A Bit(e) of Hope (Private)

lightning stepped up to the 'heart', she stared at it a bit first, lost in its infinity but quickly snapped out of it. she took a breath and closed her eye to narrow her minds focus, with a single action, she casted two beams of magic into either side of the 'heart' and just as promptly, she pulled out of it two new balls of like one a deep dark blue, the other a brilliant bright gold. each orb, equal to the size of the original,  floated about a meter away from the heart, lightning paused once more getting the concentration she needed for the next part. "they resemble the princesses magic but they aren't there just yet, we need them to truly line up for there magic to work right." lightning explained. she took a breath before two beads of white light shot from the young mares head. upon impact with the unfinished proxies the became like coloured glass with both princesses cutie mark within the appropriate orb shining bright. lightning could now relax for a brief moment she casted her master rune which intern spat out her 6 runes and coated her in symbols of an arcane nature.
this was it, no turning back now once the moon and sun were put in the right place she would have to cast the spells and plot them in such a way to not do lasting damage to nearby equestria. her eye opened and she waved her hoof with the battle cry of the anchents. two beams fired out of the heart each at the proxies powering them, the proxies then began to shine blindingly as they rose up and that was that, the sun and moon were now in there 20 degree above horizon, lightning waved her hoof up and a final seventh rune shot out of the master rune. "if this goes wrong kill the master rune st/" before she could finnish the seventh rune was hit by beams from both the sun and moon, the magic was flowing and lightning was now floating, glowing brightly along with the six original runes now orbiting. lightnings eye shone white and with a glint the black mambo moved hundreds of miles.

the ship survived, the runes were gone, where they were was now clear sky and was now replaced with a huge display of admiration for the princesses with a paragraph in old ponish, promising to meet them soon, a fanciful depiction of twilight, cadence, celestia and luna hung in the sky, with a mild mural for the elements, this display was huge and was likely visible from the badlands to griffonstone.
on deck layed lightning not hurt but drastically out of energy, she giggled to herself knowing she had probably achieved her goal and simply hugged the floor.

For the most part, Sugary was on edge during the entire experiment process, if only because he was still learning things from her as she developed them before him, and therefore had to keep much he could only theorize upon to try and back her up. Even so, he found himself continually impressed by the thestral's prowess, and artsy take on the project.

... In some ways, it all seemed too brief in retrospect, almost surreal for him when he found himself along with the airship in a different part of the sky. He knew, he felt, that it all did happen, and they were not in the same spot; It both frightened and excited him that it all worked as mostly intended. "A-... Amazing... Incredible!!" He sprung from where he was and quickly went to grab Lightning off the floor to check on her and congratulate her with a vigorous hug and nuzzle of his own. "Marvelous work, Miss Lightning! You actually did it!!" Granted, he was a bit less hardy about it than Sky was with her before, but it was clear they somewhat shared a knack for hardy affection.

Speaking of... he recalled that Sky had not come out to join them yet, his expression then becoming more neutral, if still invigorated in tone and spirit as he still held Lighting in his grasp. "Oh...! Sky! We need to check on her too!!" As soon as Lightning showed herself to be well enough, he would urge her into coming inside to check on Sky...

lightning smiled and emotionally shone at the praise she got for her experiment. but it was more than this, where a unicorn could project and manipulate magic, unless they actively try to feel magic and its intricate strings all they will feel is a vibe, but lightning, she manipulated and moved magic manually she lived day by day wading through the radiant magic from all life, even able to to feel non intentional magic bleeds. and the basics on magic would tell you magic for a unicorn is powered by emotion and will power, lightnings ties to every thread of magic around her means she felt his feelings, his admiration his fear and his excitement, and in all it made her happy, all until that thought crossed his mind, she did not know what it was that had disrupted the happy notes in his psyche but she knew she'd know soon.

her eyes widened as she had realised her mistake, "uhh,, uh it should be fine um, ok uh oh damn, ok." she put her hoof to her mouth to think her eyes moving as if reading some invisible book or equation. "ok.. so i may have made a teny weny maybe tiny huge enormous mistake. see 1 of 3 things has happened, sky has gone full body guard mode, she has lost control and is now running on a protocol, that would be bad as until the protocol is ended, she's gonna be dangerous." lightning galloped to the stairs she was still weak but this was important. "the second thing that could have happened is nothing she doesn't even know we moved due to the temporal bubble she's in." lightning continued to run to the door and looked at it aciousely "finally the magic may have made her room sake like an earthquake but less destructive and probably made a mess.", she didn't wait and like that she barged into the room.

the room was a mess the suit was everywhere the gun was further broken sky lay on the floor, fine if not a bit unimpressed with her situation. she looked to lightning, smiled lightly and cocked an eyebrow "this mess wouldn't happen to have something to do with you would it?" there was a moment of pause but as relief washed over lightnings mind she couldn't help but laugh and infact sky joined in climbing out of the gear cothering the floor.

