Midnight and the others went into the storm the wind was harsh and the rain was cold. Gearworks was right to reinforce the wings, otherwise they would have been destroyed upon simply entering the storm.
"Ok guys stay in tight formation, last thing we need is one of those Pegasi to use this creepy storm to blast us away.
"Mind if I borrow your eyes? Mine are upside down after all." Drama Queen asked. Bookworm was about to respond that she too was upside down and therefore the action would be moot, when she felt the minor throbbing in her head.
[b/]"Creative problems? Any chance I can help? How about the word exonerate?"[/b] Bookworm stared at the pony for a long, awkward moment before saying "I was talking about apple pies there.... THAT'S PERFECT!" As she said it, she quickly jotted down a few dozen more notes of various meanings.
the conversation would have continued that way, but Midnight interrupted. [b/]"Ok guys stay in tight formation, last thing we need is one of those Pegasi to use this creepy storm to blast us away."[/b] Realizing he was correct - Bookworm intended to live; who else would write their story? "Yes, Twilight" she said, at the unicorn, trying to think in terms of his eventual character.
Midnight grumbled, he had expected that Bookworm wouldn't grasp the gravity of the situation, he didn't mind, so long as she was sane enough to remember his name.
Burt midnight needed all the help he could get and somehow he felt that who helped him wasn;t for him to decide.
Midnight had told Gearworks about the rare gemstones that gave him more power. but he hadn't mentioned the spell to activate them. doing that would be a bit disastrous if Gearworks tried using them.
Bookworm flew into the clouds with the group, happy to for once not be the worst flyer. She found herself rather worried for her normally ground-bound compatriots, but could not place the reason until a lightning flash.
"Are you sure wearing metal armor in a lightning..." she started to say, before stopping - who was she to question the heroes of the tale; they knew what they were doing... unless they were the expendable types of heroes in which case... oh well.
Gearwork could see that Midnight was hiding something about the stones that granted more power, but Gearwork didn't mention to him that he had already known how to use them. He figured it out years ago right after he found the stone. He also knew the consequences of using it incorrectly.
The stone came from a relative of his that live a few centuries before him, and the relative was known to be a little unstable. This relative somehow gained more magic that what he was known for and tried to take over the town where he lived. It didn't work, in the end he accidentally blew himself up.
As the group flew farther into the storm the wind grew in intensity as well as lightning strikes. Gearwork heard Bookworm say something about flying into a lightning storm while wearing metal, but there wasn't anything to be worried about. As well as reinforcing the wings, Gearwork also put a layer of rubber between the metal wings and the pony using them. As a precautionary detail he also added a few extra powerstones to each pair of wings so if a pony's wings were hit the wings would still work.
Midnight and the other ponies were soon finding there way through the storm it would appear that there was a pattern to this wind and lightning more proof that this storm was made my magic.
"come on every pony, we can do this if we just pull together Hoofington, no all of Equestria is counting on us."
"What exactly is all of Equestria counting on us to do though Midnight? You haven't told any of us anything as to why you dragged us up into these abominable clouds. I for one want to know exactly what is going on and why we've got these strange stones." Shadow asked, putting his wings onto a higher setting so that he could zoom past the other ponies and fly alongside of Midnight.
The wind was threatening to unbalance Shadow's mane, and it was easy to see that that it was also unbalancing the other, less experienced, ponies during their flight.
Using these wings is a dumb idea. Shadow thought to himself as he waited for an answer from Midnight. They could have just as easily taken some of the pegasi and gotten them to fly up into this storm, or better yet, why not just wait the storm out as well always have instead of flying into the middle of the storm on a hunch.
Bookworm turned to the second flying blacksmith and answered his questions as best as possible. "Well, at this point all the heroes have gathered and they are making a push into the storm to stop the villains, still unknown evil plan. I would expect the villains minions will begin attacking the heroes shortly, striking out from the veil of the storm to stop us from reaching the center, where Midnight can use the mystical Macguffin stones to stop the storm. I expect there will be a villainous monologue at some point, and maybe a twist - like the villain is Windsocks mother or something." she said, matter-of-factly.
"Haha, at least someone can tell me what's going on. Thank you... Bookworm was it? I think I've seen you around the library a few times, you seem passionate about your work as always." Shadow said with a smile, falling back just a few feet to fall alongside the smaller pink pony.
Bookworm thought it over for a bit then gave her answer. "Well... My guess is that someone has found or made a Weather Control Machine, though I suppose a wizard could have done it. flying is easier if you follow the air currents, but be careful of downdrafts. its only about a mile thick or so... OH, and the magnificent bastard who is running everything is about 4,287 feet that way!" she said, pointing in the general direction of where she had seen the evil Pegasus.
"So you've actually seen these pegasi? I assume they literally are nothing more than pegasi though? No Alicorn's or changelings right?" Shadow asked, his head turning away from the smaller pony to send a beam of pure red light into the clouds on their right.
The light cut through the darkness, revealing everything for a few feet on their right. Once satisfied that nothing was there, Shadow let the beam die down, and the light slowly faded back to it's darker glow along the length of his horn.
suddenly out from the shadows of the storm came three big burly black Pegasi like the first two there were no cutie marks and they looked very very mean.
"Your going no where you filthy mixed ponies, I can't believe you traitorous Pegasi would let these snobbish unicorns and numb-skull earth ponies.
one of the Shadowy Pegasi, it's voice was similar to the roar the wind during a hurricane.
