Chaos

    "Dude, I'm gonna pre—"

    Bard slapped a guitar string off-key. He and Wildcard glared confusedly across the rain-slick marble platforms along the edge of the world.

    Kepler and Ariel were also craning their necks with a mutual look of blank confusion. "What was that, Big Show?" the latter asked, her eyebrow arched.

    "Mrmmff—" Logan slapped a hoof over his chest. "Sorry. Belched. Whew." The bulky stallion heaved a bag of spare moonrocks over his chest. "I said I'm gonna prepare the last of the runes for shoving off." He limped towards the edge of the platform to where the Stardust was loosely moored. Several sarosians were perched along the port side. Others hovered above the choppy waves, chattering beneath the thunder in muttered conversation. "I mean... there's nowhere else for this shit to go, right?"

    Wildcard gestured.

    Ariel rolled her eyes and smirked. "'Not unless we want to blow up the entire friggin' Light Side while we cowardly ride the elevator to the other edge’," she translated. Afterwards, she glanced at a particularly scarred sarosian positioned to her right. "Is that even possible?"

    "Erm..." Enix blinked, stricken by a curious air of confusion. "I... would imagine that such would involve one hundred million times greater a supply than our current allotment of Goddess-enchanted runes."

    "Ha-Hah!" Kepler laughed, and soon the air filled with mutual chuckles from the rest of the Herald.

    Bard smirked... before calmly returning to the gentle strumming of his guitar strings. He sat like a lazy statue at the westernmost edge of the final platform, his back to a half-broken pillar. Without his hat, the raindrops formed damp streams that disappeared into his thick brown mane.

    Enix's fuzzy forehead furrowed. "Forgive me. Is there a purpose to that hyperbolic postulation and this jovial reaction following it?"

    "Grnngh!" Logan heaved, dropping the bag of runestones like an anvil. The Stardust rocked, forcing the sarosians to stumble and throw the obtrusive stallion several curious glances. Ignoring them, he dusted his fetlocks off and turned to trot back onto the granite platform. "It's called a 'joke', lady. Surely you and your bat-friends keep bat-jokes somewhere under your whalebone utility belts."

    "Ah." Enix nodded. "Land-dweller humor." Her slitted eyes narrowed. "No wonder you chose a career of mercenary work. Your blade cuts sharper than your tongue, I suspect."

    Logan hopped back onto semi-dry ground and shrugged. "They don't call me an 'earth pony' just 'cuz I like to toss fertilizer."

    "Depends on where you have your butt aimed," Flynn muttered from where he fiddled with a complex array of boomsticks pointed towards the thunderous sky. "Maybe we should be using you to throw off the Frostknifers."

    "Pffft! With the lousy flavorless crap hauled in from Bard's farm? I've digested thicker meat from a lettuce farm!" Logan waved a hoof. "Save the fireworks for the stuff the Midnighters cooked up for us." He turned to glance at Bard from afar. "No offense, buddy."

    Bard plucked at his strings. "Thou who smell't it will be mighty glad you hadn't have dealt it."

    Wildcard snickered.

    Ariel groaned, pulling at her eartips as her rolling eyes scraped the sky. "Blessed spirit of Mortuana... never mind the edge of the world—ferry me safely through this sea of smelly dumbasses."

    "Hey!" Logan gargled, kneeling down to give his axe a final sharpening. "I'm not smelly!"

    "It is no small wonder that a such a disorganized group lasted so long," Enix remarked.

    "What? You mean us?" Flynn tilted his head up from his work. He bore a tired grin. "The Job Squad?" Blowing out the side of his muzzle, the balding unicorn added: "Lady... we barely made it this far."

    "Forgive me if I confess that I am not surprised," Enix replied.

    "A battle in the northern mountains," Flynn rattled off, waving a runestone in the crook of his fetlock. "A trek through countless ice caverns. Windigoes after windigoes. A run-in with the Right Talon of Verlaxion."

    "Don't forget a farm full of flankhole hick supremes!" Logan blurted. Again, he winced… and again he smiled nervously in Bard's direction. "Erm... no offense..."

    "Hrmmmmm..." Bard exhaled heavily, plucking the next few notes with extra gusto.

    "Of course..." Flynn coughed, squinting Enix's way. "...things got the hairiest when we nearly had our throats slit by you guys."

    Enix was hardly fazed by that. "We were training new recruits during the raid on your vessel. Otherwise, we would have gutted your abdomens for fish bait seconds into the assault."

    "Jee," Ariel droned. "How comforting."

    The nightblooded warrior glanced at the group as a whole. "What—if I may ask—guaranteed your success despite so many innumerable circumstances of misfortune?"

    "What else?" Kepler adjusted his spectacles. He bore a tusked grin as he said: "Rrainbow Dash... the one and only Austrraeoh..."

    "There he goes." Logan stifled a yawn, attending to his axe. "Jumping straight for the messianic plot."

    "Did we or did we not get asked a verry perrtinent question by ourr most esteemed ally of the lunarr perrsuasion?!" Kepler asked, affording a brief frown in Logan's direction. "It's quite trrue afterr all!" The wyvern looked at Enix once again. "It is morre than the fact that we have all pledged ourr lives to the prrotection and safe deliverry of the Rrainbow one to the Midnight Arrmory." He took a deep, proud breath. "She has prroven herr blessed forrtune in morre ways than any of the angelic tomes could everr have forretold! Why... herr wisdom and tenacity within Starrkiss alone is as fine a testament as any!"

    "But if you must know," Ariel suddenly spoke up, her voice calm—if not melancholic. "The Job Squad wouldn't be worth our weight in spit..." She gulped hard. "...if it weren't for Mortuana setting us all straight."

    Kepler instantly clammed up.

    Wildcard and Logan both paused, gazing past the weapons that they had been busy cleaning.

    Enix's slitted eyes darted between them. "This 'Mortuana'..." She cocked her velvety head aside. "I heard Ryckmun speak of her. If only briefly." She leaned back in the misty air, sharing the same proud posture as her warrior subordinates who were hovering a few thunderclaps away. "She was... an alicorn... much like the Mother of Nightmares and her solar sister, Celestia."

    Flynn nodded, polishing off the last of several runestones in the array. "That's right."

    "I suspect that she is no longer among the living."

    Ariel hung her head.

    "She has..." Kepler cleared his throat before finishing. "...rreturned to the Harrmonic Plains."

    "Mmmm..." Enix nodded once again. "I've heard it told that she sacrificed her very essence to assure your team proceeded through the Starkiss Mountain unharmed."

    "Damn straight."

    Enix glanced aside.

    It was Bard. He looked up from his guitar, not missing a single note of his quiet song. "I can't pretend to say I ever knew her like my partners here did." He gave a pointed glance at Wildcard before looking Enix's way once more. "But I was there the moment she gave her everythang so we wouldn't become Windigo food." He swept his way past another note, waited for a roll of thunder to act as percussion, and strummed into another melody. "You and yer midnighter brothers and sisters say you believe in the Mother of Nightmares? Well, Mortuana believed in Rainbow Dash. Up until the very end." He exhaled gently. "Call us a lousy bunch of confused land-dwellers all you like, but I reckon we all have one thing in common."

    "Indeed we do." Enix nodded, speaking in a firm tone. "We respect the honor of sacrifice." Her ears folded back. "As far as I'm concerned, you are all true warriors." Somepony belched off to the side, and she cast a tired glance at Logan. "Despite some... curious eccentricities."

    "Hey. Love it or leave it, guano-gal."

    "Ahem." Ariel stepped a bit closer to Enix, wings flexing as she smiled. "Your approval is touching. It... means a lot to know that you think well of us." She bit her bottom lip. "And... th-that you're not just helping us out because Xarchellus or Princess Luna told you to."

    "Together, we are helping the Blood of Luna," Enix said firmly. Her eyeslits hardened. "And assuring the safe exodus of Bleak's Plummet." Her chin tilted upwards. "I can think of no other band of warriors I would rather share battle with." With that said, she let loose a high-pitched shriek.

    The other members of the Vigil echoed her cry with a sky-piercing pitch. Full of pride and resolve.

    "Grfff..." Logan winced, trying not to drop the weight of his axe. "I appreciate the enthusiasm... but can we not have too much of that? Don't wanna shatter the damned gondola before it gets here."

    "Please, frriend!" Kepler scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous! As if any sonic rreverrberration could possibly damage harrmonic alicorrn technology!"

    "I..." Logan rolled his eyes, groaning. "I was being snarky you goddess-forsaken sky monkey, I swear to the Angels..." Clearing his throat, he lifted straight up, casting a plastic grin in Flynn's direction. "How's it looking, nerd?"

    "Care to be more specific?"

    "The elevator, Flynn. Do I need to rub your bald spot up against it?"

    "You're asking me?" Flynn turned to gesture at the two towering stalks of shiny gold metal. With a dull whirring sound, the chains attached to an unseeable weight continued its agonizingly slow retraction through the ancient Emeraldinian pulley-system. "Even if I wanted to sit here and count the links, I've no earthly clue just how thick the body of Urohringr is!"

    Ariel shrugged. "So... ... ..."

    Flynn shrugged back. "... ... ...so it could be halfway towards us or one fourth of the way."

    "Therre's no way to tell forr cerrtain," Kepler added. "Once it gets within a kilometerr orr two—prresumably—the Austrraeoh may be able to tell us!" He smiled through his tusks. "By prroxy of herr ghostly elemental frriends, of courrse!"

Swoosh! Rainbow Dash landed squarely on her hooves in the middle of the group. "Plant!" she barked, then giggled to herself. "Ha! See what I did there?"

    "Heehee!" Pinkie Pie floated through a few sarosians as she and the other ethereal mares caught up. "No, but I'm choosing to laugh anyway!"

    "Rainbow Dash!" Ariel jubilantly exhaled.

    Rainbow winked at her. "Hey Tootszilla." She turned to look at Kepler. "What's this about me and ghost elementals?"

    Before Kepler could say something—

    "We were discussing the incalculability of the Emeraldinian Gondola's arrival," Flynn said in a dry, dull tone.

    "Cool." Rainbow Dash nodded. Her eyes wandered... wandered... wandered. "So... uh... any sign of it?"

    "No," Logan blurted with a frown. "We figured that would be your department. Y'know... particularly the two helpful ones. Radiance and Fluttersuckle?"

    "Consarn idiot..." Applejack huffed, hovering close to her ghostly friend. "It's 'Fluttershy.'"

    "Honestly, I'm rather fond of 'Radiance,'" Rarity said, fluffing her mane.

    "Hrmmmmfff..." Twilight Sparkle folded her hooves with a pout. "I am too 'helpful'!"

    "Mmmmmm..." Rainbow's eyes kept wandering... wandering... wandering across the rain-slick platforms. "If my friends detected the Gondola by now, they would have told me..." Her breath cut off as she finally made out Remna's figure. The dragonesque mare was a distant violet shadow near the furthestmost edge of everything. Rainbow kept her vision trained as she calmly continued: "...besides—all things considered—I've asked them to keep their senses trained on the two boats coming in from the west."

    Enix nodded. "A wise precaution, W'ynlppa yln H'luun."

    "Awesome to have you on board, girl," Rainbow said. "And gesundheit all the same."

    "Say..." Pinkie Pie blinked. "Where're the rest of the batty-bat-bats?"

    Rainbow looked at her. "Don't you remember? They've shoved off and are awaiting our signal."

    Kepler craned his neck. "What arre yourr ghostly companions asking of you?"

    "Pinkie was asking about Bleak's Plummet."

    "Well, we told them what you asked us to tell them," Flynn said. "'Keep close to the surface and await for the signal before taking a dive.'"

    "Hrmmmff..." Logan grunted. "Assuming that big Bleakweed turd can swim beneath the Central Guard without so much as making a single damn ripple." He tilted his head up. "I still think we should have thrown all we got at those punks from Frostknife."

    "And what?!" Ariel scoffed. "Risk all of Luna's Flock?! Xarchellus is counting on us!" She pointed at Bard. "Johnny's sister and Echo and—"

    "Hey hey hey!" Rainbow Dash marched down the thick of the group, gazing at every pony in turn. "Relax! Okay?"

    "How can we relax at a time like this?" Logan grumbled.

    "Because I told you to, ya friggin' melon fudge!" Rainbow Dash growled. Soon, however, her grin returned. "And because I've been through worse things before! And I'm here to tell you that—no matter how grim things look—today is bound to turn into a real Yukecastrotti for all of us in the end! Just you wait and see!"

    Wildcard did a double-take.

    Flynn and Kepler looked dumbly at Rainbow Dash, muzzles agape.

    "Huh... ... ...?" Logan wheezed.

    "Uhhhhhh..." Rainbow looked at Twilight. "Eucharist?"

    Twilight Sparkle face-hoofed. Hard.

    "Yewgo... Weaving...?" Rainbow's voice cracked.

    "Give it up, sugarcube," Applejack droned. "You almost had it."

    Rainbow's blue muzzle turned an indigo shade. Nervously, she looked in Bard's direction.

    Bard instantly saw her... and it. Clearing his throat, he pivoted the guitar in his grip so that the neck of it poked Wildcard's feathery neck. "Yo. Dubya. Get out the harmonica."

    The griffon merely glared at him. He moved a metal talon to gesture something—

    "Will ya just do what I tell you when I tell ya?!" Bard hissed, swinging a rear hoof to buck his Desperado partner lightly in the feline rump. "Dag nabbit! Stop squawkin' my ear off and put yer bird-lips to good use! Dayum!"

    Wildcard sighed. He bore the slightest of smiles as he reached deep into his bandolier, produced the mouth-organ in question, and proceeded to accompany Bard's improvisational melody with matching harmonics.

    For a brief moment, the thunder along the edge of the world bowed to a lulling instrumental. Fluttershy and Rarity lost the tension in their ghostly shoulders. Even Enix and her fellow wingmates appeared a great deal more at ease.

    From a distance, Rainbow Dash sensed Remna's figure shifting slightly. She chose to ignore it and preoccupied herself with pacing along the fringes of the group. "So..." A gentle smile crossed her fuzzy face. "What's everypony thinking about right now?"

    "Tits," Logan said.

    "Okay." Rainbow clenched her teeth. "Anypony else...?"

    Silence.

    More silence.

    A bit of awkward squirming, then—

    "A vacation," Flynn blurted.

    Ariel turned to squint at him. "I beg your pardon?"

    "I'd say we all could use one." The stallion's mechanical eye rotated as he looked up from his work. "In theory, of course."

    Ariel nodded dumbly. "Of course."

    The bald unicorn pouted. "Don't look at me that way."

    "How else am I to look at you?" Ariel stifled a giggle. "We're literally standing here at the end of the world and you're talking about vacations?!"

    "Well... the Austraeoh asked what was on my mind and—there you have it!" Flynn shifted. "I mean... not now, of course... but when this is all over, y'know?"

    Bard looked up from where he made music back-to-back with Wildcard.

    "Define 'this,'" Ariel insisted.

    Flynn opened his muzzle... but hesitated. His one good eye blinked, taking in the drizzle of rain and distant flashes of lightning raking the firmaments beyond the world's end. "Mrmmmm..." he deflated slightly, hugging the runic equipment to his chest. "Come to think of it, I doubt I'd be able to relax even if I wanted to."

    "Face it," Logan muttered out the corner of a gnarled smirk. "We're at our best when we're scampering all over the place."

    "Heehee." Ariel smiled. "You said it."

    "Wanna know why that is?" Logan threw Flynn a glare. "'Cuz we're the Job Squad, ya bald bastard."

    "Still... it would be nice, don't you think?" Flynn's gaze wandered to Rainbow Dash. "Even you, Rainbow Dash. Wouldn't you want a vacation from all of this endless flight? The wackiness? The craziness?"

    Twilight and Applejack looked at Rainbow.

    The mare fumbled for a response...

    "Forgive my ignorance," Enix suddenly spoke up. She exchanged confused looks with her subordinates, then looked at the Herald once again. "What does this word mean? This... 'vacation?'"

    "Basically..." Ariel waved a hoof. "...it's when you get to take a break from... y'know... everything."

    Enix stared blankly at her.

    Ariel arched an eyebrow. "Don't sarosians ever experience a holiday from hunting and killing?"

    "You mean such as the freedom that the Mother of Nightmares has most recently granted the Vigil?" Enix asked. "For our sacred journey west to the home of the Royal Sisters?"

    "Er... no..." Ariel stumbled. "I mean..."

    "Arriel, dearrest frriend..." Kepler raised a talon from afar, smiling through his tusks. "If I may be so brrash to interrject." He gazed at the collective sarosians in their presence. "In effect, you arre quite corrrect in yourr assumption, noble Enix! Princess Luna has grranted you eterrnal liberration! Forr no longerr arre you bound to the militarristic charrge of yourr dedicated albeit misguided forrebearrs!" He leaned back with a contemplative breath. "You have been given the opporrtunity to embrrace both the futurre and the past all at once! One would suspect that a grreat deal of euphorria comes with such a change."

    Enix merely nodded. "And this counts as a 'vacation'?"

    "Not exactly. No," Flynn corrected. "A vacation is like... the freedom to do nothing," he said. "For a short yet controlled amount of time."

    "To what end?" Enix asked.

    "Personal respite, of course!" Ariel exclaimed, eyes shimmering. "A chance to unwind!"

    Enix stared at her. "The Night Mother's Vigil does not 'unwind'."

    Ariel groaned inwardly. "No, I didn't think so."

    "These 'vacations' of yours sound counter-productive," Enix droned. "A blessing—perhaps—that you have not found yourselves encumbered by such."

    "We haven't had much of a chance to," Flynn said. "So... I guess that makes us kinda similar to you guys."

    Enix bowed ever so slightly. "I will take that as a compliment."

    "Ha-hah!" Kepler produced.

    "It's all for the best, anyways," Flynn muttered, returning to his equipment. "You slow down once? Boom. Your momentum's shot to Hell. We really can't afford that now." His good eye darted across the platform. "Right, Rainbow?"

    The sky's thunder answered before Rainbow could.

    Then Logan was speaking: "I'd be bored out of my skull if it wasn't for the Herald being called in," he grunted. "If you ask me—I'm pretty damn jazzed to be here."

    "Here." Ariel stared blankly at the obese stallion. "At the proverbial toilet lid of the world?"

