HK-55’s small holographic projection saluted to me from the holo-communicator resting in my hand as I walked along the private docks of the Isle of Gaiety. The assassin droid and 2V-R8 had just returned to the Fury on my orders and readily accepted their new orders as Katy and I prepared for our treasure hunt among the seas.

“Do you have the sea routes from Prince Hyde’s maps calculated onto the Fury’s navigation computer?” I asked the droid.

“Confirmation: Affirmative master. The protocol droid is running a diagnostic on the scanners right now in preparation for finding this primitive sunken transport. Should our scanners come across anything remotely similar in composition to this ‘treasure ship’ on the ocean floor, we will notify you immediately.”

“Excellent,” I approved as I passed by a few island tourists who stopped to stare at me. “When you find us a possible site, we’ll come in on Prince Thistle’s yacht to confirm the ship’s identity with my Force senses.”

“Query: Master, how do you plan to keep up with us in that primitive little sea craft? I fail to see its necessity.”

“Prince Hyde believes that the ship’s previous owner may have left magical traps behind to protect his ship in case anyone ever tried to take his research. Apparently, this Sagacious Solon was adamant in learning the arcane knowledge of others but wasn’t too keen to share his own personal research, however. Prince Hyde will require a large source of magical power to disarm these traps and Prince Thistle’s ship has this gigantic crystal that acts as a powerful magical battery of some sort.” I answered before giving a small pause. “I can only speculate as to how we will keep up with the Fury but Thistle assures me that I don’t need to worry and that his yacht will suit our needs perfectly. Speaking of which, Katy and I should be arriving at Thistle’s private boathouse in about 10 minutes or less.”

“Statement: Very good master. I will notify you when the Fury departs from the Hiallan royal castle.”

I clicked the holo-communicator off and placed it in a pocket in my lower robes. Content that my droids knew what they were doing I continued to walk along the docks and enjoyed the breeze of salty sea air that blew along the docks. Water hummed and crashed against the docks in calm little waves that charmed my ears and Celestia’s gorgeous sun radiated a pleasant warmth upon my skin from the clear blue skies. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and I was blissfully overjoyed to spend it with family and friends on a little adventure. I inhaled again another generous amount of pleasant sea air until, all of a sudden, I felt a disturbance in the Force.

This disturbance was close and it was powerful. I could feel it analyzing my every step.

I continued my stride so as to not spook whatever was watching me but slowed down a little nonetheless. The disturbance was odd, it emitted emotions that led me to believe it was curious and excited, but there was some other emotion hidden deep down inside it. I reached out as subtlety as I could with the Force to find out what it was that had taken an interest in me but was taken aback by what I found. It was formless, utterly alien, nothing about it made sense. If I had to describe its form, it felt as if my Force senses were passing through a chaotic cloud of strange gas. It changed and shifted its form nonstop and it was next to impossible to imagine what it physically looked like.

‘It’s possible that it is trying to hide its true form from me.’ I hypothesized. ‘However, what has caused it to reveal its presence?’

I dug deeper into the foreign entity with my more empathic Force senses to find its deeper emotions but was careful in my approach. The being held back an emotion that it took care to restrain, an emotion that was far too familiar to me… rage. Assuming the entity to be a threat, my hand instinctively reached for the hilt of my lightsaber, but that turned out to be a mistake. Because the foreign entity immediately hid itself completely from my senses and I softly cursed as I turned around abruptly to find it physically with my eyes.

There was nothing there, just a nice sunny dock with workers and tourists going about their business as if nothing was wrong. I stood there probably for around a minute and sighed as I realized that the foreign entity had likely fled before I could spot it.

‘Damnit, I shouldn’t have reacted to the entity’s rage. What was that thing?’ I silently pondered. ‘Might be a long shot, but maybe Katy saw something… wait, where did she go?’

I continued to look around for my wayward sister and gave off a small sigh of relief when I found her a dozen meters away kneeling down in front of a cute little female griffin cub with her family. I quickly deduced why Katy had stopped for the cub and smiled when I saw her writing her name down on a wooden toy sword with a quill. Looks like Katy had found a fan.

As I walked over to join my sister, I had to pause as my heart nearly stopped when I heard a cute little voice coming from the cute little cub.

“Do you think I could be as strong as you are when I grow up Miss Undyne or uh… Miss Katy?” The little griffin asked.

Katy chuckled a little before she answered. “Call me whatever you want kid, and if you eat healthy and keep yourself determined, I bet you could be the strongest griffin on the entire island. Stronger than me even, but why do you want to be strong?” Katy asked as she handed the quill and toy sword back to the little cub.

“I want to join the Royal Navy! So if I want to join, I gotta be big like mama and papa and be strong like you!” The cub excitedly explained as she looked down at her autographed sword.

“That’s as good a goal as any sweetheart,” Katy said with a smile as she reached down to ruffle the feathers on the cub’s head.

When I finally approached the little griffin noticed my long shadow and gasped when she looked up to see that it was me.

“Eeeeeee! It’s the Warden! It’s Lord Wrath! Mamma, papa look!” The cub exclaimed as she pointed up at me.

“We see him little dove.” The mother answered with a soft laugh.

“Do you want his autograph too?” Katy asked as she beckoned me to come closer.

“Oh uhhh, please Mr. Wrath?” The cub asked as she slowly offered me her toy.

“Of course, how could I refuse?” I answered.

Instead of gripping the sword with my hand I used the Force instead to telekinetically write my name down upon the sword with the quill. The quill had a hidden ink fountain within its feather and it more than provided the ink that I required. Katy had written…

To Siri,

Stay strong and stay determined.

Sincerely, Undyne

Now knowing the cub’s name I wrote…

To Siri,

Keep family close and remember to be curious.

Best regards, Lord Wrath

Little Siri squeed even louder as I wrote the autograph with only my telekinesis. Eventually, she quieted down after her toy levitated back into her talons but she still bounced around while fluttering her little wings. I didn’t mind the noise, it was just too adorable. After a few more moments of small talk with the wide-eyed little cub, I managed to pull Katy away from our adorable little fan before we got too absorbed in the conversation and we continued on our way. Thistle and Hyde were still waiting for us and I didn’t want the royal siblings to send out a search party.

“Aaaahhh, look at that face Jack,” Katy said as she turned her head around to look back at our fan. “Maybe we should have gone to the Jade Park instead, we could’ve seen more cute little cubs like Siri. Is it too late to change our minds? Gaaahhh wait, we shouldn’t, we said we would help your friend Hyde and we shouldn’t go back on our word.”

“Indeed we shouldn’t,” I agreed, before chuckling in amusement. “You really loved that, didn’t you? Having that little girl look up to like that, seeing her happy just to have met you.”

Through my Force empathic senses, I could see that Katy was practically glowing with jubilant energy. In fact, it was practically contagious, it even made me want kick up my feet and skip merrily while whistling a happy tune.

“Of course I loved that! Didn’t you? She was so giddy when she saw you walking up beside me. Oh god, it felt like my heart was going to melt if I kept looking at her adorable little face.”

“I enjoyed it too yes, but signing that little girl’s toy sword seems to have affected you more than it has me,” I stated while examining Katy with an intrigued eye. “I feel pride and joy after our meeting with little Siri, but you look as if you’ve just gone through the happiest moment of your entire life. What was so different between signing this one’s autograph, and the hundreds of other autographs we had to sign the other day?”

