The airship dock wasn’t nearly as grand as the one in Canterlot. In truth it was a stretch to call it a dock at all. Celestia looked at the deck which had been haphazardly built on top of a one of the taller structures. It didn’t look sturdy, but yet when they tied off onto it, the deck held. She felt a hand on her arm.

“I imagine this is your first trip to a rural community like this.”

She shook her head as she looked over the small town.

“Nay, before my exile I visited a small farming community. I gifted them the land a few years earlier, and they had turned it into a thriving small community. Mine sister believed me to be foolish to want to visit them,” she tittered, “And perhaps it was, but I was never so welcomed in any place before. I dare say this township does look far richer than that community did.”

“Your highness?”

She smiled at Flintheart, “You must understand that such things as window glass was considered extravagant at that time. To those ponies this town would be the wealthiest they had ever seen.”

She watched as her nephew began to disembark from the ship. A small part of her felt as if she should stay aboard, to avoid feeling like a fifth wheel. In many ways, this wasn’t her world anymore. Her world involved a nascent kingdom, founded on Harmony but struggling to achieve it. It was a society fighting back the oppressive yoke of chaos and Patriarchy that so plagued the days of yore.

She didn’t quite belong to this new era, but at the same time she wanted to be part of it. The marvels created in her absence, the stability of the society acquired after so many centuries of toil and snares, it was far grander than any dream or hope she could imagine; she felt her sister had succeeded wildly, exceeding all expectations. She felt Flintheart’s grip on her arm as he pulled her toward the gangplank.

She gave him an uncertain look before she moved toward the dock itself. Once there a dark mulberry Unicorn mare stood waiting for them. She smiled, and extended her hand.

“Hello, I’m Berry Wine,” the mare said in a heavy accent, “and it is our small community’s honor to welcome two members of the royal family to Three Heroes. We merely expected to be sent extra guards, the idea of actually having royalty come and see to our problems was beyond our wildest hopes!”

“Fare thee well, Lady Berry Wine,” Celestia replied, “Mine sister gives unto thee high regard and has asked that Our party be given all access to thine strange visitors.”

“Oh, of course! Please come with me. We’ll head over and talk to the head of the guard stationed here,” Berry Wine stopped for a moment, “Ummm, your highness, I don’t want to seem pretentious, but the head guard here is, well, he’s a very old school Pegasus. I’m certain he’ll show due respect, but his language, and actions, do tend to be a might crude.”

Celestia nodded. In truth the idea of dealing with a Pegasus that allowed himself to act like a Pegasus would be an enjoyable change of pace. The group moved down the steps that lead to the docking platform, and below a small marching band was in place. Both Celestia and Endymion believed that it might have been because royalty had arrived, but instead the banners hanging up simply read, Welcome travelers! All Tribes welcomed, thank you for visiting, please make yourselves at home.

“Don’t get many visitors?”

Berry Wine looked toward Endymion and nodded, “Unfortunately no. Three heroes is so far removed that the only way we receive goods from other places is through Caravan. We built the airship dock, but the last time it was used was when we received our newest guard about six months ago.”

Their walk, which ended up being something of a parade, ended at the guard/police house. Calling it a station, or a barracks, would be a stretch. The reason why was because it was actually a house. It was simple in design, and above it was a haphazardly build cloud house. Rainbow Dash looked at the cloud house and shook her head. Somepony had been double dutying it as both a home, and a set of rain clouds. Which basically meant that the house would barely be suitable for anypony to stay in.

Berry Wine walked forward, knocked on the door, and a Spotted Earth Pony mare answered it. There was a wide reaction to seeing her standing there. She wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing, not even a pair of panties, and she didn’t look the slightest bit embarrassed about it.

“Mayor Wine,” she said before she looked at the others. Instantly she fell to her knees and bowed her head in reverence, “Your highnesses, I am Brandywine, guard of Three Heroes, subject of the crown, defender of Equestria’s borders. I live to serve.”