    "Yeah... well..." He stifled a yawn. "I was wasting away at the Lotus Springs."

    "Pffft!" Ariel practically raspberried. "The Lotus Springs? In Cleft Prefecture?"

    "Damn skippy."

    "When were you at Cleft Prefecture?"

    "Right up until last month!" Logan retorted. "Before I got the message from Remna—well..." He threw a glare across the rain-slicked Emeraldinian granite. "The Remna wannabe."

    "And just what werre you doing therre, frriend?"

    "Bah!" Flynn barked. "What else was Big Show doing there?" He smirked crookedly. "Tell me—were the working mares in full bloom this season?"

    Wildcard snickered, nearly ruining his harmonica back up.

    "Hah hah!" Logan stood straight up, leaning against the weight of his axe. "Nuts to you, chrome-dome! I had a bungaloo all to myself!"

    "Oh yeah?" Flynn arched an eyebrow. "Finally got too fat for the bed?"

    "For your information, I was taking a few suggestions from our favorite wyvern over there!"

    Kepler's four eyes blinked. He held a claw over his furry chest. "Me?"

    "Yeah, you."

    Ariel made a high-pitched giggle. "No wonder you didn't score." She blushed, smiling at Kepler. "No offense, Keppies."

    "None taken." Kepler adjusted his spectacles. "An asexual lifestyle makes forr dull rrecrreation! But—if you ask me—all the betterr! How else can I maintain a suprreme mental collection of the worrld's finest literraturre?"

    "Yeah!" Pinkie Pie giggle-snorted, nudging the lavender spectre to her side. "That's some gift you've got, Twi!"

    "Why thank you, Pinkie—" Twilight's ghostly eyes crossed. "Wait."

    Applejack and Rarity giggled.

    Rainbow smiled—but had her attention stoled by the rest of the Herald as the conversation continued:

    "So... you attempted to meditate?" Ariel asked Logan. "All alone in your own personal bungaloo deep within Cleft Prefecture?"

    "And lemme tell you," Logan wheezed. "The experience was absolute shit."

    "A thousand parrdons, old frriend," Kepler said.

    "Tch. Not your fault, buddy," Logan droned. His dull eyes reflected a million waves reflecting a million sparkles of errant lightning over the next few drifting seconds. "The problem with trying for once in your life to be deep is that you scrape the surface of something really damn shallow. That's when introspection becomes a real bitch, y'know? Like a dagger you're forced to sit on." He sighed. "And so... I practically rotated on it... feeling the sting of the days go by... melting off like the snow against the bubbling banks of those hot springs." His ears twitched as his mind went to another time and place. "All around me was the upper crust of Rohbredden elite. I'm talking all the blubbery fat cats from Frostknife. Trade Consortium executives trying to get away from their families and spouses. A few lucky pirates who had escaped the Seven Seas with a lifetime of loot to burn. Me? I only landed in Cleft Prefecture 'cuz of the money the Herald had stowed away in the most secret of cubby-holes. But... it didn't change the fact that I felt surrounded by so much garbage. There I was trying to relax... find my inner self... all of that nonsense. And all I could focus on was the sweat and the humidity and the horrible smell of the previous tenants plastered to the furniture of that place. And I was thinking to myself... 'This is the best any pony in this lousy continent could ever hope to get in life. This is the absolute top. And here I am merely due to a bonus for the job that I do.' Or... at least... the job that I've always pretended to do."

    Ariel, Flynn, and Kepler watched in silence. The Desperadoes calmly looked over from where they played their soft duet.

    Logan's nostrils flared. For the tiniest of moments, there was a glimmer of something shiny hidden deep within the contemplative contours of his face. It faded before Rainbow could blink. "An asshole like me doesn't deserve to die in comfort. Not with the highs I've experienced... or the lows." He swallowed something dense in his throat. It took two and a half attempts, but he swiftly had something to say at the culmination of it: "It just wouldn't be awesome." He bore a cynical smirk as his eyes met his friends again. "A Job Squadder is meant to go out anxious and screaming. Heh... I only hope I get to lop off more heads than the hairs I pull out of my own skull."

    Rainbow shuddered. "And you just had to go down that kaizo road."

    "A million pardons," Enix spoke, glancing humbly at Rainbow. "Would it help to state that I'm almost beginning to understand your protectors?"

    Kepler laughed.

    "Well..." Ariel smiled. "There's some progress at least."

    Logan looked at Flynn. "Admit it, baldy!" His voice took on a booming tone. "Going over the edge of the world in an Emeraldinian barrel?! Whew! Doesn't get any sexier than that!"

    Flynn sighed long and hard. His ears twitched to the sound of the Desperados' music as he hummed: "I must admit that there's a sort of... poetic nuance to it."

    "Please, dude," Rainbow muttered. "Don't add an extra chocolate layer of fatalism to Big Show's crud cake."

    "Pffft. Hardly!" Flynn's smirk was a caustic thing. "If it helps at all, I'm trying to be scientifically optimistic about the whole venture."

    "Yes! It helps!" Twilight squeaked, floating through the stallion's corporeal body. "It helps a lot!"

    Fluttershy giggled.

    Flynn continued, unaware of the words spoken by Rainbow's friends. "I mean... think about it." His one good eye sparkled with awe and wonder. "We're going to be the first mortals to have crossed over to the Dark Side in seven hundred years! If not more!" He fidgeted slightly. "Well—not counting the changelings." He glanced at Remna. "Or Axan."

    "Actually..." Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck as she looked across the platform. "...I don't think she's gone the same path that Endrax and Verlax have."

    "Killer!" Flynn chirped like a happy colt. "Even better!" He gestured with his hoof. "Imagine all the new creatures that stand to be recorded into an ever-evolving taxonomy! Imagine the landscapes! The geological events! Why... even the heavens alone will yield brand new constellations... the likes of which mortal kind have never witnessed before!"

    "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..." Twilight Sparkle clutched her drooling muzzle. Rarity had to brace her before her ghostly figured phased through the structure below. Applejack and Pinkie shared amused expressions.

    "We will most cerrtainly be take notes, my learrned brrotherr!" Kepler said.

    "We can spend forever taking notes!" Flynn's voice cracked. "At least..." His next sigh was a slightly melancholic one, and he aimed his smile vaguely in Rainbow's direction. "...I would like to think so."

    Rainbow Dash said nothing.

    Flynn gulped, then spoke in a softer voice: "I've lived in Rohbredden all my life. Surrounded by so much tradition... surrounded by so much zealotry... surrounded by so much..." His teeth clenched. "...ignorance." A slight shudder, and he added: "I can't count how many times I've wanted to take the knowledge stored by Mortuana in Wyvern Point and make vast improvements to the Six Tribes' technological repertoire. I'm talking mana batteries that could hold one hundred times more capacity than what Frostknife thinks is possible. Focused leyline beams. Manually controlled levitation devices! I mean... the sky's the limit! Rainbow Dash, you've been everywhere. Surely you know of the possibilities in store for equnie civilization! You've been to places that make Shoggoth look like a sea slug's playground!"

    "You're right, Flynn." Rainbow nodded. "I have." She bit her bottom lip. "And take it from me. Technological superiority... d-doesn't always equate to moral superiority."

    Bard looked at her while strumming his guitar.

    Flynn took a moment to contemplate that. After a breath, he nodded and said, "I understand. Even still... there's so much that civilization stands to improve. And after years of living on this cold friggin' continent... I'm totally ready for an upgrade."

    "Or where we're going," Logan burped, "A downgrade."

    "Whatever. I get to expand my horizons. That's all that matters." Flynn smirked. "Funny that it takes leaping over the last horizon to make it happen. Heh."

    "A blessing, then," Kepler mused. "That we get to brring ourr open minds with us."

    "Better than our open pants," Bard mused from afar.

    "Hah!" Logan grinned. "Good one!"

    Bard smiled. With equal calmness, he threw a glance at Ariel. "Ariel, darlin'? You've been mighty quiet for a while. Got somethin' on yer mind to share? The fellas have been squawkier than Dubya so far. Reckon you should have a chance to get a word in."

    Rainbow and her friends stared at the group's fairest flier.

    Ariel sighed, brushing her dark bangs back. "Sorry, Bard. I... haven't got anything special to say. I mean... I-I know that this is as epic a place as any for a snazzy speech... but... but..."

    "Then save it." A dull voice. It was Remna. Half of the Job Squad flinched as she shuffled up, staring emotionlessly at the group—but mostly at Ariel. "A mortal has no place attempting to summarize the enormity of this current situation with her limited faculties."

    Rainbow struggled with all her might to keep from face-hoofing. She failed.

    Ariel stared daggers at Remna. Her voice—however—was remarkably calm when she spoke up: "Actually, I do have one thing to say." She stood tall on nimble limbs, glancing at Enix and Bard and the rest. "Whatever happens—good or bad—I just wanna say it's been a super big honor serving with the likes of you. We've been through a lot of crazy straits together."

    Flynn blurted: "Remember when we ran into that random group of poachers in Lichen Prefecture?"

    "Srnkk!" Logan choked on nothing in particular. "You mean those paranoid mountain hicks who thought we were the Right Talon of Verlaxion snooping out their hideout and then fired an entire volley of crossbolts at our asses?"

    "You're welcome, by the way!" Flynn spat. "It was my quick-thinking telekinesis that kept us all from becoming living pincushions!"

    Wildcard put down the harmonica long enough to gesture something.

    Bard laughed, not missing a string of his guitar. "Dayum! I wish I was there for that!"

    "Erm... Wildcard exagerrates," Flynn muttered, blushing. "The migraine lasted three days... not a week."

    There was a metal middle-claw... and then the harmonica harmony returned.

    "Goddess..." Ariel swiped her brow. "I didn't know I could fly so fast until that day. Dodging so many arrows at once..."

    "I can imagine, girl," Rainbow said. "Heh... bet you're proud of yourself."

    "Huh?"

    "Well, you're alive today, aren't you?" Rainbow winked. "Face it. You're one resourceful bag of awesome."

    "Whoah!" Pinkie Pie chirped. "She's pulling out the big guns!"

    "Pinkie, darling..." Rarity cooed.

    "Eee-hee-hee..." Ariel hugged herself, her cheeks more than a little bit rosy. "I... was j-just lucky, is all..."

    "It was more than that," Remna suddenly said. Her tone was still stale, but nonetheless purposeful. Green-slitted eyes remained locked on the pegasus in question. "When communing with Mortuana, I was told much about your mother. Granted, it is not as much as the real Remna knows—and I cannot speak for her dying assessment—but I know enough to say without a shred of doubt that you would have made the former Heraldite quite proud."

    Rainbow Dash blinked.

    The rest of the Job Squad stared at Ariel.

    Ariel—in the meantime—was gazing at Remna with her muzzle agape. "Uhm... wow. That was actually... genuinely... crazily the nicest thing you've ever said about me."

    Remna nodded. "Of course." A hot breath. "If you proceed to die vainly in the coming wave of Central Guardians, that assessment might change. But, for the time-being, that is what I have to give you."

    Rainbow gnashed her teeth so hard they almost produced sparks.

    Bard chuckled and kept plucking.

    "Hmmmmmmmmm..." Ariel channeled her entire being into a subdued groan. She chose to smile at the tail-end of it. "Buck it. I'll take what I can get."

    Remna blinked. She looked at the others. "Did I not give liberally?"

    Logan sharpened his axe.

    "I'll share Flynn's and Big Show's sentiment, though," Ariel muttered, smiling off into the clouds and lightning. "Life was boring as mud until Rainbow Dash showed up."

    "Too many years chasing pirates and terrorists?" Rainbow Dash muttered.

    "More like too many years chasing my doubts and regrets."

    "You're too young for regrets, girl."

    "The same could be said of you." Ariel brushed some bangs away, steeling a vulnerable glance at Rainbow. "All in all... I should be thanking you for giving me the greatest distraction a pony could ever ask for. For giving us all this opportunity."

    Rainbow gulped. "One thing at a time. I'm personally betting on a vacation for all of us when this is said and done." She offered a fuzzy smile. "Heck... we could camp out on the balconies of the Midnight Armory and count the stars. Bathe in the warmth of the Harmonic Prism."

    "Oooooh..." Rarity purred into the crook of her ghostly forelimbs. "Now that does sound lovely."

    "Find some time to talk about all the adventures we've had so far on the Dark Side of this world," Rainbow said. "Write it down all nice and good... then carry it with us back to Equestria. I'm lousy at books... but somepony somewhere has gotta make a pretty killer novel out of all we'll do! Won't that be snazzy?"

    Ariel stared back at her. There was a soft sigh, as well as a slight mistiness to her eyes. "A young life without regrets. It's like I said, Rainbow. I'll take what I can get."

    Rainbow bit her bottom lip.

    Guitar strings. Harmonica. Thunder.

    Kepler broke the poetic silence. "A novelization of ourr experriences sounds absolutely superrb! I wouldn't mind attempting such thrroughout the jourrney! Goddess knows it's what Morrtuana would apprrove of!"

    "If we're not too busy cataloging the land and stars," Flynn muttered.

    "Ah! An impasse! Well..." Kepler gestured with a claw. "I prropose this! Two jourrnals! One of us wrrites down the technical details of the adventurre—for science! The otherr will put his claw to intrrospective commentarry!"

    "Ah jeez." Flynn muttered. "You're going to make us go to war over who gets the science journal, ya furball!"

    "Ha-Hah! A most sporrting conflict, one-eyed one! I do believe the corrrect terrm is 'brring it thusly?'"

    "Oh, now you're just asking for it!"

    "Indubitably!"

    "Eugh..." Logan rolled his eyes. "Friggin' basket of virgins, I swear..."

    "Actually..." Pinkie tapped her chin in thought. "...isn't cuddliest pony back in Ponyville already attempting a novelization—?"

    "Guys..." Rainbow blurted, trying to contain her chuckles. "Let's not fight over all that nonsense."

    "But—" Flynn squeaked.

    "But nothing! Let's just keep our heads intact. We can do the boring writey-write stuff later. Right now? Let's focus on the job at hoof, and then we'll make it just fine." Her gaze fell on Remna. "And we are going to make it just fine... ya hear?"

    Remna said nothing. Her draconian eyes reflected Rainbow's face with an emerald gleen.

    "You want my vote?" Ariel smiled. She pointed behind her. "Let Bard write our adventures down."

    "Heh... yeah..." Logan chuckled.

    "A capital idea!" Kepler exclaimed. "He could make an epic song about ourr accomplishments!"

    "Think about it, tar heel." Ariel winked at the stallion in question. "It'll give you something to sing to Nicole when you're both back together again."

    Bard smiled. He merely nodded... then continued plucking away, his eyes locked on the lightning beyond the firmaments.

    Wildcard's goggles reflected him, and then Rainbow Dash's face as he placed his harmonica down. He sliced the air with his flesh and metal talons.

    "What's he saying?" Rainbow asked.

    "'The best song's yet to be sung,'" Remna said.

    Rainbow gave her a double-take.

    The draconian mare calmly looked back. "Don't act so surprised. An immortal learns to pay attention to things."

    Rainbow scratched her head. She looked at Flynn—and Flynn nodded in affirmation.

    "Well..." Pinkie Pie whistled. "...who says there're no surprises at the end of the world?"

    "Wish I could say," Rainbow muttered. "It's only my second end."

    "Huh?" Ariel looked at her. "What do you mean?"

    "Oh... erm..." Rainbow shrugged. "Just thinking about the Grand Choke. All things considered—that was the end of the world as well. The end as far as the Val Roans were concerned."

    "A curious assessment," Enix spoke up. "So you've been in this position before?"

    Rainbow froze in place. She felt the eyes of the Herald on her. "Uhmmm... what I meant was..."

    "Your courage is quite remarkable, Blood of Luna," Enix said. "No wonder you're so composed at the moment."

    "I am?" Rainbow squeaked. She sensed Applejack's eyes flickering in her peripheral. Clearing her throat, she stood up straight and nodded fervently. "I am."

    A few of the sarosians murmured to one another. Listening, Enix nodded, then spoke towards Rainbow again: "The Blight proves to be a major challenge to Xarchellus and the rest of the Matriarch's flock. And yet—from what the Mother of Nightmares has told us—it stands to be far less of a challenge than when you crossed such a phenomenal expanse."

    "It's... no longer a drain on magic and harmonic energies, if that's what you mean," Rainbow said with a nod. "Should be a whole lot more feasible for the dudes and dudettes of Bleak's Plummet to cross... relatively speaking."

    "I know this is hardly the time to be regailed about your countless victories," Enix said, her fangs flickering beneath the barest hint of a smile. "But ever since the lunar revelation—I have been immensely curious." Her head tilted to the side. "Exactly how did you best such suffocating desolation?"

    Again, all eyes fell on her.

    Twilight looked pointedly at Rainbow Dash.

    The mare in question weathered a shuddering sigh. Slicking her bangs back, she tried wearing a devilish smirk for the first time in days. "Not easily..."

    "Well..." Ariel bore a sweet smile. "At least you had your friends by your side. In spirit."

    Rainbow shook her head. "Not so."

    "Huh?"

    Rainbow glanced at the lavender unicorn spectre beside her. "I didn't meet Twilight until the first of the Six Seeds... just west of Kihutaja. For the entirety of my journey across the Grand Choke—I was alone."

    "But..." Ariel blinked. "But I thought—"

    "Yaerrfaerrda—the 'foaling of yesterday' took place overr the courrse of severral visits to the machine worrld, and all of them starrting upon the frringes of the Seven Seas," Kepler explained. "Don't feel bad, featherred frriend. Even I—afterr so many deep converrsations with ourr beloved Morrtuana—could not ascerrtain the big picturre with absolute clarrity myself!"

    "I... I-I'm sorry." Ariel bit her lip, gazing apologetically in Rainbow's direction. "For some reason I thought that you had all of your friends except for Applejack the whole time."

    Rainbow smiled sweetly. "And I did—right when I met you. But that wasn't always the case. Heck..." She waved at Bard and Wildcard. "When I first ran into the Desperados, I had only 'freed' Twilight and Rarity from the glow of Yaerfaerda."

    "And yet, for the majority of your trek, you were bereft of your Harmonic companions?" Enix asked.

    Rainbow could only nod.

    Enix's mutilated nostrils flared. "I cannot think of a more perilous journey than one taken into the bleak heart of loneliness."

