Harmony: Heroes of Gimlé - Arc I: Rainstorm

Planet Gimlé, Equestria, the Trottacan Jungle, April 24th, year 2, Reformation era, 1:47 AM -

"You think you'll get away with this?" snarled the dragon bandit, Snaggle as he struggled against his restraints as Air Striker continued carrying him through the air towards Moss Mare Spire.

"Will you stop squirming around, please?" he annoyedly asked the bandit, "If you're not careful, I could end up dropping you. As long as you don't try to hurt anypony, I promise I won't hurt you, so just relax will you?"

"Yeah, right! All you war horses know how to do is hurt and kill people from other races you think are weaker than yours! Then, when the going gets tough, you cower behind that demoness you worship as a goddess!" Snaggle snapped back.

"Where the Hell is all this coming from!?" asked Air Striker.

"Just because most of my people have forgotten the old ways, doesn't mean there aren't some of us left!" Snaggle exclaimed. "I grew up with a traditional dragon upbringing. I know all about my people's proud history - Hell, my earliest memory is staring at clan heirlooms dating as far back as the Golden Age of Dragonia! I grew up with the horror stories about how your people eradicated most of mine and left our whole land in ruins! That's the whole reason I joined up with Granite Gust's posse in the first place, to help return the favor! You destroyed my people's civilization and culture, so now I'll help do the same to yours!" he finished with a sneer as, unbeknownst to Air Striker, he pulled a small, thin, flattened, needle-like object with several grooves along either side of it from the lining of his belt.

"Wasn't it your people who attacked Equestria first? Also, you're going on about how we've 'hurt and killed people from races we think are weaker than ours', but from what I recall from history class, wasn't Dragonia's Drakado at the time supplying slave labor to places like Saddle Arabia and expanding your nation's territory by conquering other nations and even wiped out a few people in the process? I'm not saying Equestria hasn't done some pretty bad things, or even that Celestia is always in the right, but your empire was acting no better. We tried treating with you, but you didn't want to hear it and in the end, we had no choice but to destroy your kingdom before you destroyed ours," Air Striker explained. Just then, the spire lit up with electricity.

"Looks like both our numbers' just came up!" Snaggle exclaimed as he slid the needle across his restraints, causing them to come undone. This caught Air Striker completely off guard and gave a now-free Snaggle the time to fly around and grab him from behind.

"*Grr* W-what are you doing!?" Striker asked as he struggled to break free, the spire charging energy the whole time. "You'll only get yourself killed, you fool!"

"We'll see about that..." Snaggle said with a sneer. Just then, the spire's weapon fired, "Banzai..." Snaggle hissed into Air Striker's ear just as the two of them were engulfed by electricity.

"Air Striker!" Rainbow Dash screamed at the top of her lungs as she started to take off in their direction, only for Spitfire and Jasper to grab hold of her.

"Stand down, soldier - that's an order! commanded Spitfire, who was still trying to keep Dash from flying away as she argued.

"But he could be hurt! If we hurry, we might still be able to- !"

"Dashy, he's gone!" interrupted Jasper, "There's no way he could have survived a direct hit from something like that, and even if he did, if you go out there right now, you'll only get yourself killed!"

"B-but..." Rainbow's voice trailed off as she stopped struggling, tears starting to fall down her cheeks.

"Knock that shit off, Crash!" demanded Hotstreak as he stormed up to RD and grabbed her by the scruff of her armor. "If the next words that come out of your mouth have anything to do with you blaming yourself, I swear I'll slug you! And cut it out with the damn tears too! If you've got time to cry, then you've got time to act!" he yelled. Rainbow was about to shout at him for his callous attitude until she noticed the tears forming at the corners of his eyes. Oh... Rainbow thought to herself as a pang of guilt hit her. Though Hotstreak was the second-newest member of the Wonderbolts, behind her, he had already been with them two years before she had joined and was likely far closer to them than she was. In spite of that, here he was, trying his best to stay focused on the task at hand even though his heart was clearly breaking.

"You're right, I'm sorry. It won't happen again," she said. With that, Spitfire and Jasper let go of her.

"See that it doesn't," Spitfire ordered, to which Rainbow saluted and gave a nod of agreement. It was then that Rainbow Dash's communicator started vibrating again and she answered it.

"Hello?" asked RD.

"Mary, mother of God!" Rain exclaimed, "I thought you'd died! Please, tell me that Spitfire is still with you!?"

"I'm still here, Rain," Spitfire answered, "But Air Striker got caught up in that blast..." Air Striker?... Rainstorm thought to himself. If that's the case, then that means... Rain was quiet for a moment before answering.

"I understand, Spitfire" he responded.

"So, how are things on your end?" Spitfire asked just as the sound of a struggle breaking out on Rainstorm's end.

"You know? Same old, same old..." he replied as he used an ash cable he'd attached to the ceiling to rapidly pull a bandit he'd latched onto the other end of it headlong into it, knocking him out. "Winning friends and influencing people, rubbing elbows, giving advice on proper cosplay etiquette - just being helpful, same as always..." Rain said nonchalantly as the ash cable dissipated and the bandit dropped back to the floor with a hard thud.

"Any closer to completing your objective?" asked Spitfire.

"I have an idea or two..." said Rainstorm thinking back to the intel he'd gotten out of the griffon earlier. "I gotta get off. I've already taken a big enough risk contacting you from inside the base as it is. I can't risk breaking radio silence any longer,"

"Understood. Take care," Spitfire said. Rainstorm nodded before hanging up. Rain took off running down the hall until coming across a set of stairs heading up, which he proceeded to use, unaware Star Blitz had been hiding behind a nearby pillar next to the room with the tied-up griffon bandit. A few moments later, back in the command center, Granite Gust had just picked his radio back up when Star Blitz contacted him again and after giving him an update, he turned to his other henchmen and relayed the information.

"And Gunter's out cold?" asked one of the bandits.

"Yep, and it doesn't seem like he'll be coming to any time soon," said Granite.

"Any idea what Rainstorm might have gotten out of him?" asked another.

"No..." Granite said as he ran his hand through his mane. The situation was starting to seem completely hopeless.

