In the moments that have transpired since Bloodstone’s ‘greeting’ on the E.S.S. Neighagra Falls, Shining Armor himself was horrified to hear about how he was willing to attack the vessel that his wife and kids were aboard. But in the moments afterwards, things got even worse for him as he heard a rather… dismayed Fleur De Lis speak to him in a rather saddened tone. “The engines and hull of the ship took a direct hit over the southeast coast. Reports say that the target was destroyed completely.”

Bloodstone himself smirked at the news. But he did not want to overlook any details. “Have a team sent out to inspect the wreckage. I want confirmation that those who were on board were taken out.”

“B-but there isn’t the possibility of any survivors,” Fleur told him in response, trying to get the red horned unicorn to change his mind. “Wouldn’t that just be a waste of-”

Before she could speak any further, that was when Bloodstone took one one of his gauntlets and smacked Fleur across the face. Sending her toppling to the floor as he looked back at the unicorn. “Anything to make this hero feel like he’s lost everything is never a waste! Do I… make myself clear?!”

All that did was cause Fleur to nod her head in shock as she looked back at him. All before Bloodstone just grinned as he looked back at Shining now. “Who’s helpless now?” He mocked, all before heading out the door as his maniacal laugh echoed throughout the hallway.

Meanwhile…

By the time that they had reached the shoreline of the island, Cadance and her children were worn out from not just everything they’ve been through. But everything they had to do to make it here safely, and once they found something that could serve as shelter, then they could get some of the much needed rest that they wanted.

Well, at least Flurry and Valiant could rest. Cadance herself still had a job to do and a husband to find. But first, she had to make sure that both of her kids knew what was going on. “Kids… I think your father is in trouble.”

“Um, not to sound rude mom… but we aren’t exactly doing so well either all things considered.” Flurry replied back as both her and Valiant were trying to keep themselves warm and placing their hands close to the campfire that Cadance had made.

“I understand that… and I’m going to look for him. Which means your in charge again until I get back.”

“Oh come on, seriously!?” Valiant protested upon hearing that.

“You heard her, Val.” Flurry told him, before the two of them notice Cadance place her mask on over her face and hand one of them that looked just like hers to Flurry. “Uh mom… why are you giving these to us? You just said that you were going to look for dad.”

“I want for you to put it on,” Cadance replied calmly. “Your identity is your most important possession right now, so protect it. And… if anything goes wrong, use your powers.”

“But you told us-”

“I know what I told you!” Cadance quickly shot back at Flurry, trying to restrain her emotions as she looked back at both of them. “Remember the ponies that were seen as the bad guys on those cartoons that you watched on Saturday mornings?” The response was a nod from both of them as the pegasus soon told them something else that made their expressions change instantly. “Well these guys… are not like them. They won’t restrain themselves just because the two of you are children. They will harm you and even go as far as to kill you… if you give them that opportunity. Do not let it happen, no matter what.”

She then turned to Val, before picking up where she left off. “Val… If anything goes wrong, I want you to create anything that your brain could possibly think of.”

That had the pegasus get rather excited as he looked back at his mother. “Anything!?!”

“Anything. Both of you need to be strong. I’m counting on you two to look out for one another, stay hidden and keep each other safe,” She said, hugging both of them before getting up and heading to the exit of the cave. “I’ll try to be back by morning. If I’m not back…”

“Look out for each other, stay hidden and protect each other?” Flurry asked as if she was asked with repeating her mother’s instructions, which caused her mom to smile as Cadance nodded her head. “Sounds simple… though, I’m not holding my breath on it.”

“That’s my girl…” Cadance told her, shortly before taking off and leaving both of her kids behind in the safety of the cave. But before she could stretch out her wings, she then heard Flurry’s voice again. But this time, it was for a different reason.

“Mom, I… I’m sorry, I couldn’t help Val when-”

“Shh… Flurry, it’s okay… None of this was-,” her mother insisted, trying to calm her as she looked back at her daughter.

“B-but I…”

“Hey… what happened to the composed self that was you just a few moments ago?” Cadance then asked, leading to a small bit of silence from her daughter as the pegasus placed a hand on her shoulder. “Just be brave… I don’t see anything that happened on the airship earlier as your fault. So don’t blame yourself for it, okay?” All that had Flurry do was nod her head, holding back tears as she gave her mother a hug. One that Cadance was caught off guard by, but returned to her daughter as she looked back at her. “Be brave, Flurry.”

After saying that, it was then that the pegasus spread her wings and took off, leaving her daughter to look back at the mask that her mother gave her. Putting it on as she turned around to join back up with her brother.

“Now… If I were my husband, where would I be?” Cadance, who now was Amorous asked herself as she perched herself over what she believed was a railway system that connected different parts of the island together. She was still trying to get used to the mechanics of her newfound suit, but one thing that she was able to understand rather quickly was her newfound wrist crossbows. The pegasus changed out the ammo that was in the gauntlet as she heard the sound of an oncoming railcar approach her.

Thinking quickly, she aimed her left wrist crossbow at the car and just when it was under her, fired a small bolt that turned into a dot that was blinking on the top of it as it sped along. The point for her firing it was to not slow the cart down… but to instead track it. Map out the path that the railcars took so she could find a potential point of entry as she watched the path of the car on a screen that was built into her gauntlet.

And by the time a majority of the island was mapped out, she heard the sound of another car approaching. Pressing the sides of her hooves, the boots that she wore began to glow as she readied herself. Jumping off and landing just right on the top of the car. However, to the guards inside, they didn’t hear anything.

That was one of the features that Photo had put on her husband’s suit that she added to hers. A noise muffler. Something that would block out the sounds of her hoofsteps as she moved through the night. Looking back at her gauntlet, Amorous pressed a button that was on the wristbone that was along her hand and pulled the hood of her suit over her head. As the car approached a security checkpoint, her suit went invisible. Masking her from the security sensors.