Katy’s jubilant energy died down a little so she could think. After twirling her hair between her fingers for a few moments she finally had an answer.

“I think it was just her eyes. When I looked into her eyes I saw a little kid looking up at her hero. Someone to believe in and look up to. I was a little scared, a little proud, but overall just really, really happy. I feel like this is what the real Undyne should be feeling. Like a true heroine and inspiring people to become greater. It all fills me with… Determination, to put it bluntly.”

I smiled happily after hearing Katy’s explanation and reached an arm around her shoulders so I could hug her as we were walking. I felt happier just seeing her being happy. Sadly I had to spoil the mood by warning Katy what I sensed just a while ago. It had to be done, something was watching Katy and me with a silent rage and my sister needed to be warned of the possible danger.

“Katy before we reach Thistle and Hyde, I need to warn you about something…”

When we finally reached our destination, a large boathouse secluded from the rest of the docks, I had to admit that Thistle’s small fleet of yachts was quite impressive. The hull and sails from each sea craft looked as if they were constructed from the hands, or in this case talons, of masterful artisans who spent countless hours sewing every piece of canvas or carving each individual wooden board. House Hialla’s crest of a fierce twinkling Aper Major emblazoned on a shield was stitched onto each sail of the ships with varying colors such as crimson red, royal blue, and pure white acting as a background. The ship currently occupied by the royal Hiallan siblings was vastly different from the rest, however. A deflated blimp nearly as wide as the ship rested on the main masts projecting from the ship’s deck while closed sails were rigged onto masts projecting 45° upwards from the starboard and port sides. Coils of rope lined every mast along with peculiar mystic lamps that emitted a soft blue glow that lit up both the ship and the ships surrounding the craft. Carved into the ship’s starboard bow were golden letters that identified the ship as ‘The Extravagant’.

The Extravagant’s current occupants were currently busy with a myriad of tasks. Thistle was busy checking the lamps and it seemed he had switched outfits again in preparation for this little adventure. A black wide-brimmed hat plumed with a large purple feather rested on the prince’s head with a dark purple cape shrouding the majority of his body. Thistle’s hippogriff bodyguards, the Twin Serpents, flew from corner to corner of the ship checking and tightening the rigging while pausing momentarily to nod at Katy and me as we approached. Hyde was hunched over maps on a table at the ship’s raised aft and his cleanly appearance told me that he must have taken a bath before he came aboard. Strangely, however, I couldn’t seem to locate Falca.

Before I could dive into my Force senses to locate her, I saw an obscured female griffin sprint on top of the blimp and slid quickly down to the deck while holding onto a thickly braided rope. Smoke emanated from the friction between the griffin’s talons and the rope and before the griffin reached the bottom she swung off the rope with a harsh snap and glided the rest of the way down on familiar wings. After landing on the ship’s railing like an acrobat with avian talons and feline claws gripping the wood, I immediately recognized the griffin as Falca but was astonished by what she wore.

She wore a thin black bandana above her eyes and her torso was adorned with an open coffee brown polyester jacket with golden silken braids resting on her shoulders. Her forelegs and hind legs were covered in nylon hosiery and strapped to a thigh on each of her hind legs was a miniature crossbow on her right leg and a quiver full of blots on her left leg. With her tail swinging wildly behind her and a confident smile on her beak, Falca gazed at both Katy and me with dignified eyes that sent a shiver down my spine. Falca looked both fierce and charming all at the same time. She looked like the perfect balance between intimidation and invitation in that outfit.

‘She looked beautiful before, but now she looks… I want to say… sexy?’ I thought as impure thoughts peaked the corners of my mind.

“Howdy sailor!” Katy greeted Falca, thankfully breaking my concentration before I could entertain my thoughts any further.

Chuckling at Katy’s greeting, Falca nodded her head in Katy’s direction. “Hello Katy,” then nodded her head towards me, “Hello Jack.”

“Hi Falca!” I said probably too enthusiastically. Cursing to myself silently, I quickly followed my greeting with a question. “Permission to come aboard?”

“Permission granted,” Falca said before acrobatically backflipping off the railing and onto the ship’s deck to kick out a boarding plank for Katy and me.

After walking onto the ship’s deck Thistle stopped what he was doing to come over and greet us. “Darlings welcome aboard The Extravagant! Aaahh, it’s been too long since I’ve set sail on this wondrous little ship. I think it’s been two years since its bow has looked upon the sea’s horizon.”

“So why are we taking this one then instead of the other ships?” Katy asked Thistle out of curiosity before pointing towards another ship along the docks with House Hialla’s crest emblazoned on its crimson sails. “Why not take that one instead? It looks bigger than all the other ships.”

Thistle looked towards the ship Katy was pointing and laughed softly. “Oh, darling you don’t want to take that ship. I have my weekly orgies on that vessel.”

“....”

Everyone was silent after Thistle’s statement and the silence was only broken when Falca awkwardly coughed into her right talons.

“Orgies?” Katy asked

“Weekly?” I asked both surprised and kind of impressed.

“Of course.,” Thistle said looking a little hurt. “What kind of self-respecting, insanely rich griffin prince doesn’t have orgies?”

“I don’t,” Hyde commented from up on the ship’s aft while still looking at his maps.

“Well, you’re the exception little brother because you’re special!” Thistle replied gleefully earning a ‘Go to Tartarus’ from Hyde. Turning his attention back to us, Thistle continued to explain why we were taking The Extravagant.

“Other than the magical battery we’ll need underneath the deck, this ship is the most utilitarian out of all of my yachts. With the blimp on top, it can travel both in the air and on the sea and were it armed with defenses you could almost classify this ship as a Hiallan battle frigate. Instead, it trades its claws for mobility and the fastest traveling mechanism in the known world. With a few pleasant modifications I added personally to the ship, it is the perfect vessel for a little adventuring.”

My holo-communicator beeped in my pocket after Thistle’s explanation and I reached into my lower robes to bring it out for everyone to see. I accepted the call with a click of a button and HK-55’s holographic form had been replaced with 2V-R8’s.

“Master! The HK unit has taken the Fury’s helm and we have begun to depart from the Shattered Isles! We will begin deep-sea scanning momentarily.”

“Very good, update me when you find a possible I.D on the ship we’re looking for. Our ship will be departing soon.” I replied before ending the droid’s transmission.

“So,” I said turning my attention back to Thistle. “You said that I wouldn’t have to worry about your ship keeping up with the Fury. I assume it’s because of this traveling mechanism you talked about?”

“Indeed it is, come I’ll show you both what it is as Falca gets us underway. Falca, I leave you in command.” Thistle said as he turned to direct us below the deck.

“Wait, Falca is going to move this ship on her own?” I questioned as I turned my gaze towards Falca. Falca had opened her beak to answer but Thistle had answered first.

“Don’t worry my dear sister will have my lovely Serpents to act as decktalons to assist her. If they are highly competent, The Extravagant only requires a skeleton crew of 3 at a bare minimum. Falca was a Lieutenant Commander aboard a royal Hiallan ship for most of her military career.”

