Chaos

by Ipon

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Dark
Length: 60850

Before the coronation of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, there was Chaos. This is the story of the two young alicorns and their quest to restore harmony to the land of Equestria.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2017-05-09 19:57:47 UTC

Chapter 1

    "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.

Chapter 2

    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.

    "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh—!" The remainder of Chandler's airborne squadron continued their ascent—only to feel a blinding sensation in their peripheral vision.

    The air was sucked out of their lungs, and their nerves were wracked by even more shockwaves. In a breathless stupor, the soldiers glanced straight down in mid-flight.

    They spotted plumes of orange flame erupting on all sides of the Defense Minister's armada. Concussive blasts sent jets of salt water rocketing skyward—until it nearly nipped at their talons and fetlocks.

    The group gawked one second too long. And as their charge carried blindly into the tenth second, they heard an echoing salvo of shouts directly above. Glancing towards the heavens, they spotted several velvety figures clearing the dissipating cloudtops... just as two burning flares flew in sharply from the east—exploding in blinding glory.

Pow!

P-Pow!

Kapow!

    A few of the guardians shrieked, clutching their helmets in momentary blindness. Others were rendered inert as the intense concussions overwhelmed their figures. The rest summoned strength and adrenaline from deep within their armored bodies and continued with their murderous charge.

    "Kill the rogue!"

    "Gut the demons of Blight!"

    "For Verlaxion!!!""

    "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh they're angry," Fluttershy whimpered, shivering as she phased through Rainbow's body—almost as if to hide.

    "They're coming in fast!" Ariel hollered as she and the rest of the group levitated directly above the violent charge. "Bard's runes didn't knock 'em all out!"

    "We'd be stupid to expect them to." Rainbow Dash gnashed her teeth, waving a hoof high for the rest of the flock to see. "Okay, dudes! This is it! Time to get dirty!"

Schiiiing! Wildcard unsheathed both nightsticks as his goggles reflected dozens of angry faces.

"S'lyppa w'lyssa yln H'luun!!!" Enix shrieked, making the very stars above them shake with her penetrating voice. "Sy'lymma w'lymm wyssl nymym thrym!!!

    "Bruise and incompacitate! Remember that!" Rainbow Dash wheezed, holding her place as the air grew heated with the incoming wings. "Beat 'em up! Not slice 'em up!"

    "Try telling them that!" Ariel's voice cracked. The enemy was flying in fast.

    Rainbow nevertheless growled, "Let's be victors today! Not killers!" She threw a fetlock downward at the incoming charge. "For Harmony! For Bleak's Plummet! For Luna!"

    "Vylm H'luun!" Enix echoed, soaring forward with dual scimitars unsheathed.

"Vylm Hluun!!!" the rest of the nightblooded flock joined her charge.

Swiiissssssh! Wildcard stealthily barreled his way towards the front of the charge.

    "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!" Ariel shouted as she and Rainbow rushed in down the middle.

    "Whoah nelly—!" Applejack grimaced, clutching her hat.

    "I-I can't watch!" Fluttershy covered her eyes. She murmured something else, but it was drowned out by the angry shouts of the Central Guard rushing up to meet the Heraldites, face to face and beak to muzzle.

    Golden spears and polearms stabbed the upper troposphere.

    Wildcard made first contact, deflecting several blades with his nightsticks and giving room for Enix and her warriors to rush in and tackle the initial wave of Frostknifers. Soldiers of Chandler's armada tackled sarosians while Rainbow Dash and Ariel collided with them with a flanking swerve. Soon, the air was a cacophonous sea of metallic percussion, lit up by runic explosions as the Stardust continually pelted the lower half of the enemy charge with lunar flak. Before long, the violent, angry screams of several dozen figures blended with the thunder at the end of the world, sending shockwaves back down towards the rippling waters below.

    The sonic reveberations eventually reached the Emeraldinian platforms in dull thuds.

    Logan stopped his anxious pacing. Ears twitching, the large stallion turned on his rear fetlock, squinting towards the source of the thunder-piercing noise.

    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 high above the dissolving stormclouds.

    "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 as well as he could manage. "... ... ...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."

    "Easy, baldy," Logan grumbled.

    "Mrmmffff..." Remna gazed skyward. "And what of the Austraeoh's flock?"

    "That rremains to be seen!" Kepler hollered from where he perched beside the gondola's golden supports. Water-slick chains of alicorn metal continously 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.

    "They... they've made contact!" Raptr wheezed, peering straight up from where he perched on the lower cloudbeds. He spun and threw his fellow wingmates a nervous glance. "Chandler's forces and Rainbow! Surely they've made contact by now!"

    Starstorm whistled shrilly. Following her gesture, the Talon and their rescued companions shimmied in opposite directions—just in time to avoid a hailstorm of loose weapons. Several battered swords and bent spears plunged through the cloudbeds beneath them.

    "That answer your question, rookie?" Windburst droned.

    Starstorm looked at their Commander. "Rainbow's allies have an impressive magical arsenal," she said. "No doubt they've just now whittled down the Central Guard to a tolerable number for hoof-to-hoof combat."

    "Yes." Keris nodded. "But not for long." He gestured at the two ships below that were still recovering from the runic assault. "If I know Chandler, he'll send the rest of the squadron back up as soon as they've gathered their bearings. Whatever Rainbow possesses, her forces will inevitably be overwhelmed again."

    Raptr shuddered. "Then it's just a matter of time." He gasped, jumping aside as a stray helmet fell past him from above.

    "Brothers and sisters of the Talon," Keris spoke. "We've done all that we can from a distance. The time has come for us to get involved intimately."

    "You truly think we should engage?" Starstorm asked. "Maybe we don't need to. Maybe... just maybe... at this rate Rainbow Dash and her allies will hold their own."

    Keris glared at her thoughtfully. "Either we intercept her or Seraphimus does."

    Starstorm clenched her beak.

    "Form up, Talon!" Keris perched on the edge of the cloud, tightening his wing muscles. "Our task is to stave off complete bloodshed! Pacify our fellow soldiers. Fight back Rainbow's allies. Do whatever you need to do to keep this fight from staining the ocean forever!"

    "Aye, Commander!" Starstorm nodded.

    Windburst cocked his crossbow. "Yes, sir."

    "As you say," Raptr added, getting into position.

    "But most important of all..." Keris glared skyward at the distant clashing and sparking of weapons. "...find Rainbow Dash. Intercept her. We must understand what the actual endgame is here!"

    Just before the Talon could take off—

    "C-Commander?" It was one of the soldiers that had been saved from free-fall.

    Keris looked over his shoulder.

    Several of the rescued guards had stumbled back to their hooves and talons. Standing crookedly atop the cloud, a pegasus in the center of the battered group cast Keris a weary look. "What's all of this that we're hearing?"

    Another soldier stammered, "You... are going to kill the Rainbow Rogue, yes?"

    "You've suffered the Blight before," a third wheezed. "Just whose side are you on?"

    "Yeah... what's going on here?"

    Keris replied calmly, "What's going on here?" His feathery brow furrowed. "I am going to do what is best for the harmony and survival of our great nation: Rohbredden. And I suggest you do the same."

    The Frostknifers stared blankly at him.

    So he added in a firm, authoritarian tone: "Stay here. Do not engage the enemy until the command is given to retreat back to Frostknife."

    "Re... r-retreat?" one soldier wheezed.

    "If you value your lives... and the future of your children... and their children... you will follow my command," Keris said. "If you wish to seal your fate here in the darkness of the world's end, then do whatever else. You have my word." He whistled at the others and—

FWOOOOSH!

    —the Right Talon of Verlaxion took wing as one, piercing through the misty heavens above.

    The rest of the guardians stood alone on the cloudbeds, staring at one another. They trembled visibly—and with greater intensity as the unspoken seconds rattled on. Paralyzed by confusion and uncertainty, they watched east and west as more volleys rippled brightly through the air.

Pow!

POWWW!

    More concussive blasts thundered immediately around Chandler's armada from the impacting runic artillery. The rusted decks were doused with relentless waves of ocean water—even as the last of the fallen soldiers had been hoisted on board. Crew ponies and survivors alike scrambled for cover from the shattered ocean waves.

    A bodyguard clung to the side of Chandler's chariot as the vessel they were on rocked violently in the tempestuous waters. "Defense minister!" the griffon shouted, trying to steady both himself and the chariot. "There's no sign of them letting up!"

    "Where are they?!" Chandler snarled, thoroughly doused. He drained water out of his stupidly-large helmet and sneered at his subordinate. "How could they have such a clear shot of our ships?!"

    "All we c-can tell is that the magical blasts are coming from the east, sir!" The bodyguard sputtered as another splash of heated water drenched him and the Defense Minister. "But... to have struck so close to target this many times, they must have an unobstructed view!"

    "Meaning they've cleared the west end of the line of shoals before us?!"

    "Affirmative!"

P-POW! A particularly close charge exploded off the port-side, making Chandler's ship tilt by over thirty-degrees. His chariot reeled—as did he—and at the end of the jostling motion he roared to his fellow crew members. "We can't just sit here in these waters, remaining useless!" He pointed at the aerial fight high up above. "The Rainbow Rogue is up there somewhere! I just know it!" He pointed at the gasping, sputtering survivors. "Get those soldiers to rejoin formation and flank the enemy above!"

    "Defense Minister—!"

    "They're Rohbredden's top elite! And right now, they're needed in the skies! No excuses!" He spun about in his chariot and peered east. "Meanwhile, both of our ships will take out the source of these artillery charges—"

    "Minister, they can't take to the skies!" the subordinate shouted.

    "Rrrrrgh—and why not?!"

POWWW!

    As the ship reeled again, the soldier pointed at the dissipating plume of flame to their starboard. "That's why! So long as we're being pelted like this, no pony or griffon will get airborne!"

    "But..." Chandler fumbled for words. "...but we n-need to eliminate that artillery!"

    "I know, sir!"

    "Then... then..." Chandler gasped for breath as more ocean water pelted the ship. "This is what we'll do!" He pointed at the stumbling soldiers on the water-logged deck. "Take half of the crew! Assemble them into a strike team! Have them take wing—"

    "Minister—"

    "And maintain a low altitude!" Chandler sneered. "By my command, have them flock west and maintain position. Meanwhile, we'll cruise east and draw the enemy artillery fire! Once we get close enough to the enemy to engage, we'll launch the second half of our ship's compliment to flank them by air while our ships make the forward assault!"

    "But sir!" the griffon stammered. "The first half that you send out over the waters..." His hawkeyes narrowed. "What if the artillery sends them plummeting into the drink? We could lose over a dozen guardians to—"

    "I don't care who lives or who dies!" Brye Chandler hollered, the veins showing in his neck. "If we lose the Rainbow Rogue, we lose everything!"

    The subordinate gawked at him.

    Growling, Chandler yanked him up by a few of his down feathers and snarled into his beak: "Send the first half of the squadron out now! Tell them to hold position while we charge the enemy to our east! On the double!"

    "Yes... y-yes, Minister!" The griffon turned around—stumbling as the ship was rocked once more—and approached the rest of the beleagured crew. "Listen! Defense Minister's orders! We form two groups! One will take wing and maintain position west of here! The rest will join the ship as we attract the enemy artillery fire! Once the heat has been taken from this patch of the ocean, the first group will reinforce our forces up above!"

    There was an awkward silence between the claps of thunder—both natural and artificial—as the dumbfounded troops digested the orders given to them.

    "You have been commanded by Verlaxion's chosen!" the griffon sneered. "And you shall obey! We shall obey!"

    At last, the hesitance dissolved, and several waterlogged guardians bowed low.

    "Yes, sir!"

    "Aye, sir!"

    "As the Minister commands!"

    "No time to waste!" Chandler hollered back as he gestured commands at the crewponies surrounding him. "Convey the appropriate signals to our sister ship!" He thew his hoof towards the blackened horizon. "We head east! We face our enemy until there is none left to face at all!"

    "All engines—!"

    "Full speed ahead!"

    "Eyes on the enemy! Find the source of that Blighted magic!"

    Lightning flickered.

    Waves formed.

    Steam engines roared with renewed vigor as the final stretch of ocean was pierced...

    "Bard!" one of the two sarosians stammered. The deck of the Stardust was strewn over with spent runes, and the air was thick with lunar dust. "The two vessels! They are approaching!"

    "Eeyup..." Bard had stopped steering so he could peer through a spyglass. He caught the battered hulls of the twin ships approaching swiftly through stormy waters. "Reckon we dun pissed them off."

    "Do you think the land-dwellers have spotted us?"

    "Hard to say..." Bard shuddered, tilting his spyglass up, up, up. "Not sure it rightly matters." At last, he spotted the hazy image of sarosians and griffons and pegasi fighting hoof-to-hoof in the air. He whistled hard. "Hells bells... now that's a terrible kerfluffle to be missin'."

    "We can give them cover," one sarosian suggested, sweating in the twilight. Thunder rolled overhead as his fangs nervously flashed. "I suggest we fire a volley up high! It could blind the enemy!"

    "Hell no!" Bard frowned. "And wipe out dozens of our own kind?" He gravely shook his head. "Remember what we planned. We wait for a signal from Rainbow and company. If they need us shootin' up the sky 'round them, then and only then do we follow suit."

    "Then what do we do in the meantime?" one sarosian asked.

    Bard exhaled heavily. He squinted past the distant armada. For a moment he saw—or thought he saw—the pale glint of light coming from Bleak's Plummet. "Everythang's fine, so long as they're gettin' a clear path to skedaddle, right, Amber?"

    "Mr. Bard?"

    He cleared his throat. "We hammer 'em, of course!" he exclaimed. "We hammer them rusted pieces of junk with all we've got!" He re-gripped the rudder wheel as he steered the Stardust around for a broad side. "Rainbow's group has their job, and so do we! Whatever we do... them vessels must not reach the Gondola before the Austraeoh! Got it?"

    "Ywm!"

    "Absolutely."

    "Good!" Bard gestured. "Now carry on with them fireworks, buckaroos!" He didn't find the time to smirk after saying that. Lifting his gaze, he stared forlornly at a distant clash of sparks—almost easily mistaken for the twinkle of stars. "Although... nothin's more distractin' than a griffon bastard with woodsheddin' on his mind." His brow furrowed. "Come on, Dubya-Cee. Dun be muddyin' the Desperadoes' name with anythang stupid now, y'hear?

Cl-Cl-Cl-Cl-Clang! Wildcard's nightsticks ricocheted off five helmets and breastplates in a row.

    "Aaaaugh!" Two Frostknifers stumbled back. A third was tackled by an enraged sarosian. The last two angrily spun towards Wildcard and stabbed with their spears.

    "...!" Wildcard juked to the side, twirled, and hooked the length of one spear under his right arm. He backflipped, slamming the full length of his leg into his grip of the weapon.

    "Ooof—!" the soldier was jerked forward, losing his hold of the spear.

    Wildcard finished his backflip, flew forward, spung of the soldiers' backside, and slammed the blunt-end of the spear against the skull of the soldier's partner. CRACK!

    "Aaaaugh!" Both guardians fell, plunging past the combating bodies of sarosians and Rohbreddenites. The air was filled with screams, curses, and the clattering of metal.

    Still—somehow—Wildcard heard Rainbow Dash's shouting voice through the thick of mid-air melee.

    "...?!" He twirled about, goggles glinting from lofty flashes of lightning.

    Ariel was gripping a griffon from behind. Rainbow punched the guardian in the stomach, headbutted him, then joined Ariel in tossing the figure into a row of charging pegasi. As the bodies collided, Rainbow spun to face Wildcard breathlessly from afar. "Crossbows!" she shouted, pointing nebulously in a lofty direction. "Northwest! Up high! Rarity's sensed the barbed metal—"

    Wildcard was already twirling about, scanning the heavens. It took only two and a half seconds to find the tell-tale glint of serrated arrowheads.

    Above the thick of the battle, five members of the Central Guard has found a lonesome cloud. They perched atop of it, forming a phalanx. They notched their crossbows at the same time, eyeing Rainbow and the crowd below.

    "Crossbows!" Enix's voice could be heard above a bevy of screams.

    Wildcard flapped his wings mightily, soaring up towards the line of crossbow wielding soldiers. Just then—thwwpp!—he felt his whole body yanked violently backwards by his tail. A pegasus in gold armor gripped him from behind with a pair of thick-muscled forelimbs.

    "Grkkk..." The bruised and scarred Frostknifer hissed, brandishing a dagger to the nape of Wildcard's neck. "I'll have mercy, traitor... and drain the Blight from your corpse through one hole—!"

    With a calm breath, Wildcard snatched a whalebone spear from a passing sarosian and blindly shoved it backwards, jamming it down the pegasus' throat.

    "Grkkkkkk!" the guardian gargled blood, instantly releasing Wildcard's body.

    The Desperado sprung off him, sailing towards his destination above.

    But it was too late. The soldiers were already taking aim.

    "Incoming—!" Ariel shouted.

    Beak clenched, Wildcard stretched his metal talon straight out.

Thw-Thw-Thw-Thw-Thwifffft! A line of crossbolts sliced into the meat of battle.

Vrmmmmmmm! Sparks flew from Wildcard's magnetized joints. Sweating hard, he manipulated the arrows from a dozen meters away... steering them at a barely noticeable angle. Within half a second, their arc bent upwards... slicing harmlessly over the backsides of multiple sarosians and even nipping a few feathers and locks of mane-hair off. By the time they reached Rainbow and Ariel—

Sw-Sw-Swissssh!

    —the projectiles had pivoted at just the right angle to narrowly thread through the thin space afforded between both mares' fuzzy bellies. Ariel and Rainbow watched breathless as the arrows shot around, doubled-back, and returned to the cloud of crossbow-wielding miscreants from which they came.

    "Get down!"

    "Move—!"

    One soldier was too slow, and an arrow stuck deep into his rear fetlock. Schlunnk! "Aaaaugh!"

    The others deflected with shields and breastplates. Cl-Cl-Clank! Stunned by what had just happened, they lowered their guard with awkward slowness.

    This was precisely when the mute Desperado chose to pounce them. CLAAAANG! His right nightstick slammed so hard onto a griffon's helmet that it split in two. As the others gasped, Wildcard knocked them aside with his shoulder, combined both of his sticks into a single staff, and proceeded to whollop, bludgeon, and concuss the remaining forces atop the lofty cloud. With pained grunts, the assaulted guardians fell off the cloud...

    ...and plummeted past Keris and the rest of the Talon as they flew their way up into the fight.

    "Whoah!" Raptr gazed at one flailing pegasus with a crossbolt through his leg. "These guys aren't dead but I bet they sure wish they were!"

    "Rainbow's allies seemed well-trained!" Windburst managed.

    Blinking, Keris watched a pair of metal objects falling past them. It was two halves of a single helmet. "... ... ...Jordan's here," he said.

    Starstorm flung him a surprised look. "He is?"

    "Don't sound so alarmed." Keris looked up as the fight grew louder and more violent in intensity. "It's the best news we've had in minutes."

    "Should we look for him?" Starstorm asked.

    "Odds are he'll find us first." Keris shook his head. "No. Look for Rainbow Dash. It remains our prime priority."

    "And pacifying this fight...?" Raptr's beak clattered.

    Keris' eyes narrowed. "Forever and always."

    "Well..." Windburst gazed around with his expert hawkeyes. "I do love me a challenge." Just then, his headcrest lifted as he spotted something. "Whoops!" He aimed his crossbolt at a pair of bloodstained combatants. Pffft! The bolt flew true, ricocheted off a guardian's helmet, and knocked the whalebone axe out of the sarosian's grip. Both soldiers were forced apart with a single shot, and their bodies went sailing off into the stormy malaise. "Well then!" Windburst smirked as he loaded another bolt. "Two down... only nine dozen more to go."

    "Keep focused!" Keris said firmly. "And stay together—" Before he could finish that statement, two sarosians pounced on him—shrieking loudly.

    "Whoah damn!" Raptr reacted.

    "Rrrgh!" Starstorm reached in, grabbed a bat pony from behind, and flung him sideways so that Raptr could give him a thick-knuckled punch. A loud shriek pierced the air as Starstorm tossed the midnighter towards the clouds below. "Damn loud, aren't they?"

    "Rrrrngh..." Keris wrestled with the sarosian that had pounced him, fighting the bladed whalebone away. "Less talking and more saving!" With a grunt, he bloodily pecked the sarosian's shoulder and shoved him off. Schiiing! Talons barred, he sliced the nightblooded warrior's weapon in two and blocked another charge. "That's it! Bring your righteous fury to us, Seventh Tribe!"

    "Stormy waters against impervious stone!" Starstorm added, warding off several more.

    "Goddess..." Windburst notched another crossbolt and fired it into the onslaught. "If we survive this shit, we're gonna have to make a damn Talon rule book about catch phrases!"

    "Yeah!" Raptr wheezed, fending off two attackers at once. "What he said!"

    The prow of Chandler's ship shredded its way through a swell of salt water... only for the vessel and its sister to be mercilessly pelted by charge after charge of thunderous runic blasts.

    The Defense Minister flinched barely this time, standing firm in his chariot seat. He and his fellow crewmates braced themselves as they cruised east along their turbulent path. They rode the crest of a rippling wave, and the fortuitous height gave them a spacious view of the jutting rock structures looming along the final horizon.

    Between the artillery volleys, the guardians of Frostknife spotted a moving object: the source of bright, twinkling discharges.

    "There!" a griffon positioned at the bow of Chandler's ship shouted, pointing a rain-soaked claw. He hollered into the thunderous air. "Towards our three o'clock! Moving south rapidly!"

    "Is it a ship?" Chandler asked.

    "Aye, Minister! A skooner! And a small one at that!"

    There was another pulse of light in the distance. A quarter of a minute later, two runic flares flew towards the two ships and exploded between them, tossing water and brine.

    "It's them alright!" Chandler's teeth gnashed as he gripped the edges of his chariot. "Signal the other ship to take point!" He shouted against the thunder. "Full speed ahead! We must overtake them!"

    "They... uh..." The griffon at the bow squinted.

    "What is it now?!"

    The subordinate looked back at the Defense Minister. "They're headed through the narrows, sir! Undoubtedly they're attempting to use the shoals for cover!"

    Chandler panted and panted. Wiping salt water from his brow, he stared up at the distant fight above and behind them... then back at the water beyond the ship's bow. "Is there enough room for our ships to make it through?"

    "Well, yes, sir... but odds are they've scouted this location already! They know the territory!"

    "And we know our pledge to our beloved Goddess!" Chandler spat. "If we don't take out the source of that damnable artillery, then our allies in the air will never have the chance to bring down the Rainbow Rogue!"

    "Aye, sir!"

    "We proceed!" Chandler gestured emphatically as he gazed at the sister ship gliding past their starboard. "Single file! Thread the needle!" His teeth showed as he glared into the glinting mists. "We'll rip their tinfoil raft into ribbons!"

    "Ywm! They're pursuing us!" One sarosian lowered his spyglass and spun about to face Bard. "Both ships! Single-file!"

    "Hell..." Bard spun the rudder-wheel in a blur as he brought the Stardust completely about, facing directly east. "I dunno what's stupider anymore... this plan or them!"

    "The latter, apparently—"

    "Shhh!" Bard steadied the wheel, rocking the ship into a straight glide as he aimed it into the heart of the rock formations. "Save the snappy one-liners to me!" He gestured with a free hoof. "In the meanwhile, use yer breaths for firin' them runes!"

    One sarosian cocked another bleakweed cannon while the other faced the Desperado. "Should we aim for our pursuers?"

    "Nuh-uh!" Bard shook his head. The wet wind blew his ponytail in a brown blur. "They need to think they're headed towards a victory!" His eyes reflected a pair of wooden shipwrecks flanking a narrow strait of choppy water. "Keep firin' at what really ruffles their feathers!" He swung his hoof at the booming twilight. "Give them sky varmints a migraine!"

    "Ywm!" The other sarosian grabbed a cannon and began priming it.

    Bard exhaled as he guided the Stardust through the shipwrecks. "In a moment... we ain't the only ones who're gonna be split up."

    The nightblooded ponies aimed west, tilted their cannons up, and shouted: "M'wynhrm!"

"M'wynhrm!!!"

P-POW!

KAPOW!

    Runic explosions pelted the fringes of the midair melee. As Frostknifers reeled, Ariel barreled through the bunch, bucking and kicking multiple skulls along the way.

    "Nrnnngh!"

Whack!

    "Httt!"

Th-Thwap!

    She nimbly dodged a thrown spear, curved around a lunging griffon, then ended with an uppercut against a charging griffon.

    "Raaaaugh!"

Thokk!

    The griffon—however—recovered from the monumental blow. Beak bleeding, the muscular combatant suddenly loomed above Ariel, glaring her down as the battle clashed all around them. "I am the might of Rohbredden, blighted one. You cannot stop me—"

    Just then—from behind—a sky-blue hoof slammed up right between the griffon's rear legs. The soldier's hawkeyes crossed. With a pitiful whimper, his meaty figure plunged through the clouds, revealing Rainbow Dash behind him, dusting off her fetlocks.

    "Go home!" she shouted after the plummeting body. "And have fun settling 'Falsetto Prefecture!'"

    Ariel exhaled through a shudder. "Must you always one-up me?"

    "You love it, girl."

    "Yeah, well..." Ariel hovered back-to-back with her as the two eyed the chaotic battle around them. "There's a time and a place."

    "You friggin' kidding me?" Rainbow Dash reached out and punched a random pegasus. She dodged a swinging blade and kicked a Frostknifer in the chest. "Grnngh... take it from an adventure veteran!" She headbutted a griffon and shoved his body into another passing soldier. "It's only times like this when you actually get to enjoy yourself!"

    "Yeah?!" Ariel hissed through her teeth as she elbowed one guard and parried the swinging talon of a griffon. "And what about when things are—grggghhh—peaceful?!"

Whack! Rainbow punched another soldier in the face and wheezed. "That's when all you get to do is think..." Her ears drooped. "...and regret."

    "Well then!" Ariel caught a falling spear, twirled it, and deflected two more attacks from the flank. Cl-Clank! Klak! "Who's for an endless fight scene, huh?"

    "Haaaaaugh!" Rainbow visciously vaulted over Ariel's figure and slammed the two attackers hard in their skulls, knocking them into the dissipating clouds below. As lightning and flares exploded, she panted and glanced over her shoulder at Ariel. "...not with an elevator to the Dark Side waiting for us."

    Ariel gulped, nodding into the sudden break in combat. "How's that looking, by the way?"

    "Good question!" Rainbow twirled about, her ruby eyes refocusing on the misty air around her. "Girls?"

    Twilight Sparkle hovered into view. "It's coming, Rainbow Dash! But..."