Celestia wanted to roll her eyes. What Brandywine said was something she and Luna had came up with for the guard to say to a member of royalty when they addressed them. Most of the guard in Canterlot had finally stopped, and she knew that Luna was to thank for for that, but she forgot that guards further out most likely still quoted what was put together after a hard night of drinking.

“Rise, thou needest not to recite thine vow. Praytell thee, wouldst thou show us the place where thou met thy enemy?”

Brandywine seemed to take a moment before nodding, “Of course your highness,” she turned around to face the inside of the building, “Molotov! We need to go scouting!”

There was a resounding belch that practically shook the windows. It was followed by the sounds of unsteady hoofsteps until a white coated Pegasus came walking toward them. He stopped and squinted at the ponies standing at the door, and instantly he went ramrod straight. He bowed, perhaps a bit fast, and almost fell forward. Still he managed to catch himself.

“Your highnesses…”

“Stop, seriously, stop, We already heard it from Brandywine, we don’t need to hear it again, but thank you.”

He glanced at the Prince, “Very well your highness. Now, what do you bunch of milksops want? You’re mighty far out from anything resembling civilization. I know that Brandywine’s got a pair of nice teats, but I can’t imagine that you traveled all of this way to stare at her like a young colt that just discovered his first dirty magazine.”

Pinkie giggled, Fluttershy looked anywhere else besides Brandywine, but Twilight rolled her eyes.

“We need to see where the attack took place.”

He laughed, “You’re wantin’ to see where the attack took place?! Missy, it wasn’t much of an attack. Sure, they got the drop on Cosmic, but that’s just because he’s green, and a Unicorn. Lots of magical sense, not a drop of ability to feel what the ground or air is telling him. If he could feel that, he wouldn’t have even needed us.”

Brandywine excused herself and walked into the back of the house.

“Got to excuse the lass. She’s a good sort, but she doesn’t like to wear her armor when she’s not on duty. Actually she doesn’t like to wear anything. Makes for a nice view.”

Applejack stood there, listening to this stallion, and it was almost like someone had taken Rainbow Dash, removed any kind of filter she had, which wasn’t much, and then turned her bluntness up a bunch of notches. Part of her that was raised by Granny Smith wanted to walk right over to him, and slap some decency upside of his head. Instead she held back, but she was grimacing the entire time.

A moment later Brandywine came out and seemed a bit more dressed than before. She walked toward the group and gave a nod, “Molotov and I will lead you out there. Cosmic will join us once he’s finished discussing guard scheduling with Assistant Mayor Sweet Harvest.”

Celestia noticed Berry Wine shaking her head. If she had to guess there was more than talk about guard scheduling going on between the Assistant Mayor and the other guard that would be joining them. It was merely speculation, but Celestia thought that the guard in question and the assistant mayor may have been having a roll in the hay. There was nothing wrong with that, but given the grave circumstances bring her and her nephew here, it was an unnecessary risk.

The party trundled down from the guard house into Three Heroes proper. The small town was bustling, business-mares and work-a-day stallions mingling between businesses and homes that lined the main street. The Royals were given much diffedence as the trod through two, a facet of this adventure that Endymion could have cared less about. Though, once or twice, he caught certain of the populace giving him sneers; he was certain that his non-equine visage brought on the hostile glares.

“It’s up this way,” Molotov reported, “Cosmic and Brandywine met some grief past the edge of town. My pappy always told me something troublesome pours out of Mount Gloom and while I was a foal, I believed him. I’m beginning to regret my apostasy.”

“Can you describe your assailants?” Twilight asked.

“They were as tall as anypony,” Brandywine explained, “covered in crown-to-hoof armor. I’ve never seen anything like it amongst the Royal Guards or any of the militias. They carried strange weapons, too.”

“Strange weapons?” Endymion asked, reminding himself of the prize shotgun left aboard the airship, “Can you be more specific?”

“They had swords made of light and heat,” a new voice explained as the party strode past the city limits, “The best way I could describe it is their weapons were like an enraged level five magi formed a sword from their magic, and fed all of that anger and hate into it. And then there was the energy nets…”

“Cosmic, boyo, so good of ya to join us!” Molotov called, motioning to a unicorn walking towards them; an Earth pony mare followed in his wake and even Endymion wasn’t so dense to not notice the rosy blush on her cheeks.

