Chapter Twenty Two - Plan B

I wanted to go over the plan one more time, but both Tempest and Ket groaned when I suggested it. They knew it backwards and forwards, they insisted. There was nothing left to do but go at it.

I stowed away my disguise amulet in the chest that held all of Captain Blackmane's possessions and Ket fitted the sheath on me while Tempest pulled the iron hobbles and wing band out of the burlap bag and locked them in place. Then Ket took the Grade One suppressor ring out of its box and carefully fastened it on. I felt terribly vulnerable without my blades, greatcoat, and the dozen or so other useful items that I usually kept hidden in various places about my person, to say nothing about not being able to use my magic.

Ket added the final touch by buckling a halter made of light steel chain onto my head, and passing the lead line to Tempest. "Good luck, you two," she said, and leaped into the sky in the form of a kestrel.

Tempest and I traded a look and began trudging toward Kludgetown.

Because the hobbles only allowed me to take short, shuffling steps, It took us well over an hour to get out of the last rocky bits of the channel and onto the sand flats. I think the sentries would have spotted us pretty quickly after that, but Tempest sent up three bright flares of magic from her horn stub just to make sure.

Shortly thereafter, we were surrounded by a half dozen scowling and panting yeti soldiers. The biggest of them stepped forward and squinted down at us. "You're Commander Tempest, right?" he rumbled. "I thought you were dead."

"Nearly was," she replied tersely and jerked her head in my direction. "Canterlot was a disaster, but I managed to get away with one of them. I'll explain it all to the King."

"You would have been better off staying away. The King ain't too fond of ponies right now, you included."

There was a general growling agreement from the rest of the group, and one said, "Dogs, neither."

Tempest casually cow-kicked me in the ribs, and not gently. "This is their junior princess. There's a whole lot of magic in her. That ought to count for something."

The big one shrugged. "Dunno, don't care. I'm gonna hand you over to the lieutenant and let him figure it out."

They took us back to the mooring grounds. The yeti that had been given my lead chain walked so quickly that he pulled me off my hooves twice before he decided to pick me up and tuck me under one arm. If you've never been within a league of a yeti's sweaty armpit, consider yourself very fortunate.

The lieutenant at the sentry post was in full armor with a red stripe on his crest and tail tuft that I took for some sort of unit ID. He was dripping with sweat in the desert heat. He wasn't in a good mood. He made us wait in the sun while he sent a message to an officer higher up the food chain, asking for orders. He had five of his squad cover us with short spears while he rummaged in a box for something.

To pass the time, I calculated the best way to take on the squad without magic. If Tempest decided to help, we could probably take them out, but there were hundreds more troops close by with who knows what sort of long-range weaponry. Still, it was an engaging mental exercise.

Klugetown was interesting as well. There were rickety bridges and rusty aerial tram cables rigged between the rock spires as well as wrecked remnants of those sorts of things. While we were waiting, I saw a tram car split a seam and dump a good deal of what looked like coal into the town below. The tramline kept moving as if nothing had happened. There were quite a number of patchwork windmills on the spires, but the Klugetowners must have also been burning oil or coal for power judging by the dusty smog that hung in the air.

The lieutenant eventually found what he wanted, and walked back over to us. He held up what appeared to be a half-silvered mirror set in a brass frame, and carefully examined both of us through it. If my magic hadn't been suppressed, I assumed I would have detected some sort of scrying spell on the mirror. He came back to the ring around my horn and thoroughly checked it a second time. He even tugged on the ring to make sure it was firmly locked. I tensed up, but after a moment, he lowered the mirror and turned to Tempest.

"That's a damned beefy ring. You're not taking any chances with this one, are you?" he said to her.

"Not at all," she replied. "She's strong."

The lieutenant grunted. "Doesn't look like much."

"She threw a chunk of a marble pillar at me that was the size of an elephant."

"No kidding?"

"Not even a bit. I got very lucky or I wouldn't be here now."

"Hm… Well, I hope your luck holds, 'cause the King's in a black mood, and you're the one who he blames for losing the Northern Fleet."

Tempest looked up at the airships overhead. "This fleet seems to be a bit smaller than the last time I saw it."

The lieutenant's lips curled up, revealing a yellowed snaggle of fangs, but he didn't have a chance to retort before another squad arrived with a reply to his message.

"The King says to bring them up," the squad leader said. "But first…" He motioned to another of his squad who dumped a mass of rusted chains and hobbles on the ground and then held up another suppressor ring. "The King isn't in the mood for any more surprises, ex-Commander Tempest."

Tempest scowled, but then she shrugged and said, "Fine."

