Lyra trotted along with the group of equines, heading ever deeper into the forest. The thought of chocks encroached on her earlier sense of relief at escaping both the citadel and the band of tribals.

“You okay, Lyra?” Blue asked, placing a hand on her mane. “You look worried.”

Lyra nodded, but looked up at him with a concerned smile, “Aren’t there chocks around here?” she asked.

Blue shook his head, “Not many. We have guard posts all around this area to keep them out, and anyone else who comes sniffing about.”

“Guard posts?” Lyra asked in surprise. Resignedly she shrugged, “You know, I don’t have a clue what’s going on, do I?”

“It’s only to be expected,” Blue said kindly. “You’ve not been on the island long, and you hadn’t even been to the village so far as I know.” When Lyra shook her head, Blue added, “Well, it would take a long time to explain the dynamics of everything that’s been happening, but basically it’s this...” He brushed a large branch out of the way ahead and grinned, “This is what we’ve been hiding. This, my equestrian unicorn friend, is our way off the island.”

“Oh… Oh, my goddess!” Lyra eyes went wide. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, let alone work out what it was. It was… Well, it was… “What is it?” Lyra asked breathlessly.

Blue let out a raucous laugh, “You’re the historian, what do you think it is?”

Lyra had to push her initial shock to one side while she tried to make sense of it all. It was easier said than done too. There before her, as the land dropped towards the naturally shielded bay, sat a huge metal something. Whatever it was, it was clearly far from being any equestrian made device, if ‘device’ was a word one could use to even vaguely describe so enormous a thing. One thing was for certain though, it bore many of the hallmarks of human design. In fact it looked for all the world like some enormous bird, or perhaps a dragon, with two gigantic wings that angled slightly towards the main body. The rear had two smaller wings that had fins of a sort that pitched inwards. Under each of the wings was a criss crossed structure that terminated with a large shoe like device. The two larger wings each held what she suspected were some form of propeller. She seen similar devices on equestrian airships, but they were as childs school projects compared to this. It was overall a dark blue colour, probably intended to match the sea, or in this case the bay in which it floated. The underside was a light grey, although why, she couldn’t say. Upon the upper surface were protuberances whose function was a mystery, although at each end were glass ‘bubbles’, with one in the middle, each one holding what were quite clearly more of the human ‘guns’ which they had a particular affinity with. There were words, numbers, and a large white star painted along the side she could see, all very much faded from exposure to the elements. Despite its apparent age however, care had clearly been taken to look after the great machine, with the numerous windows gleaming as the ponies scrabbling over the thing removed enormous amounts of leaves that had been woven into even larger nets.

“Is this what you came here in?” Lyra asked. “A flying machine?”

“This? No.” Blue shook his head, “The one I was in was much smaller. This one was, ironically enough, sent to look for us.”

“But… But they must have found you, didn’t they?” Lyra shook her mane from her eyes, trying to understand what had happened. “If your flying machine crashed, and this one came looking for you, the fact that it’s here and intact suggests that they…” Lyra frowned, “They didn’t find you, did they.”

Blue’s expression darkened. “Celandine found me and took me in, but these poor sods came through the same storm we did.” Blue pointed to one of the propellers, “One of their engines was damaged, flaming out as they came in by looks of it. When they came ashore they were collected by our ‘friends’ from the citadel.”

“So why didn’t they take their flying machine?” Lyra asked.

Blue shrugged, “Who knows. I found it washed up on the shore in the bay under a pile of trees and other crap from the forest that had been brought down during the storm. The pegasi probably wouldn’t have seen it, or if they did they may have thought it was just another pile of scrap like the rest. Besides, it isn’t like they’re short of metal, or guns for that matter.”

As they walked down to the shore Lyra noticed a lighter coloured patch behind one of the propellers. The metal was different there, showing evidence of recent repairs. Suddenly the reality of it hit her. “By Celestia,” Lyra breathed, “you think this thing will actually fly?”

“Uh-huh, I sure do,” Blue grinned.

“But, how long has it been here?” Lyra asked, ignoring the inquisitive stares as they walked down the enormous machine.

“As long as I’ve been here,” Blue shrugged. “And I’m still working.”

“Oh come on!” Lyra sniffed, “You can’t compare the two. It’s a machine. Machine’s break down.”

“Machine’s can be repaired.”

“So why not one of the ships?” Lyra asked. It would be a lot safer than trying to get that thing off the ground.”

“We thought of that,” Blue nodded. “But they’ve been there that long the hulls are badly damaged, and even if we could repair them we’d never get them off the beach. And then there’s the fact that nearly all the pegasi are either with the citadel or Lode Stone’s crew. They’d be all over us if it looked like we were making a break for it.”

Lyra’s eyes went wide, “And they wouldn’t in this?!”

Blue wagged a finger at her, “Ah, but with this we have the element of surprise, not to mention plenty of… ‘deterrents’. He pointed to the glass bubbles from which the wicked looking weapons protruded. “Look, Lyra, don’t worry yourself so much. We’ve been working on this for years now, and she’s ready to go. We were just waiting for the opportunity to take her out.”

“So...” Lyra frowned in thought, “So what you’re say is, you haven’t tested it?”

“How could we?” Blue reached the wooden pier that lead to a door in the side of the great machine. “We didn’t want to tip off the wrong ponies that we had this old girl.” He placed a hand lovingly on the metal, gazing up at the wing and it’s large propeller, “I think she’ll be okay.”

“She?”

“Heh, why not?” Blue chuckled. “I sure as hell wouldn’t want to get inside a guy.”

Lyra, still unsure about this whole business, followed the human in through the door, dodging past a steady stream of the villagers who were all hard at work making last minute adjustments to the alien craft. “You still haven’t said what it is,” she pointed out. “It’s obviously a flying machine, but the fact that it’s floating makes it part ship.”

“Which is precisely what it is,” Blue said. He ducked under a low doorway, passing racks of bunk beds. “It’s a flying boat.”

“Very original,” Lyra scoffed.

Blue rolled his eyes. “Well it does have a proper name of course,” he corrected, smiling at one of the ponies who was tightening something in the next compartment. “Damned if I can remember what it was, but it’s a flying boat alright. We had loads of them during the war. They were used for anti-submarine warfare, patrols, and air sea rescue. You know, that sort of thing.”

“Oh… Oh, of course they were, I should have realised.” Lyra rolled her eyes this time, letting it all go over her head. She had no idea what this ‘war’ was that the humans had been waging, but if they had machines like this, as well as the weapons and ships they could clearly produce in abundance, it was amazing that any of them were left.

“Sparks!” Blue stopped at the foot of a short ladder, shouting up towards an open doorway. “Sparks, you in there you lazy beggar?”

There was a clatter of metal, as though several object had been dropped on the floor. “Blue?” Suddenly an oil stained muzzle poked out of the opening, a pair of goggle perched atop the owner’s head. “Great gods, it is you! I thought you’d finally copped it. I was beginning to think I’d have to take her out on my own, old boy.”

“Hah! It’ll take more than a few hairy monsters to keep me down.” The human bounded up the steps, clasping the oily young stallion’s forehoof as he hugged the curious fellow to his chest. “Jesus, it’s good to see you again.”

“You too,” ‘Sparks’ replied, grinning broadly. His gaze dropped down to the green mare peering up at him. “Ah, this must be the new girl. Lyra, isn’t it? Celandine told us about her while you were off adventuring in the citadel.”

“Yeah, she’s a good kid that one,” Blue said, giving Lyra a wink. “She helped save my hide from those lunatics, and not a moment too soon either.” Sparks shook his head, grimacing at the thought. “So, how is she?” Blue asked.

Lyra thought he was talking about her until the stallion with the odd accent, ‘Sparks’ apparently, held up a hoof and lovingly touched one of the curved ribs of the aircraft. “I’d like a bit more time to run some more tests,” the stallion shrugged, “but if we need to go, then now’s better than never I’d say. The sun’s behind us, the sea’s calm, and we’ve got blue skies. All in all a good day to fly.”

Blue nodded in approval, “What about the modifications?”

“All done, or at least most of them,” Sparks said, moving aside to let Lyra up the ladder. “We’ve stripped out everything we could that was non essential.”

“You’ve taken things out?” Lyra asked feeling a little alarmed.

Sparks looked from Blue then back to the curious unicorn, “To make more room for our peeps of course,” he said cheerfully. “We’re already at our limit weight wise, let alone having to squash all that lot out there into every nook and cranny.”

“It’ll be a squeeze alright,” Blue agreed.