"Perhaps now you'll let me take care of our little intruder?" said a sultry voice somewhere from behind Granite. The voice was coming from a unicorn mare making her way up the stairs wearing dark-violet robes which clung snuggly to her body, a long, matching cape, and silver chest plate with a matching belt on which she carried six silver flasks, each with the same coat of arms depicting an armored morse rearing back on its hind legs and being ridden by a unicorn wearing both armor and wizard's robes carrying a wooden staff. She also wore a hood, silver greaves, silver gauntlets, and a silver mask with the design of a beautiful mare's face with slits for eye-holes, and a hole where her pale, pinkish-white horn protruded from.

"We've been over this, Rán. We need him alive!" Granite said, addressing the robbed unicorn, "Your special talent isn't exactly the taking-prisoners kind." Rán cocked her head ever so slightly to one side for a second before slowly walking up to him, her hips noticeably swaying with each step, until her body was pressing directly against his, causing his face to turn a deep-crimson.

"Let me assure you, Master Gust, that I can and will capture Rainstorm alive, and extract every. Single. Ounce of information out of him, by any means necessary..." Rán said as seductively as possible while dragging a finger up Granite's chest, "...But...in exchange...after we've gotten everything we can out of him..." her voice trailed off as her finger reached his neck, only for her to then make a quick motion with it across his throat in a slicing gesture. Granite quickly backed away from her, sweat starting to trail down his face.

"A-alright, alright already!" he shouted, clearly flustered. Just stop doing... that! Go. Take him down. Not. Out! Get everything you can from him, and after that, I don't care what you do with him, or to him! Just...get to it already! And no fuckups!" he barked. Rán bowed her head slightly and teleported away, leaving the other bandits in the room staring at Granite. "What the Hell are you idiots looking at!?" Gust shouted, prompting the bandits to return to their original tasks. Gross... Granite thought to himself as he shifted uncomfortably. Down below, Rainstorm had found the systems control array for the spire - a large, cylindrical chamber with a massive, open pipe running all the way to the top floor with several dozen different small pipe-looking structures within, each with worn, Ponish words on the side.

"Alrighty then..." Rain said aloud to himself as he looked over the different couplings in the pipe. "Must be from when this place was originally constructed. Guess whoever made this place decided not to close it up completely just in case they needed to disable this place for maintenance... Or in the event of enemy invasion," Rain theorized as he noticed one of the couplings had the words, 'Kinetic Absorption' written along the side. If I remove that, then the next quake that passes through here won't get dissipated, meaning, the whole place could collapse... he thought to himself but changed his mind at the last minute. Can't deep-six this place until I know for sure the data's here, and even then, I should probably make sure to wipe any and all drives before doing anything too crazy... Still, good to know about, just in case... It was then he found what he was looking for. "Gotcha!" he said triumphantly as he reached out for the coupling marked, 'Thunder-god Friend-Foe Identification', and with a bit of fiddling around with it, managed to detach it from its receiver without breaking it.

With that, Rain pulled a second sack out of one of his pockets and shoved the object into it, using the drawstrings to tie the sack shut and then tying it to his belt. Tempted to destroy it, but knowing my luck, something would go sideways and I'd need to get this, 'Thunder-god system' up and running again... he thought to himself as he made his way for a small, square hole at the back of the chamber, just big enough for him to crawl through. He pulled himself through the hole and into a medium-sized broom closet, then used an ash cable from the Ashcaster to move a large, heavy stone block into the hole by attaching one end of the cable to the back of it and the other to the floor of the chamber he'd just exited, then retracted the cable until the block was perfectly in place. "Perfect!" he said confidently while dusting his hands together, still amazed by how well the block meshed with the secret entrance to the chamber, "That birdbrain should be out for, at least, a few more hours, and without him, there's no way the others will know about this passage he found to the control systems," he said under his breath. As he exited the broom closet, he hit another button on the pager he was carrying, just as alarms started going off throughout the spire, "For fuck's sake, what now!?" he irritably asked. Meanwhile, Spitfire informed the other Wonderbolts of the all-clear.

"So, we can finally move in?" asked Hotstreak.

"Correct!" Spitfire confirmed before they all heard a noise from somewhere above them. They didn't have to look around long before discovering the source of the sound as seven medium-sized airships flew overhead, straight for the spire.

"Those look like cargo shuttles!" Jasper exclaimed.

"They must have called them in to transport the product out of here!" Fleetfoot surmised.

"Then, you know what to do Wonderbolts!" proclaimed Spitfire, "Roll-out!" she shouted before taking to the air, the others following close behind her. As they drew closer to the airships, they noticed each one was retrofitted with a pair of manned ball turrets in between the two, small wings at the front and back of each side of the craft.

"They've got gunners!" Soarin warned the others via their short-range comms just as a bandit occupying the starboard-mounted ball turret on the nearest airship noticed them and swiveled around to open fire on the Wonderbolts. The Wonderbolts dispersed their formation as they narrowly evaded the rounds flying at them through the air.

"At least, those guns don't seem to have a lot of range on them," RD said as they found a safe distance at which to follow the airships.

"It's not just their guns that are short-range, Dashy" Jasper responded, "Those transport craft aren't designed for long-range travel so, either these bandits have another base close by, or -,"

"Or, that!" Hotstreak interrupted Jasper to point out something behind them. To their dismay, some distance away, they saw a large, nearly pitch-black ship with a barge-like design, a large propulsion cone jutting out from the back, and a dozen large guns on each side. It was floating through the air, suspended by a massive, armored blimp, with a large, metal band featuring numerous magical runes engraved upon it, and three large gossamer flight rings embedded into different points of the band on both sides.

"SWEET CELESTIA, WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM!?" Rainbow Dash yelled in surprise at the top of her lungs. The others seemed to be equally at a loss for words with many of them just staring open-mouthed at the sudden appearance of the huge craft.

"Don't tell me that thing teleported here!" Fleetfoot exclaimed.

"How it got here isn't important right now!" shouted Jasper, "What's important is making sure none of those transport ships make it back to that carrier because once they do, they’re home free! There's no way we can take on that carrier on our own!"

"Jasper's right! Takedown those transporters at any cost!" ordered Spitfire. With that, Rainbow charged at the nearest transport ship from above, in hopes that the lower-oriented ball turrets wouldn't be able to hit her.

