Island Zeta, Skies Of Equestria

On the small floating island above the lush green fields of Equestria, a small airship port was filled with life as members of various species walked around the wooden platforms connected to the side of the sky island. The airships themselves gave the impression of a steampunk design, but still kept a traditional look to them.

In the streets of the port town, a young man stood with his back against an alleyway wall, watching all of the passing residents and travelers. His medium-long brown hair flowed slightly in the draft of the alleyway. He wore a brownish-grey coat with two straps across his chest stopping it from flowing freely but leaving it open enough to reveal his beige undershirt. He also wore dark blue jeans with brownish-grey boots.

Reaching under the collar of his shirt he pulled out a necklace, a black wire with a silver medallion in the shape of the sun. He held it tightly before placing it back under his shirt along with the other necklace with a glowing purple gem. Looking to his hands, which were covered by brown fingerless gloves he noticed a golden ring with patterns of flames on his middle finger, smiling as he stared at the piece of jewellery.

Hearing the sound of a whistle he peeked over the exit of the alley and saw people boarding an airship. “All aboard! All those for Ponyville please board now!” A stallion in golden armour yelled as he held a clipboard in in his left hoof.

The young man walked out of the alley and headed down the cobblestone path towards the airship. As he approached the stallion stepped out.

“Name sir?”

“Symbol Rayleigh.”

The stallion looked over the list before nodding. “Ah, here you are, enjoy your flight sir.” The stallion moved out of his way and allowed him to pass.

Once aboard the airship, Symbol walked over to a piece of railing and leaned on it, looking out at the beautiful landscape of Equestria. As he looked towards his destination, Ponyville, he noticed a certain blimp floating about with other airships. “O.N.Y.X.” He clenched his fist and scowled. “Three years and I still haven't been able to find the location of your headquarters, only branch buildings and underground labs. This time, I'm not letting you get away.”

…

Ponyville

As the golden chariot landed in the centre of the decorated town Twilight ran up to meet her teacher. The tall alabaster mare with the flowing coloured mane turned her head and smiled warmly as she saw her student rushing to her. Princess Celestia opened her front legs to welcome Twilight into a hug as she reached her. The two embraced each other for a moment before separating.

“Hello again Twilight, how have you been?” Celestia asked in a motherly tone.

Twilight smiled and looked up at the sun Princess. “I've been great Princess, I've been looking forward to this gathering for so long I just can't wait any longer.”

Celestia chuckled and wrapped her left wing around Twilight. “Well then, if you wish for this festival to start sooner we best get ready for the travelers and world leaders.”

“Right.” Celestia began to lead the young unicorn mare to the Town Hall to prepare for the day ahead.

…

Above the town a pegasus mare with a cyan coat and rainbow mane went about moving clouds to certain positions with other pegasi. Near her, a mare with a yellow coat and long pink mane timidly pushed a cloud to its required location. The cyan mare took note of her slow pace and flew to her. “Fluttershy, you've gotta get a move on.  The festival starts in a few hours and we're already behind schedule.”

The yellow mare, known as Fluttershy, looked at the other mare from behind her long mane. “Oh, um, sorry Rainbow Dash, I'll speed things up.”

“What's got you shy now?” Rainbow Dash asked in a tired tone. “Over the past few months you've been improving and stopped being so shy, but now you're acting as if we're back to square one.”

Fluttershy looked away nervously. “It's just...all of these new creatures are coming to Ponyville today, I-I just don't know if I can handle all of those new species. What if they're mean? What if they want to talk to me?” Fluttershy hid herself in the cloud she was pushing, only her eyes visible.

“Oh come on Fluttershy, Princess Celestia wouldn't invite a bunch of different things to a town like this if she knew they were all jerks. Now we need to get back to work or the manager will get cranky.” With that, Rainbow Dash flew off to her own section of the skies, leaving the timid mare to calm down.

…

In a large orchard of sturdy apple trees an orange earth pony mare with a long blonde mane that was tied with a small red ribbon at the end struck her powerful hind legs against one of the trees, causing its fruit to fall from their branches and into baskets laid out on the grass below. “Alright, jus’ gotta get a few more baskets filled and then we can bring ‘em to town for the gathering.”

A small yellow filly with a rose red mane with a huge pink bow ran up to Applejack and began to place any apples that hadn't made it into a basket into a smaller bushel. “Ah can't wait ta see all the different kinds of ponies and other things show up to the festival, ah bet me and the crusaders could get our cutie marks in monster watching.”

“Now now Applebloom, the folks comin’ to this ain't monsters, no matter how weird they may look to us. Now Ah don't want you, Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo annoying, spying, or capturing anyone, understand?” Applejack explained in a stern but kind tone.

“Ok sis, we'll behave ourselves.”

“Good, now let's get back to it, we still got a few trees left to buck.” With that the two earth ponies not back to their work.