Sparks nodded with a shrug of his oily shoulders, “Better than the alternative.”

“Alternative?” Lyra asked, frowning.

“Staying here,” Celandine said behind them, making Lyra jump. “Lyra, can I see you a minute?” She looked past her, “We’ll leave you two boys to talk shop.”

Blue stuck his head back around the compartment door, “Where are you going?”

Celandine smiled thinly as she guided Lyra away, “Just girl stuff.”

“Well don’t be long,” Blue warned her. “I want us shoving off as soon as the last of the camo nets are cleared and the villagers stowed aboard.”

Celandine rolled her eyes, “Oh, don’t be such a worry wart. We’re only going for a natter.”

The yellow mare helped Lyra back out onto the dock which was a welcome breath of fresh air from the claustrophobic interior of the so-called ‘flying boat’. Lyra felt a shiver run though her even at the mere thought of being stuck inside the metal box when it finally began to move. Celestia’s mercy, being inside when the door was open was bad enough. Imagine what it would be like when the door was shut! That thing might look massive on the outside, but once packed with equines it was going to be far from pleasant. If anything went wrong then they wouldn’t have a hope in hell of getting out. In a moment this strange metal bird from another world could very well end up as a coffin for dozens of ponies, their bodies slowly rotting on the ocean floor, food for the countless denizens of the depths. Oh goddess, she was going to throw up…

“You look white as a sheet.” Celandine took Lyra to one side away from the milling villagers, “Are you okay?”

“Okay?” Lyra’s yellow eyes went wide, “Oh sure, why wouldn’t I be?” She held up a hoof, pointing at the aircraft towering over them. “Celestia’s buttocks, Celly, look at that thing, it’s a bucking death trap! It hasn’t flown in who knows how many years, and yet here we are, all lining up to get packed inside it like sardines and praying that the damned thing works! I know I said I wanted to get off the island, but I thought it would be through a portal, or a boat, or… or something sensible. Something normal. Not that thing!” Lyra jabbed a hoof towards the aircraft, “That is not normal!” She closed her eyes, feeling a wave of nausea flooding over her. “Gods help me, I… I’m going to be sick...”

“Do you want me to hold your mane for you?” Celandine asked plainly.

Lyra shook her head, “No, I don’t think I’ll…” Her hoof shot to her mouth as her cheeks bulged.

Celandine was there to comfort her as the expected emptying of the green mare’s stomach began in earnest, “Come on now, let it all go. That’s the way.” She stroked Lyra’s hair, shushing her as though she were a foal. “Shhh, you’ll feel better in a moment. There you go. There… Better now?”

Lyra wiped her mouth, nodding weakly whilst Celandine passed her a cloth and a cup of water, “I thought you might need these.”

“You’re...” Lyra winced, then washed her mouth out with another gulp of water. “You’re very well prepared.” She spat the fowl mixture out with no small amount of relief.

“Hah! I suppose I am,” the yellow mare grinned. Although there was little mirth in her eyes she appeared surprisingly gentle compared to the rough, tough talking mare Lyra usually saw in her. “I remember my first fight,” she continued. “I pissed myself. Literally stood right there and peed, right down my legs. Afterwards I puked my guts up over and over again until I thought I was going to pass out.”

Lyra squeezed a tear from her eye and wiped it away, “That wasn’t a fight back there, Celly, it was murder,” she said bitterly. “You blew those ponies apart.”

Celandine raised an eyebrow, “Oh? And what would you have done in my stead?” she asked. “Played them a song?” She snorted, sitting down on the sand beside the dock. “They wouldn’t have listened, Lyra, and the only encore you would have got would have been a bullet in your skull.”

Lyra turned to face her, “How do you know that? We didn’t even try to reason with them!”

Celandine returned her gaze with one of her own that brooked no argument. “No, ‘we’ didn’t,” she retorted firmly. “Neither would it have made any difference if we’d tried. Lode Stone’s crew were well beyond the boundaries of reasoned thought when they began mowing down everything and everypony in the citadel,” she continued. “When the battle is joined then ‘reason’ goes out of the window, closely followed by decency and morality.”

“How do you know that,” Lyra asked, frowning. “Have there been other uprisings here in the past?”

The yellow mare nodded bitterly, “Several, and they all ended the same way. Badly.”

“So what makes this one different?”

“Who said it was?” Celandine asked with a shrug of her shoulders. “The battle could go either way, but this I can assure you: whoever wins, we lose.”

“I don’t understand,” Lyra groaned. She felt her ears flop. “None of this makes sense. Goddess in their immortal heaven, the world’s gone stark raving mad!”

“I think we can both agree on that,” Celandine smiled unexpectedly. “Look, Lyra, whether it’s Lode Stone in charge or the Maester, ponies like the villagers and the Hidden always end up bearing the brunt of it. Both sides believe in what they are doing, and all we can do is keep out of their way while they go at it. Why do you think I became a finder?”

“But couldn’t we just wait it out?” Lyra asked hopefully, “I mean, once the dust settles we can-”

“No.” Celandine’s eyes were fixed firmly on the large tail of the alien machine. The way it rose out of the water gave it the appearance of urgency, of waiting, wanting, to take to the water and rise up into the sky. “It’s gone too far this time. You didn’t see the look in Lode Stone’s eyes, Lyra. He wanted blood, and he didn’t care whose it was so long as he got what he wanted.” She rolled her shoulders and sighed. “My father has always believed himself to be the rightful ruler of the citadel, and by extension all the ponies on the island.” Lyra said nothing. “Listen Lyra, I know you’re frightened. Hell, I was absolutely terrified when I went in there to find Blue, and to be perfectly honest with you I don’t want to get inside that damned thing any more than you do.”

“But-”

“It’s the only chance we have,” Celandine interrupted, rising to her hooves. “It’s up to you though. Neither Blue, nor I, nor any of the ponies here will force you to come with us. There is a space for you, but only if you want it.”

Lyra wasn’t sure what to think. She was very tempted just to go and hide somewhere and wait until the killing stopped and the world went back to what passed for normal here. That was assuming the chocks didn’t get her in the meantime, or the tribals, or the maester’s zeks… Hell, when it came right down to it, what choice did she really have?”

Celandine lay a hoof on her shoulder, “Lyra, about Parchment...” She closed her eyes a moment before continuing, “I know he meant a lot to you, as a student or whatever he was, but you can’t blame yourself for what happened to him.”

Lyra’s yellow eyes stared up at her, “I don’t. I wasn’t the one that… that did that to him.” She took a deep breath, “But it is my fault he came here, in a way. If I’d done my job properly and put a guard on that bucking portal in the first place he’d still be in Equestria. We both would.”

“Did you force him to walk through it?” Celandine asked simply.

“Force him?” Lyra let out a sarcastic laugh, “You already know I didn’t. The stupid little fool did that himself, but he...” She paused, lifting her muzzle. “Can you hear that?” Celandine’s ears pricked up as she turned to see what was causing the commotion. Whatever it was, it was coming their way.

“Scout coming in!” somepony shouted.

It was a pale blue coated earth stallion, racing full tilt towards them. Without so much as acknowledging their presence he all but flew past the two alarmed mares, tore up the dock and plunged into the aircraft in an impressive display of both speed and agility. Shouts came from inside almost immediately. One voice was Sparks, whilst the other was altogether more familiar. It was Blue. The human emerged from the doorway and began shouting orders.

“What’s going on?” Celandine called. “Are we under attack?”

Blue took out a small pistol and began loading it with a long cylindrical cartridge. “The fortress has been taken, or damned near,” he shouted. “The tribals got into the village and are killing everypony who won’t join them.” Holding the pistol upwards at arms length he pulled the trigger, and with a loud ‘thump’ sent a bright red flare high up into the sky where it burst like a small crackling sunburst. “Get yourselves inside and into position,” he called over to the other expectant looking ponies. “Dock crew make ready to cast off. Needles, get on the siren, we need to get the rest of the scouts in. Celery, leave anything that isn’t securely stowed behind and get everypony on board. Gunners to your stations.”

