Day 16): Flight.

Frostbite wanted to examine me in the morning for any wounds that may have been infected from the Hookbats. While he was examining my back he took a pause.

"Uh ___? Are you sure you're an earth pony?

"Um yeah, I'm pretty sure." I replied.

Slowly I felt a sting across my back. In alarm, I sprang back and saw Frost holding a scalpel, its edge gleaming in a mixture of silver and crimson as a drop of my blood fell from it.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" I shouted!

Frost casually grabbed a clothe and wiped the scalpel off.

"Opening your back. There are strange protrusions near your shoulder-blades and I'm curious as to what they are. You have the build and strength of an earth-pony, and yet your a bit too light. The slight bone remnants in your shoulder further attribute to my theory."

"And what's that?" I grabbed a wash clothe and put it on my back. It was starting to hurt a lot.

Frost began washing off the scalpel. "That you may be a Pegasus. Which is odd since you exhibit the traits of a earth-pony. Strength, endurance, and earth magic. I've heard of processes created to 'modify' ponies, but you're the first I've seen to even be close to this." He walked up behind me and slowly arched the scalpel

"May I?" He asked.

I hesitated, but reluctantly agreed.

I slowly felt the forward edge delve into my wound and worm its way through my flesh. Then, as I bit my lip from the pain, felt my flesh was spread apart. I felt a faint poking sensation.

"Huh. Interesting. You have a slight bone malformation akin to that of a Pegasus's wings, but it's too precisely cut to be the remnant's of a wing's bone. Either your wings were cut off or a special kind of magic was used here. Nonetheless, I see nothing of interest here, but thank you for being my...Ah...Test Subject." He passed me a stick "Bite onto this. I'll stitch your wound up."

It took a bit, but it was finally done.

"Now try not to flex your back too much. I'd hate for the stitches to rip since I would then have to cauterize the wound...That means I will take a hot poker and roll it around on your wound. Slowly." Said Frostbite.
I looked around his small room where there was a curious amount of equipment. Surgical, medical, and all sorts of knick-knacks.

"I didn't know you were into this kind of stuff."

Frost shrugged "Not many do." He showed me his cutie mark which was of a blue ball surrounded by several green rings.

"Surgery isn't much different from engineering in my opinion so that comes easy to me too. I like to build a few things." He lifted a pair of tinted glasses. "I've been trying to infuse magic with these so we could see where everyone else who is wearing these glasses is and talk to them, but it is not easy in the least. If I had some kind of energy source besides magic then they might work, but I haven't come across such a thing in my journeys."

I looked at a map that was attached to the wall. Many towns were crossed off on the map.

"You've been to all these places?" I asked.

Frost gave me a slight nod. "Eeyup. Turns out that my kind of research was really, really illegal in Equestria so I went looking for any books involving the Southern Isles since the author was one of the fews ponies in Equestria who studies things like my research. Just less surgical."

Huh. So Frostbite also went looking for the book. Well it sure explained why he was here, but why didn't the Queen mention his crimes I wondered?

"-And that's how I came across this!" I snapped out of my thought and back into reality as I saw what Frost pulled out of a safe. It was a tablet with strange writing on the side and in the center were pictures of metal parts being...Fused? To create a machine that looked like telescope, but smaller and more compact. "I don't know who made this, but this is some highly intelligent work. The only problem is that the parts are made of metal and they need some kind of power source. I don't have the rest of the tablet, but I managed to scrounge up a prototype (That word echoed in my ears...) from any parts I could salvage. Metal isn't exactly common. Especially high-grade flawless metal."

He pulled out a machine that, somewhat, resembled the one in the picture. Frost's was far less elegantly built, and it looked more rushed. On closer inspection it looked appeared that it was made from bronze.

Frost placed it, and the tablet, back in his vault. "Wouldn't want anypony stealing my inventions. If I managed to finish it then I could revolutionize Equestria. Everybody would want one. We'd have a tech-book. It's be more advanced than Memory Orbs and far more useful. Everypony could use it!....If only I could figure out what it does..."

As I left the room, out of nowhere I heard a loud thunk. I peeked around the corner and saw the red and black pony, known as Scorch, brutally punching a bag that he hung from the ceiling. Several broken bags were lying around the floor. Scorch gave a loud roar before he punched the bag and knocked it off its hinge and straight into the wall. Scorch slowly turned toward me and gave me an evil look.