They hobbled her up and jammed the ring roughly onto the stub of her horn. Then they took us to a wooden platform resting on the ground directly below the flagship. It was attached by long cables to a winch in a ventral loading bay above. The squad leader ushered us onto the platform and waved a signal to the winch crew. They turned two big iron cranks on the winch and slowly hauled us up into the bay.

They didn't immediately let us off the platform, but had two more yetis go over us with other magical detection equipment while one of the winch crew stood by with a hand on what I assumed was a quick-release lever. One little false positive would have earned us a long drop to the desert below. They combed through our manes and tails, which gave me another tense moment, but they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. They even peeled the bandage off of Tempest's leg, and threw it overboard.

I had hoped they would lead us into a wardroom or similar space for our interview with the Storm King, but we were taken to an iron-barred cell and shoved inside. The squad left without saying anything to us and dogged the hatchway behind them. The other three cells in the compartment were empty.

Tempest looked at me. "So…?"

I shrugged. "I guess we wait."

= = =

It was about an hour later when the big boss himself sauntered into the brig. He was carrying a long wooden staff that had a dull blue crystal set between the branches of the forked top. Four big yetis in full armor with short spears followed him in.

Tempest awkwardly clambered to her hooves and bowed. "Your Excellency, I have brought—"

"I'm not in the mood to listen to a loser," he said quietly, almost as if he were thinking aloud. He turned to his guards. "I'll drain that one—" He pointed at me. "—and then you can drag her down to the infirmary for Carcass to experiment on." His gaze flicked briefly to Tempest. "Kill the other one."

The King raised his staff as if he were about to strike me with the butt of it, and the guards leveled their spears and advanced on Tempest.

In another time, I might have hesitated. I might have tried to reason or plead with the Storm King and gotten myself and Tempest killed as a result. But then and there, I twisted both forehooves inward forty five degrees and slammed my hobbles together. The beautifully crafted hidden catches clicked and the cuffs sprang open.

The King, it seemed, was the sort to hesitate when surprised, and stared for nearly a second in confusion. I assume his puzzlement only increased as I lifted my forehooves to my horn and violently twisted the thin, painted metal sheath that covered it. The sheath spun off of my horn, taking with it the still firmly-locked suppressor ring.

Given another second or so, the King may have recovered his wits enough to use the staff on me, but I didn't give him the time. In the next second, he was no longer there, and that was because the deck he had been standing on was no longer there.

He and his guards had been wearing what I assumed was thaumoreactive armor, but the deck below them (and the two decks below that) had no such protection. One good blast burnt through all of them, and the minimal spatter didn't come anywhere near Tempest or me. The yetis screamed as they fell.

I slammed the door and welded it shut to guarantee that we wouldn't have to deal with any other yetis for a while .

"Hold very still!" I told Tempest. She froze and I sliced off her hobbles with a gravity blade spell. I needed a physical key to release the cams of her suppressor ring because the ring would negate any magical energy I tried to use on it, but fortunately I had a little something stuck under my left forehoof with a daub of dried clay. The yetis had been so worried about magical weapons that they had neglected to check for something as small and simple as a bent paperclip.

Sirens echoed through the ship by the time I'd gotten the ring off of her. I used another gravity blade to slice through the bars of our cell. We stepped forward to peer over the molten edge of the hole I'd burned through the decks and saw the broken bodies of the Storm King and his guards far below amid a tangle of smoldering wreckage.

"Huh," I said. "That was surprisingly easy."

"I can't believe it." Tempest said.

I levitated three pieces of cut bars over the hole and poured energy into them. They streaked downward, punching through the King's body with a weird combination of metallic screeches and meaty thuds.

"Believe it," I said. "Now, give me a second to estimate how much energy I've got left. I want to make sure I'll have enough to teleport us back to Bookmark."

"You can't teleport us!" Tempest objected, and pointed to the stubby little cone shapes that were fixed to the bulkheads.

"Well, not from here, obviously! Hang on a second, I want to get this right so that the crew will have time to evacuate." I turned and aimed my horn in the direction where the fuel bunkers would be. If the diagrams that Tempest had drawn for me were accurate, one shot should do it. "Close your eyes; this is going to be bright," I told her.

I had to balance the size and energy of my starfire bolt so that it would burn through an exact number of interior partitions without dissipating on the way through. I kicked off the spell and, when the flash had died away, I considered the small hole in the bulkhead next to the door. "That's about right, I think. We'll know if we feel a—"

There was a muffled distant rumble and the deck (what was left of it) vibrated under our hooves.

"Oops! Time to go!" I pointed at the hole in the deck.

Tempest knitted her brows. "What?"

"Jump!" I told her.

"What? In case you forgot, I can't fly!"