A loud bang, followed by a high pitched shrieking sound nearly had Lyra wetting herself in fright. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the source of the noise, and it wasn’t hard to miss either. A blast of smoke shot from one of the engines, closely followed by the four bladed propeller starting to turn. Soon it began to turn faster and faster, the sound changing subtly in both volume and pitch. As Celandine shoved her along the dock with the other ponies, the second engine began to fire up. Everything was vibrating now: the dock, the water, and closer to home - Lyra’s knees. She all but fell up the small flight of stairs to the door at the base of the tail section. Others filed in at another door near the front whilst ponies still on the dock began to remove the ropes that tethered the great machine to the land. The wail of a siren calling to the scouts to return mingled with the howl of the engines. Inside however, it was worse. The noise here was more of hollow roar, coming, as it seemed to Lyra, from everywhere at once. Ponies pushed this way and that, shoving themselves into various compartments or areas that were clearly never intended for four legged beings. And yet despite the seeming chaos of everything that was happening right then, there was a curious undercurrent of what Lyra could only describe as ‘order’ to it all. Somepony, or rather some ‘one’ had trained these ponies, and they moved with a will and purpose that was truly impressive to behold. When had he had time to do this? And more to the point – how? Just how long had they been working on this machine, and were all the villagers in on the escape plan? Well, clearly not all of them from what the scout had told Blue, but more than enough. The rest, the scouts by the sounds of things, burst in through the door a few seconds later.

“Am I the last?” a bottle green mare gasped, sticking her head back out to look along the dock.

An orange stallion called, “Gambit’s here, so that’s everypony.”

“Wait! What about Tumbler?” somebody called out.

The green mare grimaced, “Tribals got him back at the irrigator.”

“Oh no...”

“Time to mourn later.”

“Dancer!” It was Blue’s voice, “Where the hell are you?”

“Here!” A stallion shouted in reply. He pushed his way through the others, making his way to the steps leading to the cockpit. “I was just helping-”

“Never mind ‘helping’,” Blue snapped. “Christ almighty, I need you up here now!” He stared down at Celandine, “Get that door secured, and hang on to something.”

Dancer disappeared through the door and closed it behind himself. Now all Lyra could do was pray as the madness of the world rose to a crescendo.

Lyra couldn’t hear what was going on in the cockpit. In truth she didn’t want to either. There was a disturbing quiet amongst the villagers, a sense of acceptance that was far from calming. She huffed under her breath, feeling herself pushing into Celandine for comfort whilst the yellow mare pulled her into her chest.

“You okay?”

Lyra squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t speak. Her mouth was dry with fear. She couldn’t look at the villagers, each one of whom was lost in thoughts of their own. They were looking at one another for comfort, for support, and perhaps in some peculiar way it worked too. For Lyra, who knew so little about any of these ponies, there was only Celandine. It was enough.

The engines roared. Slowly, noticeably, the great machine began to move. It wasn’t smooth, nor was it even remotely comfortable for any of the ponies aboard. As the great flying boat picked up speed it started to thump the waves, wallowing in the swell as they left the protection of the bay. Some part of Lyra began to wonder, to hope, that they would give up this impossible rush for the skies and instead turn around, heading back for the shore. The increased roar of the engine and the feeling of something sucking at the machine around her dashed that hope to pieces. One way or another this crazed situation was going to play out until the bitter end. She stared at the door, wondering how fast she could get to the thing, work the lock, and get out. If things went wrong it was the nearest escape route, and there was no way in hell she was going to die, drowning inside that cold metal nightmare! She was shaking now, and it wasn’t just her either. Celandine was pressed up against the wall with a pillow behind her back. It was scant comfort from the wild bucking of the machine, but it was better than nothing. It didn’t do anything to help her fight her own fears, and the yellow mare trembled noticeably. Noticeably that was until the bucking, sucking sensation, abruptly stopped. The nose pitched up, the tail down. It wasn’t much, but it made Lyra’s stomach drop like a lead weight. Gravity pulled at her, or at least something did. The engine sounded absolutely deafening, but the sensation now was one of…

“We’re flying!” somepony shouted excitedly. Several pushed towards the various round windows, staring out in wonder. “We’ve done it! Dear Lode, we’ve actually done it!”

A spontaneous explosion of cheers, laughter and crying burst throughout the entirety of the flying boat’s interior. The overwhelming sense of relief was absolutely intoxicating, helping in part to drown out the horrible tension that had been unmistakable only seconds earlier. Lyra, as scared as she was, couldn’t help but raise a smile too.

Celandine gently pried herself from Lyra’s grasp to look out of the window above them. “Load’s breath,” she gasped. “They’re right… Lyra, we’re flying.” She turned back to her with a look of utter joy in her eyes, “I can’t believe it. We’re free!”

True enough the flying boat continued to ascend, heading steadily upward into the crystal blue sky like some monstrous prehistoric bird. They were still fairly low considering how fast they seemed to be moving, but then Lyra was no pegasus, and airships in Equestria were nothing like this. They were slow, ponderous things, and almost silent as they glided through the air. Travelling by pegasi was a lot faster of course, and tended to be used as a rapid mode of transport for short journeys. For those who wanted comfort, and weren’t in a hurry, air ships were the only sensible choice so far as Lyra was concerned. Humans on the other hoof, apparently didn’t mind being deafened by the roar of engines and the wind howling past as if a weather elemental were trying to pull you back down to earth. As incredible as it was, this bizarre vehicle didn’t so much glide through the air as batter it out of the way through sheer force.

The doorway opened, “Everypony okay back here?” It was Blue. There was a general nodding of heads and murmuring of agreement. “Good. We’re still climbing, but we’re not out of the woods yet.”

“Which way are we heading?” an older mare asked.

“Towards the fisher islands,” Blue replied. “When we get past them we’ll try and gain as much altitude as we can whilst remaining below any cloud layer. That way we can keep an eye out for any land masses. When we see one that looks inhabited my plan is to find a place to land and-”

“Ask for directions?” Celandine asked cheekily.

Blue grinned, “Pretty much.”

“Skipper?” Dancer’s voice called out from the cockpit. “I’m picking something up on the radar. Looks like we may have company.”

“Distance?”

“Can’t say for sure, only that there’s something there and it’s closing in. Fast.”

Fast was right. A pony from the tail yelled out, “Hold onto your hats! Here they come!”

“Pegasi?” Blue barked, staring out of the starboard window.

In answer a rapid thudding from the turret gun position rolled through the flying boat. Ponies cried out in fright as the hot brass casings rattled down into the interior.

“Gunners, keep them off us,” Blue vanished back through the door into the cockpit. At the same time two stallions pushed past some of their number, and to Lyra’s amazement opened a door on either side of the fuselage where a large gun was then pushed out into position. Wind blasted into the interior, causing the ponies inside to press down into whatever protection they could find. It wasn’t long before these guns began to fire like their brethren, sending out streams of leaden fire out into the blue sky.

“Got one of the bastards!”

“Watch him, watch him!”

“Six o’clock, coming in fast. Havoc, give him a burst.”

“Keep us steady Skipper. Steady… steady… He’s going down!”

“Great shooting, Chicory!”

Something flew past Lyra’s ear. She heard a cry of pain, and turned to see one of the ponies staring at a red stain on their coat. Immediately another of the villagers was there, applying a dressing and shooing the others away. But where could they go? Daylight shone through the hole in the fuselage, whilst others began to appear here and there as if by magic. More ponies were hit, some seriously, others only slightly. Blood soon began to flow, pooling onto the metal floor.

“Lyra?” Celandine asked, looking to green unicorn. “I know you’re tired, but is there any way you could do your shield thing?”

“I can try...” Lyra concentrated, and with Celandine’s encouragement, threw out her magical shield. To the great relief of the frightened passengers it was just enough to encompass the majority of the interior of the aircraft, protecting them from incoming fire. Lyra had wanted to surround the whole aircraft, but she was already pushing it doing this much. It was sure as hell better than nothing, but which ever way you looked at it, it was only a stopgap. Despite the fire from the guns the pegasi were absolutely relentless in their assault. They were small targets too, nimble and manoeuvrable. By comparison the flying boat was a sitting duck. From the shouts of the gunners they were dishing out plenty of damage to their attackers, but Lyra knew that every hit on the flying boat could be the last. Her worst fears were realised when a violent shudder went through the entire aircraft.

“What… What was that?” Lyra asked. She winced suddenly as her magic winked out. “Damn!” She frowned, staring out of the window then back to Celandine. “Did you feel that?”

“That wasn’t turbulence...” Celandine leaped to the stairs and threw open the cockpit door. “Blue, there’s magic here. I think we’re going right into it.” Green light shimmered around them, buffeting the plane and sending anything that was loose crashing to the floor. “Okay, we’re definitely going right into it!”

“Right, Celly, get back down there. Hang on everyone!” Blue threw the sea plane into a hard bank to port. The engines howled, the wind shrieking through the holes in the fuselage and the open gun ports.