"Gotcha!" she said as she touched down on the roof of the air vehicle, but before she could even draw her machine pistols the starboard-mounted turret repositioned itself to a higher orientation, aiming its center-mounted gun straight at her. "SHIT!" shouted RD at the top of her lungs as she took off to avoid being shot, but she was caught off guard. Just as a volley of lead was about to hit her, she felt someone grab her and heard the sound of bullets ricocheting off of something metal. She looked up to see she was being held by Jasper, who was holding some sort of round, metallic shield, protecting both of them from enemy fire.

"That was a close call, Sweet-pea!" he said cheerfully as the bullets continued to bounce harmlessly off the shield for a few more moments before the airships were out of the turrets’ range.

"Where did you get that shield?" Rainbow asked in surprise before Jasper turned loose of her.

"Oh, you mean this old thing?" Jasper asked as the shield uncoiled itself to reveal it was actually a metallic, silver vine, which retracted itself into a silver corsage around Jasper's wrist. "It's an artifact I got a long time ago, called the Silver Rose. It's pretty handy in situations like this!" he happily explained, "In fact, you want to see just how handy it can be?" he asked her.

"You got a plan?" Dash asked in return.

"I've got a plan," he informed her before explaining his plan to RD. After which, Rainbow Dash took off for the ship again as the other Wonderbolts engaged the other airships.

"Remember everypony, the supports for those turrets seem to be some sort of hydraulic arms on some kind of track, so they can slide up and down and turn around in all sorts of different directions," reminded Fleetfoot after observing Rainbow's near miss, "They may be short-range guns, but the can apparently be aimed in almost any direction, so be careful!"

"Yeah, yeah. We hear you, mom!" Hotstreak responded as he charged towards one of the transports, rapidly punching his left hand into his right repeatedly as he did so. Soon, the air around his left hand began to glow a dull-orange, then quickly turn a bright-yellow before his entire hand appeared to be engulfed in flames, then with a fierce battle cry, he charged from the left at one of the transports - straight for its port-mounted turret! As the gunner inside fired on Hotstreak, he shielded himself with his glowing fist, which the bullets harmlessly bounced off of, before finally closing the distance enough for him to punch the gun itself with enough force to knock it back into the turret itself and cause the whole ship to shake. He then drew his machine pistols and proceeded to shoot out the tiny, gossamer rings located on both of the small forward and backward-facing wings at point-blank range. "Vehicle force fields can't be triggered by gunfire from this close, losers!" he said with a sneer as the last ring fell apart and the ship started to go down.

"...You... You know they can't hear you...right?" Soarin asked with a tone of confusion evident in his voice.

"Y-yeah, I knew that..." replied Hotstreak as his face turned even redder than normal. Soarin rolled his eyes as he flew close enough to one of the transports to press his hands up against it, just out of the turrets' line of sight. Once he had, he closed his eyes and began to breathe deeply, then he started to slowly pull his right hand away from the airship, drawing magical energy away from it in the process, causing the ship to lose power. He then focused his hand full of stolen magical energy into a point floating just above his hand that was roughly the size of his palm, took aim at the back fo the transport, and fired a blast of kinetic energy through the back of the ship and into the back of the pilot's head, causing the back of his skull to violently rupture and his lifeless body to be knocked forward against the controls. As a result, the ship quickly headed towards the ground, doing multiple forward flips all the way down until crashing in a fiery explosion, killing all on board.

"...Whoops..." Soarin said quietly under his breath as he hovered in mid-air and in stunned silence, having only meant to bust into the craft so as to knock everyone out.

"Dude, your special talent is insane!" Hotstreak exclaimed.

"Quit flapping your gums and get back to work!" ordered Fleetfoot as she narrowly avoided being shot out of the sky as she closed in on a turret on one of the crafts, eventually making it to the side of its gun, where she then proceeded to grab onto it. The gun then began to ice over and soon the whole turret was covered in ice. She then attached a small explosive device near the now frozen joint that connected it to the ship and flew away seconds before it detonated, shattering the turret, nearly punching a hole in the side of the craft, and sending the badly-injured bandit gunner falling to her death. Then, she took out the rings on the side of the turret she'd just destroyed. At the same time, Rainbow Dash was flying around underneath the first ship, well within firing range of the guns.

"Ha, ha! Come on, try to hit me!" She chortled as the turrets’ gunners did their best to do just that, but to no avail, completely unaware of Jasper. Coming in from above, he landed on the ship's roof facing its portside. Before anyone in either the turrets or the airship itself could respond, Jasper quickly drew his arm inward for an outward strike and as he did so, a metallic, silver vine covered in numerous, blade-like thorns rapidly extended itself from the Silver Rose. In less than a second, it was dozens of feet in length and a second later, he'd swung out with it, slicing the vehicle completely in half from stern to bow instantly! He caught himself in the air before he could go down with the ship and hovered there for a moment, the vine of his artifact having already fully retracted as Rainbow came up to him. "That. Was. AWESOME!" she squealed excitedly at him, I have got to get me an artifact!" Meanwhile, Spitfire had managed to outmaneuver the gunners in the turrets of her own target, getting underneath the craft near where she believed the middle of the rear of the cockpit to be located.

"Considering the model of this bird, the core should be about here so..." her voice trailed off as she quickly drew her machine pistols and pushed their muzzles directly against the bottom of the ship, all the while the air around her seemed to rapidly heat up. When she fired, the rounds flying out of her weapons seemed to turn red-hot and molten the instant they exited the guns, easily tearing through the bottom of the vehicle and clear through its magical core, causing numerous sparks to arc from it and the ship as a whole to begin to violently rattle and shake. She then disengaged her target, allowing herself to fall away from the airship just moments before it exploded into hundreds of pieces in mid-transit. It was then she noticed that while she and the others had been preoccupied with their own airships, one had nearly made it to the spire, "Crash, call Rain, tell him one of these things is on its way!" she ordered.

"Guess there's no point in maintaining radio silence anymore, huh?" she asked as she flipped open her communicator to contact Rainstorm while still dodging enemy fire from another airship. Rainstorm felt his communicator vibrating from inside one of his pockets and pulled it out to answer.

"Am I to take it you guys are the reason for the damn alarms going off all over the place!?"

"What? No," Rainbow responded, "I don't know why alarms are going off on your end, but we've got a huge problem!"

"What, another one?" Rain asked nonchalantly.

"There's a transport craft that should be landing at the spire soon, and we're too busy with taking down the others to do anything about it ourselves!" she explained.