    "It's not here yet!" Pinkie Pie shook her head vigorously. "Not by a long shot—" An angry hoof phased through her fuchsia face.

    "Grkkk!" Rainbow raised both fetlocks, blocking the random soldier's attack at the last second. Ariel soared around her back and yanked the soldier's helmet completely around, blinding him. Rainbow punished him with a heavy kick into the skull—sending him seaward. "Bard?!" she managed between heaving breaths. "The Stardust?!"

    "Heading east through the shoals, darling!" Rarity stammered, jittery. "They're not alone!"

    Rainbow gulped, gazing at the frenzied bodies battling all around her and Ariel. "Chandler?"

    "Pursuing rapidly!" Rarity exclaimed. "They're approaching the runic trap that our bat pony friends have set!"

    "Well, alright!" Applejack grinned wide, tipping her hat. "Reckon we can kiss his convoy good bye—"

    "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiie!" Fluttershy suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs, gripping her skull hard.

    "...!!!" Rainbow Dash spun around, eyes wide.

    "Fluttershy?!" Twilight gasped.

    "Mmmmmmm—!" the ghostly mare plunged. Pinkie Pie and Rarity swiftly steadied her, their faces awash in concern. "Oh no..." Fluttershy whimpered. "Oh no no no no no no..."

    "Fluttershy, what's the matter?" Twilight asked.

    Rainbow was too busy gawking at her friends to notice an enraged pegasus with a spear charging at her from clear across the clouds.

    "Rainbow, watch your six!" Ariel shouted, wrestling with a griffon. When Rainbow didn't flinch, the Heraldite spat: "Rainbow!" Still, no response. Snarling, Ariel shoved off the griffon, cartwheeled over Rainbow's figure, and came down in time to drop-kick the charging pegasus. "Hrnnngh!" Whack! The enemy's body went plummeting.

    Rainbow snapped out of it. She twirled about to face the griffon that Ariel had been tackling—only to see Wildcard slamming into him from behind. After the Desperado's save, Rainbow and Ariel were alone again. Panting, Rainbow faced her ghostly companions with a worried expression. "Fluttershy... talk to us!"

    "What's the matter?" Ariel sputtered.

    Rainbow gulped. "Are we losing midnighters?"

    Fluttershy's eyes peeked out through a curtain of pink hair. "A wave of d-death..." Shrunken pupils. Tears brimming. "...coming right this way."

    Rainbow blinked. She paled...

"W'ynlppa yln N'ymymme!!!" a sarosian shouted, clanging a pair of whalebone bludgeons together after fending off a few unlucky Frostknifers. Hovering just below the main battle, she ushered two other nightblood warriors closer as they regrouped to form a flanking formation. "L'ywynmya syllpa my'wysll syln H'Luun!"

    The accompanying warriors echoed as one:

    "Sylymym H'Luun!"

"Sylymym H'Luun!!!"

    Aiming her blades skyward, the head sarosian lead the charge. The three velvety figures ascended rapidly... just as a flicker of lightning outlined a serrated shadow approaching them from the west.

    The head sarosian looked to her left. The thunderclouds shifted; a silver shape came rapidly into focus. Then the sarosian saw nothing, for her eyes had been removed.

SCHIIINK! A pair of talons dug halfway into her skull, twisted, and snapped her neck at a grotesque angle.

    The other two warriors scarcely had a chance to react. Whalebone blades swung in the air...

    ...and reflected off a pair of cold charcoal eyes. With the grace of melting ice, Seraphimus rolled over the corpse in her grasp and flung the body's full weight into the two wingmates.

    One dodged swiftly, flying above the bloody fray with a twirl of his velvety figure. He looked down in a voiceless stupor.

    The other was not so lucky. He fumbled backwards in midair, suddenly encumbered with the weight of his fallen comrade. Snarling with undeniable fury, he stabbed his blade at Seraphimus' feathery skull.

    Seraphimus easily deflected the blade so that—instead—it sliced the jugular of the still-twitching corpse pressed between them. Blood spouted in a stream, dousing the sarosian's face and blinding him. Seraphimus breathlessly took advantage of the moment by kicking the bleeding body away and then descending upon the second warrior like a ravenous harpy. She dug her rear talons deep into his chest, piercing both his lungs simultaneously. The sarosian's body twitched, skewered by her merciless attack.

    The third shrieked loudly, unsheathing a dagger and sailing down to avenge his fallen comrades.

    Still with claws embedded in the second's chest, Seraphimus glared straight up. A blood-drenched glare flickered between them, and then—with a sickening pop sound—she ripped herself free of the second midnighter and flew straight up to meet the third's charge. She slammed into him—elbow first—uppercutting the confused warrior's chin. Her other talon caught his dagger just as he dropped it. One twirl, and the blade ended up hilt-deep in his neck—disabling him but leaving his nervous system electrified enough to feel the pain of what came next.

    Carried by the momentum of her upwards glide, Seraphimus perched on the square of the sarosian's backside, reached out to her sides, grabbed two separate handfuls of leather and—riiiiiip—rendered the warrior completely wingless. His mangled torso plunged towards the waters below, leaving a misty cloud of blood in the thunderous air, serenaded by a final scream.

    At last, Seraphimus breathed. Her eyes traced the heavens and—out of all the chaos and confusion—she singled out a single strand of prismatic color. Exhaling... fuming... she dropped the dismembered wings and rocketed up towards the heart of the fray.

    "Rrrrgh!" Keris pummeled a sarosian in the face and tossed the body onto a nearby cloud bed where two Frostknifers lay, bruised and barely conscious. Heaving, the Commander spun about to face another pair of combatants.

    But before he could even attempt to break up the fight—

FWOOOOSH!

    —a silver streak soared up behind him.

    "... ... ..." Keris' headcrest drooped. "...oh Goddess."

    Beak clattering, he spun about and faced straight up through the heart of the battle. At last, he saw Rainbow Dash...

    ...and the body that was hurtling straight for Rainbow Dash.

    "Commander...?" Starstorm asked from somewhere beyond the immediate battle.

    "Talon!" Keris hollered, flapping his wings desperately as he ascended. "Form up—!"

    "She's coming, Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy wept. Screamed. She clutched at her skull as Pinkie and Rarity struggled to steady her. "She's coming straight for us—!"

    "We have to retreat!" Twilight Sparkle shouted. "Fall back! This battle's gone on long enough!"

    "Reinforcements will arrive at any moment!" Rarity insisted.

    "Rainbow...?" Ariel nervously stammered, hovering closer.

    "I'm thinking... I'm thinking..." Rainbow fidgeted in midair as the glinting silver shape grew closer.

    "What's to think?!" Applejack hollered.

    "AJ—"

    "Dag nabbit!" Frowing, Applejack pointed downward. "The moment she gets here, there's only one dang thang that'll stop her from endin' you! From endin' everythang!"

    Rainbow chewed on her bottom lip.

    A copper smell lit the air...

    ...and a mutilated set of nostrils tasted it.

    Enix spun around, eyeslits peering through the heat of battle.

    "Rrnnngh!" another nightblood warrior finished punching a pegasus hard in the skull. Sensing her superior's alertness, she spun about. Her own nostrils flared. "W'ynlppa yln N'ymym... that scent in the air..."

    "Fresh as foaling," Enix purred. "Cold as coral."

    "Blood..." The hair on the back of the other warrior's neck bristled. "Blood of our brothers and sisters!" Schiiing! Unsheathing a scimitar, she lunged forward—

    "No!" Enix held her back with a hoof outstretched. Together, the two peered down at the figure in question.

    Like a banshee, the griffon in question ripped and tore her way through the fight. Sarosians scattered left and right, several clutching bleeding limbs and mangled wings.

    "What... in H'Luun's name... is that...?" the subordinate stammered.

    Enix stared. Pierced fangs shone in the twilight. "A challenge." Schhh-iiiiii-iing! Two whalebone axes kissed the air. "Protect the W'ynlppa yln H'luun!"

    "Ywm, W'ynlppa yln N'ymym."

    "Rrrrrrrrrrrrr—" With a surly growl, Enix spiraled violently through the fight.

    "Rainbow!" Ariel squeaked, glancing aside with a feverish expression. "Call it!"

    Rainbow's jaw clenched hard. Her blood boiled with each heart-pounding second that the figure approached.

    "Rainbow—!" Twilight sputtered.

    "I need..." Rainbow grimaced. "There's..." She grimaced harder. "...no other choice—"

    "Wowie-wowie-wowie!" Pinkie Pie clutched her ghostly mane as it billowed in an invisible wind. She clenched her eyes shut and curled up into a mauve ball. "It's the big one—!"

    "Good heavens!" Rarity gasped, for within the next second—

Swooooooosh! Enix's figure flew in from the side and tackled Seraphimus' body before she was within talon range. A sky-piercing shriek announced the engagement.

    Ariel, Rainbow Dash, and several other figures looked in mid-battle to see...

    ...the two tangled warriors sailing off and piercing a tall column of dark storm clouds flanking the fight.

    Keris' feathery head nearly spun off his neck from tracing the movement of Seraphimus and Enix.

    In the following breath, the pair disappeared entirely from the Talon's view, obscured by mist and thunder.

    "Mrmmmmf!" Hissing, Seraphimus reached a talon out and caught a claw-ful of cloud. "Rrrrr—Raaaugh!" Anchoring herself, she flung Enix completely off.

    Enix flipped multiple times, made contact with the neck of a vertical wall of cloud, and flung one of her dual axes straight back at the griffon. "Eee-eee-eee!"

    Seraphimus waited... waited... and flung her talon up at the last second. CLANK! She miraculously made contact with the blade's hilt, sending it sailing skyward. The weapon disappeared in a blinding crack of lightning.

    As the strobe cleared, both warriors were left facing each other in the claustrophobic pocket of thunderclouds.

    Seraphimus panted.

    Enix panted.

    A roll of thunder.

    And then—

    "You are bathed in the blood of my siblings," Enix said. Not taking her eyes off Seraphimus, she casually reached out and caught her axe as it fell back down. "I shall remember that when I carve out your heart."

    "Seventh Tribe... forsaken bastards of the Seven Seas." Seraphimus' eyes narrowed. "Filth can only be defecated; never avenged."

    "You shall not claim the Blood of Luna." Enix's eyeslits narrowed. "I have pledged my life."

    Seraphimus' beak tightened. "Then you have pledged nothing."

    "Hrmmmm..." Enix smiled... then slowly... icily sliced a fresh scar across her own chest with the tip of one axe. Moments later, her fangs were flashing in the stormlights. "Hressssssssh!" She charged Seraphimus at full speed.

    And Seraphimus waited.

    Pinkie Pie's ears drooped. Her teeth chattered as she spun away from the lower stormcloud to gaze at her friends and anchor.

    Rarity gulped. "There's... there's no way she can survive that fight..." She rubbed her fetlocks together. "...is there?"

    Applejack tilted her hat back, exhaling. "She sure thinks she can."

    "Rainbow?" Ariel leaned in. "What now?"

    Rainbow hovered in a sudden stupor. Snapping out of it, she turned from the battle and faced her friends. "Fluttershy? What do your senses tell you? Is Enix handling it?"

    "Rainbow..."

    "Be honest with us—"

    "Rainbow, it's... it's something else," Fluttershy murmured, calming slightly.

    "What?"

    Sniffling, the ghostly pegasus pointed down.

    "...?" Rainbow spun about. She looked through the fight and saw four winged figures on an intercept course.

    "The Talon..." Twilight Sparkle murmured. Her ears perked up. "...Keris!"

    "And there are reinforcements," Fluttershy added in a nervous voice. "Another squadron—the first guardians who fell." She gulped. "It's nearly twice as much as our friends are battling now."

    "And they're on their way up!" Rarity exclaimed. "I can feel the metal of their blades!"

    "Rainbowwwww..." Ariel leaned in. "Please. Talk to me. What's the score?"

    Rainbow's eyes were locked on the Talon below. She raised her voice to be heard above the clattering and clanging of blades. "Ariel, you have to trust me..."

    "Commander!" Raptr sputtered. "Seraphimus! She just—"

    "I saw." Keris nodded without looking aside. "Eyes front."

    "Huh?"

    "I see," Windburst said, expert eyes locked on the prismatic target. "Orders?"

    "We've got to bridge the gap!" Starstorm said. "Once and for all!"

    "Agreed. Do not change course!" Keris hollered, accelerating swiftly through the battling bodies. "No matter what!"

    "Full feather!" Windburst shouted.

    "And once we make contact..." Keris sneered, squinting into the misty winds. "...get her out of the fight!"

    "Fire up a flare," Rainbow Dash said, hovering out into the open. "Order a retreat to the east."

    "Huh?" Ariel followed Rainbow's line of sight. At last, she saw what the mare saw. "Oh gosh—"

    "Ariel!" Rainbow snapped.

    Ariel ripped her eyes off the Talon.

    "This is your time to shine." Rainbow squinted. "I need you to form the retreat! Let Wildcard take up the rear!"

    "But—"

    "Then fire another flare to signal a detachment to reach the final platform!" Rainbow said. "Bard's about to split up Chandler's forces! Once that happens, we need to get a drop on them! The drop! Do you understand?"

    "I do! But... but what about you—"

    "I will be fine! I promise!" Rainbow hollered—then suddenly grunted as she was attacked by a random Frostknifer. She easily fought off the warrior, taking the moment to sneer at Ariel once again: "This had to come to pass! It's the only way to seal the deal!"

    "What deal?!"

    "Have faith!" Rainbow sputtered. "Faith in Keris!"

    Ariel fidgeted in mid-air.

    "Friggin' go, you sexy melon fudge!" Rainbow—alone—grunted as more and more Frostknifers singled her out. She spun in a frenzied circle, fighting them off one by one.

    Ariel frowned... shook... then spun about completely. She flew up to join a group of sarosians still armed with runic cannons.

    "She's alone!" Raptr shouted, pointing. "You see?!"

    "She's outnumbered!" Starstorm exclaimed.

    "No..." Keris grunted against the friction of the stormy winds. "...she's singling herself out."

    "We've got a good bearing on her now!" Windburst grunted.

    "Yes..." Keris hissed. "...just as she wants us to."

    "Commander...?" Starstorm stammered.

    "Do not slow down!" Keris shouted, piercing the heart of the fight as bodies zipped past them faster and faster. "We must make this look good for Chandler's side! Give the soldiers faith! Prolong the battle!"

    "To what end—?!" Raptr began, but didn't finish. Two sarosians collided with the rookie in mid-air. Breathless, the Talon member flew sideways, struggling to fight them off.

    "Raptr—!" Starstorm made to veer after him.

    "Stay on point, Sergeant!" Keris grunted.

    "Rrrnngh!" she grunted, twirling to avoid a group of bat ponies lunging at them.

    Runic charges exploded above and behind them. Lightning forked as thunder broiled.

    Velvety bodies doubled in the Talon's peripheral.

    Panting, Windburst yelled aside: "Commander! They'll form a front to blockade us—!"

    "Right!" Keris nodded. "Go! Do it!"

    Windburst broke formation. Summoning a war cry from deep within his lungs, he barreled sideways and plowed mercilessly into the advancing nightblood flock. The group was thrown into chaos as Keris and Starstorm soared past them.

    "Commander..." Starstorm trembled, her wing muscles growing weak.

    "Just a little further..." Keris droned.

    Starstorm squinted into the winds. "Only the two of us—?"

    "We're going to intercept her," Keris said with his final breath. He braced his upper body muscles. "Only because she's going to let us."

    Starstorm nodded in silence. Together, the two remaining members of the Talon threaded their way through the last remaining meters of the battle.

    Rainbow Dash kicked one soldier, punched another, and deflected the spear-stab of a third.

    She yanked the spear from his grasp, uppercutted the Frostknifer, and spun about...

    ...to see Pinkie Pie's twitching face. "Brace yourself, Dashie—"

    A wall of talons and feathers shot through her and connected with Rainbow.

    Rainbow's body was prepared. The spear in her grasp was not. The weapon flew into splinters as Keris and Starstorm impacted her figure.

    With a combined grunt, Starstorm and Keris expertly twisted their wings. Their upwards arc curved about, and soon they were plummeting with Rainbow Dash in tow. The combined push threw the whole group downwards, sailing murderously past bruised soldiers and gasping sarosians. Twilight and the rest of the ghostly mares yelped, forced to flail after them by a lavender force field.

    "Haaaaaaaaaaugh!" Enix came sailing down at Seraphimus with both axes swinging.

    "Hrttt!" Seraphimus crossed her forelimbs, blocking the hilts of both weapons and holding Enix back.

    Lightning flickered around them...

    ...just in time to illuminate the flesh of three bodies piercing that very pocket of stormclouds from above.

    Seraphimus' charcoal eyes twitched. Feverishly, she looked all around for a trailing streak of rainbow color that had briefly crossed her vision.

    Enix capitalized on the moment, twisting her grip of the axes. "Hssssssssh!"

Sliiiink! Seraphimus' shoulder suffered a deep gash.

    "Aaaaaugh!" Seraphimus' pupils shrank. The whites of her eyes brimmed with lightning. "You want blood?!?" With a focused grunt, she uncrossed her arms, knocking back Enix's grip of her axe-hilts. In the shriek that followed, she threw her body forward, mounting Enix's chest and biting a beak-full of ear. Without hesitation, she tightened her neck muscles and twisted.

    When Enix next screamed, she could only half-hear it. Dropping both axes, she hugged her savage assailant just as tightly and dug her fangs deep into Seraphimus' right arm. Bloodily, the two wrestled and pinballed off the insides of the stormcloud.

    While down below...

    ...Keris, Starstorm, and Rainbow Dash continued their plunge.

    Their bodies formed a single comet of feathers and fuzz as they approached sea level.

    The sight was not lost to Chandler's Armada.

    "Defense Minister!" a crew pony hollered, pointing northwest from where they cruised.

    Chandler wrenched his eyes off the distant Stardust to the east. He caught sight of the three figures in their mutual dive. His jaw dropped. "Verlaxion's sleet, Commander, you've done it..."

    Eyes wide, multiple members of the Central Guard watched as the Talon and Rainbow plunged towards the line of rocks.

    At the culmination of their fall, they sailed straight into the decrepit shell of a shipwreck...

SMASSSSH!

    ...and collapsed deep inside the ancient wooden structure.

    "Ooomf!" Starstorm sprawled across a rocky bed.

    "Grnngh!" Keris went sliding to a stop against the remnants of a battered mast.

    "Httt!" Rainbow was the only one to land with a modicum of grace. She backflipped and slid to a stop, surrounded by a smattering of loose splinters. Wheezing, she struck a fighting pose, leaning up on rear hooves. "Look! I told them to go easy on you guys! I mean it—!"

    "Rainbow..." Keris wheezed, struggling to stand up.

    Starstorm squirmed atop the rocky platform.

    Rainbow sputtered into the hazy shadows of the hollow wreck while runic explosions thundered outside. "But it's a friggin' bloodbath! And... and then Seraphimus comes soaring in all panties and vinegar and—"

    "At ease!" Keris hollered, glaring.

    "...!!!" Rainbow Dash plopped down on all fours, standing at attention.

    Starstorm looked up, dazed and breathless.

    Keris stood, took a calming breath, and spoke: "Now... we haven't much time."

    Rainbow gulped. "No. We haven't."

    "Please..." Keris motioned with his talon. "Give us the short version."

    Rainbow looked at her marefriends. Then—trembling—she looked back at Keris. And nodded.

    "Make it super short," Starstorm wheezed... then collapsed again. Thwump.

    "Hy'myll!!!"

    "Wy'lymym symlym!"

    Several sarosians high above paused in battle, gawking at the broken patch of clouds through which Rainbow had been forcefully shoved by the combined force of Keris and Starstorm.

    "W'ynlppa yln H'luun ly'slym w'lynym!"

    "Ywm! S'lyssa wy'lymmlym sylym'wylm!"

    "Eee-eee-eee!"

    Blades drawn, several nightblood warriors broke from the fight and dove to the rescue...

    ...only for Ariel to fly directly in front of them. She blocked their charge with forelimbs outstretched.

    "No! No! She's alright!"

    The sarosians merely sneered at her.

    "Trust me!" Ariel stared them down, frowning. "This is all part of the plan!" Taking a deep breath, she then shouted, "There's a thick wave of reinforcements coming from the west! The Blood of Luna needs us to perform a temporary retreat!" She gestured to one sarosian. "Fire the signal! We head east! And you!" She caught the attention of another group. "Signal for the 'drop,' then head to the platforms! The Stardust is about to make its move and you're the backup!"

    The warriors exchanged glances... then nodded in one accord. Shrieking to one another, they flocked east while two separate groups primed their runic cannons.

    "Wildcard!" Ariel yelped, already flapping her wings and cruising east. "Wildcard! Time to go! Move your kitty cat butt!"

WHACK!

    Wildcard punched a hapless pegasus in the muzzle with his metal fist.

    Panting, he twirled his combined nightsticks and turned to face a line of soldiers.

    "...Wildcard!"

    His shoulders shook upon hearing Ariel's shouting voice. Goggles glinted with the fresh flash of bright blue light from above. The first of two flares was being fired high into the misty troposphere. As it exploded, the Desperado could spot a dense wave of Rohbredden reinforcements flying up from the lower west clouds.

    Beak clenched, the griffon split his nightsticks back into two, pocketed them into his bandolier, and turned tail. He sliced eastward in a swift glide...

    ...bursting a cloudbed to vapors just above Windburst's rattled skull.

    "Grffff!" The sergeant wrestled with three separate sarosians who were lingering behind the group flocking east. Fanged teeth and whalebone blades nipped at his feathery neck. "Go... huff on some... guano!"

    The group overpowered him. One particularly strong midnighter raised his hoof to slam hard into Windburst's beak.

WHAM! A savage paw from above slammed across the bat pony's cheek, followed by a merciless uppercut. The sarosian nearly backflipped from the combined blows.

    Windburst wheezed, flailing back as Raptr's figure soared in, knocking the attackers off him completely. The sarosians grasped their pummeled companion... and flew east instead of re-engaging with the two Talon members.

    A breath later, Raptr was reaching over to support Windburst's figure in a steady hover.

    The Sergeant gulped, visibly dazed. "I owe you one, rookie."

    "Didn't think I'd live to hear that," Raptr replied. Before he could say anything else, he and his superior were greeted with the sound of whipping winds. They looked around themselves to see that the sarosians had formed a hasty retreat. What's more, Chandler's reinforcements were flying speedily after them with passionate vigor. "Looks like the battle's shifted!"

    "Obviously." Gulping, Windburst squinted up at the remnants of a blue plume of runic fire. "That magic. They're signaling each other."

    "What the heck is Rainbow Dash planning?"

    "I don't know." Windburst flapped his wings, urging himself and Raptr east. "But one thing's for sure: we gotta stick with the soldiers."

    "What if it's just another trap?"

    "Doesn't matter!" Windburst's beak clenched hard. "Whatever the Commander and Starstorm's got planned with Rainbow, they'll be needing us to keep tabs on the battlefront!"

    "Have you seen what happened to Chandler's armada?" Raptr asked, flying even with Windburst as they followed the eastward chase of the sarosians. "I lost track of it during that final charge! There isn't much of the world left, y'know!"

    "Beats me. But if Keris and Rainbow can work something out, then maybe we won't have to worry about—"

    Windburst's speech was interrupted by a brilliant flash of purple light. He and Raptr looked up, gawking at a fresh runic flame.

    "What in the Hell does that mean?" Raptr asked.

    Windburst could only shrug. "Limited time sale on saddlebags?"

    The purple flare arced over a stormcloud...

    ...and illuminated the lower twilight of the world's edge. It's pulsating aura could easily be seen from the Emeraldian platforms.

    "And now there's a purple one!" Flynn exclaimed, his metal lens rotating above a bright grin. "Everything's right on track!"

    "Hell yeah!" Logan shifted the weight of his axe and approached the western edge of the granite. "Time to get my hooves wet!"

    "Stave your manic enthusiasm for a sane second, mortal," Remna droned. She turned to look back at Flynn. "The blue flare just seconds ago..." Her draconian eyes narrowed. "...that means Enix's flock is retreating. Yes?"

    "But they held their position for so damn long!" Flynn said with a smug grin. "Now that the purple signal's burning through the sky, that can only mean Chandler's taking our bait like a ravenous shark! It's time to help Bard out with the drop!"

    "But... if the Austraeoh was in trouble..." Remna's brow furrowed. "...they would find a way to inform us as well...?"

    "Therre was no colorred signal designed forr that, drragon one," Kepler said from the very edge.

    "And why not?" Remna growled.

    Kepler adjusted his fogged spectacles. Tusks shone in a flash of lightning. "The Austrraeoh did not wish to accept failurre."

    Remna said nothing to that.

    "Hey walrus guy!" Logan hollered towards the end of the world. "Got your shit ready?"

    "By crrude excrrement, I assume you rreferr to my alchemic tools!" Kepler pointed a claw at a rain-soaked satchel. "Therre it be, frriend! Rready forr yourr experrt application!"

    "Bitchin'." Logan trotted over and heaved the bag over his shoulder along with his axe. "Now... if only those bat ponies would get their velvety plots over here..."

    "There are six headed this way at full speed, Big Show," Flynn said, gazing west with his prosthetic eye. "It'll be your time to shine soon enough!"

    Remna gazed past him. She observed the golden spokes with the rattling alicorn chains right above the deluge. "Is the Gondola any closer?"

    "Harrd to tell, Axan," Kepler said, shaking his head. "The speed of the moving chains has not changed."

    Remna growled, "If that lift does not arrive soon, all is lost."

    Kepler glared back at her. "If we lose hope in Rrainbow, it will mean nothing once it does arrrive!"

    Remna was silent. The air chimed with empty, dangling chalices between the thunder.

    "The Darrk Side continues to wait! Rright now, we must finish ourr business in the light!"

    With a somber breath, Remna turned to face west once again. Her slitted eyes lingered on the purple flare...

    ...just as the lunar dust dissipated, falling like snow into the narrow spaces between stormclouds. Lightning flickered, melting them away... and the ensuing thunder serenaded the bodies of two bloodied warriors in intense combat.

    "Rrrrrgh!" Seraphimus blocked and dodged multiple axe swings.

    "Eee-eee-eee!" Enix twirled and swung and sliced with her blades.

    Seraphimus backflipped, ducked a savage swing, then slammed two of her rear paws hard into Enix's belly. Whump!

    Enix flew back from the blow, then slammed her back into a vertical column of dark-gray clouds.

    "Htttt!" Seraphimus charged straight at her, serrated talons raised.

    Enix crossed her blades—Clannnng!—blocking Seraphimus' attack. She headbutted the enraged griffon, then swung her whalebone weapons apart. "Hresssh!"

