"Hey."

Tempest felt her eyelids straining to flutter open, but the crusty, sticky sensation on the inside of her eyes kept them closed.

"Hey! You alright!?" A voice reached her ears, so faint that she couldn't be sure she'd even heard it.

"Wake up! Come on!" The voice shouted, much closer this time.

Tempest willed her eyelids to open, much to her immediate discomfort. Her entire body felt warm, much too warm to be comfortable, and a throbbing pain ached all the way from her hind legs to her forehead. She gasped for breath, her mind immediately becoming aware of the fact that she hadn't breathed in quite some time. The smell of sulfur and burning flesh instantly filled her sinuses and mouth, making her gag and cough almost as soon as her lungs filled with air.

After several moments to accept the newfound stench that surrounded her completely, Tempest finally looked up to her surroundings, finding nothing but scorched earth and burning airships all around her. Smoke billowed through the air, filling the sky with greenish black clouds that looked almost as sickly as the carnage they orbited. Charred bodies littered the streets and filled the collapsed tents and structures all around the fuel depot. She slowly surveyed the destruction, her eyes moving from one desolate ruminant of the storm king's fleet to another.

Tempest gagged again as she looked at the bodies scattered all over the shipyard. Memories of just a few minutes prior quickly flashed through her mind, and she quickly found herself struggling for breath. She vividly recalled the feeling of her horn spearing into a soldier's neck, his blood oozing down her forehead and into her eyes. His gagged gasps of agony filled her ears, driving her to nearly hyperventilate as the memories rushed into her mind, one after the other.

She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. Her heart rate slowly decreased, but the nauseous feeling in her gut lingered, making her swallow back the bile before she would lose control and vomit into the mud. It was a losing battle, and after only a few moments, she doubled over and dry-heaved, her stomach attempting to empty its contents.

Aside from a small amount of spittle and bile, Tempest vomited nothing. She heaved breath into her battered lungs, each breath nearly sending her back into a puking fit as the stench of the charred world around her filled her sinuses. Slowly, but surely, she managed to control herself and quell the feeling in her gut that seemed to only want her to empty her insides. Finally, after wiping the last of the spittle from her muzzle, she looked up from the mud below and surveyed the carnage once more.

After taking some time to look over the damage, Tempest became aware of an acute ringing sensation in her ears that didn't seem to want to go away. She flicked her ears back and forth in an attempt to clear them or pop them, but found no such luck. She slowly brought a hoof up to her ear and rubbed the fuzzy extremity. Her hoof came back in front of her face covered in blood. She stared at the crimson fluid soaking into her fetlock with wide eyes and a blank stare.

Despite all the stimuli around her, Tempest hardly registered the feeling of a gentle hand on her wither. Only after a good shake, did she look over to her side and find John kneeling beside her. Black soot and mud caked his face in dozens of places, nearly appearing as if he was wearing some kind of war paint. His suit matched his face well, and he appeared to be covered in more dirt and mud than even she was.

After nearly ten seconds of staring at John, she realized that he was speaking to her.

"What!?" She cried, her voice a strained croak that she could barely hear.

"Are you okay!?" John shouted back, grabbing her head with both hands and looking over her bloodied ear.

"I c-can barely hear." Tempest replied, looking back to John with a slightly fearful look.

John tilted her head to the side and inspected the bloodied ear in question. While her entire face and head were caked with dried blood and mud, he easily found fresh crimson fluid soaking around the appendage in question. He gently folded her ear inside out and looked at her inner ear, finding that there was little blood inside of the extremity. He quickly traced his finger along the outside edge of her ear until he reached the base, finding a laceration just underneath. With a small sigh of relief, he released her head and with his left hand and calmingly rubbed her cheek with his right thumb.

"It's just a cut. Don't worry, your hearing should come back in a bit." John explained, giving a supportive smile.

Tempest let out a shaky breath but nodded her head in thanks as John pulled away. He quickly checked his rifle and magazine, finding that he still had nearly a dozen rounds left. With that done, he got to his feet and looked back over to Tempest.

"Can you still fight?" He asked.

Tempest looked around the scene of utter desolation around them, "Fight what!?" She asked, louder than she meant to.

John pointed to the sky behind her. Tempest turned on her haunches and looked up, finding a sight that made her heart sink.

Just beyond the burning remnants of the shipyard, nearly a dozen airships hovered, all with large, green tanks affixed to their hulls that could only be carrying a volatile payload of the storm king's secret weapon. Beneath the airships, the pyramid shaped building that housed the storm king's weapons, burned. The sight was as beautiful as it was terrible, but the airships ominously hovering just above, only served to douse her elation in kerosene and ignite it. The sinking feeling in her chest only worsened as she saw the storm king's flagship, hovering high against the blue sky, the black smoke surrounding it on all sides.