The deck was shaking harder than ever and the ugly noises from the other side of the door were getting louder, so I didn't waste time explaining. I rammed into Tempest, shoving her over the edge of the hole and wrapping my hooves around her neck as we fell.

We popped back into existence standing on the sandy floor of the channel next to Bookmark, all relative inertia nicely canceled. I let go of Tempest's neck and stepped back. "No vortex disruptors in mid air," I explained.

"You… You insane nag! Why didn't you—"

"Oh come on! Admit it; that was fun!" I gave her a light punch on the shoulder.

She stared at me, wild-eyed, for a second and then threw up on the sand.

"Oh." I took a couple of steps back. "Yeah, that happens a lot with first-time teleports. You'll be fine."

She gave me one of the most glorious stink-eyes it has ever been my pleasure to receive. I think the scar helped sell it.

Before matters could deteriorate further, my horn fairly jittered from the waves of ragged magical energy streaming outward from the direction of Klugetown. From the look on Tempest's face, even she felt it.

"Wow," I said, turning to face the town as the ground under my hooves began to tremble. "He must have had quite a collection of interesting items aboard."

We watched as a roiling mass of multi-colored fire rose into the sky. I could swear I saw a huge screaming skull in the cloud for a second, but it could have been ordinary pareidolia. The rumbling sound of the explosion reached us a few seconds later.

Tempest went and grabbed a ballast jug while I watched the flames turn into a greasy-looking column of smoke. She rinsed her mouth out a couple of times, drank most of the rest of the water, and then thumped down on the sand in the shadow of the tarp.

Just then, a big, turbulent bulb of more natural-looking flame rose up into view, and a moment after that, I heard the deep bass rumble of a rather large explosion. More magical cargo going up? Possibly, but I hadn't felt any major thaumic disturbances. Maybe Ket would know.

I grabbed my personal things out of the chest in Bookmark, put them on, and then pulled out the medical kit.

When I went to put a fresh bandage around Tempest's leg, she gave me an odd look. "It's okay, Twilight. It's almost healed."

I smeared some antiseptic gel over the scab and wrapped gauze around her pastern anyway.. "Yes, it looks fine, but this'll keep the sand out, at least. Neat little stitches, by the way; Rarity would approve."

Tempest chuckled. "Hands are good for a lot of things."

"How is Grubber holding up? He hasn't said a word to me since… Well…" I didn't want to say it outright, so I didn't.

"Still working through it all, I think," she said. "The news about this—" She jerked her muzzle toward the columns of smoke to the East. "—is going to affect him, I'm sure, but he's the sort who wants to be safely in the shadow of the biggest Big Bad around, and that's you now. I doubt he'll be any trouble."

That wasn't exactly what I had been concerned about, and it was a bit disturbing to hear her phrase it that way. I put away the med kit, found my own patch of shade, and settled in to wait for Ket to return.

I ate another couple of biscuits while I waited. I offered one to Tempest, but she laughed. "There are plenty of rocks[1] over here, thanks."

[1] Ship's biscuits are hard, but not that bad. The trick is to break off a chunk with the edge of your hoof and then hold it in your mouth for a while to let your saliva soften it a bit before trying to chew. They are sometimes jokingly referred to as "weevil's wedding cakes," but it was rare to find bugs in them, except on very long voyages.

Eventually, a little kestrel glided in for a landing and unfolded into the form of my Third Mate.

"Heya, Ket! See anything interesting?"

She grinned at me. "Interesting? I would say, 'battleships exploding,' but this is the second time in two weeks, and it's starting to get boring."

"Plural battleships? I thought I only set fire to one of them."

Tempest walked over to join us. "You didn't see anyone removing the Storm King's body, did you? He was dead for sure, but with all the magical items he had collected, maybe…"

Ket actually laughed. "Oh, there were plenty of yetis rappelling down from the flagship, but they were all running away from the burning hulk that fell on him! Can't resurrect ashes as far as I know."

"But what about the second ship?" I asked.

"That was the one that was refueling. Her captain must have panicked. After the flagship lit up, the other's engines spun up to full ahead, and she tore away from the pumping station without disconnecting the fuel line first. Some of the burning debris from the flagship touched off the line that was still hanging from her side and spewing fuel. Acted as a sort of wick, and…" She shrugged.

Both Tempest and I winced. Yes, it had been an enemy airship, but we weren't entirely without empathy.

"That was the second explosion I saw," I said.

Ket nodded. "Her bunkers must have been half empty, so there were a lot of fumes. It… Well, at least it was quick. The explosion lit up the fuel depot, too."

"Wæl-hwilum," I muttered under my breath.