    Seraphimus flew backwards from the dual swipe. Her charcoal eyes twitched, reflecting one of the axes being thrown at her skull. Swisssssh! She ducked—barely—and a few headcrest feathers were lopped off at the base of their quills.

    Sucking in her breath, Enix kicked off the cloud and came sailing down at her opponent with the single axe swinging savagely. She shrieked into the storm as a fork of lightning illuminated her dark descent. In the ensuing blackness, her blade struck nothing—for Seraphimus had used the blinding strobe to strafe sideways, unseen.

    Enix's eyeslits darted from side to side. She only had one good ear now, so she tilted her skull left—hearing nothing but thunder. She then tilted her skull right—

    "RAAAAAAAAUGH!" Seraphimus speared her in the side, shoving her beak deep into Enix's ribs. Schlunnnk!

    The nightblood warrior opened her muzzle to scream, but her lungs were too agonized to produce a breath. She slammed her elbow down onto Seraphimus' skull.

    Seraphimus bore the brunt of the blow. As vision flickered in her brain, she managed to overpower Enix, grasping for control of the axe. The two struggled for a bit, wrestling for the hilt. At last, with a bloody roar, Seraphimus simply kicked the blunt middle of the blade. CRACK! Pale whalebone bits splintered between them. Seraphimus plunged through the calcified cloud, shoving Enix down... down... down through the narrow pocket of storms. Each flash of lightning illuminated a splash of blood as Seraphimus' merciless talons raked and sliced at Enix's trembling, guarding fetlocks.

    At last, air found its way back into Enix's lungs, and it came out in a high-pitched shriek that broke the heavens.

    "East!" Ariel shouted, flying at the front of the sarosian flock. "Fly east until you reach the clouds we built above the shoals! Wait for the Drop to finish! You'll know it when you hear it!" She turned and gestured at the midnighters around her. "We'll hold our position there in the sky! The last stand! The Central Guard must *not*** advance any further!"

    Wildcard took up the rear. He had a full survey of the surviving members of Xarchellus' defenders. But that wasn't what had stolen his attention at the moment.

    "...?" In a jerking motion, the griffon looked back and behind him. His goggled eyes searched the clouds below. Silent, he tilted his head to listen.

    Beyond the thunder... beyond the wingflaps and angry shouts of the pursuing Frostknifers...

    "... ... ..." Wildcard's flesh and metal talons clenched tightly.

    "Use whatever you can to hold back the enemy!" Ariel shouted to their allies. "Stormclouds! Lightning! Even rainwater! Those of you with cannons, lock and load your last runes! We have to buy Rainbow Dash time to board the Gondola!" Looking back, she hollered: "Wildcard! How close are the enemy reinforcements?"

    No response.

    Ariel's ears drooped. "Wildcard?"

    Wildcard was gone.

    "Grkkk..." Enix choked on her own blood. Squinting through one good eye, she coiled her muscles, flew backwards, and flung a left hoof... then a right.

    Seraphimus easily dodged the blows, twirled to the side, then kicked Enix hard in the flank.

    "Aaaugh!" Clothed in over two dozen fresh scars, Enix barreled sideways.

Fwooooosh! Seraphimus was there in a blur. She greeted Enix's lopsided glide with an uppercut. WHAM! She followed this with a full set of talons slicing mercilessly across the sarosian's backside. Sliiiiiiink!

    "Eeeeeeeeeugh!" Enix plummeted back.

Th-Thump! Seraphimus' claws closed tightly around Enix's trembling neck. The griffon lifted her in a vice-like choke hold. The two hovered a hundred feet above the choppy waves. Enix dangled like a bird-of-prey's last meal, and her wings could barely move.

    Seraphimus took a few deep, fuming breaths. Just as her claws began sinking in...

    ...Enix managed a wheezing chuckle through her fangs.

    Seraphimus raised an eyecrest at that. "Pleasure?"

    "Hrkkk..." Enix's slitted pupils rolled back. "A good death."

    The griffon exhaled heatedly. "A pitiful life." Schiiiiiing! She unsheathed a dagger from her belt. The crest of Queen Verlaxion glinted with moisture and lightning. "I'll make this quick so you won't have to taste the pain of the Rainbow Rogue's betrayal."

    Enix's velvety lids closed. "Syl'pymmyl, H'Luun," she whispered to the dark winds.

    And Seraphimus shoved the dagger straight into Enix's throat...

    ...only for it to suddenly stop in mid-air. The tip of the blade quivered mere millimeters from the sarosian's jugular vein.

    Seraphimus blinked at the hilt of the blade as it magically resisted her. Off in the distance, a metallic vibration intensified. "... ... ...Jordan." She threw a sharp look over her shoulder.

    A shadow murked towards her. Twin lenses glinted in the stormlights.

    "Httt!" Seraphimus spun about. She flung the knife up at the smokey figure.

Cl-Clank! Twin nightsticks deflected the dagger with a flash of sparks. With a mute snarl, Wildcard descended upon her with the full weight of righteousness.

WHAM! Seraphimus and Wildcard went plunging one way...

    ...and Enix's limp figure fell the other.

    A flash of lightning showed the three bodies splitting. The waves below sprayed hungry mists before the inevitable thunder cascaded, enshrouding the delicious chaos of the moment.

    "Ryckmun!" a voice jubilantly shrieked through the gnarled chambers of Bleak's Plummet. All around the huddled sarosians, runes embedded in the walls flickered to life with renewed vigor. "S'lywymym th'yslla ly'symylm syl thy'wymyn!"

    "Ly'symwym!" Echo hollered back, suddenly grinning. As more shrieks rang through the corridors, he let loose a high-pitched chirp. "Eee-eee-eee! Sy'wysslym Xarchellus w'ylymm syl my'wym!"

    It took all of Nicole's will-power to wrench her gaze from the flares and flashes of the ongoing battle to the east. "What? What is it? Sounds like good news!"

    "Only the goodest!" Echo beamed. "The rune-keepers are making progress! I'm being told that we're minutes away from the lunar stones being re-enchanted!"

    "Does... does that mean—?"

    Echo nodded, patting Nicole's shoulder. "We're just minutes away from taking another dive." He gazed out the translucent window, eyeslits narrowing. "At this rate... those bastards will never catch up to us."

    "Then... this is going to work?"

    "For us and the rest of Bleak's Plummet, totally."

    Nicole gulped, her eyes locked once again on the shadows beyond the tempestuous waves. "And... and Rainbow and the rest?" She bit her lip. "How will we know they've made it?"

    Echo took a deep breath, his smile fading for the moment. "Red."

    "Huh?"

    "A red flare," Echo said. "That's the signal for Enix and her nightblood butt-buddies to fly west and rejoin the Exodus."

    "And... and it will mean that Johnny and Rainbow made it to the elevator, right?" Nicole tilted the brim of Bard's hat and looked directly at Echo. "Right?"

    He swallowed. "We can only hope."

    There was more than a little bit of trembling.

    "It will arrive here any m-minute!" Rainbow Dash stammered, wet and shivering. Her voice cracked, echoing against the broken and bent shell of the wooden shipwreck around them. "Mortuana's half-sister and the Emeraldinians from the far west b-built it ages ago—"

    "Don't get hung up on the tiny details, Rainbow," Twilight insisted—

    "Rrrrr..." Rainbow clenched her teeth. "Bottom line is—the Gondola will take us to the Dark Side so I c-can finish my flight to the Midnight Armory along with the Herald! We're just trying to fight off Chandler's thugs until the thing gets here! That's it! We d-don't want to kill you guys!"

    Keris nodded, waving a talon. "And..." His hawkeyes narrowed. His posture was calm despite the tension in everyone's voices. "...that giant floating structure to the west?"

    "It's Bleak's Plummet!"

    "That's Bleak's Plummet?" Starstorm wheezed, finally getting up on all four limbs.

    Rainbow Dash nodded. "The sarosians... the midnighters..." She gulped. "Princess Luna spoke to them through her enchantment on my pendant." She held a hoof to the Element of Loyalty. "She c-convinced them to assist us. They're loyal to me and everything I say. The goal here is just to hold out until the Gondola arrives! I promise!"

    "I believe you, Rainbow—"

    "No, listen!" Rainbow's eyes narrowed on Keris. "The Seventh Tribe has no quarrel with Rohbredden or the Central Guard. Luna and I sent them on a mass exodus west... back home! Back to Equestria!" Her ears twitched in earnest as she spoke. "They're going to head through the southern waters—avoiding all continentals and colonialists and wiendigoes. Once they get to the Grand Choke, they're gonna be in for a tough time but—you have to believe me—they have no intention of messing with anypony from Rohbredden—"

    "You want us to allow them safe passage," Starstorm declared.

    "Bleak's Plummet looks big, but it's like a giant hard-boiled egg! It's super squishy and fragile! They can't fight off a single squadron of Central Guardians! You have to understand—"

    "Say no more," Keris insisted. He stepped closer to the petite pegasus. "I will do everything in my power to make sure that their westward journey is unchallenged."

    Rainbow gazed at him, trembling. She gulped. "Theanim Mane—"

    "He will assist the cause with no less passion," Keris said. "This, I can assure you."

    Applejack looked at Rainbow. "He's tellin' the truth, sugarcube."

    Rarity spoke up: "I think we all know that already, Applejack."

    Rainbow glanced at her friends, then at Keris. Her ears drooped as the trembling increased. "I'm... I'm s-sorry for everything."

    "Rainbow Dash..." Keris exhaled.

    "For... for Verlaxion. For Frostknife. The wiendigoes." She grimaced, flinching as more thunderous blasts rocked the wooden shipwreck around them. "For... f-for everything! And now this... this crud." She clenched her teeth. "I had to blow up the first ship. We hadn't planned for that. It was the only way to stage this like we needed to. And now we've got to put the drop on another ship or else they'll ruin everything—"

    "Shhhhhh..." Keris rested a talon on Rainbow's shoulder. "We both know that Chandler's the real obstacle here. We've been trying our best to hamper his progress. We've only been moderately successful."

    Rainbow took a deep breath, staring him down. "It's not Chandler I'm worried about."

    Keris blinked.

    Starstorm cleared her throat. "Commander, we can't linger much longer."

    "The Sergeant's right." Keris nodded, facing Rainbow again. "Your defense force is noble—but they are outnumbered."

    "I'm guessing there isn't much you can do about that."

    "At the first opportunity I get, I will command our forces to retreat back to Frostknife."

    "Yeah?" Rainbow arched an eyebrow. "What are the odds of that happening?"

    "This 'drop' you speak of." Keris cocked his head aside. "I assume the aim is to completely disable what's left of Chandler's armada?"

    "Yeah." Rainbow nodded. "Assuming Bard and company have our backs."

    "And they totally-doodily-do!" Pinkie Pie chirped, giggling.

    Rainbow glanced at her, then back at Keris. "We just might spook Chandler badly enough for him to give authority to you."

    "That could still happen." Keris nodded. "In the meantime, you should return to your Herald. We will protect them from both sides of the front."

    "I... I couldn't have gotten this far without you, dude..." Rainbow's voice took on a squeaking tone. "Once the Gondola arrives and I'm Dark Side bound, I'll be out of your feathers—I swear. Rohbredden... Kihutaja... I'll be out of everyone's hair."

    Keris managed a smile. "We're better for having had you... if even for a blink."

    Rainbow's muzzle dropped. "But... Verlaxion... the wiendigoes..."

    "Yes, it pains us. Endangers us. But one day... we will have peace because of it." Keris took a breath. "Perhaps then... our children will be ready for the truth. Not just to embrace it... but to share it with the likes of Equestria's descendants. And we will be friends once again."

    Applejack smiled. She looked at Rainbow.

    Rainbow took a shuddering breath. Misty eyes reflected Keris' calm expression. "When you see Theanim... tell him Echo is safe. Happy... and he's going home."

    "You have my word." Keris leaned forward. "Now... hit me."

    Fluttershy and Rarity did double-takes.

    Rainbow blinked. "What?"

    "For this encounter to be convincing... it will have to look as though you overpowered us both in battle," Keris said.

    "Otherwise, the Central Guard might suspect something," Starstorm said, approaching the two. "Their superstitious belief in the Blight will do the rest."

    "Okay..." Rainbow tightened her muscles. "...though I can't say I'll enjoy this." She looked at Starstorm—

    "No." Keris stood in the way. "Just me."

    Starstorm looked at him. "But—"

    "My prerogative." He pointed a talon at her. "I need you to help round up the Talon once again. Track down Seraphimus." He looked at Rainbow. "Nullify all threats."

    Rainbow breathed, rearing her hooves. "Thank you."

    Keris stared into her limbs. "Good luck, Rainbow Dash."

WHAM! He punched him savagely across the beak.

    Keris took the blow. He squinted at her. Magenta eyes piercing.

    Rainbow brought both fetlocks together and whalloped him twice more. WHAM!

    Twilight and Pinkie winced.

WHACK!

    Sputtering blood, Keris leaned into Rainbow Dash. Rainbow gripped him while Starstorm grasped both "combatants" from the side. A combined breath... a mental countdown... and—

SMASSSH!

    —all three bodies went careening out the top of the shipwreck, showering the tempestuous waters with loose chunks of wood.

    The advancing line of Central Guardians glanced down in mid-flight.

    "Rrrrrrgh!" Rainbow Dash spread her wings out in a violent display. Starstorm and Keris were tossed off like ragdolls. "Stupid punks!" she spat, gnashing her teeth in the twilight. "You call that 'Rohbredden's Finest!' Ha!" With a flick of her short tail, she turned east and ascended rapidly. "Verlaxion's children are even lamer than she was! You're not worth my time!"

    Starstorm and Keris plummeted...

    ...until a group of armored soldiers dove down, catching their bodies.

    "Commander!"

    "The Rainbow Rogue! You found her!"

    "How did you—"

    "Grkkk!" Keris gargled blood, raising a weak talon towards the thunderous sky. "Powerful! Far... m-more powerful than I anticipated...!"

    "We didn't stand a chance on our own against her!" Starstorm added, wheezing.

    "The Talon c-can't afford to engage her on its own!" Keris stammered. Spitting blood, he frowned towards the heavens. "We need the Central Guard! Either we bear the full weight of Verlaxion's wrath on her or we don't fight her at all!"

    "Then... th-then what are your orders, sir?"

    "Signal the soldiers!" Keris hollered. "Tell them to wait right here!"

    "Wh-what?!" one soldier gasped. "But... but the Rogue is getting away—"

    "Wait here to regroup!" Keris insisted. He flapped his wings, managing a weak but stable hover. "Then—once we're one full squadron again—we will form a line and break through the final thunderclouds!" He hollered at the rest of the guardians as they flew close. "She's got nowhere left to run! Stay strong!" He waved a talon in the air. "Hold position and standby for orders!"

    "You heard your Commander!" Starstorm exclaimed.

    The soldiers blinked at one another. Then—with a shared scowl—they tilted towards the heavens and shouted at the rest of the straggling groups: "Hold here to regroup! Commander's orders!"

"Guardians of Rohbredden...!"

"Form up!"

"Form up!"

"Show of arms!"

    Fluttershy squinted at the airborne troops behind as they grew more and more distant. She turned to face Rainbow in mid-flight. "It's working! The line is holding!"

    "Good!" Rainbow stammered, piercing the clouds in her ascent. "That should give us some breathing room!"

    "What now?" Applejack asked.

    "We gotta meet up with Ariel and the others, right?" Pinkie asked.

    "They're up there!" Twilight pointed at the top of a line of thunderclouds above the shoals. "I can sense the runic cannons being recharged!"

    "Good..." Rainbow Dash shuddered, squinting into the mists and lightning. "...now we wait for the Drop. If anything will egg Chandler on one last time... it's that."

    "Come on, Bard..." Rarity wrung her forelimbs together. "Come on, you handsome devil, you..."

    "Defense Minister!" A griffon along the ship's stern lowered a spyglass and looked towards the center of the vessel. "The Rainbow Rogue! She's escaped the grasp of the Talon"

    "What?!" Chandler hollered from his chariot. "How badly is the Commander's team hurt?!" Before he could be answered, the ship rocked as a loud grating noise pierced everyone's ears.

Scraaaaaaaaaaaaape!

    "Rnnngh!" Chandler steadied himself as the ship finished grazing the edge of a jutting rock along the port side. He reached out and slapped a random soldier. "Easy does it!"

    The soldier winced and shouted towards the bow. "Keep us clear of the rocks!"

    "Sorry! But..." A charter grimaced, his eyes reflecting countless shoals and splashing waves. "...there are so m-many of them!"

    Chandler leaned forward, shouting into the noise of roaring water. "At least tell us our sister ship is making headway!"

    "Yes, from the look of it!" Another pony stared down a spyglass. The hull of the other privateer vessel appeared in brief glimpses between the rock structures ahead. "It should be gaining on the Blighted vessel any moment now!"

    "Keep an eye on them!" Chandler exclaimed. "We need to destroy the source of that artillery barrage as quickly as possible!"

    "Sir!" the spotter at the ship's stern stammered. "Our forces!"

    "Shhh!" Chandler waved a blind hoof, squinting beyond the bow. "Yes—yes! They're chasing the Rogue! As I ordered them—"

    "That's... th-that's just it, Minister! They're not!"

    "Overpowering the Talon is one thing, but the entire squadron—" Chandler did a double-take. He looked back at the stern, muzzle agape. "Whaaat?"

    "They're... holding position in the air!"

    "Stationary?"

    "Aye, sir?"

    Chandler's emerald eyes darted around. The hair beneath his armor stood on end as he scowled. "The Commander... is he among them?"

    "I... I believe so, yes."

    Chandler gnashed his teeth, pacing about inside his chariot. "Dammit... dammit..." He clenched his eyes shut. "Blast it, Seraphimus, where are you...?"

    The Defense Minister was too distracted to see their sister ship ahead of them passing right between two ancient shipwrecks.

    "Here it comes..." Bard leaned forward over the Stardust's rudder-wheel, staring intensely at the incoming vessel. "Here it friggin' comes..."

    "They do not suspect a thing," one sarosian said, squatting beside his companion with a brightly-enchanted bleakweed cannon. "Even with the silence of our runes."

    "And the ship behind them?"

    "Keeping a safe distance." The sarosian squinted. "But... they also appear distracted."

    "Well, they're fixin' to get more flummoxed." Bard took a deep breath. "Just say the word... once the first ship's halfway through the strait..."

    "Aaaaaaand..." The sarosian's leafy ears perked up. His fangs flashed. "...they're in position!"

    "Now!" Bard hollered. "Light it up!"

    The first sarosian patted his partner's shoulder.

"Y'mnym!" the warrior hissed into the cannon's runes. They flared up with brilliant sparks. He followed it up with a bold: "M'wynhrm!"

Pffffffffffftchoooom! The thick missile of enchanted runes flew brightly—and loudly. Carrying an extra dense payload of lunar dust, the projectile hurled like a screaming banshee over the forest of rocky structures...

    ...and trailed sparks over the front ship of Chandler's armada.

    Dumbfounded, the crew ponies on board watched it fly overhead. Their bodies turned—necks craning—as they nervously watched the culmination of its arc.

    The projectile flew harmlessly past the vessel's bow.

    "Whew..." One pegasus turned to smirk at a griffon. "Dumb midnighters. They missed!"

    That's precisely when the missile flew in between the twin shipwrecks behind them. The runic aura triggered the explosive enchantments placed within the separate structures hours ago and—

PHWOOOOOMB!

    A solid wall of burning flame stretched across the rocks, blocking the strait entirely. Meanwhile, layers of splintery debris rained down on the ship.

    The crew shrieked and flailed. They hadn't a moment to react to the debris—for their ship was being propelled forward by a miniature tidal wave of boiling proportion.

    The helmsman struggled to keep the vessel straight. It was a futile endeavor. Within seconds they were ricocheting off one rock formation after another—until at last the craft grinded to a halt against a chunk of smoothe granite. Water thoroughly soaked the Frostknifers as they fought to maintain their balance.

THOOMB!

    Chandler gasped, spinning around in his chariot. What he saw nearly blinded him. He raised an armored forelimb, shading his eyes from the solid wall of fire erupting before the bow of the ship.

    Waves of salt water rolled westward, tossing the ship from side to side. The soldiers on board groaned in discomfort. Moisture evaporated off the hull from the sheer heat of the runic discharge.

    "Flames!" a charter sputtered, reeling. "We're headed straight for it—!"

    "All stop!" Chandler exclaimed. "All stop, damn you!"

    "Allll stoppp!"

    The gears of the ship's engines rattled. Smoke erupted through the deckplates. Nevertheless, they were miraculously able to hault the vessel's movement before the bow could kiss the vaporous plasma erecting a burning wall ahead of them.

    "Nnnngh..." Chandler clenched his teeth. He squinted into the blaze, gazing north and south. "More blight..." Sweating, he glanced frantically at the shoals around them. "Can we find a way around?"

    "I... I see no path, sir!"

    "What do you mean you see no path?!"

    "The shoals are too dense here!" a crew pony hollered back. "We'd have to double-back about two hundred meters and bend south for the fastest alternative route!"

    Chandler panted and panted. He squinted once more through the flames, scarcely making out the shadow of their sister ship. "Blessed Verlaxion, what next?"

    The two sarosians on board the Stardust lowered their cannons as they paused to admire their hoofwork.

    "V'wylynm syl'm H'Luun!" Grinning fangs. "Direct hit!"

    The air echoed with flapping wings. Several shadows from the east skirted over the hull of Flynn's vessel.

    "Yeeeeeeeeee-haaa!" Bard pumped a hoof in the air. "Give 'em Hell, Job Squad!"

    The shadows approached the beached ship just east of the flame, but the crew members on board were too frantic and panicking to notice.

    "We have to dislodge her!"

    "Is she taking on water?!"

    "One thing at a time!"

    "Can we signal Chandler's ship for assistance?!"

    "Lieutenant, we can't even see the Minister's ship!"

    "Quick! More fuel to the engines! Maybe we can force her free with—"

    "With what?! We'll burn out!"

    Just then, a griffon shrieked. A shaking talon pointed skyward as the shadows descended. "Incoming!"

    "Incoming?" The lead officer on board the ship turned about with a frown. "What do you mean, 'incoming'—?" His frown instantly vanished.

    Six sarosians flew in, but they did not land. They did—however—drop their cargo directly onto the vessel.

    ...cargo in the shape of a draconian mare and an obese stallion downswinging a murderously heavy axe.

    "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand—" Big Show landed in a way that could only live up to his nickname. "—brown your pants, daisy-chainers!"

    His war cry was punctuated by the deafenning impact of metal against metal. CLANNNNNNG! The sharp blade of his axe split a length of deckplates into ribbons, knocking hapless Rohbreddenites off their hooves and talons.

    Gasps and yelps filled the air as half-a-dozen troops collapsed in an instant.

    The rest galloped straight for Logan's flank...

    ...only to be pummeled against the railings by Remna's figure as soon as she landed. WHUD! WH-WHUD! Without a second's hesitation, the violet mare spun around and savagely bucked two other crew members off the starboard side—screaming.

    Hyperventilating, a panicked pair of guardians raised crossbows and fired them at the mare.

Cl-Clink! They ricocheted harmlessly off her invulnerable hide. She turned towards them, glaring. "No." Thud-Thud-Thud! Unstoppable hooves carried her across the deck. She impacted the shrieking soldiers and shoved them past Logan's axe-swinging figure.

    "Wooooooo!" CLANGGGG! Logan tore more holes in the ship, knocking crew members onto their flanks. CLACKKK! "Welcome to the end of the world, assholes!" WHUDDD! "What were you expecting?! A god dayum photo-op?! HA!" THWACKKK!

    Between Logan's merciless swings and Remna's trampling limbs, the remaining guardians panicked completely. They flapped their wings and took off—only to be blasted back to the deckplates by exploding runes fired by the six sarosians circling around the fresh wreck.

"H'rhnum!"

"H'rhnum!"

"H'rhnum!"

P-P-POW!!!

    "Rrrrgh!" Logan whalloped a few grounded soldiers with the blunt end of his weapon before spitting on them. "'I pledged my life for Verlaxion and all I got was this lousy concussion!'"

Wham! Remna punched a griffon in the beak and spun around, glaring. "Bombastic buffoon. The wyvern's tools!" She blocked another attack.

    "Harumph... I was getting to it." Logan upswung his axe, shattering a jabbing spear into metallic bits. Crasssh! He headbutted the pegasus to the deck and charged towards the open cabin. "We've got a boring-ass elevator ride ahead; I was getting my kicks."

    "Kick less, mortal." Remna backtrotted from a flurry of bladed attacks as sparks flew off her unnatural skin. "The Austraeoh's waiting on us."

    "Yeah, yeah." Logan untied the satchel, reached his teeth into the bag, and pulled at a burlap drawstring. "Nrnnngh..." There was a bubbling sound. The jars inside the satchel rattled... and a thick plume of smoke billowed out from the opening. "Whew-wee! Smells almost as bad as Blue's ranch!" He tossed the smoldering satchel down into the heart of the cabin as the air around them heated up exponentially. "Hey! Everypony down there might wanna plug your noses! And then your skulls!"

    Shrieks of surprise filled the air.

    Remna whistled shrilly into the air. The sarosians stopped circling. They swooped down in one accord. Galloping, Remna ran towards them.

    Logan joined her, shouldering his axe. "Time to make like a fart and flutter!"

    "Your silence would be appreciated."

    "Too late, scaley-cheeks!"

    As the two were briskly carried off, the recovering crew members aimed crossbows and fired a volley of arrows. Not long later—however—the smoke from below deck tripled. Engineers came galloping out, coughing and screaming. They hollered words of warning to their compatriots, but they fell on deaf ears.

    ...deaffened by the huge fireball erupting from the heart of the ship as Kepler's chemicals combusted completely. With a mutual shriek, the crew leapt overboard—just in time to avoid a violent chain reaction of tiny explosions that ripped the vessel apart from the inside out.

    Remna and Logan were carried east to safety...

    ...but the hovering forces of Rohbredden did not see them. Gathering around Keris and Starstorm, they could only gawk at the rising fireball east of Chandler's ship. It illuminated the sky with a blinding aura, forcing most of the griffons and pegasi to squint.

    "Verlaxion's sleet!"

    "By the Blight!"

    "Did you see that?!"

    "We... we only have one vessel now!"

    "We c-could be stranded out here!"

    "The Rogue! This is her doing!"

    Several glaring soldiers looked towards Keris. "What now, Commander?"

    "We've gathered like you said! We must engage!"

    Keris leaned into Starstorm's supporting limbs, breathing steadily. His eyes focused on the flame-lit waters of the rock formations below. "Over a dozen of our brothers and sisters are stuck in the surf down there. Chandler's ship can't get to them."