"B-but.. how?" She weakly asked, despair clawing its way into her voice.

"Must've got airborne before we were able to destroy the fuel depot." John answered, getting to his feet.

Tempest shook her head side to side, "How... how are we going to stop them? We've got no way to cover that distance and get into the air." She replied.

John rolled his tongue in his mouth. He quickly surveyed the destruction around them, before his eyes landed on a vehicle that was still intact. The entire left side was scorched, the black tarp was reduced to nothing more than a few smoldering rags, and the paint was blistered, but the tires were still in usable condition. What held his attention, however, was not the vehicle itself, but rather, the large harpoon gun on the rear.

John quickly turned back to Tempest, "What kind of range does that harpoon gun have?" He questioned, pointing at the aforementioned battle implement.

Tempest's muzzle scrunched up in thought, "Uh... about five or six ship lengths. That was probably going to be mounted to one of the airships before we destroyed them."

John nodded as he turned and walked over to the vehicle. The building beside the half track crumbled in on itself as he walked, having taken the majority of the explosion and more than likely saved the vehicle from becoming a casualty as well. Tempest quickly pushed herself to her hooves and rushed after him, although, after just a single step, she nearly lost her balance. She shook her head clear and hurried after him, her mind still struggling to catch up after the massive explosion.

"You can't seriously be thinking what I think you're thinking." Tempest spoke up, eyeing the track wearily.

"I am." John replied.

"Those airships are well past that gun's range right now, and there's no way in Tartarus that piece of crap is starting after that explosion." Tempest responded.

"Only one way to find out." John rebutted as he reached the driver side door.

John threw the door open and stepped up to the driver's seat. He looked around the admittedly foreign design of the storm soldier's vehicle for a few seconds before finding a key in the ignition. With an almost indiscernible shrug, he grabbed the key and twisted. The heavy engine turned over several times, but failed to start. John tried again, and within a few seconds of cranking, the engine roared to life, a puff of black smoke billowing out of the exhaust pipe and into the already blackened sky.

Tempest shook her head in disbelief, "I can't believe this piece of crap started..." She muttered.

John looked over to her as he revved the engine, "Get in." He ordered.

With just a sidelong glance to the storm King's airborne ships, Tempest obliged and made her way to the passenger door. She quickly hopped inside and found her seat. Once she was seated, she gave John a small nod, to which he shifted the vehicle into drive and stepped on the gas.

https://youtu.be/6GKFnwanS1I

The half-track jolted to life, its wheels pushing through the muddied ground with relative ease as it slowly accelerated. John kept his gaze up on the airships, his eyes quickly attempting to find the closest one that they could harpoon and board.

"You're gonna need to get on that gun. I think I see our target." John announced, pointing up at the lowest airship.

Tempest squinted her eyes as she followed John's finger to the airship, finding that it was heading away from them and gaining altitude.

"We're gonna need to go a lot faster if we're gonna catch up to that before it's out of range." Tempest replied, before turning around and sliding open the rear window.

"What do you think I'm doing?" John muttered as Tempest crawled out to the harpoon gun on the flatbed behind him.,

The half track plowed through mud and half burnt tents, quickly closing on the airship as smoke billowed from its rear. The engine growled and roared as John pressed the pedal against the floorboard as hard as he could.

"They just fired up their main engine! We need to get in range in the next twenty seconds or that ship is gone!" Tempest shouted as she manned the harpoon gun. She aimed up at the airship as black smoke poured from the cone shaped hole on the stern of the ship.

"I'm working on it!" John rebutted, before turning off of the road and heading straight for a shoddily built wooden barracks, "Hold on back there!" He called over his shoulder.

Tempest complied and ducked down behind the gun as John plowed the beefy half track straight through the barracks. Wood splintered as the heavy vehicle obliterated the small building, sending fragments flying in all directions. A shower of wooden splinters rained over Tempest and the half track jolted heavily from the impact, but she managed to hold on as they continued on a direct path to the airship.

"We're getting close! Get ready!" John ordered, slamming his foot on the gas pedal as hard as he could.

Black smoke poured from the exhaust pipe as the half-track strained to meet it's driver's demands. Obstacles and debris did little to slow the barreling behemoth as it raced through the remains of the shipyard toward the fleeing airships. As they quickly covered distance, John looked back over his shoulder, finding Tempest already aiming the harpoon gun at the airship in question.

"Tell me you've got a shot!" John shouted over the roaring engine.