    "You didn't have them ghost girls by your side in the Grand Choke, then?" Logan asked.

    Rainbow shook her head. "Nope." A surprisingly calm breath. "It was me by myself. Literally."

    "And yet you had companions to fulfill Eljunbyrro beforre us," Kepler stated.

    "I had... to part ways with them," Rainbow Dash murmured. "It was for the best. I knew that they wouldn't be able to survive the journey."

    "Did you know that you would survive the journey?" Ariel asked.

    "No. But that wasn't the point. I had to finish my quest. I had to get to the Midnight Armory. I knew of Verlax... kinda... but she wasn't my focus at the time. There simply was no telling what the Grand Choke had in store for me."

    "A challenge, no doubt," Enix said.

    "I... didn't really expect to live," Rainbow said quietly. It was difficult to outspeak the thunder at this point. The waves splashed against the edge of the platform. "In fact, there in Val Roa—upon the desert fringes of nothingness—I was pretty much staring into the end of the world. Sure, I knew that Chrysalis and her swarm made it past the Grand Choke... along with a few ancient equines from long before my time. But... for a single pegasus to cross such magical Blight?" She swallowed, glancing at Enix. "Sure. It was a challenge. And challenges are awesome. But I didn't totally know what to expect. And even if I did—it turns out that I was my own worst enemy during the trek. My decaying spirit. My lonely heart. My mind." She winced. "It's... all a big friggin' blur... but I very clearly went mad before the stupidly long journey was over. I remember... I vaguely remember talking to ponies who weren't there. Losing my marbles. Sobbing into the starlight and nearly drowning myself in the sea beyond the desert expanse... haunted on all sides by all the cruddy things I had done and all the awesome ponies I had left behind."

    "Ohhhhh..." Rarity sniffled as she and Fluttershy hovered agonizingly within a hug's reach. "Rainbow..."

    "You poor thing..."

    Rainbow shrugged through it. "But I made it through the whole mess... which is what matters. The Herald got their Austraeoh to protect and Mortuana fulfilled her destiny or whatnot. So that's cool. Verlaxion and all the stuff she did? Not so cool. But—trials or no trials—I made it here in one piece. For better or for worse, I'm ready to make the leap again. Only this time..." A smirk formed along the fuzzy edges of her muzzle. "...I'm not quite so friggin' alone. I've got you guys." She winked at the ghostly figures by her side. "And you gals."

    Applejack and Pinkie winked back.

    "Well..." Ariel smiled sweetly. "I think that's wonderful, Rainbow. And you know what else I think?"

    "What?"

    Ariel hovered closer, wings flapping in the misty air. "I think you just explained to all of us why we shouldn't feel so freaked out about our trip to the Dark Side."

    "Girl, I wasn't trying to make a statement about—"

    "No no... hear me out." Ariel waved a hoof. "Where were you before crossing the Grand Choke?"

    Rainbow blinked. "Uhm..."

    "Ignorant, alone, and friendless. Right?" Ariel shivered. "Brrrrrr... if you ask me, you were ten times worse off than you are right now. And yet..." She arched an eyebrow. "Coming out of the Blight... you ended up finding so much that belonged to you... that strengthened you... right?"

    Rainbow looked at her.

    Ariel grinned. "So, like... how much more awesome can things get now that you've got so many ponies on your side this time? Visible or invisible?"

    "Hmmmmmmm..." Applejack floated closer to Rainbow Dash. "Reckon she's got a point there, sugarcube."

    "It's not exactly a logical argument," Twilight muttered.

    "Ehhh..." Applejack tilted her ghostly hat back. "Dun be a droopy saddle."

    "Still..." Twilight smiled, her cheeks rosy. "It is a lovely thought." She looked at her anchor. "Don't you think so, Rainbow?"

    Rainbow was slowly nodding. "That's a snazzy way of putting it. Thanks, Ariel. I guess it's nifty to know that—even back at the Grand Choke..." She glanced specifically at Remna. "...I'd been in worse conditions before."

    "And surpassed all obstacles," the draconian mare added. "Better than before."

    "Doesn't mean I had to like the crud that I went through." Rainbow stuck her tongue out.

    "Mrmmmmmm..." Remna shuffled a few steps away. "You're welcome."

    Rainbow prepared to say something else—

    —when Fluttershy suddenly squeaked, rubbing her soft head.

    "Flutters?" Pinkie craned her fluffy neck. "What is it?"

    "West of us... beyond where Bleak's Plummet is submerged." Fluttershy inhaled sharply. She lifted her head, turquoise eyes pulsing. "They are arriving."

    "The Central Guard?" Twilight asked breathily.

    Fluttershy merely nodded.

    Rainbow spun about. "Rarity?"

    "She's correct, darling," Rarity murmured. "I detect... bodies from the west. Metal constructs. Vessels. They've got to be."

    "Ships...!" Applejack exclaimed.

    "Yes." Fluttershy nodded, her voice growing firmer and firmer. "Yes. This is it, everypony."

    A pair of green eye-slits narrowed on Rainbow Dash. "Austraeoh...?" Axan's voice echoed.

    Rainbow waited for the latest crack of thunder to ripple through the sky. "Break time's over, dudes." She flexed her wings as a flicker of lightning glinted off her ruby pendant. "We've got company."

    The guitar strings ended as Bard and Wildcard instantly hopped up on all fours. "About dayum time."

Schiiing! Logan shouldered his axe. "Where are the bastards coming from?"

    Fluttershy was already pointing. "Due west. Slightly... slightly south of where Bleak's Plummet is located."

    "They'll be cruising in range of the bluffs within minutes," Rarity said. "About ten."

    "They're almost here," Rainbow Dash explained. "Slightly south of Bleak's Plummet, speeding east. The girls say they'll be approaching the bluffs in just a few minutes."

    "Right." Logan spat on the granite platform. "Let's bust some heads!"

    "W'yldymym yln H'luun!" Enix shouted, followed by a high-pitched shriek. All of the sarosians surrounding her took flight, hovering high above the windblown platforms. "Ly'wyllym syln w'ynlppa hy'nymym!"

    "Hold up!" Rainbow's voice barked as she hovered slightly below them. She twirled about, centering herself in everyone's gaze. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. We've drafted a plan, remember?"

    "Absolutely, Austrraeoh!" Kepler nodded briskly.

    "Then let's stick to it!" Rainbow looked at Rarity and Twilight. "Do you sense the gondola coming up yet?"

    The two ghostly unicorns exchanged glances. Eventually, they shook their heads.

    "Sorry, darling."

    "It's arriving—but still at a distance," Twilight explained. "It's just as we thought; we'll need to stall for time."

    "Right." Rainbow looked at Enix. "Looks like we won't be making the plunge until a few minutes yet."

    Enix exhaled. "Bleak's Plummet..."

    "We'll have to make sure they get past the advancing Rohbreddenites safely." Rainbow's brow furrowed. "Now's as good a time as ever for the signal."

    Enix nodded back. She shrieked to her fellow wingmates. Two sarosians saluted, then glided swiftly to Flynn's side. The Nightblood leader gazed down at him. "I trust you have made your final improvements?"

    "Definitely!" Flynn exclaimed, furiously rummaging through a last pile of equipment. He assisted the two sarosians in carrying a cylindrical tube of interwoven bleakweed towards the westernmost edge of the platform. A faint runic glow illuminated his muzzle as he said, "I layered this with some aquatic spells from the old sarosian scrolls you shared. Hopefully—they should keep the light pulse from piercing the stormy surfaces."

    "Huh?" Applejack blinked crookedly, watching as the three ponies carried the object towards the platform's edge. "I dun get it. I thought we were shootin' flares to send messages."

    "We are," Twilight clarified. "Once we've engaged the Central Guard. But this? This is for Bleak's Plummet."

    "It's bein' sent underwater?"

    "Yes." Twilight nodded. "It would seem that Flynn's built a torpedo." She smirked aside. "If all goes well, only Xarchellus' flock underwater should see our signal. That'll get them to cruise west—"

    "—and avoid them creeps comin' in from Frostknife!" Applejack folded her forelimbs. "Whew-wee! Rainbow's partners here really have thought of everythang!"

    "I don't choose these guys just because of their good looks," Rainbow said. "I mean, aside from Wildcard, of course."

    The griffon in question saluted as he passed by—assisting Flynn and the two sarosians in heaving the tube into the waters.

    "That'll do it!" Flynn exclaimed. "Thanks, Wildcard." He turned to look up at Enix. "Do you want to do the honors?"

    Enix's slitted eyes narrowed. "You made the propulsion command the main conduit?"

    "Yes." Flynn nodded. "Once triggered, it's timed to set off the rest of the runes in sequence." He gestured. "Including three strobes of colored green pulse."

    "Will Nicole and Echo be able to see it?" Bard asked.

    "I wouldn't be doing my job if they couldn't."

    Bard took a shuddering breath. "Good enough, I reckon." He looked at Rainbow. "Well, what are we waitin' for?"

    "We're all ready Rainbow," Ariel said firmly, standing beside Kepler and Logan. "Let's do this."

    Remna's voice rumbled: "It is your command to give, Austraeoh."

    Thunder rolled. The waves rolled and splashed as they had done so much before, only now—in the tense lapse of breathing and talking—the tempestuous scene took on an undeniably ominous tone. The wings of multiple sarosians flapped in the air, adding to the percussion's thunder. Nebulous lights flickered from beyond the firmaments, and at last...

    ...Rainbow Dash nodded. "Okay." She gestured at the torpedo. "Do it."

    Flynn whistled. He, Wildcard, and the two sarosians dropped the torpedo into the waves—pointed west. They leaned aside as Enix leaned in.

    "M'wynhrm!" the Nightblood warrior exclaimed.

    The rearmost portion of the cylinder set aflame—causing the waters to boil. Within a heartbeat, the cylinder was rocketing west, diving deeper as it formed a frothy swath in the depths of the world's end. For the last few glimpses when the Herald could make it out, they saw the other runes illuminating one after another—then all was bubbles.

    "Out of sight," Ariel said. She gulped. "As well as it should be."

    "I only hope those underwater bat ponies see it," Logan muttered.

    "They will," Kepler affirmed. He pivoted about, spectacles set straight. "Rrainbow One?"

    "Okay, folks!" Rainbow hovered higher. "Let's get into our groups! This is what we've been waiting for!"

    As Rainbow broke into a bombastic speech...

    ...Pinkie Pie was rubbing her nose, furrowing her brow in a concerned manner. "Hmmmmm..."

    Applejack glanced aside. "What is it, Pinkie Pie?"

    "I..." Pinkie's blue eyes blinked blankly. "I don't know..." Her muzzle scrunched. "My nose. It feels... sneezy..."

    "What's that supposed to mean?"

    "I'm not sure. I've never felt it before." Pinkie's nose wriggled and wriggled. She looked at the waters... at the invisible path that the torpedo was taking as Rainbow spoke to the others. The thunder and noise drowned out as Pinkie murmured. "I've... just got a bad feeling."

    "About what?"

    "I dunno. Just..." Pinkie grimaced. "...bad."

    Applejack raised a ghostly eyebrow. She looked west... then squarely at her companions.

    Fluttershy had a distant expression on her face. Beside her, Rarity was rubbing her head as her horn pulsed in curious pale strobes.

    Applejack bit her lip. She looked west again... then once more at her friends. Suddenly, something washed over her... and the mare's pale visage flickered in time with the lightning. "Oh no..."

    "Yup." A pair of squinting eyeslits pierced the translucent runic field protecting the observation level of Bleak's Plummet from the tons and tons of seawater beyond. "Yuppppppp... there she blows."

    "Where?" Nicole craned her neck to look past Echo's shoulders. The two of them stood at their underwater post on the uppermost strut of the submerged sarosian dwelling. Due east, dense waves of water shifted and churned in constant flux. "I don't—" Bard's hat slumped over her brow. "Grnngh." She shoved it back up, eyeslits peering. "—see anything!"

    "It's coming," Echo's voice purred past his fangs. "Wait for it."

    "Wait for what—?" Nicole's exclamation was sliced by a sudden pulse of bright green light. "Eeek!"

    Echo winced, rubbing his leafy ears. "Damn, girl. I knew you were raised on a farm full of dull farts—but not into my skull, please!"

    "Erm... s-sorry..." Nicole's shy smile didn't last long, for soon she was digesting the resulting pulse of green runic light beyond the window with genuine excitement. "But... that's it! Isn't it? The Herald's signal?!"

    "Uh huh." Echo nodded, staring into the green aura as it began to fade. A dull torpedo shot past them, having relayed its magical message. It descended ineffectually into the swirling currents below Bleak's Plummet. "That means the Central Guard's almost on top of us."

    "Cutting it awfully close, huh?"

    "No other way to cut it. We can't stay deep for too long." Echo turned around, facing an anxious line of sarosians positioned in the chamber behind them. "Either we make the dive and start cruising now, or we're caught dead in the water." He nodded fervently. "That's the signal! Go tell Mama Xarchellus—we're good to go!"

    "Ywm, Ryckmun!" a sarosian nodded fervently before turning to face his colleagues. A few shrieks echoed between them, and they rushed into the lower chambers to pass the word along.

    "Oh gosh..." Nicole shivered slightly, her ears and wings drooping. "Oh gosh—if they see us drifting underneath them—"

    "Hey..." Echo flashed her a calm look. "Wouldn't be a midnighter lifestyle if it wasn't fraught with stupid dangerous crap every other second."

    "I know, just... just..." Nicole gulped, squirming. "Now that it's actually happening..."

    "Could be worse." Echo tried to smirk. "We could be Rainbow Dash right now."

    Nicole said nothing. She merely trembled.

    Echo looked at her... out the observation window... then back at her. Taking a breath, he shuffled sideways in the runic light and wrapped a gentle wing around her.

    Nicole's nerves calmed... if only slightly.

    "It's going to work," Echo said. "The plan... the voyage... everything." He held her tight as they both gazed at the fading green aura beneath the waves. "Someday... when we're cruising through the clouds of Equestria where Rainbow Dash was foaled... we're going to look back at all of this and laugh at what pussies we all were."

    "Yeah..." Nicole nodded. "...maybe I'll hit your head then."

    Fanged teeth. "You can hit me in the head now."

    "I'll consider it." Nicole shuddered. Her slitted eyes turned slightly misty. "Good luck, Johnny..."

    The last of the green light faded. There were shrieks in the distant hallways of Bleak's Plummet, echoing authoritatively across the chambers and bleakweed bulkheads. And then...

TH-THWOOSH!

    ...Nicole and Echo nearly stumbled as the entire weight of the structure shifted through the water.

    The runic light flickered.

    Bubbles formed across the gnarled portholes.

    Soon, the vessel was lurching, shifting, and—at last—cruising west through the stormy waters.

    "Bard!" Rainbow Dash hollered. "Get your butt on board the Stardust! Prepare the artillery runes!"

    "Way ahead of ya, darlin'!" Bard hopped onto the vessel, followed by a pair of sarosians.

    "Ariel! Wildcard! Form your groups and gather the stormclouds above us!"

    "Sure thing, Rainbow!" Ariel saluted as she and Wildcard flew up into the air along with their bat-pony companions.

    Applejack grimaced as she stared at Pinkie's confused expression. In an orange blur, she streaked up closer to her anchor. "Rainbow..."

    "Enix, you'll be in charge of the second wave!" Rainbow hollered, preoccupied in the moment. She spun to face the last four Heraldites positioned on the final platform. "Flynn! Kepler! Keep an eye out on the Gondola! It'll be your job to signal us when it's time to cross over!"

    "Affirrmative, Rrainbow One!"

    "Rainbow Dash..." Applejack fidgeted in midair as her ghostly companions grew more and more anxious.

    "Axan... Logan..." Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "We'll need you as a last resort. Hopefully the ships won't come close enough to the edge for there to be a final final stand. But in case these punks get within breathing room—that's when you'll be called upon."

    "You should put us at the front of the defense," Remna grumbled.

    "Axan, the plans are already made." Rainbow's brow furrowed. "If worse comes to worst, I can't afford to drag your dumb dragon weight all the way back here to the edge. Like I said—we need you as a last resort!"

    "Rainbow Dash—!" Applejack tried hollering.

    "I say bring 'em!" Logan hissed, smiling wickedly. "Any chance to test my axe is a fight worth friggin' having!"

    "Rein it in, tough guy," Rainbow Dash said. She lifted her muzzle to shout at the group as a whole: "The same goes for the rest of you! The idea here is to shove these jerks back! Not maim and kill! Don't take any lives unless you absolutely positively need to do so as a defensive measure! Hopefully—between the stormclouds and the runic explosives—we just might have enough to scare these melon fudges all the way back to Frostknife—"

    "Rainbow Dash!" Applejack hollered into the pegasus' ear. "Listen up, ya lil' varmint!"

    Wincing, Rainbow Dash spun around. "Yeesh! AJ, what's the big deal? Can't you see it's time for—?"

    "Rainbow." Applejack glared at her. "We've got a problem."

    "Huh?" Rainbow's head tilted crookedly. "What kind of a pro—?" She froze upon seeing a terrified expression—not just on Pinkie Pie's face, but Rarity's and Fluttershy's as well. She instantly deflated, her ears drooping. "Hey... talk to me, girls. What's going on?"

    "Fluttershy?" Twilight Sparkle spun about, similarly confused. "Rarity? What's the matter?"

    "Oh goodness..." Fluttershy nibbled on the edges of her ghostly fetlocks, proceeding to pace about in anxious circles. "Oh my goodness. Oh... g-goodness!"

    "Rainbow?" Bard leaned forward off the port side of the Stardust. Above him, Wildcard and Ariel hovered close by with worred expressions. "What seems to be the problem?"

    "Do... do your friends sense something wrong?" Ariel murmured.

    Rainbow floated towards the most distressed spectre of all. "Rarity...?"

    "Mmmmm...!" The fashionista whimpered inwardly. She stared up at Rainbow with glossy eyes. "There's... b-been a huge mistake."

    "Then tell me." Rainbow gnashed her teeth. "How big of a boo-boo is it? What's going on?"

    Rarity exchanged glances with Fluttershy. With ears drooping, she looked worriedly at Rainbow once again. "There aren't two ships, Rainbow darling..."

    Rainbow's muzzle hung agape. "... ... ...what?"

Splooosh!