Sugary looked pensive more than worried as Lightning warned him about what might've become of Sky, pondering further about the pudgy but strong mare's bio-modifications as a whole. And yet, he was relaxed; The moment still burned passionately within him as enthusiasm for examining the full results of what he'd been a part of still kept him lively and positive. No doubt another unintended result of Lightning's efforts.

Once Sky was confirmed alright but her room a mess, he merely let out a chuckle and walked right in to help re-organize some of the room as he best could. "The experiment has worked...! So far, at least. I can still feel that tingly sensation of success all over..." He shuddered a little even, a sign of his own sensitivities as a magical creature. "... I just hope it's not just static! Hah! A shame there's no window in this makeshift room, you'd have loved the sight of it all~"

lightning walked off she gave no warning but simply walked away back to the deck, a smile on her face.
sky looked to the stallion, with a corner smile and spoke, "i'm sure but i've seen what that mare can do and although ill never get tired of it, the things ive seen that filly do. and trust me, on this mission you'll get to see all this and more." sky halled up a masive metal contraption that the size of an engine block and put it on her work bench before gathering up most parts her battle suit, "that mare will change the world one day, im sure and celestia help those who get in her way." she took a look around, noting alot of the mess being somewhat out the way and sat down on her bed. "i can probably take it from here" she said with a slight smile.

Sugary let out a soft chuckle, nodding with Sky's feelings about Lightning. He did seem a little pensive by the end however, as he let her be for her work. "Suit yourself, I just wanted to make sure you were alright, and you seem delighted even... Ah, but I do wonder if Celestia herself has noticed. Hm..." He began to walk out, looking back to Sky with a hint of nervousness in his gaze. "... We're gonna have a heck of a field day with paperwork sooner or later, I wager. I think that frightens me now the most..."

They'd have to answer to someone eventually; He was certain of it. For now, he went back up to meet with Lightning to check on her again, as well as observe the state of the rotor engines outside for good measure. "... So, you finally taking a breather, or are you waiting for more results out here?"

lightning was leaning on the side of the ship looking out to equestria and the shore line. when sugary caught up to her she hardly moved, conserving her energy she just smiled at his comment before taking a bracing breath, and speaking "well, something about generating proxies of the princesses and having the magic comparable to the elements of harmony running through me, may have made me a little fatigued." she rested her head on her hooves and closed her eyes "it will be a long while until we see this shore again, and when we do we will have a lot to explain, but until then goodbye, land of the sisters the elements and true community, and with that," she pushed off the side of the ship gave and a wobbly salute to sugary "i dear say its time for me to rest, take care sir, and goodnight" with the last of her energy she stumbled back down and to her room, after giving her her familier home a final goodbye for the next year. she kicked the door closed behind her and flopped onto her bed sleeping almost straight away.

"Uh, wait... We're leaving!?" He couldn't exactly talk about it further with her, but could tell she looked exhausted and the atmosphere certainly felt different. As he looked to the horizon again, he grimaced lightly before he eventually grumbled and made his way to the bridge, run maintenance, and get the airship going once more... out a fair distance to sea.

He would await for whenever Lightning awoke to explain what was to happen next, as he was still on the job and assumed she preferred to avoid being found out just yet. He hoped things could be sorted eventually; Sooner or later, they would likely be held into questioning as to what happened, he felt...

the night was calm considering their location and the moon lit the ocean up and the stars twinkled brightly. many a pony that night would have unsettled sleep but lightning, she slept more soundly than ever.
as day broke one would be able to note that the sun was late, but that suited lightning, already planning to sleep in but eventually the typically night loving thestral had to wake making her way to the rec room she sat hole body splayed on the sofa as cutlery and food prepped itself for her breakfast.

On the new day, Sugary rested somewhat well; He was so anxious for what was to come the night before, but so excited he also somehow slept peacefully eventually from positive prospects... So it only made him rather cautious in noticing that the morning was not quite as normal as usual when he looked at the time, yet it was still night time. The day still seemed to be going by, but his expression did not inspire much confidence as he was absolutely sure the Royal Sisters were not going to miss that detail.

