Dark Descent: Laughter
Prologue
Defiance
Windows shattered as alarms went off, alerting it’s company of the imminent danger they were in.
As much as they sounded, and the louder they seemed to get, she knew there was no saving of the craft. As she stood outside the edge of the zeppelin and looked down at the clouds that they towered over, she could hear the yells and orders coming from inside, in hopes to stay afloat the sea of blue.
But as she brushed her pink mane away from her face, sweat running down her face, her mind had resolved that this was the end of the road.
Everything she had done, the ponies she had met, and even the ones she had to reluctantly kill, all lead her to this moment.
Another explosion made the mare's ears flick, but she didn’t stagger nor flinch. It seemed the sounds of fire and screams did not phase her, as nothing at this point could do such a thing.
“The zepp is lost! Abandon posts! Pegasi help the wounded out! Everyone else, Celestia be with you!”
Pinkie Pie sighed, knowing that that was the call of defeat, and in a twisted way, telling the crew that they should prepare for their deaths.
But death was not a luxury she could afford. Not just yet.
Her blue eyes stared down at the sky, seeing the vague shadows of griffon and pegasi clash with each other, and black balls of fiery death whizzing past the zeppelin she stood on.
Her ears flicked again as she heard the metal door that lead out onto the deck close and heard the voice she knew she would miss hearing soon.
“What are you doing out here lass?” the grizzled voice of a stallion said in a calm, resolved tone.
“We lost Brastus,” Pinkie simply replied, her eyes still fixated on the sky, “All that preparing, and we still lost.”
There was a moment of silence between them, the despair in her words weighing heavy on both of them.
“There was no way we could have prepared for this lass,” he replied in a solemn tone, “This...Star..this assassin...she has surely gone out of her way to kill ya.”
Pinkie felt her teeth grind against each other. She and others had been outsmarted, outplayed, and now outnumbered.
By who?
A mare, a masked assassin, that was hellbent on ending Pinkie’s life, no matter the cost. And it was a cost that she was making sure she paid in full. A price that demanded payment for a sin she had never committed.
“She certainly has, hasn’t she?” Pinkie said with a weak chuckle accompanying it.
She turned to Brastus and took in his appearance, as she didn’t want to forget how he looked. His fur hat was scorched, his black and purple uniform was covered in the blood of the fallen and torn, and the stallion’s dark gray face was littered with cuts and burns, with a glaze of sweat to top it off and a black handled sword sheathed on his side.
“Ay, but that does not mean she has won,”he said with his renowned jagged smile, “You are still breathin, so she hasn’t won anything here today.”
Pinkie couldn’t help and smile a bit, seeing the general’s defiance in his own words, though she could see in his eyes that he even knew that this was the end for him.
Another fiery ball hit the airborne craft, smashing through the hull once more, making both Pinkie and Brastus stagger, but quickly regained their footing.
Pinkie turned back again, and her eyes scanned over the clouds below her.
“You’re staying here, aren’t you?”
She knew the answer, but for some reason she felt she had to ask it.
She heard his hoofsteps come toward her on the battered wooden deck, and placed one of his hooves on her shoulder.
“These are my brothers, ya know this lass. I fight with them, and I will die with them.”
She swallowed hearing his words, but knew that she didn’t expect any less from him. He was devoted to his soldiers, and knew that he would rather burn in tartarus before abandoning his ship or his comrades.
“And what about the ones that are leaving with the wounded?” she asked, feeling a well of tears rising within her, “Won’t they..”
But the stallion interrupted her.
“Lass, they know what they are getting into. They know that most of them won’t make it to the ground. These damn softbeaks are ruthless, but even if one makes it….”
She felt herself forcibly turned as his two hooves took hold of her and spun her around, forcing her to look into his orange eyes.
“Even if one makes it, we have not lost.”
He brushed away part of her flat mane away from her face and narrowed his eyes as he gripped her harder.
“Ya know why we came here. Ya know why you joined us.”
Pinkie simply nodded, tears now running from her closed eyes, trying to contain herself from the despair that was filling with her.
“Pinkie Pie, it’s time for you to have your vengeance. Do not give up because of what ya see here. Do not let this be what destroys you. Ya have gone through too much, and suffered too much to give up here.”
Pinkie gasped, trying to keep herself from breaking down, but the stallion grabbed her by her face, forcing her to look at him once more.
“Do not forget what that bitch has done to ya. Do not forget why you came all this way. Do you hear me? Do NOT.”
His words were forceful and loud, even among the screams below them and the desperate cries for help and deliverance.
“It’s time to end this lass. We got you here, now do me and my comrades honor by completing your mission,” Brastus said with full confidence with another jagged smile, “Show Star what you are made of. It does not end here for ya.”
[youtube=https://youtu.be/xIDHYqE0Jg4?t=28s]
And in that sentence and seeing her friend’s belief and a smile across his mug, a righteous fire lit up within Pinkie, dispelling the darkness of despair that had begun to consume her.
She put a hoof on his shoulder, tears still running down her face but with a smile, “She won’t know what hit her.”
He nodded and broke his grasp on her and unsheathed the blade attached to his side.
“I think ya will be needing this,” he said handing her the blade.
She took it and gripped it in her hoof, her eyes scanning the handle with a dark blue jewel attached to its hilt.
“Time to fulfill your promise to her.”
Pinkie looked at Brastus and nodded, her fire now billowing within her to do what she had came here for.
She turned and stood at the edge of the deck, again looking down over the clouds once more, wiping her tears away.