    "What are we to do?"

    "What else?" Keris pointed. "We must rescue them! Bring them to dry ground! Safe from the flames!"

    The soldiers exchanged glances, blinking.

    "But..."

    "Commander..."

    "The Rainbow Rogue...!"

    "She's getting away—!"

    "And if we lose any more of our numbers, we're useless against her Blighted forces!" He turned to face the guardians around him. "Don't worry! We shall engage the Rogue! But we need to rescue our comrades as well!"

    "Separate squadrons?" Starstorm suggested.

    Keris was already nodding. "Two companies! Head down to the shoals! Drag the crew members to safety!" He pointed. "The rest of you—get ready to join me in engaging the enemy!"

    "Aye, sir!"

    "On your mark, sir!"

    "Go!" Keris shouted, pointing at the two detachments that had swiftly formed. "Report to Chandler once you have finished the rescue!"

Sw-Sw-Sw-Swooosh! Over two dozen bodies dove towards the burning plume.

    Starstorm leaned in, whispering to Keris' ear. "We've got smaller numbers now. It won't be enough to overwhelm the Herald and their midnighter allies."

    Keris nodded. "That's the idea." Just then, two familiar shadows limply flew in from the west. Keris turned to face his subordinates. "Oh, hello. You're alive."

    "Mrmmmff..." Windburst sputtered, leaning weakly against Raptr's shoulder. "Love you too, Commander."

    Raptr gulped at the sight of the flame, then looked at Keris. "Did you succeed in intercepting Rainbow Dash?"

    "Yes." Keris nodded. "We talked. We're just about to charge her group head on."

    "We..." Raptr squinted. "... ... ...are on the same side, still, yes?"

    "Of course, Raptr." Keris leaned in close. "We're stretching the battle out long enough for Rainbow to make it to the Dark Side."

    "And... the Seventh Tribe?"

    "Ultimately—they're not our enemy. Right now, though, we have to keep our priorities straight."

    "And that is?"

    Keris looked at the rest of the Talon. He glanced east at the looming stormclouds where Rainbow's group was lying in wait. "... ... ...Windburst."

    Gathering his breath, Windburst shook off the pain of battle and hovered at attention. "Commander."

    "You're with me and the squadron here. The soldiers right now are answering to my commands, and I'm going to need your eyes to survey the situation. Starstorm? Raptr? You're both better off physically... which is why I need you two to do the more important task."

    Raptr leaned in. "Which is...?"

    "Seraphimus." Keris' glaring eyes crossed their faces. "Find her. Intercept her. Restrain her. Keep her as far away from the battle—far away from Rainbow Dash as long as as possible."

    Raptr and Starstorm exchanged nervous expressions.

    "And..." Starstorm cleared her throat. "...if we fail?"

    Keris exhaled. "Then—I fear—all might be lost." He gestured Windburst closer and hollered towards the troops: "Guardians of Rohbredden! Take wing!"

Sw-Sw-Sw-Swooosh!

    As the soldiers darted east for the stormclouds...

    ...Starstorm and Raptr hovered side by side, nervously eyeing each other.

    "Do you really think we can hold Seraphimus back?" the rookie stammered.

    Starstorm exhaled. "I'm not sure anything can at this point..."

SW-SWOOSH! Wildcard swung both nightsticks at Seraphimus' face.

    CLAKKKK! Seraphimus—bleeding in multiple places—blocked the bludgeons with her criss-crossing forelimbs. Snarling, she threw her weight into the former Talon member.

    Hissing beneath his breath, Wildcard threw her weight back into her.

    Pressed against each other, the two twirled and spiraled in a mid-air melee. The two skirted the ocean's surface, plowing through loose waves and sprays of water. Sp-Sp-Sploosh! With the next roll of thunder, they shoved against each other, lost contact, then threw their muscles inward once again.

    TH-THWUMPPP!

    "Grnnngh..." Seraphimus sneered. Gripping Wildcard's talons, she leaned in close to the side of his head. "I wept for you, Jordan." A flicker of lightning against dead charcoal. "But the time for weeping has ended." And she savagely bit into his crest-feathers.

    Wildcard's beak flew open—but he did not scream. Not even then. Raising his lower limbs, he wrestled for control of Seraphimus' weight. At last, he wrapped his legs around her midsection and—swooosh!—spun the two of them upside down. Angling his wings seaward, he descended the two of them until her body plowed into the ocean waves. Plumes of water fountained outward on either side as he dragged her body a hundred feet through the drink.

Splooooooooooooooosh!

    At last, she released her tight beakhold of his scalp.

    He exhaled for relief—only to suffer a gut-punch to the chest. WHUMP! His goggles rattled and he wheezed for breath, but he found the strength to lock the bars of his nightsticks around her wrist, holding her claws in place.

    After nearly twenty drowning seconds of having her head forced underwater, Seraphimus suddenly dug her wings into the depths. Her feathery limbs dragged at the watery friction, and the two jolted to an awkward stop.

    Wildcard's weight shifted eastward and Seraphimus capitalized on it.

    "Grkkgll!" Spitting salt water, she breached the surface—SPLOOSH—tossing Wildcard's body like a ragdoll.

    "!!!" Wildcard flailed through the thunderous air. Thwwwttt! He lost one nightstick from his grip. Panicking, he reached his metal arm out for it. Vrmmmmmmm—!

THUPP! Both of Seraphimus' claws gripped the length of Wildcard's prosthetic and twisted savagely. CRKKKK!

    Sparks flew as the magnetized core shorted out. Wildcard's goggles reflected one nighstick falling forever into the dark waters. WHUMP! Just then, a savage talon palmed his face—beak and all.

    "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaughhh—!" Screaming into the thunder, Seraphimus flew straight up, dangling Wildcard's body behind her. Within seconds, she had reached the stormclouds, and she dragggggggggggggggged Wildcard's writhing flesh against the western wall of a boiling anvil cloud.

    The Desperado grimaced, a few neckfeathers catching fire from the sheer friction of the magical, misty contact. As half his body burned raw from the contact, he grasped his remaining nightstick in his good talon and slammed... slammed... slammed it repeatedly against Seraphimus' ribcage. When the enraged griffon didn't even react, Wildcard calmly resorted to jabbing the narrow end of the bludgeon squarely into Seraphimus' armpit. WHUD!

Finally, Seraphimus lost her grip of the Job Squadder. Wildcard separated them further with a two-legged kick. Wham! Wheezing, Seraphimus twirled westward, flipping multiple times.

    Wildcard glided to a stop, wincing. He hovered before the thick, thick stormclouds—his silhouette highlighted against silver strobes of lightning. Taking every opportunity of the breathable moment, he brought a talon to his limp prosthetic and clicked open a hollow compartment. Schlunk!

    Seraphimus' voice echoed along the tresses of thunder: "Seems only fitting... that the cold irony of fate lost you to the Blight... as it did my family..."

    Trembling, Wildcard reached into his metal arm and produced a scrap of enchanted wyvern papyrus.

    The lightning dissipated, but the silver remained. It floated towards him, eyes glaring. Full of charcoal. "But at least I know they perished in innocence... and revereance. They will be ferried to the Spring Havens."

    Wildcard calmly rested his goggles on Seraphimus from afar. He breathed into the papyrus... and the Odrsjot symbol lit up with lavender brilliance.

    Seraphimus was hollering now: "For us! There will be! *No room!" And she flew towards him, talon first. *"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"**

    Wildcard stood his ground. He slapped the Odrsjot seal over the length of his nightstick, readied his upper body, and uppercutted Seraphimus viciously upon contact.

POWWW!

    The air lit up in a ruby splash.

    Seraphimus doubled back... recovered... then charged again.

    Wildcard slammed her over and over. POW! POWWW! Translucent phantoms of Odrsjot flickered between them and faded, but the Heraldite defender didn't let up. He punished each of Seraphimus' advances, rivaling the lightning—even when it blinded him.

    The air heated up. Wingfeathers curled on their ends. The seal's charge was dulling with each blow, and Wildcard knew it.

    Seraphimus didn't, but she also didn't care. At last—she threw herself completely into Wildcard's offense. Two talons reached toward, gripping the nightstick lengthwise. The residual harmonic energy of the seal burned Seraphimus' palms. She merely sneered into the steam: "Curse your damned Blight, Jordan." Tears. Lightning in her eyes. Like a pair of pallid gravestones. "I am the Right Talon of Verlaxion!!!" And she pulled both of her burning palms in opposite directions.

CRACKKK! Wildcard's nightstick snapped in two. The Odrsjot seal burst between them, and Seraphimus reached through the ashes, gripping the Desperado's neck with both bleeding talons. The plunge was already barreling them both eastward—so that the two tragic combatants plowed straight through the face of the stormcloud... losing themselves in the thunder and chaos broiling within.

Chapter 3

    The air heated up. Wingfeathers curled on their ends. The seal's charge was dulling with each blow, and Wildcard knew it.

    Seraphimus didn't, but she also didn't care. At last—she threw herself completely into Wildcard's offense. Two talons reached toward, gripping the nightstick lengthwise. The residual harmonic energy of the seal burned Seraphimus' palms. She merely sneered into the steam: "Curse your damned Blight, Jordan." Tears. Lightning in her eyes. Like a pair of pallid gravestones. "I am the Right Talon of Verlaxion!!!" And she pulled both of her burning palms in opposite directions.

CRACKKK! Wildcard's nightstick snapped in two. The Odrsjot seal burst between them, and Seraphimus reached through the ashes, gripping the Desperado's neck with both bleeding talons. The plunge was already barreling them both eastward—so that the two tragic combatants plowed straight through the face of the stormcloud... losing themselves in the thunder and chaos broiling within.

Th-Thump! Rainbow Dash's legs landed on a dark, dark cloudbed.

    Ariel and over three dozen sarosians flinched—a few of them gasping at the Austraeoh's arrival. The huddled line faced her immediately.

    "Rainbow Dash!" Ariel held a hoof over her fuzzy heart while her leathery companions steadied their rune cannons. "You're not dead!"

    "I know..." Rainbow wheezed, damp from sweat and rainwater. "That would have been all kinds of suck, wouldn't it?"

    "Save the jokes, Rainbow!" Applejack barked, pointing downward. "Here comes the cavalry!"

    "The bad cavalry!" Pinkie chirped. "Minus a few goody-goody griffons..."

    "Right! They're almost here!" Rainbow Dash hollered, shuffling about to form ranks with her allies. "How did Bard and company do with the drop?"

    "Scratch off one sea ship full of angry Rohbreddenites!" Ariel exclaimed. "How about Keris?"

    "The Talon's promised to do their best to rein in the troops," Rainbow said. "But we're still in for one heck of a scrap."

    "A large amount of the enemy forces have broken off, Rainbow," Fluttershy firmly stated, despite her trembles. "I sense that they're flying down to rescue the survivors from the Drop."

    "Sounds like Keris' hoofwork," Rarity said. "Er... talonwork?"

    Rainbow looked at Ariel. "According to Fluttershy, we're gonna be facing a smaller bunch of buttheads."

    "Right." Ariel nodded. "Best that we take advantage of it—"

    "Rainbow!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed, eyes wide. "The Gondola!"

    "...!" Rainbow twirled to face east. She squinted at a faint line of glowing gold energy before the deluge. "Is it here?!"

    "I... I can actually sense it!" Twilight beamed. "Feel it! So much pure harmonic power! It must be arriving soon!"

    "Rainbow...?" Ariel leaned in.

    Smirking proudly, Rainbow let loose with a booming voice: "Alright, everypony! Listen up! The lift is almost here! But until Kepler and Flynn fire off the red flare, we still got some work to do!"

"Prepare the runes!" Ariel exclaimed, her eyes reflecting a wave of armored bodies rushing up from down below. "Concussive shots! Aim for the front line!"

"This is it!" Rainbow flapped her wings, hovering high along with her friends as the enemy wave approached. "Just hold a little bit longer! We're almost done here!"

"Aaaaaaaaaaand..." Ariel flung her hoof forward. "...fire!"

"H'rhnum!"

"M'wynhrm!"

"H'rhnum!"

The echoes of the runic explosives were dull thuds by the time they reached the sarosians carrying Remna and Logan back east towards the platforms. The trio grasping Logan sped ahead. Those carrying Remna—however—were lagging behind.

"Hmmmmf..." Remna's eyeslits narrowed at the Emeraldinian structures lingering far ahead. "We should be there by now. What is the matter—?" She felt a trickle of warm liquid staining her flesh beneath the grip of the sarosians. She looked up, and her ears twitched in alarm. "What in blazes...?"

"Scrkkk..." One of the sarosians carrying Remna hissed through her fangs. A crossbolt from one of the Frostknifers had been embedded in her flank, and she was bleeding profusely. "A... th-thousand pardons, defender of W'ynlppa yln H'luun... grnngh... we sh-shall get you there shortly..."

"Bite your tongue, mortal!" Remna grumbled. "You are clearly in no condition to perform this task!" She motioned with her violet head. "Disengage and retreat! Join the Exodus so you can mend—!"

"Impossible, dear friend," one of the other, healthier nightblooded warriors interjected. "You are as immense as you are courageous. I fear only two of us cannot carry you—"

"Then do not," Remna said. "Care for your ally. She need not die from such an insignificant wound."

"But... but we cannot simply drop you!" the third sarosian exclaimed. "We saw how helpless you were in open water—"

Remna gazed down at the platforms. "Our momentum is still swift. I suspect I can make it from here."

"But... the fall—"

"I will survive!" Remna growled. Just as she said this, the entire group dipped slightly—nearly losing grip of the violet mare prematurely. "It is of no use! Release me! Release me now—"

"We are s-sorry!" the injured sarosian whimpered. At last, she lost all strength. The other two twirled to support her.

In so doing...

Thwooooooooooosh!

...they dropped Remna like an anvil.

The mare's body angled forward. She furrowed her brow... concentrating... as if stretching invisible dragon wings.

Through no small miracle, she managed to land on the west edge of an Emeraldinian platform. ***THUDDDD!* The sheer mass of her draconian body sent a shockwave rippling outward in every direction. A severe fracture ribboned through the structure, sending chips of granite flying into the thunderous air.**

When the shockwave reached Logan, he was just settling down. The concussive blast knocked him to his flank and nearly threw his three sarosian companions into the drink. Even Flynn and Kepler stumbled where they were station.

Remna tumbled, rolled, and slid a few dozen more feet. Once her dazed figure came to a stop, she heard a salvo of angry words echoing from Logan's position.

"You stupid bag of dragon snot!" Logan spat. "Why don't you take the entire platform down while you're at it?! Buckin' ruin everything!"

"Big Show..." Flynn chided.

"No! Really! Who does she think she is?! We're out here risking our necks for the Austraeoh and—"

"I said knock it off, Big Show!"

"Make me—"

"Silence, brrotherrs!" Kepler suddenly hollered. **"Both of you!" Then in a calmer voice, bordering on jubilant: "I do believe it is arrriving!"**

Flynn gasped. He galloped to the very precipice of the world. "The Gondola?! Do you see it?"

"You tell me, frriend. I do sense something in the airr..."

Flynn focused with his mechanical eye. A few seconds later, the balding stallion grinned from ear to ear. "It's coming! Hahaha! Leaping leylines! It's almost **here!"**

"Hot dayum!" Logan sputtered. "Is it time for the signal yet?"

"Negatorry." Kepler shook his head. "Therre arre minutes yet until it fully arrrives! We cannot afforrd to rruin the timing of ourr flarres!"

"Sure thing!" Flynn spun about and gestured towards the three sarosians who had carried Logan over. "Shoo! Shoo! Back to Bleak's Plummet with you pixies! I promise—your warrior brothers and sisters will join you as soon as the sky flashes red!"

"Ourr moment of trriumph is at hand!" Kepler added.

"Yeah..." Logan huffed, pausing to examine the blade of his axe. "Assuming no more dragons slam into the ground."

Remna listened, but she wasn't looking at them. She spent all this time getting up... a process made even slower by an inexplicable stupor that had overcome the mare. Directly in front of her was the array of rusted stakes with empty dangling chalices. However, somewhere beyond the wind-blown chimes at the end of the world, there was a dull space in comprehension. Remna stared, and she saw starlight blotted out in an ink-black streak, constantly moving, swaying, dancing. The mist of the deluge toyed with the twilight, forming a faint—but very real—rainbow.

Her violet brow furrowed. Remna looked back at the other Heraldites as they ecstaticallyecstastically huddled before the golded steeples of alicorn metal. She then glanced west—at the distant flashes of runic explosions. Nebulaic color. Red and green and blue.

Then—nostrils flaring—Remna trotted straight into the sea of chimes.

*POW! P-POW!*

*KAPOW!*

Runic blasts erupted in the air below Rainbow, Ariel, and their allies.

The sarosians continued their moonwhinny onslaught, giving the air at the end of the world it's second layer of thunder.

The Central Guard—however—had since grown wise to the artillery barrages. Many of the the troops shifted north and south, easily juking the blasts. Their charge had been slowed, but not blocked completely. They still rushed the sarosian line as one combined force.

And just like that, the explosive blasts stopped completely.

Pinkie Pie gasped. "Uh oh..." She looked at Rainbow Dash.

And Rainbow Dash looked at Ariel. "Lemme guess..." She exhaled. "That's the last of the runes."

Sarosians were already nodding. "I'm afraid so," Ariel added. "We're all out."

Rainbow clenched her teeth. "Guess we gotta do this the hard way."

"But Keris is among the charge!" Rarity exclaimed. "Surely that will help us!"

"We can't rely on him for everything," Rainbow said. Hovering higher, she pumped a hoof in the air. "Foals of Luna! This is it!"

"Oh no..." Fluttershy covered her eyes. "...not another melee!"

"It's okay, sugarcube." Applejack hugged her. "Twilight said we ain't got much longer." She looked over. "Right, Twilight?"

"Uhhhhhhhhh—"

***"Let's make it awesome!"* Rainbow's shouting voice shattered the moment, and it was soon shared by the shrieks of her loyal cohorts. "Chaaaarge!"**

"Eee-eee-eee-eee!"

"Eee-eee-eee-eee!"

"Eee-eee-eee-eee!"

"Oh petticoats!" Rarity whimpered, clutching her ears as she and the rest of Rainbow's friends were dragged into the fray. "I really do wish they would be quieter about their bloodlusting violence!"

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—" Was all Pinkie managed, for soon Rainbow, Ariel, and the rest were colliding with the advancing forces from below.

"The Blighted explosives!" a crew pony on board the last remaining ship shouted, staring straight up through a spyglass. "They've stopped!"

"Defense Minister!" A griffon spun to face Chandler. "It's the Commander! He's engaged the Rainbow Rogue with his forces!"

Another griffon gestured at the wall of flame before the ship's bow. "And the Commander's other companies are rescuing our brothers and sisters beyond the shoals! In a matter of minutes, we should be able to regroup!"

All of these announcements fell on deaf ears. The greater majority of the ship's compleiment looked to see Brye Chandler huddled with his tight group of well-armored bodyguards.

"Defense Minister...?" A crew member trotted closer to the chariot. "What are your orders?"

At last, Chandler managed a throaty grunt. "Stay at your posts."

"Minister...?"

Chandler gestured at his bodyguards. Two pegasi hitched themselves to the vehicle's rigging while several griffons gripped the outer edges of the seat. "You heard me. Remain on board. Keep to this position."

"But Minister, the survivors—"

"I don't **care about our sister ship!" Chandler spat, gesturing for his helmet. "They've made their failure complete!" He slapped the bulky article onto his skull and fastened it tight. "That enemy artillery vessel needs to be taken out. I'm heading out with what remains of our elite to do just that! Then—once I've stolen the midnighters' Blighted magic—I'll turn the Rogue's weapons on her and end this once and for all!"**

"But... but what of the Commander's engagement—?"

"The Commander's made his motivations abundantly clear," Chandler grunted. "Our beloved Goddess entrusted this task to **me. Now I see that I must face the adversary personally."**

"Yes, sir. Of c-course, sir."

"If you see Seraphimus..." Chandler's frown briefly gave way to a grimacing expression. His tongue hung in the middle of his muzzle at he stared at the flames and shoals beyond.

"Minister...?"

Eventually, Chandler huffed. "Never mind." He slapped the edge of the chariot and barked at his bodyguards: "Take wing!"

The pegasi charged forward while the muscular griffons lifted and—WOOOOOSH!—the chariot ascended instantly. Bending north, the vehicle skirted the wall of flames and dipped low, threading through the rock formations and errant splashes of salt water.

"The explosions in the sky," Bard said, squinting upwards from where he gripped the Stardust's rudder wheel. "They've stopped."

"Our brothers and sisters must be out of runes!" one of his two companions exclaimed.

Bard leaned forward, staring at the lower deck. "Are we out of them fancy shmancy moon rocks?"

One nightblood warrior flung open the cabin door, revealing piles of silver runes still lying inside. "Not even remotely!"

"Good!" Bard gestured skyward. "Reckon we oughta make use of 'em! From the looks of it, Rainbow's buttin' heads with the enemy again! If we fill the lower air beneath them with flak, it just might give our partners the edge they need in kickin' flank!"

Right then, one of the warriors shouted. "Th'wylymnym!" He pointed a velvety hoof at the north horizon. "Syl'ynym hym symylym!"

"What?" Bard squinted in the direction he was pointing. "What's the reason for the spit static this time?"

The other sarosian bit his lip with fanged teeth. "Bard, we have a problem." He pointed. "Eleven o'clock! That's how you would say it, ywm?"

Bard's ears drooped. "I see it." He flinched. "Them."

"Hy'syllym thymym sylym!"

"It's a vessel of sorts..."

"No." Bard shook his head. "Not a ship. A chariot. A group of winged varmints are tryin' to take us out!"

"They're moving very swiftly!"

"Grnnngh..." Bard spun the rudder wheel, positioning the Stardust so its hull was aligned with more agreeable currents. "I can see that!"

"Minister!" One pegasus drawing the chariot turned his head to stare back at the vehicle's seat. "I think they see us!"

"Not surprising." Chandler gripped his helmet and struggled to look dignified. It only half-worked. "Whatever you do, keep low—!"

"They might fire upon us with their blighted magic!" one griffon bodyguard in formation hissed.

"You think I don't know that?!" Chandler frowned. "That's why we're sticking so close to sea level!" He gestured. "Maintain momentum! Circle them! Let them waste their ammo!"

"Yes, sir!" one pegasus shouted, flapping his wings hard along with his partner.

"Keep the pressure on them and circle closer..." Chandler reached deep into the chariot, fumbling. "When the moment comes... at our first opportunity..." He finally produced a crossbow, cocking it with armored fetlocks. "...we strike. Is that understood?"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Yes, Defense Minister—"

A flash of runic light emanated from the Stardust.

"Incoming!" one of the pegasi shouted.

"Maintain—" Chandler winced as a thunderous blast erupted directly behind him, nearly knocking the chariot and its entourage off-balance. "—position!" He gnashed his teeth, aiming down the sight of his crossbow—only to discover that the target was too far away. He cursed under his breath... even as more runic blasts erupted all around them. "We're on the edge of the world, you Blighted filth." His eyes stared emerald daggers beneath his helmet. "There's no left where to run..."

"M'wynhrm!!!" one warrior on board the Stardust shouted.

***POWWW!* His shell exploded between them and the chariot, warding the winged group off—one blast at a time.**

"I hesitate to say that it's working, Bard," the other sarosian said, loading a fresh new cannon. "They have not broken formation."

"But have they gotten any closer?" the Desperado exclaimed.

"Well, no—"

"Then it's darn-well workin'!" Bard frowned, spinning the rudder-wheel once more. He eventually forced the Stardust into a clockwise drift, cruising opposite of the invasive chariot. "The longer they stay away from us, the longer we can give Rainbow Dash the support she needs!"

"But they're keeping very close to sea level!" one of the sarosians exclaimed. "At any moment, they could lift up and descend on us—"

"So keep firin' at 'em so that they dun get any bright ideas!" Bard spat as thunder rolled overhead. "I know they figure they're harder to hit where they are, but they dun stuck themselves in a rut!" He waved a hoof westward at the midair battle. "Now it dun take two of ya to keep 'em occupied! One of y'all fire at the chariot and the other give Rainbow cover!"

"How long should we do this—?"

"For as long as it friggin' takes!" Bard hollered, fighting resistance against the rudder. "All that matters is buyin' Rainbow time!" He squinted skyward once again. "We must buy Rainbow more time!

Following Bard's orders, the other sarosian primed a bleakweed cannon, aimed up high, and fired it.

*P-POW!*

Keris and Windburst winced as the blast erupted below them. They steadied themselves in time to face a wave of shrieking sarosians.

"Incoming—!" Keris hollered as Windburst charged ahead of them.

"Yaaaaugh!"** Windburst punched one sarosian and headbutted another. After the adrenalized rush, he shuddered in mid-air, gripping his wounds.**

Two other sarosians rammed into him from the side.

Windburst flew back—and Keris ascended in his place. Hovering, the Commander of the Talon expertly blocked several whalebone bludgeon strikes and kicked the offending group back. Within seconds, the rest of the Frostknife line caught up and forced the sarosians higher, engaging in spark-flying melee combat.

"I'm... guh... not fighting at my best," Windburst wheezed.

Keris reached out to steady him while eyeing the frantic battle above. "Neither are they," he said.

Another runic blast erupted beneath them, and then Windburst said, "You think they're following Rainbow's advice?"

"That, or battle fatigue is finally consuming us all."

Windburst shuddered. "How long do you think we can keep this up, Commander?" He gulped. "Before it becomes an absolute bloodbath?"

"I have faith we can manage, Sergeant," Keris said, preparing himself for a flanking squadron of sarosians. "Even still..." His headcrest drooped just seconds before engaging in combat once again. "...this is not the battle that concerns me."

Enix lived—for what it was worth.

Bloodied, bruised, and bloodied some more... the mare clung to a piece of metal floating aloft in the tempestuous sea. The remains of the first ship's wreckage marinated around her, and the sounds of battle echoed in the east.

Not that she could hear much of it. Her good ear was cocked towards the sky, and her bad ear—a tattered, crimson thing—struggled to stay above the water line. Every now and then the salty-brine would invade her wound, and the nightblooded warrior hissed in pain.

Her grimace turned into a momentary grin. Something peaceful... contemplative.

Her breaths lessened... lessened. Then—with a penultimate sigh—she blacked out altogether... and sank deep into the ocean.

One second.

Two.

Sploosh!

A sharp talon stabbed into the water. Gripping tight, it raised Enix back above the surface.

Enix awoke with a gasp. Her slitted eyes widened, blinking at the figure holding her.

"... ... ..." Starstorm stared her down. Her feathered brow furrowed inquisitively.