…

In Ponyville there sat a bakery, a building actually made of various sweets and appeared to be a large gingerbread house. Inside this bakery two ponies were working hard in the kitchen, preparing for the gathering like the rest of the town. One of these mares was an earth pony which had a pink coat with a darker pink mane that one could only describe as poofy, the other was a unicorn mare with a marshmallow white coat with a carefully curled purple mane. “Thanks again for helping out here Rarity, with everypony else busy I didn't think I'd get everything done on time.” The pink one said as she zoned around the room in a pink blur, only stopping for a few seconds to stir a mixture or take something out of an oven.

“Why it's my pleasure Pinkie Pie, I'll admit this isn't something I would usually do but I am happy to assist you.” The unicorn now known as Rarity said as she stirred a mixture with her magic and decorated various cupcakes and muffins simultaneously. “And you needed somepony to keep these marvellous treats safe.” As she said this she spotted a pegasus mare with a grey coat and blonde mane with crossed eyes leaning in through a window trying to reach a freshly made muffin, but was pushed out by Rarity. “Back you, wait until the festival.”

…

The airship was halfway to its destination, Symbol still leaned against the railing as he watched the land below pass by slowly as the ship floated forward. He he learned to appreciate the vast open landscapes of inner Equestria, as his home in the colony did not have any nearby farmland and was on the border of the country, with the centre of Masereth City housing the rift between worlds. He had seen many travelers come and go through the streets of Masereth, he's seen all kinds of species walk through the rift during his lifetime. Now here he was, exploring the world of Gaia in search of his sister.

He chased lead after lead, never giving up. When someone were to look into his purple eyes they would see the eyes of someone who had seen many things, both beautiful and horrific.

“I don't believe it, Symbol Rayleigh, is that you?” Symbol heard a masculine voice ask behind him. Turning around he saw a man who looked in his late twenties with spiky brown hair with sideburns connecting his hair to his short beard that ran along the bottom of his face. He had blue eyes, his left one having a scar under it. He wore a black and blue coat with a large sword resting on his back, a golden gauntlet on his right hand.

“Gray Karmen, never thought I'd see you this far inland.” The two shook hands and Gray joined him on the railing.

“Could say the same thing about you Symbol, you find any more leads on your sister's whereabouts?” Gray asked with a smile.

“No, but high ranking O.N.Y.X. personnel will be attending this year's gathering, as well as a blimp filled with troopers that should give me the info I need.” Symbol responded with determination. “What about you? How goes the mercenary work?”

Gray smiled. “It's going well, I've got Clawback and Mothball with me, we got a job guarding some government officials at the festival, personally I can't stand those snobs but boy do they pay a handsome amount of bits.”

Symbol looked back to see a large male griffon with that was a mixture of a lion and an eagle, his head being dark grey and his body being dark brown. Sitting across from the griffon sat a changeling, his emerald green eyes had slits as pupils, he also had a light bluish-green mane that lay messy, he was bigger than your average drone so Symbol suspected him of being a royal changeling, a royal is a changeling that has the ability and status to start their own hive and is the only breed of changeling that can actually procreate. Both of the creatures worked black and blue vests that had the emblem of a wolf on their backs.

“Say, how’re you and Ashley doing these days?” Gray asked with curiosity and a friendly smile.

Symbol gave a soft smile and held up his right hand, showing the golden ring causing Gray’s eyes to widen. “I think we're doing alright.”

“Well I'll be…congrats big guy, I better be invited to the wedding.” Gray give Symbol a hard pat on the back. The two chuckled before staring out at the landscape. “Hey, I hear Cybe has gone through with that experiment.”

“Really? That's surprising, didn't think he had it in him.” Symbol commented, remembering his childhood friend who for some reason wanted to be called Cybe. Cybe's father was the head of a research team for a company known as CyCorp, another company that had assisted in the technological advancement of Gaia but as Symbol found out had no connections to O.N.Y.X.

“Yeah, apparently he was caught in an accident.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, poor bastard lost his right arm and his legs to a fire, lost his parents too.”

Symbol put a hand to his mouth, trying to think of how that would have felt. “That's just not right, after this I'm going up to Colony Angria to see if he's doing alright. Might take Ashley if she wants to come.”

Gray nodded. “Well, looks like we're landing, I gotta go make sure the guys don't leave anything on here. See ya around, don't be getting into any trouble you hear?”

Symbol rolled his eyes and watched his friend walk back to his fellow mercenaries of Lone Wolf Mercenary Services, odd name yes considering that they all work together, but it symbolised more than what the group did, it symbolised what they were before, lone wolves.

Symbol watched as the airship began its descent, his sights fell on the O.N.Y.X. blimp that was now heading towards a nearby forest of thorns and black leaves. “Gotcha.”