“I can speak for myself Thistle,” Falca said giving her elder brother a short glare. “But he’s right, as a Lieutenant Commander I was trained as a ship’s helmsman, boatswain, and was even trained as a cannoneer. I can handle this gaudy little dingy.”

“Gaudy!? DINGY! Gahhh,” Thistle exclaimed in an exaggerated tone, his feathers poofing up slightly. “My own sister wounds me deeply with her words! I can’t stand her presence at the moment. Hmph!”

Thistle turned away from us and proceeded to head below deck with his beak held high in the air, his tail swinging angrily behind him. It was all over-exaggerated and quite amusing to watch if I was being honest. My lips curled into a smile and I could hear both Katy and Falca laughing at my sides. Falca turned to me after watching her brother stomp off and stared up at me with her golden irises.

“Well I better get to it and you guys should see what Thistle has down there. The Extravagant’s traveling mechanism is truly the only remarkable thing about this ship. See you later Jack.” Falca said as she walked off to untie the ropes that held The Extravagant to the docks. As she was walking off I couldn’t help but admire her appearance once more.

‘God she looked good in that outfit.’

Below deck, the wood in The Extravagant’s walls was made from a dark mahogany wood and several ornate carvings were carved into each wall we passed. We passed several closed doors that appeared to be the ship’s crew quarters and as we passed them we heard a loud retching sound coming from behind the last door. Confused as to who else could be on this ship I used my Force senses to find out who it was and found out it was an exhausted Vigilant Star who appeared to be suffering from a debilitating hangover. He was hunched over a toilet and he was breathing heavily as small traces of adrenaline flowed through his system trying to balance out the pain he felt in his gut.

“What happened to Vigilant Star?” I asked paused in front of the door to his room.

“Wait that’s Vigilant in there?” Katy asked in surprise. “Oh shit, we never saw him after we finished the Royale. Damnit why do I keep forgetting about him?”

After Katy said that Vigilant Star puked again into the toilet making an even more wretched sound than before. The poor unicorn sounded like he was going to puke his whole stomach out.

“While you two were fighting in the Royale yesterday, Sergeant Star and my father delighted themselves on father’s favorite wine. My father insisted that they share a drink and after 3 bottles the poor stallion could hardly keep himself in his seat. Soon after passing out I took the liberty of taking care of Sergeant Star so you two wouldn’t have to worry. He’ll be fine I assure you, a few hours of rest and a nice sea breeze are all that he needs. It always does wonders for me during a hangover.” Thistle said while gazing off as if revisiting old memories.

After Vigilant Star stopped puking again, Katy hesitantly walked up to the door and knocked while leaning her fin/ear to the wood.

“Hey Vigilant it’s me, you going to be okay in there?”

“Undyne? Yeah… I’ll be fine… just need one more hour I-,” but Vigilant was cut off as I sensed that more bile had crept up to the back of his throat and he hugged the toilet to puke again.

“Okay, uuuhhhh, we’ll be around the ship if you need anything. Take care okay.” Katy said as she leaned away from the door.

“Okay…thanks.”

As the three of us continued on our way my Force enhanced hearing heard Vigilant Star whisper something to himself behind the door.

“How could Grinnail drink so much of that wine?! He was guzzling that stuff down like it was freaking tap water. Do griffins have two livers or something? Oh sweet Celestia –”

The three of us entered a large curved room that had to have taken up most of the lower bow of the ship. The crystal that was acting as Hyde’s magical battery surprised me by being nearly twice my size with the coloration of a dark blue sapphire. It was held to the deck by chains with arcane symbols etched into them and a plethora of lights that acted like stars circled within the gem’s center. Tendrils of azure magic circled around the crystal in lethargic movements and tethered to the very back of the crystal was another chain that connected the crystal to a small hole leading to the front deck of The Extravagant.

In the center of the room and directly in front of the crystal was a small pedestal that barely came up to my knee but was perfectly accessible for a griffin. A dial set up with 2 sets of 4 numerical slots rested on top of the pedestal with a main central dial having the 4 cardinal directions lining the dial’s circumference. The pedestal seemed entirely made out of bronze and as Thistle approached it I suddenly felt an intense release of powerful Force energy coming from the crystal.

The Force was strong within the crystal. Its power felt concentrated and refined as I felt it move like a current within the crystal in softly controlled waves through the chains that bound the crystal to the floor. Examining the crystal in deeper detail I found ambient traces of unshapen Force energy being taken within the crystal to grow its already substantial pool of power. At an atomic level, the crystal’s lattice structure was fluid and unsymmetrical, a near impossibility considering a crystal’s matter requires perfect proportions and balance to exist, but the excess Force energy the crystal took within itself kept the structure unbelievably from falling apart. It was like it was alive, a beautiful symbiosis between chaotic matter and Force energy.

Visually, the crystal may have looked like just an oversized sapphire, but after examining its composition it was obvious that this crystal was something never seen before by human science or human beings in general. Like seemingly everything in this world, something that should have been impossible was standing right before us.

‘It’s moments like these where I absolutely love this world,’ I thought as a grin formed on my face.

“Jack…Katy… what you are looking at is one of the most innovative and expensive pieces of magical engineering.” Thistle said as he extended his wings giving him the appearance of a showman. “It is called an Ether crystal and there are only 7 of them in the entire world. Completely artificial in nature, this crystal can store more magic within itself than any naturally created gemstone in all of Eques.”

“It’s beautiful,” Katy said with awe in her voice.

“It’s fascinating,” I said as I walked up to crystal, only stopping when I was barely a meter away. “You said there are only seven of these Ether crystals, I assume they are very difficult to create then?”

“Indeed,” Thistle answered with a nod. “The materials needed to create Ether crystals are beyond rare and the process in creating them requires experienced enchanters along with 5 years of vigilance and patience. With their abundant resources, the arcane universities in Equestria claim ownership over 4 of the crystals, 1 in the Minotaur Dominion, and House Hialla can boast claim over the final two.”

Thistle caressed the bronzed pedestal in front of him with care and his eyes turned soft and distant as he continued to speak. “Years ago when I was a much younger prince and was just beginning to build my fortunes, I had witnessed the power of Ether crystals when I had made a journey to the College of Mystics on the Nether Isle. I saw the mages there use their Ether crystal to store power and fuel their rituals and spells to great effect. They saw their crystal as only a means to progress their study of magic, but I saw something more in the crystal.”

Arcane energy thrummed inside the rings on Thistle’s talons and flowed into the pedestal causing a reaction in the Ether crystal and the chains surrounding it. Magic then bathed the room in a soft blue glow causing the mahogany walls to become slightly transparent and displayed to us the outside surroundings of The Extravagant. We saw Falca untying the last rope binding the ship to the docks and she flew up back onto the ship and out of sight to direct the ship’s course. The ship rocked slightly side-to-side as it made its way slowly to the open sea and away from the Isle of Gaiety.

“I saw in the crystal the means to make House Hialla the pinnacle of its specialties. Griffins of our House have always prided ourselves as masterful sea-faring merchants, the most accomplished when it comes to building ships, and as sailors of the largest naval fleet in all of Eques. With Ether crystals, our mastery over the air and sea can turn into outright dominance if we give ourselves the greatest means of magical transportation.” Thistle continued as we sailed further into the sea.