Enix's one good ear twitched. After the brief moment of awkwardness had passed, the nightblooded warrior summoned a growl from deep within her midnight lungs. Her fetlock's muscles tightened and her fangs showed in the stormlight—

"A friend?" Starstorm asked. "Of Rainbow Dash?"

Enix froze, locked in Starstorm's grip.

Calmly, Starstorm leaned in until her break was grazing Enix's neck. "I would regret the murder of one of her allies on my conscience."

Enix simply gaped at her.

Starstorm exhaled firmly. "Bleak's Plummet. Can you still reach it by air?" She squinted. "If you fly now?"

At last, Enix gulped. "I... I-I believe so," she managed.

"Then you had better get flying." Starstorm released her grip of the sarosian. "If all goes well, your brothers and sisters will be joining you shortly."

Enix jerked in place... but found the strength to hover. She gawked at Starstorm... then at the rookie coming into view behind her. With bristled mane hairs, the warrior said, "I do not flee from a battle."

"You have an Exodus to Equestria to join, yes?" Starstorm glared. "If you are truly a friend of Rainbow Dash, then I'd say your warrior days are over."

Enix gazed at her. She shuddered slightly. Then, with a flash of fangs—"Ee-ee!"—she turned tail and soared west in a pale blur.

Starstorm hovered in place over the wreckage, watching her depart towards a glowing blue spot along the sea. Raptr flew in close, clearing his throat.

"That, uhhhhh..." He fiddled with his claws. "That wasn't Seraphimus."

Starstorm sighed heavily. "Was it obviousness that got you enlisted with the Talon?"

"I'm just saying. If we spend the entire time picking up stragglers—"

"She was here, though," Starstorm said, spinning about. "Above here."

"You mean...?"

"That midnighter had survived a battle with her." Starstorm scanned the local waters. "Barely, even."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I've been around the former Commander longer than you, rookie," Starstorm explained. She looked straight up. "I've seen the scars of her wrath on many a body. Those were Seraphimus' claw marks for certain."

Raptr shrugged. "Well, she's not here now. And somehow I don't think some random sarosian would have been enough enough to beat her." He blinked. "So... where did she go and what got in the way?"

"... ... ..." Starstorm was staring upwards and towards the east.

"...?" Raptr turned around, following her line of sight. Soon both Talon members were staring at a tall dark anvil cloud—broiling with silver lightning from within.

Starstorm murmured: "Where else would a soul as angry as Seraphimus take her in a time like this?"

Raptr winced. "Ahhhhh jeez..."

*KRAKKK!*

Lightning forked through the hollow of the cloud, glinting off of wet feathers and lashing tails. Pale strands and dark fibers twirled amidst the tumult, illuminated by intermittentintermintent electrical flashes.

"Grrrrrrgh!" Seraphimus swung and struck and sliced endlessly with her claws. "Hrgggh! Mmmfff! Httt!"

Wildcard, weaponless, drew away from her in a spiral, raising his prosthetic and deflecting each attack with desperate precision. *Clank! Cl-Clack! Clang!*

Seraphimus' offense was insatiable. She shifted left and right, occupying his peripherals and giving him no chance to escape. Amidst the onslaught, she kept a careful eye on his goggles. And when lightning flickered—filling the heart of the cloud with an infinitesimally bright flash of silver *light—she capitalized on his inevitable blindness. With a flap of her wings, she shot down, twirled, and rose up behind him. Claws raked around in a deathly semi-circle.*

Wildcard flattened his body and spun. He was able to dodge one set of claws—but not the other. Sliiiiink! Blood sprayed the thunder between them, and he lost the air in his lungs just as he lost sight of his former superior.

Seraphimus dove in for the kill—only to receive a lucky kick to the beak. Wildcard followed up with two metal punches to the chest. Seraphimus absorbed the second blow—pain and all—and gripped his metal wrist with both talons, anchoring the two of them in midair.

Thinking fast, Wildcard threw up his lower body and slammed both paws into Seraphimus' figure. Just as he did so, he popped his prosthetic loose and vaulted off of her. The action separated the two of them by several wet, rainy feet.

Before Seraphimus could make sense of what happened, Wildcard magnetically drew the sparkling end of his disconnected arm back towards him. Seraphimus—still gripping it—jerked forward with the motion. The very moment that Wildcard—whirrr-chtung!—reconnected with his prosthetic, he brought his flesh talon up with a savage uppercut. **WHAM!**

Lightning flew. Seraphimus flew. A black streak followed her and—through the murky shadows following—Wildcard materialized to deliver a merciless drop-kick.

*THUDD!*

Seraphimus plummeted through the belly of the cloud. The air around them buzzed with electricity and rain. Miraculously, the former Commander's body narrowly missed two stabbing branches of lightning.

Wildcard struggled to see through the blinding flashes. If the Desperado was even capable of spotting what came next, he would likely have struggled with believing it.

Seraphimus had turned her free-fall into a curved glide. Hugging the inner edge of the cloud, she reached both talons out and dragged up a rolling cluster of stormy mists. Arcing back upwards, she collected more and more cloudy material—just as dark and ominous as the layers surrounding them. By the time she flew back up towards Wildcard on an intercept course, she was shoveling a thick wave of stormcloud. Sparks danced betweeen her feathers as she screamed at the apex of her ascent—twirling her body backwards and **bucking the material up at Wildcard with nightmarish force.**

On its way towards him, the dense cluster of stormclouds buzzed and fluctuated with crackling energy before—KRAAAAAK!—exploding directly in front of him, forking lightning in all directions.

Wildcard may have actually screamed; he couldn't tell from the deafening thunder. Soon after, he couldn't tell from the pain of Seraphimus flying into him and pummeling his feathery skull with merciless lefts and rights.

One punch after another, Seraphimus shoved the two of them up... up... up the neck of the cloud...

...until they finally burst out of the summit altogether.

Exposed to the rain and twilight, Wildcard and Seraphimus wrestled in the upper atmosphere for dominance. It was a battle that Wildcard—after layers of blinding pain—was swiftly losing. He telegraphed it with weak blocks and wheezing breaths, struggling with every flesh and metal inch of his being to hold the former Talon Commander at bay.

In the next flash of lightning, their black and silver bodies glinted...

...so that they showed off like a beacon far across the tempestuous waves.

Bard's eyes twitched, reflecting the monochromatic struggle in the deathly distance.

His muzzle hung agape. Loose hooves slipped from his grip of the rudder wheel.

"Bard!" one sarosian shouted as the Stardust plowed through a blunt wall of water.

"Grnnngh!" Bard spat through the resulting spray. Hopping down off the platform, he joined his two velvety companions on the lower deck. "Look! Up high! Due west at 9 o'clock sharp!"

One sarosian paused in reloading his bleakweed cannon. His eyeslits scanned the twilight—then spotted the two combatants. "H'Luun... ly'syllem thryll sy'wym..."

"It's Wildcard!" Bard's voice cracked. "The damned mofo's in trouble! I just know it!"

***"M'wynhrm!!!"* The other sarosian fired a blast at Chandler's chariot, forcing it to veer off into a wider orbit. Panting, he looked at Bard while loading another rune. "We have enough on our hooves as it is, friend—"**

"Shut yer bug trap! Look..." Bard gestured. "Can we fire an explosive at 'em?"

"To what end?!"

"I dunno!" Bard gnashed his teeth, flinging another worried look west. "To break up the fight! Knock 'em off their wings and give Dubya-Cee a chance to fly free?"

"I'm afraid it's too far, friend!" one sarosian said, enchanting the cannon and aiming at the circling chariot. "And our enemy approaches—"

"Can it be done or can't it?!"

"Possibly—but with double the payload of runes and with two enchanters committed to the spell! But right now we are requiring both cannons just to ward off these damnable land-dwellers—"

Frowning, Bard wrenched the cannon away from the warrior. "Gimme that dayum thang!" He rushed towards the edge of the Stardust's starboard side, slid on his rear knees, and shouted: "W'rhynnym!!!"****

"NO!" One sarosian shrieked, leaping towards Bard. "That's not the right command—!"

But the cannon fired anyway—and it trailed burning smoke as it did so. *Phwooooooooooosh—!"*

"Defense Minister!" One bodyguard shouted, flying alongside Chandler's chariot. "Look out!"

"Yes. They're firing at us again," Chandler grunted, trying to get a good shot with his crossbow. "I see that—"

"But this one's d-different somehow!" A griffon's head turned in mid-flight. "And the trajectory—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Bard's ordinance landed in the waters before the chariot's flight path. The burning of the rune continued underwater, and within two seconds that portion of the ocean was **bursting with scalding hot steam.**

"Look out!" one pegasus driver said, swerving in his reins.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!" The other shrieked, flinching as he and his partner were carried forward by the momentum of the low-flying vehicle. Within a blink, the two pegasi's skin were peeling off from the sheer heat.

"Minister!" a griffon reached into the chariot and yanked Chandler out. "Jump!"

"Goddess—!" Chandler yelped as he and his companions were all engulfed in blood-stained steam.

    The sarosians on board the Stardust watched—dumbstruck—as a pocket of ocean exploded in a scalding hot mist. Chandler's chariot flew in on one side... and came exploding out the other end with a loose spray of shrapnel and shattered metal. The eruption ended as soon as it began, leaving a fresh hot cloud looming over the crash site.

    Bard stood up, and the cannon in his grasp was on fire. He tossed it limply into the drink and spat in the ocean. "Soup's on, ya douche kettle."

    The bat ponies blinked.

    Turning around, the Desperado pointed at their one remaining cannon. "Can we get that to fire a long-ranged shot or not?"

    Briskly, the two rushed towards the Stardust's stockpile of runes. "We will need your swift assistance!"

    "Brother..." Bard slicked his ponytail back and galloped after them. "...you got it!" He flung a look west. "Hang on, Dubya, ya crazy cat rooster. Just a little bit longer..."

    "Rrrrgh!" Seraphimus swung a claw.

    Breathless, Wildcard managed a narrow dodge.

    Seraphimus swung her other talon.

Sliiiink!

    Blood flew from Wildcard's sliced shoulder.

    His beak flew open from the torturous strike. Thapp! A talon closed around his break. He struggled to break free from Seraphimus' grip—but in so doing he offered up the actual target of her latest attack.

    Seraphimus hoisted his body around by her grip of his metal limb. Twisting the Desperado until he was bent backwards, she slammed and slammed and slammed her elbow repeatedly into the joint of his prosthetic. Within seconds, his artificial claws dangled limply... harmless.

    Seraphimus did not let up. Kneeing Wildcard hard in the square of his back, she stunned his body from head to tail and flung him towards a floating remnant of stormclouds.

Th-Thwump! Wildcard pinballed off the mist...

    ...and flew straight back into Seraphimus' grip. Thwppp! She now held both talons around his neck. Leering down at him, the former Commander of the Talon gradually applied pleasure... slowly and agonizingly digging the tips of her claws into his flesh as he struggled for a breath.

    "You gave up your voice, Jordan," she found the civility to whisper, charcoal eyes glaring at her own reflection in his goggles. "What use have you of your throat?"

    The Desperado trembled... dangled...

    Droplets of blood ran down two of Seraphimus' digits. Four. Six...

    "It's..." The sarosians winced from the heat of the doubly-enchanted runes packed into the cannon. "It's primed and ready!" It took both of their combined dexterity to hold the thing from where they perched squarely in the middle of the Stardust's rain-slicked deck. "Do you see your compatriot?"

    Bard exhaled, squinting down the sight of the cannon—a difficult task with how brightly the runes were shimmering. Off in the distant west, a dark speck dangled from a silver speck's grasp. "I do."

    "Then it will be your shout to give, Bard—"

    "M'wynhrm!!!'" Bard hollered melodically.

SHOOOOOOOM! The Stardust rocked east from the sheer force of the launched projectile.

Th-Thunk! The smoking cannon fell to the deckplates.

    Bard watched breathlessly as the runic missile flew its course...

    "Httt!" Rainbow Dash punched an armored pegasus in the face and bucked off the attack of a flanking griffon.

    She sensed a flicker of burning light in her peripheral and spun towards it with a guarded hoof raised. Upon seeing the source of the illumination—a bright missile of lunar dust flying below her—she froze in the midst of battle to gawk.

    "Whoahhhhhhh..." Pinkie Pie shivered all over. "That thing's h-headed s-somewhere with an attitude!"

    "Where in blazes did it come from?" Applejack asked.

    "The Stardust!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed.

    "Oh yeah?" Rainbow Dash caught her breath and flew back into the fight, joining Ariel's side in fending off Frostknifers. "Where's it headed?"

    Twilight Sparkle gazed west. She bit her lip...

    Wildcard trembled, growing limp in Seraphimus' grip. His muscle spasms lessened. The feathers of his headcrest drooped.

    Seraphimus sneered and sneered. Just as she flexed her wrist to dig into his neckmeat...

    ...a pair of blinding lights reflected off his goggles.

    Seraphimus' charcoal eyes squinted. She flung a nervous look east.

    A burning froth of lunar dust sailed straight towards the two of them.

    "...!!!" Alarmed, Seraphimus dropped Wildcard altogether and flew in a random direction—

POWWWW!

    The runic payload discharged. A spherical wave of concussive energy rippled outward in every direction. It sliced off the top half of the anvil cloud below, almost entirely vaporizing the storm altogether.

    Wildcard barreled towards the east side of the cloud. A swath of mists scattered... then coalesced just in time to act as a drifting bed for the Desperado to land on.

    Seraphimus, meanwhile...

    "There!" Raptr pointed up high at the dissolving stormcloud. "I see her!"

    "That explosion!" Starstorm exclaimed, squinting into the trailing brightness of the discharge. "Where did it come from?!"

    "Who cares!" Raptr shot up like lightning, sailing towards Seraphimus' plummeting body. "Quick!"

    "Oh Goddess..." Starstorm clenched her beak tight as she soared after the rookie.

    Seraphimus fell like a ragdoll, thoroughly unconscious. Before her body could ricochet violently off the remains of the stormcloud, the two Talon members intercepted her. They caught the former Commander... cradling her and slowly carrying her down to sea level.

    "That... that was crazy," Raptr wheezed.

    "No lectures on 'crazy,'" Starstorm stammered, using a free hand to rummage through her belt. "Not quite yet."

    Raptr craned his neck to look over Seraphimus' head. "What are you doing?"

    "What does it look like?" Starstorm produced a series of metal cords. "Help me restrain her."

    "Tie her up?!" Raptr grimaced. "Seraphimus?! You sure that's a good idea?!"

    "... ... ..." Starstorm simply glared at him.

    He gulped and nodded as the two perched with her on a drifting piece of wreckage. "Right. 'Shut up, rookie.'" And the two swiftly went about binding the figure's paws and talons.

    On board the Stardust...

    "Yeeeehaa!" Bard hopped up and down, his wings flexing. "Desperado delivery received and signed! You can thank me later, ya feathery bastard!"

    The two sarosians shrieked jubilantly.

    Bard shuddered, slicking his bangs back as he smirked into the thunder and mists. "Sorry it was a mite bit noggin'-bustin', mofo, but rather you have a migraine than become angry griffon food."

    "That last spell took the strength out of our remaining cannon," one warrior said. He turned to face Bard. "We are no longer of use to our brothers and sisters. I suggest we take you back to the platform so you can join W'ynlppa yln H'luun upon her return."

    "Righto." Bard nodded. He turned towards the upper platform and its rudder wheel. "We've done all we can here. Let's water-mosey on back to—" Something sharp and metal whizzed by his skull.

Thwifffffft! THUNK! One of the sarosians doubled over; a crossbolt was embedded quiver-deep in his throat.

    The other warrior shrieked loudly.

    "!!!" Bard spun about, eyes stabbing the heavens. Shadows circled closer through the mists.

    "Damn..." Brye Chandler snarled. Dangling in the grip of two griffons, he loaded another barb into his crossbow and pointed it at the Stardust a dozen meters below. "I was aiming for the ugly one."

    "You hit a midnighter, sir!" one bodyguard shouted.

    "Well, what are you waiting for?!" Chandler barked, aiming. "Avenge your comrades in arms!"

    Schiiiing! Swords and spears lit the wet air.

    "Soldiers of Rohbredden...!"

    While two griffons continued carrying the Defense Minister aloft, four remaining members of Chandler's squadron sailed down at the Stardust with weapons drawn.

"...slay in the name of Verlaxionnn!"

"Aaaaaaaaugh!"

"Deatttth!"

    Chandler fired a second shot—

    —that ricocheted off the bow of Flynn's ship. After a spray of sparks, the arrow rolled to a stop against the meaty body of the dying sarosian. He collapsed and gargled blood while his nightblooded companion shook his shoulder frantically.

    "S'ymlythym! S'ymlythym!" His slitted eyes teared. "Hy'symy syln lys'lym thym hy'lym, S'ymylthym!"

    "Eyes up!" Bard sputtered, jerking about and gazing skyward. "We've got company—"

Th-Th-Th-Thump! Four sets of limbs—two pegasi and two griffons—landed on the Stardust's deck. "Midnighter seafoam filth—!"

    "Rrrrrrrrrgh—" Spinning from his slain friend, the other sarosian flew straight at the intruders with twin whalebone scimitars. Schhhing! "Hreeeee-eeee-eeeee-eeeessssh!"

    "Wait!" Bard reached towards his bandolier. "Don't—"

    The sarosian clashed with a pegasus, then knocked a griffon onto his flank. As he tried to pounce the second Frostknifer, a third came from the side—cleaving the sarosian's shoulder in two with a gold-glinting sword. Schlunkkk!

    "Dammit!" Bard extended his bo-staff in a silver flash. Cl-Clakkka! "Dammit to Hell—!"

    "Aaaaaaaaugh!" A griffon and a pegasus rushed him.

    Sneering, Bard charged them on stomp-stomp-stomping hooves. He slid halfway across the Stardust, twirling his staff low.

    The pegasus flew up to avoid the weapon. The griffon—however—charged on through with his sword. Schiiing!

    Bard blocked the blade in reverse—CLANK!—and then spun his staff up to throw the griffon's weight off. Shadows shifted, and the Desperado sensed the pegasus diving from behind. He twirled to the side just in time to avoid a spear jab. THUNK! As sparks danced across the deck, Bard spun about, knocked the spear away, then uppercutted the pegasus with his staff. "Rrrrgh!" WHACK!

    The second pegasus and griffon leapt over the dead sarosian and charged Bard. "Son of Blight—"

    Bard silenced the pegasus with a staff-jab to the chest.

    The griffon swung his sword into Bard's skull.

    Bard barely dodged, losing a lock of mane-hair. He tripped the griffon to the ground, twirled his staff, and crushed the griffon's break into eggshell fragments against the deckplate.

    As the griffon screamed into a fountain of blood, Bard cartwheeled over him then held his staff high in time to block an attack from three separate foes. CL-CL-CLANK! With a deep-bellied yell, he shoved the weight of two pegasi and one griffon off. The air whizzed again—and he hopped back in time to avoid another crossbolt from Chandler above.

Clank!

    Bard's eyes darted towards the impact that the projectile made with the hull... and he ignored the blood of his companions beneath him. "...shit!" He slipped, falling wetly on his back.

    "Yaaaaaaaaaaugh—!" A pegasus leapt down at him, spear first.

    Bard swung his staff up in two hooves—knocking aside the thrust and embedding the blade of the polearm into the Stardust's cabin doorframe behind him. In the next breath, Bard kicked a loose whalebone scimitar closer towards his own torso, grasped it in his fetlock, and shoved it deep into the pegasus' ribs.

    "Grkkk!" The pegasus' eyes rolled back. He fell aside... and his two companions rushed through him.

    "Yaaaaaaaugh—!"

    Sword.

    "Aaaaaaaa—!"

    Spear.

    Bard rolled away from them. He stumbled to his hooves, gripping his staff between his teeth. Pivoting his neck from side to side, he parried the multiple thrusts and attacks of his two advancing enemies while backtrotting. Once he found enough open space, he spat the staff out, spun around, jumped to his rear hooves, and caught the weapon in his front fetlocks. Twirling the weapon, he succeeded in deflecting the next flurry of attacks, followed by—

    "Rrrraaaugh!"

    —a savage lengthwise thrust, knocking the two Frostknifers onto their backsides.

    Panting... stained in blood, Bard looked back up to the sky. He saw lightning. Stars. Color. Something warm and awesome flickered in the distance. "Rainbow..." Catching his breath, he spread his wings to do the smart thing and take off—

Thwissssssssh!

    —which was precisely when a crossbolt ripped through his left wing. Schliiink!

"Aaaaaaugh!" Bard fell flat on his belly. His feathers dangled uselessly by his side, drenched in his own juices. He struggled to push himself up by the grip of his staff.

    "Hold him!" Chandler's voice shouted from above as he loaded another arrow. "For Verlaxion's sake, hold the maniac still—!"

    "I got him—!" The last remaining pegasus charged with his spear once again.

    Hissing through his teeth, Bard lifted his staff in time to catch the guardian in the chest. He vaulted the flailing pegasus over him—forcing the soldier to drop his spear.

    "Grnnngh..." Pushing against the pain, Bard picked up the enemy spear in his free hoof, stood up, spun, and flung it skyward with all his might. "Rrrrr-aaaaugh!"

    Chandler was aiming down his sight when he saw the blade of the spear flying at him. "...!" He jerked back in the grip of his bodyguards, yelping. "Goddess—!"

CHTINKKK! The spear found a resting spot between the seams of his shoulderplates, vibrating to a stop.

    "Minister!" one of the griffons carrying him gasped.

    "Shhhhhhhh—!" Brye Chandler writhed in his rattling gear. "Fly us up! Get this damned thing out of me!"

    "But sir..." The other guard glanced closely at the spear. "I don't think the blade has pierced any—"

    "I said fly me away! Do you understand how important I am to Verlaxion's cause?!"

    "Yes, sir! Right away—!"

    And both guards ascended, carrying Chandler away from the Stardust. Away from the bloodbath.

    Bard watched them, heaving... bleeding... turning—

    "Aaaaaaaugh!" The last griffon plowed into him.

    Bard shrieked in pain. As the griffon's talons raked his flesh, he spun in a circle, knocking the guardian off.

Wh-Wham! The griffon slammed into the railing of the Stardust. With a frown, he came barreling back at Bard with a dagger drawn.

    "Aaaaaaa—!" Bard shoved the full length of his pole forward and—with incredible finesse

    "Grllggggkkkt!"

    —shoved it pulp-deep into the griffon's gullet. Blood vomited from the attacker's beak for a brief instant. Then...

Crk-CRKKK!** Bard fiercely jerked his staff at a sixty-degree angle.

    The griffon's neck snapped. As his throat spat out Bard's staff, his carcass fell like a wet sack of bricks.

    Bard exhaled. He felt like collapsing too—

Schlunkkkkk!

    —the Desperado jerked in place. He looked down, observing the bloodied sword tip protruding out through his belly.

    The last pegasus behind him held the hilt, having impaled Bard from behind. Twisting the blade, he leaned forward to whisper a curse in Bard's ear.

    Bard snorted, fighting to keep the pathway to his lungs and stomach close. With adept fetlocks, he slid his staff behind him, caught the pegasus, and hoisted upwards in reverse.

    "Whoah—!" The pegasus flailed, somersaulting against his will. In a wet second, he fell belly-first against the Stardust's railing. His muzzle stopped mere centimeters from the ocean water. He was about to move when a massive, bleeding weight pressed into him from behind. Bard locked his staff under the pegasus' neck and shoved his cranium below the water. "Grllglgggght!"

    Bard stared past the waves. He held his breath... his blood... his everything.

    The pegasus attempted to as well... but wasn't nearly as successful. His lower body shook and thrashed against his impaled foe... but to no avail. Within a minute, the pegasus' figure lay limp... fully and thoroughly drowned.

    And with that accomplished...

Cl-Clank!

    Bard dropped his crimson-stained staff to the Stardust's deck. He then slumped down onto his knees... lingering in place. Quivering.

    At last—between the pain and desperation—his chest muscles gave in. He was almost horrorified that he could—in fact—still breathe. His sinuses filled with the raw scent of his insides, and it was then that he realized how cold the metal was running through his abdomen.

    Nausea erupted like a fountain. He drew it away with his eyes, scraping the horizon... discovering in bitter irony that he was facing west.

    Stormclouds flickered. A melee raged high overhead. Flames billowed amongst the rocks and shoals. Somewhere in the distance—faint and nebulous—a glow lingered against the waves.

    Bard thought for a moment that he saw it, but he knew better. His breaths were steadying now, although the pain hadn't left. Not yet.

    Colder. Wetter.

    He inhaled and exhaled... wheezing this time. His eyes searched and searched...

"Wy'sylym wylyn lyss!" voices rang through the chambers of Bleak's Plummet.

    Echo hollered back. Several other sarosians rushed past him, carrying bundles of medical supplies towards the topmost level.

    With a calm breath, Echo trotted back to the translucent window where others stood as sentries. "Good news! It's Enix! She's alive!" He bore a fanged smirk. "She's sliced-and-diced to high Hell, but the crazy bitch is alive! What's more, she says that Rainbow and the others are past the second and third phase of the plan!"

    There was dead, dreadful silence.

    Echo's eyeslits narrowed. He looked at the dainty silhouette seated before the runic field. "Nicole?" He cocked his head to the side. "Nicole, what is it?"

    She said nothing. She couldn't.

    She sat at the window, gazing east.

    Her lips pursed open... though she didn't know why. A mere whimper escaped her lips... lonesome and melodic.

    Bard exhaled. Gazing back. The world's horizon. Dull and dim and dying.

    "... ... ...no more sunsets."

    He tilted his muzzle up. Searching for color... spotting it for only a moment... but then seeing more and more darkness instead.

    Wildcard's goggles reflected the same.

    And perhaps it was that which woke him... which got him moving.

    That... and the dormant speck occupying the distant waters between his fragile cloud bed and the edge of the world. A speck that was no longer moving... but merely stranded beneath a curtain of dark mists.

    And he shifted... wincing against his still-fresh wounds.

    His metal claws groaned and clattered with each attempt that his battered prosthetic made to move them. But that wasn't the limb that mattered at the moment.

    Holding his breath, the feathered Desperado stretched his wings... and glided due east. Descending.

    Towards the Stardust.

    "Harrk!" Kepler shouted into the thunder at the edge of the world. "It arrrives!"

    Flynn did a double-take at the deluge, glancing past their mana equipment. "It does?"

    "I estimate a few minutes now!" the wyvern exclaimed.

    "Good enough!" Logan marched over towards a stack of lunar rune stones. "Let's fire this bitch up!"

    "Isn't that a tad bit premature?" Flynn remarked.