    A fountain of salt water billowed against the rusted prow of a speedily churning privateer ship. As it crested the wave, the skeleton crew on board shifted with the vessel's weight.

    Perched on the very bow was Seraphimus. The ocean mist formed a slick sheen against her neckfeathers, and the flash of thunder gifted brief color to her charcoal brown eyes, but was gone in a heartbeat. Silent as a dagger, she peered east into the miasma of black vapor and blacker stormwaters.

    A thin dark line foretold the end of the world. Firmaments billowed in the distance—but was mostly obscured by rolling clouds that loomed ever closer. Below the frontmost ship's prow, the waters rippled and danced wildly... constantly.

    Seraphimus' razor sharp talons clung to the support railing of the ship. As thunder rolled, she pivoted about and threw her slicing gaze back at the ocean due west—beyond the point vessel's wake.

    The second and third ships followed at a long distance behind her, cruising side by side. On the northernmost vessel sat Brye Chandler, clad in all his bulky armor—save for a helmet that he held tightly in a pair of metal-laced hooves. Surrounded by rain-soaked subordinates, he cautiously... nervously eyed the final horizon before them.

    A dozen deckplates behind Chandler, Commander Keris perched along with his wingmates. While he stood tall and resolute, a noticeable shudder ran anxiously through the likes of Starstorm, Windburst, and Raptr. They eyed the maelstrom all around them, but Keris kept his hawkeyes trained on one figure and one figure alone: Seraphimus.

    In such icy resolution, the champions of Frostknife pierced their way towards the edge of everything, serenaded by the noise of chaos all around.

    "What the hell do you mean, there are three ships?!?" Logan cackled.

    "Calm down, Big Show—" Flynn tried.

    "You calm down, you bald-ass mana-guzzler!" The larger stallion gnashed his teeth. "This whole Goddess-dayum plan of ours depends on there being only two ships that we gotta bait and switch!" He waved a wild hoof in Rainbow's direction. "But now the Council of Friendly Ghosts is telling us that there's three?!"

    "Shove a horseshoe in it, will ya?!" Bard barked from the deck of the Stardust. "What matters is that we know the truth now. So we gotta deal with it and not snap at each other's necks like a bunch of angry horned toads—!"

    "What difference does it make what we know now!?" Ariel flailed her forelimbs. "Didn't you hear what Rainbow said?! One ship's positioned way ahead of the other two!"

    "A rreasonable strrategy," Kepler hummed. "Seeing as ourr antagonists do not know what exactly to expect frrom us here—"

    "Point is...!" Ariel gritted her teeth. "...their formation's nothing like we expected! We just sent Bleak's Plummet to their doom!"

    "Now hold up—" Bard held a hoof out.

    "If one Frostknife ship is taking point, then the other two must be hanging far behind!" Ariel exclaimed. "That means when Bleak's Plummet surfaces, it won't be west of the ships! It'll be directly beneath them! The whole structure will be torn apart! Xarchellus' exodus to Equestria will be all for nothing!"

    "Not if we can help it!" Bard said, frowning. He turned to look at Flynn. "Can't we... I dunno... warn them or somethin'?"

    "I'm afraid it's too late." Flynn shook his head. "They will have seen the torpedo signal by now. If all goes according to the original plan, they'll be passing underneath the Central Guard's ships right now as we speak."

    "You mean the Central Guard's first ship," Ariel insisted.

    Flynn sighed hard. "Well... yes... but—"

    "But nothing!" Ariel exclaimed. "Don't you get it?! They're screwed now! We're screwed!"

    Wildcard gestured something briskly.

    Flynn shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Another torpedo wouldn't reach Bleak's Plummet in time. And even if it did..." He turned to look at Rainbow Dash. "...it still won't change the fact that they can only stay submerged for a limited amount of time. They gotta come up sooner than later."

    All this time, Rainbow Dash had been pacing and pacing. She merely gave Flynn a look. To her side, Fluttershy and Rarity were practically sobbing.

    "I'm so very sorry, darling..." Rarity shuddered. "If only my senses worked as well at a grand distance."

    "I don't know why I didn't realize how far apart the front of the group was from the rest!" Fluttershy sniffled. "It's all my fault. So many ponies are going to die because of me..."

    Rainbow didn't have a chance to respond to that—

    "How come we never knew about the third ship?!" Logan spat. "Huh?! Who bucked that up royally?!"

    "The reconaissance group claimed that there were only two vessels," Enix said from where she hovered above the group. Her fangs glinted with the lightning. "Obviously, they were in error."

    "Damn straight they were!" Logan snarled. "I thought your nightblooded brothers and sisters could—y'know—see well at night!"

    "This mistake shall not go unpunished," Enix growled. "I assure you I shall find those responsible and personally fl—"

    Bard whistled shrilly. "Let's not tan any of our own brothers' and sisters' hides just yet. Enough yappin' around! Let's think of a solution already!" He stomped a hoof against the Stardust's deckplates. "Come on, y'all! We're better than this! Let's put our noggins together!"

    "Isn't it obvious?" Remna droned, glaring at everyone. "The plan is obsolete now. That leaves us with one option: we must attack the armada with a full-frontal assault."

    "Negative!" Kepler frowned. His spectacles glistened in the stormlight. "We shall not deparrt this plane with a massacrre underr ourr belts!"

    "And risk the lives of thousands on board Xarchellus' vessel full of fragile mortals?" Remna took a fuming breath. "It is a noble thing to shrug off the flirtations of death, but I don't see how we have any other choice now."

    "For Mortuana's sake, girl!" Ariel's voice cracked. "If we attack them straight on, then most of Enix's wingmates will die!"

    "I do believe she's already prepared to take the hit for her companions' prior mistakes—"

    "That's not the point! Without them to distract the dickbags from Frostknife, then how are we going to last long enough to make it to the Gondola in one piece?!"

    Flynn, Bard, and Logan joined the argument in a bevy of bellicose voices. Enix's shrieks and Kepler's rolling tongue tried to make their opinions heard as well. Even Wildcard drifted into the heart of the fray, gesturing wildly with flesh and metal talons.

    All the while, Rainbow Dash stood on the side. She had stopped pacing... choosing instead to stand icily still while her allies bickered and argued the frenzied minute away.

    Twilight Sparkle wrung her forelimbs, shivering in mid-hover. "I don't understand... we thought of every variable... every single one!"

    "I was tryin' to warn ya, Rainbow!" Applejack exclaimed. "I knew somethin' was up the moment I saw Pinkie Pie all-a-fidgety."

    "But..." Twilight bit her lip. "...how did Pinkie know?"

    "I wish I could say!" The distressed party pony's ears were drooping. Bright blue eyes pierced Rainbow from a shivering distance. "It's like nothing I've ever felt before! I... only wish I could have put my hoof on it sooner..."

    "Rainbow Dash..." Rarity floated in front of their anchor, her eyes pleading. "Bleak's Plummet is still a few hundred meters east of the foremost ship." She gulped. "There still may be time to do something about this error in judgment."

    "Like what?" Applejack shrugged wildly. "Flynn done said we can't signal Xarchellus' flock to do anythang else at this point!"

    "Maybe he's right." Pinkie suddenly brightened, her ears perking up. "But what about signaling the bad guys' ships?"

    "Ehhh?" Rarity did a double-take.

    Twilight Sparkle rubbed her forehead. "... ... ...you mean like a distraction?"

    "Abso-duti-lutely!"

    "But that was part of the original plan!" Applejack exclaimed. "And that seems shot to Tartarus at the moment!"

    "Well... duhhhhh!" Pinkie Pie hopped in mid-air. "We make an even bigger distraction!"

    "Like... how big?" Rarity asked.

    "Big enough that... that..." Pinkie's nose scrunched and she growled in frustration. "Grrrrrr! Whatever! Just something so party-poopingly-huge that it'll grab the three ships' attention super hard! Something that will make them ignore Bleak's Plummet no matter what!"

    "If you ask me, darling, the only thing that will accomplish that is blowing a hole through one of their vessels!" Rarity said.

    Rainbow Dash threw Rarity a swift glance. She took a breath... opening her muzzle—

    "Rainbow Dash..."

    Rainbow turned to look.

    Fluttershy was gazing solemnly at her. "She's here."

    Rainbow blinked.

    "Seraphimus." Fluttershy took a calm breath, her tears fading. "The first ship that's taking point." Her eyes narrowed. "She's on board it."

    Rainbow stared and stared. At last, with a firm voice, she spoke into the thunderous winds: "I need to face them."

    Just like that, the noisy argument around her shattered. Enix, the Desperadoes, and the Herald all spun to face Rainbow.

    "Huh??" Ariel blinked.

    "Our plan to distract the Central Guard isn't screwed up," Rainbow said firmly, trotting a straight line across the platform. "Not so long as we have me." She approached the group, her eyes hard and determined. "They're not after the Herald. They're not after any midnighters." She came to a stop, gesturing. "What they came here for is the Rainbow Rogue who slaughtered their Goddess and cursed their land."

    "Yeah..." Flynn tilted his head aside, eyebrow arched. "...and?"

    Rainbow took a deep breath. "I think it's about time I gave it to them. All of it." She glanced aside at Fluttershy. "Dastardly villain and all."

    "Rainbow..." Twilight gulped. "...they'll kill you."

    "They can't kill what they can't catch." Rainbow turned to face the Job Squad. "I've outrun Seraphimus' finest before." The hint of a devilish smirk. "I can sure as heck do it again."

    Bard's eyes narrowed. "She's here... ain't she?"

    Rainbow looked at Fluttershy.

    Fluttershy nodded. She mouthed two other names.

    "Yup." Rainbow nodded back. "So is Chandler. But then again..." A harder smirk. "...so is Keris."

    Remna blinked.

    "Well..." Bard glanced up at Wildcard. "...reckon there's a smidgen of hope, at least."

    Wildcard's beak tightened.

    "But... but what exactly are you planning now?!" Ariel exclaimed, glancing worriedly down at Rainbow. "Even if you fly west to intercept them, they'll spot you in a heartbeat!" She gulped. "Seraphimus will spot you in a heartbeat! You wouldn't make it within a kilometer of the ship!"

    "I'm not going to be flying."

    Ariel did a double-take. "You're not?"

    "Wuh oh..." Pinkie rubbed her aching shoulder. "...Dashie's about to do something stuuuuuupiddddd."

    Twilight's voice growled from deep within her ghostly chest. "Rainbowwww...?"

    Their anchor was too busy approaching the thick of the group. "Enix... Flynn... how long did it take you to build that bleakweed torpedo just now?"

    "Uhm..." Flynn gulped. "Twenty minutes."

    Rainbow merely nodded. "You've got two minutes to make a second one."

    Flynn's ears drooped. "Buh."

    Rainbow spun to face Enix. "Explosive runes. I'll need a buttload of them."

    Enix's eyeslits narrowed. "Are you... planning what I believe you are planning, Blood of Luna?"

    "That depends if you've ever been crazy enough."

    Enix took a breath. "Considering I've survived over two decades of bloodied combat, I daresay I've never been."

    "Austraeoh..." Remna droned.

    "Save it, Axan," Rainbow hissed, waving a hoof as she settled beside Flynn and assisted him in building another torpedo. "By the time you're halfway through bitching at me, Bleak's Plummet will have been compromised. We're at the edge of the world. The time for thinking is over." She looked up with a frown. "The explosives, dang it! I know I'm stealing the spotlight here, but throw me a bone here!"

    Brye Chandler fidgeted. He felt like pacing, but—perched awkwardly in the center of his gildedguilded chariot—he had nowhere to go. Impatiently, he leaned forward against the rain-glossed metal, squinting his green eyes past the bodies of his militant subordinates to pierce the fog and mist beyond. The persistent roar of the world's end slowly swallowed the chugging noise of all three ships' steam engines.

    "Damnation..." The Defense Minister gnashed his teeth. "...it's worse than what the elders have written in the old scrolls. This place is like a never-ending hot spring. I can't see worth my own weight in gold."

    "It's said that there's a point of no return, Minister," a griffon officer exclaimed, holding a talon up to steady the chariot as the deck beneath them rocked from the tempestuous waves. With errant splashes of seawater, they plowed through the wake of the front vessel taking point far ahead of them. "Past a random formation of stone structures—it's said—the current flows towards the Firmaments with an inescapable velocity."

    "And we're approaching such a bleak longitude now," Chandler said, his features hardening as he continued to gaze... gaze. "She hasn't much of a world left to hide in now. Certainly not on sea at least."

    A pegasus looked up at him. "Shall we take to the skies, sir?"

    Chandler opened his muzzle... but had nothing to say.

    "Defense Minister?"

    Chandler gulped—although he tried to hide it. His armor rattled a bit as he stole a glance behind him. He looked at Keris and his fellow wingmates perched at the back of the ship. In a distant voice, he muttered: "Has there... been any signal from Seraphimus?"

    The pegasus soldier shook his head. "No, sir. It doesn't look like she's spotted anything yet."

    Chandler bit his lip. He looked east at the frontmost steamship—eyeing the lone silver figure of Seraphimus perched on the distant bow.

    The subordinates around him shifted uncomfortably. A griffon spoke up: "Sir? Do we take wing—?"

    "Not yet," Chandler blurted. "Dammit, soldier. Do we want to spread our numbers thin this early?" He slapped a gauntlet'd hoof against the edge of his chariot. "We stay on board our ships until Seraphimus... I-I mean until I give the word to do otherwise! No sooner!"

    Thunder rolled. The warriors of Frostknife exchanged looks.

    "Aye, sir." A griffon gestured to the others. "Eyes east! Wait for the Minister's signal!"

    "Aye!"

    "Understood!"

    As Chandler took several deep breaths and lingered anxiously in his chariot...

    ...Keris and the rest of the Right Talon of Verlaxion remained calm near the stern of the very same vessel.

    "What's got them shouting at each other?" Raptr stammered. His armor—much like everyone else's—had earned a fine sheen from the permeating moisture in the air. "Do they see something we don't?"

    "Mmmmmmmmm... nope..." Windburst squinted at the Defense Minister's posse across the deck. "But something tells me they'll be the first to spot something—even before Seraphimus... especially if the something they spot is not actually there."

    Raptr flung them a nervous look. "Huh??"

    "What I think the Sergeant is trying to say," Starstorm spoke, "Is that the Defense Minister's military inexperience is starting to show."

    "The rat bastard's gonna pop any second," Windburst droned. "What's worse—he's infected this entire crew. Never mind Seraphimus; this entire armada is a powder keg waiting to go off."

    Starstorm exhaled sharply. "Wanna bet that somepony out there is going to take advantage of that?"

    "I most certainly will," Keris said firmly. Calmly. "In fact, my odds are on Rainbow Dash."

    Raptr flung a look back at Keris. "You really think she's got something in store for us?"

    "For us?" Keris looked back at the rookie. "The Defense Minister, perhaps. The Central Guard as a whole? Most definitely. Where we come in remains to be seen... but I suspect that—someway, somehow—we're going to be a very important variable."

    "What kind of a variable?" Raptr remarked. "We've no idea what she's planning!"

    "Indeed." Keris nodded. "Just as she has no idea what true terror Chandler has brought with him to the edge of the world." His gaze fell on the front ship taking point. "Chandler's not the real problem here. If we're to be the equalizers that Rainbow Dash needs, our eyes will need to be on Seraphimus. No one else."

    Windburst and Starburst exchanged tense glances.

    Raptr gulped. "What's the plan, then? How... h-how are we going to deal with her?"

    "Leave that to me," Keris spoke firmly beneath the lightning and thunder. "When somepony makes the first move—and I greatly suspect it will be Rainbow—everything will turn into pure and unmitigated chaos. We're going to be the one force maintaining harmony on our end." He took a deep breath. "Here's hoping she gives us the clues we need to help her at all the right moments."

    Raptr's beak rattled. He stared at Seraphimus' glinting figure from afar. "A lot of ponies and griffons are going to die today, aren't they?"

    Keris was silent. He held his position firmly—even as the ship rocked and the waves splashed harder and wetter.

Th-Thump! Ariel and Wildcard dumped a bunch of runestones onto the granite platform.

    "There!" Ariel huffed, her brow soaked with sweat and seawater. She stammered between the claps of thunder: "That's all that Bard's group could spare from the Stardust."

    "Right." Rainbow nodded. "Good stuff." She knelt beside Enix and a few other sarosians, assisting them in weaving bleakweed around a narrow cylinder. "Find a way to cluster it all together."

    "With what? Rubber bands?"

    "Use some netting, girl! Be friggin' creative!" Rainbow huffed, fumbling with more bleakweed. "Ask Wildcard if you have to."

    "They're cruising closerrrrrrrrr..." Rarity squealed.

    "Flynn?" Rainbow's eyes darted up. "How are we on those enchantments?"

    "Friggin' asinine leylines..." The stallion hissed and sweated, his horn producing steam in the drifting mists as he labored a mile-per-minute with his runes. "...buck my plot with a gamma ray burst, I swear to Goddess..."

    "Cool beans." Rainbow looked at Enix huddled across from her. "Got a command or two for me to steal?"

    "I can think of chiefly two," Enix said. With brisk hooves, she crafted a crude "basket" about the size of a beach ball and fitted it with runes. "At most—three."

    "Right. Gonna need to be coached on them before I take the plunge."

    "Uhmmm... Rainbow?" Twilight drifted in, trembling. "Perhaps now you might tell us exactly what you're planning?"

    "Nope." Rainbow looked at the Stardust. "Still got enough to shake the seas with?"

    "And some to grow on!" Bard perched nervously on the ship's port side. "Rainbow, darlin', we'd sure as Hell like to know what the new signal to start launchin' artillery will be."

    "Nothing new! It's the same signal as before!" Rainbow barked through the thunder as she and the sarosians placed the finishing touches on the makeshift torpedo. "Look for Ariel and Wildcard to fire their flares!" She glanced at the feathered Desperado in question. "Wildcard, you'll be in charge of the first front of stormclouds. Once you see enemy bogeys taking to the sky, prepare the ambush."

    Wildcard whistled and gestured dramatically.

    "Uhm..." Logan limped over. "...he's asking what exactly is going to make the Central Guard fly up towards the aerial ambush."

    "They'll be chasing me." Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "Immediately after I blow up the first ship."

    Bard did a double-take. "Say what?"