Thistle’s presentation was interrupted however when my holo-communicator beeped again. With the click of a button, 2V-R8’s holographic form appeared again and he brought with him an update on the Fury’s search.

“Master we have already found a possible I.D on the ship.”

Before I could respond Thistle had already spoken.

“Excellent, tell me the coordinates and I will show you what I mean by my words.”

Complying with his request I had 2V-R8 give him the coordinates of the possible location and Thistle got to work turning the dials on top of the pedestal. Latitude and longitude coordinates were set in and Thistle’s ring with the blue sapphire, the one that allowed him to create portals, glowed slightly as a hidden slot suddenly revealed itself on the center of the pedestal. The hidden slot was small and nearly as wide as the ring’s gemstone and etched around the slot’s edges were miniscule arcane runes. Thistle raised his talons and kept the sapphire ring just an inch away from the slot.

“This mechanism was the first and most significant financial investment I had ever made. A fortune and years of preparation with countless mages had made it a reality. Currently, it is far too costly to make Ether crystals economically practical as of yet, but once decades pass and our knowledge of magic and technology progresses to the point where the creation of such crystals are trivial, this investment will lead to the dawn of a new age of transportation.” Thistle paused as he pressed his ring into the slot and the magic within the Ether crystal hummed vibrantly. “Whether I become King of my House or the richest griffin in the entire known world, this will be my greatest legacy.”

Magic spewed from the crystal and into the chains which directed that magic directly to the tip of the bowsprit of the ship. The magic then left the bowsprit in the form of a bolt of arcane energy and shot off like a bullet towards the sea. The arcane bolt stopped a respectable distance away from The Extravagant and widened itself into a colossal sapphire portal similar to the smaller portals Thistle had created with just his ring. Our ship approached the portal with no hesitation and once we reached the other side I looked around through the room’s lightly transparent walls to see that the Isle of Gaiety was nowhere in sight anymore.

“We’ll need a map to confirm it, but if I remember my sea cartography well enough then the Ether Crystal just gave my teleportation ring enough power to transport us over 600 kilometers in just an instant. A trivial test of the distances it can reach,” Thistle said with the widest smile I ever seen on his beak. “With this mechanism, no corner of the world is out of this ship’s reach.”

“Falca could you be a sweetheart and turn the ship 90° starboard? I hate having the sun in my eyes as I cook.” My elder brother asked in an intolerably sweetly tone as I controlled the helm of his ship.

“Why of course Thistle, anything for you,” I replied sarcastically. “Would you like me to give you a back and wing massage too while I’m at it? Should I also pluck some of my feathers and stitch you up a feather pillow?”

“Oh if you could that would be just fantastic! You’re such a good little sister.” Thistle said, replying to me in kind with sarcasm dripping from that sweet tone. I cursed to myself as I unwittingly made him sound even more intolerable. Despite my irritation, I complied with Thistle’s request and gestured for the Serpents to turn the sails so I could maneuver the ship.

“Thank you Falca,” Thistle said as he pressed a freshly cleaned fish to the grill he had brought up from the kitchen below deck. His tone returned to normal after he had gotten what he wanted.

I loved my brother but sometimes I just wanted to hold him over the edge of a tall tower by his tail with his wings tied. However, I couldn’t get too mad as he was making everyone lunch for the afternoon. He could’ve spent this entire trip just lounging around letting everyone do all the work, but he got up and dusted off his culinary skills after Katy caught some fish from one of her trips swimming underwater.

It was noon and after teleporting to 3 different areas of the Cerulean Sea and finding three sunken wrecks that couldn’t belong to the late Sagacious Salon, our small adventure to find sunken treasure had turned into a small relaxation cruise. For the griffins on board, my brothers and I were kept busy with tasks we enjoyed. Thistle was cooking up a meal that smelled more enticing with each second the grill’s aroma mingled with the sea breeze. Hyde was still hunched over his maps, excitement still emanating from him even after we had come up with 3 misidentifications.

‘I hope he doesn’t get too crushed if we don’t find the ship. But even if we do find the ship, it’s more than possible that whatever Hyde hopes to find could be far gone by now. Sagacious Salon may have been a great mage but even preservation spells created by him could’ve faltered if his ship has been submerged underneath the weight of the sea for centuries.’ I considered.

However, despite my suspicions, I was still contently happy during the whole trip. It’s been years since I’ve directed the helm of a ship and it surprised me how easy it all came back to me. My muscle memory into tying and untying knots was still finely tuned and my innate griffin instincts in judging wind patterns allowed me to trim the sails properly for the most effective speed. It all made me feel like I was 18 again and sailing the sea again with my fellow sailors. I even brought the book Jack gave to me as a gift so I could do some light reading when we reached an even current.

In fact, I was about to reach for my book again until I saw Katy come bursting out of water and back onto the deck of the ship. Clad in only her undergarments, she stood pompously on top of the deck with a humungous wahoo fish gripped tightly into her maw of sharp teeth. Despite it being hidden behind a fish I could still see the proud grin that was undoubtedly on her face.

“Mmhmmphf!! Ivff comffphh beffinling gifffs!” Katy said indecipherably through the fish in her mouth. After everyone gave her a weird look she gripped the wahoo by its tail and held it in the air by her side before speaking again. “I’ve come bearing gifts! Behold the bounty of my hunt!”

“Oh, it looks utterly delicious darling!” Thistle congratulated as he broke himself away from his grill to admire Katy’s catch. “With this, I can make a bountiful platter for us all. How did you find such a monster of the sea? These things are difficult for even sharks to catch.”

“Well, I’m not one to brag…” Katy drawled out, obviously enjoying having her ego stroked. “But I’m pretty sure I can go up to 100 kilometers per hour when I’m underwater. Maybe even faster than that.”

“Ohhh myyyy,” Thistle exclaimed impressed.

Thistle offered his talons and Katy handed him the wahoo so he could descale and clean it. Still dripping wet with water, Katy dried herself off with a towel offered by Jack and walked over to a sunbathing chair that was also brought up from below deck. After stretching her nearly naked form over the chair she locked her hands behind her head to enjoy the heat from the sun while being cooled off by the gentle breeze offered by the sea.

‘We certainly won’t go hungry on this trip.’ I thought as I looked down at Katy. Ever since I met her at Ponyville, Jack’s sister was really starting to grow on me. She was friendly to a fault, a little bit odd to be sure, but still pretty welcoming. Her feats of power and strength were impressive when I witnessed them in the Titan Arena and that enduring determination I see her carry around her was something to be admired. If she was a griffin I had no doubt she would have been one of the most popular bachelorettes in all of the Shattered Isles. Probably even more popular than me.

Tearing my gaze away from her and over to her brother, I found that Jack had gone back to his meditations and was still perusing the sea with his powers in order to find Sagacious Salon’s ship. He was calm and amazingly still even as the currents of the Cerulean Sea rocked The Extravagant slightly from side to side. His tranquil breathing lifted his bare chest up and down in a peculiarly enthralling rhythm and I couldn’t help but be thankful that his vacation attire didn’t come with anything to cover his torso. His upper build was on full display for the world to see and I enjoyed having it that way. It made me wonder what it would feel like to grope those muscles between my talons, to nuzzle my head between his pecs and listen for his heartbeat, to feel those powerful arms slowly encircle my body and…

‘Damn it, what in Tartarus am I doing?!!!’ I thought as I shook my head to tear my gaze away from Jack. Judging us to be on a calm course, I locked the helm into place and walked away to the very back of the stern to gaze out at the sea so I could gather my thoughts.