    "Balls to you, baldy!" Logan spat. "Or has your eggheaded ass forgottenforgotted to calculate for the time and distance needed for Rainbow Dash to fly her petite butt back here?" An obese smirk. "See? I'm not all sex and sass!"

    Flynn sighed, then smiled at Kepler. "We should fire the signal."

    "Affirrmative!" Kepler enchanted a series of moon rocks and tossed them to Logan and Flynn. "The illumination spell! Be surre to aim it high so that—"

    "Yeah, yeah... we got it!" Logan nodded and slapped the ammunition into the cannon. "Gonna need an extra set of hooves with this one!"

    "Axan!" Flynn hollered across the wet platform as lightning strobed overhead. "The Gondola's almost here and we have to fire the signal!" There was no response. "Yoohoo?! End of the world to Remna???"

    "Wherre is she?" Kepler asked.

    "Who cares?" Logan fitted the last rune into the boomstick and propped it over his broad figure. "Let's end this slumber party!"

    "Right..." Flynn propped himself up behind the larger stallion, took a deep breath, and shouted into the cannon's runic aura: "Y'lynwyn! Y'ynlppa!"

    After the first word was whinnied, the runes burned with flame. As the projectile exited the cannon, the second word caught up with it—and the rocks frothed to a crimson red hue. It left a scarlet trail behind it as it arced west, soaring high into the tempestuous air.

    The two exhausted forces wrestled with one another high in the stormclouds.

    Rainbow's group fought and knocked back various members of the Central Guard as they desperately trickled in.

    Frostknifers fell—pummeled to the point of blacking out. Injured sarosians leaned on their companions as they were carried away from the front line.

    And just as the battle looked as though it couldn't get more chaotic...

    ...a brilliant explosion of red light billowed directly overhead. The illumination was spread by reactionary branches of lightning that forked every which way, spreading the crimson enchantment around until it occupied the better part of the atmosphere above the melee.

    "Looky!" Pinkie Pie pointed upwards, beaming. "Looky looky!"

    "Oh thank Celestia!" Rarity whimpered.

    Breathless, Rainbow Dash shoved a guardian off of Ariel and punched another griffon. "Grnnngh..." She flung a sweaty look at her friends. "Twilight?!"

    The ghostly unicorn was already nodding. "It's the real deal, Rainbow! The Gondola's practically there!"

    "Time for Dark-Side-a-go-go!" Pinkie Pie warbled. "Go-go-go-go-go!"

    "The enemy's weak!" Fluttershy squeaked. "But they're not letting up—!"

    "Doesn't matter!" Rainbow yanked Ariel closer and pointed skyward. "We're leaving! Everypony—!"

    Ariel whistled shrilly and gestured at the sarosians hovering high above the battle.

    Several slitted eyes bobbed as the midnighters nodded back. Following Ariel's signal, they flew behind a massive stormcloud and bucked its summit with all their might.

KRAKKKK!

    Lightning ribboned through the battle scene, aimed squarely at the line of Frostknifers. It didn't strike any pegasus or griffon, but the electrical discharge was enough to throw their attention off—blinding a few of them.

    "Now!" Rainbow Dash hollered, gesturing emphatically as she pierced the heavens in an eastward glide. "Back to the edge! Heraldites, form up! Sarosians, regroup... gain air... and rejoin Xarchellus!"

    "H'ywllsa ly'mymy!" a nightblooded warrior hollered into the air as velvety bodies followed Rainbow Dash's orders, abandoning the battle and soaring east. Several bat ponies picked up their fallen comrades and flew in tight groups, disappearing behind the stormclouds. "W'ynlppa yln H'luun syl wy'lsyna thym!"

    The battered, bruised members of the Central Guard found themselves hovering alone in the red-tinted air. As the lightning faded, the bodies of their enemies disappeared. In their place, a precipitous fountain of red flares rained down thickly, bathing the twilight with a blood-colored malaise.

    Windburst panted and panted. He shared the same incredulous look as his comrades. "Sir..." He leaned against Keris, wincing from multiple whelts and cuts. "...I'd suggest we do something to hold the troops back, but... th-they don't appear to be chasing Rainbow's friends..."

    Keris didn't respond. His beak clenched as he stared ahead.

    Countless red flares ribboned seaward like bloodied moss. Soon, the waters below reflected their pulsating hue.

    At last, the Commander of the Talon murmured: "Sailor take warning..."

    Windburst glanced aside. "Sir?"

    "We... are to regroup," Keris managed. His eyes darted across each descending flare. "Rejoin the armada. Find Chandler."

    "And if Chandler yells at us for abandoning the enemy?"

    "It's a bit late for that, Sergeant."

    Windburst shuddered, squinting east. "You really think Rainbow Dash made it, Commander?"

    "... ... ...we can only hope."

    "Blood of Luna!" A sarosian flew closer to Rainbow Dash as they blurred towards the source of the runic flare. "We have joined formation just like you asked! What now?"

    "What else?" Rainbow Dash's eyes remained locked on the golden line fluctuating ahead of her. A bulbous spot grew with intensity in the very center, chilling her to the core. "Get to a high altitude—out of sight—and return to Bleak's Plummet!"

    "But—"

    "Just as we planned!"

    "They might yet send a final counter-offensive!" the warrior exclaimed, fangs glinting. "Please! Let us join you! We will gladly give our lives to—"

    "No!" Rainbow Dash glared at her. "Enough lives have been given today! By both sides!" She gulped, shivering in the wet winds. "Go. Join Bleak's Plummet and do the one thing I'd give both my wings to do right now." The hint of a devilish smirk, bitter and sweet. "Go home."

    The sarosians stared back at her. Then—at last—they nodded with conviction.

    "W'ynlppa yln H'luun..." Fangs. Eyeslits glimmering in the twilight. "It has been an honor."

    "Save it for the Matriarch back in Equestria," Rainbow Dash said. "And Celestia." She saluted. "She's cool too."

    "H'wlynym!"

    "S'lyppa thrym syln hy'lynywym!"

    "Eee-Eee-Eee-Eee!"

    With that, the massive flock of velvet and leather banked up and out of sight. An echoing squeak, then blurred wings, and the entire group disappeared with the shadows of endless night. They were lost in the next strobe of lightning.

    "That's it, then?" Ariel stammered, shivering slightly.

    "Let's not worry about them," Rainbow said, flapping her wings harder. "We've got a Gondola to catch." She blinked, then squinted at her side. "Why are you shivering so much?"

    "Rainbow... when..." Ariel grimaced. "...when was the last time either of us saw Wildcard?"

    Rainbow blinked. She looked at her friends. "Fluttershy?"

    There was no response. A glazed pair of turquoise eyes reflected clouds and gray miasma.

    "... ... ...Fluttershy?"

    Red flares were falling to the ocean's surface by the time Wildcard reached the Stardust.

    He landed softly on a bloodsoaked deck. Paws and talons stepped gingerly over corpses and dropped weapons.

    At last—with a scraping shuffle—Wildcard came to a stop. He stood still and grim, his dark feathers unmoving. As the red flares fell all around the ship, a wheezing voice pierced the silence. A ragged reflection tilted its head up in the griffon's goggles, and a grizzled muzzle curved ever so slightly.

    "Heh... well I'll be damned." One healthy wing twitched while the other draped against the deck, soaking in his own blood. "Finally got ya to shut up."

    Wildcard said nothing.

    "Shoulda... shoulda seen it, Dubya-Cee. A real slobberknocker. Took... grnngh... took 'em all to the woodshed. Problem is..." Bard tried to get up. The blade exiting his belly glinted in the red light, and he fell back to his flank with a wince. "Ghhh!"

    Wildcard rushed forward, gripping the pegasus' shoulders.

    "Hrfff..." Bard's eyes were thin—just like his smile. "Reckon I got stuck on the way out..."

    A flesh talon covered Bard's muzzle. Taking a deep breath, Wildcard reached behind him and grasped the hilt of the sword.

    "Don't..."

    Wildcard clenched his beak as he began to tug—

    "Grkkkk!" Bard hissed, then overpowered Wildcard's arm with two shaking fetlocks. "Don't!" He wheezed, bile trickling from his muzzle. "I'll... grggh... go even faster with it out..."

    The griffon leaned back. He breathed and breathed, goggles full of blood and rust.

    "Dubya..."

    Reluctantly, he looked up.

    "I... f-failed Melody... and Amber..." Bard kept his gaze steady, although his voice wasn't. "But I didn't fail her." A trilling sound, and he fought the urge to fall over on his impalement. "Nicole... she's goin' to brighter pastures. Hrmmm..." A hard-edged smirk. "...t'ain't no failure in a second life if you spend it doin' what's right."

    Wildcard listened.

    Metal scraped.

    Bard used all his strength to raise his bo-staff between them. Without hesitation, Wildcard gripped it. The air between them was clear of rain and thunder.

    "Dun you fail Rainbow Dash, y'hear?" Bard wheezed. His stubble was now a frown, warm and sincere. "I know how much she means to ya, so you do all you damned well can to get her to where she needs to go." A shudder. "Make yer second life an encore to remember. It's all that matters now. It's all that's ever mattered."

    Wildcard exhaled with a shudder. He held the staff under one wing and used his one good talon to gesture something.

    "Hmmmm..." Bard nodded back with a smile. "Alright, mofo. Almost all..." His ears drooped.

    Wildcard smiled back. He rested his hand on Bard's shoulder.

    The red flares fell all around the Stardust as the Desperadoes leaned their foreheads together, sharing the shivers of the moment. A few breaths—some warm, others ragged.

    "Ain't no gettin' off this train we're on," Bard whispered. His smile squeezed out through a sob, and his grip of Wildcard's shoulder tightened for one final time.

    Wildcard nodded against Bard's head. At last—as the redness began to dissipate—he felt a strong hoof pushing him back.

    "Now... skedaddle." Bard gulped, bracing himself against the bloodied deckplates. "Them bastards will be comin' back any second now. Dun worry. I got 'em covered." A piercing glare. "Time for yer solo."

    Wildcard stood up, gripping the metal staff. He lingered on the east end of the Stardust, fidgeting.

    "Go, dammit! Git!" Bard calmly peeled off his belt and bandolier. "While I still got a spotlight to shine in..."

    Wildcard breathed and breathed and—

FWOOOOSH!

    —murked off in a black streak, piercing the final heavens.

    Bard gazed after him. A slight mist touched his eyes...

    At least until he closed them.

    "Nnnrgh... d-dammit!" Brye Chandler fidgeted and fussed, pressing himself into the embrace of one griffon while the other bodyguard struggled to dislodge the spear from his armor. "Careful! You'll cut my flesh!"

    "Defense Minister..." The griffon's hawkeyes narrowed as he focused on his task. The three were positioned on a cloud high above the last known sighting of the Stardust. "...if you simply stop squirming, I can more carefully assist you—"

    "I'm the one stallion entrusted by Verlaxion to avenge her legacy!" Chandler barked. "I do not 'squirm'!"

    "Hrmmm..." The griffon gripping the stuck spear clenched his beak. "...then surely you can weather this."

    "What was that—?" CHTUNKKK! "—aaaaaaugh!" Chandler clutched the dented armor where the spear was removed. "Are you mad?!"

    "But it barely grazed you—"

    "Never mind!" Chandler shoved against him and then gestured at the other bodyguard holding him. "Take us down immediately! There's no telling where those Blighted fiends went!"

    "Sir, you ordered us to ascend in the first place—"

    "Silence and do as I say!" Chandler tightened his helmet as the bodyguards took wing, carrying him off the cloud and descending once again. "If that vessel full of black magic gets away, then we will have sacrificed this entire flanking move for nothing!"

    "I... I think I see it, sir!" One griffon pointed with a free talon. "It's right where we left it!"

    "Then take us down already!" Chandler cocked his crossbow. "I need to know if our soldiers finished that cretin off!"

    A gentle melody wafted through the air.

    Acoustic strings and harmonic chords.

Th-Th-Thump! Chandler and his two bodyguards landed heavily on the bow of the Stardust. They gawked at the bloody carnage strewn all across the deckplates.

    But that wasn't all.

    "What... in blazes...?" Chandler murmured.

    His bodyguards grimaced upon seeing the lifeless remains of their former comrades. But that wasn't all...

    "Hey!" Chandler craned his neck, helmet rattling. "Hey you!"

    There was no response from the source of the music. A pegasus sat near the cabin door, hunched over. There was an instrument in his hooves.

    Frowning, Chandler marched towards him in his bulky armor. "I am Defense Minister Brye Chandler of Rohbredden. In the name of Goddess Verlaxion, I order you to stand down and tell me the plans of the Rainbow Rogue!"

    Bard's response was to hum in tune to the gentle guitar riff he was playing. He squatted on the corpse of a Frostknifer, plucking the strings with one fetlock and his surviving wing.

    "Did you hear me, Blighted one?!" Chandler aimed his crossbow. "I said that I am Defense Minister Brye..." His lips trailed, as did his gaze. "...Chandler of Rohbredden..." His eyes fell on the sword-tip impaling Bard's figured. "...good Goddess."

    "Hmmmmmmm..." Bard plucked the strings of his guitar, staining the wooden finish red. "...time it was... and what a time it was... it was..."

    The two bodyguards blinked incredulously at one another.

    "Funny..." Bard chuckled. Blood squeezed through the seams of his front teeth. "...the sweetest songs are somehow always the shortest."

    At this point, Brye Chandler was ignoring him. With a gaping expression, he trotted past the wounded musician and gazed at the cabin door...

    ...a cabin door that had been slid wide open, revealing an entire glowing stockpile of enchanted runestones.

    A melodic sigh. Bard smiled into the reddened heavens as he plucked a final chord. "Well, Amber, it took dayum near forever, but here we are.”

    Chandler spun around, eyes wide.

    Bard gazed back. Unflinching. "H'rhnum..."

Vrmmmmmmmmmmmmmm— Every single rock inside the belly of the Stardust glowed to the point of blinding.

    "Get o-out!" Chandler's voice cracked. His helmet flew into the mists as he scrambled to gallop off the ship's bloody deck. "Get out before it—" He had no more words, for he had no more lungs. Billowing lunar plasma engulfed him, Bard, the two griffons and—

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

    The red sky was drowned in a rising plume of orange and silver flame.

    Keris, Windburst, and the rest of their company jerked in place. Gasping. Squinting.

    They hovered to a stop just above the last remaining ship of Chandler's armada. As other Frostknifers carried water-logged survivors back on board, the east horizon behind them erupted in runic wrath.

    The shockwave reached Rainbow Dash and Ariel—nearly throwing them off balance.

    "Augh!"

    "Guhhh!"

    Rainbow Dash and Ariel spun around, squinting down and towards the west. The twilight faded for a brief moment, as if kissed by a second sun for the first time in epochs.

    The explosion ended as dramatically as it began, and despitedespit having produced monumental thunder...

    ...Rainbow Dash was acutely aware of a shocked gasp to her side. She looked at Fluttershy.

    Fluttershy looked back at her. Ears drooped and a yellow muzzle quivered.

    Rainbow Dash gawked. "Wildcard?"

    Fluttershy slowly shook her head.

    Rainbow blinked. Then her pupils shrank. "... ... ...Bard."

    A sniffle. Fluttershy's eyes filled up with tears.

    "Rainbow...?" Twilight looked at Pinkie Pie—who was rubbing a shivering shoulder. She looked back at their anchor. "Rainbow, what is—?"

    "Look!" Rarity pointed at the western sky.

    The ghostly mares gazed in one accord. As the lasting glow of the explosion faded, a dark figure glided ever closer. Wildcard flew east. His metal arm dangled limply. His other talon gripped a bloodied staff.

    "Wildcard..." Ariel murmured. "There you are! We lost you when..." She blinked. "What are you doing with Bard's—?"

Fwoooosh! Wildcard glided past him. His expression was stoic and nothing else. He decelerated slightly—but without turning back. He kept his flight slow for as long as he was within Rainbow's gaze.

    "... ... ..." Ariel gazed after him. At last, as the twilight returned, her eyes turned glossy above a weak frown. "No..." Wings blurred. She muscled herself west. "No!"

    A petite hoof yanked her back with remarkable strength. "Ariel—"

    "No! We can't just leave him back there—"

    "Rrrrgh!" Rainbow practically threw Ariel after Wildcard. She glared at her. Through her. "He gave hisus all! Now it's time we gave ours! Or do you really want to shame him that badly?!"

    Ariel pouted. She heaved... shook... and caved under a fountain of tears. She shook them dry the only way she knew how—by flying into the stormy winds, making a bitter bee-line for the edge of the world.

    Rainbow Dash followed her with no less speed. A cold frown sliced the air in front of her.

    And yet... on a softer plane...

    ...the quiet, sobbing voices of her friends joined her.

    "Rainbow Dash..." Twilight glided alongside her. Her face was a lavender bowl of grimacing sympathy. "Rainbow Dash, I am so... so sorry..." She reached a vaporous limb through her friend's wings. "Please... if th-there's anything we can do—"

    "We move."

    "Rainbow, please—"

    "We head east!" Rainbow Dash grunted into the cosmos and the hazy line of gold separating them. "Until there is no east left." At last, she caught up with Wildcard. She looked at him.

    Wildcard said nothing. Gripping the other Desperado's weapon like a spear, he cut a windy pathst towards the end of all things.

    Rainbow exhaled, ears drooping. She flew close to the griffon, and the two accelerated to catch up with Ariel.

    "W'yllsa! W'yllsa! S'ylywym wysll thym!"

    "Alright! Alright!" Echo hollered towards the upper chambers. There was a final rush of salty air through Bleak's Plummet, and the walls rang with stomping hooves. "Seal it up! The others will join us when we resurface again!"

    "What?" Nicole breathily managed. "Did... did we—?"

    "That red signal just now!" Echo's fangs glinted in the runelight. "Rainbow's done it! Our brothers and sisters are flocking west! Keeping a high cover!"

    "Are we abandoning them—?"

    "Pfft! Hardly! A good bunch of them are already on board—along with Enix! The rest will keep high in the clouds and rendezvous once Bleak's Plummet breaches the waves!"

    "Then... then we made it," Nicole managed with a shudder. "Rainbow... Johnny... we—"

    "Hold on tight, bae." Echo steadied her shoulders as the entire ship shifted with a jolt. "Dive time."

    Nicole's eyeslits reflected a wave of bubbles from beyond the magic window. "I... I can hardly believe—"

    "Believe what?" Echo smiled at her. "Relax, girl. I know it's sappy'n'shiet, but..." He gazed out at the dimming east waters as the entire structure drew away. "...we're going home."

    Nicole pursed her lips. "Home." The word was only half-melodic. The shadow of the ocean fell over Bard's hat, then her, then everything.

    "Commander!" Windburst shouted, wincing in mid-flight as he struggled to follow his superior. "Commander! Hold up!"

    Keris said nothing. He flew over the wall of fire... the wrecked privateer ship and the rocks and shoals surrounding it. As the last few survivors of the wreck were being carried to the remaining vessel west of them, he found a group of pegasi circling a burning patch of debris due east.

    "Commander..." At last, Windburst caught up with him. He panted. "What are we doing out here? The troops are gathered above Chandler's ship like you ordered—"

    "That explosion, Sergeant..."

    "Yeah? What about it? It was loud, stupid, and noisy—"

    "Shhhh!" Keris hissed aside as a quartet of armored pegasi approached. "I just need to know..."

    "Know what?"

    "Commander?" one pegasus stammered, a pale expression spread over her features. "Commander Keris? Is that you?"

    "Report, soldier," Keris firmly said.

    "It... it's the Defense Minister, sir," the pegasus said. Her three partners fidgeted nervously in mid-air with their backs to the explosion's epicenter. "While we were fishing survivors out of the waters surrounding the second ship, we spotted him flying east with a contingent of bodyguards to engage the enemy artillery vessel and—"

    "And what?" Keris' magenta eyes narrowed. "It exploded?"

    "I... I'm afraid so, Commander."

    "And the Defense Minister?" Windburst leaned forward. "Brye Chandler? Did you find him?"

    "We..." The pegasus looked at the others. "We... uhm..."

    "Well?"

    Gulping, the soldier nervously looked back at the Talon members. "We found his head."

    Silence.

    "But... we c-couldn't find the rest of him... Commander... s-sir..."

    Keris exhaled. He looked at the wreckage... then at the lightning and cosmic nebulae beyond.

    "Commander Keris?" The pegasus hovered higher. "With the Defense Minister gone and Seraphimus unaccounted for... that puts you in charge of our offensive."

    Windburst took a deep breath and delivered into the thunderous air: "What are your orders..." He glanced stealthily aside. "Commander, sir?"

    Keris closed his eyes. His headcrest settled—as did the edge in his voice. "Retreat."

    The pegasus soldiers gaped at him. "S-sir?"

    "We are to fall back and retreat safely to Frostknife. The Rainbow Rogue's forces have us outsmarted and outgunned here and it would be a tragic folly to waste the most elite of the late Verlaxion's foals in a futile act of vengeancevegeance that even she didn't mandate when she was alive." Keris' eyes reopened and they were glaring. "Do you have a problem with that, soldier?"

    Silence.

    Keris looked around. "Does anypony have a problem with that?"

    Dead winds.

    Rain.

    And...

    "N-no, sir!"

    "Not at all sir!"

    "T-take us back to Frostknife... Commander... s-sir..."

    Windburst sighed with relief.

    "Good." Commander Keris sliced his claws west in a dramatic motion. "Fall back. Regather the troops. Tell them... we're heading back home... to protect our loved ones!"

    Bodies swiftly, eagerly glided past him, carving a path westward over the rock formations and shipwrecks.

    "Fall back!"

    "Sound retreat!""

    "Move! Move! Move!"

    "Listen...!" Raptr tilted his head up from where he and Starstorm squatted on a low-hanging cloud. "Do you hear that?"

    Starstorm paused in wrapping a length of metal wire around Seraphimus' wings. The former Commander's talons and paws were already tightly bound, and her silver feathers fluttered in the noisy breeze.

    "It... it..." Starstorm cocked her avian head aside. Sure enough—between the thunder and wind—she and the rookie could make out the distant hollering of Central Guardians. "It sounds like they're sounding a retreat."

    "Then... then Keris did it!" Raptr exclaimed, smiling jubilantly. "He and Windburst have forced Chandler to change his mind!"

    "I wonder if it has anything to do with that brilliant explosion just now," Starstorm muttered.

    "Maybe... although..." Raptr gulped, squinting into the rain. "Now you've got me worried."

    "What for?" Starstorm returned to wrapping the cord around Seraphimus' wings. "We got what we came here for."

    "Did we? How do we know that Rainbow Dash made it?"

    "Remember that red flare from earlier?"

    "Uhm... yeah?"

    Starstorm leaned in over Seraphimus. "If you ask me, that was the signal."

    "Signal?"

    "For Rainbow's gang to split up. The midnighters are going away for good." Starstorm smirked, tying the cord into complex knots. "And Rainbow's group? They're probably halfway to the Dark Side by now..."

    Silver feathers shifted. Muscles tightened. And when Starstorm's last words were spoken...

    ...a pair of charcoal eyes flew open.

    "Come on..." Flynn jittered and jittered. Jittered and jittered. "Come onnnnn..." His mechanical eye glinted in a gold aura as he hoofy-kicked into the deluge's rising mists. "Come on come on come on come on—"

    Then... at last...

It arose.

    A blindingly smooth crown of gold pierced the eternally-falling waters. When it surfaced, it was with a brilliant splash. Moisture flew in every direction, splattering the golden spokes, the Emeraldinian granite, and the billowing waves surrounding the platforms. Then—as the last of the cold curtains of moisture receded—the Gondola was revealed in all its shimmering glory. It resembled a translucent geodesic sphere, with each portion of the shell separated by vertices of golden spokes plated in between with immaculate, crystal-clear glass. The spotlessness of the transport device was haunting—despite its age—with the alicorn metal seeming to glow in fierce platinum defiance of the twilight that had enshrouded it on its lengthy approach to the world's precipice. From afar, the huddled Heraldites could spot a criss-crossing set of support beams—six in all—reinforcing the shell of the otherwise hollow sphere from the inside. The "vehicle" was braced by two extending "wings" on the outer hemispheres that served as the shafts through which the endless chains drew the thing towards the surface. The group was—however—incapable of making out a door... that is until the sphere moved itself quite magically towards the very edge of the platforms built expertly eons ago by Whitemane's forbearers. There was a whirring noise as the entrance fluctuated with a harmonic hue. Then—as the last layer of moisture was shaken off—a glass lid to the ancient elevator yawned open, accompanied with a timelessly playful melody:

D-Ding-a-Ding!

    "It's here!" Flynn shouted, already dragging his equipment and tool bagstoolbags over his shoulder. "It's here! Everypony get in! Get in!"

    Logan was waving at three figures flying towards them from the distant west. "All board! Come on! Come on! We gotta go!"

    "My my..." Kepler perched on the platform. His tusked mouth hung open as his spectacled eyes dazzled at the sight of the magnificent structure in all its glory. "What a most rravishing geodesic polyhedrron!" He hummed beneath his furry chest as Flynn hopped first into the hollow of the vehicle ahead of him. "And just look at the spatialspacial grandeurr! Surrely you could fit an entirre battalionbattallion of Emerraldinian soldierrs inside this—"

    "Dammit!" Logan kicked Kepler in the tail. "Get your nerdy ass inside, four-eyes!"

    "Ha—" Thunk! "—H-Haaa..."

    Flynn whistled, standing on a plate of gold and staring up at the support beams and rippling windows surrounding them. Beyond the crystalline sheets of glass, the storm raged and galactic eddies swirled forever and ever. "Look at how wonderfully crafted this all is!" His mechanical eye focused on the nexus of criss-crossing support beams. A large rectangular block with square door panels rested in the center. "That must be where the settlers of Darkreach placed their building supplies." He turned—lenses circling—and looked at a curved stretch of tiny pony-sized seat restraints lining the entire inner equator of the vessel. "And those are the passenger seats."

    "How currious," Kepler murmured against the dull roar of thunder beyond the ancient shell. "Why arre they built in a perrfect cirrcle?"

    Flynn gulped. "Because gravity must fail at some point along the trip." He pointed. "Notice the harnesses."

    "Ah!" Kepler nodded, adjusting his glasses. "But of courrse!"

    "Now... where are the controls?"

    Kepler tapped his furry chin, searching and searching and—"Ah!" He pointed a winged claw at a spot along the sphere just a few glass panels away from the open door. "A leverr! See?"

    "Great! Perfect!" Flynn levitated his equipment towards the rectangular compartment in the middle. All the while, he shouted over his shoulder: "Big Show! I found the controls—!"