“Sorry for the delay,” Cosmic said, “I was helping Ms. Harvest with some remodeling of the town hall.”

“And the guard rotation?” Brandywine asked.

“All sorted,” Cosmic answered, “with plenty of time to spare.”

“Enough time to get some ‘personal time’ fer yerself?” Molotov quipped.

“I’ll have you know, Sargeant,” Sweet Harvest retorted, “that Corporal Cosmic has been working like a Diamond Dog in his duties, so hard that he often doesn’t even eat a regular meal. So, in a small trade-off, I made him lunch while he helped me move some furniture in the office. Faust only knows we don’t have enough janitorial staff to do the job.”

Molotov laughed his deep belly laugh, “Missy, we don’t have enough ponies in this entire village to much more than live and rut. It’s a tiny place, but it ain’t too bad, and it does tend to grow on you after a while.”

Endymion felt something off. It was hard to describe, but he could feel something out of place. He stepped back, moving toward the area the guard ponies had pointed to, and he felt it stronger. He didn’t realize it but Applejack, Pinkie, Muddy, Sweet Harvest, Brandywine, and Celestia all felt it as well. Their Earth Pony magic was communicating with the ground itself. The land was confused because there was something there that wasn’t there.

Endymion felt the connection with it. He felt something speaking to him, talking in a tongue he understood, but couldn’t explain how he understood. He reached out and light shimmered around a burned doorway. That was the best way to describe it. It appeared to be a doorway made of some kind of metal. There was a single magic battery connected to it, and on the side was a panel with various symbols. He noticed that part of the doorway itself was destroyed, obviously ruined in an attack, but a memory he couldn’t explain brought up what the doorway was. He saw one similar to it, sat inside of a huge stone building. There a small stone golem entered codes into it, and a shimmering violet light formed. He remembered stepping into it, and then stepping out in a completely different building.

“It’s a portal.”

He felt Twilight near him, “What?”

He touched the burnt surface, “I don’t know how I know, but it’s a portal. It’s low powered, I doubt that it can work over a distance less than a mile or so, but if it was fully powered, and we had another one in Canterlot, we could step through and be there in seconds.”

She studied it. Starswirl had studied portals, and she knew that he had created one, supposedly, to an alternate world, but she had no idea if that was actually true or not. But her studies stated that Starswirl had used a mirror to create the portal. Focusing the magic into an enchantment that stabilized it. This looked different. If she was to guess it allowed the ponies using it to connect to any number of portals by using the runepad.

“Endymion, we need to take this.”

He looked at his unicorn bride, “Are you sure?”

She nodded, “Something like this could revolutionize magical theory in Equestria. I bet that I could use Starswirl’s portal theory on it, and possibly get it to work. We could travel anywhere on Equus in a matter of seconds!”

“Twi, not ta sound like a rusty fiddle, but ya figure that messin’ ‘round with something those ponies left behind is a good idea?”

Applejack felt a hand and looked at Moondancer, “Twilight’s got a point. This is important,” she then looked at Twilight, “But we’ve got to be careful. We don’t know if it’s got some kind of defensive spell on it or not. The last thing I’m sure any of us would want is for anypony to get hurt.”

Endymion shook his head, “It’s dead. I mean there’s some power to it, but whatever hit it knocked out the spell matrix that made it work,” he looked at Twilight, “If you want it taken back we will, and I think that you could get it to work, but Twily, I think that you’re going to have to build the spell matrix from the ground up.”

The room filled with the a high pitched squeal; Twilight was having a nerdgasm.

“Does she do that a lot?” Molotov asked.

“Only when new spellcraft is involved,” Trixie groaned, “you don’t get to be her rank as a magi without being a tremendous geek about magic.”

“Well, then,” Rarity mused, “wherever do we start breaking down this- doodad?”

“Damn it!”

“What is it?”

“The thrice damned ponies found our insta-travel port.”

“Goddess damn it!”

“It’s not a total loss, is it? Their fire attack warped the mana battery, right? That thing has maybe, what, Five percent of nominal power? I doubt they could do anything with it.”

