.”
Aura galloped towards the mouth of the cave, and Quill reluctantly followed her.
The pair walked through the mouth of the cave, and stopped a short ways in. Not far from the entrance the cave opened up into a massive chamber. Water flowed in through the center and funneled into a large lake. Sunlight filtered in through a small hole in the roof of the cave, casting a faint light in the cavern.
On the far side of the lake, pressed up against the back wall, was a large shipwreck.
The ship looked new, the wood hadn't begun roting yet, and it looked mostly intact. The ship was a medium sized sailboat, and had a light gray paint job.
Quill did notice however that it looked like it hadn't hit anything, like the ship was placed here on purpose. He tried reading the name on the back as he stepped closer but it was too faded to read.
“Pretty cool right?” Aura chirped, snapping him out of his thoughts. “I was so excited to find it that I got my cutie mark and flew home to show you and dad without exploring it.”
“Yeah I guess it is kinda cool.” He replied.
“It must've been wrecked here pretty recently.” Aura said confidently, galloping over to the water's edge. “Come on, let's check it out, there might be treasure.”
Quill was about to follow her out of curiosity, but stopped himself quickly.
“No Aura, I'm putting my hoof down, we're going back.” He said firmly.
Aura sighed and faced her brother, both siblings expressions making it clear they weren't going to budge.
“Come on bro, it's perfectly safe.” Aura insisted.
“We don't know that.” Quill replied, his voice firm.
“Ugh, why are you always like this?”
“Like what?”
“This!” Aura exclaimed, pointing a hoof at him. “Where’s your sense of adventure? When's the last time you went outside without dad or I dragging you out?”
“Where's your sense of self preservation?” Quill fired back. “When's the last time you didn't run off without telling someone?”
The argument turned into a stare down after that. The two siblings glared at each other, each unwilling to budge.
After a minute of staring Aura scoffed and unfurled her wings. Before Quill could stop her she flew up and landed out of sight on the ship's deck.
Quill called her name but after getting no response he ran into the water and swam over to the side of the ship. He swam to the ladder built into the side and climbed up onto the deck.
The deck of the boat was pretty big. It seemed almost like a merchant boat. A mast with sail tied up in the middle of the deck. A small hatch just in front of it led below deck, and after deducing that Aura wasn't strong enough to lift the hatch, he instead turned his attention to the back of the ship.
An elevated area of the ship houses the steering wheel, but just below the wheel, in between 2 sets of stairs, was a set of double doors that Quill assumed led to the Captain's quarters.
He walked over and pushed the door open, finding Aura on the other side, staring at something in the back of the room.
He opened his mouth to lecture her, when the object she was looking at caught his eye.
On a small desk at the back of the room, was a silver necklace with a storm gray pendant.
“”What is that?” Quill asked. “And don't say a necklace.”
“Wasn't going to.” Aura replied, reaching a hoof out to touch the pendant. “It's warm, really warm.”
Aura lifted the necklace up with her fore hooves and gently placed it around her neck. The moment it was around her neck, they heard a low rumbling sound from outside of the cave.
“Was that?” Aura asked, before the two raced out of the captains quarters, and jumped off the deck into the water. They quickly swam to the shore and galloped to the mouth of the cave, and immediately spotted a line of gray storm clouds on the horizon.
“A storm?” Aura questioned. “This far from the spiral, that's not normal right?”
“No it isn't.” Quill replied, equally confused.
The storm spiral was a massive vortex in the south western Equestrian sea. For reasons no one understood, it had been going constantly for centuries, and seemed to magically draw in storms somehow, keeping the rest of the oceans calm, and the skies cloudless. Hoofling island was the closest island to the spiral, but storms never impacted the small landmass.
“We should….. probably go home.” Aura said.
“Yeah, we probably should.” Quill agreed, and the two began quickly trotting down the beach towards the village, glancing at the distant storm as they went.
Soon after they began the trip home however, the storm seemed to disappear from the horizon, and the siblings slowed their pace as a result.
“Hey….umm. I'm sorry.” Aura said as they neared the village. “I should've listened to you, and had us walk down the beach to get there.”
“It's ok sis, it worked out alright.” Quill said reassuringly. “Just promise me you'll try thinking things through more?”
“I promise.” Aura said with a smile, and the two continued their walk, the strange necklace still wrapped around Aura’s neck.
Author's Note
Here's the prologue, I hope you enjoyed.