"Transport craft aren't too quick. Should be easy enough for you guys to handle it on its way out. What's the catch?" Rain asked.

"We can't risk it. There's an air carrier that literally just appeared nearby out of thin air! If it uses some kind of teleporting magic, or something- !"

"Then even if you clear out the others, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to stop the thing from either getting ported back to the main ship once it's loaded up, or it might be able to remotely transfer the product directly to the carrier once the transporter touches down here," he said, cutting off Rainbow Dash. "So, you need someone to deep-six that bird before anyone even gets the chance to start loading it,"

"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash confirmed as her voice trailed off.

"*sigh*... I'll see what I can do," Rain said before hanging up. Yeah, I'll just do that, along with twelve billion other fucking things, because I clearly don't have enough to deal with as is... he thought to himself as he continued down the hall he was in. Just as he came to a fork at the end of the hall he was in, he heard a mass of footsteps heading towards him from multiple directions, prompting him to duck into an empty room to his left just as one group of bandits turned the corner and ran right past his hiding spot.

"Hurry - just got word from Granite that one of our transports is about to land!" said a bandit guard as he motioned at the others to head down the left of the fork at the end of the hall, "Moment it lands we need to get it loaded up, and back to the Obsidian Cloud, ASAP!" he shouted at the last of his comrades before following after them. A moment later, Rain slowly poked his head out of the room to look around and make sure the coast was clear before fully exiting the room.

"Meh, I'll give it a look," he said to himself before taking off after the bandits. Meanwhile, in the command center, Granite Gust was having yet another conniption.

"I thought we kept the alarms from going off for Rainstorm! Why the Hell are they going off, and why now!?" he demanded to know as one of the unicorns at the control crystal used her magic to shut off the alarms while another scanned the spire's security.

"One of ours just called in some sort of strange phenomenon on the third floor!" he informed Granite while keeping one hand over the commlink in his left ear, "The building's too big for us to scan every square foot of it in a timely manner with the crystal, but as long as it's one of our guys we can lock on to their aura and see everything happening around them so, I'll just lock on to Flappy..." his voice trailed off as he focused his magical energies onto the crystal.

"Hold up!" Granite Gust said as he raised one of his hands, "We have a guy named, 'Flappy?' Who the Hell names their foal 'Flappy'!?" he asked incredulously, causing the unicorn to roll his eyes as he continued his work.

"Found him!" he exclaimed, "Now, let's see who's harassing you..." The crystal then began to project a holographic image of several bandits hiding behind corners, doorways, crates, and whatever else they could use as cover, poking their heads out only long enough to take a few shots at something just outside of the hologram's range of sight.

"What are they shooting at?" asked Granite confusedly.

"Hold on. Now that we know where to look, I should be able to- !" the unicorn stopped mid-sentence as the holographic image panned to the left to reveal a phantasmal, vaguely humanoid entity that appeared to be made of pale-blue light and electricity steadily marching towards the bandits, striking them one at a time with - what, at least, seemed to be - its arm. With each blow, the bandit was sent flying off in the opposite direction with a large, smoldering burn at the point of impact, and a massive amount of electricity surging through the bandit's body, and with each strike, the entity's form seemed to slowly, but surely become more and more solid. Finally, the only remaining bandit was a particularly burley, dark-brown minotaur bull, who emptied round after round into the being, and upon noticing the bullets were merely phasing through it, threw his weapon to the ground in rage and charged towards the entity and upon grappling it, was engulfed by light and electricity. As a result, the stone pillar the crystal sat upon began to spark, and with a loud "pop", the hologram vanished, and the crystal was filled with static. "...I...think it just killed Flappy..." said one of the unicorn mares sitting around the crystal ball.

"Wait, you mean to tell me that minotaur was Flappy!?" Granite Gust said, bewildered.

"...Boss, I think you're missing the point..." said another unicorn.

"Err, right..." Gust responded as he turned his full attention to the issue at hand, "So, obvious question; What in Tartarus is that!?"

"Not sure, but...the electrical energy it's giving off is highly similar to the energy generated by the spire," said one of the unicorns.

"Shit, is this some kind of defense mechanism Rainstorm managed to switch back on!? Are we completely blind now!? Have any of the transporters landed yet!?" Granite demanded to know.

"In order; Not sure, no, just a mild circuit overload - I can reroute and get an image back up in a few seconds, and one's about to touch down. Just let me lock on to one of our guys on standby at the landing pad and...bingo!" the unicorn exclaimed. Sure enough, there were several armed bandits standing within one of the pepperbox turrets that hung from the side of the spire, suspended only by the long bridge, just wide enough for three or so people to walk down side-by-side, which also connected it to the spire itself. Unbeknownst to all other parties, however, Rainstorm stood at the entrance to the bridge, carefully peeking out from cover, as he observed the last of the bandits that had been carrying a crate of drugs place the illicit cargo down on the path, noticing not a single crate had been brought into the turret. Before he could question it any further, the bandits that had been inside the turret all ran out at top speed as the sound of mechanical whirring filled the air while the conical roof of the turret split open into three parts, revealing themselves to be suspended from massive, mechanical arms on rails that allowed them to fold themselves, one on top of the other, opposite from the bridge. As the roof was opening up, Rain could see an aircraft in the distance quickly closing in.

Well, that explains where they were planning on landing the damn things... he thought to himself as he drew his wind drakana sword and a vial filled with a glowing, blue liquid. He then emptied the vial onto the blade, causing a tight, powerful air pocket to envelope it, he then gripped the sword in his mouth by the handle as he drew his sky-cutter and placed several alchemic bombs along each of the blades. "No redos... That's all the distilled magic I had to my name so..." he said to himself under his breath as he carefully placed the end of his blade through the central ring of his sky-cutter, causing the weapon to spin with such incredible speed that it nearly vanished. He then grabbed the handle of the drakana with both hands, focusing with all his will on the energy humming through the blade and what he wanted it to do. Then, just as the craft began its descent onto the platform below, opening the hatch at its back before it had even landed, he turned the corner and swung the sword with all his might and will. This transferred the wind from the sword to the sky-cutter and propelled the weapon much further and far more accurately than he could have otherwise, causing the sky-cutter to fly through the hatch and towards the cockpit doors, lodging itself in the ship's core which separated the two doors.

