Bottled Lightning

[size=+1]Bottled Lightning[/size]​

The little ship scrapes against the very tip of a passing mountain, knocking pebbles and dust down the side of the colossal peak to start the beginning of a long, journey earthbound. It etches another scratch into the old, greyed hull up the reinforced metal plate at the bow. The rusted, riveted material protects the keel and stern from impacts while landing. Or maybe misjudging the height of passing objects as the craft sails over.

The billowing bag of gas that the old ship hung from with many, various tendrils carries the whole craft effortlessly. Near the stern is a large furnace with a long umbilical cord to the all important balloon. Behind that, the regular rhythm of huge propeller blades wafting past to drive the ship forwards. The rest of the deck is shaded under the balloon. A stack of cannonballs in a crate in the center next to a barrel along with two small cannons on supports. They could move to make every shot count.

The surrounding landscape was peaceful. It was largely mountains for miles but that only guaranteed the tranquillity of the whole place. Clouds sit around a few of the taller peaks like feather boas, draped around it's shoulders as though keeping it's snowy cap warm. Birds and bugs flapped around, largely ignoring the anomaly of the flying ship. Below, pools of water and vegetation sit in the grooves between the mountains. Rugged plants squat on the slope, daring animals and nature itself to make the first move.

As you'd expect, the captain was a decrepit, wind-swept stallion. Under the naval cap bearing the royal seal of Steam Peaks, his mane defied gravity after many years battling the air currents up here. The shape holds and stays in scraggly spikes, bursting from under the hat. His purple coat contrasts with his now silvery mane to make him look like a peculiar beetroot if he puffed out his cheeks. The pipe clenched between his teeth clattered as he moves it around to the other side of his mouth. Looking at all the complex devices and switches in front of him, gleaming with brass polish and implied complexity, he pushes one nearby with a hoof. At clicks then dings loudly with each ratchet of some unseen mechanism.

"Land Ahoy!" He calls out to the deck as he looks ahead to the wall of white ahead.

This was no cloud. It wasn't smoke from some volcano either. It was all steam. Thousands of little boilers were down below somewhere, belching the vapour into the air on a daily basis causing this clammy, humid airspace that the floating ship was heading straight into. It passes through the sweaty barrier to then be greeted with the destination at hand.

Steam Peaks, the Seat of Power in these lands.

Built on top of vast platforms that cling to the mountain side, tall buildings and spires reach for the mountain top. Streams of white float into the atmosphere around them like smoke from a pipe from various buildings and sources of hot glows anypony could see as they pass overhead. Upon this shelf, they can see homes and terraces and balconies. One mare is hastily taking down fresh washing while two fillies chase each other through the sheets. Other windows hold colts and fillies packing frantically or a pink pegasus darting out into the sky, placing a hat on his head, suitcase clenched in teeth. The curious thing is that an Earth Pony was doing the same from his roof, sitting in a smaller, one-pony airship of his own. The meshing of the gearbox on the side clicks it's way forwards sluggishly and off the edge of the building. The amount of luggage strapped to the underside made him bob far, far further downwards than he was anticipating.

In the distance on another shelf of this mountain is their destination, clearly visible amongst the rising steam. The Palace. A large castle, adorned with towers and the crest of large cogs meshing together. The impressive building was wide, taking up much of the shelf. Large bridges allowed anypony to walk over the gap between these platforms in the rock. One of them was heavily cordoned off with two guards turning ponies away. The bridge itself was a burnt wreck. Flaking wood that had been burnt to a blackened crisp.

The ship passes a clock tower that had met a similar fate. The face was intact but hanging on by only a few rivets. The rest was blown open, the gaping black wound showed the half-melted parts inside that hadn't been launched from the tragic scene. The deformed mechanism still made pathetic little spasms of movements from the parts that survived by attempting to operate with those that didn't. There was no regular tick-tock, only a tick-clunk-clunk-nrrrr-tick instead.

Sulphy the Baby Dragon looks over the scorch marks on some of the buildings and whimpers quietly. Any other job and he'd be retired with enough jewels to drown in by now. But he had to be saddled with the misfortune of experience. This city's new tyrant was not going to explain her own foibles and idiosyncrasies on her own. To assume so would be to invite the viper like bite the exiled princess had.

Soon, the airship meanders towards a high platform atop a tall tower. The captain yanks a leaver. Suddenly, a thud is heard overboard as a large hook is dropped on the platform below. A unicorn is on hand to clip it into a ring attached to the floor.

With the same sense of ceremony, the gang plank is lowered to act as a bridge down to the ground. The little dragon was only to eager to be on solid ground again.

Before them, stood a tall figure shrouded in dark robes. The winds up here had caught the material and made it flutter from the clearly Alicorn frame like a flame in a breeze.

Sulphy bows low: "Your Highness."