He shook it most of it off eventually once he resolved to the fact that he chose to be part of this, and needed to see it through as he felt the time came to check on the mares. Starting with Lightning as he went to see her, and smiling when she looked to be at ease. "Heh... Good morning. Or is it noon now...? Kinda hard to tell, but I'm sure you noticed the delay too... Still, you look well. Got any plans for today or do you need more time to rest?"

lightning smiled "its 11:46, but close enough heh. but yeah i did notice the night being a bit longer, i wonder, and somewhat worry that perhaps it could have been related to us,, but its best not thinking about for now aye" she bobbed her hoof in his direction, a magical glow appeared on her hoof as a slight cloud of magic booped his nose. "i'm still tired but i have my magic mostly back now so there's that, just making a small banquet as an award for yesterday, but i reckon it will take a while to get to our next location so i guess the plan is to get the ship flying in the right direction while i have breakfast and plan what i shall tinker with next." she placed her hoof on her hip and looked into his eyes "unless.. you had another idea?"

Sugary scrunched his muzzle lightly at Lightning's magical boop, and snorted a little as if holding back a sneeze. "Ah hah... Well, a hearty meal after work and a LOT of magic output is a must I feel, so eat and rest as much as you want to get your strength back. That said..." He looked to her form on the couch in  bit of pondering as his expression lightened. "... I would only insist that we plan on meeting up with Celestia formally sometime, at least... Other than that? I'm at your beck and call for the ride and intend to see this project through." He smiled a little, showing continued support. "Anything else I can do for you in the meantime?"

she cocked an eyebrow and snerked "im sure there's a is something you could do, maybe even a few things but you'd have to get more creative if that was to be the outcome, and youd certainly be a fitting, should i say, 'doer'. but perhaps that would all be a bad idea." she sat up and draped her robes more appropriately over herself. "but to answer your question, no i'm fine." she flicked her hoof towards her and a table with advanced tech floated to her. it seemed to be some sort of gun and over components
similar to the ones that made up skys that was within her room.

The stallion was briefly left even more puzzled by the mare's statement on what might be within his capabilities, for better or worse. However, it piqued his curiosity as he watched her move things about. "Won't know if it's a good or bad idea till you ask... That said, it looks like you're eager to get to work, so I may as well continue on some maintenance for good measure on my end. Make sure nothing got scrambled, and get us going eventually... Call me if you need me, of course." And so, he would begin his tasks, ever focused on what he was hired for... unless she halted him for something that might've been missed.

"of course, but don't let me get lonely heheh" lightning teased, as she assembled her parts and equipment on her table at an unimaginable. on the side and at the food prep area her breakfast continued to be made as wisps of magic sliced tomatoes cooked eggs boiled a big pot and fried something in another pot.
in the time he was god, doing matencence she would have her breakfast, take a nap, write out excessively long and intricate magi-code scrolls, one of which would be a weather and surroundings stabilizer and finally try this 'relax' thing she keeps getting told to do. this would be about the time she would expect him back.

One of his ears perked up on the way out as he picked up on her 'request' to not be left alone for long; He could only guess at what swirled in her head to say that, but kept it in mind nonetheless. Maintenance, of course, meant getting his hooves dirty in managing the moving and gunky parts with care, but he knew what was what, so it wouldn't take him too long to return to her... Of course, by the time he did, he looked a tad more smudgy on his arms, and smelled of oil and a little more sea-salt. "Welp...! We're good to keep flying. Fortunately, the number of issues were minor and few. Nothing that standard maintenance couldn't handle, I just wish it wasn't in the middle of a mission... So, I need to take a quick shower. You good with everything you have now?"

lightning looked up with a cheeky grin, she grabbed the top bar of the gun like device that looked much like a bicycle gear shift and halled the firing grip over her bionic hoof. the gun was 1 meter of shining silver moving parts and runes, a center thin barrel was surrounded by 4 large barrels and those in turn were surrounded by 1 huge torus shaped barrel. "my dear, with what i made while waiting for you, i should be able to entertain myself". she pointed it at the ground and with a twist forward of the gear the gun projected a hole right through the ship at the point the gun aimed following the line of aim, leaving no damage to the ship as the guns projection moved. lightning aimed down to the now visible ocean, and let loose several blasts the o impact with the ocean formed several large icebergs and with no hesitation she held down the button on the end of the grip and let loose a barash on the icebergs bellow, not one shot missed and all hit with incredibly destructive explosive impacts. the gun had fired like a minigun and the icebergs were nothing but ice cubes in seconds. "atleast, until you get back here that is" she said disengaging the gun letting it cool.