This triggered a massive explosion fueled by the three-way combination of the explosives igniting, the core overloading due to the damage dealt by the sky-cutter, and the magical energy that had escaped the core mere moments before the explosives going off dealing additional damage to the ship and supercharging said explosives. The resulting blast was so intense it completely pulverized the platform and what little of the bridge remained quickly crumbled and fell away, leaving only five of the bandits stationed there alive. They only escaped because they were just far enough from the explosion to avoid grievous injury and were able to fly. Their survival was short-lived, however, as they were so off guard from the explosion that they didn't have time to react before Rainstorm replaced his sword with his twin pistols and proceeded to shoot them each in the head, two at a time until only the fifth bandit remained. The last bandit was able to react just fast enough to get a single shot off at Rainstorm just as a bullet from one of the merc's guns managed to blow a sizable hole through the bandit's neck, nearly decapitating him as his corpse fell from the sky. The bullet the now-dead bandit had fired at Rain flew past his face so close he could feel the heat from it, "And...now I have to buy a new sky-cutter," Rain said annoyedly as he backed away from the doorway and started to head off towards the center of the spire and the next set of stairs. As he walked, he flipped open his communicator to let the Wonderbolts know what had happened.

"Was the huge explosion you?" Dash asked as soon as she answered her communicator.

"Probably..." Rain said smugly, causing Rainbow to chuckle.

"Looks like that's the last of the transports then!" Dash exclaimed as Spitfire took out the last remaining shuttle before flying over to her.

"Alright, then we'll join you at the spire ASAP!" she said, Rain nodding in agreement as he turned a corner and entered a large, eight-way cross-section where he came face to face with Rán, who was standing there with her arms crossed, impatiently tapping her foot.

"You're late!" she snarled at Rainstorm who merely rolled his eyes at the mare.

"Sorry, I'm gonna have to call you back..." he said just before hanging up and pocketing the communicator, "Sorry, is there something I can help you with, miss?..." he asked as he failed to stop himself from admiring the mare's curvaceous figure.

"Rán, and there is something you can help me with..." she replied in her sultry voice as the clasp on one of the flasks on her belt opened and a large amount of water - far more than what would appear possible by its outward appearance - started pouring out of it and pooling around her feet. "You can die," she said coldly as all the water that had pooled around her started to form a sphere of water in the air right in front of her, which started to contract, and as the sphere of water grew smaller, the water within seemed to bubble more and more until it looked as though it were boiling and just smaller than a basketball. Then with a furious battle cry, she launched the projectile at high-speed towards Rainstorm, who just barely rolled out of the way before impact, resulting in it hitting the wall behind him, rupturing and filling the cross-section with steam, which, moments later, began reforming the sphere. When the steam condensed back into the water sphere, she could see her quarry had eluded her, "Mmmm...hide and seek... My favorite..." she cooed as she looked around, trying to determine where her prey could have run off to.

"Shit, that was close!" Rain whispered to himself from his hiding place among the rafters above the moderately-sized dining room he'd leaped into to avoid Rán's attack. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, as he mulled over the encounter, Ok, those water balls are definitely filled with boiling water... Really, really hot boiling water... Never even touched me and I feel like I've been sitting in a sauna for more than fifteen minutes... If one of those make a direct hit on me, it won't matter if my armor can take the impact or not... The heat alone will kill me... he thought to himself as the door to the dining room was reduced to splinters by an aqua-colored kinetic blast and Rán sauntered into the room, the reformed water sphere floating right next to her.

"Oh, Raindrops! Come out, come out, wherever you are!..." she called out in a mocking tone.

"Yeah, I'll be sure and do that right away..." Rain said so quietly under his breath that he little more than silently mouthed the sentence. He then closed his eyes and focused on the situation, looking back on everything he'd noticed about the attacker. First thing of note, she knows my old name - huge red flag... Possibly the shapeshifter from the other day?... No... Lacks the same sort of...malignant presence the shapeshifter had... Could still be in league with them... Next is that water ball... That kinda thing is typically the work of multiple spells working in concert with one another and would normally cause a significant spike in aura output, as well as cause her to light up like a Goddamn Christmas tree, but not only does she seem to have barely put any effort into it, no aura flare - not even her horn is glowing... Artifact? Maybe... That or her special talent... Either way, big trouble... And the water... a lot of it to come out of a flask that size... Judging by the markings, those must be Thor's Horn flasks - custom made by the looks of them... That means they could be carrying up to two gallons of water each so, counting the one already in use, that means twelve gallons at least... Also, given the coat of arms, plus how pricey Thor's Horn flasks are to begin with - let alone how much more expensive a custom one would be - either she's had a run-in with money or she comes from money... In fact, that coat of arms looks familiar...

"Ahh... Found you!" she said coldly as she gazed in the direction of Rain's hiding place, "I'd come out if I were you unless you want me to turn this whole room into a steam cooker!"

Damn!... he thought to himself as he used the Ashcaster to repel down to the ground. "Ok, care to talk this out? I am open to surrender..." he said smugly.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha!" she laughed menacingly - to the point of sounding a bit forced, causing Rain to lift an eyebrow. "Granite Gust wants me to bring you to him alive so you can tell him what this, 'Kershma' or 'Vizpapa' or, whatever it is you called it outside is and where he can get his hands on it, but I honestly don't care in the slightest!"

"Wait, none of you know about the Vishvarupa System!? Not a single one!?" Rain asked in shock.

"Haven't a clue, and that's the only reason we've gone easy on you until now," Rán answered, "I, on the other hand, couldn't care less if I tried! I'm only here because the Master told me you'd come here eventually, and so you have,"

"'The Master'? Who the Hell's that?" Rain asked as he subtly took a firm grasp of a chair next to where he'd come down at.

"Sorry, but I'm done answering your asinine questions. Now be a good, little monkey, and die!" she yelled as she fired the water sphere at Rainstorm again, only for it to be met halfway through the air by the chair Rain had just thrown, causing the sphere to rupture on contact and causing the chair to fragment and steam to fill the room. Rain took the opportunity to duck out of the room, leaving a bomb behind for good measure - right behind Rán! A moment later, just as he'd turned the corner, the bomb went off, blowing away the steam, but not his assailant, who had protected herself with a powerful force field, "Really? A sneak attack? You actually thought that would work against me!? Please, I've been training for years to kill you! You'll have to try better than that!" she yelled after him.