    "Right! More power to ya, popcorn fart!" Logan faced away from the sphere's entrance, cupping his fetlocks around his muzzle and hollering: "Get your flanks over here already! Show's over! Time to drop!"

Fw-Fw-Fwooosh! All three stragglers arrived in one accord. Wildcard passed on through the entrance first. He was silent as stone, and his goggles reflected nothing.

    Logan blinked at that. "Hey... h-hey, where's Bard?" Ariel approached, so Logan gestured dramatically at her. "Yo! Where the Hell is Bard?"

    Ariel stumbled. Her muzzle scrunched. She looked up at Logan—and as soon as she made eye-contact, the tears redoubled. Sniffling, she rubbed her cheek and dove inside the Gondola.

    Logan blinked. His expression of shock lasted scarcely a second, replaced entirely with a snarl as hot as furnace. He swiped his axe up off the ground and made to gallop towards the western edge of the platform—

    Rainbow Dash blocked his way. "Get inside."

    "Buck you, I'm getting inside," Logan growled. "After what those bastards did—" He stomped a hoof. "Who was it?! Tell me! Did you even see—?!"

    Rainbow Dash was in his face in a blink. "Either you go over the edge with us or I'm kicking your butt off on your lonesome."

    Logan opened his muzzle to protest—

    "Big Show. Logan." Flynn stuck his head out of the sphere's entrance. "The Austraeoh needs you. We all do."

    Logan fumed and fumed and—

    "Rrrrrgh!"

    —he turned tail and thudded his way inside the Gondola.

    Rainbow Dash took a step or two. Then...

    She lingered.

    Her gaze fell from the angry sight of Logan settling inside the sphere. She stared at the rain-slicked stone beneath her. Ancient granite. Built by nameless bodies from a nameless time.

    And another nameless soul had just joined it.

    She clenched her eyes shut as the first of several sobs fought their way out of her lungs—

    "Rainbow Dash..." Soft. Loving.

    Rainbow squinted one eye open.

    It was Fluttershy. "Most of us are still alive. Thanks to you."

    Rainbow sucked in her breath... but could barely squeak it back out.

    Fluttershy nodded past her. "Remna."

    "... ... ...?" Rainbow spun around.

    A body was trotting away from the swinging chalices.

    "Axan?" Rainbow stammered. She frowned. "Dang it, Axan—let's go already!"

    Remna marched calmly towards her, fussing with the right bangs of her mane. "A thousand pardons, Austraeoh. I was merely—"

    "The time for buckin' sight-seeing is over!" Rainbow pointed at the sphere. "Now get into the sphere! Move! Everypony inside!"

    "Hrmmm..." Remna squinted as she climbed in. "...we appear to be short on company—"

    "Shut up," Rainbow grunted, pushing her along. "For once in your immortal life, Axan, girl, could you just friggin' can it?" She braced herself against the harmonic metal of the door's opening. A moment's hesitation. She looked back at the Light Side... and the storms and the tempest that both defined and contrasted it all at once. Then—a tight exhale. "Zoop." And she removed her hoof from the earth and dashed inside.

    "Is that everyone?" Keris asked.

    "Uhm... uh..." A bruised soldier in battered armor shifted among the wounded and dazed Frostknifers lined up all along the top deck of the Rohbreddenites' remaining vessel. "We've... gathered all we could find from... the wreck and the two engagements to the west—"

    "Is it everyone who is left?" Keris insisted, pressing the guardian.

    The subordinate gulped, pointing off the ship's port side as it slowly turned around to face west. "We th-think that there might still be stragglers in the lower clouds... from when the second salvo of Blighted magic hit us."

    "Then send out two detachments," Keris ordered. "Search the waves and mists from top to bottom!" He raised his voice, gesturing to the exhausted crew of the ship as a whole. "I want every living survivor on board this vessel for the trip back to Frostknife! We'll need all the forces we can manage to help the Council fend off the windigoes back home!"

    Windburst shuffled up, leaning on a bulkhead. "Commander. What of Rainbow Dash?"

    "Hmmm? Yes?"

    "Don't..." Windburst shifted a bit where he stood. "I mean... maybe we should... erm..." He cleared his throat. "...go check on her? Make sure she and the Herald depart safely—"

    "Sergeant, we've done all we can for Rainbow Dash," Keris said. "Just as she's done all she can for us. Trust me." He pivoted about, squinting along the tempestuous western horizon. "We'd be failing her if we didn't put all our energy into... returning home and..." His magenta eyes narrowed quizzically. "...protecting our loved ones."

    "Sir?" Windburst—for the first time in as long as he could remember—failed to spot something before his commanding officer. So he stepped up behind Keris to crane his neck and gaze over his shoulder.

    That's when he finally saw it... saw them. Two haggard shapes flying towards the vessel from the west. Their path was zig-zagged. Sickly. Desperate.

    "Commander, it's... I think it's—"

    "Sergeant!" Keris was already taking off. He flew west to meet the two figures. His headcrest lifted in alarm. "Starstorm... Raptr..." He hovered to a stop, grimacing. "What in the Spring Havens...?"

    "Grrkkk..." Starstorm coughed, gargling blood. Her face was badly lacerated, and she clutched a deep wound in her shoulder. The Sergeant had to lean against Raptr for support. "Commander... grnngh... I am... I am so sorry..."

    "What happened?" Keris insisted, his voice raising. "Come on! Out with it!"

    "Only... only sp-spared us because... because..." Starstorm's eyelids grew heavy as she fought unconsciousness and blood-loss. "...once... once comrades..."

    "Once comrades?!" Windburst stammered. "What do you mean?"

    "Sergeant... Commander... we tried everything we could," Raptr said, holding Starstorm steady. "I mean—just short of throwing ourselves in the way. But... as you can see, by the time we tried..." He grimaced, looking all around in a feverish tremor. Tears formed in his eyes. "So fast. She... she was just s-so fast and... and Starstorm..." He choked. "Starstorm and I..."

    Keris was no longer listening. His feathers paled. In a stupor, he slowly turned around... facing east.

    Windburst gaped at him. "Commander—"

FWOOOOOOOSH! Keris streaked east in an imperceivable blur.

    "Dammit..." Windburst clenched his beak. "Goddess dammit—Raptr!" He soared after Keris. "Take wing—!"

    "Go... grkkk..." Starstorm patted Raptr's shoulder as she was lowered briskly to the deck. "Without m-me..."

    "Shit shit shit shit *shit!***" Raptr shot skyward, swiftly surpassing Windburst in a desperate chase after Keris.

    Starstorm collapsed on the deck, surrounded by countless wounded and battered defenders of Rohbredden. As crew ponies rushed to her aid, she covered a talon over her bloodied beak... tears streaming...

    "Okay!" Applejack hollered, gazing all around the sphere's interior. "That's everypony!"

    "This structure's positively amazing!" Rarity found the strength to coo, her eyes glittering from the spherical exoskeleton. "And it's remained pristine like a gold encrusted diamond for countless generations—!"

    "Save it, Rarity," Twilight said in a curt tone. She turned towards their anchor. "Rainbow Dash! There must be some way to operate this thing!"

    "You tell me, egghead!" Rainbow snapped, then faced the rest of the Herald. "Guys! Stomach's growling for an update right about now..."

    "Still... strruggling..." Kepler wheezed, gripping the gold lever with both claws and attempting to pull it. "...to ascerrtain the functionality herre..."

    "Well stop yanking on it!" Flynn's voice cracked. "We didn't summon this baby through the double-crust of the earth just to snap it in two!"

    "Well, somepony figure out something!" Logan exclaimed, struggling to hop over the glass plates of the Gondola—setting hoof on only the gold spokes. To his misfortune, he stared straight down, spotting an endless "horizon" of rushing water and sporadic vortices stretching into blackening cosmos. "Wooooooooo Susan, I hope this place has a lavatory—"

    Just then, Wildcard's talon shoved him in the chest. Logan gasped as he was pushed into a plush seat. He felt the last Desperado fastening the passenger restraints around him.

    "Now hold up! Until we get this damn thing moving, I really don't think I should be—" Logan protested.

    His words were cut short by a firm claw held directly in front of his nose. Logan watched—beady-eyed—as Wildcard coldly and authoritatively continued fastening him to his seat. Within the space of a minute, Wildcard finished, then awkwardly hobbled over to Ariel.

    The mare had already seated herself in her harness. When the griffon came to strap the belts around her, she didn't protest. Ariel kept her melancholic gaze plastered to Wildcard's forehead. Then—at one strategic moment—she leaned forward and kissed him softly through his feathers.

    For the first time, Wildcard lingered in place. His goggles fell to the harmonic metal between them. If it weren't for his grip of Bard's staff, he would likely have collapsed completely—

    "Rrrrrgh!" Kepler's growling tone echoed against the support beams overhead as the wyvern fussed and fussed with the lever. "Confound this ancient machinerry!" He leaned back, adjusting his spectacles as he exhaled in a huff. "Mountain Matrron, give me strrength..."

    "Rainbow Dash?" Applejack leaned in. "Can't you help them?"

    "Hmmmm..." Twilight gazed at the lever mechanism. "It's not like somepony activated it from inside the Gondola to begin with..."

    "You're right, Twilight," Rainbow said, nodding. "I did."

    Remna finished fastening herself in a seat. She looked over and spoke firmly: "Why not let the Austraeoh touch it?"

    Flynn and Kepler looked at one another. They then glanced at Rainbow Dash.

    "Rrainbow One...?"

    "It's worth a shot, Dash," Flynn added.

    Holding her breath, Rainbow fluttered over... and placed her fetlock against the handle of the lever.

Vrmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Almost instantly, the mechanism hummed to life. A gold glow emanated from deep within the base of the lever.

    "OooOooOooh!" Rarity cupped her squishy cheeks. "So delightful!" Her eyes darted to Rainbow's Loyalty pendant—which was also pulsating with a ruby aura. "Heehee! Even better!"

    "Well, will you look at that?" Flynn beamed at Rainbow. "I knew we weren't escorting you for nothing, girl!"

    "Rein it in, shiny," Rainbow droned. "LestUnless you forget where we're headed."

    Flynn gulped. "Right." He spoke over his shoulder. "Strap in, Kepler. As close to the controls as possible."

    "Rrainbow gets the closest seat, I trrust."

    "Absolutely. Rainbow?"

    "Just one second..." Rainbow licked her lips, grasping the handle. "Now that it's glowing... how exactly do I work this thing?"

    "Look for the way the sheath is positioned, Rainbow," Twilight suggested.

    "Therre!" Kepler—while fastening himself to his seat—pointed at an open space aimed towards the base of the sphere. "I trrust if you move it in that dirrection..."

    Ch-Chtunnng! Rainbow threw the lever down towards the lower cosmos.

D-Ding-a-Ding!

Vrmmmmm! The whole Gondola shook, wobbled... then began an eerily glacial descent.

    "Yes!" Twilight Sparkle cheered. "Rainbow, you did it!"

    "Whew-wee!" Applejack tilted her hat forward. "Dark Side or bust, y'all!"

    "Hmmmmm..." Flynn managed a smile as he sat into his harness, pulling at the belts. "Has a nice smell to it."

    "Brace yourselves, darlings," Rarity said, gazing down... down at the obsidian horizon drenched in water. "It's a long... long way to our destination."

    "Guhhh-uhhh-uhhh-uhhhh!" Pinkie Pie clutched her skull, eyes wide. "My ear lobes are going crazy!"

    "Take it easy, Pinkie." Rainbow spoke over the rattling of golden chains as the sphere began its descent. Water frothed around the lower window panes, drowning out the thunder beyond. "You heard Rarity. We're going to be chugging away like this for a longgggg—"

    "It's n-not th-that!" Pinkie Vibrated all over. "Something else—"

    "RAINBOW!!!" Fluttershy suddenly shrieked.

    All ghostly eyes flew to her.

    "Fluttershy?! What—"

"Close the door!" Fluttershy screamed. "Close the door!"

    Twilight Sparkle gasped. "Rainbow Dash! The ocean water—!"

    Fluttershy curled up into a yellow ball. "It's not the ocean water!"

    "...?" Rainbow Dash let go of the lever. Her wings flapped until she hovered in the center of the Gondola, on level with the door. As the platforms... the waves... the entire world raised out of view, she caught sight of a pale figure... a comet of bloodstained feathers burning towards them—carried by a scream. "Close the door..."

    "...?!" Wildcard jerked her a look.

    Rainbow's eyes flashed at him. "Close the door! Close the friggin'—!"

    "What?!" Ariel and Logan craned their necks. "What is it—?"

    Wildcard reached the frame, and he saw it too. "!!!" Headcrest quivering, he yanked at the door with all his might.

Creaaaaak! Thud! The glass lid slammed shut. Within seconds—

CRASSSSSH!

    A wave of crystalline shards fluttered the compartment, propelled by a razor-clawed figure plowing through at full force...

    ...and contacting squarely with Rainbow Dash.

    "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!" Seraphimus tackled the petite pegasus, slamming her into the cross-section of support beams. She sneered, snapped metal cords dangling from her talons and legs. Eyes flaring, she stabbed her beak right into Rainbow's neck.

    "Httt!" Rainbow somehow managed to grip Seraphimus' mouth in both fetlocks, stopping her by an inch.

    But the former Talon Commander expected this, and with Rainbow's forelimbs free, she jabbed both sets of claws into the mare's ribcage. Sl-Sliiink!

    "Aaaaaaaaaaugh—!" Rainbow began screaming, but she didn't finish.

    "Hrrrrrrrrrgh—!" Charcoal eyes caught aflame as Seraphimus threw Rainbow like a dead weight across the inner space of the Gondola.

    "Holy—!" Flynn spat.

    "Sonuva—" Logan gnashed his teeth. Anchored in his seat, he flung a hoof out to catch Rainbow.

    He missed, and Rainbow's body went sailing violently into the golden vehicle's controls. WHUD! "Ooomf!" she grunted, eyes tearing from the pain. Bruised and bleeding, she looked up—

    —and straight into Seraphimus' dive-kick. "Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"

    Seraphimus' weight collided with Rainbow's weight and—

CRACKKKK!

    —the golden lever shattered completely. The broken remains of its alicorn metal jerked to the maximum depth of its sheathe. VRMMMMMM! The Gondola jerked violently...

    "No!" Kepler hollered, flailing in his restraint as the entire sphere plunged. "That's too fast! We're going to—"

    His words trailed after him—as did everypony's screams. The golden chains loosened like spiderwebs in a wild breeze, and the Gondola dropped, plowing through water and lightning as it followed its arcane course over the edge of the world and beyond.

    "Commander?!" Windburst hollered after Raptr and Keris. He grimaced from his wounds, fighting to keep up with the other two Talon members as they soared over platforms, granite, and a forest of dangling chalices. "Commander!"

    Keris said nothing. Did nothing. Until he reached the very edge.

    At last—with limp wings—he glided to a slow stop, perched on the last piece of earth.

    The deluge roared. Water barreled into starlight and cosmic storms. Chains rattled, rolling at an incalculable rate, until they too disappeared amidst the moisture and miss.

    The Gondola was gone. The precipice was barren.

    "We..." Windburst huddled over, wheezing for breath beside his commanding officer and the gaping rookie. "...we are too late..." He gulped, standing up and squinting into the otherworldly miasma. "Rainbow...? Seraphimus...?"

    Keris's headcrest drooped. There was a slight tremble to his talons.

    Raptr grimaced. "It's... it's our fault..." He fell to his knees. "We had her... one moment and then the next..." A whimper. "It's our fault. If only we—"

"No."

    Raptr looked up.

    So did Windburst.

    Keris exhaled into the heavens: "It's my fault. I... I failed Seraphimus. I failed Rainbow Dash." A cold breath. Thunder. "And now... I've failed the world."

    Windburst blinked... then gazed into the swirling eddies once more.

    "What... what do we do now...?" Raptr shrugged wildly. "I mean... hell... forget the windigoes! How long does everypony on this plane have left if Rainbow Dash doesn't... d-doesn't..." His words failed.

    For Keris was staring at him. "You didn't see Rainbow Dash at Red Barge, Raptr," he said. He looked at Windburst. "It takes more than death incarnate to stop her."

    "Death is one thing..." Windburst droned, shivering slightly. "But our former boss?"

    Raptr sucked his breath in.

    Keris gazed at the chaos beyond... the darkness and the noise and the piercing flickers of lightning. "We just donated the Dark Side the two most righteous souls to ever live on our plane. Have a little hope, my friends."

    His wingmates said nothing.

    So Keris did. He closed his magenta eyes to the madness and murmured under his breath. "Please, Jordan, brother. Help her... help them *both*..."

    Wildcard steadied himself against a golden beam. Twin black lenses reflected lightning, stars, and water spouts beyond the sea of glass panels.

THOOOM!

KRAKKKK!

FLASSSH!

    Swirling tempests—blinding and bold—fluctuated all around the Gondola's free-fall. And yet—with his loyal gaze—the Desperado soon made out the bodies of the two combatants.

    With a mute snarl, he twirled Bard's staff, kicked off the glass plates beneath him, and flew towards his targets.

    Ariel gasped through the thunder as he whizzed by. "Wildcard—!"

    "Raaaaaaugh!" Seraphimus lifted Rainbow by a talon grip to her throat. She raised her other claws to strike—

Swooooosh! CLANG! Bard's staff contacted heavily with her shoulder.

    "Oooomf!" Seraphimus jolted in mid-hover, but she did not let go of Rainbow. Turning around, she met Wildcard's next swing with her opposite talon. "Rrrrrrghh—!"

    Wildcard snarled back, tightening his muscles to thrust the staff into Seraphimus' skull.

    Rainbow was gasping for breath when she felt the Gondola sway around them, followed by Rarity's yelp: "Look out!"

    "Incomiiiiing!" Pinkie Pie hollered, mane billowing.

    Rainbow's eyes rolled back. She saw the shattered glass entrance to the Gondola... and the wave of water rushing into it.

    "Hold on!!!" Flynn shouted, erecting a force field around himself and as many Heraldites as he could muster.

SPLOOOOOOSH! Ocean water jetted in like a fountain, dousing everypony inside. Ariel screamed until she was gargling brine. When the wave hit the three combatants—accompanied with a crack—of thunder, it knocked them hard to the bottom of the sphere.

    WHUD! Wh-Wham!

    Rainbow Dash rolled and tumbled through the shallow pool collecting rapidly at the bottom of the sphere. She tried to get up when—

    "Another, darling!"

    "Rainbow—!" Applejack's voice, then nothing... for Rainbow Dash was doused once more. She felt herself cartwheeling head over heel, spotting refracted images of the universe blurring around her through crystalline windows. At last, she surfaced, rolling onto a curved stretch of dry glass and gold.

    "Damn crazy bitch!" Logan hollered from above, writhing in his restraint. "Gonna get us all killed—!"

    "Rainbow!" Ariel sputtered, her eyes flashing from high above the support beams. "Behind you! Coming in fast—!"

    "Move—!" Fluttershy insisted.

    "Gnnngh!" Rainbow found the strength to hop up. She swung both front limbs behind her, blocking blindly. She miraculously deflected Seraphimus's attack, but suffered deep cuts in her fetlocks as a show of it. Wasting no time, Rainbow spun around, yanked Seraphimus by her wing, and flung her against the side of the sphere. WHAM!

    "Ooomf!" Seraphimus quivered all over. She struggled to get up—

WHUMP! Rainbow straddled her and—Whack! Thwack! Smack!—pummeled her repeatedly with left hooks and right hooks. Blood and saliva splattered against the glass, blotting out the distant shine of blurring stars and nebulae. But before Rainbow could get a fourth hit in, Seraphimus snaked her prehensile tail down between them and wrapped it around Rainbow's lower fetlock.

    "Urrrgh!" Rainbow gasped as she was yanked down.

    "Haaaah!" Seraphimus raked the mare's chest. Sliiiiiit!

    "Aaaa-aaah!" Rainbow shrieked into her own blood before being dunked into the rising water. She gurgled and struggled as Seraphimus pressed her weight down into her. Seraphimus raised another talon to rip straight through to Rainbow's brain-stem from behind.

WHACK! Bard's staff uppercutted her.

    Seraphimus jerked back. Scowling, she crossed both forelimbs to block Wildcard's second attack.

    As Wildcard angrily shoved the enraged griffon back, Rainbow dove out of the water and flew into her in a violent spear. "Aaaaaaah!"

WHUD! Soon, all three were tangling together in a tight bundle of hooves, claws, and metal. But before any of them could make any headway—

    "Blessed Goddess!" Kepler hollered, leaning closer to Flynn and his glowing horn. "Brrace yourrselves—!"

    "Ah jeez...!" Ariel tensed up as her eyes reflecting a cyclone of cement-thick water.

THUDDDDD! A waterspout billowing from the world's edge knocked hard into the shell of the Gondola. Everypony flailed, jerked violently inside their harnesses.

    Rainbow, Seraphimus, and Wildcard—SWOOOSH—were thrown clear across the hollow the Gondola. Their bodies pinballed off the support struts. Wh-Wh-Wham! Wildcard took the brunt of it. Bard's staff rolled in one direction while Wildcard's body ragdolled in the other.

    "Ooomf!" Rainbow Dash landed awkwardly on her belly. Straight through the glass below, she could see the obsidian black edge of the plane shifting away. Her eyesight filled with lightning and galaxies. And then—just as swiftly—the Gondola swung back. Along with it came the water—SPLOOOSH!—thoroughly dousing Rainbow in a wave. She collapsed out the other side, rolling up to face the top of the vehicle.

    She saw Seraphimus gliding down towards her.

    "Rainbow!"

    Rainbow flashed a look to her left.

    Rarity—frenzied—was pointing at a tell-tale rod. "Staff!"

    "Httt!" Rainbow yanked Bard's weapon up length-wise and held it out in front of her. CLANK! She connected with both of Seraphimus' claws, and the two wrestled over dominance of the staff. "Rrrrgh—Haaaugh!" She kicked off the floor and flew up into Seraphimus. Seraphimus flew into her. Spinning like airborne tops, the two formed the frenetic nucleui of the runaway Gondola.

    On the opposite side, Remna huffed. With violet hooves, she ripped the belts free that were restraining her.

    Logan flashed her a wild look as the Gondola spun and swayed amidst the lightning. "What in the blue Hell are you doing?!"

    "The Austraeoh must not die." Remna detached completely from her seat and leaned herself forward. "Nothing else matters."

    Logan eyeballed her, muzzle agape. With a growl, he started messing with his thick restraints as well. "I'll be damned if she gets to be crazier than me!"

    "Rainbow!" Ariel hollered as Remna was the first to drop. She fought with her harness but couldn't get the belt loose. "Hold on! You're getting help—!"

Swoooosh! Remna dropped like a violet anvil, landing in front of Wildcard's collapsed body. THUDDD! Cracks formed in the glass panels below her... before the sloshing water covered them up. Remna charged forward, undaunted, eyeing the two flying combatants above.

    Rainbow and Seraphimus spun before the heavens, struggling for dominance of the staff.

    "Austraeoh!" Remna shouted. "Down here!"

    It was Seraphimus who looked down first, and Rainbow capitalized.

    "Httt!" She head-butted the griffon and then followed the stunning impact with a massive kick to the midsection.

    "Grrrgh!" Seraphimus sailed down... down...

Thwump!

    —and into Remna's vice-like grip.

    "Guhh—!" Seraphimus fought and struggled against the draconian limbs.

    "Now, Wildcard!" Flynn shouted from up above. His glowing horn illuminated his wide muzzle. "Now! Take her out—!"

    Scrambling, Wildcard leapt out of the water and sprinted towards Remna and Seraphimus.

    Remna clutched Seraphimus' skull in both fetlocks. "Die."

    Seraphimus eyed Wildcard's charge carefully. "Way ahead of you." With one savage muscle movement, she spread both wings into Remna's chest.

    "Oomf—!" The violet mare was lifted up on her hindquarters.

    Wildcard came in, flinging his metal fist.

    "Hnngh!" Seraphimus caught his momentum and flung him so that his metal talons grasped around Remna's throat.

    Wildcard gasped. He tried to release—

    "Yaaaugh!" Seraphimus flipped in place and came down with a savage drop-kick to the base of Wildcard's prosthetic.

CRAKKKK! Finally, after so much damnable punishment, the base of the limb shattered completely, leaving the Desperado's metal fingers strangling Remna's throat in a death grip.

    "Hrkkk!" Remna stumbled back on her hind-quarters, teetering.

    "Rrrrr—" Seraphimus followed it up by grasping Wildcard's body and flinging him like a battering ram into Remna's chest. WHUDDD!

    Both Heraldites fell back, slamming hard into the fractured glass from Remna's landing earlier.

    And the glass gave way.

SHATTTTTTERRR!!!

    The ocean water was immediately sucked out—rocketing towards the edge of the world froorm which the Gondola plunged. Soon after went Remna and Wildcard, plummeting into the chaotic heavens.

    "No—!" Ariel shrieked.

    "Hhhttt!" Flynn aimed his skull at the distant panel below. His horn glowed brilliantly, projecting a telekinetic stream.

    Miraculously, Remna and Wildcard both jerked in place, hovering in a dead glow two-thirds of the way beyond the panel's shattered frame. The forces pulling at the Gondola's interior ripped Wildcard's prosthetic from Remna's throat. The mare sputtered, her draconian eyeslits watching the metal arm as it sailed off like an onyx comet—only to be consumed by vortices of burning lightning.

    In the meantime, Rainbow had plunged into Seraphimus again. She spun the staff into her twice, but Seraphimus blocked both times. As Rainbow raised the staff for another strike, Seraphimus punched her in the gut, spun them both around, and shoved her across the Gondola.

    While wrestling, the two inadvertently crossed Flynn's telekinetic stream.

    Gasping, Wildcard and Remna plunged once more into outer space—

    Kepler hollered. "Brrotherr—!"

    Flynn jerked his head again, eyes bulging and teeth clenched as he focused the telekinetic beam as hard as he could. Sparks shot from the edges of his horn as he slowly—agonizingly pulled the two Heraldites back into the heart of the sphere. "Rrrrrrr—" Blood trickled out of his ears as he tilted his head back at the burning apex of his leylines. "—raaaaaaaaaaaaugh!"

    At last, Remna and Wildcard slumped onto the intact panes of glass. While above them, Seraphimus and Rainbow Dash traded blows. And above them—

    "There!" Logan belched victoriously as he finally ripped his tight restraints free. Schiiiing! The stallion unsheathed his axe and jumped out of his seat. "Time to remove her head—!" He blinked as his body refused to fall. Instead, he floated goofily forward in the starlight. "...the buck is this?"

    Dizzy, Remna and Wildcard regarded themselves as their bodies slowly lifted off the fractured panels below.

    "What..." Ariel gazed up at her wildly flailing mane. She looked to her left. "What's going...?!"