    "Dearrest Austrraeoh..." Kepler nearly dropped his glasses as he shuffled over. "...suicidal guile notwithstanding, how exactly do you plan to do this remarrkably dazzling feat?"

    "I'm working on the plan right now!" Rainbow gestured briskly. "Quick! Hand us the last of the bleakweed fibers!"

    "Austraeoh." Remna droned. "If I may protest."

    "You may not." Rainbow grabbed the twine from Kepler and affixed the last of the runes while Flynn simultaneously enchanted them. "We all have our places to be, Axan. Wildcard's is in the sky. Bard's is on the Stardust. Yours is here with Kepler and Flynn."

    "And where—pray tell—is your place, Austraeoh?" Remna growled.

    "Where it's always been." Rainbow briefly glanced at Twilight and Applejack. "All over the friggin' place." She slapped the bleakweed firmly into place and hooked her forelimbs beneath the torpedo. "Alright, everypony! Let's get this thing in the water!"

Th-Thumppp!

    The gnarled bulkheads of Bleak's Plummet rocked and groaned.

    "Nnngh!" Nicole—grasping onto an errant root—jolted with the entire structure. Runic light flickered all around her as she flung a worried look down the nearest chamber. "What was that?" She tilted the brow of the stetson up over her brow. "Did we hit a sperm whale? Ohhhhhhhh I just know we hit a sperm whale!"

    After a series of shrieks echoed through the dim halls, Echo drifted back into the observation chamber—steadying her. "Calm your flank, girl." He held her tight as the two gazed at the bubbling waters beyond the magically-shielded window. "It's just some oceanic turbulence. Nothing unexpected... considering the speeds at which we're seafarting..."

    "We... we can still keep this up, r-right?" Nicole stammered. Her fangs glinted through a worried breath. "I feel like the whole structure's gonna buckle at any moment!"

    "Did Johnny teach you to worry like a deflated puffer fish?" Echo managed a smirk. "We're doing just fine. Trust me. All of Xarchellus' finest are monitoring every rune and enchantment in this place! We couldn't possibly be safer."

    Nicole gulped, shivering against him. "You sure of that?"

    "Bae..." Echo brushed her bangs back. "...would I lie to you? Besides, at the first sign of trouble—any trouble—we'll know it instantly from a high-pitched warning cry sent through the hallways."

    At that instant, there was a high-pitched warning cry sent through the hallways.

    "Gah!" Nicole clung to Echo, paling. "What's that? What is that?!?"

    "Grrrrrrr..." Echo spun and shrieked back down the halls where the cry came from.

    Seconds rolled by, then another shriek returned—this one louder and more desperate. It was accompanied by several nervous voices stammering in moonwhinny.

    "What?" Nicole gritted her teeth. "What's going on?"

    "'Problem???'" Echo echoed. The hairs on the back of his neck bristled. "What kind of problem?!"

    More words were shrieked in moonwhinny.

    Echo blinked. Smoothely, he disentangled himself from Nicole and slunk his way towards the translucent runic window. Once he was perched within the half-domed frame, he stared straight up... up at the frothing surface of the tempestuous waters above them and all of Bleak's Plummet.

    "Echo...?" Nicole whimpered, squatting behind him as she too peered into the oceanic scene outside. "What's the matter?"

    "Uhm..." Echo's eyeslits squinted and squinted some more.

    At last—he saw them: three slicing, bubbling wakes. There were three vessels cruising above them. One to the far east... and the other two dragging at a grand distance behind. At the sluggish rate at which Bleak's Plummet was cruising, it wasn't anywhere near close to clearing the westernmost pair of lagging vessels.

    "What do you see?" Nicole asked.

    Echo gulped... and his leafy ears formed cold quotation marks to his glinting fangs. "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww shit."

Splash! The torpedo dropped violently into the waves.

    "Shhhhhh—!" Rainbow hissed through clenched teeth. She plunged halfway over the edge to steady the bobbing cylinder. "Easy there! Easy!"

    The sarosians beside her apologized in moonwhinny. Logan marched through them, carrying the makeshift basket full of explosive runes.

    "Uhhhhhh... Ariel and Wildcard made the bag work somehow, Rainbow." The large stallion gulped. "But... uhm... maybe you would want to rethink—"

    "And ruin something perfectly stupid?" Rainbow Dash yanked the satchel from him and gripped it tightly in her fetlocks. "Too late for that."

    "Rainbow, I must declare," Twilight spoke in a firm voice. "I'm with Big Show on this one."

    "You're not fat enough." Rainbow looked at Flynn. "Flynn? These runes good to go?"

    "Grnnngh..." The bald stallion rubbed his still-steaming horn. "If my damn migraine is anything to go by... you're all gravy."

    Rainbow winced slightly. "Sorry, dude. Thanks a ton." She nodded at the wyvern in the group. "Look after him, Kepler."

    "Aye, Rrainbow One."

    "Everypony!" Rainbow slinked off the edge of the Emeraldinian granite, preparing to submerge herself along with the torpedo aimed west. "You know your places! We've been through all the crazy specifics already—so let's just keep things sweet and simple!" Thunder rolled as she gestured at herself with a water-soaked hoof. "I'm going to blow up the first ship! The moment that happens, I'll lead the Central Guard to our teams in the air! Bard, you're going to blast the heck out of the remaining two ships and—as a group—we'll lead them to the second ambush site by the rocks! Axan... Big Show... you're both backup in case the Gondola hasn't arrived yet—but when it does..." She pointed at Kepler and Flynn. "You two alert us! Any other emergency warnings will be handled through colored flares from all sides! Got it?"

    "Without question, Austrraeoh." Kepler nodded.

    "Blarghl..." Flynn burped, leaning weakly against the wyvern.

    "The moment the Gondolda's here, the Herald hops in and Enix's group flies off to rejoin Bleak's Plummet." Rainbow took a deep, deep breath. "We good?"

    Nothing but thunder.

    "Good." Rainbow slunk deeper into the waves, hugging the torpedo under one arm. "Then let's get this crazy show on the—"

    "Rainbow!" Twilight hissed.

    Before Rainbow could retort, Enix glided over in a pale blur.

    "Blood of Luna! I've just finished it!"

    Rainbow gave her a weird look. "Finished what?"

    Enix frowned, grasping a miniature basket in her hooves. "Your determination is as courageous as it is blind. It's a wonder you made it a single kilometer out of the Solar Sister's kingdom alive."

    "A thought that occurs to me every minute," Remna grumbled aside.

    Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Enix, faster, please? Bleak's Plummet isn't getting any closer to not-imploding."

    "The first torpedo traversed over a kilometer of dense water to relay its signal to Luna's Flock," Enix swiftly said. "Precisely how did you intend to survive an indentically perilous journey?"

    Rainbow bobbed and bobbed in the waves. She shrugged. "Figured I would... y'know... hold my breath?"

    Twilight face-hoofed. "Rainbow..."

    "What?" Her anchor shrugged at the ghost. "I'm already blue in the face!"

    "When we're on the Dark Side, I'm going to make you black and bluer," Ariel grumbled with folded forelimbs.

    "Love you too, girl," Rainbow spat through the salt water.

    "Hmmmf." Enix squatted low, holding the basket of runes out with two forelimbs. "Use this."

    Rainbow gently grasped the item. She squinted at the rope-like construct of the basket. "This... looks like the lifts we took down to Bleak's Plummet."

    "Precisely." Enix nodded. "Place it over your head."

    "Do as she says, Austraeoh," Remna grumbled.

    For once, Rainbow obeyed the Divine. She fixed the half-domed basket around her cranium.

    "I will initiate the enchantment to shield it from the waters," Enix said. "It will work in preserving oxygen... but only for a limited time." Her eyeslits narrowed sharply. "A very limited time."

    Rainbow nodded, inhaling. "Will I be able to... y'know..." She raised the basket of explosives that Wildcard and Ariel had prepared. "...set these babies off with the right command while wearing this thing?"

    "Not unless you want to be instantly decapitated," Enix explained.

    Bard and Wildcard winced from a distance.

    "There wasn't enough time to nullify the shield runes from other, contrasting enchantments," Enix explained. "Not that it matters. Considering the distance that we've calculated, the shield will likely run out before the torpedo completes its journey... if it completes its journey." Her scarred brow furrowed. "Someway, somehow, you will have to remove the helmet, reach the ship, surface, and set off the runic explosives yourself. I suspect you will have mere seconds between the command given and the resulting blast."

    "Cool," Rainbow sputtered.

    "There's still time to back out of this absurd maneuver," Remna insisted.

    "Axan... there's never been any time to back out." Rainbow calmly gazed at the draconian mare. "Not even before I 'foaled yesterday.' Mortuana knew this."

    "Indeed." Remna nodded. "And that's why she is no longer with us."

    "But I'm coming back." Rainbow glared. "Do you understand?"

    The Herald and the sarosians shifted about nervously.

    "I'm coming back." Rainbow's gaze fell upon the Desperados. "... ... ... I am coming back."

    Bard took a deep breath. Standing on board the Stardust, he lifted his muzzle and hollered into the air: "Y'all heard her! She's doin' her part!" He extended his staff and slapped it firmly down onto the deckplates. "Now let's do ours!"

    Wildcard firmly nodded, cracking his feathery neckjoints as he hovered higher in the air.

    "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh balls, help us," Ariel whimpered as she joined the former mercenary.

    "Can't say it isn't exciting this way," Logan muttered with a slight smile.

    "We've got yer back, darlin'," Bard said. He threw Rainbow Dash a brotherly smirk. "Only fittin' you steal the spotlight."

    Rainbow smiled back at him. "Now there's a good Bard." She glanced aside at her ghostly companions. "Girls?"

    "For the record..." Twilight frowned. "...I think this is—by far—the stupidest thing you've ever done."

    "Hey egghead, we have an entire dark side left to explore." Rainbow merely smiled at her. "Expect that record to be shattered."

    Twilight rolled her eyes. "I'll be monitoring the leylines of the runes' enchantment," she moaned.

    "I'll tell you when we're close to the steamships, darling!" Rarity said.

    "And I'll keep an eye on our friends and enemies as we draw closer!" Fluttershy insisted. "I promise!"

    "Leave any random eddy or wave or stingray to me!" Pinkie Pie chirped. "Pinkie Sense has got your back, girl!"

    Applejack growled. "And I will be tannin' yer hide somethin' fierce once we all become flesh'n'blood once again."

    "Now there's an incentive." Rainbow hooked the torpedo under one hoof while she roped the straps of the explosive satchel around the opposite fetlock. Taking several deeep breaths within her makeshift helmet, she looked up at Enix positioned along the granite's edge. "Light it up."

    Enix stooped over, lowering her head so that her scarred muzzle was inches away from the woven Bleakweed around Rainbow's head. "Y'mnym," she whispered.

Fl-Flash! The runes within the fibers lit up. Silver-gray plates of translucent manalight solidified between the spaces, forming a makeshift dome around the petite pegasus' skull.

    Rainbow twitched slightly—feeling a tingling enchantment in the tight pocket of air above and below her ears. She looked at Enix.

    Enix looked at her. "Nocturnal blessings, W'ynlppa yln H'luun," she murmured. "Everypony's future lies in wait for you among the stars." That said, she leaned back and—with slitted eyes firmly affixed to the torpedo—she shrieked: "M'wynhrm!"

FWOOOOOOOSH! The bleakweed cylinder instantly barreled west, kicking up a bubbling froth of seawater. Rainbow Dash gasped—startled by the jolt. She clasped her muzzle tightly shut, only to realize that the wave of water flying at her face was being redirected safely around the round contours of her makeshift helmet. All she could do was concentrate on the jarring physics of the moment as the torpedo—propelled by burning runes—descended at a twenty degree angle, swiftly submerging Rainbow and her ghostly friends beneath the depths of the world's end.

    Gray streaks of layered liquid rippled all around Rainbow Dash. The lightning and thunder vanished, replaced instead by an endless roar of dying ocean from all sides. She knew she was soaring west—her last trip west—but all she could make out was chaos and the faint glow of harmonic light in her peripheral. The gondola rested directly behind her, growing more and more distant with each wave of bubbles. It felt awkward, frightening, and more than a little bit wrong.

    Gnashing her teeth, Rainbow hugged the enchanted cylinder under her right forelimb—a task that grew increasingly difficult with each burning second. The torpedo heated up the waters all around her, forcing her to sweat vehemently within the tight space of her helmet... serenaded by the claustrophobic echoes of her panting breaths. The weight of the bag of explosive runes dragged in the water behind her—threatening to yank her left forelimb out of its socket. Suppressing a pained grunt, she positioned her body so that she could hug the satchel to her chest—squarely between herself and the torpedo—as she rode out the next few hundred meters of maniacal wave-piercing.

    "Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy whimpered, flinching tightly as her ghostly figure was dragged underwater along with Rainbow. "Oh my goodness—this is far faster than I was expecting!"

    "Just stay calm and monitor everything around us!" Twilight Sparkle commanded, her voice cracking above the volume of rippling waters in every direction. "Rarity? Pinkie?"

    "We're already on it, darling!"

    "Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

    "Guhh..." Twilight squinted west, her vision unimpeded by the thick depths gurgling past them, but having no greater luck spotting their distant target. "We n-need somepony to keep track of the time going by!" she exclaimed. "I can't imagine that the oxygen in Rainbow's helmet will last forever!"

    "I'll do it!" Applejack sputtered. She somersaulted awkwardly through the bubbles as her ghostly essence struggled to keep up with Rainbow. "Reckon it's just like countin' apples back home! Only... while glidin' underwater with the aim of blowin' up a ship full of bad dudes."

    "We're... n-not going to blow them up too, are we?" Fluttershy stammered.

    "One... hckkk... th-thing at a t-time..." Rainbow wheezed.

    "Rainbow, save your breath, darling!" Rarity insisted, her ghostly eyes reflecting bubbles and froth. "Let us do the moralistic mulling for the time being!"

    "The charge is still strong!" Twilight insisted, glancing at the torpedo. "Concentrate, everypony!" She looked west again with a pensive expression. "We've got a lot of water to cover!"

    Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. Her breaths fogged against the translucent manashields around her as she skimmed and skimmed and—

    A shrill whistle escaped Wildcard's beak. As soon as he had the attention of everypony around him, he gestured towards the sky and ascended swiftly.

    "Mofo's right, y'all!" Bard shouted. The torpedo's westward wake hadn't yet begun to fade by the time he crossed the deck of the Stardust and cut loose the moorings. "No more time for gawkin'! Let's mosey!" He shouted over his shoulder to his two sarosian crewmates. "Bat One and Bat Two! Get the engine runnin'! We'll gun it for the first few minutes then cut the noise and cruise on through the straits!"

    "Ywm, land-dweller," one said, ducking into the cabin to activate the motor.

    "Keep yer heads cool, partners!" Bard hollered once again, squinting west as lightning brimmed overhead. "It's them hotheads whom we're aimin' to take to the woodshed! Let's hit 'em where it hurts and make like ghosts!"

    "Hopefully not in the morrtal sense!" Kepler shouted, rushing gleefully to his post along with Flynn. "Ha-hah!"

    "Dubya-Cee!" Bard growled as the Stardust's motor came to life. The ship puttered west against the currents, and the Desperado rushed up to the top deck to grab the rudder wheel. "Dun get too cocky without me, or else I'll be firin' the first round of flares right at yer feathery hide!"

    "Don't worry, Bard!" Ariel shouted from high above. "I'll keep him in check!" She motioned towards the fellow sarosians. "Alright, everyone! To the stormclouds! Move it! Move it!"

    "M'lywylla sym whym!" Enix shrieked, taking up the rear behind Ariel and Wildcard. She glared at all of the sarosians and moved them into separate formations. "H'lymwym syl'ym w'lynym sylymym H'Luun!"

    "Sylymym H'Luun!" The air shook with their response, and then all was thunder as the group pierced the heavens.

    The sonic clap of their rapid departure produced a heavy burst of wind. Along the far fringes of the Emeraldinian platform, multiple empty crystalline jars swayed in the wind, rattling against each other and making sweet percussion.

    Silent, Remna glanced back at the multiple see-through containers of ancient origin. The air sang with otherworldly chimes—until the jars settled. The draconian mare took a deep breath... then swiveled back to face west. Her violet brow furrowed as she observed the many sarosians and Heraldites disappearing into the sky...

    ...a sky that turned darker and darker along the bleak horizon to the east. Seraphimus watched—charcoal eyes stern and piercing—as the nebulous starlight was swiftly blotted out by thick black mists.

    Her perch on the frontmost ship's bow tightened. Armored claws dug into the rusty hull.

    There were only four other members of the Central Guard on board the heavily rocking ship. One pegasus crewmember immediatedly spotted the shift in Seraphimus' posture. He glided the length of the deck and came to a scraping stop behind her. "Ma'am? What is it?"

    Seraphimus said nothing. Her scrutinous eyes swept north... south... and back again... repeating...

    The soldier behind her gulped. "Do... do you see midnighters?"

    "Stormclouds," Seraphimus pronounced. The feathers along her neck raised slightly. "Thicker than the rest."

    "Should... I signal the rest of Chandler's fleet to alter their course?"

    "No." Seraphimus leaned back slightly, studying the skies in a calmer breath. Her eyes traced the lightning as her ears tickled with the thunder. "There's no going back."

    The soldier blinked. "Ma'am?"

    Seraphimus didn't give any more of a response. She scratched the bottom of her beak... her gaze falling down... down...

    ...gazing into the waters.

    "Eight hundred meters!" Rarity exclaimed. She twirled and spun through the bubbles in a desperate attempt to steer closer to her anchor. It was a difficult ask—for while the torpedo kept true to its westward path, Rainbow's body constantly flailed and shifted from where she haphazardly struggled to grip the enchanted cylinder. "Eight hundred meters and closing!"

    "One third of the way there, Dashie!" Pinkie exclaimed. "At least, I think so—right?"

    Rarity huffed, her tense ghost eyes full of seawater. "Just keep your senses attuned to their own wavelength, Pinkie, darling—"

    "Jellyfish!" Pinkie hollered.

    "... ... ...!" Eyes bulging, Rainbow threw her body to her right. She rolled under the weight of the torpedo. Her wet figure avoided the swaying tentacles of a dense cluster of pink jellyfish by mere inches.

    "Whew!" Pinkie swiped her brow... in a current full of seawater. "Boy oh boy would that have been anticlimactic!" A ghostly stetson whapped her over the head. "Ouchie!"