"Years, huh?" Rain asked himself under his breath as he readied his pistols from behind the corner while Rán began gathering the steam and moisture for another sphere. Before she could gather enough for an attack, Rainstorm whipped around to face her and began firing both pistols at her. The force field surrounding her body closely like an aqua-colored, halo of light held true, absorbing the force of the bullets enough to where they were unable to cause any damage, all the while, the sphere had been taking shape again. Then the sphere began to condense and boil, afterwards firing at high-speed at Rainstorm, who, once again, barely managed to leap out of the way enough to avoid injury. This time, however, the steam released began to swirl around him, leaving him unable to see anything in front of him, Damn it! I need to get out of this!... he thought to himself just before he felt something small and hot strike him in the chest and explode with surprising force, knocking him backwards out of the cloud of steam.

He flew back several feet landing hard on his back and sliding a few more feet and though he'd, fortunately, managed to hang on to his guns, it was of little consolation as the taste of blood filled his mouth, "Ready to give up and die yet?" Rán asked, her voice dripping with malice as a much tinier water sphere took shape next to her. Rain quickly sat up, taking a shot at Rán, directly between her eyes, only for the small sphere of water to both widen and flatten out, hovering right in front of her at an angle, causing the bullets to fragment on impact with the water. "You can never hit me with a mere bullet! My magic - especially my special talent - is the perfect counter for you, your skills, and any tools or tricks you might have up your sleeves!" she boasted as Rainstorm continued firing into the water barrier with one gun as he holstered the other, and drew something in its place. "I'll be nice though, and give you a choice - you can either let me boil you alive, or you can shoot yourself - your choi- !?" she stopped just before finishing her sentence as she noticed something bounce off the wall next to the ground to her left and land right next to her feet. "What th- !" a loud boom and a blinding flash of light filled the hallway, accompanied by a thick cloud of smoke, catching Rán completely off guard and when the cloud of smoke dissipated, she saw that Rainstorm was gone, "GET BACK HERE YOU BASTARD!!!!!!", she screamed as she took off down the hall to find him, her voice no longer holding the sultry tone from before.

Rainstorm ran down the hallway as fast as he could, while trying to think of what to do about his current predicament, "Ok, good news - from the way she spoke, it doesn't seem like they know anything about the Vishvarupa System so, at worst, all I'll have to do is scrub the files to make sure there aren't any references to it before I hand them over, just to be safe. Bad news - she seems to really want me dead!" he said aloud to himself as he heard Rán screaming from somewhere nearby. She's said she'd been training for years specifically to fight me... And by the sounds of things, she's got quite a temper... That last water ball wasn't nearly as hot as the other ones and didn't hit me with anywhere near the same force, though I've got at least a few cracked ribs, blisters, and I bit the hell out of the inside of my mouth when I hit the floor... he thought to himself as he winced and put his hand up to his cheek. So, it seems that she can make those water balls quicker and smaller but at the cost of heat and power... She's got a grudge against me... She knows my old name from Canterlot... Canterlot... Temper... That's it!... he thought to himself excitedly. He made his way to a window and decided to make his final stand there, whistling as he waited for Rán, which didn't take more than a minute or two for her to find him.

"*gasp* F-found you, you - *gasp* - little shit!" she barely choked out as she tried to catch her breath.

"By all means, take your time!" Rainstorm said cheerfully, "As much as I'd like to hear a gorgeous woman like yourself gasping, this is hardly what I have in mind," he said slyly.

"Oh, stow it!" Rán snapped back at Rainstorm, "Patronizing me is by far the worst thing you can do, given your current situation!"

"But I'm not patronizing you. You really are quite beautiful - I mean, look at you! That figure of yours is jaw-dropping, and if you weren't trying to kill me, that voice of yours would be making me weak in the knees - plus, I'm sure underneath that mask, your face is a sight to behold! By all accounts, you're a class act! Can't imagine what I could have ever done to piss off a goddess like you?" he said, making it as obvious as possible that he was eying her up and down.

"'Underneath that mask, your face is a sight to behold', huh?..." she repeated Rain's words, sounding quite sad as she did so, "You can say that again," she said as she reached for the side of her mask and pulled it back just far enough for part of the left side of her chin to be visible, revealing it to be heavily scarred.

"Are those alchemical burns?" Rain asked as Rán slid her mask back into place.

"Recognize your handy work?" Rán asked, her voice a blend of sadness and fury, "Because of you, I lost so much more than my good looks! All I have left is the burning need for vengeance against you! However, since you find me so attractive, I'll grant you one last favor - I'll tell you the real name of the mare who kills you - 'Summer Seabreeze'! Now, do you remember me?" she asked smugly.

"Nope," Rain answered bluntly.

"Yes, I- wait, what!?" Rán asked incredulously.

"Yeah, I've never heard of you in my life," Rain said again, much to Rán's frustration.

"You know?... Rich, popular, from a noble unicorn clan, bullied you in school a lot?" she asked, in an attempt to jog his memory.

"Lady, do you have any idea just how little that narrows it down?" Rainstorm asked incredulously.

"Fair point..." Rán admitted, "Most beautiful filly in school, pinkish-white skin, mostly black-blue mane, dark-brown eyes, came from house Stormrider - never missed an opportunity to talk about it!?" she asked, her temper starting to get the best of her.

"Ohhhhh, Summer!" Rainstorm proclaimed happily as he brought his right fist down onto his open left palm, "I remember you now! You were that really plain-looking filly that kept following me around while trying not to be noticed by me! Always thought you were a bit of a loser rea- !..." Rain stopped mid-sentence as Rán began glowing and all the flasks on her belt opened up and began pouring their contents out.

"'Plain-looking'?... 'Loser!?'" she asked as she clasped her hands together and all the water in her possession began to form an enormous water sphere, "TAKE THIS, YOU STUPID JERK!!!!!!!!!! she bellowed loudly enough for her voice to crack, as she prepared to fire the sphere.

"I'm sorry..." Rain barely managed to squeak out before Rán launched her attack.

Outside of the spire, down below, Hotstreak had only managed to fly within a few feet of the nearest window before an electric shock sent him flying back with a yelp. "Knock it off already, you dumbass!" Spitfire ordered as a defeated-looking Hotstreak landed a few feet behind her, his ears drooping in his disappointment, "As long as this place is still being powered, nopony from the outside can just fly through the windows - security system, or not! That's why we had to have Rain go through the entrance instead of just scale the spire with his artifact," she explained.