Rather than reply verbally, Tempest squeezed the massive trigger of the gun. A blast of smoke and concussion rocked the half-track as the harpoon sailed through the air, heavy steel cable waving through the air behind it. John and Tempest both watched for over a second as the harpoon soared toward its target. Time seemed to slow, and for a moment, neither man nor pony could breathe as they watched the projectile.

Finally, the harpoon slammed into the back of the airship, sending a tremor through the entire hull and filling the air with a solid *thwack*. John and Tempest both watched, part in awe and part in relief as splinters of wood fractured from the hull of the airship from the impact of the harpoon. Once she was sure they were connected, Tempest leaned down to the cab of the half track.

"We need to get off this thing before the airship gets up to speed. It'll rip the gun off of the bed!" She shouted, getting a nod of affirmation from John in response.

John quickly turned in his seat and let his foot off of the gas. The roaring engine instantly quieted down as the throttle closed, swiftly slowing the vehicle down as John climbed out of the back window and onto the flatbed. Once there, he hurried up to the harpoon gun, finding the rope already being pulled taught by the airship as their half-track slowed. He quickly tightened the slings on both his MCX and Benelli M4 before jumping up and grabbing a section of the rope with his hands and pinching another section with his feet.

The thick rope easily held his weight as he slowly climbed upwards, making room for Tempest to jump on as well. She wrapped all four hooves around the rope and bit down on a section, using her jaw as something of an anchor for her to pull herself up with. Just a few seconds after they'd both cleared the flatbed of the half-track, the vehicle slammed into a berm on the edge of the shipyard. The harpoon gun instantly snapped from its mount and dragged along behind them, making the rope sway and ungulate from the impact and lack of anchor point.

John and Tempest both held on as tight as they could as the rope swung back, forth, up, and down. With determination and sheer strength, they pulled themselves upwards toward the airship. Each foot upwards felt like a titanic task that sapped away at the strength of the tendons in John's fingers, as well as the muscles of Tempest's jaw. Foot by foot, inch by inch, they struggled and fought their way up the rope. The airship grew ever closer as it rejoined the rest of its squadron.

As John clawed his way up the wisping rope, he took note of the lack of soldiers peering over the edge to attempt to dislodge the harpoon from their ship. He heaved breath into his lungs as he silently thanked his lucky stars that the soldiers didn't seem to notice or care about the potential boarding party they were about to receive. He cast a quick glance back to see that Tempest was still holding on for dear life, her teeth digging into the rope as she squeezed it as tightly as she could with her hooves.

"You good!?" John called over the sound of the wind.

Tempest couldn't nod or reply without letting go of the rope, so she opted to simply wink at John and continue her slow ascent after him. Satisfied with her answer, John turned back toward the ship and pressed on. Inch after inch they climbed until finally, John reached the side of the airship. Due to the harpoon's impact location, their only means of boarding was to climb up the side of the airship nearly a dozen feet to the deck. John hastily looked for a hatch or window for them to break in through instead, but found that the only hatches were gunports that were all closed.

John braced his heel against the harpoon and pressed his arms against the hull of the ship to keep himself balanced as he leaned over to the only gun port within reach. John stretched his arm as far as he could, his fingers just touching the hatch as he tried to wiggle them into the crevice between the hatch and its frame. After a few seconds of precarious fenagling, he found that the hatch was locked, preventing him from pulling it open. Before he could attempt again, he felt Tempest reach the harpoon and wrap a hoof around his leg.

Upon releasing her vice-like grip on the rope, Tempest spit a few twines of the black fibers out of her muzzle and worked her jaw over a few times to try to get a semblance of feeling back into it. John looked back to her, opening his mouth to tell her that the hatch was locked, only for it to suddenly open behind him. John twisted back around just in time to see a storm soldier lean out to look outside.

Instantly, Tempest fired off a spark of magical lightning, electrocuting the storm soldier and making his entire body go rigid for several seconds. So much electricity flowed through the soldier's body that he couldn't even scream in pain, as all the air was driven from his lungs within an instant. Finally, after nearly five seconds of blasting her magic, Tempest extinguished her horn, allowing the soldier to slump down over the gun port, half his burly body dangling out the window.

John quickly reached over and grabbed the singed arm of the soldier and strained to pull him out the rest of the way. After a few seconds of struggle, he managed to drag the rest of the yeti out of the gun port and drop him to the world below.

"Nice job!" John complimented, before reaching to the now open gun port and grabbing the frame.

"I aim to pleashe!" Tempest replied, still working her jaw some.

John hopped off of the harpoon and hoisted himself into the gun port. Once he was inside, he quickly surveyed the room, finding no sign of any other storm soldiers. Once he was sure it was clear, he turned around and reached out the window to Tempest. There was a considerable distance between them, and considering her smaller stature compared to his, she couldn't quite reach all the way across.