‘What am I? A teenager going through her first heat cycle?!! Why can’t I get a grip on these feelings?’ I questioned to myself as I lightly banged my head onto the ship railing hoping that no one would notice. Ever since I witnessed Jack covered in sweat while he was training on that one curious day, alluring thoughts of his physique have plagued my mind. They would come and go at random and they started to get worse the more I saw Jack out of his armor. Then it got infinitely worse when we all had that awkward conversation in the Titan Arena’s Pens about just how naked Jack and Katy were without their clothes.

After saving my life and going through a few intimate moments with the alien, I thought it was about time that I seriously consider what I want my relationship with Jack to be in the future. Do I continue to consider him as a friend or do I reach out for something more? To decide this I think it would be best if I made a list of pros and cons then decide from there.

Pro: Interspecies relationships have been said to be exciting and fun. Different cultures and different bodies to explore can provide something new to the relationship experience if both parties are interested.

Con: Interspecies relationships are also said to be the most complicated. Different bodies can lead to an overabundance of awkward moments and some cultures definitely do not mix well together. This was further complicated by the fact that Jack was the most alien out of every intelligent species in all of Eques.

Pro: Jack has a kind heart. While it can be an attractive trait, most griffins with a kind heart tend to be the weaker ones in griffin society since aggression and greed help forge stronger and healthier mates. But Jack is both incredibly strong and kind at the same time.

Con: But sometimes I think Jack can be too kind. Sometimes it feels like he cares about others more than he cares about himself. Maybe I’m just imagining it, but I’d like it if Jack was just a bit more prideful of himself.

Pro: He has been accepted into my society and my people already adore him.

Con: Interspecies relationships in royal Hiallan society have always caused unwanted political problems. For instance, my great grandfather King Corbas, 6 generations past, had married a pegasus for House Hialla’s queen. It caused a major controversy and was only resolved until King Corbas agreed to take in a griffin mistress to continue Hialla’s bloodline. Since Corbas, royal interspecies relationships have always been treated with the barest amount of acceptance.

Pro: Jack would have to start off as my royal concubine and the thought of having a concubine again is a pleasant one to ponder over.

Con:………Nope, can’t really think of a con for having a concubine again.

Pro: So far I’m comfortable with how Jack is as a person and I get the feeling that he is comfortable with me as well.

Con: I’ve been in comfortable and safe relationships before and they always turned out boring. Jack could turn out to be one of those relationships as well.

Pro: He saved my life.

Con: I don’t want to fall for someone just because they saved my life.

Pro: I saw the way he looked at me at the docks.

I turned my head back towards the bow of the ship to see Jack with his eyes still closed in deep meditation. Those eyes that looked at me with awe and a hint of desire. If I wanted an intimate relationship with Jack it made it infinitely easier for me to consider the idea if he wanted an intimate relationship with me as well.

…

…

After weighing the pros and cons for a few minutes I decided yes. Yes, I am willing to reach for something more with Jack. Father said it himself that I’m still young and have the time to do things I’ll never be able to do in the future. Even if this does turn out to be a mistake I’m sure it’s a mistake I’ll learn to live with. Besides, if I don’t take Jack for myself now I’m sure Thistle will make a move sooner or later.

With my thoughts focused I decided that I would search for a moment alone with Jack to tell him of my feelings and hope that he is at least willing to consider the idea. In the meantime, I had a book to pass the time.

Jack’s gift, a collected history of the Sith and their empire was quite an interesting read. Before they became the namesake of the Dark Side’s ideals, the Sith species itself was almost always within a constant state of war on their home planet of Korriban and their later second home of Ziost. Surprisingly sophisticated despite their cruel and barbaric nature they thrived more so than other interstellar species and would even enslave those other species to further the Sith’s goals. I had read to the point where the exiled Dark Jedi had discovered the Sith and read further to find how instrumentally significant the Dark Jedi were to Sith culture and Sith biology.

After their arrival, human Dark Jedi participated in interbreeding and genetic manipulation which altered the Sith species significantly on a colossal scale. Then over the course of several generations, the original species became a hybrid race of Sith and Human heritage. With the Sith who had a considerably higher concentration of Sith blood and physiology being typically labeled as “Sith Purebloods”.

But what invested most of my attention was how the Dark Jedi implemented their manipulation and breeding of the Sith. The book went into surprisingly great detail on as to how their breeding programs functioned and would display revealing illustrations of the changes in the Sith Pureblood’s anatomy and physiology over the generations. How they selected mates based upon the strength of the Force within their bloodlines, and what they considered to be naturally handsome features. It even included… particulars… on the breeding process itself and I made sure to note the surprising number of tight restraints used to keep a Sith Pureblood in check.

It was a very, very interesting book.

“Dinner is served,” Thistle called out as he set out the dishes onto a table in the middle of the deck. We had reached our 7^th possible site in the search and I could tell that we were all very hungry

“Yes, I’m starving!” Katy said excitedly as she bounded from her sunbathing chair and over to the table.

I locked the helm into place again and flew down from the stern to join everyone at the deck. When I got a good look at what Thistle prepared I was certainly not disappointed. A lot of the fish that Katy had caught were grilled and lathered in a brown sugar marinade with garlic and lemon juice garnishing their sides. However, the large wahoo she had caught earlier had been turned into a steak and was bathing inside of a large stainless steel bowl filled with more lemon juice along with garlic, olive oil, basil, parsley, salt, and pepper. Every dish was so saturated with spices I wondered if Thistle had cleaned out his entire spice cabinet.

“This looks very good Thistle,” I commented to my brother.

“I aim to please, now come on everyone dig in! I didn’t forget about you Sergeant Star,” Thistle said to the unicorn who had finally torn himself away from the bathroom half an hour ago. “I dug into my ship’s stores and whipped you up a fruit salad. I hope it’s enough.”

“It’s more than enough. Thank you very much, your highness.”

I had just taken a bite of my grilled fish when I realized that a big red giant was missing from the dinner table. I looked over the table to see that Jack was still meditating with his brow furrowed intensely in concentration. Something must have really caught his attention.

“What’s going on Jack? Your food is getting cold,” I said as Jack opened his eyes with excitement. Ignoring my question he turned his attention to Hyde.

“Hyde! What was the name of Sagacious Solon’s ship?”

“It was called The Seeker, but I doubt that is too important. Sagacious Solon would have dedicated his preservation spells to his grimoires, research, and his artifacts, not the entire ship. Most parts of the ship like the name painted on its side have probably decayed over time.”

“Don’t be so sure about that,” Jack said as he closed his eyes to fall back into his supernatural senses. “Because I can see it right now underneath us! The ship is almost exactly as you described it to me and the paint on it has barely even been chipped.”

Hyde jumped from the table and ran over to stand close to Jack. He was positively ecstatic right now.

“Jack is it-… are you absolutely sure?!” Hyde asked before receiving a nod from Jack.

“Yep, we found it.”