“I will call one of the pegasi to get ya down there to face her. Of course I can’t guarantee that ya will make it-”
But Pinkie interupted him and looked over her shoulder with a smile.
“Thank you again Brastus. For everything.”
He closed his mouth and again nodded, as he was not the sentimental type. But a simple nod from her friend was all she needed.
With that, she leapt off the side and down into the sky.
She dove nose first as gravity took hold, propelling down into the clouds. Their white soft embrace engulfed her, but their peace was only temporary, as she knew what was awaiting her once she broke out from them.
There was no fear within her, nothing that could hold her back now. Her mind only focused on why she had come here, on why she had to kill those that tried to stop her, and those, like Brastus, that she would fight for.
She gripped the damned blade tightly as she fell faster and in moments, broke out of the clouds and down into the aerial battles between pegasi and gryphon. Explosions littered the sky as balls of death were shot from the still distant ground.
Cries of ponies and griffins surround her, but her focus didn’t break as she descended into the fury of hell itself.
This won’t end like last time Star.
“It’s her! The Element of Harmony!” she heard one of the griffins call out, “Kill her!”
Pinkie turned her head to see a group of armored griffins flying towards, finishing off their equestrian opponents to end her life. Her eyes narrowed as they flashed a bright blue and readied herself.
I won’t die here.
The first came in quickly, taking his sword and swinging it at her to slice her in two, but with precision and speed, the mare took her blade and clicked the blue jewel within the hilt. The blade shot out with a chain attached to it, wrapping around the griffons blade, diverting his attack downwards and missing her.
The chain pulled her up, flinging her up above him. He looked up to find her, but was met with her blade plunging through his neck as she held onto the handle, hanging off his chest.
“I won’t be stopped!” she cried, as she jerked the blade to the side, breaking his neck, and with pure strength, flinging him into one of his fellow griffons, sending them both plummeting and continuing her descent as three more pursued her.
Her eyes caught another fiery ball heading straight towards her, but used this to her advantage, Again, she pointed her blade towards the ball. The blade shot out once more and latched onto it as it sped toward her.
I won’t fail them!
The pink mare turned her back towards the ball and looked at the three souls that pursued her, intent on avenging their fallen from moments ago.
With great strength that was not of any normal being, she turned her body into a spinning motion and lifted the fiery ball with her chained blade faster upwards, making it zip past her. She quickly unlatched her blade, preventing herself from being pulled with it.
The three griffons eyes went wide as two of them scrambled to the side, while the one in the middle was not as fortunate. The ball made impact with his head, ripping it clean off in an instant as it continued upwards, the headless griffons body falling down towards the ground.
“Bitch!” one of them cried, thrusting his wings to plummet towards her.
The griffon smashed into her, making her flip and turn as she continued falling, but this would not deter her. The mare’s vision spun as she turned and tossed, but noticed the griffon that had smashed into her to throw her into confusion come towards her once more, as the other dove to get beneath her and fly upwards in a pincer formation.
The first swung his blade towards her body, but she took the side of her blade and deflected it, but the griffon did not back off and pushed his blade against hers, making her body now fall to her back to the ground as their blinds grinded, and in turn, pushing her faster down with the other griffon coming upwards from behind her to run her through.
“It’s the end of the line for you little pony!” the griffon in front of her laughed, believing that they had best her.
She narrowed her eyes at him, not giving him the pleasure of the response he had hoped for.
“Didn’t you hear me?” she said behind gritted teeth.
In an instant, she threw her head into his, making him cry out and reel back. She quickly grabbed the griffon by his breastplate and pulled herself up over him and onto his back, and just in time as the griffon behind her ran into his fellow griffon, plunging his blade into the side of his stomach.
“Orion!” he cried realizing what he had done, but the mare was relentless in her mission.
“I said!” she cried out as she raised her blade and plunged it through the griffons neck, “I won’t be stopped!”
Immediately she jumped off the griffons back and dropped with her back against the wind and shot her blade out to the other griffin, who was still fixated on the mistake he had committed. It plunged into his back and pulled him away towards her.
With her foreleg, she pulled him down past her, retracting her blade and turning her body to dive into him. She landed on his back with her hind legs, and ran her blade through his back and ripping outside of his belly.
He yelled out in pain, but it didn’t end with that. In a swift motion, she sliced both his wings off, grabbing them and dove off once more, using them to slow her fall as the ground came into view.
And as she came near, she saw who she had came for. A mare dressed in black with the insignia of a moon on her shoulder. fought with two slim blades, slicing down griffons and pony alike. Rage began to take hold of Pinkie as she plummeted closer and closer.
She could see the maroon eyes of her enemy behind her metal mask, and everything that she had done to her filled her mind, letting her rage take hold and with only one thought.
Kill her!
Pinkie let go of the wings she had ripped from the griffon and fell straight to her target.
“Star!” she yelled out.
The assassin immediately took notice of her voice and looked up.
“Pinkie?!” she exclaimed, not expecting an earth pony from above.
The blue eyes of the former party pony filled with a dark red color, as nothing but pure rage now fueled her seeing this damned equine.
The assassin readied both her blades as the pink mare flew faster downwards.
Pinkie readied her own blade, gritting her teeth and yelling out.
“You said I would come for you!” she screamed. “So here I am! And I’m going to make you pay for what you did!”
Star simply positioned herself, not even moving from the incoming pink missile that was speeding towards her.
“Come on then motherfucker! Show me what you got!”
Closer and closer she came to her, but there was no fear. No despair. Not like last time.
And nothing would stop her.
Today, the end began.