"What do you want kid?"

I gulped and swiveled on my hoof and began trotting away before I heard an aggressive shout behind me.

"HEY! I'M BUCKING TALKING TO YOU!"

I felt myself wither before I turned toward Scorch. He was scowling and steadily eying me as if summing up the best way to take me down quickly.

*Sigh* "I just heard a loud crash and decided to check it out."

Scorch calmed down a bit. "Okay then. But the next time I ask you something, you'd better answer it immediately. Or else I'll shove you in one of my bags and use you as training practice." He picked up yet another bag and strung it up.
I walked up the stairs and walked up to see what was happening outside. The sky was clear and beautiful, but the horizon was still tinted with that black darkness. It seemed to get closer, and closer and we sailed toward it. From the far right I heard a *Ziiiip* noise and Sierra crying out:

"Come on! Come on! Just a bit more..." I then heard a whistling noise and a loud flop. I turned aound on the deck and saw Sierra grabbing onto a large fish.

"GOTCHA, YOU LITTLE ZIPPER!" Right next to her was a large fishing rod and a spare fishing rod a few hooves away.
Sierra placed the fish on deck and bashed it on the head with the butt of her fishing rod.

"Hey Sierra" I said.

She looked up with surprise as the fish flopped in the air.

"Oh no you don't" She cried out as she slapped it with her rod. The fish hit the deck with a slapping noise. Sierra then began repeatedly slapping it with her rod. She grabbed the fish and put it in her box.

"Oh hey ___, how are you doing?" She gave me a smile as she grabbed her second rod and tossed toward me "Here, catch."

I barely caught it. I found it to be tough to catch poles with a pair of hooves.

I took a seat next to her as we began fishing.

"You seem strangely relaxed and...Not...Stuttery." I remarked.

Sierra leaned closer and looked over the edge. "That's because fishing calms my nerves." She began reeling in early and surprisingly reeled in a fish.

The fish flew over our heads and hit the wall behind us. It slowly slid down into the box.

"I may be a medic, but I'm really good at fishing. I guess I inherited it from my mother. Remember her?"
I thought back to Myst, she did seem unusually similar to Sierra...Except for their personalities. Myst seemed blunt, un-friendly, and distant. Sierra was more tip-hoofing, friendly, and stuttery as well as peppy. But they also did look a bit alike. Especially since both of them were medics...Living in the woods...Away from ponykind....In the Everfree forest....I guess they really were related.

Sierra steadily cast again. "Myst and the other captains used to be heroes. They stopped the Brotherhood and defeated them. They practically saved Equestria alone. They led to it being rebuilt. If it wasn't for them, then we wouldn't be here today. No one would be where they are. But looked where they ended up. Renown heroes ended up as captains of the Canterlot Guard and they were practically forgotten. Even their foals forgot who they once were. The path to despair is paved with good intentions as Shade once said to me."

Rainbow Dash closed the book and laid it on the table before her. As it turns out, Grey made a mistake and accidentally placed the real book in Twilight's Library, and apparently hid the fake book somewhere else. It made her wonder though as to why he left his note there, but also why she found an empty page. She grabbed Ripper's journal and opened it. Once again, no writing appeared. It was as if its owner was gone. Or just couldn't write.

"Are you there?" She wrote.

A few seconds passed by, but no writing appeared.

She wondered, not for the first time, who he was. If it even was a he.

*Yawn*

*A pair of eyes open in the darkness*

"...It's really cold in here..."

TOMORROW WE'LL FLY ANOTHER DAY

Author's Note

Yup. More character developments. A little peek into the colt's life on the ship, and his friends. Yup, Frostbite is the equivalent of a mad scientist in this fic. The idea for Sierra's personality came from Fluttershy, believe it or not. This wasn't a very intricate chapter, but it's more of a development one. A little further look into the personalities of three ponies and what they are like and how they get along. Scorch is an aggressive fighter, Frostbite is a mad scientist, and Sierra is more of a medic/fisher pony. It's a bit of a short chapter, but I'll make it up to you readers with the next update called Skydrop. It'll involve Skyfall and the colt, but unlike this chapter, Skydrop will go into more intricate details and it will heavily influence the next arc.

-Black Ashes