    Applejack put her ghostly hat back on and twirled to look at Rainbow. "You've been at this for three minutes! Yer doin' good, sugarcube!"

    "Half the enchantments are burnt out!" Twilight exclaimed.

    "Oh no!" Fluttershy whimpered as a flash of lightning pierced the ocean's surface above them. "Is that too soon?"

    "No. I... I think it's what Enix calculated," Twilight stammered. "The torpedo's momentum should carry us all the way to where the armada's currently located!"

    "Seven hundred meters!" Rarity exclaimed. "We'll be there in a blink, Rainbow!"

    Applejack leveled her face with Rainbow's. "How're ya holdin' up on breathin' air, RD?"

    Rainbow gnashed her teeth. Moisture was seeping in through every nook and cranny of the shielded helmet. Any breath she managed to steal was a desperate, squeaky thing.

    "On second thought..." Applejack smiled nervously. "...save it for when it's crunch time, ya hear?"

    "Six hundred and fifty meters!"

    "They're getting closer," Fluttershy hummed, nervously rubbing her forelimbs together. "Seraphimus is still on the front ship!"

    Rainbow gulped. Her eyes darted about, lashes dotted with salt water. All she could see was a swirling maelstrom of thick ocean rushing towards her, filling her ears with a continuous roar.

    "If... if we surface now..." Nicole clung to a stalk of bleakweed as she stared out the magic window into the ocean depths. "...we'll be right in the middle of them, won't we?"

    "I... I'm not sure..." Echo and other sarosians were busy peering up, up at the watery surface. As the eastmost ship's wake ended... the bottom hulls of two other churning vessels could be seen taking up the fluctuating space. At that current moment, the armada loomed directly above the bulk of Bleak's Plummet. "Actually... I think we'll be surfacing just west of them."

    "Really?" Nicole flung him a look, beaming. "That's great! I mean... r-right?"

    Echo stared at her blankly. "We'll be sitting ducks, Nicole," he droned. "Unless a thousand of us jump out and push, we'll be stuck in open range of their attack for minutes."

    Nicole bit her lip hard. Her fangs glinted as she stammered: "How long until we are forced to surface?"

    "Any moment now," Echo said as a cold shudder ran through the chamber. "At this rate, we'll be brittle bits of water-logged coral."

    Nicole choked on a sob. She hugged herself in the cold runic light. "Johnny..." She sniffled, leafy ears drooping. "Johnny, I'm so sorry. All the hard work you've done—"

    Just then, one of the sarosians in the chamber shrieked. A velvety hoof pointed out the magic portholes of Bleak's Plummet.

    "Look!"

    "Something's coming!"

    "Huh? What?" Echo leaned forward, eyes bright and curious. "Where?"

    "See?" An elder nightblood pointed. "Have you gone blind, Ryckmun?"

    Echo stared and squinted and—"Hot damn." His ears perked up. "Well I'll be."

    "What?" Nicole craned her neck to look. "What is it?"

    Echo managed his best smile as the structure weaved in the deep waters all around them. "Something stupid."

    "Five hundred meters!" Rarity exclaimed, her horn glowing. "Four hundred and f-fifty! My goodness!" She stared incredulously through the water at her companions. "We're picking up speed!"

    "The runes are burning out the last of the enchantment!" Twilight exclaimed. "The leylines are drying up!"

    "Oh! Oh wow!" Fluttershy suddenly gasped, stared down into the depths.

    "What in tarnation is that?!" Applejack reacted to a dark, lingering shape that was slowly churning west beneath Rainbow Dash's position.

    "It's... it's Bleak's Plummet!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "Thousands of Luna's foals are waiting down there for us to save them!"

    "At this rate, it will only barely clear the boats!" Rarity exclaimed. Her gaze lifted up towards the water's surface due west. "Rainbow, darling, we're within four hundred meters now! You should be able to see them!"

    Rainbow hissed and winced. The air was growing thin in her helmet, and the water level was rising up to her nostrils. She struggled to keep her chin above the moisture while her ruby eyes twitched in the direction that Rarity had indicated.

    Three faint shadows lingered directly ahead. One of them was closer than the rest, its hull slicing violently through the shallow waters...

    Brye Chandler watched the frontmost ship from afar.

    Suddenly, his chariot's weight shifted slightly—and he felt himself leaning towards the front of his riding compartment against his will.

    He wasn't alone. The rest of the Central Guard murmured in curious alarm—feeling as the deck swayed noticeably beneath them.

    "What was that?" Chandler asked, blinking. "That just now? Have we slowed?"

    "It wasn't the engines, Minister," one griffon reported from below.

    Another soldier spoke up: "I think we're experiencing some kind of drag."

    "From what?"

    "I... don't know, sir. The sea currents this far out are quite unpredictable..."

    "Well, maintain our course, and signal our sister ship to do the same. I want to be in visual range of the point vessel at all times."

    Keris listened from afar. He cocked his feathered neck curiously to the side.

    "A drag?" Raptr thought out loud.

    "Just a shift in the tide," Windburst said, eyes trained on Seraphimus from afar. "Nothing more."

    "Unless something was pulling at the water volume beneath us," Starstorm suggested. "Like a group of whales."

    "... ... ..." Keris stepped back, squinting thoughtfully. On calm claws, he strafed aside from the group. The rest of the Talon watched in silence as the Commander approached the port side of his vessel and stared straight down into the water.

    The waves appeared... darker than before.

    Keris peered and peered in contemplative silence.

    The ships were just now passing over the summit of Bleak's Plummet.

    Nicole, Echo, and the rest of the sarosians stared with bated breaths. Just then—there was a heavy jolt felt throughout the entire ship.

    "Guh!" Nicole flinched, teeth chattering. "What now?"

    The air around her rattled with moonwhinny.

    Echo did his best to translate: "The runes are being drained! They're needing a reenchantment."

    "Does..." Nicole squeaked. "...does that mean we're resurfacing?"

    Just as she said this, the bodies of everypony on board shifted. Bubbles formed outside the window, shooting briskly downwards. The whole structure was rising rapidly.

    "Here it comes..." Echo steeled himself as he shrieked over his shoulder: "Alert the Matriarch! They're going to see us—!"

    "Look!" One of the sarosian spotters pointed at the tiny object barreling between them and the three ships. "It's approaching!"

    "Huh?" Echo did a double-take.

    "Wait..." Nicole caught an umistakably petite body of blue clinging to the torpedo. "Is... is that Rainbow Dash?"

    "Whoever it is..." The spotter beside them spoke in a deep voice. "...they're veering off course. See?"

    "What in the Hell is she even doing?" Echo stammered as they collectively began to rise.

    "Uh oh!" Pinkie Pie's everything was a-twitching. She flung the other mares a pale look. "Uh oh! Uh oh! Uh ohhhh!"

    "What's going on?" Fluttershy yelped.

    "We're veering off course!" Rarity exclaimed. She looked at their anchor. "Rainbow!"

    Rainbow could barely breathe—much less summon the strength to respond. Only a narrow pocket of air remained at the very top of Enix's makeshift helmet. Nevertheless, the prismatic pegasus stole a good enough glimpse of her circumstances to realize that the torpedo was tilting towards its right and shooting north.

    "Why ain't it goin' straight no more?" Applejack asked.

    "It... it's Bleak's Plummet!" Twilight exclaimed, her horn glowing. "Their runes have lost enchantment and now they're surfacing!"

    "Now?!" Fluttershy panicked.

    Twilight continued in as tense a voice: "The lunar energy has caused a feedback! It's shorted out the remaining charge in Enix's torpedo!"

    "Well, at least it still seems to have momentum!" Applejack said.

    "Yes—but we're going in the wrong way!" Rarity yelped. "We'll never reach the ships now!"

    "What are we going to do?" Fluttershy whimpered.

    Twilight gnawed at her lavender fetlocks.

    Applejack—meanwhile—flew directly in Rainbow's face. "Sugarcube... now's a good time to pull somethin' out of yer sassy bag of tricks."

    Naturally, Rainbow Dash was already on it. Clamping her muzzle shut to keep out the rising seawater, she swung her body around the bleakweed undercarriage of the cylinder. Once she was on the right side of it, she straightened her body... tensed her muscles... and shot a rigid wing out to the left—creating drag.

    "Rainbow?" Twilight squinted. "What are you doing?"

    "Duhhhhh!" Pinkie grinned maniacally. "Something awesome, silly!"

    Twilight watched—in amazement—as Rainbow's outstretched wing altered the course of the runic cylinder. Suddenly, the torpedo was tilting about and gliding west again. Rainbow rotated her body and stretched the other wing out to center it just right, all the while holding her breath to the best of her ability.

    Water rushed and rippled past her... and yet she was heading back towards her target.

    "A marvelous accomplishment, darling," Rarity said. "But I'm afraid we've lost momentum from that."

    "Bleak's Plummet is rising!" Fluttershy said. "And fast!"

    Rainbow closed her eyes, shuddered, and reopened them—only to see a flicker of light encompassing her vision.

    In the distance, the runes of Bleak's Plummet were strobing brightly as they lost their current enchantment. But that wasn't all...

    ...for the lunar fragments holding Rainbow's helmet were starting to flicker as well.

    Twilight saw it, and her eyes widened just like Rainbow's. "Oh no..."

    Streaks of light broke through the depths.

    Keris' beak hung agape. His magenta eyes reflected the unmistakable sign of a massive structure looming directly beneath them... surging west and into the wake that Chandler's ships formed.

    "Commander?" Starstorm and Raptr trotted to his side. "What is it that you see—?" The female sergeant took one look down and her hawkeyes widened.

    Raptr glanced into the waves as well... and the rookie was far less civil. "Holy sh—!" Both Keris' and Starstorm's talons clamped over his beak. "Mrmmmf!"

    "... ... ..." Keris flung a worried look across the deck.

    Chandler and his fellow soldiers all had their flanks to the Talon. Nobody else was gazing straight into the sea.

    With a calm breath, the three protectors leaned away from the port side railing.

    "Whatever it is... it appears to be surfacing rapidly," Starstorm said.

    Raptr gulped. "Some sort of... underwater ambush?" His feathers ruffled. "An attack from behind?"

    "We don't know that yet," Keris said, stealing one more glance at the water. His eyes traced every streak and flicker of light. "It begs the question—why didn't they just surface beneath us?"

    "Commander!" Windburst's exclamation was hoarse... but forceful.

    Keris and the others looked his way.

    Nervously, the sergeant pointed due east.

    Keris craned his neck...

    ...just in time to see Seraphimus craning hers. Even from such a grand distance, Seraphimus had chosen that exact moment to stare back at her former subordinate. There was a glint of metal—followed by a flicker of silver feathers.

    Breathless, the sergeants looked worriedly at their commander.

    Keris swallowed dryly. "Damn."

    Seraphimus' eyes narrowed.

    The other crew members of the frontmost ship were staring curiously at her.

    Seraphimus ripped her gaze from Keris' vessel. Without saying a word, she approached the starboard side of the steamship...

    ...and stared down into the waves.

    "Two hundred meters!" Rarity stammered. As the runes of Bleak's Plummet strobed at a greater and greater distance, she looked worriedly at Rainbow. "We're losing them!"

    "We're not going to make it to the ships!" Twilight said.

    Rainbow sputtered. Gargled. She looked all around with the scant air afforded by the helmet.

    Then, with tense muscles, she "climbed" up the length of Enix's torpedo just as its runes were going dead.

    "Sugarcube?" Applejack blinked. "What—?"

    Without hesitation, Rainbow perched her body against the "nose" of the torpedo. She tensed every muscle, straightened her equine figure straight out... and sprung her rear legs off the projectile.

    Seawater rippled as she propelled herself forward. Then—at a strategic moment—she shot both wings out at her sides, steering her speeding body towards the frontmost ship as she carried the momentum of the torpedo that had brought her there.

    "One hundred and eighty meters!" Rarity gasped. "One hundred and sixty!"

    "Go, Dashie! Go Dashie!" Pinkie cheered.

    Rainbow barely registered her words. The last shields of her helmet were finally fizzling out. Rainbow put all her concentration into the glide forward—all the while clutching the satchel of explosive runes to her chest.

    "One hundred and forty! One hundred and twenty!"

    "Seraphimus???" the crew ponies stammered.

    She didn't answer. Icily, the former Commander trotted the length of the starboard side railing. Her charcoal-brown eyes studied the lights that were flickering due west of them.

    At last, she reached the bow, squinting out into the depths.

    Her beak muscles tightened as she saw the runic lights approaching the wake of the three ships, growing brighter and brighter beneath the surface.

    "What is it?" A Frostknifer besides the Defense Minister's chariot craned his neck.

    Several other soldiers shifted where they stood, immensely curious about the movement on board the eastmost ship.

    "What's going on? What's the problem?"

    Chandler's lips pursed. He exhaled in a cold breath. "She sees something..."

    "W'lyppa syln wyl'ylyhym!"

    "Wyn'sylma syln H'Luun!"

    "Wym! Lyn'syppa thym'lym hy'ml!"

    Nicole and Echo crept closer until they were hugging each other. Their slitted eyes reflected the hulls of the three vessels... and the churning surf between them.

    "Eighty meters!" Rarity spun about. "Rainbow Dash, you're nearly there—!"

    All was water and thunder.

    The runes around Rainbow's helmet flickered for one last time.

    With lungs aching, Rainbow tilted her head straight up and took a daring—sputtering—final breath of the remaining pocket of air. In the next blink, she yanked the hollow bleakweed helmet clear off her skull and flung it behind her. Eyes glaring into the depths, she kicked her rear legs and swam the rest of the way.

    Her ghostly companions shouted and yelped and—

    "That's it!" Ariel hollered through the whipping winds. She, Wildcard, and Enix settled on separate cloudbeds—darkened from all of the compressed moisture they had gathered in the swift glide west. "Pack it all in! Spread apart! Hold your positions!"

    Enix timed her commanding shrieks with the thunder so as to mask her echoes of Ariel's orders. She and her fellow sarosians perched nervously at their stations, waiting for the next moment.

    A moment... that was not coming.

    Wildcard's goggles rattled. He appeared across the thunderous heights, made eye-contact with Ariel, and hand-signed emphatically.

    Ariel gulped. "I don't know... we were supposed to hear from her by now!" Pensively, she looked down through the stormy mists with worried eyes. "She should have made it at this point..."

    Rainbow's lungs were on fire.

    A persistent ringing noise filled her ears as the edges of her vision blacked out—framed by a haunting harmonic gold.

    She anchored herself to it... floating upwards... approaching the rusted belly of a massive metal shape.

    Rarity shouted something. Twilight was pointing.

    Weakly... with muscles screaming... Rainbow reached a hoof up towards the rudder.

Cl-Clang!

    Her fetlock made contact.

    The rest of her body swung from the momentum of her arrival.

    She spun about, her other fetlock stretched westward from the murderous weight of the explosive satchel.

    She clenched her teeth... screaming bubbles.

    Fluttershy shrieked. Rarity and Twilight rambled in a panic. Applejack and Pinkie Pie cheered their friend on.

    Eyes rolling, Rainbow tugged at the satchel... and yanked her body up.

    Seraphimus' eyes were locked on the lights far west. She could see the immense shadowy shape of something rising with great speed, encompassing a good chunk of the ocean's surface from below.

    "Lieutenant!" she hollered to a member of the skeletonous crew behind her. "Signal the Defense Minister that we have a—"

Splaaash!

    "... ... ...?!" Seraphimus looked straight down.

    "Hckkkkkkkkt!" Rainbow inhaled as much oxygen as she could. She clung to the rusted stern of the ship, breaking the surface and writhing from the force of air rushing into her lungs.

    In the next waking moment, she pierced the thick malaise of her body's sheer ache and grasped the satchel in both hooves.

    "Rainbow...!" Fluttershy exclaimed in a high-pitched tone.

    "...?!" Rainbow looked straight up. Her eyes reflected Seraphimus.

    Seraphimus' reflected Rainbow.

    Thunder.

    Waves.

    Seraphimus frowned. Scrkkkk! With razor sharp claws, she perched on the very edge of the ship. "Guardians of Frostknife—!"

    Without flinching, Rainbow swiftly hooked the straps of the satchel around a loose rivet. "H'rhnum!!!" In the next blink, she had backflipped, kicked her legs off the ship's hull, and dove reverse back into the water.

"—the Rainbow Rogue is—" Seraphimus began, but she didn't finish. She became aware of a high-pitched vibration. Her eyes fell to the dangling satchel directly below.

    ...a satchel stuck to the brim with lunar rocks that were growing bright, brighter, and—

Vrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

KAPOWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

    Brye Chandler's eyes lit up.

    He and his fellow officers gasped loudly as the final horizon erupted in flame directly in front of them.

    The Central Guard watched in numb horror as the front end of the foremost ship was propelled skyward from the sheer blast. The hull broke apart in a dozen pieces while bodies of the skeleton crew went flying every which way.

    Before anyone could make out more details, a thick wave of water slammed into their bow, causing the entire ship to jostle.

    Chandler wobbled in his chariot.

    Armored soldiers fell and tumbled across the deck.

    Keris and the rest of Talon gripped the railing as hard as they could, their hawkeyes reflecting orange flame and debris.

    Shrieks filled the chambers of Bleak's Plummet.

    The world around the sarosians roared with the deep bass percussion of the explosion's shockwave.

    Nicole and Echo gazed into the frothing waters with shocked expressions.

    "H'wynsyln mym s'wynym!" one of the two warriors on board the Stardust exclaimed, pointing west.

    "...?" Bard spun around in time to see a tall plume of orange flame piercing the heavens due west, accompanied by a distant boom. His muzzle dropped in shock.

    The waters around the rusted ship grew choppier for a few seconds.

    Remna was pacing in circles beside the array of dangling chalices when a dull thud reached the Emeraldinian platform, piercing the rain and thunder at the edge of the world.

    Kepler and Flynn looked up from their instruments.

    Violet brow furrowed, Remna twirled about and peered west.

    Soon, the usual ambiance of thunder and rushing water filled the gap that the odd noise had made.

    The Heraldites exchanged mute glances—tense and curious.

    A nervous murmur rolled through all of Enix's nightblooded warriors. Most exchanged shocked expressions while others kept their gaze locked on the fading flames far below. As the tumultuous explosion came to a conclusion, there was scarcely any sign of the ship left to be seen—just random chunks of smoldering wreckage left adrift in the stormy waters.