“You chowder brain! If the Councilwoman gets word that we lost one of our devices, a very pricey and complicated piece of Imperial Artifice, she is going to have our heads!”

“Oh. OH!”

“Serenia is going to hang us all, isn’t she?”

“Not unless we can get the device back. Now shut up, I have a plan…”

Endymion’s instructions on disassembling the metallic portal doorway, or Rune Portal as Twilight decided to call it, seemed mostly correct. There seemed to be a few differences between his memory and the Rune Portal itself. Mainly from what he described this seemed to be a much more economical friendly version, as Rarity put it.

Trixie decided to call it as she saw it and said that the ponies that made it were being cheap. Several members of the group looked at her.

“What, Trixie is speaking the truth, is she not? It is obvious that this Rune Portal is different from the one that Endymion remembers. It only seems likely that the ponies that put it together cared less about quality and more about quantity.”

Rarity rolled her eyes, “Yes, we are well aware of that. In fact I believe I said the same thing, a bit more politely, a few moments ago.”

Trixie looked toward the posh Unicorn, “The Great and Powerful Trixie does not see a reason to be polite when addressing the ponies that did this!”

Before Rarity could respond Rainbow Dash walked toward Trixie and kicked her in the shin.

“You’re talking about Endymion’s kind you cunt licking twat!”

Rainbow looked at the eyes on her, “What? He’s a member of our group. He’s our friend, and we’re the only ones that get to talk like that about those ponies like him.”

Endymion stood there a little surprised, “Ummm, thanks Dash, I think, but it’s okay. Trixie I understand, but Rarity had a point. Even if I don’t count myself as one of them, the Rune Portal is evidence that they are powerful enough to deserve some respect.”

It was nearly completely disassembled when Applejack grabbed her sword. The ground told her that there was something coming. The ground couldn’t identify it, only that it was there and wasn’t there, but it was coming toward them. She chanced a quick glance at Brandywine and saw that she was warning both Molotov and Cosmic. A moment later a bright blue beam seemed to appear from nowhere.

Molotov took to the air, his hand reaching for the bag of spell jars he had, and before he could fish one out another beam shot toward him, catching his wing, and causing him to fall. Without warning something shot forward and slammed into him causing his entire body to go rigid with pain before it hit the ground. Cosmic didn’t form the ball of light, but instead formed a shield around them.

There was nothing for a moment and then something powerful slammed against the shield. Its bowling ball sized fists shimmered for a moment before it could be seen. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Twilight, and Fluttershy had seen something similar back when they tried to find Endymion’s kind before. Yet the difference between that armor and this armor was the same kind of difference between the night and the day.

That armor had seemed to be designed for speed, agility, and maneuverability. This Armor seemed to be designed for power and protection. Yet, Rarity seemed to be the one moving closer to where it was hammering away at the shielding. She cocked her head to the side, looking at the discolored bit of metal. She began to think, and then she turned toward Brandywine.

“How did you drive them back, earlier?”

Brandywine looked confused, “Molotov used spell jars, mostly fire spells, why?”

She looked at the teenage drake with them.

“Spikey Boo, would you kindly shoot a spout of your strongest flame at that armor the moment Mr. Cosmic drops his shield?”

“Drop my what?!”

Brandywine smiled, “Do it Cosmic. I see what she’s thinking.”

Spike swallowed his nervousness, breathed in deeply and then nodded. The moment Cosmic dropped his shield Spike unleashed a torrent of flame that was hotter than anything anypony had felt before. The giant armored being screamed from inside of its suit and they watched as it jumped out. It was a mare, but the skin on her left arm was blistered and dark red. Obviously from the intense heat coming from Spike’s fire.

She looked toward the armor to see it glowing white, and then she saw the mana battery. It was fractured. She turned and ran. It was an action that made Celestia raise a powerful shield around all of them. A moment later the very ground shook as a thunderous explosion erupted. When it cleared they could see a hole stretching far enough down that there didn’t appear to be an end.