“YEEEESSS!!” Hyde said screaming with joy as he hopped and flew circles in the air. After he landed back onto the deck he bounced around excitedly while telling everyone exactly how happy he felt.

“I FOUND IT!!! Four years of research have finally paid off!” He said as he gave Jack a hug. “Thank you for finding it.” He then ran over to his brother to give him a hug. “Thank you for finding those records.”

He then proceeded to give everyone else a hug including me. This was the happiest I had seen him in years.

“I can write my thesis on this. Finally, I will have done something of note for our House. Sagacious Salon and all of his research! Oh papa will be so proud of me and Takada will finally have to show me some respect. Thank you, thank you so much everyone!” Hyde then turned his attention to Thistle. “The food is great brother but we need to celebrate with something more. I know you must have wine on this boat somewhere right?”

“In my cabin and underneath the bed is my private stash. Go ahead and fetch it, you deserve it, little brother.” Thistle said with a soft laugh as Hyde made his way swiftly below deck.

“You’ll have to excuse me everyone if I don’t join in,” Vigilant Star said as he continued to eat his fruit salad. “I’ve had my fill of alcohol for quite a while.”

We all had a laugh at Vigilant’s expense and Jack came over to join in on the meal. It took the whole morning and half the afternoon but we had finally found the ship. I knew that this must have meant the whole world to Hyde and I couldn’t be happier for him. Hyde had always been the smallest griffin of note in our family both figuratively and literally and this discovery was his chance to make his mark among House Hialla. It will do wonders for his confidence and that by itself will make him a better griffin. Also maybe he’s right, maybe Takada will finally take him seriously for once and give him some respect.

Throughout his life, Hyde had been treated by Takada with the barest amount of disdain. At worst she would belittle him for what little accomplishments he had achieved and treat them as if they were worth nothing. His acceptance into the College of Mystics, his research into ancient magic’s, she didn’t even show up to his eighteenth birthday. The most important birthday in a griffin’s youth. Everyone else in the family took the time to attend, even father who has the job of ruling an entire kingdom! I didn’t know for sure why Takada despised our little brother but I suspected it had something to do with the nature of his birth. Mother may have died at childbirth but that was no excuse for her treatment of him. Whatever the case may be for her disdain of Hyde, she can’t ignore him this time.

Jack had brought out his communicator to speak with his droids and told them that he had confirmed that this site was the location of the sunken ship. He told them to remain on standby and wait for further orders and they responded by having the Fury do a flyby close to our ship on the sea. The Fury roared over our heads and flew up past some cumulus clouds and out of our sight.

“Well everyone we found Hyde’s ship,” Jack said as he took a bite out of the wahoo fish with a fork. “Now we get the hard part. Lifting that sucker out of the sea.”

“Don’t worry Jack I can handle the heavy lifting,” Katy said confidently with a grin.

“Are you sure about that Katy? This isn’t some little tugboat, this ship is about the size of an old-school galleon and I don’t even want to think about how much sea pressure you’ll be putting yourself through. Not to mention the magical traps that may still be around.”

“You’re overthinking things Jack. Hyde will know what to do and we’ll just follow his instructions.”

Speaking of Hyde, my little brother had returned with the wine. He popped the cork and handed out a few glasses but I was suddenly caught off guard by a drastic change in pressure. The wind that was passing through my feathers had suddenly changed its course from the east and started to blow directly west. I turned my head in that direction and was taken by surprise by what I saw. On the sea horizon, a swarm of dark violent clouds was starting to head our way and I couldn’t believe how I couldn’t have noticed till right about now. When I was at the helm just barely ten minutes ago there wasn’t even a speck of such clouds.

I looked to Hyde’s Twin Serpents and the hippogriffs had noticed what I was seeing as well. I looked to one of them, Kaa I believe, and she nodded silently as she flew up to the crow’s nest beneath The Extravagant’s blimp to get a better view of the approaching storm. As the hippogriff examined the storm from above, everyone else had finally noticed what I was seeing. Jack paused mid-bite into his meal and stood up to walk to the ship’s railing to gaze at the storm. A harsh gust of wind passed through us all briefly and I didn’t have to be a mage to sense the magic being carried by the wind. The magic was so powerful that I swore I could even see Katy’s scales twitch in response to that magic.

Kaa glided back down from the crow’s nest and whispered into Thistle’s ear what she saw.

“She says that the storm has taken up the entire western horizon and she guesses that it has to moving at least over 90 kilometers per hour.” Thistle said with concern in his voice. He took a sip of his wine and looked at the approaching storm with a hint of trepidation in his eyes.

Just as Thistle stopped talking, Jack’s communicator to his ship beeped again and the small blue form of his droid 2V-R8 appeared in his hand.

“Master, scans have revealed a drastic decrease of atmospheric pressure in your location. Archived data from similar garden worlds would classify this change of pressure as unnatural in nature in view of the speed of its change. Considering your location and the hot moist air surrounding the sea, I would recommend mission abort.”

“Can you give me an ETA on when the storm will reach us?” Jack asked.

“The storm will hit your location in precisely 59 minutes and 42 seconds.”

Jack looked at us all with concern before he turned back to the droid. “Thank you 2V-R8, keep me updated on any further anomalies.”

“Of course master.”

Jack then looked at me and suddenly I realized that everyone was looking at me. As they should, I was the experienced sailor after all.

“What should we do?” Jack asked me.

I considered the approaching storm with a look and stroked the underside of my beak in thought. I had served most of my time in the navy on a Hiallan battlecruiser and typically storms were handled fairly easily. Battlecruisers were built to last cannon fire and magical missiles from enemy ships so durability from rough waves typically wasn’t an issue. The battlecruiser I served on was also a hybrid ship like Thistle’s in that it could fly in the air and skim the sea. However, Thistle’s ship was a pleasure yacht built by artisans whereas battlecruisers were built by experienced shipbuilders who knew how to prepare for anything the sea could throw at them. I also had to take into account that I was running a skeleton crew here with Thistle’s Serpents instead of a full complement of accomplished Hiallan sailors.

There was no other way to consider, we had to leave. This strange unexpected storm is putting me on edge and I didn’t favor our chances in surviving it. Taking on an authoritative tone I gave my orders to everyone on the deck.

“We need to relocate to another area of the sea using the ship’s teleporter. Thistle, get below deck and teleport us at least 500 kilometers east of that storm. Serpents, prep the sails and get ready to sail us into the portal Thistle creates for us. Katy, get all your clothes back on, I don’t want you making any more trips under water until I know we are safe.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Hyde said in alarm as I finished my orders. “We just found Sagacious Solon’s ship and we are just leaving it?!”

“Don’t worry Hyde we’ll be back for it. Once the storm passes we’ll come back and proceed with our original plans. It’s not going anywhere I promise.” I said while placing my talons on his shoulder. He looked like he wanted to argue but he slowly nodded in acceptance of my decision.

With that everyone carried out my orders and 5 minutes later we were 500 kilometers away and the storm was out of our sight. Since we were going to be here awhile till the storm passed I took up my glass again and told Hyde to continue pouring us wine. Just because we were now separated from our goal didn’t mean we couldn’t still celebrate.