Sugary yelped and jumped in place as the weapon was fired, leaving him with an incredulous expression, and not without some bit of annoyance as it took him time to actually assess what just happened while looking at the ground and feeling out what just happened. "Agh...!? Oh, really now!!" He snorted while grinning at Lightning with a cocked brow. "That's impressive, but please refrain from startling me like that, will ya?" He looked at the weapon rather curiously. "So, what's that about? And what did you just... Shoot at...? Does it have anything to do with our next stop?"

lightning looked her stallion friend straight in the eye, her face straight "lets say in a few stops time, we will be going to a less than clean air ship port, and they are very much the sort to go out the way to sell you and blow this ship up to sell me and sky, and if i need to put holes in them then i will. the shit bags at that place are the sort that i had to deal with on the street when i was growing up and i'm not putting up with that scum!" her voice was calm at start but by the end her voice was strained and cracking as she sounded like she was either going to shoot someone or break down crying.

Sugary leaned forward towards Lightning a little, both to have a better look at her weapon and at her sudden bravado to something unrelated to the mission. "... And yet, to continue the project, it's a necessary location, huh? I'm guessing this is where Sky will be at her busiest then. I'll ask for her counseling along the way for good measure... I'll get us going if that's all I should know, by the way. How about it?"

she looked at him, square in the eye assemballing armaments behind her most of which looked incredibly excessive "i am the mare that led the one hundred thousand army and dethroned my own grandparents i went back to the streets i lived and those that knew why i were there either ran or hid, sky will do her job, keeping them at bay, while collecting our payload, i however will be doing my own things." she tossed the gun to the others and it floated behind her. she quickly made for her room and quickly her line of guns followed, before the door shut behind her.

He soon found himself staring at a shut door in confusion, having just now realized that she was upset. "... What was that about? Did I say something wrong, or is she upset I wanna talk to Sky about safety measures...?" There was nothing he could come up with as he sought out Sky afterwards, knocking on her door, and hoping he could get some answers. "I don't understand... Lightning was so lively and confident till a short while ago..."

... And once Sky did answer, he'd quietly tell her about what just happened with Lightning and what they spoke about, including his decision to ask for her counseling for the group's safety in possibly hostile territory.

sky indeed let him in her room once more an organised chaos, she sat down on her bed and listened to what he had to say, somewhere about halfway through his explanation of the situation she seemed to realise an issue. she let him finnish of course but once he had she spoke. she put her hoof to her brow and sighed. "woo boy, uh, you ought to sit down for this, i'm gonna tell you something not even her mother knows" she patted the bed beside her and waited until he sat down. "look, i know how equestria is, i was brought up there, its happy and smiles most of the time but the places we will be going to they are really nasty, your a sailor of sorts i'm sure this ain't news to you, but in a place like where lightning grew up, where everyone was in poverty and ponies do horrible horrible things, well it aint no place for a filly, and what those stallions did to her, look i know this must be a shock but she was cold hard raped, molested technically, the stallions, the ones that did that to her, i'm sure you can guess a mare like that she can hold a hard grudge, they too her innocence, she too there life, but she was already scared, for what they did she wanted to save herself but knew she couldn't, she thought that killing those that did that to her would help her, make her not hurt, but all she did was point out she could never be free from it, this place, the airship dock, its both not as bad and worse than what she had to deal with and that probbally is what set her off." she pulled out a flask and took a sip and put it away as she let what she had told the stallion sink in.

Sugary didn't mind the chaos, he just wanted answers and clarity on one so hard to read at times even with emotional intents, so he sat by Sky quick with ears perked and an open heart... And so, his expression soured a little as she told him in greater detail what happened, and understood what Lightning's woes truly were, and why she couldn't dedicate herself well to her daughter in the process. "... No wonder she left her filly with the grandmother, she wasn't ready for it... I had my suspicions, with how adamantly she spoke of how she fought tooth and nail to retake what was rightfully hers with bitterness in her aura, but... I didn't think it was that unpleasant a journey."

He sighed, looking to Sky with more sympathy. "... I really thought this location was nothing she couldn't handle already; I didn't mean to overlook how she felt, or what she needed out of me... Please, help me reassure her that we can take her fights from here. I'm not saying she can't fight, but I want her to know that she can rely on us to make way for her first while she deals with the reason we're out about in the first place... You understand what I'm getting at here, right?"

sky nodded, "at some point i'll tell you what i know about her past but sure, right now ill help, i think what's best is if you go to the common area, i'll get her to come out of her room and talk with us, hows that sound?" sky asked putting a plan together