Celestia watched as Spike stood there wide eyed at what had happened. It was obvious he didn’t expect his flame to be that powerful. Her sister had filled her in on Spike. How Twilight had hatched him, and how Twilight had helped raise him. More or less he was Twilight’s son. Of course Twilight’s family had helped quite a bit, but it was different to see it in action. Twilight was checking on him, and then she pulled him into a hug. The look she gave Rarity was one that stated that she understood, but didn’t approve of what she had Spike do.

“While I must admit that this is certainly an odd occurrence I believe it would be wise to gather the pieces of the Rune Portal and head back to the village. It may even be advisable to load it onto the airship,” Flintheart shook his head, “They will most likely be back, and I would imagine that they will attack Ms. Sparkle’s ward first next time.”

That piece of advice seemed to make sense, and the large group began to head back toward the village. As they walked Applejack listened to what the ground was telling her. It wasn’t close, not really, but she felt more of the same feeling she had felt with that last attack. The ground, the earth, couldn’t tell her much more than it was there, and not there, but she could tell it was more. The feeling she was getting told her it was more. She looked toward Rainbow Dash and Molotov and noticed that they seemed to notice something as well.

“Dash, ya feelin’ something?”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, the weather and wind has a weird feel to it. Kind of like when we were near that ship close to Mt. Gloom.”

Applejack’s expression soured at that. That ship had outclassed the Royal Airship. She knew that Luna’s airship, the Lunar Light, was the fastest airship in the Royal Navy, and it was heavily armed. Yet that other ship was far more than a match for it. In truth they were all exceptionally lucky to have made it out as basically unschaved as they did. If there was another ship similar to that nearby they could be in some serious trouble.

Her eyes drifted to Spike. She never really have expected the young drake to have the kind of power he did. She could only figure that his naturally occurring dragonfire was powerful enough to get through their armor. If that was the case then Flintheart was right. The next time they attacked they would go straight for Spike. There was a good deal about dragons Applejack didn’t know, but she did know that they had to replenish their reserves when they used their fire. She could already tell that Spike was hungry.

That meant what he did there most likely had taken a good part of his reserves to do. She looked toward their other black cloak and was surprised to her casting illusion spells behind them. Despite what she thought of the arrogant Unicorn, and most of the thoughts tended to be less than friendly, it was Obvious that Trixie was taking her job as a Black Cloak serious. She nudged Twilight as they walked.

“Huh?”

“Those spells she’s casting, how useful are they?”

Twilight looked at the spells Trixie was casting, “Actually, they’re very effective. She’s weaving illusion magic to the point that it should make anypony that walks through there see their worst fears.”

Trixie’s mouth turned up into a smirk, “The Great and Powerful Trixie excels at Illusion Magic. Trixie merely decided to take two illusion spells and weave them together. They will see their fears on each other.”

Rainbow Dash almost stopped, “Wait, so they’re going to attack each other?”

“That is the plan the Great and Powerful Trixie has come up with!”

“Ms Lulamoon, please, stop referring to yourself in the third person. It gets to be grading on one’s nerves.”

She looked at Professor Flintheart and nodded, “Yes sir.”

Rainbow’s fur began to stand on end. She felt it moving closer to them. Her wings shot out in a defensive manner, “Those spells don’t matter.”

“Tri...I will have you know that I’m casting them perfectly!”

“That’s not what I mean!”

Applejack nodded, “Dash is right, Ah cain’t feel ‘em on the ground nomore.”

Trixie looked back toward where they came from, “Then what do we do?”

Professor Flintheart let out an annoyed nicker, “We board the Dawn Breaker, and we hope that Captain Sparrow is correct in his assessment of his ship.”

“What of Three Heroes?”

He looked toward the unicorn guard, Cosmic.

“I believe they will follow us. It appears that we have something of theirs that they wish to regain. Once we, and they, are gone send this scroll to Princess Luna. She will ensure that a small battalion of Black Cloaks get stationed here to help protect the village.”

Cosmic took it and nodded. The moment they pushed into the town the group began to separate. Quickly those that came in on the Dawn Breaker moved up to to the dock. It took precious little time to board and stow the Rune Portal. Once that was done the ship began to lift from the dock.