"You're gonna have to jump!" John instructed.

"Seriously!?" Tempest exclaimed, looking down several thousand feet at the passing land below.

"You got a better idea!?" John shouted back at her, reaching out with his hand again.

Tempest looked back and forth from John's hand to the world below several times before gulping and preparing herself to jump. She took a few deep breaths before crouching down slightly to aim for the gun port. With a final wiggle of her hips, she leapt off of the harpoon and reached out for John with her forelegs. For a split second, she sailed through the air, nothing but her forward momentum keeping her from falling to her death, several thousand feet below.

Then, she felt John's arm wrap around her barrel, and she instinctively wrapped both forelegs around his back as her hindlegs dangled in the open air below. She squeezed herself as close as she could to the human, thanking her lucky stars that he had fingers and could maintain a solid grip on her barrel as he heaved the both of them back into the airship. Once her upper half was inside, she clambered her hindlegs up to the port and pushed herself the rest of the way in, before releasing her death grip on John and collapsing to the floor as she panted for breath.

Once she was safe, John sat down against a wooden support beam and caught his breath as well. For a few minutes, they simply panted for air in the empty room. The only sound to join them was the rushing air, passing by the still open gun port.

"Let's not... do that again." Tempest muttered, after some time.

"Deal." John replied, eyeing his hands.

"What's wrong?" Tempest asked, tilting her head to the side.

John shook his head, "Nothing. Just rubbed my hands raw, climbing that rope." He explained, showing Tempest his bloodied palms.

Tempest's eyes instantly widened in alarm, "Harmony's sake, are you okay?" She asked, getting to her hooves.

"I'll be fine. Just burns a bit, is all." John replied, dismissively.

"If you say so..." Tempest trailed off, although she didn't quite look convinced. She curiously looked over the room they were hiding in for a few moments, finding one cannon still tied to the wall, alongside dozens of bags of black powder and cannonballs, "Hey, John." She said, her eyes glued to the explosive material.

"Yeah?" John responded, looking up to Tempest, then over to where her gaze was pointed, "Ah, I see."

"I always did tell them that much black powder in one place was practically begging for the entire ship to go up if any creature ever hit one specific spot." Tempest acknowledged, shaking her head.

"Think there's enough here to completely destroy this ship and any of the Storm King's special weapon?" John asked, pushing himself to his feet.

Tempest nodded, "There's enough black powder here to light this ship up, the next ship over, and still have enough to put a dent into the Storm King's flagship all at once if we can get them close enough to each other... then again, I know his ship is reinforced with steel in most places, so we might need more than this ship to take his out. As for the weapon... I know almost nothing about it. I just know that he was convinced that it would bring Equestria to its knees if he ever had to use it."

"Bit counterintuitive to destroy the land you want to conquer and render it uninhabitable, don't you think?" John questioned.

"That's how the Storm King is. He'd rather see an entire continent burn and rule over the ashes as a show of his power, than let a nation stand up against him. It's not about what he's ruling over to him, it's about what he's shown he can conquer. The only reason he wanted Equestria in the first place was for its magic. If he can't have it, he'll gladly wipe it off the face of the planet." Tempest explained, solemnly.

John walked over to the bags of black powder and rolled his tongue in his mouth. After a few moments, he turned back to Tempest, a slight frown on his face.

"Well then none of these ships can be allowed to make it to Equestria; Canterlot, specifically. We're heading North right now. How long until we reach Canterlot in this thing?" John asked.

Tempest chewed her cheek in thought for a few moments, "At cruising speed, it should take just a day... but after what we did to his fleet already, they're moving in high gear. My guess? At this rate, we'll be in Canterlot airspace by the afternoon. What's our plan?"

John grabbed one bag of the black powder, almost as if testing its weight. After hefting the bag a few times, he set it back down among all the rest. With that done, he walked back over to the gun port and looked outside at the rest of the airships still flying in formation. After a few moments, he nodded and turned back to Tempest.

"There's nine other airships, including the Storm King's flagship. We take control of this ship, use the cannons to take out the ships nearest to us. There's three that we can easily destroy as long as the ships hold formation. Once that's done, we'll get as close as possible to the the next ship closest to us. We can use the harpoon gun to get close. Once we take that ship, we scuttle this one." John announced.

Tempest gave a hesitant nod, "That... still leaves five other airships that we'd need to worry about. They'd all just open fire on us once they saw us board the next ship." She replied.

John looked down and chewed on his lip for a few moments as he thought over the wrench now firmly wedged into his plans. Eventually, he came to a conclusion and looked up to Tempest once more.

"Then we board the Storm King's flagship instead."

Author's Note

What will happen next? Who know? I sure don't lol