(You were on the boat too, travelling with Sulphy. I'd get off as well and introduce yourselves. Make sense?)

 

Sulphy looks up at the scruffy stallion next to him and coughs loudly and obviously.

"Robin!" He hisses to him, "It's a Princess. Bow or something, I hear they're really snooty in Steam Peaks."

"That will not be necessary, Master Sulphurous." States the shrouded Princess, curtly. The little dragon audibly squeaks and tenses up like a stone. "Time is of the essence and my shield spell is not likely to hold for long. It has been a long time."

She looks up and down the ranks that Canterlot had sent with a highly critical eye. Even the ship captain trots down to finally meet them and give a low bow, the trail of smoke following him like a flag.

"I suppose this shall suffice. I was hoping for warriors from Equestria to be..." She reaches around for the most tactful adjective she could think of and settles for: "Larger. No matter, I'm sure transformation into a cat."

She looks to Kat Sabre, concern clearly etched on her white mane despite the hood as she gave Kat a good looking over. From her white hooves to the points of her mane. She turns to Omen, looking over the demonic features of the ebony pegasus.

"And whatever you do will be advantageous somehow I'm sure." She concludes. The Princess looks towards the palace that's clearly visible from here.

"My sister waits in my ancestral home. She has our most powerful weapon and leads a small army of ponies and other creatures, great and small. I discovered her forces already claimed the last ponies from Equestria, one of her right-roof mares is already turning them against us. She has become even more powerful than my family. They are locked in the dungeons, letting her forces take these mountains for herself."

Her gaze falls back on the adventurers from Equestria...And the sailor.

"She carries a weapon capable of unleashing lightning with deadly accuracy as well as many of our machines and devices we use everyday. Please, help my family and halt her takeover."

She turns away then bolts for the edge of the platform. Her wings spread instantly and she sores away. Her voice carries back to them, shouting "Good luck!"

Instantly, Sulphy pipes up and points a claw at the destroyed clocktower.

"So, Cydonia did that?! She shoots lightning now! This is the worst assignment ever!"

"If I may." The sailor interjected in a slow drawl, "We ought not to stick around too long. We might be in range here..."

 

"And that's why we should be moving!" Sulphy shouts. "Everypony onto the ship, now! We need to leave pronto!"

There is a quiet clicking on the air from somewhere nearby. It's a constant, mechanical click that get's met with some squeaking too. Sulphy looks around to see two ponies sitting on a small boat suspended by a balloon. One is peddling the thing forwards, the other is clearly loading a cannon on them.

Sulphy practically shoves Twinkle to the ground as he pelts up the gangplank. More of the flying boats appear, readying their weapons. The old sailor pony hobbles up behind him.

"All aboaaaarrd!" He bellows, beginning to pull various levers and cranks. Out the sides of his ship, cannons poke out from under little flaps.


There is a sudden change in the atmosphere. A static feel to the air as though the energy of the area was shifting. There is a glimmer of light off of something above them for a moment before it vanishes.

Evidently, the Princess' shield spell had just worn off. Atop this landing pad, they were now vulnerable.

There's a loud burst from the ship. Sulphy had fired at one of the ships from one of the tiny, pivoting cannons. It rips right through one of them, the ponies inside are claimed by gravity as their balloon floats away.

"Come on! We need to go!"

 

The little ships are ripped through with ease. Statues of the ponies riding them drop from the wrecked craft, falling out of place. The balloons burst or float away as their loads are made instantaneously lighter.

The old sailor starts frantically pulling leavers, forcing the engine into a healthy retreat speed. It punts the little boat forwards at a sharpish pace for the small-ish ship. With all three fans - one at the back and two to steer - spinning as fast as the sailor could get them, they maneuver forwards into the open air.

More ships arrive behind them but appear to be holding back. The few that have arrived appear to be floating just out of their range, cautiously loading their weapons maybe?

There is a flash of light from the palace below.

A clear-cut bolt of lightning surges through the sky. The clean white strike crackles through the air under them with a deafening crack and a audible hum for a few seconds afterwards. Like a white, straight thorn, the energy impacts the tower they were just on, biting a large, smouldering chunk out of the side of the tower. Pieces of pipe and metal fall, clanging towards the ground in the immediate air of static.

"Captain!" Sulphy calls out from the port side. The fear was etched into his face. "We need to move away from the palace and into the city! We can't risk flying!"

The Captain nods and turns the wheel back towards the towers of the city and out of the open airspace. Like sharks, there were little airships waiting for them.

"We need to go faster!" Sulphy bellows towards the stern. The captain mournfully shakes his head. No more speed could be coaxed from the propellers. Pegasi were darting around the hull.

Suddenly, one lands on the deck. A pink stallion with a black fedora over one eye and his visible fringe threatening to cover the other.

"In the name of Queen Cydonia, I order you to land this crate and come quietly."