“Good gods, look at it out there!” Lyra stared in horror out of the window. “It’s like we’re passing through the gates of Tartarus.” Unnatural bursts of lightning flashed all around them. Green light unlike anything Lyra had ever seen before, flickered in and out, and creating after images of nightmarish apparitions chasing through the darkening sky. Horrifyingly the pegasi who were following them fared far worse. One by one they burst into flashes of intense green fire that burned for a split second before falling from the sky like blackened, burning coals. One by one they simply winked out of existence, and it was then, as the plane turned, that Lyra knewthey would be next.

With one enormous pulse of force the aircraft jolted to one side. The ponies inside, quiet for the most part even when they were taking fire from their pursuers, cried out in fear and alarm. Foals pressed into their mothers, but what comfort could be found in such dire circumstances? Lyra tried to think of a song, something that would help take everyponies mind off the horror that dragged at the souls of each and every one of them. She couldn’t. Her mind was a blank of absolute terror. It was all she could do now to hang on to Celandine as she did with her. Abruptly however, with the aircraft still turning, there was a noticeable change in the outside conditions. The green light was fading, and fading quickly, draining away as though it had simply never been. The lightning stopped. The buffeting stopped. Now all there was was the steady thrum of the two engines and the laboured, relieved breathing of dozens of frightened ponies.

The cockpit door opened.

“Celly, Lyra, can you come up here please?”

The two mares shared a look, with Celandine taking the lead and disappearing through the door closely followed by Lyra. When the green mare entered the enclosed space her eyes went wide with incredulity. She’d seen human electrical equipment before of course, the portal room had been full of it, but this was on a different level altogether. There was Sparks, a pair of headphones perched over his ears whilst fiddling with a bewildering array of knobs, levers, dials, switches, and goodness knows what else. He dismissed the girls with a wave, his eyes intently watching his gauges with a surprising amount of care. Lyra was still looking at him as she passed into the cockpit, bumping into Celandine who clucked her tongue at her. She quickly turned to offer an apologetic smile, until she caught sight of the view out of the large cockpit canopy. The world was sliding by at a gentle angle, the horizon and sea both a beautiful blue with the frightening green lightning having vanished as if it had simply never existed. Blue was there, sitting beside the stallion she knew as ‘Dancer’. The two sat, like Sparks, in front of an incredible away of controls that covered what looked to be every square inch of the interior.

Blue looked over his shoulder at the girls, “Any thoughts on what happened back there?”

Celandine didn’t need any further explanation. “It was the storm,” she said simply. “I’ve seen it too many times before to get that wrong, but there was definitely something different about it this time.”

“Something coming through maybe?” Blue asked.

Celandine shook her head, “No, I don’t think so. It’s too much of a coincidence. I think we triggered something when we got too close.”

“A barrier?” Blue looked to Lyra. “You’re good with barriers, Lyra. Did you pick anything up from it?”

Lyra closed her eyes and thought carefully. The flight had scared the hell out of her, the storm even more so. But Blue was on to something. There had been something, something vaguely familiar about the magic that had a feeling, just as Celandine had said, of being ‘triggered’. As one may if, for example, they blundered into a tripwire. It wasn’t much to go on, she sure as hell wasn’t one for the more complex spells and weaving of magical elements like some unicorns she knew. No, she was just a regular old unicorn who knew enough about shields to keep idiots from braining her when then got rough at gigs. Still, there had to be something she could pick up on though. Years of detecting trace magics and ancient traps on archaeological expeditions had attuned her to certain characteristics...

“Lyra?”

“Um, yeah...” She looked out of the window, staring into the distance, “I think there’s a barrier up around the island, preventing anypony from leaving.”

“You don’t say?” Celandine said sarcastically. Blue tapped her on the foreleg, issuing a warning glance. Celandine rolled her eyes before adding, “Sorry.”

Lyra wasn’t listening anyway. She was staring so intently out of the window she managed to tune out everything other than… Wait… Tune out? Her eyes drifted to the machinery, the switches clicking and humming in some alien harmony that was far beyond her ken. But still, it was a music of a sort. A sort of harmony... Harmonics maybe? Harmonics! That was it! She rolled her shoulder and nodded her head as though assuring herself of her conclusion. “Just before the storm I felt a jolt, a kind of cold sensation,” Lyra stated to the attentive crew. “The same happened in reverse when we left its area of effect.” She smiled to herself. Bonnie had told her about spells like that which had been left over from ancient conflicts in Equestria when she’d first begun looking into archaeology as a potential career. There were still no-go areas where things like that remained, but they were slowly being de-activated by specialised unicorns to prevent ‘incidents’ as she’d put it. “With such a powerful magic field it would be incredibly hard to keep the spell going without regular maintenance. Assuming that’s true, and I’m right, then there should be weak spots here and there which we might be able to penetrate.”

“Or not?” Celandine suggested.

Blue clucked his tongue, “So if there were some of these ‘weak spot’ in the magic field, would you be able to detect them if we got close enough?”

Lyra shrugged, “I’m not sure to be brutally honest with you, but I may be able to pick up on something if we can skirt the field.”

“Skirt the field…” Blue repeated. He let out a pent up breath. “Can’t say I fancy going anywhere near that thing again. We were damned lucky last time, so you’d better be right about this Lyra.”

“Hey! I never said I was right about anything!” Lyra blurted. “It’s a theory, that’s all. Celestia’s arse, Blue, I’m a musician not a magician.”

Celandine lifted her hoof defensively, “Don’t look at me, I don’t do magic.” She tapped her head, “Something missing maybe?”

Lyra rolled her eyes, “Well that’s just spiffing, isn’t it? Simply spiffing!” She leaned against the door frame and groaned. “So you’ll just put it all on me, eh? No pressure at all!”

Blue gave her an apologetic glance, “Sorry, but you’re the only unicorn we’ve got. Unless you’ve got any better ideas?”

“That was my better idea!” Lyra retorted. She facehoofed, “This whole mess just keeps on getting better and better.”

Sparks stuck his head around the door, “All engines looking good so far, Skipper. I’m keeping my eye on number two though, she was running a touch warm back there.”

“I know how it feels...” Lyra muttered. Suddenly her ears pricked up, “Hey, how come none of you guys call each other numbers now?”

“You’re asking that now?!” Celandine’s eyes went wide. “God almighty, Lyra, I thought you were supposed to be the bright one!” She gave her a prod in the chest as she pushed past her, “You work it out. I need a piss.”

Lyra ignored her, instead looking out of the window past Blue’s ear. He looked to be in his element here, not that humans had specific elements which they identified with in the way ponies did, such as air for pegasi, earth for earth ponies and of course magic for unicorns. That said he still exuded an aura of command, of purpose, and by extension gave those around him a curious feeling of comfort. This guy was in charge, and he was confident they would achieve their goals. Precisely what those goals were other than to simply ‘get away from the island’ she wasn’t entire convinced they’d thought out. ‘Hope for the best’ was not exactly the most well conceived of plans, but the way things were it was all they had. They had an aircraft. They had the villagers aboard. Now, they had to get out of this damned magical bubble. But why was there a bubble here in the first place? If she had some idea of what it was and why it was here it may help her come up with a way to get through it. The only drawback with that was that she was no scholar of the magical arts, not by any stretch of the imagination. It was just… It was just that she needed something to go on. Something a bit more than ‘maybe the bubble has a thin part where the magical nodes were gathered when a spell was...” Oh dear gods, that was probably it! She could just about remember the lecture on ancient magical spells they’d had when she’d been on her university course - the part where she hadn’t fallen asleep at least. Still, she’d learned enough to know not to arse around with it, and that was pretty much it. The basics were all you really needed to know to stay safe. In a nutshell, if the magic was artificial in nature, then there would be a focal point where the spell originated. This would, potentially anyway, be a weak point where ponies wanting to deactivate a spell would concentrate their efforts. If the magic was naturally formed it would be a different story altogether. Of course the ponies who dealt with this sort of thing were specialists in their particular field. She should know, she’d called them in countless times when they’d encountered something dodgy during a dig. When she’d seen this particular magical phenomenon it had been unlike anything she’d ever encountered before though. It seemed almost sentient in a way, and more like a naturally occurring thing as opposed to a wide area effect spell. Of course, it was generally well known that really ancient spells could develop a kind of sentience all their own over millennia, but they were exceptions rather than the rule. The power involved in making one was beyond anything ponies could wield… unless you were an alicorn. Hey, hadn’t Parchment said something about the island being a penal colony? Oh hell… Oh gods, he had, hadn’t he. But wasn’t that a lie just to get her to believe him and follow him back to the citadel? Damn it all, she didn’t know!

