Adventures in Atlasso

A unicorn mare ran across the deck of a ship, tossing her head frantically. Beneath her lavender-grey hooves, the ship bucked and whirled like a professional bronco. Above the roiling sea, torrents of water rained down, covering the deck of the ship and pouring into the cabins beneath. If there had been any shouts from passengers aboard the ship, the screaming wind would surely mask it. As it was, the only pony on the galleon was the unicorn mare. Her crew had abandoned her long ago, driven away by the darkening storm on the horizon; and with good reason.

Now the mare was stranded in the midst of the storm her former employees had warned her about. Her iron horseshoes thunked against the wooden planks under her hooves as she dashed to the helm to try to steer the ship out of the storm. Upon reaching the wheel, the unicorn threw herself against it with all her strength. Despite her best efforts, the wheel would not budge, leaving her ship to be tossed about by the wind instead of turning away to safety. The darkness of the stormy night was broken by a strike of lightning to the top of the mast. In spite of the torrential rain, the wooden mast burst into flames, casting a fiery glow on the deck of the ship. The mare looked up from her efforts to gaze in horror at the fire eating away at her ship, and, in turn, her lifeline. As she watched, the flames trailed downward to the deck of the ship. A new terror lit her face as she gave up on the wheel to run towards the mast. Along with the terror, a deep blue glow lit her eyes, radiated from her horn, with a matching glow surrounding the fire. The unicorn skidded to a stop on the wet boards and closed her eyes, a look of intense concentration shrouding her face as the two glowing auras grew brighter.

The lavender-grey pony gasped and opened her eyes as another strike of lighting split the sky, breaking her concentration as much as it broke the darkness surrounding her. The glows vanished, and the fire burst forth with new vigor, covering the remaining parts of the mast and spreading to cover the section of the deck around it. With the rest of her hope draining from her face, the mare turned and ran across the boards to the edge of her ship. With one last glance back to the quick-moving flames, the mare turned back to the black ocean beneath her. Still she hesitated, not wishing to abandon her life's work, until a tongue of flame licked at the back of her hind leg. Letting out a cry of pain and a pray to Celestia, the unicorn closed her eyes and leaped from the deck. A scream escaped her lips before she hit the wild waves and was surrounded by the darkness of unconsciousness.