“Not that it’s my business, but looks like there must be something going on.”

No sooner had those words came out of Captain Wayward Sparrow’s mouth than a beam of pure energy hit the side of the ship. The entire airship rocked violently in the air, but amazingly there was no damage. However Captain Sparrow looked fit to be tied.

“They tried to blow holes in my ship! QUIT TRYING TO BLOW HOLES IN MY SHIP!” he yelled, “All hands ready cannons!”

“Lightning cannons won’t do anything!”

He grinned, “Who said anything about lightning cannons?”

The cannons fired, and what came out of them was a dark purple blast of light. Professor Flintheart knew exactly what they were. He’d seen some left overs from the Solarian Revolutionary Armies. They were corrupted magical cannons. Apparently they worked on fueling magical batteries with dark magic and then using them. It was dangerous, unpredictable, and perhaps the most destructive weapon Flintheart had ever seen. The fact that the other ship seemed to be shrugging the blasts off worried him. The other ship shot a blast which once again caused the ship to rock violently. The Dawn Breaker returned fire, and Flintheart could see the first sign of the cannons working.

“Captain! Our magic batteries for the barrier shield is almost gone! We need to get out!”

Captain Sparrow didn’t like running, but he also didn’t like the idea of being blasted out of the sky.

“Take us toward hideaway number six.”

“Sir?”

“Do it!”

With that the Dawn Breaker turned and began to run. A moment later the magic batteries that powered the ship's engines kicked in, and it shot out at break neck speeds. The other ship followed, but Captain Sparrow didn’t seem worried. The flight was tight, hard, and there was an unnatural turbulence around the ship. Captain Sparrow moved her down, aiming toward the the water, and soon she touched the waves moving forward toward an old rough hewn dock that looked like it was meant for the toughest of ships and ponies. A look behind them saw the other ship turning away, its hull smoking and heavily damaged. The group looked shaken, but mostly alive.

“Welcome to the Shetland Isles. This is the Isle of Goats, but we should be safe here.”

Celestia felt the pull of the sun. Gently she began to move it, allowing it to set for the evening. She could see the rough beauty of the isles, but she was not naive. Luna’s marriage to an abusive stallion had been here. She hated it. She hated what that stallion had done to her younger sister, and she hated that it had to be done. Equestria had needed the alliance of the Shetlanders. Of course the fact that her husband had gotten drunk and fell to his death had been something of a blessing.

Both sisters decided that never again. Never again would the council force their hands into marriage. The nobility could gets stuffed before that happened again.

“Wayward Sparrow, Barrel Crusher’s wantin ta talk with ya!”

The voice was a Unicorn mare, but she was built like an Earth Pony. Endymion looked at her and realized that she had cast the same spell that had killed Jolie Maison on herself. Most likely she was one of his descendants.

“Come on you daft cunt licker, Ah ain’t got all bloody evening!”

They came off of the ship, and loaded into several wagons. The Unicorn mare strapped herself into a harness and began pulling. The sound and smell of the road began to waft up and Endymion began to compare what he saw to Ponyville. Simply said it didn't look or smell like home. No, this place lacked the civilized comforts that Endymion had become accustomed to on the mainland. Wayward Sparrow had said where they were going to lay low at was off the beaten path, and he was right.

"Smells like somepony's been using the road as a toilet."

Wayward laughed, "You're not wrong," he looked at Rainbow Dash, "the Shetlands aren't designed for more cultured ponies."

Off in the distance the sound of a wolf's howl filled the night.

"Captain Sparrow, how long do you intend to keep us in this.... Filth?!" Rarity demanded.

"Missy, I plan on living, and whatever that ship was I saw outclassed the Dawnbreaker pretty hard. But I gotta figure that it follows some of the same magic rules our ships do. The Dawnbreaker is the only ship that can make it to this part of the Shetlands."

"The curse," Endymion said.

Wayward nodded, "Just as powerful as the day it was cast. Only a ship carrying members of the Shetland isles can land here without that curse tearing it to pieces."

Author's Notes:

We're back, bitches!