    Enix clenched her jaw. She glanced across the thick black clouds to where the rest of the party waited in ambush.

    Wildcard stared down at the remaining two ships in mute contemplation.

    Ariel—however—was far less meditative. "Holy hell..." She grimaced vividly, wingtips trembling from where she perched on her thundercloud. "Spirit of Mortuana." She closed her eyes tightly shut. "Please let her have lived through that."

    Chunks of red-hot debris bobbed in the boiling waters.

    Tiny clouds of misty splashes pock-marked the ocean all around the epicenter of the blast—where a murky white swirl of lunar dust had formed.

    To the east, the largest surviving piece of the ship—its bow—sunk slowly and menacingly into the waters. There were occasional screams and moans echoing over the waves, but the source of such voices could scarcely be seen through the smoke and haze.

    And then... towards the west end of the debris field—

Splooooosh!

    —a petite blue shape surfaced, treading water desperately beside a smattering of still-smoking shrapnel.

    Rainbow Dash opened one eye... and then the other. Her Loyalty pendant was pulsating wildly... and her loyal friends chattering a mile a minute as they attempted to bring order to the chaotic moment. Between listening to them and avoiding the tiny specks of debris still falling all around, Rainbow Dash couldn't find the time to feel if any limbs had been damaged or if anypony on board the ship had survived the explosion or—

    Waves.

    Ripples.

    Steam.

    Rainbow flung a weak glance westward. The other two ships were closing in fast.

    "—what in the Hell happened to them?!"

    "Verlaxion's sleet!"

    "—like a sword of fire from the heart of the ocean—"

    "Did a comet hit the ship?!"

    "The windigoes! It had to have been them—!"

    Brye Chandler gnashed his teeth. Waving from where he stood on his chariot, he struggled and strained to win the attention of his panicked troops. No matter how loudly he shouted, the sheer commotion of his subordinates drowned him out. A few soldiers perched on the ship's bow, preparing to dive madly into the waters to search for survivors. Others wrestled them back, and a fight nearly broke out between the hysterical numbers.

    Meanwhile—hanging back by the stern—Keris and his fellow wingmates watched in curious silence, observing the degree to which madness took over the rest of the crew.

    At last, it was Keris who muttered: "She did it."

    The rest of the Talon flashed him a look.

    "This was done on purpose." Keris' eyes narrowed. "This is exactly what Rainbow Dash needs to get an edge: reduce the pursuing enemy to enraged fools."

    "Commander..." Raptr fidgeted, glancing east into the fresh sea of debris. "Do you mean to say that... Rainbow Dash just killed Seraphimus?"

    To that, Keris had no answer. He gazed calmly into the mess, his ears ringing from the shouting voices of Chandler and his soldiers.

    "That ka-boom was waaaaaaaay more ka-boomy than I expected!"

    "But it's over now, Pinkie! Now we have to make sure Rainbow Dash gets away safely!"

    "'Safely?' Just look at her, darling! She must have a dozen broken bones and a concussion!"

    "Don't ya think she woulda told us if she had broken somethin'?"

    "Girls, we have to help Rainbow Dash get out of here. The enemy is closing in!"

    "Did you see where those bodies went flying?! Whew-wee! They won't be eating any cheese and crackers anytime soon!"

    "Pinkie..."

    "Everypony quiet! We have a job to do!"

    "Rainbow, you must swim away from here, darling!"

    "Them varmints are almost on top of ya!"

    "Please, Rainbow! You look so hurt and exhausted! Let's find a place where you can go and recover!"

    Rainbow Dash wheezed. Her head bobbed up and down in the water—so that she sputtered moisture on every third breath. A hot strip of metal drifted past her, followed by a smoking chunk of twisted debris.

    Twitching, her eyes tilted up—scouring the surface.

    The two ships roared closer, their twin bows piercing the water and the peppered layer of lunar dust. From meters away, she could hear the confused, angry, and vengeful voices of over a hundred adrenalized Rohbreddenites.

    "Where..." Rainbow Dash hissed, shivering along the surface of the murky water. "...where is Bleak's Plummet...?"

    "Rainbow, darling." Rarity gulped. "Perhaps now is not the time for—"

    "Where?!"

    Rarity winced. "It's... it's s-surfacing west of the ships!"

    "Should be visible any moment now," Fluttershy nodded.

    Rainbow Dash's jaw muscles tightened. "Then my work here isn't done."

    "Rainbow..." Twilight flew in closer. "If you could just wait a few more minutes to recover—"

    "Don't... gnngh... h-have a few minutes..." Rainbow Dash swam over to a strip of metal and climbed it until she was perched on the bobbing thing. "Nicole, Echo, and the rest are st-still at risk. If I don't capitalize on this..."

    "Rainbow, I enjoy a good slobberknocker like the rest," Applejack stammered. "But are ya sure yer able to carry on like this?"

    "No." Rainbow frowned, stretching her wings. "Which is exactly why I gotta." She glanced at the rest of the mares. "Devilish smirks on, girls. It's time to be bad guys."

    "Ohhhhhhhhhh..." Rarity moaned, her ghostly body slumped. "...I was positively dreading this part."

    "Be careful, Rainbow," Twilight insisted.

    "You know I won't." Rainbow held her breath, kicked off the debris...

    ...and soared up into the sky like a prismatic beacon. Her ruby pendant lit up, glinting off the metal surfaces of the two ships.

    Dozens of Frostknifers instantly gasped. As the ruby light broke through the stormy malaise, the combined crew of both ships looked up to see their elusive target at long last. If even for a second, their angry veneer was replaced with sheer shock... and perhaps a tiny bit of pallid trepidation.

"Haah haah haah haah!" Rainbow's comically bombastic voice broke the thunder, and yet when it landed on the soldiers' ears it dug its way in deep like a dagger. "Is that the best you've got to send me?!"

    "Commander!" Starstorm pointed. "Look—!"

    "Shhhh!" Keris hissed, nodding towards the spectral figure presenting herself to the armada. "I see her."

    The Talon observed sharply as Rainbow Dash continued her villainous display in the misty air east of the two ships.

    "I killed your pathetic Verlaxion without breaking a sweat!" Rainbow Dash snarled through grinning, gnashing teeth. Her ruby eyes swam around until she found the sight of a shiny chariot with a heavily-armored figure seated inside. She focused all of her menace and swagger on the northernmost ship. "You think a bunch of armored losers in tugboats is enough to scare me?!" She spat, reaching a hoof up to her pendant so as to increase the otherworldly aura pulsating around her. "I'll rip you limb from limb and leave the rest for the windigoes to feast on... you sniveling snot-nosed brats of a dead Goddess!"

    Brye Chandler gaped up at her, muzzle hanging wide open. Slowly—as each serrated word sank in—the muscles in his body tightened. The soldiers gathered around him mimicked their leader's posture as anger and outrage took over every muscle and brain cell. A low growl perculated in the heart of the group, reaching a boiling point as every weapon, blade, and bludgeon imaginable was unsheathed in one coordinated air-ringing moment.

Schiiiii-iiiing!

    "Guardians of Frostknife!" Chandler pointed a guantlet'd hoof up at their infernal target. "Kill her! Gut her! Bring me her head—!"

    Rainbow Dash was already taunting them before he could finish his authoritative command. "Bring your worst, you stupid snow-huffing melon fudges!" Turning tail, Rainbow Dash rocketed skyward at a brisk forty-five degrees towards the stormclouds looming in the east.

    It was with good timing too, for the misty air behind her was swiftly filled with a thunderous salvo of wing-flaps from every able-bodied soldier of the Central Guard lifting off the twin ships simultaneously and giving chase. Their shadows blackened the already-charred sea as they formed a murderous flock of metal, pursuing the Rainbow Rogue with homicidal thirst.

    Only Chandler and two dozen crew members across both ships remained—just enough to competently pilot the vessels—just as Chandler gave the orders: "Full speed ahead! Bring us underneath her!" He hollered up at the last line of soldiers accelerating skyward. "Close in around the Rogue on all sides! We'll be there to catch her entrails!"

    "Minister!" Keris and the rest of the Talon reached the chariot in a blink. The Commander grimaced as the last of countless shadows streaked past him. "Honestly?! Sending the entire squadron?! Can't you rein some of them in, for Verlaxion's sake?!"

    "Not now, Commander—"

    "This is clearly a distraction!" Keris hollered, gesturing at the smoldering remains of the destroyed point ship. "If the Rainbow Rogue truly wanted to defeat us, then why did she spare the ship we were on—?"

    "If you honestly wish to help, Commander..." Chandler pivoted about in the chariot, leaning over to snarl in the griffon's face. "Then fly up there and assist my troops!"

    Keris frowned. But before he could retort—

    "Commander..." Windburst leaned in, murmuring so that only he could hear. "That would be the best way to find out what Rainbow is up to... and assist her."

    Hearing the words of his sergeant, Keris reached a characteristically calm state. He gave the bobbing debris one final look before approaching the bow, perching on it, and spreading his feathers. "Talon! Righteous defenders of Rohbredden...!"

    Starstorm, Windburst, and Raptr perched all around him.

    "—take wing!" And the group soared skyward with swift grace.

    Without breaking a sweat, Chandler gestured at the soldiers and crew ponies scrambling across the deck around him.

    "Bring us around the debris! Heat the engines up to full temperature!" He pointed south. "Tell our sister ship to keep a respectable distance! I want us to provide full support at any moment for our noble brothers in pursuit of the Rainbow Rogue!" Blood vessels throbbed in his emerald eyes as he sneered into the sky. "Either we bring her guts back to Frostknife or we don't come back at all!"

Swoooo-oooo-ooosh!

    Rainbow streaked her way through denser and denser thunder clouds. Her sweating, rain-soaked figure glinted from the flashes of lightning above and beneath her.

    The same bright-blue pulses illuminated a veritable wyrm of angry armor soaring up after her.

    Hissing voices pierced the heavens, drawing closer:

"...going to avenge my family in your blood!"

"...bring back your head as a trophy to Verlaxion!"

"Pull your every entrail out and feed it to you!"

    Applejack whistled, clutching her ghostly hat. "Well, they're ticked off, alright!"

    "Oh goodness..." Fluttershy shivered. "I... I-I didn't expect them to be so close that I could hear their voices!"

    "They're getting closer..." Twilight moaned, jittery.

    "Don't worry!" Pinkie Pie chirped. "Dashie's got a plan that will make this alllllll better!" Gulping, the party pony looked worriedly at their anchor. "Right, Dashie?"

    "Just... gotta... get... to... the Herald..." Rainbow gnashed her teeth, piercing the dark clouds.

    "Then why aren't you going faster, darling?" Rarity insisted. "We all know you can fly faster than this?"

    "Because..." Rainbow sweated, throwing a breathless glance at the angry army surging after her. "...I gotta make sure they follow me all the way."

    "This is a mite bit more than I thought we was gonna be doin' fisticuffs with," Applejack said. "You sure our lil' ambush is enough to take these Frostknife folks to the woodshed?"

    "They're not all bad ponies and griffons, Applejack," Fluttershy suddenly insisted.

    Applejack sighed. "Fluttershy, sugarcube..."

    "What I mean is..." Fluttershy swifly clarified. "...the Talon's with them."

    Rainbow glanced at her.

    "Keris. The others." Fluttershy managed a smile—even if it was a weak one. "They're taking up the rear."

    "Well..." Twilight's eartips perked. "At least that's something."

    "Brilliant!" Rarity cheered. "Then there's an infinitesimal candle of hope after a—"

    "What are you stupid foals made out of?! Lead?!" Rainbow Dash hollered down through the thunder and swirling mists. Lightning reflected her toothy, evin grin. "I killed your stupid Queen, and all you wanna do is chase each other's farts!"

    The angry voices below her redoubled.

"Going to rip your muzzle clean off!"

"In Verlaxion's name!"

"Your legacy ends here, Rogue!"

    "Your blood will stain the world's end red!"

    Rarity frowned. "Really?! Rainbow Dash—"

    "Gotta get them dumb-angry!" She accelerated just quickly enough to keep out of spear-tossing range of the pursuing forces. "So I can outsmart them with brave-angry!"

    "Our friends!" Fluttershy pointed at a solid ceiling of dark thunderclouds drowning the stars above. "They're waiting—"

    "Good!" Rainbow Dash wheezed, flapping her wings harder as she spiraled into the black mists amidst broiling thunder. "Time to disappear!"

    Far below, Windburst's hawkeyes narrowed. "Sir!"

    Keris drifted closer as the four Talon members soared skyward. "What is it, Sergeant?"

    "Rainbow. She's..." Windburst's beak tightened. "...she's disappeared."

    "What do you mean 'disappeared?'" Raptr stammered.

    "These clouds..." Starstorm gazed at the sudden labyrinthine collection of dark vapors above and around them. "...they appear to be closing in."

    "A trap..." Keris glanced left and right. "...it has to be."

    "This must be what Rainbow wants, then!" Starstorm exclaimed. "The whole explosion down below was just the bait! This is the actual delivery!"

    "Then we gotta rush to the head of the group!" Raptr insisted as the four continued to ascend behind the Frostknifers. "End this before it gets bad!"

    Keris said nothing.

    "D-don't we?" Raptr squeaked.

    "No. Let's..." Keris flapped his wings slower, purposefully decelerating. "...let's see where this goes."

    Windburst peered aside. "You want to see what Rainbow has in store?"

    "It's not just her," Keris said, nodding his feathered skull at the mess. "If this is what I think it is..."

    "It has to be the work of dozens of ponies," Starstorm said.

    "Right." Keris exhaled. "It so happens we're the only members of the Minister's hunting party level-headed enough to see it."

    "Does this mean that Rainbow's going to bring the hammer down on our companions here?" Raptr asked.

    "If we hold back too much," Windburst said. "Chandler's gonna notice, don't you think?"

    "No. I think he's positively blind right now... and Rainbow's counting on it," Keris said. "So should we." He looked at Raptr. "And—no—I don't think Rainbow intends on keeping true to what her persona says. Not if she can help it."

    Raptr gulped. "Didn't she take Seraphimus' life just now?"

    Windburst and Starstorm exchanged glances.

    "Raptr..." Keris calmly exhalged, gazing up at the bloodlusting squadron as it drew further and futher into the stormclouds. "...if by now you expect nothing of our former Commander but defeat, then you truly don't know Seraphimus."

    Salt water splashed against her beak.

    Ashes from burning debris laced her feathery neck.

    She winced, muscles twitching from where she clung to an L-shaped scrap of rusted bulkhead.

    Two other survivors were slumped over the floating shrapnel—their bodies writhing upon the spot where Seraphimus had personally rescued and tethered them safely after a heroic swim.

    Thunder rolled... accompanied by another loud rumble.

    One charcoal eye opened... then the next.

    Seraphimus peered weakly at the cloudy sky—as it was soon blotted out by the hull of a rusted steamship speeding past her. Above her.

    "Guh!" The former commander grimaced, reaching out the steady the other two survivors as their floating debris was shaken, rocked, and nearly tipped completely over in the wake of the churning vessel. "Goddess alive..." She hissed, frowning at the two ships as they roared past her on both sides. "Chandler!" Anger. Frustration. Heat. "Runes! Lunar rocks!" Her hoarse voice scarcely pierced the twilight thunder, much less the engines of both ships. Her warnings fell on deaf ears. "She's using the midnighters' blighted magic against us! This is a trap! It's—"

    Just then, a new sound erupted to the west. It was a deep bass roar rising in pitch, accompanied by an ocean of frothing bubbles.

    Startled, Seraphimus flung an exhausted look past the wake of both ships—just in time to catch an aura of runic light rapidly surfacing.

    "Rocks, sir!" A crewpony looked up at the leader positioned in his chariot. "Due east! We're drawing closer to the point of no return! How far do you wish for us to go?"

    Chandler frowned down at the sailor. "Are we directly beneath our squadron, yet?"

    "Erm... no, sir..." The crewpony shivered slightly. "But... th-they disappeared! And if we get too close to the rocks—"

    "I told you that we need to be beneath them for when they bring the Rainbow Rogue's bloody body crashing down into the sea!" Chandler pounded his metal-laced hoof. "What part of my command did you not understand—?!"

    Just then, a loud watery splash lit the air west of them. The scant remaining members of the crew gasped, with multiple heads turning to gawk beyond the two ships' sterns.

    "Defense Minister!"

    "Look!"

    "Verlaxion's sleet...!"

    "Huh?" Brye Chandler spun about. His eyes widened, and he nearly dropped his bulky helmet. "What in blazes...?"

    A massive structure had pierced the ocean's surface, laced with pulsating specks of otherworldly magic. Large, thick branches of gnarled bleakweed glistened in the rain and lightning. Along the topmost balconies, translucent glowing windows could be seen—with several velvety dark bodies lingering within. From the sheer blackness looming just beneath the waters, it was more than evident that the two crews were only spotting the tip of a massive, twisting iceberg.

    "Where... where d-did that come from?!" a pony stammered.

    "Did... did that thing just glide beneath us?"

    "It... it appears stationary."

    "They're flanking us! Brace for attack—"

    "With what?! I don't see any artillery! Do you?"

    "I..." Brye Chandler paled and paled. The rage and determination that had empowered him mere minutes ago had completely drained, and suddenly he was once again a confused Consortium businessstallion garbed in a gilded guilded tin can. "I don't understand. How...? Who...?"

    "Sir..." One of two bodyguards peered up at him with hard hawkeyes. "Bleak's Plummet."

    Chandler gulped. "Bleak's... Plummet...?"

    "The midnighters' dwelling place that the privateers told us about! It has to be!" The griffon pointed west. "At last, we've uncovered it!"

    "Sir!" another crew member spat. "We're approaching the lower position! As ordered!"

    Chandler shivered. He looked east at the looming rocks, then back west at the bleakweed structure. He shivered some more.

    "Sir! What is your next command?"

    "There are midnighters behind us, Minister."

    "Our squadron should be engaging the Rainbow Rogue at this moment!"

    "This might be our one chance to silence the Seventh Tribe once and for all!"