"Wait, why isn't it hooked up to the security system?" Hotstreak asked.

"Technically, it's not a security feature," Fleetfoot interjected, "According to the intel - which somepony wasn't paying attention to - this place was made back in 'ye-olden-days', and back then, normal window shutters and even glass window panes themselves and the like weren't used that often on larger buildings like this. Normally, it was easier and cheaper to just use a one-way deflection enchantment on the windows to keep bugs and dust and stuff out. With the amount of energy in this spire, it likely overcharges the enchantments, which is why they also make a good additional layer of protection. Don't know if it's an intentional design choice or just an unforeseen side-effect that just happened to pan out for whoever built the place, though..." Hotstreak was about to respond when they heard an enormous explosion from above. The Wonderbolts looked up just in the nick of time to barely avoid tons of stone debris falling from above by running into the building before a massive chunk of wall blocked the doorway.

"What the Hell was that!?" asked Soarin. That's when Rainbow Dash noticed something among the rubble that had come in with them, a familiar grey hat.

"Oh, no..." Rainbow Dash said fearfully as she picked up Rainstorm's hat, noticing a few droplets of fresh blood trickle out of the hat as she held it.

"*sigh* Better hang on to that, Crash," Spitfire said with exasperation, "Last thing I want is to have to listen to Rain whine about losing his hat all the way back home," she said as she started heading further into the spire.

"B-but, that explosion- !" Rainbow was cut off by Spitfire holding up a hand - a gesture instructing RD to be quiet.

"-Is just a sign that Rain's having a good workout. I've seen that stallion survive things nopony else could... There's no way he'd ever die in a place like this," she informed Rainbow rather matter-of-factly. "Now, hurry up! Don't want our comrades to have all the fun,"

"No, Mam!" Dash said as she followed behind, but then took notice of Spitfire's words. "Our comrades"?... But the only other pony already here is Rainstorm... she thought to herself as she caught up with the Wonderbolts.

Back where Rán and Rain had been fighting each other, Rán began to get back up, having been knocked back by the force of her own attack, the thick clouds of smoke that had once been solid, enchanted stone choking her as they were blown away with the wind out the massive hole in the spire's exterior wall she had created - along with any steam that might have been left. "Awww, I overdid it again!..." she grumbled to herself as she stood up, looking around at all the devastation. A large hole several feet wide and a few dozen feet tall allowed Luna's moon to shine through, while smoke and steam continued to escape from the hole in the floor, which was still partially obscured, and seemed to reach back at least, several feet. The only noises she could hear were the sounds of fighting on the lower floors and the occasional shifting of rocks and debris from her attack. "That's right!" she said aloud as her head frantically darted from left to right, looking for any trace of the merc, and there, in the corner to her left, she saw it, Rainstorm's disembodied left arm, still dripping blood. Rán squealed with excitement and delight as she ran over to inspect her prize.

Upon reaching the limb she picked it up, holding it in her own hands, noticing it still felt warm, and to her surprise, eliciting a twinge of guilt from herself. Knock it off, Rán!... she ordered herself, Why should I feel bad?... That bastard took everything away from me!... Why should I feel bad for him?... It's not like I still have that stupid crush on him anymore!... Right?... she thought as she cradled the arm somewhat tenderly and felt her eyes threaten to tear up until she noticed something strange. "Hold on..." she said as she looked at the arm more thoroughly, "This arm doesn't look like it was torn off by an explosion... It looks like it was cut off! But ho- !?" she never got the chance to finish her train of thought as something ripped the severed limb from her grasp and before she could turn to look in the direction the arm had been pulled, the floor beneath her ruptured with a terrible force, propelling her face-first into the ceiling! She had had just enough time to recast her force field spell, but not enough time for it to reach full force before face planting into the ceiling above. When she came back down, landing on the floor below the one she had previously been standing on, her spell was broken and all the wind was knocked out of her. Then, as Rán began to try to pick herself off the floor, she felt an excruciating pain as a bullet tore through the right-side of her horn and ricocheted off her mask, and she screamed in agony and looked up to see who had attacked her.

"So, remind me, Drizzles? What was that you said about me never being able to hit you with a mere bullet?" cheerfully asked Rainstorm as he used a preservation cloth to secure his severed arm into place before applying half of a syringe of healing potion to it, and the other to the rest of his arm, then unceremoniously tossing the empty needle away. He then proceeded to fashion a sling for his arm out of some bandages he had with him while Rán cursed him out.

"You're alive!? How!? That blast should have ripped you to pieces!" Rán demanded as she writhed in pain while covering the bloody stump that was once her horn.

"Well, I figured you had a bit of an anger issue and that you and I had history from back at Canterlot, so I figured I could use that and the fact you clearly wanted me dead to lure you into a trap. I'll admit, the initial plan was to get you mad enough to where you wouldn't be able to think straight, get in close with the Ashcaster, seal up your other flasks, and get you to use up the water you already had and as soon as you were 'out of ammo', move in and try to put a bullet in the back of your skull at point-blank range. That's the difference between force field spells and barrier spells, barriers are better at countering energy-heavy attacks such as other spells and can be more easily extended to cover a wider area to protect more ground, but generally aren't as tough or as flexible as force fields. Force fields are tougher and better at protecting from kinetic-heavy attacks, such as from bullets and explosions, while allowing far more flexibility while in use, but that means your attacker can get in close and at point-blank range, they tend to be a lot less effective." Rain explained.

"But the explosion!" Rán exclaimed.

"After you decided to go apeshit on my ass and launch that water ball at me, the size of the damn thing not only made it slower but blocked your line of sight, allowing me to jump out of the window just in the nick of time, though some of the debris from the explosion did manage to scrape my head up and knock my hat off in the process. I then just used the Ashcaster to yank myself back in through the hole in the wall, but I couldn't see if you were still in one piece or not so, I decided to lay a trap for you using my arm, just in case,"

"Wait...you cut off your own arm!?" Rán asked in utter and complete shock.

"Hurt like hell but it bought me enough time to duck down to the floor right below where my arm should have landed and use some ash cables to pin all my remaining bombs to the ceiling right below where my arm should have been. Then, all I had to do was get back up, and try to snatch my arm before setting the bombs off. You can figure the rest out on your own," he finished.