Lyra shook her head, trying to concentrate on the task at hoof. Artificial or natural it didn’t make a jot of difference. The only thing she could say for certain was that they couldn’t just keep on flying in circles. There had to be some way out. There had to be.

Flashes from outside were followed by distant bangs and pops that echoed oddly inside the aircraft despite the din from the engines.

“We’re getting close to the citadel,” Dancer warned, looking out of the starboard window. “We’re still climbing, but if this barrier thing is a bubble then we’re going to be running out of airspace pretty damned quick.”

“Agreed,” Blue nodded. “Keep an eye on that wing tip, Dancer,” he advised, watching the altimeter slowly climb. “As soon as it looks like we’re entering the field, shout out.”

“You got it Skipper.”

‘Skipper’… Lyra sighed. Seeing how Sparks, Dancer and Celandine worked with a creature from another world was curiously endearing. When you considered how different they were both in physiology and life experience, it was truly extraordinary that they could work so seamlessly together. Just how long had they been working on this escape plan? Sparks and Dancer operated this aircraft like it was second nature. Some of the controls had been adapted for equine use too, such as extension to the dials and knobs for manipulation by hoof or mouth. It was all so… natural. Lyra would have smiled if she hadn’t been so scared. For as comforting as working with these ponies, and Blue of course, was, the reality was that it could all end in a sudden and very violent flash of bright green light. Celestia… Sometimes she hated magic.

“Bring her over five degrees to port, Skip.”

“Coming over five...”

Green light flickered briefly, but only for a split second. It was a second too long as far as Lyra was concerned. Her heart leaped, her concentration shaken but still focussed on trying to detect something that might tip them off.

“Shit, we’re contacting again. Give her another five, Skip.”

“Roger.” Blue looked over his shoulder, “Lyra, we’re running out of sky here...”

“I know!” Lyra shook her head in frustration, “I can’t just… I…” She frowned in thought. “What the hell is that?” A tickle on the very edge of her consciousness had been niggling at her for a while now, but she’d been so mortified by the weird storm and the attack by the tribals that she’d just pushed it to one side. Magical interference was certainly nothing new to her in her line of work; archaeological sites were more often than not virtually awash with the remnants of old spells and magical artefacts giving off thaumaturgical radiation. Thankfully many years of practical field experience had taught Lyra how to discern between what was important and what was not, helping her to filter a lot of it out to avoid the inevitable headaches that were a veritable curse for unicorns attuned to such things. Her natural ability in this area had in fact been one of the primary reasons she’d been selected as lead archaeologist on the Galeus tower site in the first place. Since she’d arrived on the island though there hadn’t been much in the way of background magic to speak about, except in the tower of course, but this thing she was detecting now was a different animal altogether. The source of the magic was outside, not on the island, but outside the aircraft. And now it was back again, this time all but demanding her attention. Lyra closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to isolate the source. It wasn’t hard to find it in a general sense, but it was like catching soap in the bath; you knew it was there, flicking in and out of your vision, but actually grabbing hold of it for further inspection was a different matter altogether. It was a vaguely familiar sensation too, although at the same time horribly alien.

Lyra had been hoof picked for many an archaeological expedition for her ability to detect magical traps ever since her talent had been hi-lighted in college. Of course out in the field you had more time to focus on the potential problem and keep ponies away from it while you probed the thing to see if it was an actual threat. You certainly weren’t flying headlong at the thing with no idea precisely where it was or even what it was. In this case there was no guarantee there was anything there at all! But if there… Wait, there was something there! Her horn was tingling, a sure sign of a strong magical build up nearby. With the storm popping in and out of existence as the aircraft skirted its edges it was playing hell with her magic as it was, but it was definitely radiating out from somewhere, as though a central point were directing the magic out to intercept anything crossing its path. She pushed herself up to the window, pressing her muzzle against the glass.

“Damn it all, I can’t see a bloody thing!” she muttered to herself. Lyra shifted round, trying to look out of the aircraft’s smaller windows for a better view.

Celandine noticed her moving, asking, “Can you see something?”

Lyra narrowed her eyes, staring out into the blue sky. “I’m not a hundred percent, but there’s something there.” She clucked her tongue, “Can you get me up onto the roof?”

“Onto the-?” Blue nearly shot out of his seat. “Are you nuts girl?”

Lyra looked around the cabin, noticing the hatch in the ceiling. “I can’t see a damned thing in here. If I could get up there I could-”

“What about the turret?” Blue asked. “You’d get a better view from there.”

“I wish!” Lyra shook her head, “No. I need to be able to see outside without anything in the way. I can sense things with my magic, but normally I’m not bouncing around like a pea in a maraca.” She wiped a hoof over her face, “Look, if you can tie something around my waist I could stick my head out and have a look while you guys keep hold of me.”

“Christ, no!” Blue’s eyes blazed. “Not a chance in hell, Lyra. I’m not having anyone going out there in this, and besides, the hatches aren’t designed to be opened in flight.”

“The gun ports are,” Celandine noted. She caught Blue’s warning glare and then shrugged helplessly at the look of determination in the green mare’s eyes. “It’s true. She might be able to look out from there a lot more safely than up here.”

Again Lyra shook her head. “The source is up,” she emphasised with a motion of her forehoof. “The wing’s in the way of the side door. I need to have a clear sight line to be able to do anything.” And even then she wasn’t sure she could actually do anything about it. Lyra was keenly aware that the others were looking to her as if she had some magical ability to get them out of there. What the hell were they expecting anyway? For her to shout some ancient gibberish and clop her hooves together, making the barrier vanish into thin air? One by one she looked to the ponies in the cockpit. Dancer was focussing on flying but had one ear cocked, listening to the conversation. Celandine looked hopeful and doubtful at the same time, whilst Blue just looked worried. She felt sick. What the hell was she getting herself into? And yet, what choice did she have? The aircraft might feel solid, but the way that storm had thrown them around showcased just how vulnerable they really were. And the way those pegasi had just… Lyra shuddered. No, she had to do this.

“We’re close,” she said firmly. “If you want to survive, open that damned hatch.”

The tension in the cockpit was horribly uncomfortable. Blue and Celandine stared at Lyra as if completely at a loss for words.

“Sparks,” Lyra said finally. “Get that-”

“SHIT! Hang onto something!” Dancer hauled on the control column and the aircraft howled in a sharp bank to port. Ponies shrieked in fright at the sudden change of attitude whilst green light burst around them, flooding the interior with unearthly luminescence. There was a loud pop, followed by a shout of alarm from Sparks. A heavy shuddering began seconds later, prompting Blue to leap back to the controls and help Dancer wrest control of the massive machine.

“What the hell was that?!” Blue yelled over his shoulder.

Sparks hurried to the window, pressing his muzzle to the glass. “Buck it. Number two is overheating, Skipper,” he called back. Despite his earlier cool, calm exterior, the faintest tinge of fear slipped into the stallion’s normally jovial voice. Whatever it was, it was serious.

“How bad is it?”

“It’s the carburettor again.” Sparks shook his head, quickly returning to his gauges, “I can try and compensate for it, but it needs a proper repair. We’re carrying a lot of extra weight and...” He closed his eyes, “Look, just don’t throw her around again like that, Dancer, or…” He looked at Blue and their eyes met. Nothing else needed to said. They all knew what could happen if they lost an engine.

Lyra put a hoof on Sparks’ shoulder, “The hatch?”

The oil smeared stallion looked to the human, “Skipper?”

Blue closed his eyes and gave a single solemn nod. “Damn it.” Taking a breath he pointed to the door, “Celly, get her into the rescue harness and tied her down. Get some of the others to help. I’ll see what I can do to get the hatch secured so we don’t lose it.”

Lyra couldn’t believe she was doing this. For that matter, she couldn’t believe any of this was really happening. She was a singer, an archaeologist, and was a pony dedicated to spending her life on good old fashioned earth as much as equinely possible. The sky was for clouds, birds, and those crazy pegasi which were probably half bird anyway. Stupid things. She’d nearly been killed by those idiots on more than one occasion when they’d been flying like lunatics with her in the back hanging on for dear life. It was a rare pegasus who flew at a sensible speed, but they were usually the ones who worked out of Canterlot. Come out into the sticks and the shackles were well and truly off. Now here she was in a human made flying machine of dubious age, and of especially dubious condition. She barely noticed the ropes and straps being attached to her. They’d quite obviously never been made for a pony, and two of the harnesses were strapped together to make one. A tap on the shoulder brought her to her senses with a start. That, and the blast of inrushing air as the hatch was lowered and a small ladder dropped down. Again, designed for human feet and not hooves.