“Alright, welcome back Rook-5. Go ahead and head on in,” The guard at the checkpoint replied, shortly before the railcar went forward. Going through an estranged tunnel as she lowered her head to squeeze in. However, it was at one point where she saw something that caught her off guard.

“A… rocket?”

It definitely was a rocket. But the only question on her mind was what such a thing was doing here. When she originally saw the volcano, she thought it was actually an active volcano. But seeing this made her suspicious as to what was really going on.

If only she could find the right place to disembark at.

For the last few minutes, all that Flurry had been doing was try to come up with different forms of creations using her powers. Conjuring crystalling figures before having them split up into dust after a few moments. Yet… unfortunately for her, this wasn’t exactly enough to keep her little brother entertained as he got up from off the floor of the cave and looked back at Flurry.

“Well… as fun as this is,” Val said, getting up. “I'd rather see if there's something that's actually interesting.”

Before he could take two steps though, that was when Flurry spoke up. “Val, what do you think is going on? Are you treating this like we’re on a vacation or something?” She asked, before adding something else shortly afterwards. “Mom and dad’s lives could be in jeopardy right now… or worse…” She stopped for a moment, before whispering the final part. “Their marriage.”

“Their marriage?” Val showed obvious confusion. “These bad guys want to get to… mom and dad's marriage? But why?”

“No, not like that-” She said, before rolling her eyes and facepalming herself. “Dear Celestia, you can be so immature at times.”

“Yeah, yeah, and you're always a stick up.” He turned around with a torch and walked into the cave.

“Hey, did you forget that mom told us to stay hidden?” She snapped the moment that she noticed Valiant walking away from her.

“I’m still going to be inside the cave!! Sheesh, talk about being overprotective…” Valiant rolled his eyes as he began to proceed further inside.

In the control room, several guards were working overtime. Manually going through the controls as they watched the rocket. Preparing it for what was to come next as a dark crimson ball was being loaded into the rocket.

“Rook 1 to control, Salamander is now in position. Awaiting further instructions before we can proceed to launch.”

“Rook 1, this is control. All systems are go. Engage launch protocol. T-minus thirty seconds until launch.”

Valiant stopped as the rocky interior of the cave was drastically split into a smooth, metal interior of sorts. Curious as to what it could mean, he tossed a small rock further down. Only for the sound to echo as he looked back towards it.

“Cool!” He shouted, making a distinct echo. His childish mind prompted him to shout it louder. “COOL!!!”

“Control, we are engaging thrusters. Counting down in 10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1. All engines running. We have confirmed liftoff. I repeat, we have confirmed liftoff.”

The cave shook, with loose rubble and rocks falling from the roof and walls. Valiant hesitantly turned around before sprinting away, unsure if he caused it or not. Either way, he wasn't going to find out, and nor should Flurry.

Yet… at the end of the tunnel was some kind of orange light. And it was rapidly heading towards him as it turned the rock that Valiant threw into dust. Leading him to realize that they needed to get out of there… right now!

“FLURRY!!! RUN!!!” He screamed.

“What? Bats?” Flurry rolled her eyes, before seeing the Orange light quickly following her brother as her eyes widened. “What the HAY DID YOU DO!?!” Valiant grabbed her arm, the two getting out of the cave and jumping out of the way, with the end of their tails getting burnt in the process. They both batted the flames off their tails, but looked up, seeing a rocket heading into space.

“Well, so much for staying hidden…” Flurry said, before looking at her brother. “You alright?” Valiant finished batting the flames off of his tail.

“Yeah, I am… hope no one sees this at school.”

“I really doubt anypony would be paying attention to that.” Flurry said, before motioning her hand as a sign for him to come over to her. Placing her hand on the ground, she had a dome of crystalline glass form around them so that they could be safe and inside. “Not a cave, but it can keep us hidden until morning.”

“Right… a Crystal ball won't stick out.” Val deadpanned. Just as his sister let out a deep sigh and looked back at him.

“It’ll mask our presence… so if we can see someone outside, they can’t see us.” She pointed out to her brother. “Now let's get some rest… something tells me we might need it for tomorrow.”

Meanwhile…

It took awhile for Amorous to find a way for her to get into the base while drawing as little attention to her as possible. Especially since it was almost nearly impossible to find a simple vent for her to slip on in… or for that matter, one that was big enough for her to hide inside. Most of the spaces that would’ve been easy for her to crawl through back in the glory days had now shrinked in size. Meaning that unless you were the size of a breezie or a spider, then you would need to think of an alternative place to sneak through.

Luckily though, Photo must’ve thought of that when she designed the suit. Because after reaching a particular section in the ceiling that was hanging over the security surveillance room, Amorous changed the ammo type to the thirteenth model that was given to her. One that was referred to as ‘the all seeing eye’. It was fired off as a small ball, but when attached to a wall, it turned into a camera that she could see from her equipment.

And right now, what she was looking at some of the monitors in the room. One was projecting the flight path of a ‘Project Salamander’ and it’s ETA to Maretropolis. The other… was a grid that tracked the amount of power that was going through the building.

And the highest amount of power was going through Block A1… in Cell 13. Which could mean only one thing. “Shining…”

“Hunh? What? Who said that?” She heard a security guard asked as Amorous backed away from the opening in the vent before a fellow guard reassured them that they didn’t hear anything. But there was only one other thought that was going through Amorous’ mind right now.

She needed to find her husband… and fast.

Author's Note

This... took WAY longer than it needed to be. Still, I do hope that you guys enjoy it and look forward to other things later on.
-Frost