"I beg your pardon, Captain?"

I shook my head. "It's nothing. What about the other two ships?" I asked.

"They pulled up stakes and ran. Headed southwest by west as fast as they could go. Left a lot of yetis on the rocks."

"Probably heading for home," Tempest said. "Nothing much in that direction but the frozen, rocky island where they came from. Are we going to go after them?"

I gave it a good moment of consideration. I didn't want to be hasty after all, and the mental image of us in a tiny gig, flapping flat-out to catch up with two big battleships was pretty amusing. "No, I doubt they will bother us again. The Eastern Fleet still needs to be dealt with, and I want to make sure that the yetis left behind here don't sack the town or something like that."

Tempest laughed at that. "Ms. Ket, did you notice what the Stormguard left behind were doing?"

Ket cocked her head. "Quite a few ran to grab onto the droplines and mooring cables of the remaining two ships before they picked up speed, but the rest… The ones I noticed were actually running away from the town."

Tempest nodded. "The King and his people weren't very popular in Klugetown. There's a couple of gang bosses that made a lot of money by collaborating, but the rest of the mixed bag would be more than happy to get a squad of Stormguard down a narrow alley for a little pay-back." She didn't have a knife on her, but the motion she made with a crooked pastern made it perfectly clear what sort of pay-back she was talking about.

"Okay then. I guess I'll have to sample the delightful culture of Klugetown some other time," I said. "Let's get a good meal inside of us and then head back to Seaward Shoals. We don't have to worry about encountering any battleships, so we can fly above the Reef. If we run into a Stormguard cutter or picket ship that hasn't heard the war's over I'm sure I can deal with it. I'm really tired and low on energy, but we have some useful items aboard… Right, Ket?

She nodded. "The usual nasty assortment."

"Good. Y'know, I'm starving. You packed a tub of sesame-rye hash too, didn't you?"

"Aye, Captain! It goes right well on a ship's biscuit!"

Tempest groaned.

We were just finishing up our hurried meal[2] when Ket sat up straight and turned toward the east.

[2] Tempest admitted that, although the sour, glutenous hash might have been inedible by itself, when piled on top of a biscuit and allowed to soak in and thereby soften the biscuit and moderate the taste of the hash a bit, the combination was merely unpleasant. But it was also energy-dense, and that was what I needed at the moment.

"I hear something, Captain," Ket said.

I turned and swiveled my ears. It took a moment, but I caught the low drone that echoed down the main canyon. "Ornithopter," I said.

Ket nodded. "I'll go up and take a look." She took kestrel form again and streaked away.

I shoved a couple of boulders into the middle of our little side canyon to make us less noticeable, but I needn't have bothered. Almost immediately, Ket flew back, leading one of the High Song's bejeweled flying machines right to us.

Rarity was piloting it.

She plowed into the sand and one of the landing skids bent, putting a still-moving wing into the dirt, which kicked up an enormous amount of dust. That mare certainly knows how to make an entrance, in almost any circumstances.

"Oh, fiddlesticks!" she said as she hopped out of the ornithopter and wobbled a bit on her hooves. "I'm so sorry about the inelegant landing, dear! The passage through the Reef was horrendous! Pati is going to be very cross with me, for scuffing his little flier!"

"'Pati'?"

"Wepaten, dear! He loaned me this craft and a map of the Reef so that I could catch up with you!"

Honestly, I was speechless. Thankfully Tempest took up the slack.

"Well, if you came all this way just to join us for lunch, you're in luck; we're all out of hash."

"No time! I came to help you with the Storm King, and—"

"He's dead," Tempest said. "It's all over."

"Oh? Well, that's nice." Rarity floated a scroll out of her flying jacket. "Then we can get on to another, evidently important, matter."

I took the scroll out of her field and looked at it. It bore my name, the words "EXTREMELY URGENT!" and Cadance's royal seal.

"I'm told Spike brought it up at the breakfast table," Rarity informed me. "Unpleasant timing, but it wasn't the poor dear's fault."

I broke the seal and unrolled the scroll.

Twilight,

Come to the Empire quickly! He's almost here, and it will be terrible if he isn't stopped. Celestia can't send ships or they will be destroyed. I've seen it.

-C

I wasn't aware I had spoken, but Rarity's shocked, "Language, darling!" and Tempest's merry laugh convinced me that I had.

"That'll be one bit in the swear jar when we get back aboard Nebula, Captain," Ket said calmly. "Which, never fear, I will remind you."

= = =

=

Author's Note

"...huge screaming skull in the cloud…"

The day after I typed that line, I saw this on Bluesky:

Pareidolia, it's not!

Manifest your imaginings, folks!