    "I... I..." Chandler clenched his eyes shut. He took a deep breath... and when his eyes reopened, it was filled with the same spirited vitriol that brought him and the rest of the guardians that far. "I must ensure that we properly avenge our murdered Goddess." He pointed sharply towards the heavens. "All eyes on the sky! Steady on our course eastward! The moment the Rainbow Rogue falls, I want us to catch her... and rip her heart out!"

    "Aye, sir!"

    "Signal the sister ship!"

    "Maintain position once we're at the shoals!" Chandler shouted. "Our goal is the death of the Rainbow Rogue! I will not rest until her blood is on my hooves!"

    The air around him filled with one solid voice of passion.

    Nicole and Echo watched—awestruck—as the two vessels grew more and more distant along the murky sea. They rested easy as Bleak's Plummet bobbed in the choppy waves.

    "I don't believe it," Echo murmured, sharing surprised looks with his sarosian companions. "They're leaving us alone! I mean... I mean they saw us, right?"

    "They must have seen Rainbow too." Nicole gulped. "What else would you expect?"

    "Those dumb... stupid... brainless bastards." Echo's fangs showed in a bright grin. "Eee-eee-eee" he chortled. "They're actually buying it!"

    The chambers filled with breathy, elated moonwhinny.

    "Quick!" Echo spun about. "Tell every platform and every able-bodied hoof to hurry with re-enchanting the runes! We've been given a window to get out of this shitfest with our heads intact!" He glanced back out the window, leafy ears shifting. "Let's not waste it..."

    "Thank you..." Nicole had her hooves clasped together as her eyes rested on the ships growing more and more distant. "Thank you, Rainbow..."

    Seraphimus was beside herself with incredulous anger.

    Bobbing in the water, she gaped at Bleak's Plummet... at the ships... then at the midnighter domain again.

    "Dammit..."

    She hissed.

    "Dammit, Chandler..."

    She snarled.

    That snarl soon turned into a growl... and then a breathy hiss as her muscles flexed.

    Abandoning the other survivors, Seraphimus stood up with a burst of violent strength...

    ...and propelled herself straight up with a flash of silver wings. When she flew, it was not towards the Defense Minister's armada. It was not towards Bleak's Plummet. It was not towards the edge of the world.

    She flew a bee-line at the storm clouds... and towards the last seen location of Frostknife's embittered squadron. In a blink, she disappeared between the flashes of lightning.

    The ascending guardians of Frostknife had to squint from the blinding bands of electricity branching high above them. Still angered and thirsting pegasus blood—they had nevertheless slowed their flight considerably since the initial pursuit of the Rainbow Rogue began. This was brought on by the increasingly opaque clouds now looming around them, dull and dark and dismal.

    Pegasi and griffons craned their necks, peering beyond the serrated ends of their swords and polearms. The sky above them had thickened to an obsidian degree, and—try as they might—they couldn't detect a single shred of color... much less any color attached to a blue pair of wings.

    While a few Central Guardians shivered with obligatory fright, the majority of the group carried the same surly temper that accelerated them there. They gnashed their teeth and clenched their beaks, looking every which way for their boastful target.

    "Where in Verlaxion's name did she go?!"

    "The Rogue flew up here! I saw her!"

    "Damned coward! It's just like Frostknife all over again!"

    "Going to rip her tongue out and feed it back to her—"

    "Shhhhh!" An armored pegasus at the front of the group raised a hoof, peering about with dagger-sharp eyes. "Quiet!"

    A nervous hush fell over the squadron as they hovered to a stand-still.

    "The thunder..." A griffon muttered, glancing every which way. "...it's stopped."

    "What..." Another soldier gazed about, her brow furrowed. "...what happened to the lightning?"

    Just as she finished saying this, a tingling sensation fluttered through the body of every Frostknifer in the vicinity. The pegasi gawked at each other as their mane and tail hairs stood on end. Tiny blue sparks flickered between griffon wingfeathers.

    "The air!" a soldier at the front shouted. Miniature bolts materialized between the molars of his shouting maw. "It's being charged!"

    "The clouds—!"

    "Move! Move! Move—!"

    The panicked shouts of the Central Guard made its way up to the very top of that dense cluster of burnt-gray stormclouds. There—wheezing for breath—Rainbow Dash had collapsed in a sweaty slump. She looked over at Ariel and nodded briskly.

    Ariel nodded back. In a blink, she flew up high, signaling through the clear starry sky surrounding her.

    Enix and Wildcard saw her signal—as did the rest of the midnighters spread across the cloud's summit. In one accord, over a dozen sarosians lifted up, tightened their wings, and dropped straight down onto the roofs of the stormclouds. Their equine figures made hard contact with the mists, sending shockwaves of pegasus magic shooting down, down, down—ultimately exploding out the other end.

KRA-KOOOOM!

    A hundred brilliant blue branches of lightning forked theirits way down the narrow canyon of charged air between the clouds, electrocuting over a hundred helpless soldiers stuck in the claustrophobic air pocket. Screams and pained grunts lit the sky. Helmets and swords flew—magnetized at random by the electrical contact so that they flew off in haphazard directions, occasionally ricocheting off the skulls and chests of other ambushed guardians.

    The squadron that had pursued Rainbow Dash was instantly cleaved in half. Dozens of Rohbreddenites—their muscles spasming and their hair and feathers charred—dropped like twitching anvils, pinballing painfully off lower mists and cloudbanks. The rest spiraled about, shouting orders to one another in panic and desperation. Utilizing their hooves, talons, and gold weapons, they struggled to chop and hack their way through the compact mists.

    Keris' hawkeyes twitched.

    "Whoah!" Raptr grimaced. Hard.

    As the blinding flash above them faded, the air filled with plummeting bodies.

    "Lightning discharge!" Starstorm stammered. "The soldiers! They're—"

    "Alive!" Windburst shouted. "But barely!"

    "Quick!" Keris hollered, stretching both wings backwards and creating drag. He jerked backwards in mid-air, then fell with weighted purpose. "Grab as many bodies as you can—!"

    "On it!" Raptr darted left and right, scooping the smaller bodies plunging through the mists.

    "Grnnngh!" Windburst caught a relatively large griffon. Shouldering the groaning body, he glided sideways in pursuit of a plummeting pegasus. "Crazy—!"

    "There're too many of them!" Starstorm's voice cracked as she struggled to grasp an armored body in her talons.

    "I'm certain that's what Rainbow thought!" Keris exclaimed, somehow managing to grasp three figures. "Quick! Find a cloud!"

    "Where in the heck were they?" Raptr shouted.

    Rainbow's allies remained perched on the stormclouds. They easily spotted the Central Guard's panicked actions below. They did not let up. Following the Austraeoh's gesture, three dozen sarosians—with Enix taking point—lifted bleakweed cannons. Arming them with enchanted runestones, they waited for Ariel and Wildcard to punch rampart holes in the dense stormclouds before taking aim at the remainder of the Central Guardl flailing below.

    Fluttershy and Rarity covered their eyes.

    "Now!" Rainbow sputtered.

    Enix was the first to shout. "M'wynhrm!"

    The sarosians all around them hollered into the starspace surrounding their cannons.

"M'wynhrm!"

"M'wynhrm!!"

"M'wynhrm!!!"

    The twilight at the world's edge lit up as brilliant plumes of lunar dust sailed down into the cloudy pocket...

    ...and exploded in deafening concussion blasts right in the midst of the scattered and confused squadron.

POW!

P-POW!

BOOM!

    The screams of the Frostknifers were swallowed up by the sheer sonic torture of the sarosians' volley. Vaporous explosions bubbled outward in every direction, throwing pegasi and griffons in opposite directions and even knocking breastplates clean off their rainsoaked bodies.

    Keris and his group gasped. They had already flown severely off course, dragging unconscious figures through the air with them. As the concussive blasts warbled outward in every direction, they braced themselves against a lower cloudbank. Nervously, the griffons looked up at the remains of the squadron.

    In the next few flashes of lightning—natural this time—more bodies could be seen plummeting at an exponential rate.

    The concussive blasts had a secondary effect. They shattered the compacted stormclouds clear...

    ...opening up the sky directly above Chandler's armada.

    "Defense Minister!" A crewpony pointed directly up. "Look!"

    "Ah! Praise Verlaxion!" Chandler gazed at the fresh patch of starlight with a proud smirk. "They've driven her out of hiding—" Just then, his smile completely vanished.

    In place of the stormclouds...

    ...there was a precipitous string of falling, screaming, smoldering bodies. Burnt armor formed smoke trails behind flailing pegasi and griffons as they fell towards the choppy waves below, accompanied by agonized shrieks and voice-cracking prayers to Verlaxion.

    All ponies on board the two ships paled in horror. Soon, they—and Chandler as well—were pelted with wet splashes of salt water as the grunting bodies slammed into the ocean's surface on all sides of the twin convoy.

Splash!

Sp-Sploosh!

Splaaash!

    "Guh! Goddess have mercy!" Chandler shielded himself from inside his chariot. He flung a snarling breath at the sky. "What in the burning Springs Havens happened to my squadron?!"

    "Midnighters!"

    "Black magic!"

    "It's the Blight! They've rained it upon us—!"

    "Aaaaaaaaah—!"

    "Rrrrrgh!" A particularly angry pegasus flung his burnt helmet off and shouted at the rest of the Central Guard still taking wing after the one-two punch of lightning and runes. "Soldiers of Robhhbredden! Take wing!" He hollered over his shoulder, even as the lunar dust settled around him. "Regroup!"

    "Regroup!"

    "Formation, soldiers!"

    "Up high! Bodies!"

    "I see them!"

    "It's the Rogue!"

    "Attack!"

    "Raaaaaaaaaugh—!"

    Pinkie Pie whistled. Her ghostly eyes reflected two dozen gold-armored bodies ascending rapidly from the sundered stormclouds below. She turned to flash Rainbow a worried look.

    "There's a bunch of them still flying, Dashie!" She gulped. "And suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper merry-go-round party-poop'd!"

    "I... I-I count nearly thirty!" Fluttershy managed to stammer. "They're coming in fast!"

    "Rainbow?" Ariel cocked another runic cannon as she leaned over her friend's shoulder. "What's the tally?"

    "There's still a bunch of them flying!" Rainbow sputtered, looking at the rest of her allies. "Fluttershy says thirty incoming!"

    "That does not surprise me." Enix's mutated nostril flared as she readied a whalebone scimitar. Schiiiiing! "Time for the tasty part."

    "Do we have to engage them already?" Ariel's voice cracked.

    Enix hissed, "There isn't enough time to reload a second volley."

    "We won't need it!" Rainbow spun and shouted at a group of sarosians. "Signal the Stardust! Time for fireworks!"

    "V'ylynwym!" Enix echoed Rainbow's command in moonwhinny. "Ly'lnym sym Stardust thy'wylnnalym sylnm!"

    "Ywm, Enix!" One sarosian patted the shoulders of two others.

    The nightblood ponies were already aiming two cannons eastward. "Y'symma! Y'lynwyn!" they shouted in unison.

Pffffffffftchooom! Two brilliant flares soared eastward...

    ...and sailed over the heads of Keris, Starstorm, Raptr, and Windburst. The Right Talon of Verlaxion were just then settling their rattled companions down on a series of cloudbeds when they saw the runic projectiles flying past them and towards the edge of the world.

    "Okay..." Windburst shuddered, dropping another soldier onto the wispy cloudbed. "I couldn't have been the only bird who saw that."

    "She's got a system in effect," Starstorm stated.

    "Quite right, Sergeant." Keris nodded, catching his breath. "Somehow... I don't think Chandler's done being punished."

    Raptr squinted. He watched as the flares reached the apex of their flight...

    ...and exploded high above the clouds in bright yellow splashes of flame, illuminating the waters before the edge of the world.

    Bard's eyes reflected the bursts, and he stood up tall behind the rudder wheel of the Stardust.

    "Yeeeee-ha! There's the signal!" He grinned from ear to ear. "That means she's still alive! Whew!"

    "We are to engage!" one of his two sarosian crewmates hissed. "The Blood of Luna has summoned us!"

    "Darn tootin'!" He tipped a hat that wasn't here, then clasped the wheel with two hooves. "Heat up the engines! Then get into position! I'm takin' us out of hiding!"

    Within seconds, the Stardust roared into a full speed cruise, weaving its way out from where it hid amidst the rocks and ancient seawrecks lining the world's edge.

    "I'm gettin' us out into the clear!" Bard hollered, squinting past errant sprays of salt water as he navigated the waves. "Do ya have a fix on our target?!"

    The other sarosian galloped out of the engine room. Using a pair of spyglasses, the two nightblood warriors scanned the western horizon.

    "Well?!" Bard gnashed his teeth, struggling to steer the Stardust straight. "Time's-a-wastin'!"

    "H'nylym!" one sarosian spat. He pointed with a velvety fetlock. "There! To the southwest!"

    "Use time-clock numbers!" Bard growled. "Like I taught you both an hour ago!"

    "Erm... ten o'clock, I do believe!"

    "Right! I see 'em!" Bard squinted at the twin ships in the distance. His eyes twitched as he spotted a column of bodies falling towards the choppy waters surrounding Chandler's armada. "Dayum, girl. Reckon this will feel like stompin' a mudhole dry."

    Meanwhile, the two sarosians had armed a pair of bleakweed cannons. "Enchanted and ready!"

    "Let 'em have it!" Bard hollered, grinning. "And dun forget to shut the cabin door or else we'll all go up in smoke!"

    One sarosian was already slamming the Stardust's engine compartment shut with a flick of his rear hoof. Then—with the steady support of his partner—he shouted into his cannon. "M'wynhrm!"

    The other sarosian did the same. "M'wynhrm!"

Fl-Flasssh! Twin projectiles sailed a shimmering path towards the distant armada.

    "Grits and gravy..." Bard exhaled, squinting at the impending chaos. "This'll turn the ocean yellow for darn sure..."

    "Windburst!" Keris shouted, mounting the western edge of their cloudbed. "How many of Chandler's troops are still airborne?"

    "Uhm..." The skilled sergeant stared up at the dissipating stormclouds. "Hard to tell! Over twenty, I think! Why? What's your plan?"

    "Rainbow's made her strength known!" Keris said. "With Chandler's charge so swiftly immobilized, maybe there's a chance I can talk both sides out of taking this to the next level—"

    "Duck!" Starstorm shouted.

    "...!!!" Keris and Raptr pressed themselves down to the fluffy cloud bed. They and the recovering soldiers watched incredulously as two burning streaks of runic magic sailed over their feathery scalps and plunged due west.

    "Jeez!" Raptr wheezed. "Where did those come from?"

    "More to the point." Starstorm grimaced. "Where are they headed?"

    "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh boy..." Windburst couldn't help but chuckle, hawkeyes peering at their destination. "...you're not going to believe this."

    "Quickly!" Chandler shouted, pointing with a shaking hoof. "Quickly, now!"

    Below him, crew ponies were busily throwing nets and ropes over the sides of the ship's hull. The squad members who had been blown from the sky struggled to get a hoof-hold. Pained survivors swam to their companions while several panicked soldiers clamored up the edge of the vessels, their wings too wet and battered to function properly at the moment.

    "Get them all on board!" Chandler frowned. "Every second we waste plucking ourselves out of the drink is one more second the Rainbow Rogue uses to get away—!"

    "Sir!" A panicked sailor spun to face his leader in the chariot. "There isn't enough rope or netting to get them back on board quickly enough!"

    "What about the lifeboats?!" Chandler spat. "Why aren't we using them?"

    "Uhm..."

    "Well?!"

    "We... we l-lost all of them when... erm... you sent the privateers away..."

    Chandler blinked. A few seconds later, he was pounding his fetlock against the edge of his chariot. "Dammit! I don't want excuses!" He pointed at the waters, even as more flailing bodies from above plunged into the waves. "Just get everypony on board! We need to mount a second attack to reinforce our brothers and sisters who are still in the air—"

    Just then, the air lit up with runic light. Ponies and griffons in the water shrieked. Chandler's bodyguards rushed towards him.

    "Minister!"

    "Incoming!"

    "Incoming?" Chandler turned around with a bored expression. "What's incoming—shit on a bagel!" He cowered deep in his chariot as—

KA-POWWWW!

    One concussive rune exploded off the port bow and—

BOOOOOOM!

    A second exploded just south of the their sister ship. Walls of water bathed both decks as the bodies of survivors went sailing—and screaming—only to land in even choppier waves on the other side of the armada.

    Chandler's ears were full of ringing and moisture—so that he scarcely made out the words of a spotter positioned haphazardly at his bow.

    "Enemy ship!" she hollered into the bedlam. "Due east! Coming out of the rocks!"

    "Grnnngh!" Chandler gnashed his teeth as he rocked in his chariot. "Fire b-back!"

    The spotter flashed him a panicked grimace. "With what?!"

    Chandler fumbled for words. Even if he could find something to say, the moment was cut off by a second volley exploding directly above them.

POWWWW!

    This time, the runic blast sent the two ships reeling. Breathless survivors gasped and dove out of way before the rusted hulls of both ships could slice their bodies to ribbons. All was confusion and chaos as the waterlogged armada struggled to deal with the surprise artillery barrage.

    The sonic reverberationsreveberations of the runic blasts reached the Emeraldinian platforms in dull thuds.

    Remna stood beside the swaying chalices. She peered in a draconian squint towards the line of rocks to the west. All she could make out was yellow splashes of runic light.

    "I can scarcely tell," she grumbled. "Have they or have they not engaged the enemy?"

    "Uhm..." Flynn took a moment to gaze west. His mechanical eye whirred, the lense circling in and out as he took a survey of the situation. "... ... ...affirmative." He exhaled with a shudder, managing a nervous smile. "Looks like Bard's set out to take on the armada. That's the Stardust's arsenal going off for sure." He cooed, "I'm so proud of you, baby."”

    "Mrmmffff..." Remna gazed skyward. "And what of the Austraeoh's flock?"

    "That rremains to be seen!" Kepler hollered from where he perched beside the Ggondola's golden supports. Water-slick chains of alicorn metal continuously threaded through the rigging, glinting with lightning from the thunderous beyond. "Until we get anotherr signal frrom them, we can only wait and hope!"

    Remna hollered back, "Any sign of the Gondola?"

    "Negatorry!" The wyvern shook his rain-soaked head. "That is also the Rrainbow One's position of knowing rright now! Not ourrs!"

    Remna exhaled. Turning her back to the clattering vials, she faced west once again... staring at the stormclouds... still as a statue.