"I can't believe you did that!" Rán shouted, "What kind of madstallion would cut off part of their body to use as bait for a trap just to shoot off my horn!?"

"To be fair, I was trying to put a bullet through your brain, not your horn. As for the trap I set, yes, I was willing to cut off a part of my own body to win. Why do you think that in spite of the fact I don't have any magic at all I'm counted as the seventh deadliest warrior in Equestria? It's because I'm willing to go to the lengths necessary to win. Now, you can either tell me about this 'Master' of yours, or I can shoot off more parts of your body - ones that unlike your horn, won't grow back!" Rain asked as he drew his pistol back out and took aim at Rán.

"Go ahead and shoot me!" Rán demanded, "You think I'm the only enemy you made the day of the potions exam!?"

"What are you talking about? I thought you were someone from school who just hated me for being human or something," Rain shouted.

"You moron, you really don't get it, do you!? The day you failed with that potion, it wasn't just your stupid face that got messed up!" Rán yelled back at Rainstorm, causing his eyes to widen in shock.

"N-no way! Princess Celestia said that nobody else got hurt in the accident!"

"Oh, is that what she told you?" Rán hissed at him, "Everypony stupid enough to be standing around you that day had their lives destroyed - some of them didn't even make it out alive! But it was all covered up! And what of poor little Raindrops? Other than his face looking like shredded carrion, he gets nothing. No trial, no punishment, not even so much as a lecture - NOTHING! Our lives were uprooted while yours carried on like nothing happened. Well, guess what!? I'm just one of several ponies whose lives have been wrecked by you not knowing your place and just accepting one bad grade like a good stupid little monkey! You and that bitch Twilight Sparkle are dead ponies walking, and even if you kill me there's no way you can fend off the others! You hear me!" Before she could carry on berating Rainstorm any further, the floor beneath Rán began to sink to one side, causing her to tumble out of the spire, along with several large pieces of debris and before Rain could do anything to save her, she disappeared into the night. Rainstorm just stood there, staring in the direction Rán had fallen wide-eyed, his head buzzing with what he'd just been told. Finally, he gave his head a shake and stumbled off to find a place to lay low for a few minutes while he reassessed the situation and planned his next moves.

Meanwhile, having just observed the whole fight via the control crystal, Granite Gust and his men stood there, mouths agape, at what had transpired. "'Bring. Him. In. ALIVE! What the actual fuck was so hard to understand about that order!?" he shouted through gritted teeth.

"M-maybe we should just get out of here while we can?" one of the bandits offered. "Rán was really strong and was trying to kill him and still lost, the Wonderbolts are on their way up here, and then there's that weird ghost thing that's raising all kinds of Hell! I think it's time for us to cut our losses. Granite opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by the small crystal ball in his pocket vibrating, he pulled it out and upon staring into it, was immediately met with raspy screeching from the other end.

"I TOLD YOU TO CAPTURE THE MONKEY AND DESTROY THOSE WONDERBOLTS!" GE screamed at him. Granite tried to reply but was cut off again. "IT'S A MONKEY, A CROSSBRED PIGEON, AND A HAND FULL OF HORSEFLIES! ANY IDIOT SHOULD BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT!"

"Look, we're trying, but these aren't just a ragtag band of raw recruits, Boss, one's a legendary mercenary, another's a war hero with more kills under his belt by himself than most strike-teams have combined, and the rest are the freakn' Wonderbolts! We've sacrificed a lot of our guys just trying to fend them off so, ma- "

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR EXCUSES OR HOW MANY OF YOUR PATHETIC FLUNKIES HAVE TO DIE!" she screamed at him.

"Now just hold on a minute, GE!" Granite shouted back, much to everyone's surprise, "Yeah, my guys are rough around the edges, but they're not pathetic! They've been dying left and right just so you can have your damn information and hang on to this stupid tower! Some of these dumbasses are my friends and all of them have done pretty damn good just to make it this far! Seems like this place is super-valuable to them, and based on some of the shit we found around here, I'd say this was some sort of government base or something so, maybe if you hadn't decided to have us set up shop here in the first place, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"FOOL!" GE roared back, as the whole spire and even the jungle itself seemed to shake with their rage, "MY REASONS FOR TAKING MOSS MARE SPIRE ARE MY OWN - SOMETHING YOUR BROTHER WOULD HAVE UNDERSTOOD!" which upon saying caused Granite's eye to twitch angrily and his men to exchange fearful expressions, "FURTHERMORE, WITH THE WEAPONS I PROVIDED YOU, YOU SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THEM EASILY SO, YES, YOU AND YOUR BANDITS ARE PATHETIC - AGAIN, MUCH UNLIKE YOUR BROTHER AND HIS WARRIORS! AND FINALLY, YOU CAN CONSIDER ALL YOUR LIVES FORFEIT! ONCE I ARRIVE, I WILL EXTERMINATE THOSE VERMIN AND THEN, YOU AND YOUR BANDITS! THE SPEED AND AMOUNT OF PAIN INVOLVED WILL BE DETERMINED BY HOW MANY OF THE INTRUDERS ARE LEFT ONCE I GET THERE! UNDERSTOOD!?" she yelled at Granite, who was red in the face with anger.

"Oh, I understand perfectly..." he snarled before tossing the crystal ball over his shoulder, where it shattered into pieces upon hitting the stone floor. "Change of plans, folks!" he said as he slowly made his way to the stairs, "Prep our take off, evacuate our weak and injured, take what we can, but if you have to, leave the product behind!"

"But GE..." a bandit started to interject before a furious glance from Granite silenced him.

"Is no longer necessary to further my position within the Endeavor! If we can get Rainstorm and hand him over to the Board of Directors themselves, I'll be a shoo-in for a position as a Local Manager - at least! And if we can get something useful out of him beforehand, I might even make Regional!" he exclaimed.

"B-but I heard getting a meeting with the Board is next to impossible!" one of the bandits said.

"Oh, they'll want a meeting for this!" Granite responded, "And if I can, at least, make Local Manager, GE won't be able to touch us! Not unless they want to fall out of favor with the Endeavor and even GE isn't tough enough to go to war with the Endeavor - and they know it!"

"So, where are you going?" asked another bandit.

"It's like the old saying goes," Granite replied as he started to head down the stairs, "If you want something done right, do it yourself!"

Chapter 10: Finished