Cold wind howled into the aircraft, stinging eyes, blowing manes and making the machine shake violently with the intrusion. Lyra stared up into the blue void, the white clouds, the great expanse of… of nothing. “Shit. Oh, shit, shit, shit!”

Celandine took her head and stared into her eyes, “Lyra, are you okay?”

“No! No I bloody well am not!” Lyra swallowed. She felt sick. Sick, and had an overwhelming fear she was going to pee herself too. The green mare shuddered, “Let’s just get this over with, okay?” She lifted a hoof. Or at least tried to.

“What’s the matter?” Celandine asked.

“I… I can’t move my hoof.”

“You can’t-”

“I can’t move my bloody hoof, okay?” Lyra snapped. She squeezed her eyes shut, “You’re going to have to help me up there. Please Celandine, just give me a push, a shove, anything. Please...”

The yellow mare gave her such a gentle smile that it almost took the edge off Lyra’s terror. Almost. “Come on, just one hoof at a time,” Celandine said softly. “You don’t need to go all the way out. Just a bit so you can see, okay? Look, we’re all here rooting for you, and you’re tied in nice and safe.”

“Lyra?” Sparks’ voice cut through the din like a light in a dark room. “Here, use these.” The stallion reached out to the frightened mare. Hanging from his hoof were the goggles he’d had stuck on his head since Lyra had first encountered him. By the look of the marks left on his forehead they seldom parted company with their owner. “Celly?”

Celandine helped Lyra put the strange things on. They were grubby, like the rest of the strange stallion, but they were a comfortable fit. She gave him what she hoped was a grateful smile. The word ‘Thanks’, died on her lips as her mouth dried out. Instead she took that first step, then the next, her hooves catching on the ladder as she ascended. Looking back the eyes of the others looked back at her encouragingly. It did, in truth, give her heart. In fact it was so endearing it pulled at her heart strings. Heart strings, eh? Lyra smiled to herself. Perhaps there really was something in that.

Outside the aircraft was another world. Wind howled horribly, dragging at her, pulling her almost half out of the hatch before she had a chance to wrap her forelegs around the top rung of the ladder. Here she could see the massive form of the sea plane all around her, and up here she could also see how small they were with the uninterrupted expanse of sea and sky. Mile after countless mile of beautiful blue sky, the warm sun and the ocean far, far below. Vertigo was something she’d only ever heard of. Here it was a dread reality. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her heart rate. She glanced at the engine with their spinning props. Off to her right the engine with the problem hummed away to itself, but there was clearly something wrong. The exhausts on the thing seemed to be glowing red hot. But was that normal? Shaking her head she pushed the distracting thoughts aside. What did she know about human machines? What she did know about was finding magical artefacts, and there was one here. Somewhere. Throwing her magic out to the world around her, Lyra searched. The something she’d detected earlier felt stronger now. It was still above them, slightly off to the left somewhere, but… She swore under her breath; it was so hard to think with all this wind! She concentrated once again, trying to pick up on the ‘wrongness’ of the magic she’d sensed earlier. It sounded trite, and a scholar no doubt would have cringed at such a simplistic description of a spell matrix, but that was how Lyra always worked. She looked for the out of place, the alien, the ‘wrong thing’ that shouldn’t be there. Simply put, it was the ‘wrongness’ that stood out.

And stand out it did.

“THERE IT IS!”

Celandine stood at the bottom of the ladder looking up at her, “What is it? Can you see something?”

“There’s a spell matrix node,” Lyra yelled back. You can’t see it with the naked eye, but I can sense it with my magic.”

“Is there anything you can do?” Celandine asked loudly. “Can you destroy it?”

Lyra shook her head, “If you cock about with spells this powerful it could do something bad.”

“How bad?”

“Really, really bad.”

Celandine paled. “Can you shield the plane against it maybe?”

Again Lyra shook her head, “I can’t make a shield that large, but I can try and put a shield around the matrix if we can get close enough.”

“What’ll that do?”

“Hopefully it’ll nullify its area of effect,” Lyra conjectured. “If I can do that for long enough to get us through we should be able to get outside of its range.”

“You think that could work?”

“Buggered if I know,” Lyra shrugged. “But it’s all I’ve got.”

“Shit.” Celandine hung her head a moment. She was having a conversation with somepony else. Probably Blue. She looked back at Lyra, “Blue says he’ll follow your lead. You shout out where, and he’ll do the steering.”

“Okay!” Lyra certainly didn’t feel ‘okay’. Oh Celestia, why hadn’t she paid more attention at school?

“Up and to the right.”

She’d arsed around for years, her and Bon Bon acting the fool when they should have been studying.

“Bit more to the right.”

Perhaps if she’d spent more time doing her school work then she would have had more of an idea on how to apply her magic properly, instead of winging it. Ha! ‘Winging’ it! She should have got into stand up. Gods above, what a bloody mess!

“Steady now...”

Green light flared once more. Not much, but enough to cause alarm both to her and the ponies below. There was a crack of green lightning so bright it left after images on Lyra’s vision.

“Getting nearer. Keep steady like this.”

Celandine reappeared behind her, “Lyra! Blue says he’ll do what he can, but the engines are overheating with the strain. We can’t keep climbing like this for long.”

“We don’t need to climb for long,” Lyra called back.

Another crack of lightning. Wind started to hammer the sea plane, shaking them from side to side as it had when they’d first encountered it.

“Lyra, I hope you know what you’re doing!”

“Oh, belt up!” Lyra snapped. “I’m doing my bloody best here, girl. Buck me, if it wasn’t for your nagging me, I’d… Gods, there it is!” Lyra took a deep breath and stared out into the blue. She was right, she couldn’t see the spell, it was shielded from sight very well indeed. Not only that, but to create a spell high up in the sky and keep it there for who knew how long was one hell of a feat of magic. Now her only concern was whether the magic would react to her cutting it off from its area of effect. “Here goes nothing...”

Magic glowed around Lyra’s horn. Slowly, carefully, she began to form the shield. And then, with a flick of her mane, she cast it right at where she knew the spell was. That was when the world started to turn from green to purple, then from purple to a beautiful bright blue. It was as if the spell had simply… switched off.

“GUN IT!” Lyra roared.

Below her Celandine screamed towards the cockpit, “Blue! I don’t know what you call it, but go in a straight line and hell for leather!”

From where she was, Lyra could see the ailerons moving, and hear the engine roar with renewed vigor. It was if the aircraft itself were a living thing, racing into beautiful blue sky. Racing to freedom. Lyra’s heart soared with it, her smile broadening as they began to put distance between the spell and themselves. They couldn’t go up straight like a firework, that would have been a godsend if they could of course, but they were sufficiently high enough that they should be able get free of the affected area before her magic was out of range… She hoped.

Seconds passed by. Lyra began to pray under her breath that they were going to be far enough, but she was already starting to feel her magic flag. They were travelling at a frightening speed, and that meant that the range of her magic was being stretched to ludicrous limits far faster than she’d ever imagined. Normally she used the shield on herself as protection from idiots in the crowd. This was on another level altogether.

“You okay up there?”

Lyra dared not look down, but answered, “Not really! Can’t this thing go any faster?”

“Blue says the throttles are wide open now,” Celandine replied.

The green mare sighed, “I take it that means ‘no’?”

Celandine shook her head, “It means-” A bright green flash flooded the horizon and vanished almost as fast as it had come. “Lyra!”

Lyra winced in pain as the magical feedback made itself felt, “Damn it, the bloody things altering itself.”

Celandine paled, “It can do that?!”

“Spells can adapt,” Lyra shouted. “It’s a security measure to deter tampering.”

“But you can counter it, can’t you?”

“Luna’s breath, don’t you think I’m trying?!” Lyra gasped at the effort, sweat beading on her brow. “The bloody things on a different level to anything I’ve ever seen before. I don’t… I don’t think this is unicorn magic.”