“-And then, haha oh god, Jack then practically begged mom and dad if he could get his picture with Darth Vader,” Katy said as she regaled us all with embarrassing childhood stories of their past human lives. The current story Katy was telling us was of a family trip to this place called ‘Disney World’ and Katy had seemingly endless amounts of stories to tell about this theme park. Apparently, Jack’s favorite sci-fi franchise had a dedication in the park where people could walk up and take pictures with famous characters of the movies and when their family got there Jack proceeded to, quoting from Katy, “nerd the fuck out!” As Katy was telling the story, Jack sat next to her hiding his face in his hands.

“He was so excited and he was still jumping around like some possessed bunny even after waiting an hour in line. But this where it gets good. As soon as we got close to the tall imposing dark lord, Jack suddenly lost all of his enthusiasm and was completely silent. He stood there staring at Darth Vader for practically 10 seconds and then proceeded to run like hell away from him.” Katy was slapping her knee and she sipped her wine before she laughed as loud as she could. “We stood in line for a whole HOUR just to have him run away and have mom and dad chase him all over the park.”

“I was seven Katy!” Jack defended as I and everyone else joined in on the laughter. “Darth Vader is scarier to see in person than on a T.V screen.”

Katy continued to tell the story as if she hadn’t heard Jack.

“Wasn’t all bad in the end though. I at least got my picture with the dark lord. Made sure to show it off to Jack every day we were at the park.”

It’s been half an hour since we teleported away from the storm and despite its interruption of our plans, we were still supporting a merry mood. Hyde was eager to return to the discovery site but he was thankfully patient enough and sensible enough to wait. Jack and Katy had plenty of stories to pass the time and I figured with enough wine we would all soon return to the discovery site as if nothing had interrupted us at all. Despite the strangeness of the storm’s appearance, I will not allow anything to ruin Jack and Katy’s time together.

Jack was showing Katy his middle finger in a peculiar manner when his communicator suddenly beeped once again.

“Master the storm at the discovery site has disappeared!” The holographic droid cried immediately.

“Wha- how?” Jack asked now suddenly serious.

“Unknown at this current time. I am so dreadfully sorry master, I should have noticed something from the scans but I am but a foolish protocol droid! Please don’t deactivate me for this mistake master I only-,” the holographic droid’s attention was turned to something that was out of our view and after a few seconds, he returned that attention back to us. “Master the storm has reappeared again currently 200 kilometers west of your current position. Correction, the storm is now 150 kilometers west of your position.”

Everyone had lost their merry mood and were suddenly very alarmed. I felt a familiar breeze pass through my feathers and I looked to the west to find a violent storm heading right towards us. The very same storm that was supposed to be 500 kilometers away from here.

“How in Tartarus did it follow us here that fast?!” Thistle asked, voicing my own thoughts exactly.

“I don’t know,” I said in reply to my brother, regretting the actions I now would have to take. “But I don’t plan to have it catch us. We are teleporting back to the safety of the Shattered Isles. Don’t look at me like that Hyde, I know, but this storm is too much of an unknown and we don’t have the means to understand it right now. This situation is becoming too dangerous.”

“Wait a moment,” Jack interrupted. “We do have the means to understand this storm. This storm is obviously unnatural and that could mean that it is under the direction of someone’s or something’s will. With my Force senses, I can probably find out what that will belongs to. Also, the Fury has deep scanning probe droids it can fire into the storm to get an in-depth analysis of the storm’s composition.”

It was risky but I trusted Jack to be quick. I was curious what was causing this storm as well. Something that could create a storm this large and could move it this fast was something House Hialla needed information on.

“All right 2V-R8, fire a probe into the storm and begin analyzing for anomalies. I’ll see what I can do from here.”

Jack reached out with his hand towards the storm and closed his eyes to concentrate. Meanwhile, I saw the Fury fly a respectable distance from the storm and fired a bright red object into the black storm clouds. On the communicator in Jack’s other hand, I saw 2V-R8 hastily typing onto a console in front of him. After a minute I was anxious when none of them had come up with anything but then Jack opened his eyes in surprise all of a sudden.

“It’s- it’s the same presence I sensed on the docks. Somehow it followed us all the way out here!”

“What are you talking about Jack? What presence?” I asked confused.

“On the docks, I sensed that something was following me and Katy as we were making our way to the ship. It fled as soon as it realized I had sensed it and I thought it was too afraid to confront me. I sensed it was powerful but I didn’t think it was powerful enough to make something like that.” Jack said as he pointed towards the storm.

“This would have been something I’d like to have known before we had set sail, Jack,” I remarked slightly irritated at Jack’s lack of foresight. Jack was about to apologize but I stopped him with a raised talon. “Now’s not the time, did you learn anything else?”

“Not really, I can’t make out exactly what it is. It’s practically formless and unlike anything I’ve ever seen or sensed. All I know is that it is powerful, is capable of independent thought, and harbors anger within itself for some reason. Maybe the probe can give us more information, 2V-R8?”

The protocol droid was still typing onto his console but he quickly responded to the question.

“Master, after cross-referencing the storm’s anomalies with storms from other garden worlds I’ve found that this storm to be similar to the Force storms created on the Sith world of Dromund Kaas. While they’re not entirely the same they do- WARNING!!! INTENSE BLACK BODY RADIATION DETECED WITHIN THE STORM! ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGES ARE BEING DIRECTED TOWARDS... GET THE SHIELDS UP- “

Suddenly flashes of intense lighting streaked from within the storm and struck the Fury in the air. 2V-R8 disappeared from Jack’s communicator and the Fury fell towards the ocean with a trail of black smoke streaming behind it. Everyone rushed to the rail of the ship to watch the spaceship’s crashing decent and I had to hold back a cringe as I saw it smack into the ocean in a huge splash. I flew up a little from the deck to get a better view and saw the Fury thankfully floating above the waves instead of sinking to the bottom of the ocean floor. I looked towards Jack to see his eyes bulging and saw anger slowly creeping its way onto his face. I had to take control of this situation before it descended into chaos.

“We’re leaving, NOW!” I shouted above them all. “If that storm can take out Jack’s highly advanced spaceship then it most certainly can take out this ship.”

“But we can’t just leave them out there!” Katy argued indicating the droids stranded out in the ocean with a dangerous storm slowly approaching them.

“We can and we have to!” I replied in the most commanding voice I could muster. “We don’t have the power or the resources to fight off that storm. Unless you and Jack have other powers that allow you to dissipate a storm, we can’t fight that thing,” I said as I pointed towards the storm on the horizon that was slowly getting bigger.

Jack and Katy looked at each other hopelessly and Jack shook his head in resignation.

“No, we don’t have anything,” Jack said sadly. I actually hoped he had some sort of Force power he could use to solve this situation.

“Here’s what we’ll do,” I said after a few moments of thought. “We’ll teleport back to the Shattered Isles and gather up a griffin weather team specialized to fight storms like these. Then we’ll teleport back here again and hope that we can save the Fury before it sinks into the sea. Does anyone have any objections?”

None voiced any, so I shouted out the rest of my orders and everyone besides Jack, Katy, Vigilant, and Hyde got The Extravagant ready to move. Thistle went below deck to activate the teleporter and me and the Serpents prepared the ship to move towards the coming portal. I anxiously stared out towards the storm as it now nearly approached us and the winds began to intensify enough to rock The Extravagant side to side. The storm blacked out the sun and my tail thumped against the wooden floorboards in impatience and I was relieved when I saw the bowsprit beginning to glow brightly. However, my sense of relief turned to horror as I heard Jack cry out in alarm and saw a blinding flash of lighting strike the bowsprit in a loud echoing crack.