Looks like that question was answered, and maybe Midnight isn't as insane as I believed. Shadow thought to himself as three burly black pegasi came out of the storm. It appeared that there was some truth to the story Shadow had been hearing every since he had made it up into this storm.
"How about you back off?" Shadow asked, his horn glowing a little deeper crimson.
Coo shrieked, and dove at the second largest shadow pegasus, while Gearwork followed. The thing screamed in pain as the owl tore at its face, and tried to swat the bird away, only find that it couldn't move it's legs. It saw a dark grey unicorn hovering a few feet from it, when it saw the mechanical wings, it screamed in a raspy voice "Filthy unicorn! How dare you mock us with those mechanized abominations! We will destroy you and anyone who sides with you!"
Gearwork looked at Coo and said "Coo, move please." The owl stopped its assault and hovered right next to Gearwork
The shadow pegasus held up by Gearwork's magic looked even more furious than it was before after it saw Gearworks mechanized wings. It's face was that of pure hatred at the very thought that a unicorn could have a pet that could fly. Gearwork slowly flew towards the shadow pegasus and stopped about a foot from it. "Hello." Gearwork said, "My name is Gearwork, and I'm the one who created these- what did you call them?- abominations?" his tone suddenly changed from his normal somewhat deep voice to a very deep and dark foreboding tone. "You said that you would destroy me and anyone who sides with me, Well then, I guess we'll have to defend ourselves and destroy you."
While Gearwork said this he pulled out two light stones one for this shadow pegasus and for the third shadow pegasus. The first was already in an aerial fight with Shadow and Gearwork didn't want to accidentally injure Shadow with what he was about to do. He pulled out his staff and siliently said "calx unlock, vox unfurled, tribuo mihi suus vires". When he said this the stone in the staff glowed with a golden light. Gearwork aimed the light stones at the two shadow pegasi and shouted "obscurum sparsum".
Gearwork knew how to unlock the stones power shortly after he found it. Gearwork also knew what would happen if he harnessed that power, and didn't take precautions. Gearwork only used the stones when it was absolutely called for. Gearwork also knew to use the stone magic through a converter of some sort, another type of crystal instead of letting its power flow through him directly.
Apparently his crazy ancestor named Clockwork did some research before blowing himself up. He found out that the stones were activated by a spell of some sort, and that he was able to figure it out with the help of another pony named Nightsky, apparently one of Midnight's ancestors it would seem. After unlocking the stones power Clockwork slowly went crazy over a period of ten years. He always kept a journal about projects he was working on, and research on how to help the ponies around where he lived.
After unlocking the stones power however, his personality started to change. He was tormented by dreams, of a storm and of shadowy forms flying across the sky. He became paranoid that there was some sort of shadow pony that was waiting to take over Equestria. He became an outcast among the townsfolk for his strange behavior, and was forced to move.
A few years after moving outside of the town, Clockwork started to believe that the shadow pony was actually a pony living there in town. He decided that he had to stop it and created a spell that would cause explosions and went to the outskirts of town. The first five of six explosion spells worked well without the stone, but it wore him out quickly. When he decided to use the stone his spell recoiled on him and blew himself up.
When Gearwork said "obscurum sparsum" the stone inside the staff shot out two golden colored beams into the light crystals, where they started to glow with an intense light. Suddenly the light in the crystals shot out a beam of pure white light and struck the two shadow pegasi Gearwork was aiming at. There was no noise that came from either of the two shadow pegasi because the beams hit them before they could react.
With those two pegasi defeated Gearwork bolted over to where Shadow was to see if he could help.
Shadow didn't allow for the pegasi to make a move first, and instead shot a beam of pure energy that collided with the pegasi before he could react. The pegasi recoiled only briefly, long enough for Shadow to fly forward and collide with the other pony and cause them both to fall in a tangled mess below the cloud level and into almost complete darkness. It was only when the shadow pegasi kicked Shadow, that they broke apart and fell their own separate ways.
Shadow managed to right himself quickly, as did the pegasi, both bruised from their tumble. Shadow's horn shimmered bright crimson for a moment before releasing another burst of energy at the pegasi, who nimbly dodged it and made a straight line towards Shadow. Both ponies collided once again before tumbling down a few more feet, almost out of the storm itself. Shadow twisted his head slightly before firing off another blast of energy that hit the pegasi directly in the chest. The pegasi fell back and down into the darkness, lost to Shadow's eyes. Shadow shook his head and managed to climb his way back up to the other's. It was only then that Shadow noticed he had come ill-prepared, as Gearwork had brought most of his tools with him.
"Alright, last one's done. We're good to push forward Gear." Shadow said with a slight bow of his head.
[b/]"I'm ready to keep pressing on anyway. Got a big bad to beat."[/b] Drama said, getting ready to launch further into the clouds. Bookworm needed to stop her - she was making a mistake.
"More likely it's a "The Dragon." I mean, she COULD be a "Big Bad", but it's a little early in the story for her to appear so directly. Heck, she might just be a slightly elevated "Evil Minion or..." Bookworm said, flying after her into the clouds where her words were drowned out by the fury of the storm.
They soon saw their target a platform made of solid back clouds that anyone could walk on, they knew this because there were several unicorns, each was forced to pout their magic to generate lighting, Midnight was right the storm was from magic.
The unicorns were slaves though, it was clear by the way the fact they had been chained up in collars, bridles, and most horribly: they had horse-shoes nailed into their hoofs.
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