Celandine said nothing. Gods above, they were in for it now. The spell was squirming under her magical touch like a living thing, trying to escape the bubble she’d wrapped around it. She’d encountered countless magical traps over the years, many so old as to be unimaginably dangerous in their instability. A harmless locking spell from a thousand years ago could become a lethal corruption of its former self, its matrix decaying until it formed a death trap to the unwary. This was why they had specialists. It was also why whole areas of the country were designated ‘no go’ zones due to thaumaturgical radiation from past wars, magical phenomena, and spells that had simply ‘gone rogue’. Many had been cleared, but all too many remained. As a rule, if you strayed off the beaten path when exploring the remoter regions of Equestria there was a very real danger that your first encounter with one of these magical ‘hot spots’ could end up very badly indeed. Unicorns were usually tipped off by the old ‘itching horn’ phenomenon that warned of something powerful and nasty nearby. Pegasi usually flew over them. Earth ponies, as so many had in past, often blundered right into them without realising anything was wrong until it was too late. Some of them were sensitive to magic of course, as Celandine appeared to be, but most were not. Some said that earth ponies had a magic all of their own, or rather had had one of their own. The knowledge of this mysterious ‘power’ had been slowly lost over generations of peace and prosperity. After all, why did you need folk magic when you could employ a unicorn to do it properly for you? Huh, it was an odd world out there.

Out there.

Out… Lyra opened her eyes as the sky turned green once more. She frowned, concentrated, and… “Oh goddesses...” The magic was gone. Gone! “Celly! CELANDINE!”

Celandine looked up at her. The light was so bright now as lightning flashed all around them. The engines roared angrily, the aircraft shaking, slewing from left to right, right to left. She’d done all she could, but the distance was too great, the ancient magic far too clever for her simple spell. Generations, millennia of existence. It knew. It could sense her trying to smother it. And it had defeated her. There was a brilliant flash of light, brighter than the sun. Lyra screamed in fright, the smell of burning filling her nostrils, and then the sense of the world tipping. She opened her eyes to see the smoking end of the rope trailing above her, the aircraft moving away, disappearing into the… the blue sky. By the goddess, they’d made it! They’d… Oh… She was falling. Of course she was. It was obvious really when you thought about.

“Oh, buck my life...”

As short as it had been, at least it had been interesting. Kinda. Ha! She’d met plenty of good stallions over the years. She’d met Bon Bon too. Well, she’d known Bonnie from school of course, but that still counted, right? She was a good friend, a confidant, and the two shared a bond that few could ever truly understand. Sure they’d had their ups and downs. Hell, who hadn’t? But that was okay. It was all, all okay. Dying was nothing, or so they said. Ponies rarely talked about death. Somepony died, they were cremated, a service was held, and a party thrown in their honour to celebrate their life. They’d gone on to join the herd and the world just kept right on turning. Lyra’s mother had often said she’d die of drink, or partying, or some unspecified venereal disease. Maybe all three! She smiled to herself. Oddly she didn’t feel frightened any more. The feeling of falling was scary, the wind pulling at her mane and tail, but the knowledge that she couldn’t do anything about it kind of washed all of that away. She’d done her job. She’d rescued the ponies in the sea plane. Blue and Celandine were safe now. Where would they go? she wondered. Llamalia maybe? They could sell the plane to that race of traders and live like kings on the money they’d make. All of them too. Maybe they’d go to Equestria and live in peace there. Naturally they’d all age like normal ponies do, but that wasn’t a problem. Not really. Being brought into the modern age could be a shock, but they’d get over that in time. In time…

Bright purple light enveloped her. Maybe this was the end. Was this what ponies saw when they died? She’d heard that the eternal herd sent ponies to collect the souls of the dead before taking them to see some guy with a register or something. Didn’t he take your name to make sure you were on the list? Gods, it sounded like being a guest at a formalised party. Maybe she should have been wearing a tie! Well, at least the sense of falling had stopped. Instead she was… standing on the beach? Dear Celestia, she was standing on the beach! Lyra stared at her hooves, feeling the golden sand crunch under them as the purple light vanished. A pony in a suit was staring right at her.

“Am I… Am I dead?” Lyra croaked through her dry lips.

Ignoring her, the suited stallion lifted a hoof to his ear, “Target acquired, ma’am.” There was a pause. “Understood. Standing by for further orders.”

“Excuse me?” Lyra took a step forward, looking around her in confusion. “This is the herd, right?” She saw others approaching her. Somehow unsurprisingly it was more ponies in suits, and each one of them identically dressed in a starkly businesslike combination of black and white. “You guys are...” And then it hit her, “Oh shit! It’s you lot again.”

In short order the newcomers were stood surrounding around her in stoic silence, their blank expressions only adding to the growing feeling of unspoken menace. Lyra flinched in surprise as a medic, apparently, without so much as a word began checking her over.

“Hey, get off!” Lyra snapped, pulling her tail away from the probing creature. “I don’t have bloody worms, thank you very much!”

“You may have,” a mare added, making her way through the throng. The candy stripe haired mare looked her up and down from behind the apparently obligatory sunglasses. “You’ve been living on this island in unsanitary conditions for almost twelve months. You could have-”

“What did you say?” Lyra’s eyes nearly popped out of her head, “TWELVE MONTHS?!”

“Chrono dilation,” the mare replied in a deadpan tone. Her red and white striped mane bobbed up and down as she explained the missing time away as though it were as obvious as water being wet.

“Parchment...” Lyra’s ears flopped in realisation. “Of course. He said he’d been here for over twenty years. Goddesses, I thought he was delirious! I didn’t think he actually...” Her voice died away as the horror of what had happened to the young lad in his last moments started to replay through her mind.

“The male you came here looking for?” the suited mare nodded knowingly. As her tan muzzle bobbed up and down it caught Lyra’s eye. This mare looked distinctly familiar somehow, as too did her voice. Ah, that was it, she must have been one of the clowns who’d tried to blow her up at the dig site. “We’ve been unable to locate him,” the mare continued. “Don’t worry though, I’m sure he’s-”

“He’s dead.”

“He’s-” The mare paused. “Oh. My condolences.”

“Yeah. Yeah, sure. Your condolences,” Lyra snorted. She didn’t believe this mare was capable of expressing even the most basic of emotions, let alone offer any genuine ‘condolences’. She suddenly barked out a laugh at the ludicrousness of the situation, “Hah! And there was me thinking I was in the herd. Luna give me strength...”

“You very nearly were,” the newcomer said plainly. “It was pure luck one of our sky chariots caught you when they did.” She frowned, “How did you end up there?”

“Where, in the sky?” When the tan mare didn’t reply, Lyra said simply, “Honestly I can’t remember. There was a lot of fighting. We were being chased by tribals. Maybe I was in a sky chariot that got hit.” She groaned, rubbing her temples, “I’m sorry, I really can’t remember right now. My heads such a mess...”

The candy striped mane bobbed again, “We’ll debrief you properly later. For now we have to secure this island and deal with its… inhabitants.”

“Wait a minute, what are you talking about?” Lyra asked. She looked at the ponies who were all staring right back at her. “They’re not all bad ponies here,” Lyra continued. “I mean, there are some, and there’s monsters too, some real nasty ones!” She looked nervously at the forest. “You know, I really don’t think we should be standing here when-”

“They’re being subdued,” the tan mare intoned gravely.

“Subdued...” Lyra took a step back and looked the suited mare up and down. That voice! It was so familiar it was starting to make the back of her head itch like crazy. There was only one mare she’d ever heard with that particular intonation in her voice, and the way she inflected certain words… The mane was different, sure, but the style was the same. She had the same coat colour too. The coat was… She quickly reached forward. Taking the suited mane by surprise, Lyra flicked up the corner of the mare’s coat. “Goddesses above!” she hissed in shock. “I was right! It… It’s you!”

One of the others stepped forward, reaching into an inside pocket, “Agent Sweetie?”

The suited mare waved the concerned stallion away, “All of you, leave us. I need to talk to this mare alone. Agent Tandy, keep me informed of the situation at the primary target site.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Lyra stood quietly as the others dutifully moved away. Once they were a comfortable distance away, Lyra leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. “So, ‘Agent Sweetie’ is it? Come to sweep me off my hooves have you?” She wasn’t sure what was going on here, but Lyra was in no mood for levity right now. As joyful as a reunion with Bon Bon should have been, particularly after how long they’d been apart, something was off here. More than that it stank, and it wasn’t just the fact that she hadn’t had a bath in days. When no reply came she floated the sunglasses off the agent’s muzzle to reveal a pair of very familiar blue eyes. “Hello Bonnie. Long time no see. Nice do by the way, the red and white really suits your eyes.”

Bon Bon’s voice was as emotionless as a stone. She only said, “Lyra.”

“Umm, and?” Lyra raised her eyes and shrugged her shoulders at her friend, “That’s it, is it? No, ‘Hi Lyra, where’ve you been? I’ve been so worried about you.’”