    "We've rreached the centerr of both planes!" Kepler sputtered, watching his spectacles fly off his nose. "The Gondola has slowed! We arre losing grravity—!"

    The golden mechanism with the broken lever shot sparks in random, nebulous directions.

    Rainbow Dash's last punch against Seraphimus sent her flying backwards. She gasped, feeling bile and fluids rise up her throat. Her inner organs shifted, and her hair went everywhere. She flapped her feathers in desperation.

    "Rainbow!" Twilight stammered, hyperventilating. "It's no use! Your wings won't work in this environment!"

    "T-t-t-tell h-h-h-her th-th-that!" Pinkie Pie pointed across the Gondola, convulsing all over.

    Rainbow Dash jerked her neck to see—

    "Haaaaaugh!" Seraphimus kicked off the outer edge of the gondola, propelling herself at her opponent.

    "Watch yourself, sugarcube!" Applejack floated upside down, trailing ghostly vapors. "She won't stop until you—!"

    "Seraphimus—!!!" Rainbow shouted, but to no avail. Seraphimus impacted her, and the two figures went flying weightlessly across the Gondola. They barreled off a golden spoke, pivoted, then braced themselves against another cross-beam. Rainbow steadied herself as well as she could with the aid of Bard's staff. "Dang it to Tartarus! Stop this!" She gnashed her teeth from where she perched. "Don't you see what you're doing?!"

    Seraphimus panted, bracing herself on a beam across from her. "If it means the end of you, Rogue, then it's worth it."

    "For Pete's sake, you idiot!" Rainbow waved at the cosmos swirling all around them. "Can't you see that there's more to this than Verlaxion and—"

    "Say her name!" Charcoal eyes flickered as Seraphimus pushed off her bar, sailing claws-first. "Say her name and perish!"

    "Dashie—!" Pinkie yelped.

    But Rainbow Dash was way ahead of her. She blocked with the staff. Seraphimus' claws connected, spilling sparks about that mimicked the lightning beyond. Seraphimus met another golden spoke and kicked off of it. Rainbow leapt backwards, deflecting the advancing blows—being propelled backwards by each vengeful strike. She wrapped her short tail around another golden beam and spun herself around. Seraphimus followed her perfectly, and soon the two were weaving in and around the web of support struts, trading staff-swings and claw-strikes.

    At one point, Seraphimus caught Rainbow by a wing and flung her sideways. Rainbow slammed off a beam with a grunt, twirled around, and landed on another beam above Seraphimus. She aimed Bard's staff straight up and twirled it to the best of her ability. Seraphimus aimed up from her position, striking and parrying from where she perched. The clattering bedlam of their impacts rivaled the thunder outside.

    Logan—meanwhile—flailed uselessly in the air several feet from the heart of the scuffle. He gnashed his teeth, looking at his axe levitating just out of reach. "Rrrnngh... damn it..." He hollered at the Heraldites still fastened to their seats across from the battle. "Flynn! You damn baldy! Give me a boost! The Austraeoh's in—"

    "I'm afrraid he's out cold, frriend!" Kepler shouted back, shaking his unicorn companion's shoulder. "And we appearr to be stuck out herre—!"

    "Well... grnnth..." Logan snarled and flailed. "Somepony... spit on the crazy chicken or something—!"

FLASH! In the next strobe of thunder, Logan felt a body shoving him from behind. He gasped, looking to see that Remna had kicked off the panels below and was giving him a boost. SWOOOSH! They barreled through the starlight, approaching Logan's axe with rapid speed. "Your blade, mortal..." Remna wheezed.

    "Hell yeah..." Logan snatched the floating hilt in mid-air. Still being propelled by Remna's draconian figure, he raised the weapon high and shouted. "Rainbow! Neck down!"

    Rainbow gasped and twirled her body away from Seraphimus. Seraphimus blinked. She turned, her reflection spotting the two Heraldites incoming.

    "Aaaaaaaaugh—!" Logan swung the axe towards her as hard as he could.

    In a calm breath, Seraphimus kicked off a support beam, and Logan's blade struck nothing but.

CLANKKK!

    "Aw shit—!" Logan yelped as he and Remna flew past their embedded blade. Remna slipped—sailing off—but Logan maintained his grip. Although not for long. She pulled herself back by the length of the blade, kicked him savagely in the face, and wrenched the blade free.

    One second later, she heard the ruffle of feathers. She turned to see Rainbow Dash flying towards her, staff swinging. "Yaaaah!"

    Seraphimus ducked, twirled aside, and shoved Rainbow past her.

    Rainbow flailed, then slammed lengthwise into the central storage compartment in the heart of the Gondola. She regained her vision in time to see Seraphimus kicking off a beam and sailing at her with Logan's sword.

    "Bleed into eternity—!" Seraphimus shouted.

    Rainbow took a breath. "Nope." She casually stuck Bard's staff down and opened a golden storage panel into Seraphimus' beak. WHACK!

    "Ooomf!" Seraphimus started to fly back from the impact—

Thwppp! Rainbow caught her in mid-air, locking her shoulders in place with the length of the staff. "This ends." She rubbed a hoof over her pendant as her ghostly friends looked on. "Now."

    Seraphimus was barely squinting when—Flaaaaaaaaaash!—a steady beam of harmonic energy burned into her eyes. "Grnnnnnnngh—!" She suddenly let go of the axe and placed both of her bleeding palms over the glowing lightning bolt.

    Rainbow gasped.

    Seraphimus sneered into her face. "No. More. Blight." Then—with an angry grunt—she yanked Rainbow's pendant clean off and flung it towards the stars and lightning.

    "Rainbow, she's—!" Twilight spoke... then vanished completely. The colorful shapes of Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack fizzled into nothingness as well.

    "Grkk...!" Rainbow whimpered. In a cold panic, she dropped Bard's staff completely and twirled towards the pendant. It sailed away from her, its ruby edges glinting in the cosmos until the image turned hazy under a curtain of fresh crimson. Rainbow sweated and hyperventilated. Two spots bled from her forehead as she licked her fangs and dog-paddled in futility.

Thwump! Seraphimus gripped her from behind, dragging claws to the nape of her neck. "Death becomes you, monster."

    "Hrshhhh..." Rainbow anchored Seraphimus' claws in place with unshorn fetlocks. "Shhhh-not the firssssssht to call me 'monster.'" Red-and-yellow eyes flickered, dancing with the lightning. "Not the lasssssht!" She stretched both wings out in a blue blur.

    "Oomf!" Seraphimus was propelled back.

    Rainbow kicked off her, sailing towards the pendant as it reached the glass panes above... below. "Hrghlkkg.... scrkk..."

    Her hoof graced the necklace... tapped it... and finally grabbed ahold.

Whump! Rainbow's mutating body struck the glass.

    Wheezing, she rolled over, wincing into the trickle of blood. She slapped the pendant back around her neck.

    Fl-Flasssh! Twilight, Applejack and the rest materialized.

    And they were shrieking:

    "Move!"

    "Move!"

    "Go, Dashie—"

    "—she's coming!"

    Seraphimus screaming beak phased through them, along with the rest of her body as she came straight for Rainbow Dash, axe swinging. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!"

    Rainbow blocked the weapon's swing—but not Seraphimus' momentum. Or her weight.

CRASSSSSSSSH!

    Both bodies flew out into the ether, their mortal ears subjected to the nonstop roar of the firmaments broiling against eternity. Glass flew past them like meteorites. The alicorn shards disappeared into the gaping maw of glittering galaxies beyond. Wind and moisture and lightning. TH-THOOOM! It was with miraculous reflexes that Rainbow Dash caught a hoof-hold of a golden spoke of metal bordering the frame of the shattered window.

    Seraphimus was no stranger to miracles herself, and she clung to the Gondola's frame adjacent to Rainbow. Charcoal eyes squinted. Silver feathers were plucked from their quills—only to shoot past her whipping tail into the everything. She looked aside at Rainbow Dash.

    Rainbow looked back. She wasn't certain how she summoned the strength to shout it, but: "Don't—!"

    Seraphimus lunged. Breathless motion, and she found her target. Claws dug into Rainbow's backside, digging deeper and deeper as she tugged and pulled at her bleeding anchor.

    Rainbow didn't have time to scream. She struggled with her wings, her limbs, her every inch to knock the griffon off of her. The Firmaments tugged and tugged. The chaos of the universe hungered, beckoned. And just when she thought her ears couldn't pop any more—

    "Rainbow!" Rarity and Fluttershy pointed both at once.

    Rainbow squinted her tearing eyes opened.

    Wildcard's goggles glinted from the opposite side of the Gondola. He was perched against a golden stretch of metal, and with his one good hand he tossed a familiar staff back towards Rainbow from where it had bounced.

    "Rainbow!" Ariel shrieked in desperation. "Catch it—!"

    Rainbow did more than that. When she freed a hoof to grip Bard's weapon, she used its thrown momentum to slam Seraphimus squarely between the eyes.

Whump! Seraphimus took it. Whap! That one too. WHACK! But then—

    "Httt!"

    She slipped.

    Spinning, she flew out into the cosmos...

    Then something else happened. The former Commander of the Talon jerked in place. Her bloody beak gasped, and her eyes widened—as if she was more surprised than anyone. She looked down along the length of her flailing body.

    Rainbow Dash had her gripped by the tail. Bard's staff had been thrown back into the heart of the Gondola—to be caught by Wildcard. And the look on Rainbow's face was pained... yet earnest. She fumbled for words...

    ...and Seraphimus found them first. "End it."

    "You... d-don't understand..." Rainbow hissed, gripping to the shattered frame.

    "I understand enough!" Seraphimus hyperventilated, tied by her tail in Rainbow's grip. "You came to end Verlaxion! To end Rohbredden! To end me!"

    Rainbow clenched her teeth. Around the mare, her friends floated. Phantoms from the past. Alive and yet not.

    "Dashie..."

    "She's... she's mad..."

    "Darling..."

    "There's only one way to stop someone like that, sugarcube."

    "We..." Twilight Sparkle floated the closest. "...we won't hate you for it... Seraphimus... this poor creature is beyond help."

    Rainbow Dash gulped. Her next breath came through a murmur, scarcely audible beneath the thunder. "I too have been beyond..." Her brow furrowed.

    "You coward..." Seraphimus spat, sobbing, vomiting. Her charcoal eyes reflected only a hint of color, and it was almost drowned in tears. "...why won't you end it?! Don't you see?" Her claws raked at the emptiness surrounding both of them. "You've taken everything from me! My station! My Goddess! My husband and child!" She hollered. "I've got nothing to live for! Nothing!"

    Rainbow Dash breathed. "I know." And she did.

WHAM!

    Rainbow's friends winced... and then they gasped...

    ...for following the savage kick to the skull, Rainbow Dash dragged Seraphimus' body back into the Gondola. From the dazed flutter of the griffon's eyecrests, it was evident that she had been knocked cold. Her raging body was still and limp as a bag of bricks, aside from subtle, ragged breathing.

    "Mrmmmf!" Rainbow Dash pushed herself—and Seraphimus—as far away from the gaping hole as possible. "Okay. Get us moving again."

    "What the Hell are you d-doing?" Logan sputtered, cleaning to a golden beam.

Whump! Rainbow shoved Seraphimus to a stop beside Remna and Wildcard. "We're taking her with us."

    "Taking her with us?!?" Ariel yelped.

    "Have you finally lost your marbles?!" Logan hollered. He reached out in time to catch his drifting axe and glided down to meet them. "The cosmos have sucked the sense out of you! Here..." He spat on his blade and crawled over. "I'll just make it quick—!"

    "NO!" Rainbow bucked him hard before he could approach the griffon.

    "Guhhh!" Logan flailed—only to be caught and anchored in place by Wildcard. Incredulous, the stallion snarled at Rainbow. "Dammit, Rainbow—"

    "She's coming with us to the Dark Side and that's final!"

    "She's the reason everything went to shit just now!" Logan hollered back. "The only right thing to do is slit her throat while you still have the chance and you know it—"

    "No, it's what Verlaxion would want me to do!" Rainbow shouted back. "And you're right. I do know it." She fumed, glaring down at Seraphimus' figure. "I knew it back in the Quade and I knew it in Lerris. And yet I still danced to her stupid frozen tune in Frostknife!." Her ears drooped as the menace faded from her petite face. "Not again. Not any more..."

    The Heraldites were silent.

    Fluttershy took a shuddering breath. Rarity and Twilight leaned in to comfort her while Pinkie and Applejack gazed at Rainbow.

    Rainbow swallowed. "So... like I said..." She waved a hoof as she floated in the air. "Get us moving."

    "We cannot move, Rrainbow One..."

    "Dang it, Kepler!" Rainbow spun around with a frown. "I said we're not killing Seraphimus and that's—"

    "No... I mean we simply cannot move, dearr frriend," the wyvern gravely said, gesturing a claw at the sparking mechanism a few spaces away from where he was harnessed. "When the Talon memberr's assault firrst began, I'm afrraid it shatterred the device that prropels this vehicle completely... hence the violent plunge that we all experrienced..."

    "Shattered it?" Logan grimaced. "You mean... that crazy turkey broke the alicorn machine?"

    "We..." Ariel shivered, still strapped in her seat. "We're stuck out here?"

    Kepler cleared his throat, then spoke in a grave tone. "'Strranded' is the morre apprroprriate terrm forr it, but... yes... essentially..." He pointed at the thunderous cosmos outside the battered sphere. "...we arre caught between two separrate grravitational eddies... empowerred—no doubt—by the technology that Urrohrringrr thrrives on... a technology that we still scarrcely underrstand..."

    Dreadful silence overtook the sphere.

    Wildcard looked around nervously. He held Bard's staff close to his chest.

    "Can... can you fix it?" Rainbow murmured. Her eyes traveled aside to the limp unicorn fastened besides Kepler. "Can Flynn fix it?"

    "I'm afrraid that is quite doubtful..." Kepler adjusted his spectacles, gazing aside at his unconscious companion. "...by the time ourr herroic frriend herre wakes up... if he wakes up frrom such agonizing mental exertion... I do not think he will be capable of rrepairring the apparratus any morre than me." He gulped. "And... by then, most likely... the Firrfmaments' chill will have overrwhelmed the fading harrmonic enerrgy of this damaged Gondola, frreezing us and casting ourr brrittle rremains into outerr space."

    Ariel sniffled. She looked down at Wildcard and Logan.

    The male Job Squadders stared squarely at the glass panels beneath them. The Gondola swayed gently in an unknown breeze. The gold glow from its epicenter was fading gradually with each blink.

    Pinkie Pie whimpered inwardly, hovering close to Fluttershy and Twilight.

    Twilight fidgeted in mid-air, panting. "Maybe... Rainbow... m-m-maybe if you were to contact it with the powers of Austraeoh and—!"

    Rainbow was already kicking off the glass panels. She floated through a debris cloud of glass and metal shards. At last, she reached the mechanism. In the shadow of Kepler and Flynn, she gripped the shell in both fetlocks, squeezing and shaking it. "Rrrrgh... gnnngh...!"

    Errant sparks flew out of the mouth of the thing. There was a slight flicker of harmonic light... and then everything faded. The Gondola was dead in the gravitational water.

    "Mrmmfff... rrr—" Rainbow angrily kicked the broken machine with all her might. Clanggg! The impact propelled her backwards, and in mid-flip she took the moment to scream at the universe twirling all around her. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaa-aaaaaaaaahhhh!"

    Wildcard and Logan winced.

    Rarity and Fluttershy hung their heads.

    Rainbow Dash flipped and flipped and flipped, growling to the cosmos: "We were soooooo close!!!" She floated upside-down over Seraphimus' body before gently coming to a stop. Resting on her flank against a stretch of glass, she gripped her skull and hissed into the twinkling air. "I swear to Luna... I did not come all this friggin' way—soaring over wars and continents and religions and grilled cheese sandwiches—just to end it all stuck in a Goddess-dang *fish bowl!***"

    Her voice echoed against the harmonic gold beams... then fell silent.

    Even the thunder had dissipated—to a degree.

    Rainbow lowered her hooves, hugging herself. She was still fuming. "I never... ever would have wished this on anypony but myself. Never... not... n-not..." She clenched her jaw. Her eyes shut. She shook... and then finally blurted: "That's why... I left the Jury when I did. Because I understood the cost. I didn't need to share it."

    "You had to share it," Ariel said from afar, remarkably composed. "And share it again. If you didn't realize that before... well... we did."

    Kepler nodded calmly. Flynn shifted slightly in unconsciousness, and the wyvern rested a claw on his shoulder.

    Rainbow gazed at her. She tried to keep her eyes firm. She tried. But as she rocked back and forth against the glass, hugging herself, the tears squeezed out. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry that I brought you all to this. I actually believed that we could have gotten... at least a little bit further. And..." She bit her lip, struggling against the pain of what came next. At last—after a torturous effort—she brought herself to look at her ghostly companions. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry. You all deserved so much more. You... you h-had so m-much hope in me, and now..."

    "Shhhhh..." Rarity smiled in spite of her tears. "It's quite alright, darling."

    "Yeah..." Pinkie sniffed, rubbing one eye and managing a crooked smile. "You gave us lots of laughs."

    "We saw whole parts of the world... entire sights and cultures that Princess Celestia never..." Twilight sucked her breath in, sniffling. "That I never knew about. But... then you showed us more... you showed us the friend we never knew about."

    Applejack floated closer. She held a hoof around Rainbow's shoulder, even if the gesture was air-thin. "I'm sorry to learn that Granny's left us back home... but I'm plum happy as a peach to know that Apple Bloom and Big Mac and the rest of our friends are doin' mighty fine." She smiled. Freckles in starlight. "You gave us a chance to see that, Rainbow. You gave us a second life."

    Rainbow whimpered. "AJ..."

    "We ain't complainin'."

    A tear ran down Rainbow's cheek. She looked Applejack in the eyes. "This isn't the second life that I wanted."

    Applejack merely gazed at her.

    Choking on a sob, Rainbow turned to look at Fluttershy.

    Fluttershy looked back. "Remna."

    Rainbow blinked. As did her friends. "Flutters...?"

    Fluttershy kept looking at her. As it turned out, it was beyond her. Curious, Rainbow turned her head swiftly to the side.

    Wildcard and Logan also looked up, suddenly realizing how alone they all were.

    A violet figure was perched on a beam of gold right before the large gaping hole in the glass. Upon noticing the many heads turning, she looked back. Ears twitched against constellations, cold yet firm. Like scales.

    "Axan?" Rainbow Dash gulped. Pawing against the glass behind her, she pushed herself until she was floating higher. "Axan...? What...?"

    Without a wasted breath, Remna reached up to the right bangs of her mane... just behind her ear.

    "The Hell...?" Logan spat. Wildcard craned his neck.

    "Axan—" Rainbow hummed.

    "There's something in her possession, darling," Rarity said, squinting. "Hidden in her hair—"

    Just as the ghostly fashionista said this, Remna produced a slender object in her grasp. It was an ancient chalice, and something sloshing inside blotted out the starlight beyond.

    "Wait..." Pinkie pointed. "...is that?"

    "Guh!" Twilight clutched her suddenly-glowing horn. "Such energy! It's... it's—"

    But it was already apparent to Rainbow Dash. Her eyes locked on the vial, and she was encumbered by a very familiar pulse of gold energy.

FLASH!

Whitemane squinted into the wet winds at the end of the world, her ears ringing with the chimes of countless dangling vials.

**“Do not discredit your own potential, my child,”* Onyxxus said, strolling closer to a last line of crumbled marble columns. “There is rich alicorn magic in your veins. As such, your foalhood will last several decades. But your adulthood? That will last millennia. And in that time, you will gain more wisdom and more understanding than you can even dream of.”*

Onyxxus looked to his left.

Whitemane's gaze followed his line of sight.

She saw Mortuana at a distance, reaching into her velvet vest and retrieving a glowing vial of luminescent fluid.

The older alicorn let loose a long sigh, kissed the vial, then approached the platform's extreme edge.

FLASH!

    Rainbow's Dash breath left her along with the golden vision. Her eyes were locked on the very same vial... and then Remna's face. "Axan..."

    Remna glared back at her. Eyeslits flickered. Then—

    —in a bounding leap—

    —she plunged herself out of the Gondola altogether.

    "Axan, no—!" Rainbow Dash lunged forward. "Don't—!" Wildcard's strong arm reached forward and yanked her back. Rainbow struggled, gnashing her teeth, but it didn't last long.

    Remna's figure flew off, becoming one with the dark malaise of the universe. Then—off in the distance—there was the shattering of a small glass. This was followed immediately by a brilliant flash of burning red light. ASshen flame spread outward in every direction, enlarging at an alarming rate, until—stretching majestically from side to side—a monumental set of wings blotted out the galaxies beyond. A tail and snout formed soon after, accompanied by a ferocious burning roarrrrrrrr that scraped the very foundation of the Firmaments.

    Rainbow, her friends, and the Herald all watched in a horrorified stupor. Not long after, their bodies jolted—for a gigantic pair of draconian claws was gripping the Gondola from both sides. Glass shards exploded inwards as each knifing talon found its hold, bending the alicorn metal slightly until the Gondola wasn't going anywhere.

    Anywhere but forward.

    Sulfur fumed, filling the stale cold air with the unmistakable stench of brimstone. Snarling nostrils flickered with flame, and the Herald craned their necks to see a massive snout reaching up and biting into solid black rock. The dual rows of teeth were joined by two massive sets of claws that dug in and pulled at the skin of Urohringr.

CRKKKKK!

    Axan's body propelled herself forward. She did not go alone.

SN-SNAPPP!!! The golden chains ripped completely out of the Gondola's hemispheres. Golden links flew off into starry emptiness. Then—gasping—Rainbow felt herself swaying in Wildcard's grip as the entire Gondola was pulled towards the black, black zenith. Logan reached out, steadying Seraphimus' limp figure as he gazed up at the madness. The bodies of Ariel, Flynn, and Kepler shook and swayed in their seats.

    The passage was far from a gentle one... and it was about to grow even more turbulent. As Axan's raking claws tugged and pulled the Gondola out of the gravity well, she reached the other edge of the collapsing Firmament. Thunder and lightning returned—along with billowing cyclones of chaotic energy. Her body took every impact, but she powered her massive self through it. Flames erupted out the sides of her cheek as she spread her massive wings, finding drag and accelerating the Herald even further to their destination. The obsidian layers of the world blurred by. The lightning and thunder intensified. Kepler hollered something, but Rainbow was no longer paying attention—

CRAKKKKK!

    Lightning struck Axan's backside.

    She staggered.

    The ponies inside the Gondola shifted.

    Snorting, Axan flapped her wings and continued. There was another crack of lightning. Scaley layers of flesh peeled off Axan's frame, and she leaked burning dragon blood into the heavens. She did not relent.

THOOOM!

CRACKKKK!

    Rivers of lightning found Axan's body, and they carved through her. The electricity ran deathly rivers down her spine, exploding out her tail. Blood, pulp, and vertebrae littered the edge of the world. The heavens sang with calcified mayhem, only to vanish behind her battered figure.

    Rainbow Dash screamed into Wildcard's feathers. They tumbled. The entire Gondola tumbled. Ghostly screams phased through Harmonic metal, twist and bent and buckling—but surviving.

    A final roar. Pained. Yet powerful. There was a knifing edge to the twilight—an end to the blackness—and Axan sailed towards it. At long last, the Divine of Flame reached the precipice. No water. No life. Only rock... and bones.

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

    She skirted the edge...

    ...and that's when her wings gave out—what was left of them, at least. And the rest simply plummeted... with the Gondola following.

CL-CLAKKKK! The sphere—now a squished, deflated shell of a thing—scarcely landed with its occupants in tact. But they were intact. Lightning strobed as the alicorn vessel rolled, tumbled, and came to a long scraping stop against a dead flat stretch of midnight blue stone. When it ended, all was thunder and noise... so that it nearly masked the wet meaty thump of draconian flesh just a few dozen yards away.

    It was not masked from Rainbow Dash.

    She was the first to crawl out... but only the second to reach the Dark Side. Stumbling on bruised, bleeding hooves... she twirled to face the remains of the one who brought them there. "Axan!" Ignoring the pleas of her friends, she galloped away from the wreck—towards the very precipice of nothingness—where the disfigured carcass of a dragon lay against the stars.

    Wildcard and Logan crawled out after. Looking on with worry, they helped Ariel and Logan drag the bodies of Flynn and Seraphimus into a new bleakness. There was no sun or moon overhead—only a dazzling band of never endingneverending stardust. But they weren't paying attention to this.

    All eyes fell on Rainbow Dash as she galloped to a stop—nearly slipping on a fresh layer of scalding hot dragon's blood.

    She grimaced, panting and heaving. On trembling limbs, she knelt down by the only part of Axan she could still recognize. And when her breaths touched violet scales, a single eyeslit opened... followed eventually by a weak rumbling noise.

"Hrmmmmfffghhlll..." The battered Divine squirmed slightly... then shuddered into a soggy exhale. "Hrmmffffhhlll... carry on... Austraeoh..."

    "Dang it... dang it dang it dang it!" Rainbow Dash gnashed her teeth, fighting the urge to weep. Failing. "Why did you do that, Axan?! Why?! We... we could have f-found another way, dang it! You didn't have to do that! We could have found another way!"

"Hrmmmmfff..." The first of two sets of teeth parted, exhaling vaporous hot breath. "Do you ever..." An eyecrest waggled weakly. "...ever stop being so stupid, mortal...?"

    Rainbow spat. "Shut up! I mean it! You... you didn't..." She shook her head, bracing herself against the edge of Axan's scaley jaw-line. "Why?! Why, Axan?! Why did you—?"

"Hskkkkkkt..." Trembling, a massive hand lifted... and a single claw found its way to the tip of Rainbow's fuzzy nose. "Shhhhhhhh..." The sulfur faded, as did the flame behind the slitted eyed. "Like Mortuana, I once... grkkkk... caught a glimpssssse of hope. I thought... rrppghhh... that I had cr-crushed it... but..." She exhaled, the heat curling the hairs of Rainbow's mane. "I had only set it free. Like a hatchling... from its shell..."

    Rainbow Dash gaped and gaped. Her friends hovered close, silent as stone.

    The one eye narrowed. Burning. "You mussssst set the world free, Austraeoh. In all the ways that I couldn't. The scale of the eyelid lowered. The heat dwindled. "Hsssskkkt.... So many Divines... all demented and dying." One last breath. Vaporous and true, and the eye locked on something beyond. "...I only ever had one sister."

    The light went out.

    All was thunder and shadow.

    Rainbow Dash hung her head. And as the rest of the Herald surrounded her in a halo, she wept quietly into a brand new darkness.