I rubbed my eyes to rid them of the foggy afterimages left by the lightning strike and gasped loudly when I saw the bowsprit split in half. An explosion boomed from below the deck and my heart sank to my stomach in dreaded fear. Fear that I haven’t felt since that moment when the Aper Major was about to crush me beneath its hoof. However, this fear was even more intense than that one brief brush with my own death. This was a fear that was worried that my own elder brother may be hurt or possibly dead.

It took everything I had not to rush down below deck to check on Thistle, but my self-discipline remained strong. I called out to one of the Serpents to take the helm, and despite their desire to rush and help their master, they obeyed my orders thankfully as Kaa took the helm.

“Hyde, Jack with me!” I said as I rushed below deck with them trailing behind me. If Thistle was hurt I needed Jack to help carry him and I brought Hyde along because Thistle was his brother too.

I charged into the teleporter room that held the Ether crystal and looked around to find many of the arcane chains and the mechanical podium badly burned and damaged. The Ether crystal seemed perfectly fine however and I continued to look around until I finally found Thistle huddled and a little burnt against the wall. I rushed over to him and heard him groan faintly as I turned him over to get a good view of his injuries.

His cloak was burnt and his hat was fine but his feathers were tinged in a darker purple hue and one of his talons, the one that should have held his portal ring, was split open and bleeding profusely. I ripped off a piece of Thistle’s cloak and used it as gauze to stop the bleeding and this was thankfully what made Thistle speak.

“That cloak was worth 10,000 bits you know,” Thistle said shakily but still managing to show us all his usual smile.

“I’ll buy you a new one when we get back then,” I said with a relieved laugh. “How do you feel? What happened down here, lightning struck the bowsprit and suddenly we heard a loud boom.”

Thistle curled his back as if something was painful at his side and he got to answer my question eventually. “The traveling mechanism must have been overloaded then by the sudden discharge the lightning created. I felt an intense jolt in my talon holding the portal ring and suddenly I was flung across the room by bolts of lightning. Everything was so bright and when my back smacked against the wall I looked around to find everything, including myself, seared and burned. GAAAAHHH!” Thistle cried as he tried to stand up. “Could you check my left wing, please? I think it’s broken.”

I lifted up his cloak to find that his wing was indeed broken. It must have happened when he was thrown against the wall.

“We need to get him into a bed and have his wing put into a splint. Hyde, you know how to make one yes?” I asked my little brother, knowing he had received as much first aid training as I did when we both went through our tutoring. Hyde nodded and I turned to Jack to have him lift Thistle into his arms.

As we got Thistle into a cabin room to be treated my thoughts rushed to figure out how we would survive this storm. Jack and Katy don’t have the power to deal with a storm and neither are they experienced when it comes sailing. I’ll grant that the Serpents are capable but they were far from what I needed in order to coordinate this ship properly in our situation. We could’ve abandoned ship and transferred over to the Fury but it was currently lost floating in the middle of the sea. There is also the fact that lightning strikes were being directed by a currently unknown being of obviously terrifying power and seemed intent on having us all join the Ancestors. It all seemed rather hopeless, but I remembered that despite all of the ruined equipment in Thistle’s teleportation device, the Ether crystal was still entirely intact.

“Hyde, how did you plan to draw power from Thistle’s Ether crystal?” I asked as my little brother was beginning to delicately straighten out Thistle’s wing with Jack’s help. Hyde was confused at the question but he pulled out a small arcane amulet that was hidden deep within the feathers on his neck.

“With this,” Hyde said as he showed me the amulet. “It’s a cadger amulet and I attuned it to specifically draw power from Thistle’s crystal. It would’ve given me the magical power I needed to dispel any traps that-.”

“Can you use the power from the crystal to project a barrier or defensive spells of any kind that could protect us from those lightning bolts?” I interrupted. Hyde’s eyes widened as he realized where I was going with this but my hopes began to leave me as I saw Hyde’s face become uncertain.

“I know little to no defensive spells. I’ve never really given that field of magic any real interest before,” Hyde admitted a little ashamed. Then his eyes sparked as he suddenly came up with an idea that I desperately hoped was a good one. “But perhaps Vigilant Star does! He’s a unicorn and a royal guard of Equestria as well. He has to have a defensive spell repertoire of some kind.” My brother then jerked the amulet off his neck to release the clasp and he gave the rune-covered amulet to me.

Finally having a plan to work with I took the amulet and rushed out of the cabin to head above deck. I looked back to realize that Jack was following me, the expression on his face telling me that he was hoping to help further in some way. I probably should’ve told Jack to stay below deck and stay out of the way since he had little to offer in this situation but I realized that might be a stupid decision. Jack could still surprise me again somehow with his abilities.

When I got above the deck I had to dig my claws and talons to the wooden deck to prevent myself from flying away as the wind and rain collided into my side with surprising force. The wretched dark clouds of the storm had completely covered the sky along with a heavy curtain of rain and harsh winds. The Serpents had thankfully done up the sails already to prevent the storm from carrying us through the sea like a ragged puppet but The Extravagant still wavered dangerously side to side from the rough waves. The dinner table we had on the deck to eat our food was gone and I had to assume the storm might have blown it overboard.

I quickly found the focus of my plan Vigilant Star who hugged close to Katy as they both gazed upwards towards the storm in amazement. I was beginning to call out and walk towards the unicorn when Jack roughly pushed me to the ground behind him and activated his lightsaber with a hiss. Thunder echoed out and suddenly Jack was blocking brilliant streams of blue lighting with his lightsaber that would have struck me dead if I had continued on my path. I almost couldn’t believe it if I wasn’t seeing it right before my eyes. Jack was actually fast enough to intercept lightning, one of nature’s fastest and most dangerous elements! I was suddenly very glad that I hadn’t told Jack to remain below deck.

“I probably won’t be able to do that more than a couple times! I can’t protect the whole ship with just my lightsaber!” Jack shouted over the winds while urging me towards Vigilant Star. When we finally got to Vigilant, Katy had been holding the both of them close to a mast to prevent themselves from losing their balance in a rough patch of waves.

“Vigilant we need you to put up a barrier around the ship to protect it from the storm! Can you sustain it and keep it strong enough if you have access to the Ether crystal’s magical reserves?!” I shouted as I held up the amulet to the unicorn.

“I can but-.” He was cut off as we all had to fight our balance from a very rough wave. “I’ve never created a barrier that large before!”

More thunder echoed out from above us and Jack caught all of our attention when he had to block another bolt of lightning.

“JUST DO IT!” I screamed as I unclasped the amulet and wrapped its chain around Vigilant’s neck. The unicorn got to work immediately and both his horn and the amulet glowed as a transparent blue dome appeared above The Extravagant and the barrier continued to enclose around the rest of the ship to separate it entirely from the outside world. Lighting struck the barrier with a muffled crack and The Extravagant was now amazingly silent since the barrier also prevented the rain and wind from harassing us as well. For the moment we were all safe.

But I couldn’t help but wonder how long that moment would last.