“Of course I’ve been worried about you,” came the hurried reply. For a moment the mask of cold, unfeeling equestrian agent faded, revealing Lyra’s beloved friend beneath. “Fetlocks and feathers, Lyra, we’ve all been worried sick about you. Especially after you walked into that portal. I told you that something like this would happen one day!”

As much as Lyra was relieved that the old Bon Bon she’d known most of her life had reappeared, she was in no mood to be berated right then. She was hot, tired, and the boiling heat of adrenalin was still fizzing through her body like a wildfire. “I didn’t walk into the bloody thing, Bonnie,” Lyra snapped. “One of your suit wearing buddies was going to blow it up, and me along with it!”

Bon Bon rolled her eyes, “I think that’s something of an exaggeration, Lyra.”

“Exaggeration?!” Lyra’s eyes went wide in amazement at her friend’s casual dismissal of what she’d just said. “He said he was going to shoot me!”

“He-” Bon Bon sighed and rubbed her forehead, “Warlock can be… a little headstrong at times. He and I don’t see eye to eye on certain aspects of our work.”

“Oh dear, really?” Lyra shook her head at the sheer insanity of what she was hearing. “Gods above, I can’t believe this. This isn’t bucking happening!” She began to walk around in a circle, tossing her mane. “I’ve gone mad. That’s it, I’ve gone right round the bucking bend, and this,” she said holding up a hoof, “this is all just an illusion.” Lyra pointed at her friend, “You’re not really here. Hell, maybe I’m not really here! Maybe I’m just having a bad trip and I’ll wake up at any minute in a hotel bedroom surrounded by empty bottles and horny stallions! Oh Luna, say it is so!”

Bon Bon shook her head, letting out a loud sigh, “Lyra, listen...” She sat down on the sand and once again rubbed her face with a hoof, “You’re not dreaming. I hate to break it to you, but I’m real, and as much as I wish I didn’t have to say this, but everything that’s happened to you, here on this island, is not a hallucination. You have been here for the best part of a year and it’s taken us all this time to find you.”

“Well I suppose it’s hardly surprising considering the shield around this place,” Lyra snorted bitterly. “Maybe you should have asked one of your alicorn bosses to clue you in on their secret hide away a bit sooner.”

“We did,” Bon Bon said in that infuriatingly matter-of-fact manner she used whenever she felt Lyra was being childish. “Even then it wasn’t that easy to find. This island has been locked away by powerful magic from before the princesses had even been born.”

“Bollocks!” Lyra laughed, waving a hoof dismissively. “That was definitely alicorn magic up there, Bonnie. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”

“Up there?” Bon Bon looked up into the sky, returning an inquisitive look on her friend. “You felt alicorn magic in the sky?”

“Well, I think… I think I did.” Lyra’s mouth suddenly went dry. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew that she didn’t want to tell Bon Bon about the aircraft. Blue was… Well, he was in danger from ponies like her. Wasn’t he? The sudden realisation of this hit her like a lump hammer. Bon Bon may be her friend, but she was also a royal agent, and there was no way in hell they’d just let something like an alien craft packed with weaponry and a previously thought mythical creature at the helm simply fly about willy nilly. “I… I’m not sure,” she stammered, “but the ponies here all said that this place was a prison formed by the princesses long ago. That’s why nopony could escape.” She breathed a sigh of relief at that last bit. It wasn’t quite a lie, especially since it was the one Parchment had used on her to entice her out of the ship that time, but the logic of it didn’t stack up under scrutiny. Still, it would suffice for now.

“Hmm...” Bon Bon nodded. Her searching gaze suggested she didn’t quite believe Lyra’s story, but thankfully she didn’t pursue it.

“So, what’s with the hair?” Lyra asked, changing the subject.

Bon Bon reached for her mane, “My mane? Oh!” She almost smiled, “We have to have an alternative ‘persona’ for work and civilian life. This is mine. Agent Sweetie Drops, but most just call me Sweetie or Agent Sweetie.”

Lyra smiled, “Yeah, ‘Agent Drops’ just sounds wrong.”

Bon Bon chuckled, her cold agent mask fading away to reveal her old friend once more, “I’m glad we found you, Lyra.”

The green mare reached for her friend and the two hugged, the warmth of the moment a blessed escape from all the horrors that had dogged Lyra since that awful day she’d realised Parchment had blundered through that damned portal. And then she noticed something.

“Your tummy!” Lyra’s eyes went wide, “Hey, it’s not swollen any more! What a relief, I was so worried about you!”

“Oh.”

“Hey, never mind, ‘Oh’!” Lyra was almost fizzing with excitement. “Come on, tell me what’s happened. If I’ve been away for twelve months and… Oh my gods, you’ve had a foal haven’t you! You’re… you’re a mother!” She span round in sheer childish delight as she realised what had been so obvious all this time. “Oh Bonnie, I wasn’t there when you delivered, but I’m here now! Please, you have to tell me all-”

“Lyra!” Bon Bon’s hoof shot out, halting her friend. “Lyra, listen, I… It’s not what you think.”

“What do you mean, ‘not what I think?” Suddenly all the blood drained from her face. “Bonnie… Oh, Celestia, you didn’t… You didn’t lose it, did you?”

“NO!” Bon Bon shook her mane in frustration. Her friend’s exuberance was beginning to wear on her now, and the other agents were looking in their direction, drawn by Lyra’s foolish antics. She took a breath and fished in her pocket, taking out a long silver tube-like device. “Lyra, I know this is going to sound weird, but at least this way I can tell you the truth that I wish I could have told you a year ago.”

“Truth?” Lyra blinked, “What are you talking about.”

Bon Bon scrunched up her face and looked up at the sky before looking into her friend’s eyes. She had a smile that was… troubling. “You remember the stories about a wendigo in Manehattan?”

Lyra nodded blankly, “I do. You said it was a load of bollocks made up by an overactive imagination. The agency looked into it and proved it was a hoax, didn’t they?”

“Oh, it wasn’t a hoax,” Bon Bon said simply. “That was just a cover story. He’s called ‘Fairlight’. He has a small harem, a couple of children, and lives with a thestral on the borders of the Everfree. It’s a relatively small community of monsters that do the bidding of the princesses from time to time.” Lyra’s mouth moved soundlessly as she stared at her fried agog. Bon Bon shrugged, “Well, before the princesses decided to keep him around... I shot him.”

“You-?!”

“And then, as he lay wounded, I rode him like a rodeo bull.”

Lyra’s eyes were as wide as saucers, “I… You… DEAR GODS!” Lyra felt like she was going to throw up. “You, you can’t be serious! Oh my goddesses, Bonnie, that’s gotta be-” She nodded to herself vigorously, trying to make sense of what she was telling her. “Ahhh! I see. I see!” Lyra smiled, waving a hoof at her friend. “You nearly had me going there. Good one!”

“You think so?” Bon Bon shrugged, “Then here’s the punchline.” She leaned forward, smiling a little ominously for Lyra’s liking. “I’ve had his child...”

Lyra nearly choked, “You…?!”

“A child whose blood is half wendigo.” Bon Bon’s grin never reached her eyes, “One day he will be one of the most powerful mages in the land. Perhaps even powerful enough to rule Equestria, or maybe one of the outer kingdoms.” She shrugged, “I haven’t decided yet. Ah, so many possibilities!”

“Bonnie, please, you’re scaring me talking like that!” Lyra swallowed. Subconsciously she’d moved back, away from her friend. “This isn’t like you. If it’s a joke, then it isn’t funny!”

“No, I suppose it’s not.” Bon Bon mirthlessly laughed under her breath, “The wendigo didn’t think it was funny either.”

“But…” Lyra shook her head in disbelief. “But that means you shot an innocent stallion and.. and you raped him?!”

Bon Bon’s eyes darkened as her voice dropped to a menacing snarl, “He was not innocent, and a mare cannot rape a stallion.” Suddenly her tone lightened, “That would be just silly!”

“Bonnie...” A wash of ice cold flooded through Lyra as she stared helplessly at her friend. The friend she had known since foalhood. They’d gone to school together. Lived together. Done everything together. This… This mare… This was a stranger. This wasn’t Bon Bon. It couldn’t be! “Why? Why are you doing this?” Lyra managed.

“Why? Because I can?” Bon Bon smiled.

And then Lyra realised something; she was frightened. Frightened of her own friend. “But why are you telling me this?”

The tan mare shrugged and replaced her sunglasses. “Ah, well that’s simple,” she said pleasantly. She held up the silver tube in front of Lyra eyes. “That’s because… you’ll never remember any of it.”

There was a high pitched whine and the world flashed a vivid red.